I thought Nwaneri was the Ødegaard back-up?

What better game to give Nwaneri a chance in because Ode could be out again for a few weeks.

Yeah. WH were under the cosh.

Rice and Saka have been excellent.

The premier league is pretty crap until the first goal is ever scored. Just one team just trying to block with zero football breaking out

We’ve had 73.2% possession. I’m surprised that wasn’t more

Good point. Hopefully he gets some decent minutes.

Zubimendi was the obvious choice as Ødegaard was playing a different role. Great pre assist too.

https://x.com/MoArsenal86/status/1974492917667446952

Not a penalty? what is handball anymore - its just pot luck, zero consistency

That's a penalty for sure.

VAR didn't want to give us the penalty

Let's see VAR overturn this

oh my god we’ve got a pen

Yep

Saka !!!!!!!!!!

saka

surprised they didn’t let Gyökeres take it

I don't understand that at all.

Great pen from Saka but Gyökeres is an outstanding penalty taker and needs a goal.

Pretty selfish from Saka really.

Surely, that's Arteta's decision, not Saka's
.

Trossard has had an excellent game. He's play that one 'around the corner' to great effect.

For sure. Nothing to get grumpy about.

Come on Nwaneri, light up this game

Gyökeres has an outstanding penalty record and if you aren't going to give him pens that puts an awful lot of pressure on him to score from open play.

Feels like a missed opportunity to help Gyökeres's confidence.

I did think about the “x player holds the ball pretending to be the taker only to hand it to the actual taker” shtick would be a bit harder if you know it’s just going to be Gyökeres every time. Perhaps mixing it around isn’t such a bad idea. And what if your penalty taker is off? I know atm Havertz is injured but the plan is to rotate players more than we have done.

I don’t know. I would have thought it would be Gyökeres too.

West Ham have had two shots, none on target.

Again Webb's useless officials taking the headlines, why on earth did VAR overturn this?
It's a dangerous high boot, penalty all day long, scandalous

https://www.instagram.com/p/DPZDPMbEiu0/

That was as convincing as a 2-0 can be. Impressive stuff.

Very efficient. We will need plenty of these ‘forgettable’ games. Minimum fuss, no drama, not a sniff for the opponents.

Top of the league

We are top of the league

I'd be surprised if Santo has a job tomorrow. He's not won a single game with West Ham.

If we can keep this defensive record going, no doubt we'll win the league - it's a big if though, as 3 conceded in 7 is remarkably good

I think we’re +5 points up on the equivalent fixtures from last season.

Our next two in the league v Fulham (a) and palace (h) we only picked up 2 points last year

He’ll be replaced by Ange
Potter will go to Notts Forest
Santo back to Wolves
Wolves bloke on the dole
Rinse and repeat

Lot to be said for consistency

Chelsea 1-0 Liverpool

Fantastic goal from Caicedo, Van Dijk backing off nicely to allow him a free shot at goal

I wasn’t holding out much hope for Chelsea doing any damage - and still ready for them to self implode - but they’ve been decent and that goal was an absolutely fantastic hit. It did open up for him somewhat as he advanced. Liverpool’s defence is average to bad.

Liverpool absolutely have the wherewithal to create some goals but they’re given a potentially disconnected Chelsea something rally round and they’ll give up a load more chances. 2-2 draw is my prediction.

Slot has had everything go his way since he joined the league. Took over a very good team, no major injuries, no minor injuries in his first season. His two rivals had awful injuries, had a lot of favourable decisions…..now this is his first sticky patch under a bit of pressure. He’s dropped his £116m star signing because he can’t find a way to get the best of out of him and he’s unbalancing the team, both his full back signings look poor defensively, he’s left the squad very vulnerable to injuries at Cb and in attacking positions he just hasn’t had the injuries yet.

Yes I’ll be amazed if this ends 1-0. Liverpools defence is ropey but Chelsea with a the CB pair and gk they have are liable to gift a few goals

Plus no Salah during AFCON in January. I’m beginning to think it might be City we should be more wary of.

Timber did well on the penalty, fouled outside but kept going and fell inside with enough contact still on him to convince the ref the foul continued inside. I don’t think var would have over turned it though if the ref hadn’t given it on the pitch

I was just thinking that, mainly because of the form that Haaland is in.

Liverpool take Konaté off and put Gravenberch at CB. Chelsea have Reece James at CB for them. Big contrast to our riches in defence. Fun game though.

And Gakpo brings them level. This is the thing with Liverpool, they’ll always score and teams aren’t good enough to punish them consistently.We’re still top by gd if it stays like this.

I'd be surprised if it did.