goon wrote:

Don’t let today fool you, United are still weak going forward. Pogba is all they have.

United were trash and I would say the only reason they beat Chelsea so comfortably, apart from the fact that Chelsea had Championship players at 9 and 10, was that Chelsea were trying to integrate too much in the way of change from last season. Whilst United just have a somewhat better defence, no adaption required. I fully expected a United rout for that reason today. They would probably have beaten us today too.

Chelsea will improve when their new players adapt and the team adapts to Lampard's tactics. And obviously Rudiger, Kanté (being fit enough to start) and Willian returning will help them too. They're obviously woefully short of quality though and can do nothing to improve on Mount and Abraham this season.

United, though, that's them. There's no new players to integrate or patterns of play to adapt to. They were ragged as shit and are very lucky Chelsea, as ragtag as they were, didn't score 4 themselves today.

Looked like 5th and 6th place teams to me. Unless Emery botches our season very badly.

Coombs wrote:

Was a great Pogba performance.

He lost the ball a lot of times in the first half and was very subdued. Not the penalty taker or the captain, and he played that way. He was better in the second half and when the game became stretched he showed his class, but honestly, if you watched that game again you'd see mistakes everywhere from Pogba.

Obviously Mctominay and Perreira made as many or more, but they're not Pogba or even close. The midfield was pitiful first half and for chunks of the second, but Chelsea were too poor to capitalise so it goes unnoticed.

goon wrote:

Have to say I don’t like Jose but the guy knows his football, insight on another level to other pundits.

What did he say post-match? I missed that.

I agree about him as a pundit. I think the guy us super-intelligent full stop. His command of the English language is exceptional too.

Ricky1985 wrote:

Coombs wrote:

Was a great Pogba performance.

He lost the ball a lot of times in the first half and was very subdued. Not the penalty taker or the captain, and he played that way. He was better in the second half and when the game became stretched he showed his class, but honestly, if you watched that game again you'd see mistakes everywhere from Pogba.

Obviously Mctominay and Perreira made as many or more, but they're not Pogba or even close. The midfield was pitiful first half and for chunks of the second, but Chelsea were too poor to capitalise so it goes unnoticed.

Yea, I saw the mistakes, they were about the same as Xhaka today. He made the difference doing what he is good at. Driving runs and outside of the boot passes, etc. Don't think the low quality of the game went unnoticed by anyone here. MU midfield was ripped to shreds in the first half.

Ricky1985 wrote:

goon wrote:

Have to say I don’t like Jose but the guy knows his football, insight on another level to other pundits.

What did he say post-match? I missed that.

I agree about him as a pundit. I think the guy us super-intelligent full stop. His command of the English language is exceptional too.

Fucking strange how likeable he is as a pundit. I guess you can't help but respect people who talk sense, and when they are no longer a threat. Despite, genuinely hating him as a manager.

Ricky1985 wrote:

goon wrote:

Have to say I don’t like Jose but the guy knows his football, insight on another level to other pundits.

What did he say post-match? I missed that.

I agree about him as a pundit. I think the guy us super-intelligent full stop. His command of the English language is exceptional too.

Nothing revolutionary, just small basic snippets with regards to tactics etc that immediately make sense while the rest of them carry on with pub talk.

When I think of how dense Theirry comes across as a pundit by way of comparison it makes you wonder.

Souness tried to chip in and you immediately figure out why he failed as a manager, Sunday league level input.

Ricky1985 wrote:

goon wrote:

Have to say I don’t like Jose but the guy knows his football, insight on another level to other pundits.

What did he say post-match? I missed that.

I agree about him as a pundit. I think the guy us super-intelligent full stop. His command of the English language is exceptional too.

Graeme "it ain't rocket science" Souness.

Kanté needs to leave Chelsea. Too good to waste his prime at that shower.

Just seen highlights of the City game. Ok, I can understand the offside decision and the decision on retaking the penalty. What I don't get it how Sterling's third goal stood. That was a blatant, blatant foul on Haller by Gundogan.

It's because pep is enriching the EPL with such enamoring football with limited funds. You just have to give them the inches so they can carry on.

deardevil wrote:

Ricky1985 wrote:

What did he say post-match? I missed that.

I agree about him as a pundit. I think the guy us super-intelligent full stop. His command of the English language is exceptional too.

Fucking strange how likeable he is as a pundit. I guess you can't help but respect people who talk sense, and when they are no longer a threat. Despite, genuinely hating him as a manager.

i stopped hating him after accepting that wenger wasn't good for the club. i really only hated him because of his first run with chelsea and the constant sniping at wenger and i would fight someone back then over wenger. shit really it's the only reason i hated sir fungus as well.

Nothing to do with their embarrassing antics, harassing referees or poking opposition managers in the eye then?

