You didn’t expect Wolves, who are sitting in 20th position, to do you a favor, did ya? Man City closed down the gap by 3 points today and it’s now in our hands to extend the lead back to 7 points by beating our legacy rivals. Man Utd are crap, lets be real. But they still sit at 5th position, ahead of Chelsea, Newcastle and Spurs. They are only a point behind Liverpool and they know few wins could get them into the Champions League. They have something to play for, so do we – and we will find out tomorrow who wants it more.
Calafiori and Hincapie will be assessed before the game but it’s fine to say we will have a fully fit squad for the first time this season. Mikel will have everyone in front of him to pick for his playing XI, and our next game in a not important CL games against Kairat. So, yeah – lets go for everything.
If I have to pick, I will do the usuals. Raya in goal, with Timber, Saliba, Gabriel and Calafiori in defence. A midfield of Odegaard, Zubimendi and Rice will do where Rice plays in a more advance role. I would pick Saka, Gyokeres and Martinelli as front 3, but won’t mind Trossard if Mikel finds him more contributing to our game.
16 games left. 7 points lead (4 but then City has played one extra game). A Premier League trophy we have been dreaming of since THE INVINCIBLES. That was in 2003-04, about 23 years ago. There are some Arsenal fans who can vote, marry and have a kid but haven’t seen us lift the trophy.
And then, we have a billion dollar squads, most of which have finished 2nd three seasons in a row. Most of them had the heart breaks, some of them were exhausted, some would have punched a wall. Some of them are on big fat wages, some renewed, some joined from other clubs to be a part of red and white in the hope of winning something. NOW IS THE TIME. Mikel and the team does all the talk, but we need to walk the walk.
I know there is still a long way to go, 16 weeks of Premier League football and we would see a lot of ups and downs, but I am not wrong to say it’s ours to lose now. Man Utd, under Carrick, will try their best to stop us. Can we sustain the pressure? Can we keep our winning run?
We will find out. See you in the comments.
Liverpool struggling against Bournemouth. United must be looking for the 4th spot now.
“Man Utd are crap, lets be real. But they still sit at 5th position, ahead of Chelsea, Newcastle and Spurs.”
The above sums up how poor the quality has been in the PL this season. Now of course as Ambarish say’s there’s still a lot of football to play and all sorts can and will happen but how many “big” teams or those who consider themselves to be big teams ((yes Spuddies I’m looking at you (best Hank Moody impression) mother fucker)) and say their performance so far has been acceptable or even close to what is expected?
Liverpool are terrible, City piss poor, Chelsea and ManU awful and have changed managers, the Spud’s have been the Spud’s so are due another managerial sacking, Newcastle meh and Villa don’t look capable of taking advantage of any the above.
With all of the above you’d expect at least one outlier club to have poked their noses into the top 6 mix but the gap between 15th and 4th is 8 points with over half the season played.
It really isn’t good for the PL as a brand.
I’d also like to congratulate Xhaka for managing to have a row with the opposition fans and not his own!
Ethan Nwaneri received the ball at half line, and went on to score a beautiful goal all by himself at Marseille.
A little bit of freedom goes a long way for a player’s development.
Marc
The other way to look at it, is that, even the bottom half clubs are competing with the best in Premier League. Bournemouth beat Liverpool 3-2 yesterday.
We have managed so far, and so does City. The title will be lost by the team dropping points in 3 games in a row.
Marc—I saw that…Xhaka appeared to be having a beef with two bloated fucks in the front row, one of whom was holding a small child at the time…I can think of a few things they might have been saying to get Xhaka frothing at the mouth…at one point he appeared to be inviting them down into the tunnel to settle the matter…he wasn’t even playing today, so maybe this was his way of staying in game shape
whenever I see that middle finger wagging twat I can’t help but think that we might be in a better place today, stylistically-speaking, if we had just kept him and never pursued Havertz, then invested that money elsewhere…what a depressing thought considering that at that time he was widely viewed as a expendable piece so long as we acquired a suitable upgrade…let’s not forget his final season was the last time we showed any semblance of directness…MA really screwed the pooch on that brief
I still don’t buy into what United’s selling, but I do give Carrick some credit for making some fairly substantial tweaks in his debut(unlike with Chelsea’s new mana)…by restoring Bruno as the 10, his best position, and switching from a possession-heavy tactical approach to a quicker, more direct style of play, United were the much better side and deservedly earned all 3 points…that said, City have performed poorly recently…just not sure if Carrick will be quite so adventurous in this road fixture, so it will be interesting to see what if any changes he makes from both a selection and tactical standpoint…if I was him I would double-down, as we’ve shown some vulnerabilities on the counter, it’s just that the opposition has been decidedly poor when it has mattered most…this one has draw written all over it, but I think we might find a way to finagle all 3 points with the winning goal coming on an Eze screamer from distance…youj know me, always the eternal optimist
Eagerly waiting for match to begin…
Ambarish
The lower teams haven’t improved massively this season the top teams have been poor. Do you think City this season are as good as they were a couple of seasons ago? Same for Liverpool?
Having a competitive league is good but if that’s achieved by seeing a drop off in quality at the top of the league then it will just be counter productive.
Ambarish
Full report received from my friend who was at the match. Ethan was ‘comfortable’ and seemed to be enjoying himself. Lens are doing well this year. OM should start putting a run together now.
Himanshu
Good to see you on London is Red. I hope you enjoy the game and that your ‘debut’ is marked with a win. I think Arsenal will have too much for Man U this afternoon.
Hincapie starts at LB, Trossard ahead of Martinelli and Jesus leads the line.
Strange selection, I was expecting it to be a Gyokeres v Sesko and Martinelli on LW. Calafiori is not on bench, so most likely he is not fit yet.
@Himanshu – welcome to London is Red.
Ambarish
Arteta didn’t buy Martinelli so he will always favour Trossard.
Marc
You could say that, others are shittier than usual but that’s only visible between top 3 and others.
4th place Chelsea and 15th place Crystal Palace have only 8 points gap.
Trossard is doing well, so I am complaining; I just like Martinelli more. Under Wenger, he would have been a legend by now.
Ambarish
I know I said that about the 8 points yesterday!
City and Liverpool are mere shadows of recent seasons.
Gabriel Jesus flopping is nowadays taken with a pinch of salt . Guess Merino shall join him . Havertz is a bit more sophisticated to be caught
Not a big fan of 2 of the 3 forwards selected, especially knowing that Carrick appears to be running things back, but we should still have more than enough to get a result against this particular side…some serious red flags about the lack of usage when it comes to Eze, Noni and Marts…not surprising though as they’re 3 of our 5 most talented offensive players…the 4th being Saka, of course, and the 5th is now scoring goals in Ligue 1
Is it just me or has anyone else noticed a drop in performance of Saka these days? In fact, this whole season, he has looked his own shadow.
United is fighting the midfield battle but their front 3 are not pressing at all. It’s going to be a tough game to score.
And what a save. Looks like we are out of luck too today