Reckon Guardiola will have City tuned tighter than a whores g- string in order to roll Chelsea this game . Since we beat them, wrecked their CL dream, and generally showed them we were on their case big time at the end of last season, not expecting many prisoners will be taken this time . City have a massive array of talent in their first 11, and as always, they could have one of those days and murder us. Or not. In Audi I trust. So, here's my 2 bobs worth re our starting 11. Mendy Dave Christensen Rudi James Jorginho Kante Alonso Havertz Lukaku Werner Left Mount out again, still think he's not right. I thought Loftus Cheek looked really good last game, so he makes the bench alongside the unlucky Kovacic. Ziyech pushed Havertz, CHO was awful so no start,. Anyway, love to see your teams !!
Mendy Dave Silva Rudi James Kante Kovacic Chilwell Mount Lukaku Werner Personally I think Mount is worth another punt.
Looks like Mount has been carrying a slight injury, which explains everything. He's being rested for this game. Be nice to get him back in top shape.
We could have got a right tonking there ! 3 or 4 nil wouldn't have flattered City. Luckily October fixtures have 4 very winnable games.
…….you saw the same game as me. Out thought and out fought in the first half. Werner and Lukaku stranded up front. Man City dominated the midfield. Mendy was brilliant to keep the score low. I was in the West Stand Upper and don’t remember the teams being announced or even shown on the TVs - a bit odd? Loftus Cheek looked superb when he came on, maybe we should have played him and Havertz from the start - we could have been more in the game with them on the pitch - both big lads with a big presence.
Re the West Stand Upper...i thought i read where they upgraded that area during the summer with state of the art tv and media feeds. I'm guessin you were late into your seat from the bar !!!
……I was in my seat 15 minutes before the start and all I remember on the TVs was the players doing a rendition of a 1960s song.
Yep, for the first time Tuchel got pretty much everything wrong. Poor tactics, poor set up, which led to poor performances. Far too passive and defence minded, ineffectual midfield that created nothing for the striker(s), assuming the set up was 3-5-2. Worse was the standard of passing from most of the team, poor is being kind, with passes misdirected everywhere except to a teammate. Finally Havertz came on, and with Loftus Cheek looking really good, suddenly the play went up by 50% and we started to look like a team again. Hope the lesson is learned, for sure we lack that midfielder to run things AND break through defenders. Kovacic does it sometimes but with little final reward. Loftus- Cheek looks up for it. We are the Champions of Europe, timid, negative tactics will soon take that away. Special mention for Mendy and Silva, who were superb.
The early KO killed us. That said we simply aren’t a great team at home but we compensate for that for that by being the best side in Europe away from home. I fully expect us to bounce back against Juventus. At the end of the day we lost to the best team in the league and our manager got the tactics horribly wrong on the day.
Yes indeed, Mendy and Silva were astonishingly good. The big plus for me from that game was Loftus Cheek coming on in the second half and looking like the player I always thought he could be. The Mrs reckons that Kante’s been ill - that could explain why he lost possession of the ball so many times when normally he never would.
We can't win every time, so let's just put a bad performance behind us and re group. Kante was crook and maybe shouldn't have played, on the bright side, Loftus -Cheek looked really good. If he can maintain that level of form, and Mount returns fit and well , we will be even better.
Just back off my sons stag weekend. Started at Lea Valley water centre, White water rafting, then into The City, Aldgate to be precise, had a very expensive steak in a place called The 14 Hills, views of the Tower Bridge, the Gurkin and the Shard, next day watched the game in a Sports bar south of the river, The Dugout it was called then watched the Brentford game which kind of made up for but not quite, for our result. Fell asleep at 6 saturday evening and woke 12 hours later with a very sore head I'm too old for this stuff. The white water rafting was brilliant mind but a bit hard on this 63 year old. Oh and I just need to say The 14 hills sell a Louis 14th Cognac for £900 per shot. Making the 1ltr bottle worth £36,000......... No I didn't. London eh!
Come the end of the season we might win the league just a point clear of Liverpool and I’ll remember those 2 points the Scousers dropped at Brentford. A bigger shock was Man U losing at home to Villa. Early days and the Premiership is wide open judging by early results.
Not in my book mate. They are absolutely shocking at home under that fraud of a manager. Remember it was only last season they lost at home to Sheffield Utd at home who were rock bottom. OT against lesser sides is their achilles heel.
…….as far as I’m concerned, Ole Gunnar Solskjær must stay! I thought Villa would struggle without Jack Grealish, Jack Grealish injuring James on Saturday certainly seemed to mess up our game plan.
Very disappointed with our performance and result. I can see what Tuchel was doing defensively, as when we did open at the end, City created chance after chance (we had some good opportunities ourselves). Was very disappointed Werner had a full game. Historically he's been good against city so i see why we start him but he just doesn't hold the ball well enough and is just used to run in behind (to be fair he did create a chance or two at the end of the game). Was weird seeing RLC come on but he looked good. If he can get back to what he was like under Sarri that would be great. Still, we are 1 point off top and we have played arsenal, spurs, city and liverpool. No one else has had such a tough start as us so onwards and upwards boys