Centre forwards did almost nothing in the Premier League this weekend.
Olivier Giroud was invisible at Carrow Road.
Bang-bang Harry Kane was squashed out by Chelsea and misfired when he got a glimpse of goal.
But Kane, rugged, durable and lively as always, did get some shots in. He didn’t get much help from the lightweight Eriksen and really needed a few runs & passes from young powerhouse Dele Alli, who was suspended
Diego Costa was left out at White Hart Lane. And didn’t come as a sub either.
Mourinho started Hazard in that role and the Belgian scooted around very effectively throughout a 0-0 draw.
Hugo Lloris made a world class save from a good volley by Hazard, dropping down very sharply to his stop the shot with left hand .
Mourinho said, “Collectively, we defended very, very well against a very dangerous team.”
Pochettino will be disappointed . But he’ll get over it.
The Tottenham manager said he was very proud of his boys after a tough week. So he should be after playing in Azerbajan on Thursday night.
Roberto Firmino can play at Klopp’s tempo.
But Benteke struggles. He needs crosses.
The BBC’s Ruud Gullit noted that Emre Can was too conservative.
With no Lucas behind him, we could see why an intelligent midfielder didn’t want to make a lot of Frank Lampard runs.
Myself, I think Gullit believes Emre Can has the skill and power to make things happen by dictating moves from 15 yards further up the pitch. That why he showed the clips he showed.
There’s a lot more to come from Can and he’ll be one of the players I’m watching closely in 2016.
The injured Coutinho was badly missed but Liverpool scraped home against Swansea with a jammy penalty that was converted by James Milner.
Leicester’s man of the moment scored one of his trademark breakaway goals in a 1-1 against Manchester United to break Ruud van Nistelrooy’s record of 10 goals in 10 consecutive PL games.
There were 100,000 tweets during the Leicester-United game and one of them was by Van Nistelrooy: “Well done, Vardy 7! You’re number one now, you deserve it.”
Wenger did not buy any outfield players in the summer.
He took both Oxlade and Walcott to Sheffield and when one got injured and he put the other on without warming him up and he immediately got injured as well.
All this in 20 minutes. And he lost 3-0.
For Arsenal, losing Koscielny with a hip problem after 10 minutes was a big blow at Norwich.
It was a wet and windy day in Norfolk and Alexis Sanchez should not have been there.
Since the FA Cup Final he’s played 32 games, 12 for Chile.
Arsenal’s samurai is exhausted because he’s had to carry two teams.
Sanchez had a slightly sore hamstring before the game and should not have been risked.
If Wenger had the squad Arsenal need, Sanchez would have been fit for Sunderland next Saturday.
The 2016 League title is there for the taking but he’s bungled the opportunity
Increasingly, as the years tick by, the recruitment by this “developmental manager” has become a carnival of incompetence.
But we’ve got used to that now.
Ozil will miss his mate in December, big time.
The two of them do exciting things together.
If only they had Romelu Lukaku, the Cyrille Regis of the 21st century, alongside them.
Ozil, the catapult who used to fire human missile Cristiano Ronaldo towards the penalty area, could fire Lukaku through defences, as Ross Barkley does now.
Vardy has 14 goals now but Lukaku has 10 , after scoring in the 3-3 draw at Bournemouth.
Kane and Giroud both have 8. I know who’d be in my team.