The English Football Thread

[Vesper 30,484]

[Fulham Broadway 17,480]

Mount is gash

[TheHulk 2,570]

Thank fuck we didn't get Dorgu when we were linked to him, absolutely pants.

[Strike 7,601]

I was convinced by this forum that Dewsbury-Hall is rubbish

 

[Strike 7,601]

8 hours ago, Fernando said:

If we go ahead and buy Murillo in the January transfer window and we are within reach like 3 points behind I would say we have a chance. 

But only if that scenario happens, we need a top CB to be able to sustain winning game 1 to 0, because sometimes that is all we will get. We can't blow everyone every single weekend, and when you scored that one goal you need to defend for your life if that all it takes. 

Even in that scenario, I have my doubts. 

 

[Stats 7,189]

On 23/11/2025 at 16:07, Special Juan said:

Yes I know, I also think a smoke screen is happening....the same as I hope Maresca starts talking about us being in the title race, rather then talking us down

Seems you may be right. He is already back in training and would be a shock to see him not involved on Sunday.

[Special Juan 28,296]

United are fucking terrible

[Vesper 30,484]

Heatherwick Studio unveils stadium surrounded by 12 chimneys for Birmingham City

https://www.dezeen.com/2025/11/20/birmingham-city-football-club-stadium-heatherwick-studio-manica/

 

Architecture practices Heatherwick Studio and Manica Architecture have revealed the design for a 62,000-seat stadium surrounded by brick chimneys for Birmingham City Football Club in Birmingham, UK.

Set to be the centrepiece of the Sports Quarter in the east Birmingham, the stadium is the first stadium designed by Heatherwick Studio. It was created in collaboration in US studio Manica Architecture and director Steven Knight.

 

Named the Powerhouse, the stadium will be home to Championship team Birmingham City Football Club.

It will have a unique design with 12 brick chimneys, which were directly informed by the city's former brickworks, surrounding the structure set to support the stadium's roof.

"Too often, stadiums feel like spaceships that could have landed anywhere, sterilising the surrounding area," said Heatherwick Studio founder Thomas Heatherwick.

"This stadium grows from Birmingham itself – from its brickworks, its thousand trades, and the craft at its core," he continued.

"It's also a wholehearted place for the community. The stadium will truly come alive where it meets the ground; a place for play, gathering, and everyday life. The goal is to capture the spirit of the city and give it back to Birmingham."

The stadium will have a capacity of 62,000, making it the second largest stadium in the country outside of London after Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium, which is set to be redesigned by UK studio Foster + Partners.

Few details have been revealed about the stadium's design, although renders show a traditional seating bowl topped by a steel roof that if hung from the brick chimneys.

Along with supporting the roof, the chimneys will contain lifts and staircases, while one will house a bar that will become the highest in the city.

Designed to be used as both a sports and music venue, the stadium will have a retractable roof and movable pitch.

The project would be the first stadium for Heatherwick Studio. Previously the studio designed a proposal for the 2012 Olympic Velodrome and was commissioned to design a stand for Fulham Football Club in 2016, but was later replaced by Populous.

The studio is currently working on numerous projects in both the UK and abroad, including a "ribbon-like" waterfront park in Kentucky. It recently completed a Longchamp store in New York and a tree-like park in China.

[NikkiCFC 8,450]

Beautiful stadium. 

[Vesper 30,484]

‘His legs have gone’: Unpicking the four words no footballer wants to hear

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6842190/2025/11/27/mohamed-salah-virgil-van-dijk-carragher/

This is an updated version of an article first published in February 2024.

First it was Fabinho, then it was Casemiro, now it’s Mohamed Salah. Maybe Virgil van Dijk, too.

“You’re watching Van Dijk now; not the same player,” said Jamie Carragher. “And Mo Salah looks like his legs have gone.”

Carragher was speaking on CBS Sports after Liverpool’s latest chastening defeat, a humiliating 4-1 loss at home against PSV in the Champions League that exposed much more than fragile confidence and a loss of form.

Reflecting on the performances of Van Dijk, 34, and Salah, 33, Carragher suggested that time has simply caught up with two of Liverpool’s greatest players.

“I don’t like criticising them on the pitch because it’s absolutely legendary what they’ve done,” Carragher said. “Their legs have just gone, especially with Salah.”

In the past, Carragher made similar comments about the former Liverpool midfielder Fabinho and Manchester United’s Casemiro. Fabinho moved on to Al Ittihad in the Saudi Pro League in the summer of 2023, but Casemiro has spent another two years in the Premier League since being told those four words that no footballer wants to hear.

