Arsene said it was 100 percent a foul in the post match interview. Hard to argue with that much confidence.
Would have been fine with two points out of the week on Monday so the three today is just icing. Fairly easy run of fixtures coming up as well, can even put a bit more distance, particularly when City and Arsenal start getting into the CL knockouts. Interesting to see how Conte starts treating the cup now, wonder if we see more first teamers there and more kids in the league. One last double for JT?
Costa looks like he doesn't practice with the rest of the players anymore. No chemistry on passes. Matic just having a shit game. Game needs cesc
I think we need to try michy. Game isn't going to be a counter. I think back to the goal very early in the year that he headed down for costa
They literally wasted a minute with bs in stoppage time and Friend doesn't add on any more time. Pedro was extremely frustrating in the second half
I am a bit nervous about luiz's injury. It looks to be getting worse. He won't play the FA cup this weekend so he will get some time to recover but I hope he can improve at some point before the end of the season. He was really struggling against burnley.
We don't look terrible but we don't look great. Ake Zouma and Terry back 3 are still feeling themselves out. Hazard has been pretty invisible but they are basically covering him off the ball. Wolves has two yellows. May factor in the 2nd half.
Really good for Costa to get a goal, he's seemed pretty frustrated the last few games. Swansea at home next weekend and it's before every other team in the chasing pack, winning and putting pressure on them to keep up is nice.
Whenever the computer manages the full speed run to the ball followed by a turn in FIFA I always scream how unrealistic it is yet kante pulls that off in real life.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/eden-hazard-thanks-antonio-conte-9857428 Not much to it but hazard heaps some praise on conte. I really think the 3-4-3 gets WAY too much credit for our season instead of the manager and the players. Conte has gotten better form from a lot of players who underachieved last season and form people didn't know even existed from others. We should win the title (anything less at this stage would be hard to take) but we can't fall into the same trap as last time. We don't need to buy just to buy but we need to integrate 1-2 youth into the team (ake and Christensen), figure out if cesc wants to stay or go, figure out if costa will give us another year, buy an elite CM and look to see if we can upgrade LB and provide real competition for Moses at RB.
Pretty much tracks with my thinking. I think Veratti as the dream signing in midfield but also need to make a decision on Mishy. Would like to see one of the attackers (Abraham, Mosunda, and/or Traore) really get a shot up top. Are we out on RLC? What about Chalobah? There just seems to be a gap (20-24 years old) where are guys are too young for the first team, too old for the academy, and too impatient for another loan.
Nothing I have seen from any of the academy players except ake and Christensen leads me to think they will challenge for starting XI. Moses (granted preseason) always seemed to flash to me. His position surprises me obviously but I always saw the talent. Chalobah and RLC have clear talent but they press too much and don't have enough impact against poor competition. I like michy but I don't think he fits what our current team needs from the striker position. I hope we can keep costa but if that won't happen then swapping costa for morata or greizmann would work. Abraham is ready for a premier league loan but it has to be the right one. I think if he has a good premier league loan he can be #2 striker in 2018-19. Verrati would be great but having no height in the midfield while also starting an undersized CB in azpi and potentially another in ake is concerning. We could be VERY susceptible to set piece goals against. I also want the team to be able to set up in a different formation. The 3-4-3 works so well because of the fit for our best and third best players Kante and Luiz. Luiz has been unreal because the role gives him more freedom to pass while giving him help defensively. Beyond bonucci I'm not sure there is a better player for that role. Kante's ability allows a 2 man midfield to be functional and not overrun even against good teams. Without either of those (mostly kante) for any period of time and I think we are in big trouble. Look at Leicester. We have a lot more talent but that 2 man midfield didn't work without kante. Maybe for a game here and there but I want us to have something else in our back pocket. We didn't look good at all in 4-3-3. Maybe it's a 3-5-2 but we have even struggled at times with that.
No disagreement on the height issue but Matic doesn't have the range of passing for me against the poor teams that pack it in and Cesc is too slow against the good teams. Veratti fixes those issues but then opens another with the height question. I still think 4-3-3 is the best formation in the long run for balance and stability, particularly against the teams in Europe for next season. Biggest questions are what that does to Luiz, does Matic fall off a cliff again without a third defender behind him, and if we can find some every day Fullbacks besides Dave (I'm still not totally sold on Marco or Moses as the long term answer in anything but exactly how they're used now).
4-3-3 with Luiz as the holding mid is incredibly similar to our current formation. Luiz drops in the middle to make it a 5 man defense like mourinho has used at times and it looks exactly like a 3-4-3 with less aggressive fullbacks. I think we use the 3 man D because conte prefers it and because Luiz is the perfect player to play in the middle. I think conte knows that we are a completely different team without kante or Luiz though and would have to look at changes should they be out. I just think it's more likely (especially with Dave playing better at RCB than RB and ake looking good at LCB) that we stick to the 3 man back and use 3-5-2 to change formation.
I do love how some teams are firing managers and looking to sell players who suck while we are talking tactics because there is literally nothing to complain about.
I think you're crazy. The 343 completely changed your team. Defends with 5 across the back behind kante and attacks with an extra player with the wing backs getting forward. Obviously Kante is just unbelievable and makes the whole thing tick but the ability to defend that deep but not give up the ability to go forward is what makes it so good. I also just love the formation and loved watching it this summer and hoped Arsenal would try something similar.
Not saying the formation doesn't deserve praise. I just see that the formation seems to get more credit than conte who saw that this iteration of 3 at the back (which is really a 3-4-2-1 and not a 3-4-3) would work versus the 3-5-2 that he has typically used. I am surprised that none of the other big times in England (especially the ones struggling defensively) haven't tried it. Goes to show how big of a call it is to radically change like that
Isn't that one of the requirements for being a world class player? Arsene could have signed you but didn't.
At home against the suddenly tough to unlock Swansea I think we should start cesc over matic. Will we? I don't think so but our attacking stars are not firing on all cyllanders (costas wolves goal important to breaking the mini drought) and we could use better passing and vision for balls into the attackers. I also think Pedro should start over Willian. I also hope Luiz got the proper treatment and is good to go moving forward. I have a feeling he is going to get an operation once we lock up the league or the season ends. That injury has been lingering for awhile.