General Premier League Thread - 2016/2017

GavRedKing

Chelsea

I can only imagine how many toys would be on the floor if they failed to win.

MD1990

I remember Pep at Barca often spoke about La Masia & it values in particular remaining humble & capable of learning was another.
Looks like he has lost those values.
Much of the English media are poor but I don't think Pep has had that hard of a time from them.

Guardiola completely rattled by bog standard tabloidesque questioning for simple answers...and he completely overreacts. The mask slips and he reveals a none too clever side.

TheDoc

The Talking Bread wrote: »

Just looked at it on the BBC website. (Peps interview) He came across as a right tw*t to be fair! Clearly getting p1ssed off with the press in England

What was that about "his fault"??

Fault I assume related to the Bravo foul. It sounded as if he said fault, and the interviewer seemed to then also say it but he said foul. Everywhere in the world it's a foul on Bravo but not in England. Seemed to be having a little pop at the English. And I'm not surprised

In fairness to Pep he must be so confused with how England operates. Wasn't so long ago his City team looked incredible and everyone was brown nosing him in the media etc and now all of a sudden he's getting questions on his ideas and methods and being called a fraud (for the record,anyone who labels Pep a fraud or lucky I just instantly presume is a brain dead fan who takes cues from Paul Merson)

In the same timeframe Mourinho was being called a dinosaur and finished and now spearheading a team who are clearly making everyone else nervous.

Same with Klopp, their summer business puzzling and his refusal to spend and invest properly was questioned, then forgotten , and back in sharp focus today.

I'd be apaplectic if I was a manager dealing with this level of intelligence in the media (that still acts like it's "writing for the building site" as opposed a broad audience )

I've always rated and liked Guardiola and can see a similar pattern with Van Gaal already developing in his media stuff.

Whatever about allegiances and rivalries, I'm a football fan. And I love when great players or managers come to the premier league and I can see them more often. All too often there seems to be some weird agenda out there in places absolutely sweating to see these managers fail miserably.

Obviously I don't want to see City be successful or win anything , but I'm feeling a bit uneasy about the Guardiola evisceration.

The premier league needs to get over its self. I get what Wenger was saying last week. The league is getting a bit disappointing in terms of quality. And for the money coming in the league in general is getting worse. There is the top six who are interesting and then 14 other teams who are a varying bag of muck and ****e and the odd good peformance.

Watched a lot of football this season, feels more then recent years, and the amount of poor matches and poor teams in this league is baffling

It might be an over correction from Leicester last season but even down to refereeing, feels the leagues standard and quality is on the serious slide

Hounding out quality managers and or players is hardly helping the situation.

GavRedKing

Chelsea

MD1990 wrote: »

I remember Pep at Barca often spoke about La Masia & it values in particular remaining humble & capable of learning was another.
Looks like he has lost those values.
Much of the English media are poor but I don't think Pep has had that hard of a time from them.

I wouldnt be surprised if Jose was at Utd long after Pep was gone from City.

Pep doesn't seem to be that enamored by the English project IMO.

MD1990

GavRedKing wrote: »

I wouldnt be surprised if Jose was at Utd long after Pep was gone from City.

Pep doesn't seem to be that enamored by the English project IMO.

I think Pep is shocked at how direct & physical the PL is. Mourinho is starting to do well but I not sure he will there that long but I expect them to become regulars in the top 4 again with the money available.

The standard of the PL this season has been terrible. Plenty of overpaid players at clubs especially outside the top 6 that I think are not too disapointed when they lose so long they get there wages.

blueser

TheDoc wrote: »

Fault I assume related to the Bravo foul. It sounded as if he said fault, and the interviewer seemed to then also say it but he said foul. Everywhere in the world it's a foul on Bravo but not in England. Seemed to be having a little pop at the English. And I'm not surprised

In fairness to Pep he must be so confused with how England operates. Wasn't so long ago his City team looked incredible and everyone was brown nosing him in the media etc and now all of a sudden he's getting questions on his ideas and methods and being called a fraud (for the record,anyone who labels Pep a fraud or lucky I just instantly presume is a brain dead fan who takes cues from Paul Merson)

In the same timeframe Mourinho was being called a dinosaur and finished and now spearheading a team who are clearly making everyone else nervous.

Same with Klopp, their summer business puzzling and his refusal to spend and invest properly was questioned, then forgotten , and back in sharp focus today.

