Tomo

Not the Zouma - Christensen partnership. I dread that one more than I did the Cahill - Luiz one.

It only goes to serve just how massive a club we are in the modern game. The players coming to prominence now would have seen nothing but Chelsea winning big titles, aslong as we're competitive we will be an absolutely huge pull for this up and coming generation, even more so now we've got with the times regarding style of play.

What we spend next year is irrelevant in the context of the point I'm making. I'm merely comparing to the style of play. We try to dominate games territorially the same way they do and like them in the first season under Pep we have and will drop points and probably "only" finish top four because we aren't ready in some areas. We likely won't spend the same amount of money (net) as they did which I probably why it will take a little longer to become a title challenging team but in terms of style of play we're a lot closer to them than Liverpool, infact I'd go as far as saying Klopp is actually close to what Jose adapting his tactics to suit the modern game would have looked like.

Just to give the heads up, this game aswell as Southampton on Boxing Day is on Amazon Prime and for people who've never had it before you can activate a 30 day free trial.

No what I mean Is times and demands have changed. For example Simeone's Atletico playing in the 90s would have probably swept up on La Liga's but in the modern day they've only won one. Teams press too well these days to neglect the attacking side of the game until you've mastered it defensively. Who were the last champions that built their team from the back first and foremost? Even with Leicester it was all about Kante, Mahrez and Vardy.

He still has time to come good (although signs aren't promising so far) but he was always going to be judged harshly and early due to the circumstances he arrived. Arsenal made some major investments with the aim of breaking into the top four minimum. Pepe was the statement signing out of them all, he was the one linked with top clubs (Bayern, us) and Arsenal got him, not only was it a statement signing the fans blew their load over getting him, that put an instant target on his back and pressure to deliver straight away.

Yeah, they built their defensive blocks secondary after building their pressing, midfield structure and philosophy is what I meant, the party line is it should be done the other way round where I don't think that's true anymore.

I don't think we can really compare both players situations. Pulisic was signed with the long term future in mind by a club who's expectations aren't/weren't very high. Pepe by comparison was the star purchase for a club who had a big summer spend geared on delivering immediately.

Maybe back in time but the build from the back notion is outdated. In an era where high pressing and midfield domination is key, those are the areas you have to look at first.

One thing I really hope we bring back given our lack of threat in the air are short corners. I never understood why people got so upset when Conte started us doing them, it was the right thing to do as ever since JT and Ivan have been phased out we've had little threat from corners. As much as Willians delivery doesn't help, the main problem is who's in the box, get Beckham to take our corners and they will still be dealt with comfortably 19 times out of 20. Short corners are our best chance of getting any joy from those situations.

I know it's only one game but his approach and changes in the Norwich game were absolutely shocking.

Unfortunately unless the injury is to VVD or both fullbacks I think they will still have enough to win the league. They can just grind it out most weeks and unlike last year City don't look like they have the quality to go on a massive run to take advantage of any blip. The lead they've built up is massive even at this early stage and the determination and hunger they have to win is the thing is huge, I can see them performance wise faltering quite bad in the second half of the season but similar to us in 2015 they will have the know how and individual quality to grind out the results.

Point is, if Klopp was being "fully backed" those players to fix their problems would have arrived in 2016 not 2018. It's no coincidence that the year they don't make any money from sales is the year their only signing is a 16 year old from Fulham. I mean he's brought well when he's had the chance but by the same logic used on here he's only actually been properly backed in 1 window out of 8.

That's hardly true, we have got big time rub of the green to have our CL campaign still in our hands.

I actually don't see the Liverpool comparison barring the fact we're a flawed team on the up. Liverpool were great in the big games but very so so against the lesser ones where we're the other way round, we tend to play with more patience and want to dominate possesion and the game. If we're going to force a comparison with another big game in their early stages of development I would say we share a lot more comparisons to 16/17 City than Liverpool.

He didn't get a keeper or CB of any note for over two years and wasn't given a single signing this summer. He also still two years on hasn't been backed with a proper like for like replacement for Coutinho.

Panicking (which is something we need to work on). We started the first five minutes well with the false nine but after realising that it still wasn't getting them to bite we panicked and just did anything and everything possible.

I'm probably going to get pelters for this, but with Tammy out, this is a game where extending Higuains loan could have come in handy.

Trying to play through them instead of crossing, plan was Pulisic drags a defender out of position to allow us space to run into. It didn't work, but that was the plan.

I saw a lot of him and youth level and Vittese and he was very creative, he reminded me a lot of KDB at Genk (I watched him a lot when we were being linked). I'm not sure exactly where that side of his game has gone.

You think? I thought today was a one off in that regard. It's actually one of our biggest strengths for me, doesn't look pretty but we usually find a way like we did in the three home games prior to this one. For all our problems last year under Sarri, our record against the bottom half sides was up there with the top two.

He's really good for situations like this when his team are doing back to the walls, it's in proactive set ups he's like a lost sheep.

Should have been Emerson taking them after his one found Zouma. Not really sure what's happened to the aesthetics side of his game, I mean he's not exactly Bakayoko and he's a crucial link between midfield and attack but at youth level and Vittese he looked like a young KDB but now looks like a completely different profile of player, more the good Oscar lite.

I fully agree no one's excempt from critisism but some of the comments on Mason today and Odoi in recent weeks wouldn't have looked out of place in the Kalou thread at its most toxic. I actually believe Pulisic would have been targeted by the crowd like Jorginho was in days like today too but luckily he's playing far too well for that to happen.

But James, Mount, Tomori, Odoi and Pulisic are. Throughout the end of Sarri's tenure almost everyone was universally on board with the fact we will show a bit more patience if we're seeing academy boys getting significant minutes. First signs of trouble Mount gets it from all angles, Hudson Odoi is branded a greedy git with an ego and someone's even gone as far as demanding Lampard to be sacked. We will lose shithouse games like this every now and again while our youngsters are still developing.