Magic Lamps

I thought he would be busy taking the black Pearl back from Jack sparrow.

which plays into our cards. They have to try and go at us wihtout their precious yaya. WE can wait for the counter attack. Take out one of their 3 world class players and they look average. Milner, Navas, Fernando, Demichelis, Clichy, Mangala.... You won't see more average , but mostly PL-proven player material in one squad. If that lot win the EPL, it would be an evidence of incapacity for the league and especially us. They have needed a 36 y.o. Chelsea reject's goals to be remotedly close to us. Now put them into place.

This season we have mostly lost points in those games we expected to do so. away in Manchester, Newcastle, Spurs and Southampton - all hard places to go. But the only remaining tough away fixtures are the 3 London derbies. Hull and Villa at a stretch. On paper our remaining league fixtures are criminally easy. Beat City and we are champions - simple as. I know it is a long way to go, but without major injuries, I don't see how we will lose an 8 point lead again. The challenge now is keeping our squad fresh. Our main disadvantage is our inferior squad size. It will be interesting to see how Mourinho juggles our ressources to keep the team fresh for the City clash and for the upoming months.

A worthy successor of Maloud and King Kalou in Chelsea's proud tradition of defensive wingers. After closely watching him vs Swansea and rewatching some material from last season I think I have identified his main strengths and weaknesses and most common patterns of play. I know most of you are probably aware but I would like to summarize them once again. +He always tracks the fullback (yay) and sometimes even tackles. +He can shift the ball to his right rather quickly +When he has space he usually carries the ball a good 30 yards forward with his pace and dribbling skills +has a really neat technique +when his best passing option is obvious he always delivers a pin point pass +delivers the pass to the assist extremely often (twice vs swans e.g.). If this stat would be counted he would lead it. -if he has no space or no clear option what to do he always does something stupid -if he wants to shoot or cross he always shifts the ball to his right and runs after it. Every defender knows this -he has almost no end product -has really bad luck -awful set pieces -aimless crosses even if they pass the marker -horrendous decision making Whether it is low-football IQ or Jose telling him to limits himself offensively it is just not effective enough to warrant a starting place. And I don't believe this balance shit either. It is not that he is Philipp Lahm on the wing. Kalou also tracked back every time. Still he had some end product. Willian is just predictable. If he would at least go to his left at times - just for variety. On the other hand he is smooth in his movement and passing, keeping the game flow, so I see why Mou likes him. But even for that he has too many turnovers. I still hope he will have that stand out season like Malouda in 2009/10 in his late 20ies when suddenly all his tricks came off and he was one of our better players. But until and after then we should look for better alternatives.

tbh it depends on the performance. If City play like they did today, We should comfortably beat them with an average performance. Jose often tends not to risk a loss in big games and plays for the draw. IMO we should play for the win against City as long as Agüero has not regained his form and Toure is at the ACN. Fernando/Fernandinho/Lampard should not be a match for Fab+Matic.

http://sunnewsonline.com/new/?p=100724 That is great news on two accounts. Him being a homegrown squad memeber (?) now menas he is much more valuable to us. Also he can be shifted away more easily.

As soon as you take out Yaya, City lose their sting. A decent Arsenal side dominated them at will today. When City come to the bridge they will endure another Waterloo.

the Arse clearances always go behind the goal. maybe they have figuered out that Citys corners are rather shite

now arsenal players are faking injuries. Wenger has learned.

HIs first name is jesus because he stands still on crosses.

that should be game over. a goal by giroud. id believe it

The only way City can score is a cheated set piece or an Arse player getting sent off .... or Lampard.

lol. look at Wengers new coat. Looks like a onesie

Idk what is more pathetic Arsenal's feckless attempts of counterattacks resulting in turnovers just in front of their box or City's stupid crosses which do not even pass the marker.

Always wanted him and deeply saddened that we never made a serious attempt to buy him after he twice became available. Had an impressive world cup too. But he would surely be 50m if we were to unchain him Form the arse

Do we really habe a foreign squad Place to give to Alvaro fuckin Arbeloa?

this was not even a standout performance from him, he delivers those games regularly. If he keeps that up, Agüero will have to take out his spyglasses to see him in the golden boot race.

this has to be 5. what a counter but how on earth does willian not score that. his 6th hit to woodwork this season.

Oscar is rocking it today.

swansea are making this easy for us.

this is like barcelona in their pomp. Great stuff. Willian has to be the player with most woodwork strikes.

has to hit the target there.

what an incredible move. great goal. amazing half by us.

He surely can, but it would robb him of one of his main strengths - his shot. He is like Shürrle, just shorter, faster, more skilfull and physically stronger - so basically like Hazard just more direct. Tho I would like him here, I don't know whether he is ready. Maybe buy him and loan him to Everton.

I hope so, too. IMO we are lacing that cutting edge in offense a bit. We showed it in the beginning of the season, but are now lacking goals. Only Costa has scored doulbe figueres so far. Real, Bayern have goals in all of their attacking midfielders. The reason why in modern football it changed from 2 wingers and 2 box to box midfielders to 3 of those is that they can share the creating and finishing between them, but we depend on Hazard to produce too much. IMO Oscar is more likely to ´be found in scoring positions than willian, so great if he continues his scoring form to make our team more balanced.