Gallowgate Toon

The players looks so much fitter than the first few games. We've got proper competition in lots of positions as well now as the squad is finally looking well balanced fitness and sharpness-wise meaning players are genuinely starting to push one another. I was surprised at the Willock sub but it makes total sense to protect the player. I thought Howe's tweaks yesterday were very good with the Gordon-Joelinton switch and moving Tonali into the middle when he came on to free Bruno up. I'm liking Tonali in that middle role more & more - he reads the game well, thinks quickly with his distribution, and is so fast off the mark. There's a very decent amount of tactical flexiblity in this side, I want Howe to keep on exploring it. Hoping we break out that 4-4-2 shape against West Ham, I really like Willock in that supporting role.

It felt the obvious call today.

Very frustrating that we saw the benefit of a first time ball last week and don't seem to want to replicate it against physical defenders.

The left looks lovely. The right, by contrast, lacking in inventiveness. Hall looking just about flawless, once again.

Yates goes off uncarded despite committing 2 oranges, imo.

I'd personally not start him against Forest because I think Tonali-Bruno gives us a lot more flexibility to change shape/approach in games as well as more options on the ball. Longstaff does have a decent weapon against lower teams which is his timing for runs into the box, but without Trippier commanding that side in possession I'm not sure he'd even be picked out that often. Plus, Tonali's set pieces look really good. An unfashionable but very important tool against deep sides.

Pope Tino Schar Kelly Hall Tonali Bruno Willock Gordon Isak Joelinton I felt a lot of the ingredients yesterday were a better makeup for a starting away side, mainly the pressing energy we could surround Isak with. It really helped to consistently set the tone and has a good balance to it. Forest have real pace in their attack so I'd be looking to bring Kelly in to help with that. And as good as Longstaff was, we're likely going to have a more equal share of possession. Tonali just has more in his armoury to help that situation. If MGW is the starting 10, maybe swap Bruno for Tonali. It should be a good, tough game.

It feels like we've generally been building momentum, performance-wise, since City. Chelsea away aside, we've been much more like ourselves overall than the first few games and today was a culmination of the increasing competition as the squad's sharpness levels out imo. General application has largely been good, just certain combinations and/or sharpness haven't quite been there. We should've smashed Brighton, for example - that one still stings. It feels like we have some better momentum now and more clarity about what we need to be for the foreseeable, even if there are a few selection headaches for Forest.

Plugged gaps and used his speed very well in a tough situation for a sub. Personally, I think he's going to generally show most of his real qualities from RCM over a sustained period but it was the right time today to get him in centrally.

It likely isn't his best position compared to the left but I really think he can be effective there for a period.

Top man. We've whipped that 4-4-2 out a fair bit this season and I really like that it's an option. Really cool to see Willock in that position today, like. I'd love to see an Osula-Isak version.

Best I've seen him play in years, tbf.

Produced the best bit of quality in the game. The moment it left his foot you knew it was a fantastic cross. Sublime.

Ultimately, pretty comfortable. What a goal - cross & header imperious. Arteta has built an incredibly fucking dull team.

Flawless, man. Developing into an unbelievable player.

It's a bit strange as they're obviously a very good team with a more than decent chance of taking all 3 points tomorrow but they don't really strike fear, if that makes sense.

Personally, I like the signs of how we've been using him and Bruno since City. The midfield was obviously not great at Stamford Bridge, but I thought it functioned well generally against City, Everton, and Brighton. We saw some changes in some build-up shape where they'd both drop back on occasion, and Tonali sometimes rotated into the deeper spot against both Brighton & Everton with Bruno pushing up. We also played 4-4-2 in phases as well with them both as the CMs and Joelinton at LM. If we play 4-3-3, it's fine that they can rotate into that deeper spot depending on the game/circumstance against most teams. They have some overlapping qualities but have some vastly different strengths in the role. Last night probably showed we can be a bit bolder with rotating them going forward. I do think it'd help Bruno generally to reduce his responsibilities for a bit, he's had to carry a lot of things for us for years now. Lewis Hall brings a fairly big shift to our options to build up from the back. He's decently like-for-like with Trippier in terms of style but he's on the left so we have more balanced routes out of the defence than we've had before imo. It was very Tripps/Schar before. Botman is good on the ball but I wouldn't say that progressive, and Burn's LB stint was much more tactical than anything else. This might mean we don't have to be quite as reliant on the midfield to do as much heavy lifting when trying to build play so we can have more flexibility to push Bruno up.

I really like what he can bring; like Burn, he has his uses depending on the opposition. A bunch of small, quick, fairly weak forwards is good fodder for him due to his athleticism, but what about powerful strikers? I can't see him doing as good a job as Burn did against Haaland when we go into low block mode, for example.

It's a good sign for our league campaign going forward that he got a good runout in a serious game, like, even if it just helps to preserve Isak a bit more. Chelsea rotated but that team was worth about, what, £600m? It wasn't like we chucked him on for 30 against a lower league side.

He's just a lovely footballer. Touch, passing, shimmies etc.

Some fantastic raw attributes to be a nuisance we can trust more, at the very least. He's a lot more up for scrappy play than Isak so he at least offers something different.

Fernandez is outrageously average for them. You can tell he's evidently a good footballer but he's so ineffectual. Cucurella is a gobby little shite as well.

When he tore through the middle of them

Did the simple stuff very well (bar one passage of play) and his speed off the ball is a real boon in that role at times. Some fantastic set pieces too.

In the BTS content, he seems to be this obsessively competitive character. On the pitch, this doesn't seem to come out enough. He's passive/lax too often in games. By contrast, Jackson is a terrier.