The Premier League season starting pistol has fired and for a temporary moment in time, Arsenal is top of the league, with 2 goals, and a lovely clean sheet.
We’ve also chalked off one of the toughest away days of the season. No one underestimated Crystal Palace before the game, so no one should after. They are a very aggressive side of extremely powerful and fast players. Going to the noisiest away ground on a Friday night is a very tough start by any standards.
We didn’t make a meal of it this time.
Arsenal were far better equipped and balanced through a blend of upgrades and internal solutions.
The superstar internal solution was William Saliba. A man that cost Arsenal £25m as a teenager 2 years ago made his Premier League debut and he was outstanding. You are not supposed to come into a Premier League defence at 21 years old and play the way he played. Outside his outrageous technical ability, it was the calmness of thought and stunning composure that stood out. He was so good, VVD followed him on Instagram after the match.
Last season, if we lacked Ben White or Gabriel in the middle, there was trouble. Against Crystal Palace, for a debut, what Saliba did was truly outstanding. People do have to temper the excitement a little bit. He’s a young player, young players have ups and downs, so I hope people will be with him when the inevitable errors land. They certainly haven’t been for Sambi, ESR and Martinelli of late and it’s a bit painful to stomach. If you are a Saliba Ultra, you should tune into our Youtube to see Johnny Cochrane smugging it up, a sight to behold.
The big tactical weakness for Arsenal was at fullback. Ben White is not a right back, but we know he can play there. For me, there aren’t many tougher wingers to go up against in the league than Zaha. As expected, minute one, it was all about putting the Ivorian in one vs one situations… but Benny Blanco stood up to the challenge most of the game. No one won more duels on the pitch than him. He played the dark arts at times. But overall, Ben White had the player under control. There was only one moment when he put Eze in… but there was a save, so no harm done. It was interesting to hear Arteta say that Ben White loves playing right back after the game. I guess if you have the ability to carry the ball, you don’t get to do that much as a centre back, in our system, you can invert and join the attack more often. Tomiyasu has an U21 game today to get some match fitness… at least it’s not vital he’s back like it was last season.
It should not go unnoted that Zinchenko also had a very, very good game. There were some misplaced passes that were unusual, but that was rustiness. I guess simply put, he does things with the ball that Kieran Tierney can’t. His passing is extremely crisp and he gives us more options going forward. He had a very assured debut. It’s just so good to see players like that lining up for Arsenal. He’s in his prime. What a talent.
Before I get onto the defence as a whole, let’s not leave without chatting Aaron Ramsdale. He’s been a bit inconsistent this year. He brings problems on himself by trying a little too hard with his passing, when he fucks up, it flusters his game. He did it again yesterday, he was a little ambitious with an early pass that led to a Palace chance. But after that, he leaned in with two outrageous saves. The first was a brilliant one-handed parry when Edouard had a free header. The second was a one vs one from Eze that he did brilliantly with. Those were BIG saves. The sort we expect of the best keeper in England. The sort we’ll need more of this season. I also loved his confidence dealing with crosses. Big, brave, and bold… like his dad’s hat attire.
The first 30 minutes were exceptional from Arsenal. The beautiful football people said Arteta didn’t want to play was fully on show. The only way I can describe the play is buttery. We moved the ball between the lines with outrageously crisp precision and confidence. Crystal Palace couldn’t press us because there was always an outlet and every player was brave. Honestly, at times, I couldn’t believe I was watching Arsenal play that way, it was really special. The thing that really excited me is that late in the game, under intense pressure as legs faded, we still stuck to our principles playing out the back. There was a lovely bit of play between Ramsdale, Partey and Saliba. Last season, we might have hoofed it. That shows maturity.
Thomas Partey and Granit Xhaka really were a couple of rocks in the midfield. I thought the Ghanaian was close to being man of the match. He’s on top of his game, his one-touch passing is unplayable, and the sharpness of mind to control the waves of attack kept us very secure. Granit Xhaka was also really solid, some were in my feed calling him terrible… people, that is a really dated view in 2022. He had an 85% pass completion rate, he made the most passes in the attacking third, he won all three of his aerial duels, made 5 ball recoveries, and he was the most fouled Arsenal player. He was booked for diving in a passage of play where the ref played advantage for Arsenal because of a dive. Apparently, Xhaka is a booking, Eze’s two dives were not. There’s a Xhaka tax in the Premier League. Didn’t stop him showing up, putting his body on the line, and keeping things ticking over.