I'd be apaplectic if I was a manager dealing with this level of intelligence in the media (that still acts like it's "writing for the building site" as opposed a broad audience )

I've always rated and liked Guardiola and can see a similar pattern with Van Gaal already developing in his media stuff.

Whatever about allegiances and rivalries, I'm a football fan. And I love when great players or managers come to the premier league and I can see them more often. All too often there seems to be some weird agenda out there in places absolutely sweating to see these managers fail miserably.

Obviously I don't want to see City be successful or win anything , but I'm feeling a bit uneasy about the Guardiola evisceration.

The premier league needs to get over its self. I get what Wenger was saying last week. The league is getting a bit disappointing in terms of quality. And for the money coming in the league in general is getting worse. There is the top six who are interesting and then 14 other teams who are a varying bag of muck and ****e and the odd good peformance.

Watched a lot of football this season, feels more then recent years, and the amount of poor matches and poor teams in this league is baffling

It might be an over correction from Leicester last season but even down to refereeing, feels the leagues standard and quality is on the serious slide

Hounding out quality managers and or players is hardly helping the situation.

Excellent post. The English media is among the lowest of the low. As you said, they build you up so that they can give you a kicking when things go wrong. Re. Pep's post match comments; I've seen worse. Remember LVG' glare? Or Mourinho's constant complaining about referees in his doomed second spell at Chelsea? Or Nigel Pearson saying a journalist was an ostrich and ominously saying that he could "look after himself". Or Ferguson walking out of a post match BBC interview when he was asked Roy Keane's red cards.

Corholio

TheDoc wrote: »

Fault I assume related to the Bravo foul. It sounded as if he said fault, and the interviewer seemed to then also say it but he said foul. Everywhere in the world it's a foul on Bravo but not in England. Seemed to be having a little pop at the English. And I'm not surprised

In fairness to Pep he must be so confused with how England operates. Wasn't so long ago his City team looked incredible and everyone was brown nosing him in the media etc and now all of a sudden he's getting questions on his ideas and methods and being called a fraud (for the record,anyone who labels Pep a fraud or lucky I just instantly presume is a brain dead fan who takes cues from Paul Merson)

In the same timeframe Mourinho was being called a dinosaur and finished and now spearheading a team who are clearly making everyone else nervous.

Same with Klopp, their summer business puzzling and his refusal to spend and invest properly was questioned, then forgotten , and back in sharp focus today.

I'd be apaplectic if I was a manager dealing with this level of intelligence in the media (that still acts like it's "writing for the building site" as opposed a broad audience )

I've always rated and liked Guardiola and can see a similar pattern with Van Gaal already developing in his media stuff.

Whatever about allegiances and rivalries, I'm a football fan. And I love when great players or managers come to the premier league and I can see them more often. All too often there seems to be some weird agenda out there in places absolutely sweating to see these managers fail miserably.

Obviously I don't want to see City be successful or win anything , but I'm feeling a bit uneasy about the Guardiola evisceration.

The premier league needs to get over its self. I get what Wenger was saying last week. The league is getting a bit disappointing in terms of quality. And for the money coming in the league in general is getting worse. There is the top six who are interesting and then 14 other teams who are a varying bag of muck and ****e and the odd good peformance.

Watched a lot of football this season, feels more then recent years, and the amount of poor matches and poor teams in this league is baffling

It might be an over correction from Leicester last season but even down to refereeing, feels the leagues standard and quality is on the serious slide

Hounding out quality managers and or players is hardly helping the situation.

Hounding? It was the least loaded type of questioning you could have. I was genuinely surprised after I watched it, after hearing about it online earlier. It was nothing at all, previous managers have had infinitely worse stupid questioning from the press and nothing has happened. So people were brownnosing (praising) Pep when they were winning and now criticising him when they are losing or not playing well? At times the English media is said to 'eat it's own' with British managers and at other time foreign managers are 'picked on', it's selective criticism of the media depending on what things people want to remember.

GavRedKing

Chelsea

blueser wrote: »

Excellent post. The English media is among the lowest of the low. As you said, they build you up so that they can give you a kicking when things go wrong. Re. Pep's post match comments; I've seen worse. Remember LVG' glare? Or Mourinho's constant complaining about referees in his doomed second spell at Chelsea? Or Nigel Pearson saying a journalist was an ostrich and ominously saying that he could "look after himself". Or Ferguson walking out of a post match BBC interview when he was asked Roy Keane's red cards.

