I can see both sides of this.
For example, when does Salah get rested or taken off before 90 minutes even? Same for most other top players in their teams.

On the flip side, Salah is 31, he didn't have his current workload at 21, also Salah hasn't shown much sign of fatigue and carrying knocks to affect his form.

There must be a balance, you have to accept that the best players and match winners will play a lot of football, but where possible we need to protect those players.

One interesting related point I read something recently about sports science offering a different thought process on injury prevention and resting players and that rather having complete rest it is better for them to keep ticking over at a certain stress level. So even when players are benched they come on for 20 minutes when to the casual observer you'd be asking why is he being risked for 20 minutes in a game that doesn't matter or is already won. This may explain some of what we see with Arsenal and Arteta

Oh ffs don’t get me started on these *%^@

Top Gun mansions resides outside a major town in a small village of about 200 houses (where a few famous celebrities live also) . When we moved here BT quoted me for a full fibre package and checked availability and it was fine because there is a local openreach exchange and is fine however after we moved they couldn’t activate the service so asked us to cancel our order and place it again nothing …. Endless calls and calls they said the exchange had no open capacity (total bollocks) and that they could only offer a copper service (again more nonsense) for a moment I started to wonder if we could get a solid broadband service at all. Even called openreach

Switched to sky and their customer service was solid and no problems with the set up at all. Via a BT openreach exchange !

BT is a living breathing customer service mess and organisation that doesn’t give a *%^@ about the divvy advice they give customers

Maupay is a horrible little player….but funny to see him up to his antics against spurs. And scoring against spurs

ffs Jota scores as do Spurs

Liverpool showing no sign whatever of missing Salah. A bit scary.

Toney impressive.....................

Watching Liverpool v Chelsea and Liverpool are so superior to Chelsea! However, Liverpool were just given a penalty (missed by Nunez) for minor contact on the boot of Jota - it is a penalty, but when it was 0-0 Gallagher was caught on the knee by Van Dijk in the area and for me if you give the Jota one you have to give the Chelsea one.
Paul Tierney is the ref and hes the one Liverpool have complained about hugely in the past.

I wonder if particularly at Anfield there is going to be a bunch of favourable decisions going their way as everyone gets swept up in the Klopp's last 6 months nonsense

Jota is the one that really worries me for next weekend. He's a strange player in a way, he's not necessarily quick or strong or amazingly skillful but at the same time he doesn't have a weakness and is an incredible finisher

City win, Spurs win, and it looks likely Liverpool will win. No favours tonight.

I watch Liverpool and City consistently dominate games, but spurs are so strange, they attack with wild abandon and every time I watch them I just can't help but think they are incredibly lucky not to be punished more greatly for their defensive weaknesses. Teams seem to carve out chance after chance against them.

At what point are Chelsea, Pochettino and a whole host of Chelsea players going to take some genuine criticism of their season?

Liverpool absolutely clobbered them so I think that minor incident was the least of Chelsea’s concern.


Contrast their shots and shots on goal with Jesus again fanning about with an extra touch when he hit the bar yesterday. Sweet pass, across the body, ready to be walloped past the keeper….touch….opportunity lost.

Given that their purchases were made akin to Fantasy League football with limited managerial oversight it’s hardly surprising.

P.s. was never impressed by the Mudryk highlight reels as he looked like all speed on the break and not much else. If we were ever serious then dodged a bullet there.

There was another one where Chelsea had just scored to make it 3-1 and Van dyjk again, this time on Nkunku, who was seriously putting the willies up the Liverpool defense. I have no idea what Var was doing on that and the coms were happy to downplay it (paraphrase "Ok he did kick him but Nkunku made a meal of it")..

That fact that Liverpool deserved to win by a wide margin is immaterial. Those momentum changers are crucial as we have seen to our detriment.

It's not only points, it's also the effect on the team of wasting a good lead.

Rubbish.

There is no doubt that Liverpool's pressing and decisiveness on attack are impressive. No fannying about whatsoever. Nunez will be a monster if he can start hitting the net rather than the woodwork!