Gabriel Jesus didn’t score, but my word is he has the things we’ve been missing. He is a bag of chaos. He can go deep, out wide, play through the middle, lurk on the edge of the box… he is our Luis Suarez. A total nightmare of a player. There are two things I love about him, firstly, he can create something out of nothing. There was a moment in the first half when he went on a mazy run which led to Martinelli blasting his shot wide. Lacazette couldn’t do that. The second thing I love is his ability to occupy defenders. He chased down a ball in the second half between two Palace defenders, won it through sheer force of personality, and put Odegaard into contention. He is small but mighty. And he never stops working.
Martinelli was a difference maker in the first half, I still want more from him, he needs to impose himself a little more, I want to see some of that Bang-Bang we love. Saka was also a little quiet, but he was a difference maker forcing an own goal. Also worth noting that Eddie came on and carried on doing Eddie things. He was the pre-assist for Saka when he came on. The kid has great link play, need to see him getting starts this season.
There are some things we could be doing better. I think we still need to be more ruthless, we sat back a little bit after we scored, we know that doesn’t come from the manager, that’s a fallback behaviour the squad had last season when they’d go a goal up. We also need to kill teams earlier. All our players need to do better in front of goal, particularly Odegaard who squandered two really good opportunities in a bit of a disappointing game by his standards.
Still, take into account it takes 6-8 games to get truly match fit, so there’s a lot to come from this side, and there are still new relationships being worked out on the pitch.
We don’t yet have the fear factor teams like Liverpool and City have. But we are getting close. Arsenal are a nightmare to play against. We are getting close to being relentless. It’s hard to get chances against us. It’s hard to press us. We’re unreal off the ball. Now we have difference makers all across the park.
Arsenal still need to do a deal for Youri Tielemans and we need a better option to rotate Saka with. Nico is not the answer and Sambi is too early in his #8 journey to be our rotation option with Granit Xhaka.
Back to the result: A little context.
That’ll be the hardest game we play until at least the United game in September. Big teams are going to go there this season and get battered. We went there, controlled the game for large parts, were more clinical in front of goal, kept a clean sheet, and debuted 3 players without missing a beat. We did that missing KT, Tomi, and ESR from the starting 11.
The result was even better when you see that Liverpool just dropped two points away from home against Fulham.
Next up, Leicester. Maddison in talks with Newcastle, Youri T pining for Arsenal, Fofana protecting his limbs for the Chelsea move… they are a MESS. Which makes them dangerous. We need a BIG performance for our first home game.
FINAL NOTE: The aways support was electric. We aren’t a banter club in 2022 and our fans home and away are amongst the best in the league. I LOVE BEING A GOONER RIGHT NOW.
Check out our On The Whistle Podcast. We have a NEW brand design via the excellent Dear Future agency.
We needed to professionalize the brand identity and do something that’d make us stand out from the sea of red in the app store. We’ve gone with black and gold this season, matching to the fastest-selling away kit of all time. We’ll rotate between THE AOP and The Arsenal Opinion.
As part of the refresh, I’ve changed the Le Grove logo, so it all feels cohesive with the podcast.
The logo is great because it’s an idea. Le Grove has DNA in fan opinion, The AOP has followed suit with the LIVE chat, so it all connects well together. Hope you like it.
The podcast is Johnny, Pedro and Matt. We’ll have a great season together. So hopefully you can join the Patreon for the Before the Whistle’s and join us for the Premier League LIVE On The Whistle podcasts we do right after the game.
1st
Arsenal
Where’s everyone
So impressed with Saliba
4th
Top 4
I believe we’ll be fine if we can impose ourselves with and without the ball. We went into that familiar passive phase last night and we suffered for it and I think it’s either a psychological or a fitness issue. We have the quality to possess the ball and press relentlessly like we did against Sevilla for more than 25 minutes we saw yesterday and we need our attacker’s to get into the groove. Jesus, Saka, Martinelli, Odegaard and Xhaka didn’t really impose themselves on the opposition as much as we would’ve like. Partey was okay defensively but average in… Read more »
Cyprus is hot 🔥
Lol spuds get an own goal. Starting already
When Southampton get smashed they really get smashed
Going to listen to the pod tomorrow morning
I like the new logos Pedro it was time for a brand refresh
Gonna be on tenderhooks until Saliba signs a new deal which I think he will
Nice 100k a week five year deal for him and our boy bukayo should be the next piece of business we do
We all knew spurs would win against Southampton at home let’s see what they do in march day 2
Wolves giving Leeds a lesson in master class
Leeds can;t get hold of the ball…at all.
