Apparently Souness said that Aubameyang 'struggled' in the premier league.

His goal record was phenomenal, golden boot once, runner up golden boot once, settled straight away with 10 goals in his first half season. The last few months weren't good but his focus was gone - he certainly didn't struggle.

I don't mind Souness as a pundit but he has too much of a tendency to judge players football ability based solely on his views on their attitude and whether Souness thinks they're a 'real man' who would shout and scream and throw a punch at a team mate in the dressing room and die for the cause. He often strikes me as one of those 'in my day' pundits

He may make me eat my words if Chelsea buy him, but I think Aubameyang would be a very high risk signing and I would almost expect him to flop.

Us Arsenal fans know him better than most - on his day he's a wonderful goalscorer, but apart from scoring he doesn't really do much else. He doesn't press well, he's not a hard worker, his hold up play and ability to link up with teammates is quite frankly very poor. He's a finisher and that's it, and sometimes that's fine, I just don't see him working under Tuchel who demands a lot more from his strikers as we've seen with the failure of Lukaku, Werner etc.

Completely agree with your second point about pundits judging players too much by their supposed 'attitude'. It's how Maguire has been able to maintain his reputation for so long, even though he's looked out of his depth at Man Utd from the minute they signed him. They see the 'determination' and think he's a leader, when he's just a very mediocre (by PL top club standards) defender who tries to cover his flaws by shouting a lot.

And Souness's comment about it being a "man's game" whilst sitting next to Karen Carney was as crass and daft as anything else that went on yesterday.

I honestly think introducing more female pundits has been so refreshing for the coverage. They understand the game every bit as well as the retired male pros and are there entirely on merit IMO. Gaby Logan is a fabulous anchor and her presentation of the Euros was superb. Alex Scott has become a really confident pundit too.

I sometimes feel every game is a potential banana skin. No matter how good you are if you drop off your level, particularly away from home, and your lesser fancied opponent is right on it then you'll drop points.
I sometimes look at matches and think what would I be satisfied with (not happy with). Very broadly speaking I'm always disappointed if we fail to win our home games against anyone outside the big 6. Away from home there are grounds where after a few hours of reflection after the final whistle you can be satisfied with a draw - obviously the top 6, but also West Ham, Palace, brighton, Newcastle maybe Brentford. A lot of this is factored against other results as well though....

So for our next 6 games up to the NLD I'd be satisfied with draws at Man U and Brentford if we win v B'mouth, Fulham, Villa, Everton. I think most Arsenal fans would be disappointed to drop points in those 3 home games, and away to Bournemouth.

It's the same here in Sweden. The thing is, being a good pundit seems to have very little to do with how much football experience one has. Sven-Göran Eriksson was a pundit for a while; he's by far the most decorated Swedish manager of all time, having won the league and cup double in three different countries, won the Serie A with Lazio, managed England and so on, and he's one of the worst pundits I've ever seen. Just a mumbling cliché machine. Conversely, some of the best pundits we have weren't anything special at all in their active careers, several of them never played above the Swedish top league.

Dean Henderson chose a good moment to save a penalty and win 1-0. He's on loan from Man U whilst De Gea is throwing them in. Henderson had a fair bit to say about how he was treated at Man U last season - it was a brave(silly) move to talk about it so publically, he had to back that up with performances - very good timing!

Nobody is referring to this incident and calling him out as a sexist but it would be a daft comment to make once with a female player sat next to you but he then repeated it later!

It is worth observing though that he came across as a clueless prat from the 80s and that generally his comments yesterday were a load of tosh and forgive me for saying this but he might have had a few. It’s not really about the comment being sexist.

Freddie Ljungberg is another one who is quite poor. It's interesting to hear him talk about Arsenal, as he has a lot of insight into the club and players, but his analysis of tactics and other clubs is very mediocre and never brings anything to the table that isn't just the same old talking points you've heard a thousand times before.

The male tv pundits typically fall into different categories

The old pro who thinks he’s “ard” still. Ala Keane and souness

The thinker who considers himself intellectual (when he isn’t) Neville and Garth Crooks

The fun ones, ala Ian wright and Micah Richards

I usually prefer listening to the later. Alan Hansen got it to a fine art and avoided talking bollocks, for what it’s worth I always thinks Lee Dixon talks a lot of sense.

If I’m honest I think Alex Scott is a great pundit but most of the other female peers aren’t interesting really but I like the female presenters like Gaby Logan and Kelly cates.

Arsenal have announced Xhaka and Jesus are in the 'leadership group' - effectively vice captains.

Xhaka has done more than enough with his game and the relationship with the fans to be comfortable wearing the captains armband in games

In my view Alan Hansen was the best pundit I’ve seen. Made a huge contribution to MOTD.

EDIT: Must admit, of the current MOTD ones I don’t mind Danny Murphy and Jermaine Jenas.

Wouldn't it be taken as read that anything that would qualify as assault under the law, and isn't explicitly excluded by the rules of the game (i.e. fair contact when going for the ball) is violent and/or ungentlemanly?

I would have thought so, but who knows? I’ve never read the rules and regulations and have no intention of ever doing so.

However, MOTD2 felt it worth mentioning that hair pulling is not mentioned when violent conduct is defined.

He had an amazing voice in real life that maybe didn’t quite come across on the tv.

I was in an airport business lounge when a deep authoritative voice started up and permeated the room. Not loud but completely compelling. I turned to see the source and it was the man himself. I remain impressed.

