Last season he didn’t play any of our games against Chelsea. I know you said ‘last year’ so I checked the 2018/19 season. Elneny’s only appearance against Chelsea was as a 71st minute substitute on 19th January 2019, which you’re right is last year (until 1/1/21) even though it was two seasons ago. He must have been good for that 20 minutes or so for it to stick in your mind that much. I don’t remember it.

I'd agree on struggling to recall any super Elneny games. I think his first few games with us were a bit of a breath of fresh air because of his energy.
I think he has to stay in the team but in a 2 man central midfield it looks like it is Partey + 1, and the other will be decided game to game.
Ceballos and Xhaka are quite similar in their strengths and weaknesses. Elneny is different. The things he has the others don't is more pace, mobility, energy and stamina - and you could argue discipline and lack of risk taking. Ceballos and Xhaka should trump Elneny in general passing and technique stats but watching Elneny recently I think that gap has closed. Elneny has also shown an ability to dribble forward to beat a press which Xhaka definitely cant do.

It is of course about the right balance and finding complimenting players for the team.

Other than Gabriel and Partey I think Saka has become a hugely important part of the team because he does things other can't from the position he plays

How has Joe willock been overlooked for the Eng U21 squad picked this morning? Oliver Skipp, Josh DaSilva, Dwight McNeil, Eze, Sessegnon and Connor Gallagher all picked ahead of him

Maybe because he missed some very good chances against mediocre opposition? He's developing but needs to have aspiration. He's not 'there' yet.

Agreed it was a woeful first half but saw more quicker passing in the 2nd (albeit marginal). To be fair to a squad that doesn't play together week in, there was a faster tempo and more inclination to play 1 touch moves. Wiillock did it a few times whipping crosses in early and Pépé also who played that lovely angle ball into the box for the 2nd own goal. Progress.

I think that tell us a lot. Arteta knows the problem but can't just buy his way out of it like City. He's seeing who wants it the most.
But, please for the love of Jesus, Allah,, Vishnu And Thor can someone tell our strikers and advanced midfielders to shoot.

Agreed. Although also worth a mention seeing Pépé track and nip at one their attackers all the way to the dead all line. He's learning, what's expecred slowly.

The tempo of the whole team still needs work though as the younger players séem to understand but the older, experienced ones less so

I thought Willian did about 50% more than Ceballos and is a better option in the middle as we're too predictable to trying things from the flanks.

We may want to co-opt this song and tweak the lyrics

....hmmm, I might even adopt it myself and change 'us' to 'me'.

I don’t think it’s a case of no one liking you. I’d say it’s more to do with you making yourself look a prat.

Elneny only started four games in January 2018. Two of which were a cup defeat against Nottingham Forest and a league defeat against Swansea. It was of course during Wenger’s last half a season (or thereabouts) in charge, when things were arguably declining quite markedly. Was he simply considered the ‘best of a bad bunch’ that month?

Charming. Step forward anybody who hasn't made a prat of themselves on this forum. I'm standing in line...

In my case I don’t limit it just to the forum.

Me too!

Very hard to judge a player from wengers final moments and few performances under Emery.

He scored a decent goal in the nou camp. For what it’s worth I’ve always thought he had some better qualities than Xhaka who I consider a player who would get few games at any other premier league club and wouldn’t touch the squad of someone else in the top 6.

We signed a young guy called Moller late in the window, he’s a tall striker, he’s been starting up front for the U23’s and already scoring goals, holding the ball up and playing pretty well by all accounts. One to keep an eye on.
Smith-Rowe played for the U23 tonight on his way back from injury. Scored 2 goals in a 6-0 win

I think there are plenty of Premier League clubs where Xhaka would get lots of games. What I’m not so sure of is whether there’s much to suggest Elneny would get any nearer the squad of someone else in the traditional top six, other than one fine performance last weekend.

Did anyone see Mourinho stating his displeasure that one of Arsenal’s coaches will be part taking charge of Wales due to Giggs’ ongoing problems and being removed as Wales boss for the next 3 games? Albert stuivenberg is the arsenal coach and also an assistant with wales. Spurs have 3 players playing for Wales.

So essentially what Mourinho is claiming is an Arsenal coach will not do his job with wales professionally enough and will deliberately sabotage his spurs players by playing them in the game and not resting them or taking care of them if they have a knock because the Arsenal coach will use his elevated temporary position to arsenals advantage and spurs disadvantage by trying to injure spurs players by overplaying them.