Neto and Podence are incredibly talented players.
Saliva will go to a big club.
I’m still celebrating a hard fought win.. where the better team won.. and that’s the bottom line for me.
Little bit of a Saliba Ultra Hangover but I’ll survive.
Anyhow.. I see Own Goal is in fine form for the Spuds again.. quite the player. Southampton is pretty terrible. Think they have to be favs for relegation amongst the non- recently promoted teams. They have no strikers and no pace.
Some of you think we are better than we are
Ishola
We were 5 points of chelsea in 3rd who’ve gone backwards while we’ve added zinchenko Saliba Jesus and vieira
I really don’t think it’s absurd to consider those additional players anything less than 5 points worth
‘ Saliba will go to a big club’
….yes, in 2025 for a world record fee, after signing an extension this season
He’ll only be 25y/o by that time.
Guns of HackneyAugust 6, 2022 16:25:39
Saliva will go to a big club
Ok mate jog on
Amen to that Diss, he’s gonna sign a new deal for sure. It’ll cost us big money. But he’s already had other clubs tap him this summer.
Arsenal did better against Crystal Palace yesterday compared to how we were bullied there last season. I’m happy the players recovered from the psychological effect of a three nil hammering and got a win. The first thirty minutes of the game was a joy to watch, we moved the ball seemlessly and should have gone in at half time two nil up. The players should convert their chances when they get them and learn to kill teams off early on. I think we need three more players; a midfielder who can press and create chances, a right full back to… Read more »
The more Pedro slags off Spurs, the better
they are getting unfortunately
Saliba and Saka are both going to cost us some large cash. .. But that’s the price you pay if you want to play with the big boys
Un
I’m on about in relation to Man City and Liverpool.
We are not going to blow teams away as much as Man City and to a lesser extent Liverpool have done despite Jesus looking to add more danger to our attacking line-up.
I don’t think our overall team is good enough for that yet.
We can smack some teams at home of course now and again but that has been the case with Arsenal for a long while anyway.
Youdaman, Spurs are playing a team in total disarray, Ralph won’t last the season.
Arsenal chasing Moussa Diaby apparently.
Dissenter putting the kiss of death on Wolves.
RP7, substitutes don’t count as rotation mate.
Rotation is who is in your starting 11. If you’re gonna pick holes in people and throw LOLs about, know your terminology.
Ish, we won more games than Chelsea last season without a striker.
We need top 4 this season, no one thinks we’re going on a title chase with City and Liverpool.
“Saliva will go to a big club.“
Another dementor plaguing this site. Quite unbelievable
Diaby would be a real statement and would not come cheap. Raphinha wasn’t going to come cheap either though.
Tielemans after the Leicester game Pedro?
Bournemouth killing Villa
The more we see other teams results the more we must realise just how good our win was yesterday
I think Stevie G is going to get the heave-ho at Villa before the season is out.
We sure have been chasing some high price wingers. Seems to me Marti and Saka are pretty much nailed on starters. Not complaining though.. the more talent the better.
Spend Kroenke’s cash. I guess Diaby could play as a 9 as well. Pepe must be nearly out.
CaliGooner, I hope so. Wish we’d just do the deal. We’re so slow.
Midwest, we need 4 wingers that can do the job… plenty of games to be had. Right now, if Saka gets hit, we’re in trouble.
Pedro
If we get 3 more top signings before Sept 1st
While I don’t think we’ll stay ahead of the top 2, I’d certainly expect us to get on their shoulder, and finish within 10 points of the title, something we’ve not managed since 2015/16, while competing on multiple fronts.
Quite like that so many on here raved about Stevie G as a manager and he’s doing a bad job. Brand over substance.
Rich, if we have a good start, who knows. We need to finish 3rd this season. I think it’s between Arsenal and Spurs.
I’m not sure why Leicester would sell unless he’s said to send me to Arsenal and no where else.
Especially with the way they are holding Chelsea’s feet to the fire on fofana.
Guns.Are u not a gooner?Why on earth Make a derogatory comment like that.?That is factually incorrect?
Saliva will go to a big club.
Saliba is at a big club . Why would a supposed Arsenal fan write that crap . ?
I agree with most of your report Pedro but Xhaka deserved to be booked for a stupid dive and whatever his stats he didn’t impose himself. When Tierney returns Zinchenko gets that spot .
I thought White did very well against Zaha. He always causes us trouble
Peds- Diaby and Tielemans at the deadline would be like whoaaaa. We aren’t messing around.