Carragher — who played for Liverpool until he retired at the age of 35 in 2013 — will not be a lone voice in the debate around Van Dijk and Salah, even if it can be hard to make sense of how quickly things can change in football. Last season, Van Dijk was imperious and Salah unquestionably the standout player (29 goals and 18 assists) in the Premier League. Carragher called it an “all-time season” for Salah.

Can the switch really flick that quickly from elite player to over the hill?

The mind goes back to an interview Salah gave a few months before his 30th birthday, when he was asked how he felt about reaching an age when footballers are typically considered to be past their peak.

“I didn’t think about the fact I’m going to turn 30,” he told Four Four Two magazine. “I ask some players and they say it’s a different feeling when you turn 30, but I’m feeling fine. I’m enjoying life, I’m enjoying football — it doesn’t matter how old you are now.”

Only Salah, who has always been devoted to being in the best physical condition possible, knows whether age is still nothing but a number for him or if he is starting to experience that “different feeling”.

His game changed last season, with data from SkillCorner showing that he was making fewer off-ball runs than ever and accelerating less. Those numbers, however, were not representative of a sudden physical decline. Instead, they pointed to a tactical realignment under the management of Arne Slot that made Salah even more effective. Numbers can be deceptive in that respect.

In reality, any footballer over the age of 30 who is struggling on the pitch leaves themselves open to being labelled in this way, but in particular if they are coming off second best in the sort of duels they used to win and playing in a way that makes it feel like the game is now a split-second too quick for them.

Casemiro strayed into that territory a couple of seasons ago, when he started to become a danger to his own team after he was booked eight times in 11 matches for club and country, leading to him being withdrawn at half-time in a United game at Luton Town.

“A serial offender who kept fouling time and time again”, was the way former England midfielder Jamie Redknapp, a pundit on UK broadcaster Sky Sports’ coverage of the match, summarised his display.

Carragher had already gone further. “I think Casemiro’s legs have gone,” he told the Covering Liverpool podcast in October 2023. “I noticed it at Anfield (the season before), and I didn’t like what I saw. It took me back to watching Fabinho (in 2023) for Liverpool. I want to be the first to say it (about Casemiro). I don’t want to say it when everyone else is saying his legs have gone.”

Carragher doubled down on that line when he said in May 2024, after Casemiro had been exposed in a 4-0 defeat at Crystal Palace, that players need to “leave the football before the football leaves you” — and that in the midfielder’s case, “the football’s left him”.

Few would have argued at the time or even at the start of the following season, when Casemiro was hauled off at half-time against Liverpool to a backdrop of brutal abuse on social media. Yet here we are 18 months later, and Casemiro is enjoying something of a renaissance, playing regularly at United under the management of Ruben Amorim and thriving in the Brazil team.

Casemiro is back in the Brazil team — and impressingFranck Fife/AFP via Getty Images

---

What is clear is that the spotlight can be unforgiving for older players when their form suffers and, at times, unfair.

Gareth McAuley, who was still playing centre-back in the Premier League at the age of 37, viewed the “legs have gone” comment as an “easy shot” when it was directed at him at West Bromwich Albion, especially given how hard he was working to keep in shape and that it was not backed up by the data he was privy to at his club.

“I was thinking, ‘I’m doing more than people who are 10 years younger’,” the 80-cap Northern Ireland international McAuley tells The Athletic. “You think, ‘Do you know what? Show some respect’. But it’s getting even younger now: boys at 28 and 29 are being described as ‘done’.”

Not every player has reason to feel hard done by in this situation — in some cases, they are in denial.

One former international midfielder, not long retired from playing, was viewed by his coach as ‘undroppable’ because of his status. But others at the club felt the player had become a liability as he could no longer track runners and move fast enough.

Some are honest enough to hold their hands up and accept that it’s time to walk away – a reality that can creep up on players during a season or, in the case of Gary Neville, be revealed in one brutal moment.

At West Brom on New Year’s Day in 2011, a 35-year-old Neville made his first start for Manchester United in two months. He describes in his autobiography how he made West Brom winger Jerome Thomas look like Cristiano Ronaldo during a deeply uncomfortable 71-minute performance in which he was lucky to avoid a red card.

Neville recalled how Mike Phelan, United’s assistant manager at the time, wandered across for a word when the ball rolled out of play close to the dugouts.

“You’re f***ed, aren’t you?” Phelan said.

