Maybe, but Chelsea have had significant defensive issues for a while now because their "buy the shiny new thing" approach hasn't really focused on defenders. They were about as good as us in attack, but a good 15 goals worse defensively.
As far as Spurs, they will need a long term replacement for Son. Its almost criminal they haven't bought a big reputation, proven striker. When they were top 4 and were regularly giving City and LFC problems, they were not spending on big names. They bought good players for average money. They didn't level up. If you are going to remain in top 4 in the EPL you must spend big at least for a season or two. The sides just below are you improving and that EPL money to buy.
Really funny seeing the headlines knowing we generate news with the announcement that "Fulham announce cuts including ex-Arsenal player" which was Willian, who is known for being ex-Chelsea and went to a few other clubs after Arsenal before landing at Fulham.
Yup. Meanwhile Poch isn’t exactly lightin it up at USMNT. Too early to judge with that project TBF but…
Nuno Mendes is a special player... Nuno Mendes vs SpainBest in the world pic.twitter.com/yzZVf9zq1B— 🫵🏽 (@idoxvi) June 8, 2025
Possible game changer but with the money City has and spent, they don't buy a roll of the dice, they buy established talent.
If Cherki goes to City, with Marmoush, Rodri, Doku, Gundogan, Haaland, its hard to see how they don't return back to to challenge for the title.
Neither did Ozil. Scholes was a horrible tackler. I will accept your view of his defensive skills or lack of but he's quality.
Whether other players, who played for other managers, weren't good defensively misses the entire point and the paper it was put on. Guardiola demands that his players defend, and if they don't, they don't play. Aside from Haaland, but Cherki isn't Erling Haaland.
I think both were true. Definitely the latter. But his technique, etc., was often really awkward even when it looked like he wasn't actually trying to injure someone. Yeah, I couldn't stand him but he was a hard worker all around.
Ozil did defend even at the end! I recall in his last ever games for Arteta pre-covid he ran like a monster defending from the front.
I think Ozil was just a generation earlier. He would have been a better version of Odegaard if he were 5-6 years younger, because he did sprint a lot and had higher-than-you-would-think defensive actions. He needed that to be coached into his game more because the aptitude was there.
Ozil was always a hardworking player - he ran so much he used to have to be subbed out on 75 mins. He came to Arsenal with huge sprint volume - it was Wenger who stopped that. i recall there was a lot of analysis of it at the time.
Agree with much of this: we forget just how good and how skilled Ozil was. But it seems like multiple managers had issues with him, and I do wonder if there was a problem there.