Pedro Arteta has time to work with his squad, develop young players, and he’s been backed with money. I’ve never once called for him to be sacked, but if we spend another £75-£100 million before Sept 1st? Then he has to deliver top 4, we have to be competitive in 4 competitions, and deliver a “minimum” of 80 points. Anything else after that type of time + investment would be abject failure. Obviously we’ve got to spend the money first, but if we can clear the deck, there’s a decent chance we get Tielemans, a winger, and a left sided… Read more »
Rich,
I don’t think we can be talking abject failure at anything over 70 points if it gets us Champions League. This is the most competitive league in the world. Chelsea, Spurs, and United will spend big money as well.
Just get top 4 and attack the top 6 more aggressively this season.
Ok.At least the spuddies goal difference is now plus 1 after the saints hammering.Could have been a lot worse.
Can’t see us going for a midfielder this summer if we sign diaby
ESR vieira xakha Odegaard Sambi and maybe even Saka in the 8 positions. Can’t see any more coming in
If we can start challenging for the league in the next 2-3 seasons, there might not be a need for Saliba to go to “a big club”. A big if to be sure but if our young players keep developing, we might only be 3-4 players away. The Xhaka hype train is a bit baffling. The system suits him better, his performances have stabilised and he isn’t costing us as many points anymore. But IMO, he’s similar to Leno is that the problem is about the things he doesn’t do. And that will become extremely apparent once we have a… Read more »
Jesse Marsch throwing down some fuck offs to the Wolves bench at the end of that match. haha feisty.
Ishola
If Liverpool get injuries to key members of their first team gen we could Nick second
A ropey United popped them when they lost vvd and Alison for half a season
Is the hold up on Tielemans ( if indeed we are after him)because Leicester would prefer to get their match against us out of the way first.So as not rubsalt in their wounds? Anyone.
RP7,
I made the rotation statement and I was referring to the starting lineup. That’s way more important for squad freshness and injury management than whether you use your subs in the 60th or 75th minute.
Love sausage
Agree with that but it’s even more baffling to see people claiming he’s costing us this and the and that he’s still a liabilty when he’s one of our most consistent performers now. I’d say only Saka has been more consistent in the last 12 months. Even partey and ESR have fluctuated. White tomi Tierney and Odegaard too.
Saka and xakha almost never drop their level under Arteta
Pedro I disagree, I’ve had more sympathy/understanding with Emery + Arteta than most. I don’t think we’ve been good enough, our squads been an unbalanced mess, or insignificant quality, full of questionable characters, with a scattergun approach to recruitment, which left us with next to no hope of installing an attractive + sustained style of football. Last season we were very young, and lacked cohesion, which was always going to produce inconsistency. I don’t feel that way now, our first team is excellent, with a further 2-3 astute adjustments to the squad, we need to significantly improvements across the board.… Read more »
LoveSausage, what doesn’t Xhaka do that costs us?
Hoping Lampard does a revenge number on ChelsLA … today. But not very optimistic. Everton were so shit in the preseason it was pretty ugly and they have no striker.
Rich, agree, I want to see us get closer to Liverpool and City. Title run next year. Let’s see where the window goes. But if we get an special sauce winger and Youri T, we’re rolling
What this side is lacking now is a line breaking dribbler
You out Santi, Jack, Hleb in this side and it gives us an unpredictability we don’t currently have. Someone who commits challenges in tight spaces and still comes way with it.
RP7 doesn’t know the difference between substitution and rotation.
Anybody want to explain it to him?
…and he went through all the trouble to look up the wrong stats..lol.
Honestly, All that matters is total minutes for the points we were making.
Jesus did almost exactly 2000 minutes in each of the past 3 seasons.
Pretty interesting. Of course he can do some more as our main man, but I would be mindful of his history and the energy he expends.
Un, I agree with your point. I’ve been on his case for years but I’ll happily admit that he’s decreased the frequency of brain farts that cost us directly. Pedro, He rarely does anything that really contributes to our attack and that’s down to his slowness and lack of technical ability. On paper, it looks like he’s doing the right things (forward passes etc) but it’s too slow and too telegraphed. Plus, off the top of my head, we had at least two dangerous breaks yesterday that didn’t lead to anything because GX had no idea what to do with… Read more »
Yeah tierney looked solid when he came on and I guess the plan is to play zinchenko in xhaka place. If we get tielemans and a diaby/gakpo with ESR and Vieira then we have a really strong bench either way u look at it. Maybe then Arteta will make earlier subs as he knows the players coming in will make a difference.
