Arsenal v Liverpool. Sunday 27th Oct. 16:30

[HCZ_Reborn]

If Liverpool finish above us it’s a result of us having collapsed. It’s us or City, and without Rodri who has been recognised as the quality player he is with the Ballon d’or….we still have a fantastic chance of it being us, but what’s clear is if we do it will be despite Arteta not because of him.

As for Liverpool? I think anyone could see that this was not an impressive side or anywhere near the side of four/five years ago

To be honest I’m not sure how they’ve not conceded more goals even with the relatively easy fixtures they’ve had, their defence isn’t great at all.

Midfield….i was talking about Merino being poor, I think Gravenberch is even worse


MacAllister is their version of Ramsey


I like Diaz very good player but he like Martinelli can often be wasteful despite his goal scoring spell at beginning of season

[Mac76]

I think this Liverpool side are much better than people seem to want to believe, my money's on them being first or second

[Letters]

I think this Liverpool side are much better than people seem to want to believe, my money's on them being first or second

This is why you don't see many poor bookies.

[Letters]

what’s clear is if we do it will be despite Arteta not because of him.

Well that is bullshit. This is mostly Arteta's squad now. He trains them, picks the side, sets the tactics. He is responsible for results good or bad.

[HCZ_Reborn]

I think this Liverpool side are much better than people seem to want to believe, my money's on them being first or second

Second if we or City collapse, Third if we don’t

I think our goalkeeper is now as good as Alisson (both capable of errors)

Our defence is much better


Our central midfield is much better


Salah is better than any of our strikers, Havertz and Nunez are about the same, Martinelli and Diaz about the same


Saka probably better than any of their attacking players bar Salah (possibly Jota but guy can never stay fit)


Odegaard is miles better than copy and paste

No point comparing Nwaneri and Jones as the former never plays, but at this point for experience you’d go with Jones

Trossard better than Gakpo

Chiesa better than Jesus

As for coaches, I’ve seen no evidence that the Dutchman is any better than Klopp (but Klopp for me was a far better coach not just than Arteta who is an average-below average coach but Guardiola as well)

It’s not a case of not wanting to believe anything….this Liverpool side are not that impressive. Salah remains far and away their most important player, and if he gets injured they are utterly screwed

[Marc Overmars]

I don’t think there’s much between us and Liverpool. I’d give us the edge but overall I think we will be on a similar footing this season.

The question really is will City have a less than 90 points season? If they do then the title is very much up for grabs but if they don’t then I don’t think us or Liverpool stand a chance.

[Mac76]

Second if we or City collapse, Third if we don’t

you could argue we've collapsed already - not all our own fault, it's partly through injuries and refs - but the result's the same, we've dropped at least 9 points already, some in games which these days are a 'must-win'

I’ve seen no evidence that the Dutchman is any better than Klopp

he doesn't have to be 'better' does he, only more or less on a par and for me I think he's calmed things down a bit and given the team a better chance of keeping it going through a whole season

Also I don't think it's all about Salah, he actually has had some quiet games and they've still come through - and in any case take Saka out of our team and likewise we're nowhere near the same

I think a combination of bad luck, refs and Arteta's caution has made a title win this season extremely unlikely seeing as Citeh haven't even really got going yet

[HCZ_Reborn]

Except we haven’t collapsed, Sunday was a massive disappointment mainly because of how much better we were than them. Honestly if we’d won by 2 or 3 goals I don’t think anyone could fairly say that would have flattered us. I still think losing with ten men away at Bournemouth is better than losing at home to Forest.

I think we are still easily capable of winning against Newcastle and Chelsea. From what I’ve heard there’s no reason Gabriel won’t be fit for the game at St James Park nor Timber…

In regards to Salah, Liverpool have played 13 games this season, Salah has scored in 8 of them….and the games where he hasn’t scored…they’ve struggled to kill teams off (palace and Leipzig key examples of that).

Apart from anything else, what made Liverpool so effective under Klopp was the intensity they played at…that same intensity just isn’t there under the Dutchman.

[HCZ_Reborn]

The main reason City haven’t got going is because they don’t have Rodri available to them, he wasn’t there at the start of the season and he won’t be there until the end of the season. De Bruyne equally is unfit, and he’s not been the same player.

So I don’t think this expectation that they are suddenly going to turn it on is necessarily going to materialise. Haaland is a top player for sure, but he looked like Niklas Bendtner on Saturday.

After the next two games, the hardest fixture away from home we will have for the rest of the season is Anfield. The rest of the games…well I’m not saying we will win them all, but absolutely we should be looking to do so. Getting the tough fixtures out of the way (and being unbeaten in them) is a big boon.

Also I’d say just as much that we’ve not got going this season, we are just as capable of going on a run where we go through teams like shit through a goose.

[Mac76]

Apart from anything else, what made Liverpool so effective under Klopp was the intensity they played at…that same intensity just isn’t there under the Dutchman.

And yet after nine games they're one point off Citeh with a better GD, wierd isn't it?

Read my post again, I think Slot's more measured approach is a good way of maintaining a title challenge, rather than them running out of steam like they did last season and IIRC the season before