The prem has introduced multi-ball this season. There are 10 balls in total around the pitch which should speed up restarts. Utterly baffling why this hasn’t been in effect before.

Forest bid £35m for Wolves’ Morgan Gibbs-White. Wolves rejected it. That’s crazy all round. We got 4 time prem winner Jesus for only £10m more. Liverpool got Diaz for that price.

Is it too simplistic to say Zinchenko is the attacking left back and Tierney is the defensive left back?

It actually justifies it - to get to the level he has reached, needed him to play regularly in competitive matches; he wouldn’t have got to do that without these loans

Outside of the other top 6 clubs I think Palace away could be the toughest away game. West Ham are a good side but Palace generate a different atmosphere - heightened by the night game and being on the focus of tv. I hate these sorts of games for Arsenal so hugely pleased with that win.

Leicester home
Bournemouth away
Fulham home
Villa home

Not getting ahead of ourselves but we should be clear favourites to win all those games. 5 wins out of 5 please Arsenal

Must admit I’ve been to Palace countless times over the years and I think their supporters are one of the fan bases who don’t deserve the reputation they have for creating hostile atmospheres. All these commentators and pundits who make out they’re so noisy are talking out their backside in my view.

Came across these player ratings for last night’s game. Apart from Saliba and Ramsdale who got 8, Ødegaard who got 6 and White who got 5, everyone got a 7. Some of White’s passing out from the back was a bit sloppy, but overall I see 5 as a bit harsh and thought he deserved the same as Ødegaard.

http://stevegleiber.com/forum/posting.php?mode=reply&f=10&t=6&sid=31b5e23d7c1c495388d0e65e03448597

Hodd! It's been a minute. How are things?

Saliba was that bad when we bought him? He seemed vetted and seemed to be bought for the first team, possible starter not for the future, but maybe he wasn't close to the finished article.

Anyway, what's new?

Agreed. Waiting for the ball to be returned from the stands at times seemed..well...let's just say it didn't seem like it should be part of modern football. American football and basketball have many balls at the waiting.

Rich. You and I both know if we win 5 games on the trot, Arsenal fans will get way ahead of themselves and start talking title challenging. Then the first misstep start showing banners saying Arteta out.

I assume its like that with all football fans but there never seems to be any even keel, its over optimistic or over pessimistic.

C'mon Fulham, hang on so its one down, 1 to go (City) on getting a loss. My annual paranoia is in full effect.

I’m quite happy if some Arsenal fans get way ahead of themselves because it means we’re winning games

In short, the opposite of perplexing, let alone 'even more perplexing'.

With Leicester up at the weekend, the middle of this week would be a good time to put in a cheeky bid for Tielemans, a bit underhand maybe.

But they had multiple balls for use in the same game before. Maybe not ten, but it was common for a different ball to be thrown back that wasn’t the same one that had gone out.

I think the link is from 2017.

https://answer-to-all.com/popular/how-m ... gue-match/

Fulham causing Liverpool all sorts of problems so far

And they equalise.

Fulham go 2-1 up.

2-2 now. If it stays like this, we’ve got a bit more of American’s double obsession about City and Liverpool not losing to come.

EDIT: A 2-2 draw. Pleased for Fulham. Good point and even though my Fulham supporting cousin passed away recently, I hope they stay up.

Southampton 1-0 up against Tottenham

Tottenham 2-1 up now. It was fun while it lasted

Headline from the morning game:

Nunez inspires Liverpool comeback!

How about:
Liverpool stumble in opener as Fulham unfortunate not to win.

Let’s be clear that’s a huge surprise that Liverpool didn’t just steamroller Fulham, and considering the points totals to win the titles have been mid to high 90’s in recent years that is already 2 huge points dropped for Liverpool. Why are the headlines making out Liverpool have done brilliantly well to salvage a draw?

Tomiyasu and Marquinhos played for the U22 v Man U today. Won 3-1, goal and assist for Marquinhos

BBC headline. It really is strange because there is no way we’d get such a positive headline. I’m not sure our headlines yesterday were as positive as this and we won a difficult away game.

Not that it matters, but it is irritating and there appears to be little reason for it but I’d say that Liverpool and Spurs get hugely preferential media treatment. City and Chelsea maybe neutral and they’ll jump on any chance to kick Arsenal and Man U

I'm struggling to see why that headline is biased. In fact, it an apt summary of what happened.

The BBC headline for the Arsenal match "Saliba shines as Arsenal start season in style" also seems pretty spot on.

Do you not think of you were writing the headline of that game the narrative would be more about either Liverpool slipping up/a poor result, or the positive performance by Fulham. That is a big shock result and by writing the headline as Liverpool come back ‘twice’ it makes it sound like it’s resilient Liverpool who should be praised for drawing away at Fulham when they should have beaten them easily.

