W. | 2nd Look

I realy believe he is being managed in a fatal way right now and if he leaves after the season it will be a black day for the club. We are talking about a player who played in a Champions League semi final last season and started playing for England but now he is just put in the freezer. To say he has failed is simply not right because you need to give him 5-10 starts in a row to judge him fairly and not just one game every two months. Arteta will be totaly responsible for this if he departs.

Doku is the only source of life for City today. If they find the back of the net, it will be because of him. Every single bit of threat they have managed to create so far has come directly through his boots. He is the one driving the team forward right now.

For Mikel current energy often matters more than general skills. I remember how in the home match against Nottingham Forest Arteta benched Rice and started Merino because the Spaniard scored a hat trick during the international break. I know there are many more factors here but the energy around MLS after the last game is so positive that I would take it into account that he might start from the first minute.

The biggest mistake Tudor is making at Tottenham is where he puts the emphasis since his arrival. Any club facing relegation, especially one that never expected to be there, is in a state of deep shock. Morale is low, players are full of doubt and relationships are strained because they are fighting a war they didnt sign up for. In this psychological state every goal conceded is a massive blow that makes those demons even stronger.

I believe that against City we colectively failed to maintain possession as a team. This might sound like a hollow slogan but let me explain what I mean. If we agree that City attacked in wave after wave then the key is what happens between those waves. Every attack ends either with a goal kick (restarts) or with us winning the ball back. Most people focus only on our restarts but the problem was much biger than that.

I was wondering what Arteta meant by those comments. It seems to me that Eze is a player who wants to be much more involved in the game. His role on the pitch has changed since then. Initially he played much higher up and had games where he was almost invisible. I dont think that suited him at all. He acts like an artist and wants to have more of a say in the game. He isnt just a player who should look for space in the final third and try to impact the score from there. I mean he does that too but now he has more freedom to roam and be on the ball. He feels important because of this. I already liked his performance against Leverkusen but today he was even better.