Leif

Anything over £35m would be hilarious. So, it'll be hilarity wherever & whenever he moves. He will not perform to his price tag.

To me, it's nice to feel again that anything under 2nd place is a complete disaster. I can stomach 1 dodgy team winning over us, at times, but never more than 1, it makes me feel like an Arsenal supporter.

This is the sort of confidence I like, no sitting on the fence. He'll either make it, or he'll be shit, so take your sides now so we can then laugh briefly at the other side, whichever that is, if he ends up here. Camaraderie is for war games, not forums.

80% of Arsenal's local fanbase consists of illiterate drug dealers. 80% of ours are skinheads with blonde wives and rental properties in Marbella and Tenerife.

We literally have the best manager in the world. He'd win the league given any of the teams from the top 6 this season, but would Mourinho, Guardiola, Allegri, Zidane, Sampaoli, Klopp, Simeone do the same? No. Because where they're good at tactics, they fall short in man management. And vice versa. Conte doesn't lack in any area; if this were a game, he'd be maxing out the whole stat-tube with neon green. Having the best manager in the world, and him being so humble that he probably doesn't even realise it yet, is cute.

I obviously intoxicate myself far too often now; I thought he was part of our CL winning squad, and was thinking who cares if he moves to China, he's won it all! But regardless, anyone from Brazil has a very different mindset compared to the rest of the footballing world, in a good way, and I'm sure they find genuine pleasure playing in China, unlike the other imports they've had like Drogba & Anelka.

Indeed. Goals win games, nothing else.

Like that Tree idiot said before he was signed, he's bang 'meh' when you take away his set-piece skills, and is absolutely a squad player only. But that said, he's still part of the team that's been unbeaten for so long, so he is better than just average in the context of our latest run. He's simply not great. Happy to have him around though. He can do a decent job in the centre should we ever, forbid-so, need him for that.

We've been in the right mind to not play Fabergas in our biggest games where we expect to be pressed and not see much of the ball. He's had some great appearances for us lately, and again I say he's very underrated by us, but we shouldn't suddenly say 'Yep, he's a starting player now, automatically in the XI each game.' Not at all. There's a time and place for Fabregas. We need to make more time for him, but he isn't right for us to start every game. I'm sure if he had been starting every single game, we wouldn't have collected 33/33 points.

MOUUUURRRRNIIIINGGGGGGGG

It doesn't matter if we've been at our best or not; our opponents have played to THEIR best abilities, and yet we still beat them. Don't complain about this win or i'll hack you.

And that's another thing Verratti will never do - pop up in front of the box a la Lampard and take a really good pop at goal. Fabregas is disgustingly underrated by our fans, it doesn't matter if he can't run like the rest. All but 4 teams on this planet would improve with him in their side (Munich, Dortmund, Real & Barcelona.) From Man City to Juventus to ourselves to United, he is still good enough to be at the top.

There is nothing to figure out. We aren't holding secrets.

'Teams have figured us out' will be the most annoying phrase this season.

Hazard/Luiz coming back from niggles. Costa's been mentally depleted for a few games now. Alonso/Moses have never been asked to run as much in their career. Willian is barely match-fit. Kante & Matic have no excuses for being tired, and they're not, nor our 3 central defenders, though out of them I think Azpi might be the worst to mentally be worn down. Hopefully not, since he's potential captain material for me. 'Rotation is stupid' my arse, they're walking on spaghetti legs.

'Our players don't need rotated' they said. They're tired as fuck I said.

Verratti controls the tempo of a game, but never, ever, does he open up defences or loop the ball over their head into the path of a teammate to put them through on goal. That is what Fabregas does, and that's what we'll be wanting from our next playmaker the moment he's gone. We don't need Verratti whatsoever, because we don't play a style of football where we try to dominate and control possession, this isn't the league for that. He is not made for this league at all. What we need is someone like Xabi Alonso, Banega when he's actually on form, i'm not sure who else to add to this shitty list because players like Fabregas are so rare. *Ok, some players who would bring to us what we need, which is splitting open tight defences; De Bruyne, Iniesta, perhaps Pjanic, Oliver Torres who i've been championing since before his first pro appearance; incredible player; Thiago (best playmaker this year), Modric. All of these players do that 1 thing Verratti does not.

I've seen him play 4 or 5 times. Based on that, he'd be a solid squad player, but no better than Alonso. Where Alonso can cross, this guy can't. Where this guy can position himself well, Alonso can't (to the same extent - he's good, but this guy is flawless in positioning.) This guy is faster, but less creative. There is no need for him, in my opinion.

I'm sure he's right, and we, the millions of Chelsea fans, took his words out of context. It's easy to apologise to your girlfriend as soon as they glo-up and start garnering interest from other high-profiles.

I don't think fiddling is a good idea. Nor rotating for rotation's sake, which I didn't imply. I said specifically, Hazard, Costa, and Luiz, are all already at about 80% energy/health wise, whereas they should be at 95%. I understand that Hazard & Luiz have fallen victim to horror tackles and whatnot, but that doesn't change the fact that while they get their rest, capable rotation-options need to be in our cards - which they currently are not. Neymar gets rests, Ronaldo gets rests, Dybala and Higuain get rests, why on earth would we not rest our players? There's more to fatigue than just physical, also. I stand by the opinion that Costa gets bored in games vs. small teams no matter the significance of the bout, so again, should be considered for rotation, which can only benefit a team when a capable back-up is around. Bayern rest Ribery, Robben, and Muller consistently, bringing them out for the big games, while nurturing their future replacements in the smaller ones. Then, you have to consider from another angle; how many times have we seen players be picked time and time again, to the point of taking their position for granted, and then no longer giving their all? Too often. It's no coincidence Cahill improves the moment Zouma is better. Competition for places is healthy, but there's no competition if you say 'These are my best players; they will play every game unless they break a leg.'

I'd replace Martin Tyler with you in a heartbeat

Honestly i don't think he puts himself in the best positions. He just strolls around while he's in the box instead of darting into a new position which'd inspire those around him to pass. Considering all the other players look more lively, there's more faith put in them to get something done. But fuck critical thinking, that shit doesn't fly when we play.

There's 1 post every 10 minutes in here but 1 every 10 seconds on theshedend. Are we losing users or are they dickheads for not watching the game as intensely? Regardless, fuck United

None of our managers since around 2008 or so have been astute at rotating players. We're already seeing our players tiring, and too many of our coaches have said 'We don't need the full quota of players, 20 is enough', as an example. It's a naive approach to believe 11 players wins a league. It takes a lot more than just those players. Unfortunately that's the only thing giving me doubt about winning the title this season.