I must say that I thought the exact same thing. Though I am embarrassingly useless at remembering specific goals/games once they've gone I remember thinking last season "I don't think this is confirmation bias here - I think we really are scoring from crosses quite often" I did actually think of Powerspurs as I was noticing this! Though I always really appreciate Powerspurs' input on this forum and basically agree with his method of analysis almost always I do think it's a bit over-simplified to say that because most crosses don't deliver goals that crosses are a bad tactic overall. A cross means that a defense will have to readjust, deal with the fact that someone's got in behind, not be able to hold a line for offside, potentially deal with a second wave of attack even if the initial ball is headed away etc etc. It really gives a defence something to think about and can cause disruption to a side's shape. Obviously crosses aren't the be-all and end-all of how to score goals or open up stubborn defences but what if we worked out how many through balls led directly to goals? Or short passes of any type? Maybe 1 in 70 might start to look alright! And anyway - hang on a minute! My memory's not that bad! We've scored 4 goals in the league so far and haven't 3 of them come from crosses?! Plus what about all the near misses and attempts on target? I bet there must be a healthy proportion of them that have come from crosses too.
All in all I have to say that I'm fairly pleased with this transfer window. And I was amazed to see that we (once again) came out of it having made a profit. Incredible. Because if (and it's at least a medium-sized "if") Aurier proves to be an adequate replacement for Walker then we have basically strengthened the squad quite substantially haven't we? (Sure I wouldn't have minded another option for the 10ish position(s) but you can't have everything) Also I don't post much on here though I do read it more often on and off and I just wanna say (again) how much I like the quality of posts on here. In particular it heartens me that on a football forum there are a fair number of people for whom Aurier's previous homophobic comments give pause for thought. And no-one's saying "He's an arsehole - he's not welcome" or "**** this PC bollocks - who cares what gays think?". That it goes without saying that simply calling someone a "****" or "***" is itself seen as a problem on this forum really does make me optimistic. I'm also encouraged by the wording of the statement by the club on his signing. I hope Aurier realizes that slagging someone off is fine. Simply using words associated with homosexuality *as* the insult is stupid and, by the way, not even a very good way to slag someone off. It reminds me of when people use the word "woman" as an insult. It really bloody grates with me and I'm amazed when people who aren't total cavemen do exactly that.
One thing Wenger can feel relieved about, Arsenal fans can't slap him with a vote of No Confidence. Barca fans, on the other hand... https://www.fcbarcelona.com/club/news/2017-2018/fc-barcelona-statement-of-vote-of-no-confidence I'm trying to work out the reason for this. Was it their bungled tapping-up of Coutinho? ...or was it managing to give seven different teams a cut of the fee for a player who was playing in the Chinese Super League for a damn good reason? ...or was it PSG having a prison romance at their expense to sign Neymar? ...or was it forgetting to sign Jean Michael Seri? ...or was it going the full Ian Malcolm by being so preoccupied knowing they could sign Deulofeu for €12M that they didn't stop to think if they should? ...or was it letting Tello go for peanuts? ...or was it having no clue how to sell Andre Gomes? ...or was it the team being so pissed off with the board's handling of the business end that Iniesta and Messi have started playing contract extension chicken?
I wonder what's gonna happen now that viewing figures for football on TV are (for the first time?) starting to dip? Will this most recent TV contract prove to be a high water mark for transfer fees? I can only assume, at the moment, that it will.
Paulinho is an absolutely inspirational figure. Best player at that Confederations Cup or whatever it was (all the while his highlights looking highly pedestrian though sort of effective at best), gets a nice contract in the Premier League, gets probably a tonne of money in China and now signs for Barcelona. All whilst being, well, not as good as a single midfielder in our squad and probably not really good enough to improve most teams in the Prem. Absolutely stunning result for him. Further proof that sometimes a footballer's career just has this trajectory that is decided by all kinds of factors that have nothing to do with ability. How many players are currently in the lower leagues who, given half a chance and a few flukey performances in an international tournament for a team with a famous jersey, could find themselves playing for top clubs for the rest of their careeers but simply won't? I bet there are hundreds.
I agree with all that. I'm not saying we should never cross, just that we don't need to cross more than we do and perhaps a bit less.
...in other words, the talk of him leaving halfway through a medical at Chelsea are false. He didn't even show up!
You know what, I think he's a lot brighter that I thought. He's patient enough to assess his options at the right time and clearly doesn't want to sit on the bench at Chelsea, otherwise he'd have signed and worked on his fitness there instead. To me, that was a loosely veiled "come and get me when I'm fit" message to Spurs
Mr Barkley knows full well where the lie about the medical being completed came from. That would be Mr Usmanov's bag man, Moshiri. How do the FA let these people through a 'fit and proper person' test? Being a dodgy Russian criminal's accountant is as crooked as it gets. When Barkley refuses to sign for Chelsea in January, I expect him to be found floating in the Mersey.
Metro are reporting we made a late bid to sign Batshuayi from Chelsea. I'd say this confirms we were going all out to troll them during the last week...
I think he knows Spurs is the right place for him to fulfill his potential. He knows compared to Chelsea that he'd be given chances if he works hard and trains well. Plus i'm sure he has heard good things from Kane, Dier, Alli, Rose, Trippier and even maybe Walker about Poch during England meetups.
Not sure where's best to post this but here it is anyway. Several of these doing the rounds on Twitter. I wonder how much improved Toby's talking. Seems he wants to stay but wants top dollar...
