Some CM positions are still shoo-ins. Sadly Carroll/Onomah/Winks are not at the level where Eriksen must keep his game high.
So here's that Wilshere "masterclass" the nomads were looking forward to... Completed passes: 23 Passing accuracy: 79% Successful take ons: 0 Duels won: 1 Successful tackles: 0 Dispossessed: 2 Silly nomads.
Onomah has done all that could possibly be expected of him so far, and Winks has shown indications of great promise in his fleeting moments. It's all very well giving them new contracts, but if he manager then starts blewting at their quality without giving them a chance, what's the point ?
Sissioko may or may not receive a ban for what he claims, and I clearly perceived, to be an accident. What was not an accident was how the commentator immediately talked it up as a deliberate act of aggression deserving of a red card. What is not an accident is how the media loves the stuff around football to the neglect of the game taking place on the pitch. Mourinho talking in the ear of Conte, Pep.s time in the dressing room etc. All clear examples of how the media want's to turn football matches into dramas. The paper I have just read contained no report of the Spurs/Bournemouth game but a lengthy report on the possibilities of Sissoko's moving elbow. It;s not confined to football it's how the media reports everything, look for the peripheral drama never mind the actual content. The net result of all of this is an extremely poorly informed public making decisions without facts based on the prejudice of the report they read. And people were surprised that the UK, or in fact England & Wales voted to leave the EU or 'Brexit' as the childlike UK media prefers to call it. Don't forget the milk and sugar on your Brexit children!
Maybe Sissoko deserves it, and it didn't look good, but he was also clearly not looking in the direction the elbow went in, so he must have had very good anticipation of where Arter's head would be. But if they take retrospective action against Sissoko you might think we are the only team that gets done for such things. There have been countless other incidents that have never been followed up.
Just going back to comments made my some, (myself included) regarding disappointing results in the last couple of games and the chance to go top of the league. - We might have been a bit critical of the players in the last couple of weeks. I know performances from some players have been underwhelming,as well as the overall performance from the team at times, but our start to the season really has been pretty tough. I'm not going to claim that our rivals have had easier games or an easier time of it than us, but here's now each team shape up after 9 games. 1. City - 5 home games, 4 away games - 20pts 2. Arsenal - 5 home games, 4 away games - 20pts 3. Liverpool - 4 home games, 5 away games - 20pts (No european football to deal with) 4. Chelsea - 5 home games, 4 away games - 19pts (No european football to deal with) 5. Spurs - 4 home games, 5 away games - 19pts We're sat 1 point behind the league leaders, having played our last 2 league games against difficult sides away from home, and another away CL match sandwiched in the middle. There's been key players out due to suspension and injury, yet we've managed to keep up with the pack comfortably (2 of which are massive clubs not juggling European football), matching a similar goal difference to all the teams above us, and only conceding 4 goals, none from open play. Our away draw with a very good Bournemouth side actually seems quite a good result now, having seen Arsenal and City draw at home with sides you'd expect them to beat. We don't really have a lot to complain about, do we?
Was that for 3 hair pulling in 7 games (or perhaps it was 7 in 22 games - so difficult to tell) ... ??
Not so much complaint from me as unease as to whether a slight rut will end. Like for like with last season, we are -2 pts and -7 on GF.
On thing I've seen pointed out is that we were missing one of our main weapons for getting the ball forward quickly: Toby's chipped passes from the back. Certainly last season those were very useful, as we could catch the opponents unaware by having Toby chip the ball to a teammate 40+ yards down the pitch and hit them on the break, and we certainly lacked that outlet against Leverkusen and Bournemouth as neither Dier or Verts have that in their locker - although it is worth pointing out that Wimmer does.
Not sure I agree it would be as big a problem as you think but it's an interesting point that I hadn't thought of
Fair play to Harry Arter for saying all the correct things, but I don't see how that was an accident at all. Based on most of his performances so far, we'll hardly miss him anyway, IMO.
I don't understand why the officials can say they have not seen the incident between Arter and Sissoko. Sissoko had the ball and one of them must have seen it. Another case of selective blindness.
Perhaps all our players should change their name by deed poll to Diego Costa. No chance of being charged then.