1 minute ago, HazardousChoice said:

Not true.

Tuchel would never have been so negligent to start Azpi and Silva in a back 4.

Agreed that was poor selection bordering on absurd against the youngest and most organized team in the group

11 hours ago, forbzy said:

If Boehly truly is playing the patient, long term game then he will accept less than that as long as the quality of football shows signs of progress. But I can understand that a lot of fans will be disappointed if we miss out on top 4 and don't compete for the main trophies.

In the past we have replaced managers with short term aspirations in mind and that is partly why we have been in this continual cycle for years. I don't know if Potter will ultimately deliver the success that owners and fans want, and it is a risk. But equally if we were to have appointed somebody like Poch I suspect we would have been back where we started a year or so down the road.

Spurs will struggle. It's not a matter of if. They are already showing early signs of poor form. Just ask their fans. 

Arsenal and Arteta will also struggle given they get rattled with two matches per week. They have the dreaded Thursday-Sunday fixtures. United too. 

Liverpool also have been looking fairly ordinary so far. 

 

I stand by my stance that Top 4 should be the absolute minimum. 

 

3 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Spurs will struggle. It's not a matter of if. They are already showing early signs of poor form. Just ask their fans. 

Arsenal and Arteta will also struggle given they get rattled with two matches per week. They have the dreaded Thursday-Sunday fixtures. United too. 

Liverpool also have been looking fairly ordinary so far. 

 

I stand by my stance that Top 4 should be the absolute minimum. 

 

I think the schedule gives us a major advantage especially if Potter rotates well. Our squad are use to and have had some degree of success handling such an insane schedule which doesn't apply to the NL duo.

18 minutes ago, Argo said:

I think the schedule gives us a major advantage especially if Potter rotates well. Our squad are use to and have had some degree of success handling such an insane schedule which doesn't apply to the NL duo.

Even more so if we lose the league cup game to City and finish bottom of our CL group.

19 minutes ago, Argo said:

I think the schedule gives us a major advantage especially if Potter rotates well. Our squad are use to and have had some degree of success handling such an insane schedule which doesn't apply to the NL duo.

Our midfield is still hanging on by the strength of Jorginho's hamstring

We have our work cut out for us to go above either Arse/Spuds or hold off Pool for top 4 without James and Kante for a good while.  After today I give us a little better than 50/50 chance of 1 or more of those 3 happening.  I don't realistically see getting passed by ManU or Newcastle.

On the other hand, only 4 back of Citeh with a game in hand and top of our CL group.  Beat Citeh in the League Cup and we could ride the new manager bounce to challenge for 4 trophies 🙂

I howe we don't win against city in carabao cup

schundler is insane and we need to rest some of our best players.

less games is better, to be honest 

1 hour ago, BluesPower said:

We have our work cut out for us to go above either Arse/Spuds or hold off Pool for top 4 without James and Kante for a good while.  After today I give us a little better than 50/50 chance of 1 or more of those 3 happening.  I don't realistically see getting passed by ManU or Newcastle.

On the other hand, only 4 back of Citeh with a game in hand and top of our CL group.  Beat Citeh in the League Cup and we could ride the new manager bounce to challenge for 4 trophies 🙂

Top 4 is the bare minimum requirement even without those two.

Any manager who doesn't achieve it with the squad avaliable to them should have their position reviewed (not necessarily sacked).

1 hour ago, BluesPower said:

We have our work cut out for us to go above either Arse/Spuds or hold off Pool for top 4 without James and Kante for a good while.  After today I give us a little better than 50/50 chance of 1 or more of those 3 happening.  I don't realistically see getting passed by ManU or Newcastle.

On the other hand, only 4 back of Citeh with a game in hand and top of our CL group.  Beat Citeh in the League Cup and we could ride the new manager bounce to challenge for 4 trophies 🙂

We have won many games without Kante. James is a big miss. Kante is a miss in certain big games. Other than that not as big a miss as people make out.

1 hour ago, Argo said:

Top 4 is the bare minimum requirement even without those two.

Any manager who doesn't achieve it with the squad avaliable to them should have their position reviewed (not necessarily sacked).

If Spurs and Arsenal maintain what they are doing then it will be a review for Potter imo as I expect City and Pool to finish above us.

24 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

If Spurs and Arsenal maintain what they are doing then it will be a review for Potter imo as I expect City and Pool to finish above us.

Then rightly so. Tuchel achieved it after taking us over in 9th then under a series of unprecedented circumstances, no excuses for Potter not to at the very least match it.

This squad maybe flawed when it comes to challenging for the league but it absolutely has enough and then some for top 4.

Edited October 16, 20223 yr by Argo

34 minutes ago, Argo said:

Then rightly so. Tuchel achieved it after taking us over in 9th then under a series of unprecedented circumstances, no excuses for Potter not to at the very least match it.

This squad maybe flawed when it comes to challenging for the league but it absolutely has enough and then some for top 4.

No consideration of the improvement in other sides here Argo?

