abdulaziz1

I think they can, because currently 5 can play. As we see as well this season 8 teams are in Europe (in another circumstances it could go to 9), but another question, would that mean only one to each Europa and Conference? Or 8th can qualify?

To be honest that’s a very good sign. Winning while having these issues, improving yet keeping our heads down. Getting lessons but in games we’re expected to lose anyway. If we managed to win next Thursday then progress even our loss in Poland could be a good thing to make us know our issues and make us more humble. Whenever our players or fans start thinking more they remember what happened in Newcastle and Liverpool to take it seriously. Same with Warsaw. Competetions isn’t only one match, winnig with big result is another 3 points but how to get them consistently. Hopefully we can be second before going to the break. It would give us a lift yet I’m sure Emery will make sure everyone is humble again.

We’ve conceded 8 in 2 games at home before our streak. 11 goals and 3 losses in 3. Hopefully with Emery we’re learning more and more from every failure. Tough and important games coming up. We need results as well as improvement in our approach (which we seem to be getting there).

Can’t say I’m not worried our away form. So draw at Brentford (tough by then) then two losses at Utd and Wolves, draw at Anfield then two big losses this season (with Warsaw). It’s worrying mainly our way of playing. I think we need to be more conservative out there.

Interesting to see what team he will put against Everton. More importantly Defence and fullbacks? Will he play Chambers as a RB again? Lenglet will definitely start but who else?

One of them right the other second striker. For now would keep Diaby up but later could do some changes.

Sometimes one could doubt the work being done (even though it followed a great success), after our three bad losses each on it’s own, with all of them having the same issue. The meltdown comes because of players lost for several reasons (particularly Mings, Moreno but also Young). Those things made me less confident with our approach. But whenever I doubt I remember our run of three losses and 11 goals last season. Then Stevenage and Wolves. How we bounced back from both and started building consistency. We have couple of new players, who are learning to the system. Some weakness and strength compared to our old ones (Cash is more athlete than Young but his awareness is worse, Mings the same but has more attributes defensively, Torres is better for our build up). So still to compare it’s not easy but work in progress. The hood thing is we’re doubting the guy who’s so recently getting us 6th with not an easy schedule (despite of what happened last season). We won 3/4/5 in only few games played. That’s a sign of a good team, great ambition and a big confidence from the fans. It’s also a sign of a manager who’s looking long and medium range terms by trying to apply style. He done it last season and we’ve shifted 11 goals but went into a huge run after that. Tough challenge this Wednesday, some positions we don’t have cover for, interesting to know what will Emery do regarding that. But it’s a huge game.

Glad he’s proving us wrong. Keeping him could be one our best moves as Moreno seem to be far away from being back (we shouldn’t rush him back at all. Dinge giving his all and doing fine. After Brighton hopefully the schedule will be easier (nothing easy though) but in terms of us expecting to get more control of matches. Ashley leaving could be a regret, another season would’ve been perfect and these circumstances.

I still would like to see him right rather than left. Yes he said he’ll play wherever he’s asked to, but I’d really like to see him right once Ramsey is back starting.

If we looked at it this way last season we wouldn’t have qualified. I remember looking at a Spurs loss or draw and some friends who support Villa started questioning my mind, Spurs were far ahead possibly 13 or 15. I also looked at Utd and Newcastle. I said you don’t know who might fall apart, so as we look at who are in sight by then (Chelsea, Liverpool, Brighton, Fulham and Brentford) we still need to look higher. I’m not saying looking at a conclusion but looking at results in our side. We don’t have to catch Arsenal for example but every loss for them (against non top teams especially) could be in our favor. It could atleast keep you in touch. Other teams will fall but we have to get going. Last season people used to say we’re winning yet not moving from 11th, I wasn’t keen in moving more than closing gap with those who’s over 11th. That’s once we got near didn’t take us two weeks to leapfrog. In the end we needed to takeover Spurs rather than the other two. If we got above 70 points we’ll most likely qualify to CL so just looking at names and saying we have to be above any of those won’t help. We just have to keep getting points and see where it takes us to. Doing that and qualifying cups (Europe and domestic) would give us a great platform before January window. Yes we had a stepback against Legia, but we would have make for it if we won against Everton. Huge win at Chelsea as well. We still have a chance at Europe so Everton is a more important game right now. My target is to be in the UECL and the league cup after December and hopefully with lesser quality teams left (with easier draws), while being around top 6 by then. We can then evaluate our needs and see how to deal with fatigue and who to add. I think if we can win the League Cup this season while still being around in all competitions we will have a very good season. The pressure will release and we will hopefully have more confidence and more chance of winning things especially as minimum European qualification is confirmed by then.

Great to have him scoring again, we need all sorts of confidence to keep getting points. We still haven’t reach the performances we aim to as a team, but it’s important to keep winning point despite performances. The confidence will keep growing, wether individuals or as a team. Watkins scoring will hopefully get him back to a run like last season, look at Duran and his 4 goals. Zaniolo still haven’t scored despite being dangerous, I think once he does he’ll start to improve even more. Next 3 games are really crucial, League Cup, Brighton and Europa. Let’s see what can we do against Everton first, hoping for a win which would give us another month of settling.