Even Liverpool snatch late equaliser to deny Fulham famous victory would be a fairer reflection

https://twitter.com/evertomefc/status/1 ... 65pWVjydzw

Nice dive from Sterling!

https://twitter.com/northerngooona/stat ... 65pWVjydzw

Add this one to the ‘if that was Xhaka’ list. Ooof!

How about Klopp has next 2 games to turn his season around. Or Liverpool board express confidence in Klopp.

I think Decaf is right but for god’s sake Rich it’s not an issue that deserves the time it took to write your posts on it. It wasn’t even a game involving Arsenal. Who cares?

I see a number of stories about us chasing Diaby from Germany to add to our wingers. If it was a story about us chasing a midfielder or CF I would understand this. It must be rubbish.

Totally agree. Given that many if not most pundits would have Liverpool as favorites to win the league after the CS game and its the opener, it's a blow. They won't lose the title over it, its just the first game, but the narrative is very misleading given Liverpool's class and Fulham's class. It was seen as a win and just a matter of how much. Especially given the fac Fulham are recently promoted, zero PL experience as a team. Being home would be seen as a minor given Liverpool being arguably one of the top 3 or 4 clubs in the world at worst.

Can't see otherwise logically.

If we spend another 50 million quid on a winger without bringing in midfield reinforcements we are out of our mind. So we probably are going to do it aren't we.

Hi Bernard, I’m not losing sleep over it, I generally post things of interest and respond to people who respond to me, then I’ll post something else. I find all aspects of how the media treat different clubs interesting. And with all due respect considering your regular and seemingly never ending tit-for-tat posts with Top Gun I’m not sure you’re the one to be lecturing others on issues that aren’t worth the time to write the post.

Hi Rich. The headline Liverpool twice come from behind to draw with Fulham is exactly what they did. Mentioning Saliba in a headline about Arsenal winning at Palace is perfectly justified. I just think you’re making something with examples that didn’t deserve mention.

On the wider issues about team’s being favoured by the media, I guess all football journalists will support someone. However, criticism of Machester United is bigger news than other clubs and it’s quite flattering if Arsenal is seen in the same way. I just think the headlines you moaned about yesterday were not good ones to show your point.

On the Top Gun issue, I’ve never had an issue with him though I used to find his priority with having the last word amusing. But he ignores my posts now which I’ve no problem with and it’s quite rare for me to comment on his. The last time I did was him admitting Arteta’s comments implying we might be looking to strengthen multiple positions. I merely pointed out that while everyone has been going on about midfield, we are very light up front with only two options (Jesus and Nketiah) for up to 65 games. As everyone here will know I’ve said that before so if Arteta does think the same, I’m delighted to hear it.

I agree with you about the first headline you posted-the one that was about Nunez inspiring Liverpool and that the press does spin things routine... I just didn't think the BBC one you posted was a good example of this.

I think there is something missing in the team and it is probably the midfield. We were incapable of grabbing back the initiative after a very good start. It happened last year at times and I am not convinced we have addressed it. I think we need another CF and a midfielder who is box to box. Some games we will not need them but I want to see us have options.

I agree there is something in midfield missing. But for me it’s a massive mentality thing. We get the lead and stop doing what got us the lead. The intensity drops and we drop deeper. It’s a protect what we have attitude rather than going for the jugular. Arteta sees it as you can see him talk about it in the Amazon doc.
I don’t think it’s a fitness thing of keeping the high press up for longer than 20 mins because it happens when we take the lead not at a particular minute of the game.
It’s about being brave and keeping the line high and probably playing a bit slower when we have the ball to keep possession rather than rushing it forward.
When we finally did that the one time in the second half we scored the killer goal, it was a 15 pass move for that goal.
I think it feels like we’re so reliant on Partey and Ødegaard to have good games to provide that structure. If either or both are off it we can struggle and need gk and defence to bail is out or hang on to the lead

I tried to think of some similar games Arsenal have had recently (we didn’t draw many last year though) but looked at the bbc headline from our 2-2 draw v Palace, And when we came back from 3-0 down to draw 3-3 with West Ham in that slightly crazy game.
Both times the report says ‘Arsenal Rescue a point’.
That’s just as factually correct as saying Liverpool come from behind twice to draw with Fulham, and there are lots of ways you can write a headline that is factually correct about a game but it’s more the perception that to ‘rescue’ a draw sounds like you were the worse team and perhaps a bit fortunate. Why not use that same narrative for what would be a bigger shock for Liverpool drawing at Fulham?