Arsenal's bench tonight: Fabianski, Vermaelen, Monreal, Jenkinson, Isaac Hayden, Miyaichi, Akpom. Now, I fully expect them to beat Marseille, don't get me wrong, but I think that highlights that they may have a problem with the depth of their squad. The three defenders are ok, but other than that...
Tbf I think all teams (except maybe Chelsea and your mob) would struggle to some extent to field a strong bench if 6 first teamers (not including diaby or the magnificent one) were injured at the same time. No excuse really for our lack of options up front though, considering we knew that podolslki would be knackered for a while
So does this result mean Rafa's better than Mourinho? Nevertheless a funny result if just because we were accused of bottling it by the Chavs when we lost to them.. or rather drew with them.
I can only remember Jose in winning situations, has he ever been in a position like this before and come out smiling? So my suspicions about not scoring against Hull in the second half have been founded, for now at least and lucky against Villa. Fulham's a local derby so anything can happen.
Basel, such an enigma. Beat man utd - good team Beat spurs, just, on penalties - poor side, spurs blew it Beat Chelsea - wait til tomorrow, but I bet they're a good side again
Mourinho looks a bit lost on team selection dare I say, 6 no.10's on his books and little else, he already had 5 and bought Willian??? how many games will he need to see before working out who's best with who? All attack but as we've seen leaky defence, and not very well protected tonight. You may not like Mikel. but he does that well. Have to say though, shocking keeping at his near post from Cech for the winner, slow to react to the corner.
Not really. We wouldn't have been told we "bottled it" if we'd been knocked out by Bayern Munich, it was because they were considered a poor side by your lot, especially after you beat them. I think it's accepted that they're a dangerous team now...
I'm enjoying Jose's second spell at the chav's at the moment,worse start ever in the P/L and stuggling in the C/L,although they did that last season as well
Aside from Redknapp, Mourinho was the manager I always had most praise for in the past few years, as I classed him as a winner, great tactically, superb at man management and had this way about him where he could build a team and belief that was unbeatable so I'm surprised at his current performance but to be fair to DL, I remember him saying it won't be the same this time and Chelsea fans shouldn't expect the same Mourinho and he was right. This squad isn't the same as he had before and he isn't getting the same reaction from the players, although it doesn't help they have no real striker in form and they sold Lukaku, possibly their best young player which was an odd decision. Early days but possibly Mourinho isn't the manager of before and has lost some of what made him the best manager in the world and the fat waiter has improved as a manager, but what I will know is that Rafa will be enjoying life in Naples and no doubt sharing a cheeky grin as he heard the result!
A good night for Rafa,as his team beat one of last years finalists,wonder what the chav's think of that,only trouble is that Chelsea will come good eventually,i would think
You would think soon Eto (even at his age) will start scoring for fun and Jose will get back to his old ways, but maybe they have had their time and it won't be the same this time round. We can only hope!
Basel have turned over us, United, now you lot...go on, say it, the Swiss league is stronger than the PL!....btw, how did the German powerhouse Dortmund get on?
I don't, he's a shadow of himself imo, he appeared to be lively, but his first touch is poor, and he's lost that bit of acceleration...won't be coming back either. It wouldn't surprise me if his decline started a year ago but not noticed due to the general crap standard in Russia. He's still a threat, don't get me wrong, his brain still works, good ideas and movement still, and when presented with opportunites he will take some, he's still a top player in that respect. But the dynamic Eto'o of 5yrs ago working his own goals out of nothing, we won't be seeing much of that....might have done if he was playing against his own defence!
The eto of barca and inter was possibly the best striker I've seen in recent times, a truly fabulous and dynamic world class forward, to think we had a chance to sign him once. But of course he wont reach them levels as hes peaked as a player and then took the option of playing football sorry for money. However I still believe once he adapts and regains some hunger he will have a spell of scoring and have the odd game to bring back the great days.