Neville nodded.

Thomas, who made more than 150 appearances in the Premier League with four different clubs, remembers that game well, and also the comments Neville made later.

“I guess that was how Gary rationalised it because he was on his way out and he didn’t feel he was at his best,” Thomas says. “I don’t want this to come across the wrong way, because Gary Neville is a legend, but what he doesn’t realise is that he wasn’t the only person I was doing that to. As a left-winger, I would go into every game with the goal to either get the right-back sent off or subbed.”

Jerome Thomas made Gary Neville realise his career was overShaun Botterill/Getty Images

Neville would have been dismissed on another day. Instead, he was subbed. The following morning, he told United manager Sir Alex Ferguson that he was retiring. He never played for them again.

Sol Campbell, Neville’s former England team-mate, had a different experience before bringing the curtain down on his career.

“My legs never went. It was just you needed the right rest period,” Campbell, whose last match was as a 36-year-old for Newcastle United in the 2010-11 Premier League, tells The Athletic. “Once I went back to Arsenal (for a second spell midway through 2009-10), I was 35 and my numbers weren’t there, but getting back to good training helped me compete with the guys. It’s difficult, though, as you get older with the recovery. It’s hard on the body.

“If you play one game a week, it’s great, but sometimes it’s four games in 10 days, and that’s when you start to feel it. If you have a sympathetic manager who understands that you’re not 21 anymore, then it’s OK. So, for me, it’s not about ‘Legs gone’, it’s about recovery.”

---

His legs have gone.

“Sport, never mind football, is full of throwaway phrases like that,” says Chris Barnes, an experienced sports scientist who has worked for several professional clubs, starting with Middlesbrough in 1998.

“Wearing the sports scientist’s hat, one of the big challenges we have in football is getting away from focusing on averages and norms and looking at players as individuals. The reality is that phrase is appropriate (for some players) and in others, maybe not so.

“If you track a player’s journey from a physical perspective, it’s pretty widely accepted that they peak around about 26 to 28. What that means can be interpreted in a number of ways – peak is different for different players in terms of how fast they can run, their ability to do repeated high-intensity activities and so on.”

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Although the data never lies, it is important not to get carried away with who runs the furthest, which is to take nothing away from the evergreen James Milner, who topped the charts at the age of 37 in the 2022-23 season.

“Total distance is full of noise,” Barnes adds. “The Blackburn winger (Morten Gamst) Pedersen always had the highest total distance of any game, but you must look at what is effective work and what isn’t.

“(Centre-back) Robert Huth, who was at Middlesbrough, would always come and look at how little work he’d done, because he felt his best games were performed when he made good decisions and was positionally correct and therefore the amount of work he needed to do was less. So it’s not really a ‘More is better’ situation. Football isn’t a maximal sport. It’s what typifies, if you like, the DNA, the characteristics, of a player’s game.”

How players engage with their physical data is interesting. Some bury their head in the sand or — and this was witnessed first-hand with a Premier League centre-back during a fly-on-the-wall pre-season piece a few years back — even challenge the figures. Others go actively looking for their data, to use it as a yardstick to not just inform how hard they need to work in training, but also to ensure that the manager doesn’t have an excuse to leave them out.

“The high-speed running and things like that, you get your data and they (the sports scientists) know exactly what you need to be hitting,” McAuley explains. “But in certain sessions as a defender, you won’t get what you need. So I could say, ‘OK, I need another 200 metres of high-speed running’, so I would go and run box-to-box to get that and keep me on the sports-science knife-edge between injury and peak condition.

“I had (Craig) Dawson, 10 years younger than me, who was trying to take my place, so I had to make sure I was trying to be better, trying to stay quicker. In a way, that was driving me. Also, if you weren’t in the team and you’re knocking on the manager’s door, he can’t say that your data has dropped off in training and that your legs have gone.”

SkillCorner works with around 150 clubs around the world and is at the forefront of physical data. It released some fascinating graphs on Twitter a couple of years ago: the first shows the top speed of players by age during the 2022-23 season. In the over-30s category, Manchester City’s Kyle Walker, 33 at the time, remained the fastest player, while both Jamie Vardy and Ashley Young, who are now 38 and 40 respectively, were way above the average for their age.

That said, it is also worth remembering Barnes’ comment about the importance of analysing players as individuals and against their own benchmarks rather than comparing them to others.

Every Premier League club will have access to this kind of data and, crucially, will be able to see how a player’s physical levels go up and down over time.

