I’d be interested to see our passing stats for the second half. There seemed to be a heap of misplaced efforts.

That was a fantastic win. Hard on the heels of a trip to the Arctic circle on Thursday… a stop start beginning… a hostile crowd… wind up manager and a dogged Leeds team …
Great rearguard action in the second half… well done lads… it certainly wasn’t pretty but 3 points are ours

89% success rate in the first half, 71% in the second.

Having now seen the Gabriel/Bamford incident, Gabby was unfortunate to get even a yellow.

Histrionics Kane style from Bamford. Gabby hardly touched him, and I’m not convinced he ‘kicked out’.

We could well have dropped points with Guimaraes in the team today instead of either Xhaka or Partey. You don’t win every game by playing pretty fancy Dan football. Sometimes you need grit and determination to grind out a result. Xhaka and Partey gave us that.

Completely agree john1.

The Gabriel kick out is silly but he really doesn’t make any contact with Bamford who throws himself down.

Bamford came on and really upset our back line.

Having seen the replay a few more times I tend to agree. Not a red, and absolutely not a penalty.

Thanks. It felt lower than that although that would actually fit with three okay passes followed by a duff one.

Just so pleased to have got through it. Like having ones hand on a hot plate - all perspective of time is distorted. I was counting down from around 55 minutes today.

So PSV have warmed up today with a 6-1 win.

These bum clenching wins are often more enjoyable than a 4-0 win. Not as relaxing but certainly exhilarating.

They also point to the building of a steely determination that’s been lacking over the last few years.

Not bad at all for such a young side.

It's a worry if they come too often, but we've won 12 games this season and we've been the better team in 11 of them. With the way we've been playing I think we can celebrate this one without feeling bad.

It turned out to be a very good job that there was a 40 minute delay to ensure that VAR was operational.

Very good indeed.

Couldn’t agree more. For me, possibly the most enjoyable win so far this season. More so than beating Tottenham and Liverpool, though perhaps I’m saying that because it’s so fresh in the mind.

City losing

We are going to win the league. FACT

When we win our title I’m spending 3 days celebrating at every boozer round Caledonian Road, it’s coming together.

It’s back on

Still some time left, but if nothing else this game serves as a reminder of just how good Liverpool really are.

There’s no question of feeling bad in my view. I’m not bothered by such wins coming regularly either. If they happen so often, I can find repetitive three or four goal wins a bit flimsy.

Is it sustainable you may ask? Why not? Conte was appointed over a year ago and Tottenham are still doing it under him.

It’s like watching Ted Lasso

INVINCIBLES!

Liverpool win. Whatever happens against Southampton, we're still going to be top of the league after next week.

If Liverpool win their game in hand they’re still eleven points behind us. I’ll be disappointed not to finish higher than them this season. If Rich is right and their team is getting a bit old now (I’m sure he said words to that effect), I’m hoping this season may be representative of a longer term decline.

Martinez made another big mistake for Chelsea’s second goal. Direct free kick he tried to anticipate it going over the walls side and it almost goes straight down the middle of where he was set.

Gk have to trust the wall

All prem teams except us and City have midweek games

Sorry, but Arse plays PSV at the Ems Thursday night, Oct 20.

City get a pleasant week long rest time till Sat., when they play Brighton.

That linesman tried to help Leeds again when he very quickly faulted Gabriel but ignored Bamford's push.

What goes up, must come down (on Thurs)

Plus you will be reminding the Arteta-haters, as you enjoy doing at every opportunity

https://motleedsnews.com/news/leeds-uni ... -decision/

Such an Arsenal hater, this guy
Let's win the title and watch his reaction

https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2022/10/16/f ... ty-defeat/

I'm surprised he didn't mention Utd for the title as well, another Arsenal hater

Because I watched the game?

Defensively it was their best performance in a long time, certainly their best this season.

