Tomo

It's all well and good in theory but in reality players don't think like that, we benefitted from it when it came to Werner. He will be competing against those three in not just quality level but he will be swimming against the tide in terms of the chemistry they have.

For the club, not for him. This is the one downside of having such top class established option/options in one area, no one of any note will come to play squadie, look at all the strife Spurs go through trying to secure a Kane backup/alternative for example.

Like with Lamps last season Solskjaer is going to tie himself in knots trying to shoehorn all his attackers into the side.

In a way these results they get is good. They won't win the league or UCL because Ole is not good enough in crucial moments but they will get enough results to keep him in a job. One less team to worry about if we're trying to win the league.

This is why I laughed at all the wanking of at United. They will get a decent set of base results due to their individual quality in attack (will probably get them off the hook today too) but cohesion wise they are so poorly coached it's untrue. Lol at anyone who thought OGS could have outsmarted all of Pep, Tuchel and Klopp over 38 games.

Mendy was low-key the most crucial aspect of the second half, sample size suggests atleast one of them go in with Kepa in goal.

Yet every single manager he's played under including the current best in the world disagrees with you. Not to mention managers like Sarri and Mourinho have both as good as confirmed he would be a starter if he was their player. If it was 1 or 2 managers you could maybe play the blind spot card, but you're going to look very silly if you try to claim that 6 managers are being blackmailed.

I disagree, situations like the second half are tailor-made for him. Liverpool were pushing forward in numbers and Timo would have had oceans of space, well either that or they dropped their line back 10 yards due to his presence, either-or would have worked for us.

This is one of the reasons I was worried about Lukaku in the sense he was going to play even when the match situation doesn't suit him. We're down to 9 off the ball which is all the time now.

Guessing Silva we brought on now. Let's hope he's sharp as we need a masterclass from him this half.

Or maybe there's a reason every manager he plays under picks him, not to mention managers like Mourinho and Sarri as good as confirming they would do the same if they had him.

Well either way the point remains the same that no player of any real note will come here as a just incase player as Saul has proven. Ironically Leicester's version of Drinkwater would suit that 4th role.

Unfortunately this is the one negative of having such established players there already. If we want a know your place 4th choice option the choices are look down the league in a way we would look for a second choice keeper or use one of our players in the other positions as the emergency option.

Blame the TV money that effectively rewards relegation and in turn has turned the top table into largely a closed shop. Because of that will be the same teams coming back and forth for many years to come, the days of a Blackpool are over.

Yeah the excuses for Arteta are bizzare, it's like people are buying into the idea of him that was painted when he first got the job. He's totally in over his head.

City fans are raging at their board some think they've been embarrising for years dating back to when they let Alexis and Jorginho slip through the net. Quite funny considering they're always used on here as an example of how it should be done

If the top six is in the same order as that season I won't be complaining!

As good as Ronaldo is he's not at the level of elevating a team to the title himself anymore, as was spectacularly shown last season.

Let's be honest if it weren't for Lampard this would have happened sooner. Conte, Sarri and Tuchel have all came to the same conclusion with him. He has his strengths but I feel he's been massively overrated by the fanbase over the years.

If Conte was even half as toxic that season as what was reported his reaction was light if anything. I worked under a toxic boss once and I can tell you now, i did and said a lot worse when I finally had enough of it. That said he should have owned it instead of coming up with that excuse.

Under Sarri and the early stages of Lampard's tenure we went toe to toe with this Liverpool side and didn't look a bit out of place, granted we didn't get the results we wanted but it was a blueprint on how to face this Liverpool side. Now we have the extra quality (both on the pitch and in the dugout) to hopefully add results to the good performances we tend to put in against these lot.

Had the second one the day before the super cup so I've just fallen short of not having to isolate (as a close contact), typical I'm not too worried about getting seriously ill as I think a combination of vaccine status plus age should (touch wood) see me through, it's weirdly the prospect of losing my smell and/or taste that I am worried about (I know this is ridiculously trivial compared to what others are going through) as dinner will be the highlight of my day for the next week, lol.

This thing may finally get me (if it hasn't without me knowing) as someone I went out on the piss with on Saturday has returned a positive test. That said my friends parent got it and no one else in their household followed suit so maybe I'll get lucky.

A keeper of Mendy's quality very rarely if ever let's that one in.