Tomo

I was thinking more this game, I genuinely thought there was little way we can lose this. I never 100% declared to Lamps and I have a post after Leeds (I think) to prove it. The Villa game (which I was worried about even before this) is on Amazon which means I have to go to my mates for this, don't know if I can be bothered.

All give me the stick here, I deserve it!

And in the last week or so alone I've seen Spurs, United, City and Southampton fans all say the same thing about their club (Spurs fans regularly banter themselves as "Dr Tottenham"). If you want to show me proof then please bring comparison to rivals. If we've in the last say four season's plus this one dropped significantly more points to out of form teams (let's say teams who gained no more than a point a game average in the 6 matches prior to the games in question) then I'll relent and take the L but if I was a betting man I'd guess if we're in the lead on that regard it will be marginal at worst.

This "we always give out of form teams a gift" narrative is getting tedious, it happens no more to us than it does to other clubs. It's getting to be worse than the myth that all these teams who we have no rivalry with apparently save the game of their lives for us while rolling over for our competitor's...

Not who he was is an understatement, he in the present day makes our version of Falcao look like a GOAT.

Yeah of course I'm not saying there's absolutely no chance we'll not win and in a normal match week I wouldn't even hint at this even against SHU but if we were playing Brighton or Burnley (the two teams closest to Arsenal in the table) on Boxing Day with Villa two days later I think every one will be onboard with it. Similar decisions are going to have to be made late on in the season aswell if we make it deep in CL, FA Cup and have something to play for in the league, we'll have to rest Silva in a lot tougher games than this one. That said I think this is moot and Lampard will rest him vs Villa if not try and play him in both.

Well in fairness I said Arteta wouldn't last the season when you and others were knocking him off.... Furthermore, this is about deciding which of the two matches we need him more for, are you seriously suggesting Arsenal are better than Villa at present? If so I'm very curious to hear the reasoning, to say the least.

With the short term turnover between Arsenal and Villa we will need to decide which match to use Thiago Silva, and i think it may be Villa!

I wish they were there, the atmosphere would have been toxic.

He wouldn't have started anyway!

Tbh i think the Lampard comparisons are lazy based on them both being English, play/played for Chelsea and Mason idiolizing Frank and then playing under him. If pushed i'd say he's closer to Essien than Lampard stylistically.

Livramento but he'll likely do a Lamptey if he can't see a way through to regular. It's the one downside to having so much talent coming through, some will slip through the net as there's simply no room for all of them.

Will be a big problem once Azpi leaves/retires though, no one worth their salt will come with no scope to break in the starting Xl.

He's never won any big away game I don't think (unless you count City's early Sheikh phase).

Hazard, Drogba and Pedro in their primes together would have been quite something.

My personal favorite was Drogs was nothing more than a battering ram (apparently)

Qatar 2022 is his big motivation so hopefully we'll have him at this version till then minimum.

On a random note, it's easy to see now why Brazil lost the plot without him in THAT semi. That would never have happened on his watch.

In fairness would anyone in the PL other than us (and maybe City) have dismissed Conte a year after a title win? For all the messes we have got in, we're very sharp at rectifying them (Kepa and Bakayoko). Roman would never let us drift, he's (rightly all things considered) giving Lamps more leeway than others but that will only go so far.

As awful as it must have been for him at the time i think his illness and as a consequence late career start is working in his favor now as he doesn't have the miles on the clock an average 36 y/o has.

Well as you know from Mou, I won't hesitate to alter my opinion if/when it gets to the point I believe it's best for the club.

I think Lampard is good at getting tunes out of some players on an individual basis (prime example he turned Pulisic from a player with doubts over end product to our talisman, if we want to blame him for defensive issues of last season and team play issues he should by the same token get praise for the improvement of Puli under him) but he's got to work out a way to knit it all together. With two freak teams to overhaul to win the title, we need a lot more variation to our play. Aslong as the results are respectable I'll give him time for that but between now and May serious progress needs to be had on that score.

To be obtuse with Big Sam we'll be getting neck ache On a more serious note i think he needs to start positioning player's in attack better (especially Werner), maybe he should leave positional/attack training to Jody as (all be it with the best teams at a lower level) our youth teams under him played sensational football.

I back him because i do see potential of a top manager despite the greenness but he seriously needs to work on attacking patterns in Cobham. However progression must be shown from now till the end.

If we have to rest him for one it should be Arsenal!