Several Hale Enders put on a show as Arsenal thrashed League one Bolton in the League Cup. It was a line up reminiscent of many of Wenger’s sides in this competition from yesteryear partially due to injuries as well as a few players knocking on Arteta’s door following good showings in our preseason tour of the US.
As expected, Myles Lewis- Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri both started after both being given Premier League minutes in the past week. There were also first team debuts for Josh Nichols and 16-year-old goalkeeper, Jack Porter. More on him later.
There was also a full debut for Raheem Sterling whilst both Rice and Saka started, perhaps surprisingly. Bolton did start the game confidently and perhaps should have gone ahead in the first few minutes as former Burnley man Scott Arfield fired over from close range. But Arsenal showed their topflight quality by scoring with their first real attack. Josh Nichol’s cross wasn’t dealt with as the ball found its way to Rice on the edge of the box. Dec took a touch to set himself before firing into the bottom corner. 1-0 on 15 mins.
Shortly before the break Arsenal found a stylish second. The build-up was superb as Myles Lewis- Skelly played an Ozil/Bergkamp-esque through ball to Sterling on the left and the seasoned international played a perfect first-time ball to Nwaneri to tap home for his first ever senior goal at 17 years of age. In doing so, he became the first player born after the club moved to The Emirates to score for Arsenal. Even I feel old just typing that.
Nwaneri’s night got even better just after the break as Rice stole the ball in the final third and played in Nwaneri who slammed home to make it three and double his personal tally. I could be being pedantic here, but I felt as though despite his goal, Nwaneri should’ve played in Rice who was in a better position. A Premier League goalkeeper may well have saved that. But Nwaneri is now the youngest Arsenal player to score a brace on his full competitive debut so what do I know?
Bolton managed a surprise goal shortly after. We lost possession in the final third and Collins found himself in acres of space before rounding young Porter as he rolled in a consolation. Was it poor goalkeeping? Yes, but 16 is outrageously young for a goalkeeper. At 16 years and 2 months he is remarkably the youngest ever player to start for Arsenal. He is younger than Fabregas was when he scored that famous screamer at the San Siro, and younger than the first series of The Inbetweeners. To put things into perspective, Porter was 11 when Arteta took over. In truth, the real question is why Porter’s goal wasn’t better protected by his more senior teammates. The sole blot on an otherwise perfect evening.
Ten minutes later we restored our three-goal cushion after successfully taking the sting out of Bolton’s short-lived resurgence. Saka turned two Bolton defenders inside out and back to front before drilling a low shot that was spilled by the ‘keeper allowing Raheem Sterling to prod home from two yards out. A goal and assist on his full debut, you can’t have any complaints about that.
Unfortunately, Myles Lewis Skelly had to go off with what looked like a muscular problem so hopefully that’s nothing serious as he looked very assured and comfortable despite being out of his natural position. Kai Havertz came on and prodded home the fifth, as we also saw first team debuts for centre back Maldini Kaccuri (now that is a proper name) and forward, Ismael Kabia, who scored the winner for the U21s at Leyton Orient a few weeks ago. Overall, six academy youngsters were given their full debuts. So much for Arteta not giving a chance to the yoof.
Both CER and I were surprised at the quality of football on display given the number of youngsters on the pitch. Some may have expected a more disjointed performance, but it was anything but. Hale End is clearly no teenage wasteland…
Preston North End away awaits us in the next round. The Invincibles Derby if you will. PNE are a division above Bolton so we may not see quite as many youngsters in that game but I’m sure we can make way for one or two. I would not be surprised if Nwaneri starts on Saturday or at least gets 20-25 mins. He was unsurprisingly the standout youngster, but it was more than just his goals which stood out. Physically he looked ready, his passing was crisp, his movement excellent. Leicester may be the ideal game to bring him into the Premier League fold proper. Let’s wait and see.
I’ve only been to Bolton once and it wasn’t for a football match. In 2016 I was involved in a charity project and one of the people we helped was Paul. Paul was 39, a lively, successful manager of a big car dealership in Bolton and a fanatical Bolton supporter. He went to work one morning with a headache, subsequently had a brain stem stroke when he arrived at the office and was paralysed from the waist down and unable to speak normally.
By the time I met him he had made real progress .He had a hi- tech wheelchair with a voice synthesiser and his first Hawking-like words to me were “I hate the Arsenal. Southern softie fancy-dans . Bolton are going to crush you when we play you again”.
