This is not a guarantee and that’s fair, I don’t think it’s a blunder or something egregious from Mikel. The argument is Nwaneri for Eze at 80, Lewis-Skelly for Calafiori at 80, and Norgaard + Mosquera for Rice + Trossard at 90 would have improved chance at a win a little versus what he did now.

You can be an outlet on the ground and both Myles and Ethan can definitely do that (win fouls, for instance). An underrated aspect of defending the long ball is forcing the right one. Arsenal are very good at it usually but you need the legs to do it and we clearly didn’t have those.

While I understand the premise of ‘there wasn’t really a correct or perfect sub’ you guys discussed, and it is partly true when considering subbing Merino, defending the long ball is not just about box presence and being an outlet isn’t just about being big. I would have kept Merino on.

They are a filthy institution that I’d like to see gone. So the PL will probably give them a large fine and look elsewhere.

Except for Doku. He has been fucking incredible today.

Newcastle are much better against bigger sides, usually, but they do have an easy run in until new years. Their troubles so far have come in smaller games too so there might be some weird ones.

If Haaland slows down in any way, beware. They clearly have issues scoring if he doesn’t.

I said this in the summer and it’s proving to be very, very true. Their CB issues are well documented but they truly overestimated their midfield composition. Would have been better off spending all that money on a 6.

Should have been 4. You missed the O’Reilly injury stoppage, but it was way too much. City at least had the decency to score within a reasonable amount of minutes.

Fully agreed. Myles should play more.

He was on a yellow. Myles could have helped with ball retention. Norgaard should have been on for Rice. And I would have just subbed Ethan for Eze because he pressed upfield a lot and was very tired. If you make those subs and consequently sub Mosquera in extra time for Leo, I’d be less fussed.

It’s very game and opponent dependent, so it is always really hard to judge what works and doesn’t, so I’d probably agree it hits more of a nerve than that I can build an argument on it. What I do know and what does usually correlate, is that keeping teams away from a goal is always a good thing.

Yeah maybe that’s fair. Still have seen far too many football games where the manager does exactly this and it doesn’t work out. Usually works far better to keep a team under pressure regardless of what they want to do.