Firstly (and he won’t) but Stuivenberg would be well within his rights to fire back with both barrels saying what mourinho has said is slanderous towards his professional integrity as a Wales coach.
Secondly mourinho obviously fails to realise the irony of one of his spurs coaches being on the England national team coaching staff!

Mourinho is trump like is not only his ability to spout unsubstantiated nonsense but also in the way that hardly anyone just immediately calls him out on these assertions and lies

You sitting down for this. Effort

This was about Pépé, as you know. Are you aware at least three independent sources made Pépé our man of the match? One was the Sun, another was Football Critic. I don’t recall the other but I’m sure there was one. I didn’t read many other sources giving marks out of ten. One possibly, two at the most. So a good proportion of those I saw made Pépé man of the match.

Unless they give man of the match marks to players making no effort, maybe he put more effort in than you noticed?

I know they’ve played a game more than the others near the top, but for overnight at least this is apparently the first time Southampton have been top of the Premier League.

For me its about being proven right about something I always knew deep down.
https://johnpavlovitz.com/2020/11/05/we ... t-america/

Good points you have there. I am eager to see more of Elneny because of his current form. He has come back much much better.

Let me understand this. You watched the whole game and you were happy with his efforts. He did nothing, and he was not alone in the first half. It was a classic performance which we have seen time and again from our teams for the last ten years: cruise around, I am too good for this and I will wait for someone else to do something. I don’t care what the Sun says his effort was lacking until he did something for 20 minutes and then switched off. He is not alone in this. Sloppiness costs us.

He needs to lift his game and be involved. Unfortunately I don’t see him or Willian being long term solutions but at least he can do something about it. Arteta is credited with getting some players to another level. Let us see if he can do it. I don’t like bludgers and will call them every time.

Difference between Mourinho and Trump is, with Jose its gamesmanship. He's far more intelligent than Trump. They share a certain amount of narcissism but Trump actually believes the BS, I suspect Jose doesn't.

I want Arteta to resurrect our dominance over Spurs and Chelsea when I first became fan. Especially, any Mourinho led team. I was starting to feel some pity for him. That's changed quickly.

Love seeing Soton at the top of the table even if its going to be fairly brief. Liverpool will likely win the title again. But it won't be a walk in the park if early results are anything to go by. I like that half a dozen games in it's not a runaway. The league is adjusting to City and Liverpool.

Happy for Elneny. He's never been seen as a great player. I'm attributing his recent form to a system that is more suited to him than the set up under Emery or Wenger. The one disappointment for me this season was Saliba deemed not PL ready yet. That was a surprise.

I'm curious to know if Arteta will look tot get another rated defender or will go with what he has until Saliba is ready. He may also be reluctant to get rid of defenders that were previously on the chopping block.

Finally, I'm not sure what distinction or difference is in the title first team manager and coach? Duties, etc.

Hey AG - So assuming Biden wins, how will you lot get Trump to leave ?

Australian English translation someone?

I watched some of that game last night. They played Newcastle off the pitch. Their off the ball movement and speed of passing is very impressive. The coach is doing a super job.

And this is just brilliant:

https://mobile.twitter.com/SouthamptonF ... frame.html

I believe 'bludger' is an adaptation of 19th-century British thieves' slang for 'bludgeoner': a thug or prostitute's bully who uses a bludgeon. It has evolved to mean someone who is a bit work-shy.

Vis-a-vis this sentence, Gaz might have muddied the linguistic waters by omitting 'out' towards its conclusion; to wit, 'call them' should probably have been 'call them out', meaning 'draw attention to'.

To summarise, my understanding is that Gaz wishes to communicate his dislike of the loafer and the dawdler, and his commitment to informing the forum whenever he witnesses on-field behaviour analogous with that description.

Funny. I was thinking 'how Trumplike' when I was reading it and then I saw your conclusion

Obviously Trump is in another league, but I don't think it is just showmanship with Mourinho. I think he lacks shame and a sense of fairness, like Trump.

Narcissism is a trait they both share.

Interesting thing Warrior is that his administration has more leaks than any White House in memory. There are no secrets there. The Lincoln Group has a steady supply of people giving them the inner workings.