Mourinho, TBF to him, has stopped acting the dick when a mic is in front of him and a decision hasnt gone his way, he knows what happens, he questions something, he gets fined/banned, rinse and repeat, his interviews now arent as flakey as they were last year.

Pep will learn eventually to say little and give away little emotion, the media arent his friends, especially if City arent winning and its the same for every manager in the league, if a team chasing the title starts dropping points, the tougher questions and negative headlines will be spun more so.

Andersonisgod

Manchester United

GavRedKing wrote: »

Mourinho, TBF to him, has stopped acting the dick when a mic is in front of him and a decision hasnt gone his way, he knows what happens, he questions something, he gets fined/banned, rinse and repeat, his interviews now arent as flakey as they were last year.

Pep will learn eventually to say little and give away little emotion, the media arent his friends, especially if City arent winning and its the same for every manager in the league, if a team chasing the title starts dropping points, the tougher questions and negative headlines will be spun more so.

I'll just say that you're right in that every manager is hounded by the English media after a string of bad results (some more than others) but there's alwaya an extra bit of vigour in it when it comes to Guardiola. The man causes a rift. Some hail him as a genius and want to see him succeed wherever he goes, others think he's a fraud and want him to fail in England as though that's some kind of verification of English football's inherent superiority over the dreaded "foreigners." Even on this forum you can plainly see that where a topic concerns Guardiola the toxic nature of the debate rises tenfold. That always must be considered when you're watching a Guardiola press conference. Now watch as the usual suspects lose their minds at this post, ironically proving my point.

blueser

Andersonisgod wrote: »

I'll just say that you're right in that every manager is hounded by the English media after a string of bad results (some more than others) but there's alwaya an extra bit of vigour in it when it comes to Guardiola. The man causes a rift. Some hail him as a genius and want to see him succeed wherever he goes, others think he's a fraud and want him to fail in England as though that's some kind of verification of English football's inherent superiority over the dreaded "foreigners." Even on this forum you can plainly see that where a topic concerns Guardiola the toxic nature of the debate rises tenfold. That always must be considered when you're watching a Guardiola press conference. Now watch as the usual suspects lose their minds at this post, ironically proving my point.

Agreed. The bald fraud nonsense. Whatever you think about whether he's a fraud or not, why start dishing out the personal stuff? When I remember what I've got warnings on here for, it's laughable what seems to be allowed.

MD1990

I do get the sense many English pundits & in the media do want Pep to fail. The reason is his style of football is the polar opposite to English football.
Remember the screams from Gary Neville when Torres put Chelsea through in 2012 at the Nou Camp.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Who really cares how he reacts to the media.It's a complete and utter irrelevance.Frankly if I was a sports manager I'd be completely pig ignorant to them from day one and make no attempt to provide anything other than very short answers and just set the tone from day one that I'm not going to provide what you so don't bother digging.Also if you read the link below it looks like his reaction was 100% orchestrated at getting some point across:

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/15126/10716333/pep-guardiola-sky-sports-reporter-rob-palmer-reflects-on-interview-with-man-city-boss


The problem is that some people think now that legitimate criticism of him is going overboard when really it isn't it's just that it looks like it is being overly harsh as he was overpraised in the first place and was never quite as good as the ridiculous levels of hype would lead you to believe and any criticism now might seem overly harsh when it isn't.

PhlegmyMoses

Andersonisgod wrote: »

I'll just say that you're right in that every manager is hounded by the English media after a string of bad results (some more than others) but there's alwaya an extra bit of vigour in it when it comes to Guardiola. The man causes a rift. Some hail him as a genius and want to see him succeed wherever he goes, others think he's a fraud and want him to fail in England as though that's some kind of verification of English football's inherent superiority over the dreaded "foreigners." Even on this forum you can plainly see that where a topic concerns Guardiola the toxic nature of the debate rises tenfold. That always must be considered when you're watching a Guardiola press conference. Now watch as the usual suspects lose their minds at this post, ironically proving my point.

I'd put a healthy wager that most are in the middle. Normal man, very good manager, not the messiah and not a fraud.

Wrongway1985

MD1990 wrote: »

I do get the sense many English pundits & in the media do want Pep to fail. The reason is his style of football is the polar opposite to English football.
Remember the screams from Gary Neville when Torres put Chelsea through in 2012 at the Nou Camp.

Chelsea would have been going through despite that goal but ya classic stuff

Andersonisgod

Manchester United

PhlegmyMoses wrote: »

I'd put a healthy wager that most are in the middle. Normal man, very good manager, not the messiah and not a fraud.