Still a lot to go, we’re getting points while most of us aren’t impressed with performances. As I said it was great that our lessons came in the right games, two tough away league games. One away group stage (where we have chance to get back going). If it was against Hibs would’ve been really bad. Beating Chelsea build a quite gap right now. They have some tough games coming so we’ll probably wish them to stop teams. Would’ve done with Newcastle and Utd not winning but still things are ok. Now we shall focus on Everton cup game and leave the other two competitions out of mind. Hopefully we can win this one.

My worry isn’t the team selection (we should rotate), but our tactics and form away from home. Something has to chance. We need to play faster and get a bit deeper, we can’t just do this offside trap all the time. To be honest we’ve done perfectly with Young, Mings and Moreno, only Konsa is playing right now. Cash always been a disaster going to happen with this tactic. At home it’s still working, but away from home the decline began even before last season ended. Actually before that we were more cautious. Again this could be in our favor, it will get our heads down and try to push, not sure which effect it will have against Chelsea but a tough tough away game coming up. Hopefully would make us respect Everton even more, so atleast we have time to make up for our game (unlike FA cup game last season). If we won both games then it was a worthy lesson. I think Brighton lost as well, Alkamar lost aswell from a 3-0 lead which is in our favor. As long as we’re in the right direction it’s good to have these lessons on things we can get back to and fix rather than in a knockout or so. Same goes in the league, losing away to a top 6 much better than losing at home against a lesser team. We won’t win all so atleast we get benefited from some losses.

He mentions in the next tweet that Konsa is first even compared to top 6 players.

Interestingly, those two were from our first year in the PL, doesn’t seem our recruitment was that bad. Then when you add McGinn and Mings, all shown they can be a top 6 quality. Konsa has been one of the most important players with our new approach with Emery.

Should’ve got him from QPR, him and Olise would’ve been very good signings. Now I don’t think it’s easy to get them.

Goal for: 11 So no it’s only for League.

I think Konsa is the one to play with him in a highline. Yes we lose much by Mings presence but even Mings needed Konsa’s pace. I think we need to be more careful against the top teams, especially away from home.

Last season Newcastle were in a very good form, they lost their form and confidence on the most important moment (League Cup final), but they managed to get back and even beat Man Utd easily. We were going to lose our confidence as well after Utd, but gladly achieved what we want. I remember we were on a perfect form under Sherwood, just to lose every part of confidence before the cup final against Arsenal. Right now we have players to come back, and players who are settling (Youri, Carlos Zaniolo), and players who are already improving (Duran, Diaby, Torres). There are players who are improving from last season as (Cash, Bailey and Dinge). Getting back to Duran, I think he’ll benefit a lot from Europe and hopefully a cup run (and a win), which might help him getting few league starts as well.

People forgot all what happened in the summer and remember Newcastle 5-1, then Liverpool 3-0. So our wins look fluke for them, possibly even our 7th last season. For me I prefer it this way, gain points keep in touch and let them think what they want. This team still has things that it haven’t shown yet. Two major injuries from the preseason, now two will hopefully be back. New players settling, working to get the right balance. Add to that dealing with pressure of more games. Even if we hopefully beat Chelsea, people will speak about how Chelsea are bad which is again better for us.

This is not the week to start him in the league, he should start in Poland then he have Everton. After Brighton we could start rotating in the league easier I guess. But we have another game most of the coming weeks (especially if we made it against Everton and qualified).

If we could win next game against Chelsea, I think we would have made up for our two losses, the good part is we’re not fully convinced in our performances or results this season yet we’re doing really fine. Which gives you an indication that we could do even more. So gaining points while improving performances would be perfect. Being satisfied could make things wrong, last season when everyone said we’re going to Europe we went and lost to Utd and Wolves. I said before that the Newcastle result would hopefully turn to our side. It even didn’t make them do panic moves. The attention right now is on Brighton, people still remember our results against Newcastle and Liverpool and don’t think we’re that good. Still Ramsey to come back and have a better balance hopefully. If we can win next game and put some gap with Chelsea (if Newcastle and Utd failed to win as well), then we can go and look upwards as well. The fact that we’re 7th while we aren’t really satisfied with our beginning, then getting humiliated 5-1 and 3-0, we’re 1+ in terms of goal difference in only 5 matches. It’s really interesting. Then yesterday comeback.

I don’t think Man Utd are bad (because of their start), I though they’d be below top 3, but thet’ve lost to Spurs, Arsenal and Brighton. We’ve lost to Liverpool and Newcastle badly. We can’t to a conclusion out of that. But the much they lose the better for us. Hopefully Chelsea fail to win as well (a draw between Newcastle and Brentford would’ve been great). Spurs winning was annoying. We now have two tough matches against Chelsea and Brighton, we must keep within ranges with other teams after that. Hopefully a win Thursday would give us a boost in the group stage and help us to try and qualify early so we can concentrate on the league and cup.

From what I read, you can add 3 players during January, wether that was by changing 3 current ones or just add? I’m not really sure.

He was going to score somehow a similar goal last season against City. The ability is definitely there. He just needs to focus and not keep shooting from areas were nothing would come out of it. He’s a much better goalscorer than Watkins but he needs to improve in other aspects as well. Looking forward for his development.