Muswell Hill Gooner wrote:

Ricky1985 wrote:

What did he say post-match? I missed that.

I agree about him as a pundit. I think the guy us super-intelligent full stop. His command of the English language is exceptional too.

I'd like to imagine he was inwardly rolling his eyes once Neville started talking at 2.50.

Neville is wrong. Lacazette, Aubamayeng, Sokratis, Guendouzi, Holding and Xhaka are strong type personalities. I feel team ethos has been there.

Neville strikes me as someone who doesn't watch a lot of football outside his pundit duties. He never has any insight on new players, etc Some pundits have a deep knowledge of English football including lower league, some know a lot about specific foreign leagues, some have great knowledge of young players coming through all Neville knows is what it was like to be in that United dressing room for his career and thats why he goes on about characters constantly.

It also occurred to me over the weekend that his United team must have been a dour place to go and play football despite the success. I was listening to Scholes and thinking how unpleasant and uncharismatic he, Neville, Giggs, Keane, etc all were. Fergie pretty much ran Beckham out of the club once he started developing a personality. Meanwhile we had Henry, Pires, Freddie, Vieira, etc exuding charisma, confidence and looking like they were having a great time while still managing to be serious about their football.

Was quite telling that Mourinho was able to cite watching Pepe at Lille last season or At. Madrid's pre-season form and weave them into his analysis. I'm willing to bet that none of the others were aware that At. Madrid beat Juventus the other day or have even seen a minute of Joao Felix play.

It's not really their fault, the likes of Neville, Carragher, Scholes etc are lifers who've been indoctrinated at one club and mainly played under one manager - it's not that they are wrong all the time but their insights into football could be covered in a season, listening to them basically rehash the same opinion 5 years in a row doesn't really provide much analysis particularly when you have Mourinho who has won multiple titles across Europe with a couple of CL trophies for good measure. Honestly I'd rather Sky moved away from ex-players and picked up a few managers with recent experience.

Having said that I'm waiting for Mourinho to snap and make the whole thing about him at some point. Smart guy but he's capable of picking a fight in an empty room.

Or even coaches or scouts. Plenty of ex-players who've done years of that if they want name recognition too. Liam Brady used to be a pundit on Irish TV and he had a great deal of knowledge, always knew about young players coming through in England and for international football he knew about players from all over Europe that weren't playing in the top leagues. Thats far more valuable than an ex-player like Neville who was at his peak nearly 20 years ago. Even a more recently retired player would offer more insight into a modern dressing room.

Claudius wrote:

What's sad is the one player who has had a chance to leave the country and play for Madrid sounds like he has given away half his brain. I have no idea who decided Michael Owen should ever present his thoughts on football.

Or anything really:

Claudius wrote:

What's sad is the one player who has had a chance to leave the country and play for Madrid sounds like he has given away half his brain. I have no idea who decided Michael Owen should ever present his thoughts on football.

Not the only one. McManaman too. One full brain between them.

Neville is ok, he tries to look at things in more depth than your average ex player and some ex managers and at least tries to appreciate modern methods. The rest of the United lot are dreadful and suffer to a much bigger extent from exactly what Mirth talks about, obsessed by how they did things.

You will rarely have pundits on the level of Mourinho, Pep or Arsene. These guys obsess over football to an insane level of detail. It's one of the reasons why I have hope for Emery, because I reckon he's got a similar obsession from what I've read.

The ex-footballers are great for anecdotes and insight into the inner-workings of top-level football, but rarely for analysis of the game.

Mirth wrote:

Claudius wrote:

What's sad is the one player who has had a chance to leave the country and play for Madrid sounds like he has given away half his brain. I have no idea who decided Michael Owen should ever present his thoughts on football.

Or anything really:

Oh no. No, no, no. That needs to be removed from the world permanently, gone forever for the good of humanity. I'm not sure I can live in a world where that exists.

They should probably delete the video too.

goon wrote:

Neville is ok, he tries to look at things in more depth than your average ex player

Does he though, or is it just that he's usually sitting beside Redknapp and Carragher who are complete dullards.

Seriously, how was that not a free kick at 28 seconds and why was VAR not used to rule that goal out. That was a disgusting foul on Haller by Gundogan.

Our two best strikers are Aubameyang and Lacazette.
Chelsea has Tammy and Giroud.

Maradona on the bench for Everton.

Top of the league! Top of the league!

We are top of the league!

Pukki with a brace for Norwich. I had him down as one of the PL top scorers after the season he had last year in the Championship.

Trossard scores in his first start for Brighton too. Lots of interesting players in the smaller teams this year.

Pukki hattrick. Four goals in total his first two Premier League games.

jesus christ ings should have equalized

Pool looked professional in their victory. Mane is some player

Now City are camped out in Spurs’ penalty area.

City all over Spurs. Goal feels inevitable.

Get in. Crush them City