Blue Armour

Not the first time I'm seeing Rudiger top these lists. When he joined the prem, he clocked among the top 2 highest speeds recorded. He is a bullet train when he gets going. Not bad for a player that once suffered a serious knee injury.

Huh..never knew you were a Saints and a Chelsea fan. Same here with the Saints. Mostly because of family in NOLA, and of course the 'Cinderella story' like you mentioned.

Really hope David Fofana gets some minutes. If the game is going well, of course. Don't want him to be chasing a losing cause again, like against City.

I would have loved to seem him start., and agreed he did good against City. But with Potter clearly putting Havertz and Aubameyang ahead of him in the pecking order, I'm not optimistic about seeing him anytime soon.

Assuming you mean Datro Fofana. Potter elected to bring on Aubemayang at 0-0 as he opted for 'true and tried' experience instead of ability. I think he considered bringing him on at around the 75 min mark, but because our 1-0 lead was still at risk, he decided to just go defensive and resorted to Azpi and Kova instead. So Fofana went back to the bench. I'm thinking this might be another Zakaria situation where Potter takes a long time to determine that a player is ready (although he gave him plenty of minutes in the cup game to be fair). With all the incoming attackers and lack of domestic cup games, I'll be surprised if we see much more of Fofana this month. Probably best he goes on loan rather than rot on the bench.

He'll bring back the pace we've missed since Werner's departure, but I hope he has better ability on the ball to beat defenders in tight spots. Because we lack central midfielders to find attacking players with good through-balls, I fear that there will be more pressure on him to fashion chances by himself.

Stop playing Mount as a winger, for starters. With the new incomings he shouldn't have to, thankfully.

Arteta also seems a good character. Haven't had anything bad to say about him during his 3 seasons there. He never ran his mouth like Ole, and was sympathetic towards Lampard when he was going through a tough time here. He's setting a good example for his young squad.

Wrong topic

Full credit to Arsenal. I doubted their title credentials about a couple or so months ago, but they show with every game why they deserve it. I also thought they would falter without Gabriel, but they're showing how well drilled they are as a team.

Tottenham should have pulled at least one back by now. At least they look a bit better than they did first half.

Lol. Would have been hilarious if Spurs got that ridiculous penalty call in their favor.

He's not a deep lying midfielder., and that's what we are lacking.

Spurs are such a crappy side, but if there's one thing I've noticed about them this season, they often leave it late to get back into the game.

To be fair, he's often said how grateful he is to the match attending fans, who have shown a lot of appreciation for him even during tough times.

The long contracts are probably more to do with FFP more than anything. The downside is getting players to agree with those terms - because they are essentially forfeiting opportunities to bump up their pay with contract renewals, they might ask for higher wages to begin with.

Good debut for Badiashile. Clean sheet on first start is exactly what you want as a defender. And he looked confident playing in the PL for the first time. Even with his passing. Ziyech was also good today. More effective playing as a winger rather than inside forward or full back. I would have liked D. Fofana to play a part, but in the end not surprised he gave Aubemayang and Havertz the bulk of the minutes. Because that's just what Potter does.

Whoever was in charge of timekeeping tried their best today to give Palace a chance. 7 mins ET. And more time on top of that.

That used to be the case up until about 5 or so seasons ago. Even with a solid core and a decent manager you could still have shitty season, if you don't replenish the squad with the right talent or succumb to injuries. And that's my point. We had a core which, when fully fit, could challenge for top 4. With the injuries we easily slide down the table. In the past decades, we could easily make up 15 point deficits to end up challenging for the title again. Nowadays only sides like City can afford to lose players like DeBruyne or Aguero for extended periods and not experience a hiccup.

On a positive note, looking at the highlights, Colwill seems to have had a great game against Liverpool. Good defending and great passing.(Especially that through ball at minute 28 of the game. Almost Terry-esque) Hope we integrate him in the next season. Fuck Gvardiol.

Liverpool going from 2nd in the table last year to a likely Europa League finish this year. That's why I find all this talk about us needing a massive rebuild for 2 years to become challengers again, pointless. We could just as easily return to top 3 next season (injuries notwithstanding) and still finish outside top 6 in the season after that. The league is just that much more competitive now, and you have at least 7 teams in contention. If you don't get it right with transfers or injuries, it will cost you, and that's just how it will be for seasons moving forward. Only the clubs with infinite resources could hold an iron grip on top 4. UEFA also realizes this., and it won't be to long before they expand the Champions league slots to at least 6 teams from each of the major leagues.

It's also possible that what you see is what you get. Maybe both manager and players are trying but failing simultaneously. Thats why I've stopped ranting at either, even if I have my doubts about them. The closest thing we have to talismans in the squad are out. And the rest of them are getting exposed.

People shouldn't be bothered about the lack of CL, in terms of attracting talent. On the contrary, it might even make the club smarter in its approach in terms of scouting and recruitment., instead of getting the next flavor of the season. While 1-2 signings of the Enzo category are a must have for a title winning side, there's much that can be done in building up the squad to at least challenge for a title.

Start the game with Datro Fofana.

We had an option with Gilmour. But we screwed him over by sending him out on loan to a lesser team. Players like Gilmour and McEachran should never have gone out on loan. Because of the way they play, they would thrive around high quality players that will make the most of their passing and vision. Instead we destroy them by assigning them to the loan army.