Arsenal away

I expect KdB to start. He started 36 out of 38 last season and he's Pep's go to man.

Ederson
Walker, Stones, Laporte, Mendy
Fernandinho
Mahrez, KdB, Bernardo, Foden
Aguero

I'd go with Rays starting 11 too....would like to see Davide come on for Bernardo in the 2nd half.

Can’t see KDB starting 
He only started training again on Monday

Paulpowersleftfoot wrote:Can’t see KDB starting 
He only started training again on Monday

That lad's fit as a fiddle Rich...he'll be reet to start.lol

Ederson
Walker, Stones, Vinny, Mendy
Fernandinho
Mahrez, Bernardo, KDB, Sane
Aguero

Really hope Foden gets loads of game time this season, but the chance to make a statement first game against the Gooners is too much of an opportunity to miss. Besides, Sane ripped them to bits last season.

Topdawg wrote:I expect KdB to start. He started 36 out of 38 last season and he's Pep's go to man.

Ederson
Walker, Stones, Laporte, Mendy
Fernandinho
Mahrez, KdB, Bernardo, Foden
Aguero

The away pub near the away end is called the Drayton Arms
http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/50/5075/Drayton_Arms/Highbury

I’ll be in there around 2pm Ray 
Anyone else going on Sunday ??

Enjoy you lucky buggers!!

I've got a very early morning flight to Dublin, but will be at home editing Ray's incoming videos and posting them as it happens pre and post match.

However....when I get back on Monday, I've got a great interview with Snapper Shaz lined up (the official Man City photographer Sharon Latham) who was at City for 8 years - through the FA Cup victories, 93:20 etc....and now is the official photographer for Noel Gallagher and his band.

Any questions you guys want to ask?

my team would be something like -

                 Ederson
Walker  Stones  Laporte  Mendy
              Fernandinho
           KDB        Foden
Mahrez                         Bernardo
                Aguero

Then have Dave, Sane, Jesus, Sterling as impact subs if needed

Paulpowersleftfoot wrote:

Topdawg wrote:I expect KdB to start. He started 36 out of 38 last season and he's Pep's go to man.

Ederson
Walker, Stones, Laporte, Mendy
Fernandinho
Mahrez, KdB, Bernardo, Foden
Aguero

The away pub near the away end is called the Drayton Arms
http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/50/5075/Drayton_Arms/Highbury

I’ll be in there around 2pm Ray 
Anyone else going on Sunday ??

I should be there around 2pm Rich.

Andy. Can you ask Snapper Shaz to get some free tickets for Noel Gallagher's concerts ?

Snapper Shaz MUST have a Mario story?

TMG wrote:Andy. Can you ask Snapper Shaz to get some free tickets for Noel Gallagher's concerts ?

Will do....

Blue Radley wrote:Snapper Shaz MUST have a Mario story?

On my list of questions...

Oh....forgot to say - AND David White tomorrow!

Solid stuff. Mahrez a bit wasteful, Bernardo quiet first half, and looked a bit like Bravo was in goal second half. Back four decent, good to have Mendy back though I’m not sure I like him in that tucked in role he played first half. Sterling was excellent. We don’t really know how good this new Arsenal is yet, but 2-0 away against anyone is a great result.

Yep Good start to the season. Arsenal were pretty poor but I’m sure they’ll beat most teams at home. Sterling was superb. Mendy not bad either.
Ederson kept trying to give Arsenal a chance but they couldn’t talke it. As per usual we need to take more of our chances

I thought 1st have Bernado n Gundagan were non existant, with Bernado only slightly improving after the break....fantastic finish for the goal though.
I needed a 3rd or 4th hand to count how many times Mendy n Ederson gave the ball away....wtf was going on there.
Overall, a great result despite an error strewn performance. That said,  more than happy with 3pts and a clean sheet.

I thought we simply outclassed them and I thought we were only ok,we’ll get a lot better
Be very surprised if we don’t walk the league again

I was really unimpressed with Mendy. I really mustve been watching a different game to most. He was shite at defending and kept giving the ball away in dangerous areas. He also kept getting tackled in dangerous areas also. I accept he had 2 assists and when he is bombing on down the wing he looks awesome. My problem is I thought he was primarily signed as a defender in which case he needs to take a few lessons in. All in All I was pleased with the result and fully accept as we did last season that it takes usually the first 6 games to get into it so not much to worry about yet. Thought Stones was class. I hope those brainfarts from Ederson are also out of his system now we can do without Claudio rubbing off on him. If anything we need it the other way round.

I don't think you were, Oz, I wasn't overly impressed either.  I lost count of the number of times he gave the ball away and there was one shot in the middle of the first half where he looked knackered.  Maybe he just needs a little time to bed back into the squad again, but on the strength of yesterday's performance, I'd be looking at Delph again.

Mahrez clearly isn't up to speed either, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for now as he's not been with us long.  I can see how he'd have improved us a couple of seasons back, but right now he's way behind the curve.  And I'm struggling to see how Gundogan got the nod over Foden, I felt he was poor and offered very little.

As for Bernard, I think he's showing more promise playing a more central role and the way he took that shot for his goal was nothing short of sublime.

Stones was rock solid defensively (just as well, seeing as Bravo was in the net. Oh, wait, it was Ederson? Wow...)  And I was hugely impressed with Walker, too, who ran the flank like a boss and gave Arsenal's left side a nightmare all game. And Dino was right on it as well, not much was getting past him.

I was a bit concerned about this game, to be honest. First match of the season, away to Arsenal at a ground we've generally never done well at (last season aside) and with a weakened squad, I thought we'd struggle. But we won at a canter, never really getting out of second gear, and a clean sheet to boot.  No doubt the pundits were all over the dippers with their massive win over West Ham (my Sky box once again decided to forget to record MotD2) but I would think our result was the better one.

Mendy will be at his best when we play with 3 at the back and he plays as a wing back rather than a full back. In the first half he was being asked to tuck into midfield when we were in possession and his touch just isn't good enough for that. Second half he was more of a threat because he stayed out wide. I agree that in the bigger games, particularly Liverpool, I'd be much happier with Delph as a full back in a back four. Mendy against the lesser teams getting forward will be a real danger.

It was on in the background while we were out but it was just too easy.   1st game so not reading anything into the mistakes, it's been a really weird pre-season because of the World Cup.

6 games against the lower half now so we can almost treat this as the proper pre-season.  Wolves game will be fun though.  I watched their game on Saturday and they are very much trying to play the pep blueprint, but not that well, lots of over-hit passes.

Dippers looked good annoyingly, it really is a 2 horse race this year.

I agree with pretty much everything said above.

Ederson - was his first game back in, couple of sloppy mistakes  but kept a clean sheet in the end. Will be more on it next week.
Mendy - will be so far off the pace having missed so much of last season, give him a few more games to get to speed on the defensive side. But when he's running at pace forward, it worries the other team so much.
Gundongan - Not a great game, also not match sharp. Was expecting him to get pulled off for Sane to stick KDB more central after about 5  minutes of Kev being on the pitch.

Everyone else pretty much did their jobs well, can't blame Sergio for not squaring the ball when he got clean through as strikers should always go for goal first.

It's a good job Arsenal were rubbish as that made it easier than it should have been.

Yeah, that certainly was a big help!  I'm sure they'll do better than that this season, but it's good to get a tough game out of the way while they're not doing as well.