Tomo

The wankfest over Grealish makes the Mount bashing/writing off even worse. Yes Jack is clearly better now but lets he hasn't always been this good, when Grealish was the age Mount is now, he scored 5 goals in 31 Championship games (and had a further two Champo season's where he never scored more than 6 the latter of which Mount himself outscored him), the year before (at the age Mount was last season to which he scored a matchwinning goal to help us get CL) he was a squad player at one of the worst PL teams of all time. Oh and just over a year ago he claimed the record for longest personal PL run without being on the winning side.

He would have actually got a medal if we won as he was part of that run even just for one game At the time I felt the same but in hindsight (how Mou has dealt with loss of form in future jobs one being back here) I'm not so sure. We were hopeless going forward that season at the start and that only changed once we brought an attacking coach (Ten Cate) in, something Mou's ego wouldn't have allowed. At the time I assumed he would have turned it round because he was Mourinho but the fact he couldn't turn it around in future jobs after things went South made me reaccess that opinion somewhat. Furthermore I don't think Mou was that offended by it (he wouldn't have returned if he was) he seemed pretty relaxed in his interview after he left, almost like he knew all that above at the time himself.

By the same metrics Alonso shouldn't be getting criticsed because our CS and win % is streets ahead with him as opposed to without. That said i don't think he should be starting for us but this constant calling him out even in games he does little wrong is getting quite strange.

I'm not sure Giminez falls into realistic when you consider the price risk given his injury's and even if he was, was he worth abandoning the chance for Kai? I don't have bonafide evidence but given the money already spent i imagine it was Kai or a CB at that point. Alaba was off the table due to the fact his wage demands would have blown our structure and he appears to want La Liga. Koulibaly would have also been a huge gamble given price, age and wage. De Vrij I've never been to keen on. Upemacano and Tapsoba look really good but at the same time, so did AC at a similar age in that league (so much so the rumours of us approaching Southampton for a VVD- AC swap left most of this board outraged at the mere suggestion) and we already seem to be committing to one inexperienc in the back line (James), very few teams challenge without atleast 3 experienced opitions in back 4. Skriniar fair enough. I haven't seen enough of the rest so i'll take your word for it.

Agree it's getting ridiculous now. Against WBA he was our only defender who didn't make a fuck up leading to a goal and he was the one getting the most stick. Infact he was probably the reason it wasn't worse before we started the comeback, he made a couple of very crucial interceptions. Saturday it was Zouma who fucked up and he's getting the most stick. I don't think I've ever seen such a ridiculous amount of critisising just because.

I hate to be proven right, but we didn't know how good we had it with Courtois, i still can't believe how many people that were so relaxed about the prospect of him leaving. Him in goal last season we concede 40 league goals max even with our structural problems.

Saying Lamptey's been more impressive than James is subjective at best, firstly he's been playing wingback, as we know from Alonso that's a huge difference to fullback yet still he's made basic defensive mistakes that he would have been crucified for had he done with us (getting caught up field when Rashford walsed through BHA's defense on his side, sleeping at a short corner for an Everton goal and the stupid penalty he gave away yesterday). I don't hold those against him as it's par for the course being a young defender but let's be honest a significant number of our fanbase would have. That said I don't disagree I wished we kept him but he's not been immune from the rawness any of our other youngsters have been. Now don't mistake what I'm saying for being happy with most of our options at the back, I'm not, what I'm saying is if push came to shove a generational talent like Havertz is worth waiting on major upgrades for especially as (a) there's no serious stand out defensive options and (b) Thiago Silva is a dream quick fix. Remember back in 2012 when we had serious CM problems and on paper needed to sort that out before signing a winger/10 as we already had Mata with KDB still to come? I think we can all agree signing Hazard trumped signing say signing Witsel or Joe Allen and "fixing the pivot", we waited until top quality options came along and eventually we had Matic and Cesc.

Ok this season fair enough but last almost everyone put Arsenal above us pre season, especially after Pepe's signing.

Yeah but what's the more likely conclusion, Martinez has made a difference or Dean Smith has suddenly become a good defensive coach? Martinez isn't even making that many saves compared to Arsenal at the back end of last season but you can hear him shouting and organizing. Hopefully Mendy has a similar effect and the early sample size (1 conceded in his 2 games and i think only 3 saves needed to be made outside of that) is promising. Mendy, like Martinez, could shave of a high number of goals just by the fact the defense trust him more.

