My pre-match speech:

❤️

Second half. 3 goals on 26% possession. Moyesian perfection.

+0 GD as well. But we won't need that

I haven't watched Röhl much, but he passes the athletic eye test with miles to spare. Huge and fast and intense for every minute he was on.

MOYES MOYES MOYES

Just looked it up on Wyscout: — Attempted 6 defensive duels per 90 in Portugal, won 3.13 (53%) — Attempts 5.03 defensive duels per 90 in England, winning 3.15 (59.4%) So tackling 1 per 90 less and winning the same

Beto, I can't stress this enough: please close down Donnarumma

The assumption is always that skillsets will drop when jumping levels, but it can go the other way. Not sure what the stats say, but I think Nico González looks like a better, more efficient tackler at City than Porto because the game is more closed and distances are closer.

Röhl is kinda interesting, but all year, I can't say I've fully understood Everton's strategy of playing this deep without speed at either wing or full-back.

I usually give players leeway for three reasons: — returning from injury/knocks — surrounding associations/relationships — role/responsibilities Calafiori could miss two months, play whatever position, and get dropped in with three plumbers, and look like the exact same player.

The Arsenal attack has been very interrupted, and it's been rare to be able to say that an attacker is truly in form. Trossard definitely started that way. Martinelli in Champions League. But it's been a bit. I think Eze is in form.

Coaching is hard. It gets much harder than landing on a Casemiro/Mainoo/Bruno midfield three.

If yesterday turned out differently, this is the kind of clip we'd see on social media the next day with a wHy iS sAkA sO iSoLaTed

Gyökeres has previously struggled with reactive movement (instead of anticipatory movement), waiting for the ball to get hit to make his dart, which means you'll arrive a step late. For both goals yesterday, he started his move ahead of the ball. Right on time. Good shit. 👍

Calafiori can do a 100-touch game facing play, a 60-touch game within the pivot, and a 20-touch game as an off-ball, ahead-of-the-pivot chaos runner (like a shadow striker), and be equally good at all. Very short list of players who can do all that.

I'd always act like I'm above caring about Player of the Season voting. Then I'd privately blow a fuse if I saw Saka wasn't either #1 or #2 on people's lists. I'm watching the Atleti back and, this year, I feel the same way about Saliba.

[Whispers: I thought the Arsenal/City game was well-refereed]

[My lapel mic squeals with feedback. The weary conference audience is ready for lunch. I pull up my title slide: "Viktor Gyökeres: Secrets of an Elite Penalty Taker"] Now, uh, if you see here, he runs up and, uh, kicks the living fuck out of it. [coughs] And in the next clip,

If VAR exists, it should get two full-speed replays, and if it can't confirm a near-certain error, the call stands. They'll get some wrong. But it should be for massive fuck-ups and violent conduct, not to arbitrate the 50% of reffing that is subjective. Keep. the. game. moving.

194 (as of last week) As an example: Mo Kudus hasn't played in almost four months. He's played more league minutes than any PSG attacker.

Let your ballers play with your ballers. If two of them are in different zones, don't isolate them from each other. Look what happened when Doué joined Kvara. Look at Olise through the middle, etc. But also: this hurts their ability to track/double opposing wingers. Hence, the score.

Always think coaches can be slightly more aggressive about getting shooters in their best locations. In a specific spot, by a specific player, xG doesn't apply.

Jürgen Klopp had so many accomplishments that most people forget he directed The Master (2012)

Eze can get blocked, and he can drag them wide when he's drilling it. But I'm struggling to think of many genuinely scuffed shots from him for Arsenal. He gets his money's worth every time.

Hincapié has that Saka defensive gait, where he barely lifts his legs and drags them around like two rakes. Turns into a lot of little deflections and ricochets and toe-pokes (and is hard to meg).

Ø-led final-third attacks: 1. firing into a free man in the crowded box is hard 2. generally good at generating counterpress thanks to structure 3. require absurd precision at the apex, too shot-shy, partly because of his extreme one-footedness 4. are understated in terms of xG

The year is 2046. A 36-year-old Gabriel Arteta has switched back to midfield and captains the side. The lineups are implanted in our brains an hour before a derby. It's a Martinelli+Gyökeres+Madueke front-three.

Have watched Bellerín 4-5 times this year and he's looked really good every time.

From my piece: Eberechi Eze has played more league minutes for Crystal Palace this season than Christian Nørgaard has for Arsenal.

Probably posted already, but man. We're really here. 🔵 Man City: 33 PL | 21W 7D 5L | +37 GD | 70 pts 🔴 Arsenal: 33 PL | 21W 7D 5L | +37 GD | 70 pts

Clearlake:

Clearlake.

Wrote this after Portsmouth: I think Eze+Øde is more than having two technical players. I think the initial signs are that they have a good understanding of each other. It's a shame that it's still "initial signs." But this could upgrade the central/tight-space threat.

Haha. Stuff we inherently know, but still: no PSG attacker ranks among the top 1,000 players in league minutes across Europe's top five leagues this season. The leader is Barcola with 1,395. Which is 16 starts, five of them completed. Deep recruitment. And other things...

Pep Guardiola every January

One of my feelings is that top coaches have hacked the ideal role for FBs as the all-action, perpetually free man. But the physical demands are unsustainable. So you need a superhuman athlete to defy gravity, or PSG's luxury of playing them ~20x a year in league, or triples.

Reminder (to myself and you) to put dates on graphics and data tables. Those things can live long half-lives as screenshots and social posts, so that context is necessary.

Chances come from the Chance Stork who drops them off at your doorstep in the small hours. Whether you accept responsibility from there is up to you

With my flair for timing (and perfectionism), I put this out too close to the City game. But if you haven't read it yet, it all still stands. Among other things, it was a pre-emptive case for riding a setup like the one we saw against City until the wheels come off.

Saw somebody say Havertz only looked better than Gyökeres because Arsenal played differently than they usually do. They're so close.

Remember Omar Marmoush?

Called my shot 😂

re: Kai In the league, that was the second first-half open-play goal by an Arsenal striker all season. The other was Merino vs Brentford. If you're ruing near-misses for his second/third against City, so am I. If you're really blaming him: what. Should start every game at #9 from here on.

Setup was there, performance was mostly there, though I didn't feel the right XI was on at the end. Mostly, the ball didn't go in. I can live with that much more than I can live with Wolves, Bournemouth, Forest, etc. Fuck.

Signing off. I'll see you all later.

A bit taken aback. About as good as I could have hoped. There will be new relationships to build, but they all feel right.