I know you consider Arteta to be a clown of a manager, but at the moment he has Arsenal looking better than at any point over the past decade or so. Conte has Tottenham regularly racking up points in games when the aren't playing all that well, and Conte knows what it takes to win trophies in the EPL. Eddie Howe is doing an impressive job of making Newcastle into a team that's improving and becoming hard to beat. And Liverpool have shown today that reports of their demise are greatly exaggerated.

Personally I think top 4 would be some achievement by Potter. Especially with how rapidly we looked to be regressing towards the end of Tuchel's tenure.

1 hour ago, Argo said:

Then rightly so. Tuchel achieved it after taking us over in 9th then under a series of unprecedented circumstances, no excuses for Potter not to at the very least match it.

This squad maybe flawed when it comes to challenging for the league but it absolutely has enough and then some for top 4.

 

15 minutes ago, just said:

No consideration of the improvement in other sides here Argo?

I know you consider Arteta to be a clown of a manager, but at the moment he has Arsenal looking better than at any point over the past decade or so. Conte has Tottenham regularly racking up points in games when the aren't playing all that well, and Conte knows what it takes to win trophies in the EPL. Eddie Howe is doing an impressive job of making Newcastle into a team that's improving and becoming hard to beat. And Liverpool have shown today that reports of their demise are greatly exaggerated.

Personally I think top 4 would be some achievement by Potter. Especially with how rapidly we looked to be regressing towards the end of Tuchel's tenure.

As just has pointing out there our oppents are better. United have a good manager now, Newcastle have improved, Arsenal signed up Gabriel Jesus and the returning centerback, I forgot his name, have made a huge difference to them.

Spurs also have started the season without the Nuno handicap as well. The competition is better, bar Liverpool, and we are no better off imo.

No Kante, Koulibaly not as good as Rudiger so far. Silva a year older. It is even debatable now if Sterling is even an improvement on Werner.

Will see how Potter carries on and then how we restart after the world cup. We will need one of Arsenal and Spurs to have a serious wobble though to make top 4 imo.

Edited October 16, 20223 yr by axman2526

3 minutes ago, just said:

No consideration of the improvement in other sides here Argo?

I know you consider Arteta to be a clown of a manager, but at the moment he has Arsenal looking better than at any point over the past decade or so. Conte has Tottenham regularly racking up points in games when the aren't playing all that well, and Conte knows what it takes to win trophies in the EPL. Eddie Howe is doing an impressive job of making Newcastle into a team that's improving and becoming hard to beat. And Liverpool have shown today that reports of their demise are greatly exaggerated.

Personally I think top 4 would be some achievement by Potter. Especially with how rapidly we looked to be regressing towards the end of Tuchel's tenure.

 

6 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

 

As just has pointing out there our oppents are better. United have a good manager now, Newcastle have improved, Arsenal signed up Gabriel Jesus and the returning centerback, I forgot his name, have made a huge difference to them.

Spurs also have started the season without the Nuno handicap as well. The competition is better, bar Liverpool, and we are no better off imo.

No Kante, Koulibaly not as good as Rudiger so far. Silva a year older. It is even debatable now if Sterling is even an improvement on Werner.

Will see how Potter carries on and then how we restart after the world cup. We will need one of Arsenal and Spurs to have a serious wobble though to make top 4 imo.

Speaking of handicaps Potter won't have the handicaps that Tuchel had last year. He won't have to deal with one of the most unprecedented events to hit a football club, he won't have to deal with having to juggle 5 competitions while the teams around him only have the league to focus on, he won't have Lukaku here causing chaos (atleast not this season) and he (hopefully) won't have a significant period of half the squad coming down with injuries and Covid.

The experience of having to deal with such a schedule (that is faced post WC) adds another advantage to us given our squad depth and experience of dealing with such. Let's say this, do Arsenal comfortably win vs even Wolves at home (or even a top half championship side) if they rest/have out Saliba, Gabriel, White, Zinchenko, Partey, Tierney, Martenelli and Jesus (the equivalents of the players we rested/were injured that game)? As good as they've started (which I'll confess has caught me by surprise) they have 8 ever presents in the side (well 8 last week I can't be bothered to check if that changed vs Leeds). Unless they spend in January it's not sustainable, infact they played many first team players in a Europa group they had control off, even Sarri felt comfortable enough to fully rotate in that competition for us until the latter stages. 

Also it's easy to look back in hindsight and say these sides aren't/weren't great. Two years ago almost identical comments were being made about Jose's Spurs to Conte's (playing poor but getting results), Sancho, Ronaldo and Varane signing for United was suppose to have them over and away from us, Sarri also had superior versions of Liverpool and City aswell as a Spurs side getting getting UCL final and next to no one gave us a prayer for top four when we lost Hazard and Arsenal/Spurs signed the likes of Pepe and Ndombele.

When we had one of the best sides in Europe it was considered failure if we didn't win the title or UCL despite being up against Ferguson and at the start peak Arsenal with Henry and Co (I won't won't get started on the strength of continent sides) similar should apply here regarding the strengths or weaknesses of other top four challengers.

