Partey had a stormer that game. Him fully fit will make an enormous difference. Will probably buy or try to buy a creative midfielder in January and hope it's enough to keep us afloat.
He needs to hire a translator like Bielsa
Said at the time I thought Arsenal were quite poor in that game. Had lots of possession against a flaky defence and created nothing but a gifted penalty. United kinda covered it up by being even worse, but the warning signs were there.
What are your thoughts on Arsenal's squad over say the next 18 months? Not an Arsenal fan but my thoughts vary from how many of these players get into a top 10 side to a fully fit and available squad and Arsenal's XI doesn't look that bad - something like the following until the summer?
Always the same with Jose though isn't it, which is why I didn't miss him whilst he's away, not just because of his shitty anti-football.
I think Ozil could fit in but it is hard to see him fitting in with Ceballos, from afar it seems Arteta has more trust defensively with Xhaka - the only reason I put Xhaka/Ceballos as if I was picking one of those 2 solely on ability I'd go for Ceballos easily. I do think the rest of the side fits in reasonably well though I think. I'd agree its worse then the rest of the top 6 and worse then Leicester and probably Everton - I'm not so sure about Wolves - I do think the manager doesn't get the credit deserved from some at Wolves although I'm not a Wolves fan - I've seen a growing Nuno Out trend on Twitter. But if they finish below top 5, Leicester and Everton that is still 8th and I personally think there is enough in that squad that they should finish above Wolves and Arsenal although Nuno and Hassenhuttl deserve credit.
Yeah you are certainly off the rest of the 'top 6' sides but yep would agree you should be doing better then 15th - I think the first 7 games were a decent model for you - the 3 games you lost Leicester, Man City, Liverpool are just better sides then you regardless of coaching/setup in my view and you got a win v Utd - I'd probably give more credit to Arsenal for that win then many on here. That Aston Villa defeat was massively damaging immediately after - the rest of the results kind of make sense, Spurs winning no surprise, Everton probably slightly better right now too and Wolves are a solid side, you've got a good record v Burnley but they are the sort of side that can easily beat you if you aren't at 100%. To never even really look like beating Villa though is very poor.
I am a fan of Mourinho and do think he was under pressure way too early at Man Utd - I vividly recall listening to phone-in radio after the commentary of a 3-0 loss to Spurs leaving them with 3 pts from their first 3 games and the doom and gloom narrative already being set, I thought at the time and still do think it was way over the top for a manager who about 280-290 mins of PL football ago had got Man Utd 2nd in the league in his 2nd season. But yes probably more nuance needed - a few wins regardless of the manager doesn't suddenly mean they'll win the league although I think its understandable that people see Spurs as more of a title challenger given Mourinho has won titles and Pocchetino hasn't and a couple losses doesn't suddenly mean he's washed up especially given those losses were v Liverpool and Leicester. Big next 4 games for them though in the PL - the popular narrative may well be shaped by them - Wolves, Leeds, Villa on current form all sides that may cause issues, Fulham seem to be improving too, drop pts in more then 1 of those games and I expect you'll start to hear Mourinho out from Spurs fans.
Yes I guessed the way you carved up the stats in that Son/kane thing I asked for you were a fan, I think the simple answer was yes Poch did better when both were fit, but hey you did the work.
Yeah I used Transfrmarket so in essence it was the way I was collecting the info anyway as they show each PL game played by each player and ones they were unused sub/not in squad/injured - was easier to just see the games where at least one of Son or Kane were injured/didn't feature in then minus those results from final table for that season and I do think it is worth seperating the 2 periods as there is a significant drop-off and Pocchetino's squad more recently is more comparable to situation Mourinho inherited - Pocchetino in his earlier seasons had a fully firing Dembele and Wanyama along with a fully firing Alli and Eriksen and a CB pairing who were a couple years younger. Pocchetino didn't have that in his latter years and eventually struggled enough that he was sacked. You would expect an upturn from Mourinho in the results when Son+Kane play as after all Pocchetino was sacked (rightly or wrongly).
Pretty much the story of last season's FA Cup run. Basically be organised, defend well and get the ball to Aubameyang on the counter.
