Thank you Barca

EDIT: Everton hold Arsenal 1-1.
Fearless performance by Everton. Arsenal played pretty well too. Great match.

This post has been edited by Zeuss1220: Dec 9 2013, 01:52 AM

Wouldn't mind a trip to hell in the next CL round. We'd also get to see the return of the king.

Schweini+Martinez of 2012-2013

To me, although I have never been anti-Mikel, I feel he's just half of really good player. As a DM, he's going to see a lot of the ball coming back to him from advanced areas. It's the job of the pivot to receive and distribute it foward quickly. That's where he lacks. By the time, he receives the ball, takes a few touches, there's no more option for him to pass forward comfortably, instead passes sideways.

Rami is engine in midfield, box to box player. Extra man in defense AND attack. However he's passing qualities aren't the best.

Lamps of course can pass, however in deep positions he's not very good, and his best qualities are when going forward. So he's not greatest option in that pivot position.

Essien is his heyday is a perfect player. A powerhouse in midfield. But his form is quite poor. Can't really see him in regular XI soon.

Out of these 4, only Ramires whom I think is the best option for one of the 2 spots. However, pairing him with any of the other 3 don't make up a particularly effective midfield combination. Now the question is will consider Luiz or Oscar in that position.

My predictions is, by beginning of next season, none of our current strikers will be in Chelsea.
We must keep Lukaku when he returns from loan and we need to buy at least one more striker. Our AMs will be better next season, better take full advantage of that. Deeper midfield need to be fixed and overhaul the forward department.

Torres 50m for 3 and half seasons I puas hati edi. But I don't see him being in Chelsea any longer than that, even if he stays, I don't think he would be in first XI. Depends on him whether he wants to be bench player or not.

Ashley Cole offered contract extensions along with JT and Lamps.

And also, I can't see why someone like Mata wouldn't favored be part of a title-winning team.

Arsenal were already looking for a nightmare draw, but they got the worst possible.

In extra time, anyone can win. But we have no excuse for not killing off the game in normal time. The team is more than capable of seeing off Sunderland.

JM seems to be hinting in change in approach. My lineup prediction for Arsenal game.

----------Ba
Eden----------Schrulle
------------------------
--Oscar------Rami
--------Mikel
--------------------
Cole-Terry-Cahill-Iva
------------------------
---------Cech

seems familiar?

The trade-off of 433 is when you have attacking wingers and deeper midfielders, the striker has will see more direct balls and expected to hold off defenders until support arrives. Transition from defense to attack is slower from midfield perspective. Either the wingers will have to run with ball or strikers have to hold off defenders. 433 can also be played with possession with "wingers" coming inside and play the ball between 2CM's and striker. That will be more difficult since there's more demand for width from full backs, which is risky when possession is lost invulnerable areas or we can't break/stop opponent play quick enough ala' Sergio Busquets.

But looking at how our season has progress, THAT half starting to seem like an isolated case. We can't even repeat it in the 2nd half of the same game.

Immediate notification (goal or no goal) to ref via wristwatch-like device. No delay. You can't even notice the ref checking the watch. Just see him giving goal or not. Very effective I would say.

P.S. The Office

JM Press Conference: Back four vs Arsenal - Azpi, JT, Cahill/Luiz, Iva.

Looks like he's set on Azpi as first choice LB over Cole. Cole's recent visit to Gunner's X'mas party wouldn't have done himself any favors.
Alienation - classic JM.

Yup, monday night / tuesday morning 4am. Zombie Blue Army on Tuesday. Good thing I'm having break next week.

His heart's as pure as the baby's.

This post has been edited by Zeuss1220: Dec 21 2013, 05:51 PM

Suarez playing like god now. "In form" would be an understatement.

mine too.
Had to use my last penny to replace Aguero with him.

.....compared to their home PERFOMANCES.
Results wise, we are not that much better either
Their home results only slightly better than us, (W8D0L0 compared to W7D1L0)
This should say more than enough about our success on travels too.

We had longer break before tonite's match. Scheduling issues are always a problem especially this time of the year.
_________________________________________________________________________

With Everton victorious vs Swansea, we are in 5th place with a game in hand, and what a game it is. It could either see, over one week, Arsenal dropping from 1st to 4th or Chelsea dropping from 3rd to 5th. A draw will result in Chelsea squeezing into top 4 by a hair.

Still very tight at the top, and almost half the season has passed.

I was thinking of this video while watching the game. Was about to mention it here too.

I think Mou's tactics were good. Just that final move must be clinical. We only lacked that IMO. 4-3-3 suited for Mikel, suited for Lamps, so they delivered good performances as expected.

4-3-3 is meant for that sort of play. Two central mids also provide numbers up front, while the holding midfielder sits deep.

Today's game I think this was a good step forward. We played more effectively compared to previous games, so we should encourage that. Mikel's rave performance was simply due to the role he was given, more suited to his ability. To be honest, we don't have the right players to play 4-2-3-1 yet, particularly the '2'. Now we'll have to keep moving forward. We still need more work to be done in attack. As time goes on, we should improve, meanwhile, defence should be kept tight. Like Mou said after Sunderland game, we cannot see this team scoring a lot goals at the moment, so we should stop conceding.