What a weekend.
Great weather. Great beer. Great football.
It is always more enjoyable skipping into work on a Monday morning having seen your team put in a top class performance. And even better when the Man U fans who have never left London are keeping their heads down.
In the past, these guys have piped up when Arsenal lost. Usually playing videos of a certain fan TV channel and laughing. I have always said that channel’s target audience was not Arsenal fans.
Well today they will be silent. Because not only did The Arsenal win convincenly but Man U were embarassed. Humiliated. Abused.
We are getting a lot right as a club right now and this is highlighted in our transfer dealings.
We stepped away from Lautaro Martinez when the price became too steep and opted to go for Oleksandr Zinchenko at half the price.
Now Mikel Arteta had always planned to use Martinez as an inverted full back, utilising his defensive ability out wide but tucking him into the midfield in attack. We had no interest in playing him as a central defender.
Erik ten Hag had other ideas and has started him in central defence. WhoScored rated his performance against Brentford at 5.7. Ironically this is also his height.
Other Premier League clubs will ruthlessly expose his vertical challenges and he will be dominated by lumps of centre forwards.
Meanwhile Zinchenko put in another solid performance.
The performance against Leicester City also showed why it is unlikely we will go for Youri Tielemans.
In the battle between Tielemans and Granit Xhaka, the Swiss man came out on top.
Add Zinchenko as an option in the middle, Fabio Vieira, Albert Sambi Lokonga and Mohamed Elneny, we are clearly well stocked in central midfield. I would rather a winger.
Last little thought is about Gabriel Jesus.
What an astute he has been.
Edu got a little bit of flack for “buying Manchester City rejects” but Jesus’s all action performance against Leicester makes you wonder why he was not given more of a chance for City.
It was interesting to hear Raheem Sterling speaking at the weekend of how frustrated he became with Pep Guardiola’s rotation policy.
City have now lost Jesus, Zinchenko and Sterling – all of whom left for regular football. And Bernardo Silva could also be out of the door.
The important thing now is to ensure Jesus workload is managed.
Jesus can not be expected to put in a 90 minute all action performance twice a week. We will need to ensure he is taken off when the games are won, and that Eddie starts in the Europa League.
Lots to be excited about.
Enjoy your Monday.
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 