The Skipper

From what I remember, the winner was pretty lucky but we played pretty well against City - their goal came from a moment of Aguero brilliance, not from them outplaying us for the majority of the game. We matched City in every aspect in that game, so truly I don't know why you're so scared. City have a great team but you're overrating them a bit.

Yeah, City are more clinical than us no one denies that, but to say we should West Ham it against them is disrespectful to the players we have in our team. We aren't some relegation battling team like West Ham, we have some classy players that when on form can do damage to anyone. They said we would get spanked against Bayern as well but we ended up scoring twice against them and only lost out on penalties, and this is when we were still finding our feet at the start of the season. We might lose, we might draw, we might win but you should really not talk as if City are the best team the world have ever seen. They haven't faced an animal like us yet. We really aren't that inferior to City as the table tells - we're only 3 pts behind them. If Mourinho gets his tactics right and the team performs well in general, there's no reason to think why we can't take points from City or even end up winning. You and others should have more faith in the team and manager.

You cannot use one game where we were unlucky to score in to justify whatever you're saying... Even the best teams in history have been held in this manner.

off topic but; Nathaniel has a long way to go but if he makes it here I don't see why not. He always shows leadership qualities on the pitch.

When I called him JT's heir I was comparing their playing styles, as in when JT retires I can see him filling the void. Both are no nonsense defenders - I didn't mean to say he'd be a future captain here.

There's no way that even if we beat them on Monday that we're certain to win the title. There's too many games left and beating City would only draw us level to then, they still have a vastly superior goal difference. The same way if we lose or draw it doesn't mean we're completely out of the title race either.

Yeah, I remember at the time Sergio was practically whoring himself to us. It really infuriates me how Carlo picked Torres over Aguero.

Schurrle, who hasn't even been good in his natural position recently should be played in a position he isn't even comfortable in against Man City? Wow.

He's good enough to play regularly as a starter for a team like Everton or Southampton as well IMO.

He's not as amazing on the ball as Varane but he isn't bad. He makes up for it by being a class defender.

On the signing itself - this kid has incredible talent. Proper gritty defender who has brilliant physical attributes, and is already capable of marking top class players out of the game with the combination of his speed, leaping ability, strength and tackling. He's very mature for his age. A born leader. JT's heir IMO if he develops the right way. Here's his performance against PSG earlier this season:

On your points before the other thread got locked: 1. Him going out on loan wouldn't be that unrealistic. He can certainly contribute as the third choice CB already but if we could get him to a good club who'll have him as a first choice I would not be surprised. Jose did hint today that that might be the case. 2. It's not that Luiz isn't trusted by Jose anymore, it's more to do with the fact that Gary Cahill has been in the form of his life so there's no justification in dropping him. It really is that simple, the player who's on form is playing. 3. I did mention that if we were to get a crazy offer for Luiz then yeah sure, it's understandable why he'd go however I don't think that's going to happen given the fact that David has stalled this season.

The fact that Jose said that he might go on loan again after pre season tells me that Luiz isn't going anywhere, like some here are trying to predict, unless we receive a ridiculous offer.

Next to Matic.

This is stupid. Media trying to derail us once again. We have connections to our manager's agent? Wow. Major shock.

Jose must be blind then right?

And then when Terry retires we'll buy another CB for £30m right?

You know there's this thing called real life outside the internet right? You know there are real people you can talk to about opinions over certain players etc.? I've been to The Emirates twice this season with my Arsenal mates, they respect my opinions and I have great debates with them as I do with other friends - with you not so much. Please stop trying to act like you're the victim here. You've come to a CFC forum acting like you know more about our players than we do. Of course you're going to get challenged on that. It's a shame because initially I thought you had fair opinions when you joined but now you're just making up strange statements and obviously trying to rile people up. It really isn't that hard to just sign out and never come back.

Mata has amazing energy? Yeah okay pal. If that's what you want to think to yourself lol.

It's not about him being unfit, he doesn't possess the lungs that Oscar does. Mata is the sort of player that reserves his energy for action in the final third - Oscar is all over the pitch. You can refuse to believe that if you want but I'm pretty sure everyone on here, you know people that have watched Mata consistently for the last two seasons, will tell you Mata isn't athletic enough to be leading the high press for 90 minutes.

Don't see how signing Zouma automatically equates to us selling Luiz for some of you...

Kroos is a different type of player to those you've mentioned.

And bingo. That's the biggest problem Mata had - he didn't have the stamina or athleticism to consistently lead the pressing game for us. He'd always tire out at around the 50/60th minute and it would greatly affect his ability in the final third because he was knackered. Oscar doesn't have that problem. Our CAM is the one who leads our initial pressing game; we have stages - our forwards press, then the pivot then the defence and our AM leads the forwards; and Mata isn't effective in that because of his lack of athleticism and lack of long enduring stamina. It's really that simple.

Yeah, either of them if they could make the step up would be fine too.

Hmm I don't know because Zouna is more similar to JT & Cahill. Personally if we did get him in I'd sell Ivanovic and get in another RB.