and what were you saying last year little TG when we had that string of piss poor results to throw away that Champions League spot .

Don't remember any holding the line saying Arteta is our man when we were losing to ....... who was it ...? Crystal Palace Wolves Brighton Watford .

Judging by the Villa performance today ; using your logic perhaps we should have stuck with Unai Emery .

I think most on here feel the starting 11 today plus Tomiyasu and KT are very good but thereafter we fall away …we are a couple of injuries/suspensions away from being short…...if we are serious I’d like to see a couple of reinforcements during the window…with seasoned EPL experience…to cover for the three I see in our squad that are most vulnerable to injuries/fouls/overuse….Saka Partey and Martinelli…..Nketiah,Nelson Soares Sambi should move down to 16 -20 and we strengthen 14-16

Maddison and Tielemans were excellent yesterday as were Zaha and Eze today. Others that would strengthen our squad are Ward Prowse, Ramsey from AV, Caicedo and Trossard from Brighton

Two out of that lot would give us a chance of slugging it out with City for the title ….dreaming big ain’t I!?

.
Thoughts of a know nothing if we were to January strengthen I wouldn't mind Trossard from Brighton and that Serbian [?] battering ram from Fulham .

Okay enough ..... Mrs Kiwi giving me the Evil Eye ... thought bubbles ...." aren't you supposed to repairing our sink waste disposal unit instead posting pointless drivel .

And to round it off nicely, Ronnie won the snooker tournament.

I think he agrees with you…

https://youtu.be/okY2p0YAxxg

I would add Edu to that list. But as you posted later we probably need to strengthen. Hopefully we make good decisions about who we purchase. Nothing is a given in football. Haaland could fall over on his way home from the pub, after watching a WC game, and break his leg. And Pep could have a breakdown when he finds out but that is just on my the wish list.

Heard about Bernard passing this morning, very saddened and shocked by the news and condolences to his family and friends. I met him a number of times both at the ground and at the AGM and on one occasion for quite a few beers down Upper Street with Gaz in about 2009.

A genuinely great guy, both stoic and passionate about our club and his point of discussion. And a true legend of the Stevie Gleiber forum to boot. I last spoke to him prior to my trip to the UK in July, wish I had arranged another meet up now, just goes to show how fragile life really is.

Hope everyone on the forum are keeping well. Hopefully our great club can do it for Bernard this year, it would be nice to think that some of the great form of late is in honour of such a great supporter.

RIP Bernard.

JP/

I was. We just ran out of steam last year and were physically and mentally exhausted. I remember the usual bed wetters seemed to have a problem when Mikel got his new contract but i didn’t.

We totally controlled the game
So relieved the team did not drop off in the second half
Thanks Aubameyang for giving us added incentive to win it

Newfound respect for Kompany. That's a captain.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/M1txEf1erTk

Kiwi, some people just love grandstanding. Be one better than others. Let them win their race in a useless sprint.

Serves you right for being the lone spectator in a useless sprint. And the winner wasn't anything to chirp about

I think I saw our xG at 1.8

Spurs fans booing their team after a defeat…..and just as night follows day Conte has made some thinly veiled threat about walking away at the end of the season when his contract is up.

That’s still my prediction, Conte flounces off in a huff because everything hasn’t gone his way, he doesn’t feel appreciated, hasn’t been backed in the market etc etc

She's doing well thanks Kiwi, on her way to becoming an acute medicine consultant. No kids yet; I get the impression her career is taking priority at the moment. She has mentioned going back to NZ at some point, not sure if it's for the surfing or not.

Greetings N5er. Sad news indeed.

Few reports going round that Jesus is in the Brazil squad but Gabriel and Martinelli are not. Shame for them because they're both at the top of their game but the Brazil squad is stacked full of talent

From Ornstein:
Arsenal players not at World Cup 2022 to get 10 days off then fly to Dubai Dec 4. Proposed round robin v Lyon Dec 8 + AC Milan Dec 13. Liverpool involved but not expected to play Arsenal. Home match likely Dec 17 - talking to Spanish teams

Harry Kane has been mentoring young British tennis player Emma Radacanu......I'd have thought it should be the other way round considering she's actually won something.

ps: I did steal that joke

https://www.football365.com/news/opinio ... aubameyang

This is a great read. I find this website so often hits the nail on the head.

Rumoured Brazil squad for the World Cup. Harsh on Gabriel and Martinelli but there are some quality players in their positions. I'd have had both in the squad, but this benefits us if they're not there.