Rotation will be huge with 3 great CBs and 2 good left backs. Hopefully on the wings as well, and CAM. A new CM that we want would help a lot and I have more faith in Lokonga now.
Mousa Diaby will be our own version of Sadio Mane. Get it done! I don’t think we have ever been interested in YT. Maybe Savic is the one coming in assuming we even sign a CM after Diaby.I’m along the lines of we need a skillful imposing tall goal scoring beast in CM and Savic is it. YT is just more of the same.
Wasn’t the argument before that Jesus was underplayed/ played out of position at Man City and undervalued and that him moving to Arsenal and being the main striker here would see him more as the main man and with something to prove playing more matches.
Rotating with Eddie N every three games is not really main man territory is it.
With five subs there’s no reason to not spread out the minutes a lot more.
Xhaka will still get that red mist that descends upon him.
He will still grow his little devil horns on occasions as we saw with the silly dive the other night.
Ish, your statement makes no sense mate. If jesus starts 3 out 4 games he is still the main man isn’t he?
Sausage Did you not notice the 3 mistakes Gabriel made yesterday? All 3 were really close to being a goal for Palace. I don’t see why his mistake are overlooked when other’s are amplified. I mean xakha got a yellow and it cost us nothing yet there were numerous comments claiming he was costing us something It was a bit of an embarrassing dive but that’s all, other than that he was quietly effluent at keeping the ball moving and closing down spaces The reason he is so valued is that he understands the game tactically and follows the instructions… Read more »
MidwestGunAugust 6, 2022 16:30:51
Saliba and Saka are both going to cost us some large cash. .. But that’s the price you pay if you want play with the big boys
It’s not going to cost you, me or any other fan fuck all, so just enjoy it
Bergkamp “your statement makes no sense mate. If jesus starts 3 out 4 games he is still the main man isn’t he?” The point is about continuity. And plenty of posters are now contradicting themselves. They said before that Jesus was undervalued at Man City in regards playing time and being played out of position and that him coming to Arsenal as the main man will be good in regards having a point to prove and now that some want Eddie to play “plenty” of matches they are actually going back on their previous staement and now point to what… Read more »
He will still grow his little devil horns on occasions as we saw with the silly dive the other night.
Ishola
And yet we have a player who commits a lot more errors and nobody likes it being pointed out for some strnage reason
Sorry RP7,
I caught your correction late.
For what it’s worth, I’m sure none of us expected that fact about Peps subs. Interesting.
Ishola
If Jesus stays fit he will start 35-45 games for arsenal
Nketiah 10-20
If Jesus starts 3 out of every 4 games, then he’ll start 45 games this season, across a 60 game season.
40-45 starts, is the maximum type of workload we want to be placing on our best players, particularly players who’s styles are based on high intensity.
Stevie G is nothing special as a manager, like most great players.
I can’t wait till he takes over Liverfool… midtable will be the norm for them.
As our main striker
Jesus starts wide a lot for city
He’s our no9, no question but he can’t start every single game of a 50-58 game season.
Rich
Agree
It’s not going to cost you, me or any other fan fuck all, so just enjoy it
________’
Bukagh huh? I didnt say it would cost me or I wouldnt enjoy it. why the hostility? Relax dude.
Every three EPL matches then for gods sake.
The point again is about continuity.
Make your minds up.
There is huge contradiction here.
All the noise was when we signed Jesus was that he was an under-used under utilised player at Man City who when moving to Arsenal would be the main striker and that was a good thing.
Now we hear talk of regular rotation with Eddie N and actually pointing at what Man City did with Jesus as justification.
Sterling up front??
Not a lot of technical ability in that chelsea side
Lots of off ball runners
I don’t see the dominating the ball very often this year
Some seriously hair trigger hostile mofo’s on here.. hahaha Hate to see what y’all are like at a party. Hello… what you say to me? I said Hello… Well I dont like it .. so Fuck off.
Un,
Yes I saw Gabriel’s mistakes but I’m inclined to overlook them considering it was his first competitive game with a new CB and RB around him. That unit will only get better.
I agree that Xhaka is great at following instructions and doesn’t hide. But that doesn’t change the fact that he’s a very limited footballer. I still think we can get 4th with him in the team. But it would be a lot easier with a more modern player.
Is Iwobi playing defensive mid for Everton? yikes.