A quick note re the defense. Villa were the 2nd worst defense in the league last season and now with a new keeper addition are arguably the best with the same defenders, Liverpool (previously the world's best defensive unit) have declined to a parody since Alisson has been crocked even with VVD. I think people underestimate the difference Mendy will make if he's as much as competant. No it won't suddenly make us flawless before anyone says it but he will make a huge difference.

The second Gallagher has a lean spell he'll be thrown under the bus by a significant number aswell. Just like Mount, CHO, Tammy, heck some even went after James when he had that dodgy spell just after lockdown so not even our generational talent is safe. No doubt Gilmour will be next when he can't live up to his Liverpool/Everton displays on a weekly basis. I'm almost glad Tomori has been frozen out and Lamptey did one so atleast they're spared the same.

We did, but 2/3 said players were unavailable yesterday.

If you want to bring up the "slice of luck" with The Emirates what about the fact they picked up a point at SB due to Kante slipping and a speculative shot bubbling in during a match they were otherwise camped in their own 3rd?

I'd love to imagine but i think once things settle down it will be an as you were top 2.

Trying to be direct possession based side something inbetween City and Liverpool (hence last season we didn't have less possession in a PL match until City at home), when it works it's really good (first half yesterday) but at the moment Lampard's a bit raw with his decision making re selections and subs which can halt our momentum.

Brought through & believed in a stream of young players which has (a) saved us millions in the long term (b) given others in the academy belief there is a pathway where there wasn't before (c) beefed up our squad depth considerably. Like AVB has frozen plenty of players out, but unlike AVB has managed to get responses out of them, e.g. Giroud, Pulisic, Zouma, etc... goes in tandem with the fact there's no stories about any unrest in the camp. Roman believes in him & so have high profile signings like Havertz, Werner, etc... it takes a lot of people to make deals like that happen. If players like Havertz, who'd of had the world at his feet in 12 months, comes to Chelsea in 2020 you can be sure Lampard had a positive hand in it. The media like him. There's very few negative stories about us in general atm which helps the players stay on point (easy reason to dismiss, but more important than people think). For all the defensive & set piece issues, some of the attacking play last season was fantastic, and despite not clicking into gear yet we've still score 13 goals in 5 matches. Come early next year we'll be wrecking teams once the fluidity's there. I have my doubts on whether he can take us to the next level himself, but i have no doubt that worse case he's left a fantastic platform for someone who can (ala Ranieri to Mou).

Looks like Bale breaking their momentum is happening quicker than i thought!

So far being the key words, Spurs looked broken a mere month ago when they fell to that Everton defeat and narrowly beat a semi pro side. If Lampard ever butcheres our creativity in exchange for more solidarity like Arteta has done the minimum requirement would be to become the best defense in the league.

That's the point, Arteta has tried to make them more defensively astute and hasn't really succeeded (unless you class better than Emery alone succeeding), they're still relying on their keepers pulling of a masterclass too often. For the amount of creative freedom he's took away from that side just to aid the defense, they shouldn't still be relying on their keepers as much as they still do.

Don't mean to be pedantic but isn't that the opposite of Arsenal under Wenger? They never sat back on leads, not even against Barcelona.

But wasn't that similar with Emery at the start? Everyone got kiddy because he wasn't Wenger. Arteta has basically stripped any creativity in this Arsenal side to try and make them look more solid and as i said it hasn't really worked, they may not concede 10 plus chances a game like they did under Emery but they are still heavily reliant on last season Martinez and now Leno to pull them through. Their defense still looks pretty poor when you consider what's been sacrafised the other way, the two times we abandoned attack structure to focus on defense last season (Liverpool and City at home) we looked more solid.

Has he though? They regularly go long spells in games without even having a shot and if they were as solid at the back as people are making out Martinez wouldn't have been able to play his way to a big money transfer with a month's worth of performances. Infact they were getting torn apart by Liverpool (both Anfield games) in ways we weren't even with 10 men.

Lol you've been waiting for him to get a few wins just to say that haven't you? Reminds me of the Torres cult after he scored two games running.

Difference is we know Lampard has a way to go, Arteta's being made out to be incredible already and being used as an example as how Lampard should do things. I mean if you think Lampard moving players is infuriating, Arteta just played Willian yes Willian upfront.

Hopefully they do bring Bale in, if Jose has any sense he'd be left on the bench.