This next SkillCorner chart gives a glimpse of what that looks like — in this instance, it shows Dani Carvajal, the now 33-year-old Spain and Real Madrid right-back. Carvajal’s high-intensity activities per 90 minutes are represented game-by-game, and there is also a season average, measuring what SkillCorner describes as “a player’s longitudinal physical performance”.

Of course, there are other factors to take into consideration, especially when analysing an extended period. Managerial, tactical and positional changes can all impact the physical data gathered in matches.

“In training, the sports scientists have a responsibility to be looking at appropriate data to give a mark on the condition of the players they’re working with, and that would involve things like recovery between bouts — heart-rate data is super-informative in things like that,” Barnes adds.

“These high-intensity actions and efforts are the key and unlock a better understanding as to whether the qualities and characteristics of a player have changed. But you definitely have to take into account the tactical context: how the game is evolving and how coaches want it to be played.

“It’s been widely documented how the physicality of Manchester City’s game has grown year on year with Pep Guardiola’s philosophy and Kyle Walker has been able to fit into that. If anything, it’s provided a platform for him to showcase the qualities he possesses even more.”

---

“You play football with your head and your legs are there to help you.” – Johan Cruyff

Peter Taylor was singing from that hymn sheet when he brought Roberto Mancini to Leicester City in 2001. Taylor, the club’s manager at the time, openly admitted he signed the 36-year-old Italian forward “for his football knowledge, not his legs”. Chelsea clearly felt the same way about Thiago Silva joining them at the age of 35 in 2020.

Barnes talks about how “game intelligence continues to increase” and, at times, can compensate for the ageing process, but he also points to a 2015 study that he was involved in looking at “longitudinal match performance characteristics of UK and non-UK players in the English Premier League” and the hard evidence that football at the highest level had become “seriously more demanding from the point of view of the high-intensity requirements”.

“SkillCorner has carried on that work and brought it up to date and that has shown that the demands of competing in the game have grown again,” Barnes adds.

“Gary Neville, Kyle Walker and Dani Carvajal are interesting examples, because they’re all right full-backs, and I would argue that full-back and striker are where this evolution has been most dramatic in terms of requirements to play the game.”

For a No 6 in the modern era, the skill set and the physical demands are huge.

“In this position, you need a guy who wins challenges and protects everybody, but who plays football as well,” Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool’s former manager, said in 2023. “Fab (Fabinho) did that for us for plenty of years (and was) absolutely brilliant. At the moment, it’s not clicking. We have to go through that.”

Fabinho’s form slumped in 2023 for LiverpoolGlyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images

Outside the club, pundits were quick to judge what had gone wrong with Fabinho. “You know when you’re a midfielder and your legs just start to go and you can’t get around the pitch as much as you would like, that’s what it seems to be,” Micah Richards, the former Manchester City defender, told BBC Sport.

Defensively, Fabinho’s output did drop. According to Opta, he was recovering the ball less, winning fewer duels and not making as many interceptions, which helps explain why Liverpool were happy to cash in on him at the end of the 2022-23 season. It was a similar story with Casemiro in the 2023-24 season.

Of course, none of those statistics can be seen in isolation. Often, when an individual is singled out amid poor team results, it’s multiple players who are underperforming. Some might even say the whole team at Liverpool right now, and that arguably makes it unfair to write Salah off.

Indeed, Carragher added in his analysis after the PSV game that Van Dijk and Salah had carried Liverpool on plenty of occasions in the past and that means that now, when both are struggling, others need to step up and take some responsibility.

Whatever happens, it’s just a matter of time before the “legs have gone” baton is passed on to someone else in their thirties.

McAuley smiles. “I think that (phrase) is kind of deep-rooted in pre-sports-science football,” he adds.

“Do the legs go? Maybe. But what I would say is that it’s the desire to keep doing it — the mental side. You can tell yourself to do anything. And with the mind and the willpower to do it, you can.”

[Vesper 30,484]

Arsenal’s squad depth is a frightening prospect for their rivals

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6841516/2025/11/27/arsenal-squad-depth-bayern-champions-league/

 

 

When you have a winning team, everybody wants to be part of it.

Arsenal have assembled one of the most formidable squads in Europe. On the evidence of Wednesday’s 3-1 win against Bayern Munich in the league phase of this season’s Champions League, it is striking an enviable balance, one where each player sees every start as a privilege, every minute on the pitch as an opportunity.

