Football - clouds on the optimism horizon

[Consigliere]

Brilliant, brilliant 1st half. Pogba causing all sorts of problems for Leicester and the reason he is able to play further up is because Herrera has been brilliant in the deep lying midfielder role. Fellaini has done a decent job for us but having a ball player in that position has made a big difference.

Mata has done more in 45 minutes than Rooney has done all season. Our play is so much more fluent without Rooney clogging things up. Leicester continue to be poor defensively - not too dissimilar to last season where they were leaking goals early on and only tightened up in December.

[Rorshach]

No tree grows into heaven.. 

We have been very static in the first half. Not moving well when we are on the ball, and standing off far too much when Bornemouth are. In addition, Bornemouth move better off the ball, so they always have alternatives in moving the ball. We don't.

We simply aren't at the races in the first half, and are deservedly 1-0 down. 

[Iskaral Pust]

25 minutes ago, Rorshach said:

We simply aren't at the races in the first half, and are deservedly 1-0 down. 

I'm pretty shocked actually.  I expected Everton to be at least three up.  I'm not knocking Bournemouth but their naivety against City looked like a perfect opponent for Everton atm. 

[Rorshach]

We've won four on the trot before today - that's not something we do every year. So a bump somewhere should be expected. It is always disappointing when it arrives, though. 

Today, we looked lethargic. A bit like last season - little movement in attack, the ball travelling slowly, players taking several touches and runs coming late. In addition, we were never able to get close to the Bournemouth players in defence. They had a lot of space to move in, which they did, something that left Barry (especially) ineffective - he can't cover ground. We didn't manage to do much about this in the second half. We were closing them down better, true, but we were still not moving the ball at speed, we were still making too few runs.. 

Barkley and Valencia both had good chances, and should perhaps have scored, but they didn't. So we lose. Deservedly.

[Mark Antony]

Benteke 94th minute winner vs Sunderland. Moyes looked devastated. 

Liverpool were enjoyable to watch today. Special shout to Lallana who seems to have finally brought some end product this season.

[MercenaryChef]

Sunderland are pathetic. #moyesout

[Philokles]

Chelsea's defensive line falls to pieces every time it is tested. No help from Matic either. However, that shouldn't take away from a clinical half from Arsenal.

[kairparavel]

So huh. This certainly wasn't what I was expecting.

[Consigliere]

Great 1st half from Arsenal. Really impressed with Iwobi. Chelsea's defence is looking as brittle as it did last season. Hope Arsenal don't take their foot off the gas in the 2nd half.

 

[Calibandar]

3-0 to Arsenal already, could they do even more damage?

Haven't seen the United game but pleased to hear Rooney was on the bench and the indirect result a big win against the champions. This should embolden Mourinho's belief.

[Iskaral Pust]

Really dominant performance by Liverpool today.  Hull's soul was crushed even before we scored.  And the red card didn't matter at all, we were playing like we had three extra men all day.  We scored 5 against a parked bus and it could have been plenty more.  There was no stand-out hero, the whole team was combining well. A pity to not keep a clean sheet yet in the PL but their goal was just unlucky - Gini contested the initial header well enough, it just fell straight to Meyler who got off his shot as two players closed him down immediately. 

We still have not played the same back four in consecutive games yet this season but despite that we're looking very composed.  Milner at LB and no specialist DM -- so far Klopp looks like a genius and proving the doubters wrong (I was concerned about both).  There's goals from everywhere in this team atm and we must be a nightmare to play against right now.  Can looked pretty rusty as a sub but grew into a it a bit.  Sturridge looked dangerous (but still angry that the team does so well without him) and Grujic looked really tidy on the ball.  I don't know if he's ready yet to play our MF role with pressing but he looks quality.  Don't forget that Ejaria (MF) and Ojo (winger) look very good prospects too.

There will be harder days ahead and no team can play this good all the time but we are in a good moment and pretty consistent lately. 

[Iskaral Pust]

Kante and Matic screening an experienced and expensive back four, plus one of the best keepers in the world, not to mention a manager famed for his defensive organization and tactical acumen.  Chelsea look less than the sum of parts at the moment.  Nice to see Arsenal's stylish football rewarded. 

[Raja]

Missed the first half  - Though I've seen some of the highlights. It certainly seems like we're going to keep seeing Alexis in the no.9 position. Iwobi looked *so* good! ( Again) 

[polishgenius]

14 minutes ago, Raja said:

Missed the first half  - Though I've seen some of the highlights. It certainly seems like we're going to keep seeing Alexis in the no.9 position. Iwobi looked *so* good! ( Again) 

I saw someone point out elsewhere that if it's a choice between Giroud up front and not playing Iwobi, and Sanchez up front and playing Iwobi, then Iwobi all the way.

[Raja]

6 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

I saw someone point out elsewhere that if it's a choice between Giroud up front and not playing Iwobi, and Sanchez up front and playing Iwobi, then Iwobi all the way.

Yeah, Iwobi adds a lot of silk & balance to our side. I wonder who he's going to pick to play against Basel - I want to see more of Perez, but he will probably go for Giroud. 

[Mexal]

1 hour ago, polishgenius said:

I saw someone point out elsewhere that if it's a choice between Giroud up front and not playing Iwobi, and Sanchez up front and playing Iwobi, then Iwobi all the way.

Iwobi had been excellent. So happy he's staying in the starting side.

[Nas!]

The Premier League marketing division must love days like this.  So many goals!

[Iskaral Pust]

Lots of goals since the start of the season, never mind just this weekend.  City, Liverpool and Arsenal have been scoring bags, while Everton and Spurs have hit a few too, and with the likes of Stoke and Sunderland and Bournemouth often conceding heavily to anyone, it's a far cry from the scrappy, cagey games that will inevitably arrive. 

It's bit disappointing that 7 of the top 8 are already the predictable names.  I thought after last season that the mid table teams would be pretty competitive again and keep it interesting, but either the top teams have really improved by a lot or else the other clubs have regressed a bit.  It could also be that, other than Liverpool, the top teams haven't played each other much yet.  

I'm a bit surprised that Palace is the one trying to keep the leaders in sight atm, I hadn't realized today was their fourth win.  Nice to see Benteke doing well though; quality player even if BR wasted a year of his life. And McArthur has been immense since his return. 

[baxus]

15 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Grujic looked really tidy on the ball.  I don't know if he's ready yet to play our MF role with pressing but he looks quality. 

This can't be stressed enough - Grujic is coming from the league of significantly lower quality. Honestly, Sunderland would win Serbian league comfortably. He needs to adapt and improve in every possible way in order to really be ready to play an important role in a Premiership team. He needs to improve on his strength, conditioning, speed... You name it, he needs to improve on it. He's been doing great so far, though. I hope he continues and becomes a Liverpool legend.  

[ljkeane]

Nice goal for Southampton. West Ham really do look a shadow of the side they were last year though.