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Graham Potter under serious pressure already. I know they’re ruthless with sacking managers but he’s safe for now isn’t he?

Be funny if they do, not that it’ll actually hurt their pockets that much but he’s on a 5 year deal, canning him after a few months won’t be cheap.

Poor guy left Brighton, where if he’d signed a decent striker over the years they’d have probably finished top 6, to join Chelsea, a club without a decent striker and a team bereft in confidence that aren’t even creating many chances.
 
I wonder if the sub window rule should ignore first half subs?
Maybe allow 3 windows per half, as they're unlikely to be used for timewasting before the break?
 
I wonder if the sub window rule should ignore first half subs?
Maybe allow 3 windows per half, as they're unlikely to be used for timewasting before the break?

The usual 3 at any time, and the other 2 between say 55 and 75.
My rationale being that if the 5 sub stuff is ostensibly
to protect players from fatigue injuries due to WC 2022
fixture compression, then the latter period is IMHO
where you would seek to attempt said protection.
 
As I read this I immediately thought of this

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(About 2:22 in!)
Reminds me of a home game v Man u and Percy Dalton had Linda Lusardi walking round the running track throwing bags of peanuts
into the crowd when she got to the Utd crowd of course they pelted her with the nuts
 
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5 points clear at the top of the table <cheers> you’ll have to see us there at least until very late December. Hope you can enjoy it as much as I will.
No shots on target by either side in the first half.
It did feel very 1-0 to the Arsenal for a long period.
But you can’t knock Arteta - 37 points from 14 games is very impressive, although you were well beaten at Old Trafford :emoticon-0105-wink:
 
No shots on target by either side in the first half.
It did feel very 1-0 to the Arsenal for a long period.
But you can’t knock Arteta - 37 points from 14 games is very impressive, although you were well beaten at Old Trafford :emoticon-0105-wink:

You can beat us as many times as you want if it means we remain top of everyone else <ok>
 
5 points clear at the top of the table <cheers> you’ll have to see us there at least until very late December. Hope you can enjoy it as much as I will.

It looks like Arteta has made you something you haven't been since the Graham/early Wenger era: hard to beat. You're conceding very few goals and holding on to narrow leads even when your backs are to the wall - not qualities one would associate with Arsenal for quite a few decades in fact.

My feeling is your title credentials will get their sternest test yet come the other side of the break.
West Ham (h)
Brighton (a)
Newcastle (h)
Spurs (a)
United (h)

Is by a distance your trickiest string of fixtures until you hit April. If you come out of that sequence with a minimum 10 points, I make you favourites to challenge City.
 
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It looks like Arteta has made you something you haven't been since the Graham/early Wenger era: hard to beat. You're conceding very few goals and holding on to narrow leads even when your backs are to the wall - not qualities one would associate with Arsenal for quite a few decades in fact.

My feeling is your title credentials will get their sternest test yet come the other side of the break.
West Ham (h)
Brighton (a)
Newcastle (h)
Spurs (a)
United (h)

Is by a distance your trickiest string of fixtures until you hit April. If you come out of that sequence with a minimum 10 points, I make you favourites to challenge City.

As well as we have played (mostly), and even though we’ve had our best start to a season in our entire history, I’m still not legitimately viewing us as ‘title contenders’.

If this current iteration of Manchester City did not exist, then I would absolutely be believing we would be definite title contenders. But I simply can’t bring myself to acknowledge this when they have that robotic, cyborg freak team who have won 4 of the last 5 Premier League titles. We could get 95/96 points in a season, and they’d still find a way of outdoing us - as Liverpool have experienced. It’s ridiculous.

My aim(s) at the start of the season were top-4 and a trophy. The latter remains to be seen, but the former? We’ve put ourselves in a very strong position. 37 points from 14 games is remarkable. And whilst I take nothing for granted, I’m sure even the most ardent Spurs fan would have to say it would take a monumental bottle job for us to not secure Champions League football from this position.

If we do want to sustain a title challenge, I need to see us active in the January transfer market to bring in 2-3 very good players. Our current squad depth isn’t good enough, especially compared to City’s (though who’s is?).

So yeah, amongst all the euphoria, I am in no way expecting this to last forever. I’m just enjoying the present because, chances are, we won’t be getting moments like this all too often.
 
Not a penalty:
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Has VAR overturned anything this weekend? Maybe it's not working.
Exhibit B:
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Ridiculous.
Mind you it's equally bonkers that the first one is a penalty according to the Laws. Why should you effectively concede a goal because you try to clear the ball and an attacker gets a small touch on the ball just before you do.
 
All the pundits will be saying that ManU are back after they just got over the line against Fulham. Who will be the first with the cliche "a good team wins when they aren't playing well"? (And so does a lucky team and/or one with help from the officials.) And they haven't been convincing in a lot of their wins. Plus Martinez probably shouldn't have been playing today.