It is that rarest, most fragile football phenomenon: healthy competition. Competition that invigorates. Mikel Arteta’s side are six points clear in the Premier League as we head into December and have won the first five of their eight games in this opening stage of the Champions League.

Arsenal are in that perfect state of equilibrium. The players picked to start feel simultaneously supported by and under threat from those on the bench. The ones named as substitutes for a match see it not as demotion or chastisement, but as a chance to contribute later on in the game.

That much was evident against Bayern yesterday. Noni Madueke and Gabriel Martinelli both scored as substitutes, and the former’s goal was set up by another replacement in Riccardo Calafiori.

“I look at the players, they are coming in and they can change the game,” Arteta told his post-match press conference. “That's what you require. At this level, we have improved that, not only with the quality but also with the mindset of the players coming in. And that's something that is making a huge difference.”

In Arsenal’s past two Premier League games, Arteta has appeared reluctant to make changes. During the 2-2 draw away to Sunderland, he made a solitary substitution in the 88th minute, and though the 4-1 home win against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday brought four, three of those came beyond the 88th minute.

But Arsenal are getting their injured players back. After weeks of waiting for the cavalry to come, they are arriving — not all at once, but in a steady procession. Madueke and Martinelli bring much-needed attacking depth. With more options at his disposal, Arteta’s hesitance to tweak the line-up disappears.

Madueke and Martinelli both came off the bench to score on WednesdayRichard Heathcote/Getty Images

That theme of the squad uniting for the cause has been apparent throughout the season — and was again in last night's game. Arsenal have been beset by injuries, not that you would necessarily know. When one soldier falls, another moves into the gap in the line.

Arsenal are currently missing their primary attacking set-piece threat in centre-back Gabriel, but fellow defender Jurrien Timber leapt adroitly into the breach, rising to flick home the opener against Bayern.

Without Gabriel and Martin Odegaard, Arsenal had been missing two of the squad’s most significant leadership figures. Others, such as Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice, have stepped up.

Saka and Rice shared the armband across the 90 minutes on Wednesday, and were both instrumental in the victory. It was Saka’s corner that Timber met to head home, giving the England international his first assist of the season.

Rice took over as captain when Saka was substituted on 68 minutes, and being skipper seemed to turbo-charge an already industrious performance (illustrated in his player dashboard below).

Speaking to TNT Sports after the game, Rice concurred that whoever plays, Arsenal maintain their level.

“That's down to the manager,” he said. “That’s down to the way we work, every single day. The players all believe in him, exactly what he does. Every game requires something different. Chelsea on the weekend (Arsenal go to Stamford Bridge on Sunday) will be a completely different game to tonight, that’s going to require a different game tactically, but every player knows their role and what to do, and that's the main thing."

That was much evident in how Cristhian Mosquera stepped seamlessly into the centre of defence with Gabriel sidelined. The 21-year-old handled Harry Kane better than many more experienced centre-halves have done this season.

There was yet further encouragement for Arsenal with the sight of Odegaard stepping onto the pitch for the first time in seven weeks. The club captain’s return is especially welcome, given that Arsenal appeared to lose yet another player to injury, Leandro Trossard, before half-time.

Martin Odegaard made his first appearance since October 4Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

No matter: the Arsenal juggernaut rumbles on.

Next time, Madueke might play from the start, or Martinelli, or perhaps Odegaard. Viktor Gyokeres and Gabriel Jesus are closing in on comebacks, too. After another outstanding performance from midfielder Mikel Merino as a fill-in at centre-forward, the bar has been raised higher for those pushing to regain a place in the starting XI.

“Obviously, we didn't predict to have that many important players out,” says Arteta. “But the good thing is the way the team reacts constantly and plays after that to different positions. For example, what Mikel Merino has done today is incredible.

“So, a big compliment to all of them because they are so willing to play, so willing to bring joy to this club and to win football matches. That's all we have to carry on.”

There is a long way to go, and Stamford Bridge at the weekend will provide Arsenal with another stern test. At present, they keep passing them.

[Stats 7,189]

23 minutes ago, Vesper said:

Arsenal’s squad depth is a frightening prospect for their rivals

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6841516/2025/11/27/arsenal-squad-depth-bayern-champions-league/

 

 

When you have a winning team, everybody wants to be part of it.

Arsenal have assembled one of the most formidable squads in Europe. On the evidence of Wednesday’s 3-1 win against Bayern Munich in the league phase of this season’s Champions League, it is striking an enviable balance, one where each player sees every start as a privilege, every minute on the pitch as an opportunity.