Also, this will be the strongest squad at the Work Cup, that is absolutely stacked

Alisson
Ederson
Weverton
Danilo
Dani Alves
Alex Sandro
Alex Telles
Thiago Silva
Marquinhos
Militão
Bremer
Casemiro
Fabinho
Fred
Bruno Guimarães
Paquetá
Everton Ribeiro
Neymar
Vini Jr
Raphinha
Antony
Rodrygo
Jesus
Richarlison
Pedro
Firmino

On the whoscored page for specific matches you can adjust the timeline to see stats from certain points in those matches. I find it very interesting, because so often stats are based on 90 minutes, and when looking at specific parts of a match you can get a sense of how it ebbs and flows.

For example, yesterday we had around 56% possession for the full game. However, if we only look from the start of the game to when we scored, that figure jumps up to 63%. After that, Chelsea had more of the ball, which is natural considering they were chasing the game. Another thing that stood out to me was the period from the start of the second half to when we scored, ie roughly the first 20 minutes of the second half. During those 20 minutes we had a whopping 70% possession, along with a 100% rate of successful tackles, outshooting Chelsea 4-0 and making 70 passes to their 30.

There has been some concerns with our performances dropping in the second half lately, but yesterday wasn't one of those games. Up until we scored we absolutely dominated Chelsea, in a 0-0 game at their own ground.

Graphic showing the profit from player sales for the last 10 years.

Some might be surprised to see us above Liverpool and Spurs, and even Man City because they still move on players for good money especially their youth team players.

As a self professed lover of stats in football this is all very interesting. Thanks

Good to hear and if you ever feel a bit forlorn in either mind or body, Kiwi Pete's posts are a nice way to remind yourself that it could be a whole lot worse.

By the way, a friend of mine is playing tonight for Bracknell against Ipswich and it's on ITV4!!! Keep an eye out for the Bracknell Number 8 Ashley Lodge. He's getting on a bit now but a decent midfielder.

CL draw:
- Leipzig vs City
- Brugge vs Benfica
- Liverpool vs Real Madrid
- AC Milan vs Spurs
- Frankfurt vs Napoli
- Dortmund vs Chelsea
- Inter vs Porto
- PSG vs Bayern

https://twitter.com/TheSecretScout_/sta ... iSGI4hL81A
Worth keeping an eye on this kid, Myles Lewis-Skelly - looks effortless in the dribble from central midfield.

I wonder whether there is a chance we might see 1 or 2 youngsters on the bench for the League Cup game? It isn't something Arteta has historically done.

Players such as Turner, Holding, Tierney, Cédric, Elneny, Lokonga, Vieira, Nketiah will surely start - so there is only 3 more positions to fill - it could easily be Nelson and Marquinhos on the wings and bring in Gabriel in central defence for example

https://twitter.com/iOkmm/status/158935 ... iSGI4hL81A

Saliba - playing his man well offside and then beating him in the race to the ball anyway.

Ha ha. First tie out. Man U vs Barcelona. Lovely.

https://twitter.com/EBL2017/status/1589 ... VVroWSgRXw

Just a few short passages of play but the levels of what we're doing with and without the ball are quite brilliant. This is purely down to smart, creative tactical thinking and hours of work on the training pitch with intelligent and technically excellent players

https://twitter.com/AndyCantwell/status ... VVroWSgRXw

I found this quite funny.

Fans always think commentators are biased against their team, this is a funny take on it

Europa play off round draw.
Thankfully this is the mess we avoided by coming top of our group

Barcelona v Manchester United
Juventus v Nantes
Sporting Lisbon v Midtjylland
Shakhtar Donetsk v Rennes
Ajax v Union Berlin
Bayer Leverkusen v Monaco
Sevilla v PSV
FC Salzburg v Roma

Liverpool have been put up for sale.

Probably not good news for them

We've taken 16 out of 18 points following our Thursday night European games. Playing on Sunday we consistently get just the 2 days break between games. Teams who play Champions League sometimes gets 3 days rest by playing Tues-Sat.

We're able to rotate more in the early Europa rounds compared to those CL teams however.

The consistency has been remarkable

That was a moment of sheer class.

Depends who buys them I guess.

Thanks Rich,
I won't consider us title challengers...yet. After the new year I'll revisit that. Right now, I just want to enjoy us winning for a change and especially us winning against sides we don't normally beat and in a convincing way at times.

I am not overly concerned about being top of the league. I don't care about City. I care about the other 18 sides and in particular 4 of those sides. I think us staying top till the New Year is very possible if not expected, but after that is where the fun (for everyone except me and my nerves) begins. I think its doable for us to win until our away game to Tottenham. If we get a draw out of that, I'll leave happy and possibly relieved. A win? I dare not even think of that possibility myself but hoping the players don't share that mindset.