What I like about this squad is that we finally have good cover through the team (with the exception of CF, although we do have some options up front) .....................................Cech........................................ ..................................(Ospina)...................................... Bellerin.........Mustafi...............Kos................Monreal (Debuchy)..(Mert/Holding)..(Gabriel/Chambers)..(Gibbs) ................ .....Coquelin.........Cazorla........................... ....................(Xhaka/Elneny)..(Ramsey)........................ .......................................Ozil......................................... ............................(Cazorla/Ramsey).............................. Walcott...................................................................Iwobi (Oxlade-Chamberlin)........................................(Welbeck) ..................................Sanchez........................................ ............................(Giroud/Perez).....................................
We have genuine depth throughout the team and the key area of central midfield has been addressed with three genuine strong/tough midfielders. We could also play Xhaka and Elneny in the Caz/Ramsey spot, this gives us another strategic option for a more defensive/tighter midfielding unit should we want to counter or see out a game.
Was surprised by Mustafi in this game. He really impressed me. Also Bellerin was an absolute Boss. Made several big chances for our forwards, got an assists and made some crucial defensive tackles.
I've now watched the 1st half and Bellerin's link up play with Sanchez is great - he creates a lot of chances, not only for others but also for himself. Mustafi has settled so well it's great, he's so calm and composed next to Kos - he is exactly what we needed!
http://www.givemesport.com/878438-w...ok&utm_medium=Paid-Social&utm_campaign=878438 There's a great video on the above page of Kos and Mustafi keeping Costa in their pocket all game!
I know what you mean, it's a confusing, ad-heavy website - but if you wait a few seconds after the page loads then further down the page from that video a Twitter post embed loads with the video in the post.
I was thinking about this game in relation to other good league victories we've had - namely the Citey 2-0 game in 2015, which got a significant monkey off our backs and saw us adopt a different style of play because of it, also the Man Utd 3-0 win the following season. They both seemed to raise our moral and belief and we went on good runs after it, however imo the good runs then came to a crashing halt because of a spate of injuries that we were ill equiped to deal with. For example we went into the 2014 season without any cover for Merts and Kos, with Kos already carrying an Achilies injury. And in the following season, after the Man U game we quickly lost Coq and Santi long term without adequate cover - relying on Flamini and Ramsey as replacements, as well having a huge number of injuries. Even though we've been in this positions faaaaar too many times to start getting our hopes up after one game, I do think we are at least better equipped to deal with injuries then we were in the last few seasons. As such hopefully this game will give us a longer boost, even if - as reported, Coq is out long term. At least we have Xhaka and Elneny to replace him, with Ramsey and Xhaka capable of replacing Santi, while Iwobi is looking a star and could conceivably cover Ozil for some points - as could Santi. I just hope that Perez can develop a good understanding with Ozil, Sanchez, Iwobi and also, and more importantly, hits the back of the net regularly.
For once we have a squad that should handle the usual spate of injuries we get over the course of a season. Yes we don't have that super striker that we've all been craving for, but we have enough attacking options for the front three to score enough. Now that depends on if the manager can get them firing to an optimal level, the Chelsea showed patches of it, but we really need to be doing it on a regular basis. You'd think with Sanchez, Giroud, Welbeck, Walcott, Iwobi, Perez and OXO, they SHOULD be able to get the required goals to make us competitive until the end.