Unfortunately that middle ground doesn't translate to newspaper sales and ask anyone on here, or just out and about, and that extremism certainly spills over into the opinions of every day people.

TheDoc

Corholio wrote: »

Hounding? It was the least loaded type of questioning you could have. I was genuinely surprised after I watched it, after hearing about it online earlier. It was nothing at all, previous managers have had infinitely worse stupid questioning from the press and nothing has happened. So people were brownnosing (praising) Pep when they were winning and now criticising him when they are losing or not playing well? At times the English media is said to 'eat it's own' with British managers and at other time foreign managers are 'picked on', it's selective criticism of the media depending on what things people want to remember.

That direct question wasn't the issue. But it was probably just the straw.

He was obviously feeling a bit aggrieved and it was just in his mind. You see managers and players do it all he time. Something has annoyed them and they just snap or are waiting for an opportunity.

The barrels have firmly turned on Guardiola, I find it notcisble as someone who treads the UK media a lot. I find it fascinating how they shape fan opinion.

For it to happen so fast is also telling. There is clearly a bit of agenda beneath the surface. And I say this as a United fan, obviously hoping he doesn't not succeed.

He's barely through half a season. Not so long ago he was being lauded. Klopp is receiving tons of plaudits and rightly so. But he also had a tipsy turvey first six months.

I stated on our United thread before the season , the City squad is massively over rated and needs to some serious work. I fail to understand how so many people rated their squad and throughout the summer months pundits and media and fans championing their squad as strong. Was hardly going to sort it all out in one window and he's not a magicisn, City have wasted awful money on terrible signings through the years. Their defensive options are laughable for a club of their wealth.

I just find it incredible that I'm reading some posts today from United fans seemingly writing Guardiola off.

Astonishing when you consider people were doing it about Mourinho not so long ago

TheDoc

PhlegmyMoses wrote: »

I'd put a healthy wager that most are in the middle. Normal man, very good manager, not the messiah and not a fraud.

Unfortunately football fans don't tend to operate in the middle. Football opinion rarely shows middle ground which is unfortunate as I believe most of the time that's where the answer lies

I'd go along with that description of Pep for me. I think he's an incredible manager who has rightly earned his success, but I don't think he has revolutionised football or is some second coming of Cryuff. But that is not a critique.

Very few people come along in Football and leave a lasting legacy that will transcend generations or become the new norm.

Arghus

It's kinda the way it always works though for someone managing a big club: lose a couple of games = full blown crisis. Win a few on the bounce = everything is sorted and glory is imminent.

The media can't get by on balance and long term appraisal of whether something is a success and a failure. It's all about right now.

duffman13

TheDoc wrote: »

That direct question wasn't the issue. But it was probably just the straw.

He was obviously feeling a bit aggrieved and it was just in his mind. You see managers and players do it all he time. Something has annoyed them and they just snap or are waiting for an opportunity.

The barrels have firmly turned on Guardiola, I find it notcisble as someone who treads the UK media a lot. I find it fascinating how they shape fan opinion.

For it to happen so fast is also telling. There is clearly a bit of agenda beneath the surface. And I say this as a United fan, obviously hoping he doesn't not succeed.

He's barely through half a season. Not so long ago he was being lauded. Klopp is receiving tons of plaudits and rightly so. But he also had a tipsy turvey first six months.

I stated on our United thread before the season , the City squad is massively over rated and needs to some serious work. I fail to understand how so many people rated their squad and throughout the summer months pundits and media and fans championing their squad as strong. Was hardly going to sort it all out in one window and he's not a magicisn, City have wasted awful money on terrible signings through the years. Their defensive options are laughable for a club of their wealth.

I just find it incredible that I'm reading some posts today from United fans seemingly writing Guardiola off.

Astonishing when you consider people were doing it about Mourinho not so long ago

The squad is very healthy in my mind, just not to play the way Pep wants! Man for man id say they have one of the best squads in the league but the style Pep wants to play doesn't suit the players. He's experimented a bit and it's not working, I believe he has time to go to the market and put a team together but players he's brought on in like Sane, Stones, Nolito and Bravo haven't lived up to expectations. Gundogan is a classy player and should suit the style but with his injury record is not dependable.

