If you have a striker, you have a team.
But if you have a Mesut Ozil, you can be top of the league without a striker.
Leicester’s 0-0 draw with Man City last night was a fantastic result for Ozil & Co.
It keeps Arsenal top of the table on goal difference.
Spurs were lucky to beat Watford 2-1 with a goal by sub Son in 89.
Pochettino has only lost 2 of his 19 games.
But, like West Ham and Everton, he’s drawn 8.
I think that’s why Pochettino now prefers Lamela to Eriksen : more of a goal threat.
Ake’s karate kick on Lamela near the halfway line was a bad one. A very wild challenge by a young player that deserved the red card ref Anthony Taylor gave him.
Tottenham are very hard to beat because of their organisation, desire and energy.
Ozil produced a masterclass in Arsenal’s 2-0 win against Bournemouth.
There’s nobody like Ozil in the league Bournemouth have just come from.
After the team got thrashed 4-0 at Southampton, four changes were made.
Gabriel came in for Koscielny and scored from Ozil’s corner in 27, then hit the bar with another header from another Ozil corner in 34.
Walcott had a nightmare, missing 3 or 4 of chances that Ozil laid on.
Giroud laid off a couple of balls, headed a couple. But mostly he just posed and backed into defenders.
Chambers had a splendid game and Oxlade had his best for 18 months.
Giroud is ordinary.
He’s not fast and not brave and not spectacular, so he was never gonna be my kind of centre forward.
Whereas Romelu Lukaku excited me before I saw him play.
He was young giant who could knock people over or explode away from them when he hadn’t knockd them over.
When The Sun linked Lukaku with Arsenal, I ripped the page out of the paper and stuck it on the door of my office, so that I wouldn’t lose it. I’d never done that before.
Never done that since about any transfer story.
Lukaku joined Chelsea, got loaned to West Brom, then to Everton, who signed him for £28 million.
Clearly, £28m was a helluva lot of money for Everton to spend on one player, a club record fee.
But Lukaku is a tremendous footballer and Roberto Martinez says he’s now worth £55m.
Jamie Vardy is 28 and came from non-league.
At his last game for Fleetwood Town there were 25 scouts.
Last night I thought Leicester would score first because their style is simpler.There’s less to go wrong.
I figured: One break, one pass, bang!
But it was 0-0 at half-time and sharpshooter Aguero wasn’t at his best. he needs three moire games.
Mahrez and Raheem had good goal attempts and then Vardy had the best chance of the game in 39 and banged it over the bar.
Kante should haver passed to Mahrez in 54 but went on his own and his shot flew just past Joe Hart’s post.
It was an interesting game and I almost got excited when Mahrez found the diagonal run of Albrighton, while knowing he could never score from that angle.
The game was on a knife-edge when Bony replaced Aguero in 63.
So the two highest-scoring teams in the Premier League played a 0-0 draw & that was the result Arsenal wanted.
Everton 3 Stoke 4 was a phenomenal game of football.
A very high standard of competitive play.
Stoke didn’t look tired at Goodison as Lukaku, Barkley and Deulefeu tested them to the limit before Stoke won 4-3 with a controversial penalty.
Everton had lead 2-1 and 3-2 before a feeble punch by Tim Howard allowed Joselu to equalise.
John Stones had made a kamikaze pass to a Stoke player about five or ten minutes before this stoppage time penalty challenge on Arnautovic. It was risky challenge with his wrong foot, and while he got a touch, his trailing leg brought the forward down in the box.
Everton were unlucky that call went against them and Stoke were lucky Clattenburg gave them that penalty.
A pulsating match but a 3-3 draw would have been fairer.
In this game the enigmatic Ross Barkley was magnificent.
At Old Trafford, Chelsea didn’t have a striker on the pitch. And they didn’t have a striker on the bench either.
No wonder they didn’t win the game.
Biggest news from Manchester? United perked up in The Theatre of 0-0 Draws!
Probably their most energetic performance in a 0-0.
They looked a bit more like the Red Devils.
But they’re without a win in 8 games and that is Manchester United’s worst run since 1936.
Poor old Rooney has become the Elephant in the Room.
Don’t mention that he’s there. Just keep quiet.
Don’t say a word. I won’t.