Strike

i think the epl matchday chat section should stay closed except during the weekend. there is already an english football thread to discuss abt the prem league

spot on, mate... the pressure they build when they fall behind is only through the crosses. it's almost just "set-piece pressure" where they dump the ball into the box and win a corner and keep the pressure going. we have no genuine crosser in the team and even when a cross gets in, no one to pressurise the defenders. moreover, manu have valencia on the right and young on the left who are brilliant crossers of the ball and even Paul Scholes in the middle whose long balls are played like tracer bullets.

to top it he's Chelsea through and through

again, united don't play well and yet manage to win.. that is the difference between us and united

Wave after wave of soton attacks. United are rattled! But we all know how often united win without playing well, hope soton hold on here though

Get in there! 30 mins Soton...that's all we are asking you to hold on for!

Borini has struggled so far. Diaby looks like a beast

Santi Cazorla looks like a poor man's Hazard. Not bad Arsene

pity him actually. unless spurs kick on, his management career is over...atleast in england

sometimes yeah. why?

if this stays for a couple of months, then u will be right but i think united and city will just get better

haha...only team in the league with a 100% record...

Mourinho at the Etihad today... checking out City in preparation for the CL obviously

good start by dembele at spurs. hate to say it, but he's a good signing even at 15

not to mention the shift in play at the start of the season. emphasis on retaining possession and all that... we are going in the right direction but it is a bridge too far to expect us to go back to the way we were under Ance or Hiddink or Jose.

yes, it makes no sense generally but he meant in that season. someone posted that if we do have problems we can buy in january but ideally even i would want the squad built before the start of the season and only bringin in reinforcements in january if there is an injury or a sale.

i think so, yes. we controlled the play against a strong newcastle side. we are retaining possession better and working out chances. as the players gel in it will only get better

agree it was a blip but as i said cant really judge the defenders on last season. this season they are going to play a very different role

the thing with luiz is not that he's bad but as a professional defender he has to cut down his mistakes. its been over a season now and he should really avoid mistakes like trying to play his way out of trouble against newcastle.. and i didnt mean the "defence" is bad but the defensive unit on the field is not as good as we think. as individuals they are good players but each one has his perks and the defence as a whole on the pitch is disjointed. last season, we had 2 players in the pivot consistently helping out the defence and in bigger games it was the whole 11 behind the ball so we really can't judge the defence on the last season. this season they are pushing a bit higher up and trying to get a hold of the game ...they are still adapting to the new role imo

its only natural to highlight the squad problems after a defeat, especially a heavy one as that. we have improved a lot from last season but given that we were a distant 6th last time around, it's expected that problems continue to persist.

agree with attacking mid but i disagree with the defence. our defence is over-rated. john terry, david luiz and gary cahill are good defenders on their day but are hardly world class. branislav ivanovic is being turned inside out by championship wingers and him and ashley cole getting forward so often doesn't really help the defence.

yeah. and to think i wrote an article praising di matteo just last week. i think we prepared for atletico like we prepare for a home game against QPR. adrian and arda turan's threat were never taken care of unlike the newcastle game where bertrand paid close attention to ben arfa. he got the balance of the team wrong here but i'm glad we didn't get the jolt we needed in a Premier League game. Now di matteo will surely be more conscious while picking the team

then yeah.. its true we were playing to Roman's standards in 2010 but i assumed sexy football meaning the one-touch passing thing they play

the thing is when we are on the ball, ivanovic, cole and lampard get forward to help the attackers. now this is good as far as we have controlled possession but as soon as the ball is lost and atletico start streaming forward, we are just chasing shadows. too often in the game, luiz, cahill and mikel were left to face a 3 v 3 counter-attack.... we really need to work on getting our defensive shape back as quickly as possible after an attack. edit: if newcastle at home was deemed as a worthy enough opponent to field bertrand and meireles, why not Atletico in a neutral venue? would've helped us stop few counters yesterday