When you look at the Liverpool squad, man for man id say City are comfortably better but Liverpool are delivering much better performances than City. It'll be an interesting few months, I've seen Pep be a bit tetchy in the media particularly in Germany in his last season but today he seemed genuinely pissed. Keep picking up wins and the media moves back to someone else. Also it's not just Pep, a few media outlets starting a bit with Klopp today. It's a big circle to be fair

Andersonisgod

Andersonisgod wrote: »

I'll just say that you're right in that every manager is hounded by the English media after a string of bad results (some more than others) but there's alwaya an extra bit of vigour in it when it comes to Guardiola.

Could you specify the question that he was asked yesterday that was not only hounding, but hounding with vigour? It seemed like pretty tame stuff to me, was surprised to see him lose it so publicly over so little and with the wrong person. That's just...stupid.

Lukker-

Andersonisgod wrote: »

I'll just say that you're right in that every manager is hounded by the English media after a string of bad results (some more than others) but there's alwaya an extra bit of vigour in it when it comes to Guardiola. The man causes a rift. Some hail him as a genius and want to see him succeed wherever he goes, others think he's a fraud and want him to fail in England as though that's some kind of verification of English football's inherent superiority over the dreaded "foreigners." Even on this forum you can plainly see that where a topic concerns Guardiola the toxic nature of the debate rises tenfold. That always must be considered when you're watching a Guardiola press conference. Now watch as the usual suspects lose their minds at this post, ironically proving my point.

I'd say Mourinho is as maligned as Guardiola by the media. He's always good for a story, and more importantly he can't really help but take the bait. Maybe the media going after Mourinho is more fair after some of his behavior but I'm certain (as is the case with Mourinho now) the only thing that keeps them off your back is results.

Harry Palmr

Swansea have a new manager - Paul Clement of Bayern Munich has been replaced by Hermann Gerland so it's only a matter of time.

ronjo

Lukker- wrote: »

I'd say Mourinho is as maligned as Guardiola by the media. He's always good for a story, and more importantly he can't really help but take the bait. Maybe the media going after Mourinho is more fair after some of his behavior but I'm certain (as is the case with Mourinho now) the only thing that keeps them off your back is results.

And I would also say that a far great % of fans would revel in Mourihno failing than Guardiola failing.

GavRedKing

Chelsea

After Peps tenure at Barca and Bayern, I'm interested to see how he'll handle a more balanced challenge than his last 2 two jobs, as City are a rival, its only natural to want him to fail but I'm interested as to how he does during his time at City and what he wants to achieve and how he gopes about doing so.

Its only taken 5 months but hes tasted both sides of the media thus far, the adulation and the scorn and its a cycle that always repeats itself in England, like anywhere really, it sells papers and gets click.

SlickRic

I'm a fan of Guardiola. I loved him as a footballer. In fact, when I played Championship Manager 00/01 (my favourite game of all time), I used to take great pleasure in trying to sign him for a free as one of my very first acts as manager.

I'm a fan of Guardiola's teams, and the way his teams try to play the game. He was blessed with Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Puyol and Pique at Barcelona, but he still had to put his stamp on the team. He did. And they won. A lot. He won a lot again at Bayern. Leaving aside the fact Bayern pretty much dictate everything in the Bundesliga, usually hoovering up even their rivals' best players, he still had to put his stamp on the team. He couldn't play quite the form of Pepball he could at Barca, so there was adaptation. He did, and dominated domestically, if ultimately failing in Europe.

My issue with him at Manchester City is quite simple. He comes across as arrogant. He comes across as someone who has come to the English game, and is amazingly frustrated that he hasn't been able to walk in and dominate. To Henry in a Sky interview, he commented on how long the ball stayed in the air, like it was this heinous act. And how he wasn't used to his teams having to compete for second or third balls in the middle of the pitch. He talked about how that's not the culture in Spain. He talked about how the fact this wasn't the culture in Spain is why they won so many trophies, and do so well in Europe.

He cannot wrap his read around the 'English' way of football; how teams are in your face, don't let you settle on the ball, and aren't afraid to impose yourself physically - all perfectly fine attributes to display on a football field, but attributes you'd swear Pep never saw in his life.

There is more than one way to play football. I commend him for being steadfast in his beliefs, but you can't then get frustrated at other teams' way of playing, and for that matter, an entire culture of football. He doesn't dictate the terms of how the game should be played.

He was asked absolutely nothing out of the ordinary yesterday, yet he decided to make the whole episode entirely awkward for no reason.

