Stottie

Paqueta in that strip! I hope they won't remain "unknown pleasures".

Yeah, that spell has ultimately done them, losing to Palace, Brighton and Southampton. Their xG went really weird around then, with them seemingly missing lots of chances and conceding easily. Them conceding easily isn't hard to imagine given Ramsdale's performance yesterday. They've just lost against us and Spurs away but look at where the two teams are in the home form table. In 2022, NUFC is not a readily winnable away game. Arsenal fans might be kicking tables, but that's only because they think playing us must be a banker. As they always say, past performance does not guarantee future returns etc. etc.

Three Bruno level players and we strongly challenge for CL. Leicester won the league with three players, Kante, Mahrez and Vardy, going supernova. The supporting cast was merely quite good. Mahrez and Vardy weren't even new signings and were there already. I doubt ASM and Wilson will go supernova, but they can burn more brightly than under a fat cunt who can't be bothered to hold training sessions. I'd expect PIF to buy higher up the food chain this summer than Leicester did going into that season, Fuchs, Okazaki and whoever else it was. Merino and Tiote both started very well in Black and White, but were soon found out to be weak when pressed hard and crowded out. Bruno looks so sharp and strong under pressure that opponents are going to have to find another weakness. Kicking him perhaps and testing his temperament. The goals are probably a purple patch and I don't expect them to continue, but that's not what he was bought for.

The current Arsenal can't be historically shite because they just beat Chelsea and West Ham away. They beat Man U too at home. They lost to Spurs, but there is no shame in that, especially if you're down to 10 men. Anything can happen in a derby. As an organisation, you can have a go at their big wigs because they let PEA leave and are relying on an out of contract young player to get them (unsuccessfully by the looks) over the CL line. However, their recent results going into yesterday were good. This is the strongest challenge for fourth they have mounted in a while. fwiw, 2019/20 Arsenal amassed a mighty total of 56 points, 7 more than us this season if we beat Burnley. That's after us being "winning none of the first fourteen" relegation-certs level shite.

Him and Fernandinho in the same summer suggests they need to buy someone.

Poor lad was totally Bruced, but there are glimmers of the Rafa-era player in there. Good luck to him whatever happens.

I agree with sentiments one and three but not sentiment two. In their last six games, us included, Arsenal beat Chelsea and West Ham away and Man U at home. We outplayed them, but that does not make them shit, regardless of how much the result may have disappointed those in the Sky studio. It means some combination of them having an offday (compared to the recent results mentioned above) and us being good. For those not paying attention, again those in the Sky studio included, 35 points off the last 18 games also means we must be good in what are hard to deny terms. Nobody flukes half a season.

It's like when Yaya Toure, Man City's "holding midfielder", starting rampaging forward and smashing them in from the edge of the box like Frank Lampard. There is a modern fetish for DMs, but the best ones all have box-to-box or deep-lying playmaker skillsets that go way beyond those of a pure destroyer. If we buy a mega sexypants AM, then Bruno can settle into being the kind of totally OP CM or DM I dream of, but till then, he might be better deployed a little further forward.

Well, there goes the "failing against the Top 6" monkey off our back. Another achievement on what has been a fabulous run. 35 points off the second half of the season with Burnley away still to play. A couple of pastings hiding what has been an immense defensive performance with clean sheets galore. Young Bruno now up to speed and looking like one of the best midfielders in the league. The future's very bright. Thanks Eddie!

His main injuries under Bruce were hamstrings, which I suspect can be managed with better training than a fat slob giving the lads days off. I think Wilson is brilliant and good enough for top six. Stats nerds will know this but he only averages nine passes a game, easily lowest in the team. Against Arsenal, he only managed six (!!!) in such a commanding performance. So the "holdup play" one is a mirage. He causes defenders all kinds of trouble, but its not by holding up the ball and laying it off. It's more by making great runs, creating space, and shooting himself.

Best performance I can remember since the 3-0 vs. Man U with the Cabaye free kick and Jones OG

Fantastic performance and win! 35 points from last 18 games. That's easily CL form, with a winnable game to finish. Start the season with Eddie on Nov 20 and we can't finish lower than 7th. Level on points with Man U, 3 behind Chelsea. P26 for 41 points.

I know he scores goals but can Cornet whippy a cross in?

The main argument against Phillips is how much should we be paying for a DM, when our defence is already pretty good and we struggle for goals. Phillips' ability at that role is not the question. If the kitty is easily big enough to cover the attacking upgrades we need, then yes, by all means go for him. If its either/or, then I don't think DM is our biggest problem. Unless there is some relegation clause magic involved, Phillips will cost very good overseas AM money. You could argue that a better destroyer would get us more possession and more possession would lead to more goals, but I don't think the creativity is there just yet. It will be a bridge we have to cross though. We beat all those teams on that run by them letting us counter attack them. As we get established as a top half side, the opposition will set up differently and we'll have to take the game to them.

Two cup finals between the second and third top teams, 240 minutes, with no goals. All utterly forgettable. Yesterday, Liverpool had zero shots in extra time. Heavy metal football my arse.

A bit meh. Lukaku was hopeless. Chelsea getting most joy down the Liverpool right, and need to attack it again. Liverpool looking most likely and Robertson should have won it there.

They started diving 15 minutes ago.

A difference in distribution there, but only because Dubs hits it long more than Schmeichel.

That last chance when he appeared at inside right, collected it from Murphy about 25 yards out, drove past one player and squared it to Wilson who should have scored was lush. That's what we need to do. Not give it to him forty yards from our goal with noone in front. It's Eddie's call, but if he can get him in a setup where he doesn't need to do it all on his own, I could foresee ASM being very useful. The talent is clearly there. As for ASM himself, he needs to work on his shooting, which isn't good enough.

Bruno as Xavi, Paqueta as Iniesta, and Phillips as Busquets. Elliot Anderson as Maradona.

I was just going off Transfermarkt, so yes, he may have other issues. The whole point of getting competition to Wilson is to have someone available!

I'm not such a fan of DCL but there are probably 10 in there and yes, maybe 15. It's tempting to think he has flopped this year, but his xG per 90 minutes has been 0.45, which is higher than Ivan Toney and just below Gabriel Jesus, both of whom play in better sides. Ivan Toney has only scored seven non-penalties. DCL's big injury this year was a broken toe, not a soft tissue or ligament problem likely to reoccur. If Edwards is right and the plan is DCL as potential competition for Wilson and Ekitike as a fast fecker to play wide/gamble on him being a new Thierry Henry, that sounds pretty good to me.

I doubt many teams will be rushing to take Lingard at a straight 150k a week, so ask to be kept in the loop and see how it plays out. The lack of a fee may be a big plus factor, or it may not, none of us really knows. I suspect our form with Wood up front, Fraser on one side, and Bruno on the bench was even better than West Ham's was during the Lingard purple patch, so there is also the chance that the Lingard ship has sailed. He would have been useful in January for sure, but we probably now need someone better and have more than one month to find him.

He turned into Buffon in one game, stopping a Joey Barton (?) header on the line with both hands above his head. As blatant as you could ever get, but both ref and lino missed it. In recent years, Shinji Okazaki scored a "that's his first in fifteen games" type goal against us twice. He never scores, but that Kyle Walker goal against us was like Roberto Carlos.

Considering how much some folks go on about Zola, Beardsley is definitely underrated. Another great second striker who gets fewer mentions than Zola is Teddy Sheringham. I think people forget him when thinking about great #10s because he was physically a #9 and not a tricky little fella.