Living in Philadelphia I get all of my EPL from NBCSPORTS. Rebecca Lowe is a terrific anchor…passionate, articulate and knowledgeable
Although he wasn’t in the very top flight as a player Robbie Mustoe is a very smart and perceptive analyst …all in all I enjoy their coverage a lot
I also like Andy Townsend as a co commentator

I always watch Sportscene, the BBC Scotland version of MOTD. There’s one who’s regularly on it (not every time) who comes across very well. No idea what his name is but have a feeling he may have formerly played for Hearts.

Violent conduct is defined as
Violent conduct is when a player uses or attempts to use excessive force or brutality against an opponent when not challenging for the ball, or against a team-mate, team official, match official, spectator or any other person, regardless of whether contact is made.

In addition, a player who, when not challenging for the ball, deliberately strikes an opponent or any other person on the head or face with the hand or arm, is guilty of violent conduct unless the force used was negligible.

I’m not surprised hair pulling isn’t specifically mentioned in the same way grabbing a twisting an opponents testicles isn’t. So it all comes down to whether the ref or var subjectively feels the action was excessive force or brutality……Mike Dean on var must have considered the force of Romero’s hair pull as ‘negligible’….hmm

We've been doing for years. Their usual role is playing topic provider and referee to two opposing views. But some are also very good at analysis. They either made a career in sports journalism or are former athletes themselves.

I used the downloaded STs in the wallet on my phone to get into the game on Saturday - largely because I couldn't find the actual STs so I didn't have any option.

Does anyone know if a screen-shot of the ST would work at the turnstile? It would make life much easier if it did.

The ticket's QR code on the phone gets scanned but is there any other electronic wizardry involved? Does the host phone need to 'talk' to the entrance scanner?

https://www.espn.co.uk/football/english ... overturned

Always a good page to follow for any controversial referee decisions.

Note the last one, Mitrovic making two yellow card offences within seconds of each other and wasn;t shown two yellows. At the lesser end of that scale Fofana at the weekend fouled Martinelli for a yellow card and then held on to the ball stopping a quick free kick. By the letters of the law the ref could have given him 2 yellows - most people would say that would be harsh and possibly that the ref would have to 'want' to do that - remind anyone of the Martinelli 2 yellow then red? If the refs had given 2 quick yellows in either of these situations they could have turned to the rule book and justified their decision but these things very rarely happen - except seemingly to Arsenal players....a lot.

Chelsea bidding £43m for Anthony Gordon really emphasises their scattergun transfer policy this year.

Nottingham Forest have signed 15 players at a cost of £106m. This includes two of Huddersfield's best players who they beat in the play off final. That single game is such a sliding doors moment for clubs

Rúnarsson will join Alanyaspor on a loan deal valid until June 2023

Well Bellarin managed to have his long hair pulled back when he played. Just depends on the player it seems.

I would think deliberately pulling a player's neck back whether pulling hair or not would be a red card. As any assault to the face be it a slap, elbow, kicking would be.

Aubameyang struggling with Tuchel ..hmmm. He and Tuchel worked together when Aubameyang was at Dortmund and had a decent relationship. So both should be familiar with each other's expectations.

So they have bid for, and are hoping to sign, Gordon, De Jong, Fofana and Aubameyang.

That's daft.

Indeed. Being polite is actually quite an old-fashioned idea, and not just one for the toffs. Sexist and racist comments are, apart from anything else, just rude. Not watching your mouth in mixed society, and not caring who you offend, doesn't make you a champion of free speech or of the working class. It makes you an arse.

That's a good point, but how hungry is Aubameyang these days. I suspect he'd be good for a couple of months then lose interest.

But he was talking about a man’s game. The Premier League is mens football. And anyway his comment referred to stopping all the show pony fakery that has been prevalent. Refs letting play continue has been a big improvement this season so far.

Rule 12 specifically mentions spitting, striking, and kicking. But unless I am mistaken it doesn't specifically mention a whole host of things, like biting someone, poking your opponent in the eye, etc. so I think it is not a valid argument to say only specifically mentioned things count.

Plus they are signing Casadei from inter and have already spent 90 million or something.

Those players you mentioned will easily cost 200 million if they get the deals done. That’s unprecedented spending I think. I can’t recall another team in the league spending 300 million in a summer window

To be fair to MOTD2, they didn’t. The pundits, as I said earlier, called it violent conduct. They simply mentioned that hair pulling wasn’t specifically mentioned in the regulations, which I think was an interesting and reasonable thing to point out.

Be interesting to see how many of the deals they do get over the line. So much transfer gossip is clickbait, after all. The number of different players Arsenal have been linked to this summer is astonishing, and it’s still happening. I’m quite sure clickbait is produced for every big club’s fans, as well as Arsenal and Chelsea.

Andy,
Rebecca Lowe was a presenter on Setanta Sports after the BBC. She co-hosted Football Matters, Football Conference as well as commenting on the PL. She then moved on to ESPN after Setanta folded, and now at NBS Sports. She's an avid Palace supporter, so no doubt she'll be fist pumping Vieira to a possible win over Liverpool.

So will I be Zed!
Thanks for the bio info....didn't realize she was that experienced...I find her good value....got an idea she's married to a pro (or ex-pro) soccer player

The ref Tierney took charge of Liverpool games 6 times between December 2020 and December 2021 the last of these games was the 2-2 v spurs where he had a shocker failing to send off Kane and failing to give Jota a clear penalty. Klopp went on hard on him and Tierney has t reffed Liverpool since then until tonight. Half a season without reffing a game after being quite regular for them.

Have we ever been afforded that curtesy of removing a ref from our fixtures?

Wikipedia says this about her marriage.

“On 12 June 2013, Lowe married former Torquay United, Luton Town and Cheltenham Town manager Paul Buckle in a private ceremony in Santorini, Greece.“