Yeah that’s the point. Liverpool thoroughly outplayed them but the timing of the turned down Chelsea penalties plus change the game. We know that goals massively change games, Chelsea start to play better, Liverpool start to play worse. If Chelsea go 1-0 up with the first penalty they can sit deep and play on the break. If it got to 3-2 with 15 minutes left the crowd get nervous, the players get nervous etc. it’s easy to see how Liverpool might still win the game because they are the better team but it wouldn’t have been anywhere near as easy if those penalties were given. It was amazing that var didn’t recommend a review.

Once again var in these situations is next to useless because the weighting of the onfield decision is overwhelmingly decisive. If the Chelsea penalties were given there is no chance that var over turns either

88.5 million quid.

Everytime I watch him he looks your stereotypical infuriating headless winger, quick but who can’t harness his pace and makes bad final decisions.

Incredible to think our fans were losing the plot that we didn’t get him and at 88 million the grief the manager would be getting. People are beating him up over Havertz but this would be next level.

No, won't happen

https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxY1F5T6 ... zn18ccVbNe

Did anyone notice Arteta twice made a sub just before we defended a corner. The commentators made a big thing of it, I think it’s a huge myth that everyone just accepts is something you NEVER do! But if you’re really well drilled at set pieces and the players going on/off do a zonal marking job and you’re taking off players with the height of Emile Smith Rowe and zinny and bringing on Havertz and Kiwior then why would you not make the change then!

Watching Bournemouth Westham and how the ref missed giving a pen and then why VAR took so long to give the pen is absolute beyond belief

In terms of xG against we have an xG of 20.6 and have conceded 21 goals. Liverpool have an xG against of 26 and have conceded 19 goals.

xG for is a measure of how good your finishing is. xG against is a combination of how good your gk is but also how lucky you are that your opponents don’t take their chance - and that’s luck because it’s something your team does not control.

Spurs sign some young Swedish player for £10m. A reminder, because it won’t get mentioned in the media at all, that takes spurs spending under Ange to €290m!

No CL this year and survived on a big Kane deal. I’d have thought they really need the CL money next year….

Mainoo at Man U looks like a super player. Still only 18. I expect plenty of headlines about Man U’s ‘famous’ academy and how he’s the star boy who will turn round the fortunes of the club. Sadly there could be more accuracy to that kind of hyperbole than usual when it comes to Man U.

They’re still some way off challenging mind.

For my money Man U need to build an entire new defence and GK before they can even consider being a title challenger - they’ve conceded 52 goals in all comps this season so far!
Maybe controversially but I also think they can’t be a top challenger with Bruno Fernandes in the team, more than capable going forward but off the ball he’s a liability and weakens Man U’s midfield too much without the ball.

Wolves were given a bit of a joke of a penalty last night. I’ve watched the slow mo a few times and the contact is barely noticeable.
Once again showing that in those decisions var is utterly pointless and worthless. If the ref gives it onfield and seemingly any form of contact can be established then the penalty stands….that has been true for every penalty bar 1 this season - Havertz v Man U!
But yet the other way round var won’t get involved ie: Jesus v Villa. Far more contact on Jesus that 10-15 penalties this season but not given on the pitch so var doesn’t recommend an overturn.

By the way, var for our game with Liverpool is the same guy who was var for our game at Anfield where Howard Webb publicly said the var official made a mistake for not giving a handball against Ødegaard….

Yay - So we're in good hands then.

Saw some rumours about Cédric leaving for Turkey before the deadline - the deadline for Turkish teams is Feb 9th I think not last night. Rumours were that there was actually a fee of around £4m. It really is his time to go, contract up in the summer, he'd be on good wages as well.

There is a need for a summer purge and a good 5 or so players coming in as well.

Interesting that for a while now we haven't seemed to be picking up those low price high potential young signings. The sort of very highly rated player who you have to commit maybe £10m to, which is expensive given they have nothing but potential, but you only need 1 of them to work. We've signed young players of course but they have been straight in the first team. I'm thinking more of the 17/18 year old bracket.

