The WINNERS and, the LOSER?……
LVG again proves how he gets the best out of his players…..
Arsenal find a way past West Brom……
Man City show why they’re the champions…..
Liverpool and Tottenham dig out 3 points……
Everybody wins except Chelsea……..
Man city proved the doubters wrong by putting up a fantastic display. We all knew Southampton would end the year with a run of very difficult games. That started with their game against Aston Villa and now City? Bad news is that it would not get any better.
But Man City? Undoubtedly the best squad in the country. You can actually fit in 2 premiership teams in there
Hart – Zabaleta, Kompany, Demichellis, Clichy – Yaya Toure, Fernandinho, Navas, Nasri, Jovetic- Aguero: then you have Cabarello- Kolarov, Nastatic, mangala, Sagna,- silva, Milner, Lampard, Fernando – Dzeko
How did the others watch them amass 2 PREMIERSHIP TEAMS? I still have Man city down as favourites on paper, and only the wits of Jose Mourinho can take the title from City…..fantastic run of form, good win at Southampton
I said in my last post that Chelsea need 2, maybe 3 more class acts to get a squad of ‘dependables’ Chelsea have started their last 3 games with the same team! That tells me that either the manager doesn’t trust the other players to manage a hectic schedule or he felt that the team was winning and so didn’t need to be changed…… I would say its more likely he doesn’t yet believe changing the team would bring about the same result the main team would be producing. The boys looked tired and reacted slowly to the methods of Gus Poyet’s boys. So what’s the problem with the squad? Why is Jose (the master of rotation) reluctant to make changes after so many games? Let’s look at the squad:
Courtois- Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta- Matic, Fabregas- Hazard, Willian, Oscar- Costa. Then you have Ramirez, Drogba, Remy, Obi, Felipe, Schurrle. When you look at the substitutes, you ask yourself; how many of these can walk into the Manchester team?
Ramirez is injured, and as for Drogba, Costa has been injured and not playing for so long that Jose feels he has enough energy to play as often as he wants to, so he doesn’t alternate him with Drogba.
Remy? Jose is still struggling to find a position to fit him in as he is not the ‘powerhouse centre forward that Pivots Jose’s attacks, and neither is he an attacking winger. What about Schurrle? Oh well…….
I think Chelsea are the only genuine contenders for the title, BUT ONLY IF Jose can find a way to rotate his team and get through the hectic schedule at the this time of the year….points dropped at Sunderland as everybody played in the middle of the park
Arsenal just have too many “similar players” : Cazorla, Rosicky, Wiltshire, Oxlade, Ramsey, podolski, Ozil, Welbeck, and even Sanchez (but with an extra dimension)
Why have the same sort of players all over the park without variations?
But all the same Arsenal would open the defence of any weak team. Their Achilles heel always tend to be the very organised and good teams….
Well, as expected they also won at West Brom
If you need a manager to guarantee you not to win the league,but guarantee champions league football, Wenger is your man. Whether he is running out of time now is another thing.
LVG is putting the house in order and he is developing his 13/14 players who he can rely on. My bet is almost on him to win a Champions League spot this season. He has found a balance between his players and his style of play. Solid performance against Hull City, good job.
While Liverpool found a way past West Brom and Tottenham saw off Everton, all the top guns are winners this weekend except Chelsea.
We wait until Wednesday to see how effective the weekend wins are, the title race is developing into an interesting spectacle, especially this December/January period.
The next few games promise to be interesting……….