Lovesausage, Great point about the things Xhaka doesn’t do, and that’s why I want him upgraded. Clear room for improving the starting 11 there. On the other hand, most people here (not you) ..go out of their way to make sure he gets no credit for the things he does do. which is a lot, as Pedro often lists. I just don’t see the reason for the hate when the guy gives a strong 90, helps defend deep in our box and never gets outfought for lack of energy or fear. Why don’t people get it through their brains.. you… Read more »
Midwest,
My Everton mate says he’s been great in that position. He feels they get the benefits of his close control and movement without having to suffer from his shitty final ball.
Ish You seem to be seriously struggling with understanding how we’re going to equip ourselves with a squad that can play 3 times a week on a consistent basis, across a gruelling season, without our season blowing up at key stages. We don’t know how many games we’ll get in the cups, we don’t know where we’ll get injuries, suspensions, niggles, or absences in our squad. But I’m hoping there’s people at Arsenal who’ve done the market research, so we assemble a squad better equipped to sustain consistency across a whole season. If Jesus stays fit, he’ll get at least… Read more »
LS-
Hmm interesting.. Well I guess they will find out. Maybe it will be a career reboot for him.
Nigel, I think that with Xhaka, a lot of people (myself included) sometimes have a hard time just looking at isolated performances because of everything he represents. He’s been at the club for so long that he’s almost become synonymous with the banter years and our transition to a slow, dumb, mentally soft team. To be clear, IMO that’s on Wenger and his enablers but Xhaka had a prominent role in that period. Plus, many will never forget him flipping off the fans. Anyhow, there have been incremental improvements and he isn’t costing us games on a regular cadence anymore.… Read more »
I pretty much agree with LS regards Xhaka. But Im just tired of talking about it.. hahaha If we ae winning especially. I really didnt have any issues though with any of our players yesterday.. I thought a lot of the mistakes were from tired legs and Vieira’s gameplan to pressure our fullbacks with long balls to the wingers. For me White and Zinchenko held up pretty well until late in the second when they tired out. And our high pressing faded away until Eddie was subbed on. Jesus was definitely blowing air hard at the end .. he looked… Read more »
Midwest,
I know what you mean, I’m tired of talking about it too. I’ll just keep my mouth shut about GX, wait to be proven right by his replacement and then be as smug about it as Johnny is about Saliba right now.
Yep.. Johnny was in rare form on the pod. too funny.
Come on Everton you can do it… they need a Chelsea own goal or something.
Arsenal .com just tweeted out Arteta’s praise for Saliba in a Giant quote. Charm campaign.
The Xhaka hysteria is indeed pathetic Man got a yellow card because he went down expecting contact from Anderson, that shite happens in every football game. Anderson was clever, he withdrew the contact at the last moment. At it;s worst, all Xhaka was trying to gain an advantage for his team, no different from Ben White pulling back Zaha fir the team. Because of that error, the typical Xhaka moaning started like a player never went down on light or little contact before. Xhaka is the Arteta prerogative player- the one you have to swallow, if you want to live… Read more »
Oh damn.. pk.. they just about got to the half too.
I suppose it was too much to ask for Chelsea, Spurs and Pool to all drop points on the first day…. hahaha Ok then.. Maybe United will oblige tomorrow.
Ishola, Jesus will start most of the EPL games if he is fit, say 25 to 30 out of our 38 games. Eddie will get more sub appearances in EPL either to rest Jesus or having both on to chase a goal. Eddie will however start cups and Europa games mostly, with Jesus there to support. They may also switch those roles depending who starts in the EPL game before or after the Europa league. What that translates to is that teams use their main striker in EPL mostly, and when we make CL the rotation will be more complex.… Read more »
Mid, I suspect Everton will get back in. Chelsea have been playing crosses into nowhere, don’t seem to have a game plan.
Had to be over at a mates house in Birmingham this Friday and today and he is not much of a football fan in general so failed miserably in trying to get him out and into a pub to watch the game. So pretty pissed off that I missed the opening game (followed it on Arseblog). I am going to watch the replay later on this evening. I don’t usually watch replays. Knowing that the game is not live doesn’t appeal to me. But this time I’ll make an exception. I am really keen to see how we played so… Read more »
Marquinhos was the standout player for the U21s today against United and scored and assisted in a 3-1 victory. He was apparently so good that it immediately became apparent that he either needs a loan or to join the first team squad . . Like Martinelli he might make an impact quickly
Koulibaly had a shockingly bad debut. If he is Chelskis answer to rudiger then they are going to concede many goals thus season. Puts Salibas elite levels into perspective, he is a godsend to our team.