2 hours ago, Argo said:

 

Speaking of handicaps Potter won't have the handicaps that Tuchel had last year. He won't have to deal with one of the most unprecedented events to hit a football club, he won't have to deal with having to juggle 5 competitions while the teams around him only have the league to focus on, he won't have Lukaku here causing chaos (atleast not this season) and he (hopefully) won't have a significant period of half the squad coming down with injuries and Covid.

The experience of having to deal with such a schedule (that is faced post WC) adds another advantage to us given our squad depth and experience of dealing with such. Let's say this, do Arsenal comfortably win vs even Wolves at home (or even a top half championship side) if they rest/have out Saliba, Gabriel, White, Zinchenko, Partey, Tierney, Martenelli and Jesus (the equivalents of the players we rested/were injured that game)? As good as they've started (which I'll confess has caught me by surprise) they have 8 ever presents in the side (well 8 last week I can't be bothered to check if that changed vs Leeds). Unless they spend in January it's not sustainable, infact they played many first team players in a Europa group they had control off, even Sarri felt comfortable enough to fully rotate in that competition for us until the latter stages. 

Also it's easy to look back in hindsight and say these sides aren't/weren't great. Two years ago almost identical comments were being made about Jose's Spurs to Conte's (playing poor but getting results), Sancho, Ronaldo and Varane signing for United was suppose to have them over and away from us, Sarri also had superior versions of Liverpool and City aswell as a Spurs side getting getting UCL final and next to no one gave us a prayer for top four when we lost Hazard and Arsenal/Spurs signed the likes of Pepe and Ndombele.

When we had one of the best sides in Europe it was considered failure if we didn't win the title or UCL despite being up against Ferguson and at the start peak Arsenal with Henry and Co (I won't won't get started on the strength of continent sides) similar should apply here regarding the strengths or weaknesses of other top four challengers.

Yes, Arsenal have been brilliant this season so far and won some big games (United, Liverpool), however yes their squad has not been tested completely on the physical scale. When they get through the next stages of the Europa is when you will see majority of same team playing in week in, week out for them and that is when you will see how tough it is. For instance, they rested Jesus completely on Thursday. This Thursday's game, most likely play their best team against PSV and then they will have a game 3 days later where bar 1-2 changes, at least 9 players in that team will be the same players that will play against Southampton on Sunday. 

Tbf to them when they have had injuries this season, they have done well but more injuries will pile up and their squad will be truly tested. One thing that contents me is the squad depth we have. Will be needed as the season goes on.

I can't see Tottenham maintaining their current points accumulation. They aren't a great side, and are having a bit of a lucky roll right now. If their luck changes, or they get a couple of injuries, then they'll fall off the pace. Arsenal are playing well, but will need huge fortune with injuries to stay at their current level.

By all accounts, we have had a poor start to the season, lots of new signings to bed in, plus a new manager, and yet we are comfortably in 4th, and starting to put a decent run together, I can't see us missing out on Top 4 and we might well surprise a few people by doing a lot better than that 🙂.

Top 4 should be the absolute minimum. Our previous manager put the fear of God into the best teams in Europe with this team so if you are ready to accept us finishing outside of Top 4 in the Premiership with Potter that's mindboggling to me. Lowering standards is a dangerous game and if he can't make it we should almost certainly look for another manager.

Care to explained why you laughed and f**ked off @dkw?

Absolute minimum for me is entertaining football and being competitive towards the end of the season with the other top teams. 
If anyone watched the scum/city match yesterday, that’s the sort of matches I want us involved in in an entertaining and competitive way. 
 

3 hours ago, Droy said:

Care to explained why you laughed and f**ked off @dkw?

No.

@Argo Arsenal looked well jaded today. They started off explosive then as game worn off, they looked worn out. Saka was off his game today. Martinelli burned out. Jesus was off it and bare in mind they played against a Southampton team who were without Walker-Peters, Livramento, Lavia, Bella-Kotchap. The games soon will come around thick and thin and pressure will be on.

18 minutes ago, STATS said:

@Argo Arsenal looked well jaded today. They started off explosive then as game worn off, they looked worn out. Saka was off his game today. Martinelli burned out. Jesus was off it and bare in mind they played against a Southampton team who were without Walker-Peters, Livramento, Lavia, Bella-Kotchap. The games soon will come around thick and thin and pressure will be on.

Jesus suddenly has reverted back to the erratic player that saw him benched at City even when he was their only forward.

22 minutes ago, STATS said:

@Argo Arsenal looked well jaded today. They started off explosive then as game worn off, they looked worn out. Saka was off his game today. Martinelli burned out. Jesus was off it and bare in mind they played against a Southampton team who were without Walker-Peters, Livramento, Lavia, Bella-Kotchap. The games soon will come around thick and thin and pressure will be on.

Shame they play Forrest, us and Wolves before the world cup break. There is a nice 9 points for them, and a deck chair for Ramsdale at the bridge.

Season expectations for Potter? 7th place.

9 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Shame they play Forrest, us and Wolves before the world cup break. There is a nice 9 points for them, and a deck chair for Ramsdale at the bridge.

Season expectations for Potter? 7th place.

Not a guarantee. You would have said today's game was a guaranteed 3 points for them. 

9 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Season expectations for Potter? 7th place.

If he finishes 7th then he deserves to be fired.