Smal

I would definitely prefer him to say that rather than "I came here for the project" numerous times before playing like he can't be arsed and then refusing to play and disrupting a whole season because Liverpool told him to.

he was really poor last season with Hall behind him at left back. I think blaming his terrible performances on Burn is a bizarre excuse.

thought we were decent and showed the defensive solidity we have all season before the last couple of weeks. Set piece goal is good, as is a Joelinton box crash/header. Both things that we should be scoring from regularly but haven’t been. Thought Joelinton was really good and looked like he could actually run properly for the first time in ages. Thiaw also very good again. Gordon needs taking out of the team.

Trippier over Krafth will automatically make a big difference

yeah, he won Arsenal’s player of the season award in 22/23

I think a versatile full back who can play both sides is essential in January. They don't even have to be that good or the perfect age profile because they won't play that much and we don't want to spend the earth on it. I can't say anyone immediately springs to mind but that is what scouting departments are for I suppose.

I know what you mean but in that scenario Tino (and 35 y/o Trippier in reality, though you can use Krafth in an emergency) has to play every minute of every game in a season where we play two matches a week. That will mean he gets injured for long periods because it is inevitable for anyone whose style of play involves running fast and a lot.

we can't really claim Livramento is the second choice left back when he's the first choice right back tbh. In the same manner, Burn is arguably the first choice centre back for Howe too, so we don't actually have any back up or rotation for left back in the squad really. It's not great.

https://markstats.club/england/2025-2026/teams when you watch us press it is less about tackles (not many tackles actually get made a game by the Opta definition fbref use anyway, which iirc is just a measurement of when a player has been tackled as part of an actual take-on/dribble attempt) and more about trapping the opponent into an area - usually out wide in our case - so that they're forced to go long or into a player who is being marked with nowhere to go. Probably one of the reasons we have the highest amount of throw-ins per 90 in the league, for example.

Again, our press has been the most effective in the league and we give up very few chances with only Arsenal having a better xG against in the league than us so for this season. The pressing and defence is literally the least of our worries.

looks like we're going to have to do it the hard way and win the CL

would drop him for Bilbao btw. It's not like Barnes hasn't been scoring in the CL.

same as more or less all this, yeah. I think it's particularly frustrating because when he actually applies himself, like he has for England in the most recent internationals and like he did against Benfica/USG, you can see how effective he can be simply by tearing around and constantly being in defenders' faces with and without the ball. When he doesn't do that, which is about 80% of the time now, it feels entirely like it's his choice not to try and that is incredibly annoying and unlikeable as a fan. If someone wanted to give us anything like £60m or over for him in January I'd snap their hand off. There will be better and more motivated players available.

I can't understand how bad we are from set pieces at the moment by the way. Look at how fucking massive the team is, they should be scoring from set pieces every game more or less - the main difference between us and Arsenal is that they are scoring goals from set pieces and we are not. Our defensive data is more or less the same as theirs this season.

I obviously rate him really highly, but one of our main issues is that we don't play through midfield well at all and Anderson would improve that no end. He is always available in both build up and around the opponent's box, and more often than not he progresses the ball forward either by carrying or passing. His ability in duels is now at least as good as Joelinton, and would take some of that burden away from Bruno, who should be our main source of creativity along with Woltemade, but is often spending his energy running around like a mad man instead. Anderson and Tonali behind Bruno is an incredible combination for a midfield and has absolutely everything. Bruno is an incredibly creative player, we need to unlock that.

I'm not having that we haven't been pressing well prior to this game. It's the one thing we've been consistently good at this season. The below shows that we've won the ball back near the opponent's goal more than any other team in the league, and that we're 4th for disrupting the opponent's pass completion n their first two thirds of the pitch. Our issues are entirely with the ball at the moment.

he seems to pick and choose when he's motivated to play. Usually it's for England or in the CL, presumably when he thinks people will be watching him.

I only caught bits today because of shit wifi in the lakes, but my god those HT subs looked appalling . Fair enough take Gordon off but at least bring on Barnes surely? Joelinton was horrendous, most of what I was able to watch he was either passing to the other team or fouling them for no reason. That's who you take off if you want Ramsey on the pitch surely? Osula for Woltemade, goodness me.

Fabi knew what he was doing and the first two fouls on Richarlison were to wind him up, I think. It's the easiest way to put players like that off their game.

looked like he had the right attitude for the first time in a while, yeah

Yeah, and he's such a good technician that I think his finishing will improve. We will coach more of the goal poaching movement into him like we did with our previous striker.

decent. Arsenal and Palace playing each other is good too.

he reminds me of Berbatov a fair bit but with some work he will become more of a Kane I think.

Slop looks broken

I like how he's pretty much always in space in the final third