Anyway, Trump is doubling down and not leaving. He is not going to go 'quietly into the night'. He will have to leave. For me, what will be more interesting is what Ivanka, Kushner and the inner circle will do? Melania will stay with him, even though she's glad he lost. She cried the night they won. No one actually expected him to actually win it.

So, for me, the fun is not Trump but the rest. They will be caught between supporting Trump and wanting to be out of this circus.



This is my vote.

Even though the swearing in is January 20, 2021, he will have to be out before then so the new administration can set up shop.

He'll go. He says he will stay on but he'll leave. Just like Goldwater and the senior Republican senators went to Nixon's office late at night to tell him he doesn't have the votes to be exonerated for impeachment. Senior members of the party will do the same.

This is all supposition, but this is what I think will happen:

1. Trump will run the party via tweets and speeches, of which he will get paid big money to do. The Republican party is going to try and make the party 'Trump proof' but Trump still controls the masses of voters. He will endorse or criticize candidates via twitter. And he will have a huge say. He will only endorse those who supports him obviously. And he will be a deciding factor many races.

2. The Republicans will win more seats in 2022, the off year elections. The big news this election isn't that Trump lost. Trump wasn't supposed to win in 2016 either. So, him losing isn't a shock. The shock is the Democrats didn't take over the Senate. The Republican controlled Senate will do what it did for 8 years under Obama. They will be the most obstructionist Senate since Tennessee born and bred, slave holding, segregationist Andrew Johnson, VP to Lincoln in 1864 took over after assassination. This Senate will not compromise, work with Biden at all. Nothing will get done. Gridlock.

Also, the Republicans gained seats in the Democrat party controlled House of Representatives. The Republican party is actually the big winner. They got rid of Trump and increased their seats. No one is talking about that. They are all still in thee euphoria of getting Trump out.

3. This is the biggest voter turnout since the early 1800s. Trump got way more votes this time around. Record turn out. This is a very, very bad sign for the Democrats. They needed a huge turnout to get rid of the most unpopular sitting president for re-election since possibly Carter (who I liked personally) or much more apropos, Herbert Hoover in 1932, the president in 1928 and less than a year into his presidency was hit with the Great Depression. He carried 6 states losing to FDR, which shocked most people. This should have been an easy win. Biden shouldn’t have gone this long. He didn’t win Ohio and Florida. Not good for the Democrats at all.

Of course it would have been better if Trump had been booted out in a landslide. BUT, the senate isn't lost yet and surely this is huge wakeup call for progressives and moderates in the US. If they don't get it together there will certainly be a second wave of Trumpism.

Will Trump be prosecuted for his homocidally reckless rallies? 132 000 new Covid cases yesterday in the US.

4. The only big plus for the Democrats is that as the demographic shifts continue, red states are becoming ‘swing states’ such as Georgia, Arizona and North Carolina or blue completely like Virginia which went blue for the first time in decades to Obma in 2004 and have stayed blue since and have a Democratic state legislature for the first time in decades. Texas will remain red but only slightly so. They will have to defend it for senatorial and presidential elections. Thousands of Californians have moved their over the last 20 years. The latino population is the fastest growing population. Which brings up something else. Latinos went for Trump in much higher numbers than people thought. That has to be of huge concern to Democrats. Also, the young black vote stayed out. They are totally disenchanted with the party. The police shootings almost all happened in deeply democratic controlled cities.

5. I know people who are left of Bernie Sanders and people who are right of Trump. The latter want the country to literally split up. Amicably if possibly but are talking a second civil war. It’s not just a few crazy voices. Its way more than people think. The country is irreparable broken. A pandemic hasn’t brought us together but separated us even more. The spanish flu a hundred years ago united us to fight it together. I am curious in a morbid way to see what happens when the next economic crash happens. Most trusted economists expect it to be worse than 2008 and a global depression shouldn’t be a surprise. Will it unite people as it did to some extent in the ‘30s, everyone suffering together? Or will it make the differences come to fruition in mass shootings, etc.?

Finally, what is evident to everyone globally but has not been domestically is the probably permanent lost of American prestige. I think America will be like post WW2 UK. Still a major force but visibly not the premier world power it was before both world wars.

I had hoped Everton would have gotten something out of the game. Never liked Everton when I got into PL football and when I'm just warming up to them they let me down.

Saw Chelsea was losing on BBC sports feed and turn to the game and the b@astards score.

Bellerin back in the Spain squad, first time since 2016. Well deserved, he’s started the season very well for us