It is that rarest, most fragile football phenomenon: healthy competition. Competition that invigorates. Mikel Arteta’s side are six points clear in the Premier League as we head into December and have won the first five of their eight games in this opening stage of the Champions League.

Arsenal are in that perfect state of equilibrium. The players picked to start feel simultaneously supported by and under threat from those on the bench. The ones named as substitutes for a match see it not as demotion or chastisement, but as a chance to contribute later on in the game.

That much was evident against Bayern yesterday. Noni Madueke and Gabriel Martinelli both scored as substitutes, and the former’s goal was set up by another replacement in Riccardo Calafiori.

“I look at the players, they are coming in and they can change the game,” Arteta told his post-match press conference. “That's what you require. At this level, we have improved that, not only with the quality but also with the mindset of the players coming in. And that's something that is making a huge difference.”

In Arsenal’s past two Premier League games, Arteta has appeared reluctant to make changes. During the 2-2 draw away to Sunderland, he made a solitary substitution in the 88th minute, and though the 4-1 home win against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday brought four, three of those came beyond the 88th minute.

But Arsenal are getting their injured players back. After weeks of waiting for the cavalry to come, they are arriving — not all at once, but in a steady procession. Madueke and Martinelli bring much-needed attacking depth. With more options at his disposal, Arteta’s hesitance to tweak the line-up disappears.

Madueke and Martinelli both came off the bench to score on WednesdayRichard Heathcote/Getty Images

That theme of the squad uniting for the cause has been apparent throughout the season — and was again in last night's game. Arsenal have been beset by injuries, not that you would necessarily know. When one soldier falls, another moves into the gap in the line.

Arsenal are currently missing their primary attacking set-piece threat in centre-back Gabriel, but fellow defender Jurrien Timber leapt adroitly into the breach, rising to flick home the opener against Bayern.

Without Gabriel and Martin Odegaard, Arsenal had been missing two of the squad’s most significant leadership figures. Others, such as Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice, have stepped up.

Saka and Rice shared the armband across the 90 minutes on Wednesday, and were both instrumental in the victory. It was Saka’s corner that Timber met to head home, giving the England international his first assist of the season.

Rice took over as captain when Saka was substituted on 68 minutes, and being skipper seemed to turbo-charge an already industrious performance (illustrated in his player dashboard below).

Speaking to TNT Sports after the game, Rice concurred that whoever plays, Arsenal maintain their level.

“That's down to the manager,” he said. “That’s down to the way we work, every single day. The players all believe in him, exactly what he does. Every game requires something different. Chelsea on the weekend (Arsenal go to Stamford Bridge on Sunday) will be a completely different game to tonight, that’s going to require a different game tactically, but every player knows their role and what to do, and that's the main thing."

That was much evident in how Cristhian Mosquera stepped seamlessly into the centre of defence with Gabriel sidelined. The 21-year-old handled Harry Kane better than many more experienced centre-halves have done this season.

There was yet further encouragement for Arsenal with the sight of Odegaard stepping onto the pitch for the first time in seven weeks. The club captain’s return is especially welcome, given that Arsenal appeared to lose yet another player to injury, Leandro Trossard, before half-time.

Martin Odegaard made his first appearance since October 4Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

No matter: the Arsenal juggernaut rumbles on.

Next time, Madueke might play from the start, or Martinelli, or perhaps Odegaard. Viktor Gyokeres and Gabriel Jesus are closing in on comebacks, too. After another outstanding performance from midfielder Mikel Merino as a fill-in at centre-forward, the bar has been raised higher for those pushing to regain a place in the starting XI.

“Obviously, we didn't predict to have that many important players out,” says Arteta. “But the good thing is the way the team reacts constantly and plays after that to different positions. For example, what Mikel Merino has done today is incredible.

“So, a big compliment to all of them because they are so willing to play, so willing to bring joy to this club and to win football matches. That's all we have to carry on.”

There is a long way to go, and Stamford Bridge at the weekend will provide Arsenal with another stern test. At present, they keep passing them.

Yep, have to give it to them, they look complete and even when they have injuries, they look good. Saka was injured for a bit and Madueke stepped in and did well. Gyokeres who they have bought for big money as the main CF, they are scoring goals without him playing. I think whatever the result, they will win the league. They are too strong in all angles of the pitch. Nwaneri who is actually older than Estevao and was seen as their big breakthrough star last season cannot get a start at all. That is even when likes off Odegaard have been injured and now he is back. I will give credit where credit is due.