Offensively, apart from the goal they created another 3-4 really good chances (Salah's one on one, Jota's header, a good shot by Robertson in the first half among others) and some nearly great ones (the 3 on one that Nunez fluffed, another one where Nunez tried putting it across to Alexander-Arnold instead of just laying it back to Carvalho who would've had an open goal).

Considering the quality of the opponent I'd say that's a very impressive performance.

Another few wins and we are safe from relegation!

Hi Haz,

I thought Liverpool were surprisingly good considering recent form and despite enjoying much less possession were equally as dangerous, if not more so, than City with their fast-paced counter-attacking.

Salah at times was unplayable and Liverpool had several big chances, as you pointed out.

VVD was superb, as were all of Liverpool's defence.

City were a little wasteful with the possession they had.

As much as it feels great to be top of the table after an amazing run I can't help feel that some sort of reality check is around the corner.

We are already looking leggy and it feels like we have lost control of some games for periods lately, especially in the central midfield area, but got away with it. We saw it against Liverpool, we saw it against Boda and against Leeds.

Now, obviously no team is going to dominate a game for 90 mins and there will be periods where we are under immense pressure but to me it just feels like we ran out of steam against Boda (pitch didn't help) and again yesterday.

I do wonder how long we can keep playing the same front three, for example, with no rotation and Partey more or less as the only CM is a big ask.

If we can somehow get to January still in touch with City then buy a top quality CM and winger to give us some more rotation options then we could be in business but realistically how often can you get the players you want in January.

Merseyside Youth Football League cancels all fixtures due to ‘inappropriate and threatening behaviour toward league and match officials’. Then at Anfield you have Klopp looming over and raging at an official and getting himself rightly sent off.

If the FA wanted to treat the abuse of officials seriously in the game then they could choose this moment to really throw the book at Klopp and set some standards

I hear Nevin a fair bit on the radio and usually like him and find him quite informed and balanced but yesterday he was just on one. Gabriel didn't make contact and didn't kick out with 'both feet'. Gabriel is stupid for giving the officials a chance to make a mistake or treat him more harshly but that isn't a red card. If you're being totally strict then Bamford was lucky to not get a yellow card for a pre-meditated barge nowhere near the ball.

I don't know, when you've won 9 out of 10 and you're top of the league with a four point cushion and a quarter of the league season played, I don't think it's completely out of touch to talk about a title challenge. City are still the favorites of course, if I was a betting man I'd put my money on them, but the last four times a team won 9 of the first 10 games they went on to win the title. It's definitely a possibility, albeit a remote one at this point.

I think its pretty clear Liverpool are getting their groove back. You could see the improvement against us, then smashing Rangers for 7 (admittedly a pub team) and then beating the Champions of England, they are starting to look like their old selves again.
As for our match vs Leed's, that was proper bonkers. We definately got lucky but it was our first below par performance in the league but our heads never dropped and there were still patches of quality. As fantastic as that win was, I wonder if it highlights our lack of squad depth because the players couldnt find that extra gear to match Leeds intensity in the 2nd half. As has been said before, I think our thin squad will eventually slow the blistering momentum of this team.
I have to say watching back the Gabriel incident at the end, its dissapointing none of the pundits are highlighting the acting by Bamford to the extended leg. I'm not excusing Gabriel who was stupid to extend his legs out, but similarly we all could see Bamford clearly pretending he was injured. Look at his contorted face....no doubt due to the searing pain of minimal contact.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iQc8WfKSZ0

(3mins 10sec)

Southampton will probably look at our game yesterday as a blueprint for how to deal with Arsenal. We're playing twice a week regularly now and that will naturally have an effect on our energy level - if you analyze the second half yesterday through the lens of one team playing their second game in four days and another having had a full weeks rest, the way the half played out makes a lot of sense.

A difference on Sunday is that the PL plays a full set of fixtures in midweek, with Southampton playing away to Bournemouth on Wednesday night. And unlike us, they're not likely to rotate their team for that match, which should even things out or even give us a slight edge energy wise for Sunday.