Just get on with it. I don't know why you seem so bemused, Pep, that this is the way football is played in England. It's been this way for a while. Teams don't just sit back and allow it to be a purely technical game of football. There are other attributes that have to be displayed. Barcelona's team was dominant, in no small part, because the players were so fúcking good, that you couldn't impose yourself on them as they'd always find a way out. Bayern were dominant in the Bundesliga for a similar reason under him - they had the majority of the best players. It's why he failed in Europe with them - Bayern didn't have one of the greatest collection of players ever assembled.

At City, these luxuries are not there. And IMO, he can't stand it. He has to figure out other ways to win.

For his football ideology to be realised, he needs the best players.

Iused2likebusts

There is huge overreaction to every poor result the top 6 have this season. They are all having good seasons now that utd have got their act together. All on at least 2ppg utd slightly under it. Chelsea having an unbelievable run and points tally is probably the cause of the overreaction.

Lucas Hood

United are above 2 ppg now along with the others.

The run united are on now would usually see a team move up a couple of places but not anymore it seems.

Iused2likebusts

Lucas Hood wrote: »

United are above 2 ppg now along with the others.

The run united are on now would usually see a team move up a couple of places but not anymore it seems.

Just slightly below they have 39 pts from 20 games.

Lucas Hood

Iused2likebusts wrote: »

Just slightly below they have 39 pts from 20 games.

Right you are I was looking at spurs my mistake.

Iused2likebusts

Lucas Hood wrote: »

Right you are I was looking at spurs my mistake.

I'd be very surprised if a team would be 6th in any other season with that points total after 20 games.

Bridge93

They would be 3rd or 4th any other season. This is useful for comparing year on year

https://www.premierleague.com/tables?co=1&se=21&mw=1-20&ha=-1

sky88

I think outside the top 6 the quality of the league is poor this year. Ive tried to watch some watch some matches with lower teams and it has been painful. Boro vs Leicester for example. i know its like this in a lot of leagues but dont remember such a gulf of class in the PL before.

The influx of the money hasn't seemed to matter as they have bought poorly.

Dirty Dingus McGee

sky88 wrote: »

I think outside the top 6 the quality of the league is poor this year. Ive tried to watch some watch some matches with lower teams and it has been painful. Boro vs Leicester for example. i know its like this in a lot of leagues but dont remember such a gulf of class in the PL before.

The influx of the money hasn't seemed to matter as they have bought poorly.

The money isn't making any difference as Premier League clubs have to pay a premium price for players and are being fleeced by the teams on the continent as they know they can afford to pay more.

rob316

The caliber of managers in the top 6 is very high also so that would be a factor too. Conte, Klopp, Jose, Wenger, Pep and Pochettino are the best in world football.

Jayop

Chelsea

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

The money isn't making any difference as Premier League clubs have to pay a premium price for players and are being fleeced by the teams on the continent as they know they can afford to pay more.

Yeah, I think the huge money in the league is only beneficial at the really top end of the market where you can afford to compete with Real etc for those 70m+ players. For your average player costing 25m in the league a club on the continent would pay half that or less.

Wasn't this Swedish defender United are linked with being touted around last summer for about 1/4 of what United are being said to be paying.

Agent Coulson

Leicester

Fantastic goal from Bournemouth

LuckyGent88

Daniels gets some amount of goals.

Johner

Can't say Bournemouth don't deserve that, been excellent so far. Great goal.

Johner

Penalty!

LuckyGent88

And now a peno to Bournemouth. Correct decision too

Agent Coulson

Leicester

That was great refereeing letting play continue and a pen to Bournemouth 2 - 0

Harry Palmr

Strangely decent refereeing tonight

by the Xhaka is turning into a real mixed bag for Arsenal, kinda glad Liverpool do not have a Xhaka-Can midfield, in fact I'd feel for us if we did!

Johner

Xhaka is brainless.

blueser

Johner wrote: »

Xhaka is brainless.

Haven't got a clue what he was complaining about. His forearm was pushed into the middle of the Bournemouth player's back. Blatant penalty.

GavRedKing

Chelsea

Xhaka is very, very naive there.

Lukker-

Eddie Howe is such a promising young manager, wonder where he'll end up next.

Harry Palmr

Arsenal, obviously. He needs another season before any big ideas I think, in retrospect Brendan Rodgers moved too soon arguably.

Lukker-

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Arsenal, obviously. He needs another season before any big ideas I think, in retrospect Brendan Rodgers moved too soon arguably.

He'd prob be a good fit there, but yeah he does need another season. Probably good timing for Wenger to retire too.

Jayop

Chelsea

In fairness, I'm not watching the game so had a wee gander in the Arse forum and they all even said it was a pen.