That XGA - goals conceded has been positive for every since season since Allison joined. He's been phenomenal.

Hopefully he'll feel he owes us one ...

Lots of talk on social media about Arsenal and youth team products. We've sold Lino Sousa to Villa and people are upset. Then people see Mainoo doing well for Man U, Oscar Bobb for City and Conor Bradley stepping up for Liverpool and get upset where our young players are. Its crazy, no top team has a steady stream of young players breaking in to their first team. The key for me is making sure these players get proper loans and exposure to senior football so they can be tested at a proper level and get the necessary experience - and make their mistakes away from Arsenal - just as Saliba did who has come back to be one of the best CB in the league.
We all want academy players to break through but people are expecting Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly to be involved now at 16 and 17 years old. Conor Bradly is 20 and played 40 games at Bolton, he's closer in age to Saka than those two. Oscar Bobb is also 20 and has 4 caps for the his national team.

Yes, best GK in the league. Saved so many 1v1's, there are compilations on youtube showing just this. But it shows that despite goals against, Liverpool concede more chances and are more vulnerable than us at the back. Elite finishing will beat them - sadly its the area we've struggled with!

Darwin Nunez is a possible miss for our game. I won't get my hopes up because we see this all the time and they stroll out on the pitch looking as fit as a butcher's dog. But their front line without Nunez is definitely weaker, he causes chaos and runs all day. Cody Gakpo is the likely replacement and I'd much rather face him.

I hold out hope for our set pieces. Liverpool have Van Dijk and Konate who are fantastic in the air, but the rest of their team isn't big - most of them under 6 foot and not aggressive in the air. We could load up the box with Saliba, Gabriel, Havertz and Rice and have a decent height advantage

I'd be surprised if Sperz aren't 4th this season.

Chelsea were on a 3 game winning streak going into the Liverpool game. The Reds are hitting their stride, looking better and better. Right now I'd take a draw but I'm hoping we can get a win out of it obviously. It's in us to get a couple goals. The problem is we don't play the whole 90 plus minutes. We ease up too much and too long when we have leads. If they score first, the best I think we'll get is a draw. Also, If we score first, I'd rather it be in the 2nd half than 1st half if that sounds crazy. I still haven't forgiven this side for blowing a 2-0 half time lead last season. We knew what would happen 2nd half and we acted like we didn't.

Thomas Partey has suffered a setback in his recovery from surgery on his thigh. 'He’s not going to be available in the squad. We don’t know if it’s a few days or weeks. He felt something in a very similar area, and he wasn’t able to train the last few days.'

Not to mention blowing a lead at Anfield this season ... on both occasions, this has heralded an appalling run.

The point about intensity for the whole 90 minutes is spot on, especially if we get that first goal. When Liverpool scored against Chelsea their only thought was to get a second.

In the summer we need to improve our squad in 4 key areas:
CB
left 8
wing
striker

The CB and wing would likely not be signed as 'first choice' given the established players we have but that's not to say they shouldn't be top quality capable of being at the level of Saliba/gabriel/Saka/Martinelli

Left 8 though there is a real dynamic need. perhaps Emile Smith Rowe can be that in time but the profile of player I really like is Eze (or similarly Xavi Simmons). Someone who can drive forward on a dribble, beat men, strong and technically secure and can arrive in the box or shoot well from distance. Eze ticks all those boxes for me

Son breaking you Aussie hearts?

If teams replicate last season's results for the rest of the season, this is how the table would look in May:

80 Arsenal (-4)
79 Man City (-10)
76 Liverpool (+9)
73 Spurs (+13)
66 Aston Villa (+5)
66 Newcastle (-5)
63 Man Utd (-12)

(in brackets, difference vs. 2022-23)

There's not a hope in hell that 80 points wins the league.

100% agree, but just shows that the top teams dropped a fair few points against last season against the opposition they still have left to play

They may have but it doesn't matter. We've seen what City do. They go on a run after Christmas and rack up the points. Nearly every team that wins the league does that. We probably need to hope that City falter but I certainly won't expect it to happen.