Remodez

Was a typical Giroud goal as well, despite his build he is actually a poacher. Think the Aresnal players expected a dominate force in the air or something with the amount of crossing they were feeding him early on. He's certainly up there, that's for sure. And I think the fact that they got such an experienced close to world class player for dirt cheap is another reason why they rate him so highly.I think if Mata had the same speed and shooting ability as Carzola I would agree with the rest of you guys and say it's a no contest but he doesn't. That said I still think, all things considered, that Mata is better and will no doubt be miles better than Carzola when he reaches his age. Also have to keep in mind that it's easier for Mata to look better with the likes of Oscar and Hazard than it is for Carzola to look better with Gervinho/Podolski and Walcott/Ox. Not taking anything away from Mata, already said he was the better player (Proved last season when he still looked good when playing with Malouda, etc), but I'm just putting things into perspective and giving you reasons why people may rate Carzola so much.

As for Romeu, well part of me is disappointed and another part isn't surprised that he still hasn't got games. Said before I'll wait till Jan before commenting though.

There's no such thing as a defensive box to box midfielder, that's a contradiction.

Romeu, Bertrand and Apzi should all start or at least come on. Not that fussed about the rest although I would like to see more of the Cahill and Luiz partnership, I think it has a lot of potential and it generally works better than when Terry plays with either of them.

First time in ages that Arsenal don't have the youngest squad in the EPL. Have to agree to disagree then, he wasn't as good as Cole going forward in my view. His crossing was awful so even when he did get forward he couldn't do much with it apart from cutting inside/creating space for wingers/strikers. Now Cole's crossing wasn't that great either but it was a hell of a lot better than Evra's and his runs made the same spaces Evra's did. Agreed, worst thing is Evra doesn't even care. He just goes about his business without putting any effort into it. Good to watch from my perspective but must be horrid for a United fan or even a football fan in general.

I take great joy in watching Evra being useless. Can't believe people actually thought he was anywhere near as good as Cole, nevermind the best LB in the world. Even in his prime he was leagues behind Cole.

Shelvey (Already mentioned, not crap at all), Flanagan (Not played much due to competition for his positions but looked very good when he did), Robinson (Not sure how you haven't heard of him, he's one of the best young LB's around), Morgan, Ngoo, Wisdom, Kelly, Suso and Joao Carlos. Those are just ones I've seen, could also include Sinclair but I had never even heard of him until last week. These are all guys that can very easily get into the Liverpool team and get games. I think most of them have been called up to the first team actually.Forgot about Pacheco but he's like 21 and still can't get into the team. He's talented, no question about that but his attitude let him down.

Like Samdwich said, management is more than tactics. There's no doubt that there are others out there better at him when it comes to getting results. Jose and various other experts have spoken very highly about AVB's tactically planning and his understanding of the game, Porto didn't just pick him for no reason he showed superb ability very early on and there are even documents about his tactics and reports that have been published online which show how extremely detailed and through his tactics really are. To be expected really, he learned from the best. In that respect, I can see his point when he says very few are as good as him tactically. I don't necessarily agree as I also think he needs to prove it elsewhere too but it's not a laughable comment to make.

I assumed he was being serious and thought you were laughing because you disagree that he isn't good tactically. I didn't even pay special attention to the "very few are" bit. Although I can see what he means by the very few are bit.

I agree but I was responding to Celery. Probably was being sarcastic looking back at it.

That's right, I forgot AVB's career started at Chelsea. Silly me.

Also he's more of a attacking mid/centre mid than a winger so it's understandable that his crossing wouldn't be that great.

Why is that funny?

Can't say I agree, his passing/touch/technical ability are perfectly fine. I'm not sure what games you watched to get to that conclusion. Of course it could be better but for his age and experience it's head and shoulders above the rest, which is why he is so highly rated. Crossing is irrelevant as he's never really been one to run down flanks and whip crosses in, he takes players on and looks for the pass with his vision. Crossing is his last resort and it probably does show in the fact that he's not that great at it. i don't think he's overrated, like with most pundits and articles/football writers you have to take what they say with a pinch of salt and realise that they aren't speaking on the behalf of everyone else. I can see why their fans would compare him to Rooney though, same build, similar ability, same strengths, etc. It's not that far fetched. Gazza though, well I think someone's having you on there mate. Can't have been a proper fan. Comparing him to Walcott is just silly and shows real ignorance in my view. He already has ten times the ability that Walcott currently posses and will only get better.

Probably Mikel because I expect performances like that from Mata, JT and Cech but Mikel really impressed me today. I don't remember him putting a foot wrong, as always in the right place and playing smart passes.

Liverpool have so many quality youngsters, Sterling isn't even their best one either.

Very pleased with the performance overall, thought we deserved the win by far. I expected Arsenal to be better attacking wise though but credit to the team for limiting their attacking influence. Can't say I'm surprised at Arsenal's poor defending and them eventually conceding, said before that a pairing of Vermaelen and Koscienly weakens their defence so I was glad to see Vermaelen starting. It was just a matter of us being solid at the back because we were always going to score with the team we had out and those two paring at CB.

Surprised at how poorly Koscielny is playing, I think it's because he's playing with Vermalen.

Should hope so, we've never lost with him as a ref.

Would say it's more down to Bould than Wenger.

Watched Guimaraes v Braga match last night, wasn't really impressed with Lalkovic. Granted Braga pretty much controlled the match and he only had 20 mins or so to impress but when he did get involved he didn't do much at all. Few decent runs I guess that would have developed into something more if he was spotted but all in all it was a pretty lacklustre in my view. Slightly disappointed that he can't break into the first team and has been restricted to a sub role, their forwards are really nothing special.

I would hardly call what Lampard and Mikel do as a double pivot. It that's RDM's intention then it's the worse double pivot I have ever seen.

Newcastle just gave Pardew an 8 year contract. Da fuq? That's going to be some fine severance pay when/if he gets sacked.

That was more down to his poor positioning than Valencia actually beating him in the air fair and square. He left himself with too much to do and by the time he realised it was too late. If he was tighter to Valencia then there's no way he's beating Vermaelen to that header. Vermaelen still hasn't improved on his positioning and lapses of concentration, which I find odd and is part of the reason why I think the defence is much solid without him. Don't particularly care who starts though, still think we should win regardless. As for Koscielny I think that's a bit harsh on his first season, you could see he was a superb tackler, probably one of the best in the league, very early on but it was just other areas of his game that needed to be polished. He has improved a lot since then though you're right, I remember the match v Barcelona where he just destroyed everyone. He was literally a brick wall, Vermaelen can only dream of being able to put on a performance like that.

True but that doesn't affect his game for Arsenal because he's always in the right place, hardly ever has to sprint around frantically like Vermaelen and is a solid tackler so he can win the ball easily further up the pitch. His only other downside is that his aerial duels are so inconsistent (he doesn't even jump most of the times) and that happens to be Vermaelen's strong point.Vermaelen is overrated in my view, he's a good defender but wouldn't say their best. Koscielny is better than him at pretty much everything. I forgot for a split second that Vermaelen was their captain though, thought it was Areta for some reason so yeah he will most likely start. Had an illness so he couldn't play v City but he should be fine in time for us.