All delivered with an impish smile and a tap on my knee to suggest he was … probably … joking! We conversed as best we could about the recent history of Bolton/ Arsenal clashes which usually involved Sam Allardyce getting his team to rough up Arsene Wenger’s “fancy-dans”. I told him about watching Nat Lofthouse score two goals in the 1958 Cup Final, just post-Munich against Manchester United, the first game I ever watched and a 1963 game I described on here a few years ago when Arsenal came back from 3-1 down to beat Bolton 4-3. He mentioned all the tough games they gave us under Allardyce and I winced! But we did virtually clinch a title there in 2002 and sadly by the time I met Paul Bolton had plunged into economic disaster and playing ignominy.
Bolton were relegated to Division One in 2015 having survived a winding-up petition earlier that year and ultimately ended in Division Two. Under Ian Evatt, the former Barrow manager, they have climbed back up to Division One where they are currently 18th after a 5-2 win over Reading at the weekend. They play Crawley early on Saturday and the local press has them prioritising that game over the trip to Arsenal. We are very much a free hit for them.
Bolton are one of the founder members of the Football League and a famous old club with a history of FA Cup glory and top international players. However, they travel to Arsenal on Wednesday as massive underdogs but at the same time with nothing to lose. That can be a dangerous combination and much will depend on how seriously Mikel Arteta views the competition. On one hand it is a Cup competition with a relatively quick route to Wembley (although why have two semi-finals?). Oh I forgot … money! It offers the best opportunity for a club in Arsenal’s position to blood young players in the first-team and it can throw up exciting Cup football. But for Arsenal , in our current position, it may be a Cup too far. Having lost Odegaard, Merino, Zinchenko and Tomayisu and with Ben White partially crocked apparently, and after a fearsome run of away fixtures it is a distraction we could well do without. But I will still be urging on the team on Wednesday night, albeit it from my sofa. Since my illness last year I’m trying to conserve energy, the game is on TV (I will be reporting on it from there) and at the last Carabao Cup ties I attended I was surrounded by strangers whose level of interest in the game was highly dubious and I found it hard to concentrate on the action. And we lost!
The titanic effort at the Emptihad on Sunday after such an exhausting recent programme will have undoubtedly drained the players and I think we should rest as many of our first team players as we can. We also have a number of talented players who will want to press their suit for inclusion in first team affairs and some young tyros who merit a chance to shine on a bigger stage. I put this team into the blog the other day:
[*] Seaford may be short after illness so Porter may play – he’s 16!
There is some method in my madness . Timber is building back after last year’s injury and this should be less demanding than a league match. Kiwior hasn’t started at all and Calafiori has a chance to build on Sunday’s sensational performance. MLS and Nwaneri look likely to start and Oulad M’Hand has impressed many observers and if I recall, impressed CER at Orient recently.
Martinelli needs goals and Jesus and Sterling need games. Exciting young talents like Kabia , Gower and Kacurri can join from the bench if the match situation allows. I would be very careful with our subs. Raya is slightly crocked, Saka, Rice, Saliba and Gabriel are too important to risk in a game like this and while I expect Havertz to be on the bench I hope we don’t need to play him.
I think we will prevail but after a tough game possibly 2-0 and I hope Paul up in Bolton gets a chance to watch his team and they make him proud. After we met we contacted Bolton and they made him guest of honour at their next home game. It was, he said, the “proudest moment of my life”.
I used to dislike Bolton intensely during the Allardyce era but they are a club that has battled to survive and after meeting Paul I have a very soft spot for them in my heart. I fervently hope we beat them nevertheless and show the quality that Southern softie fancy dans inherently possess.
It was hammering with rain as we left Cambridgeshire on a dreich Sunday morning. The rain continued as we stopped for brunch (full English for me, a burger for my son) at the American diner near Newark on the A1. Suitably fuelled for a day at the football, we continued on our way, cutting across the top of the Peak District (with some stunning views) and into Manchester. Parked up 10 minutes from the away end, we made our way into the ground.
We were in the third tier at the Etihad and rather than climb all those steps I asked to use the lift as I had last year. The lift is shared with home fans and a well refreshed gaggle of City fans rushed into the lift just before the doors closed. I have mentioned before that the City fans are the lippiest on the circuit and the sight of me in my Arsenal scarf started them off. Three floors of “banter” followed, the nicest which was “you’re too old to be at football, why don’t you just stay at home and die?” Thanks for the advice lads, I’ll take it under advisement. As you get out of the lift, you enter a City concourse and are led to the away one, attracting a few aggressive looks on the way (or so my so my son told me, I was oblivious). Into the ground proper, and a long climb up to row DD which proved to be the second row from the top.
The team made a couple of changes from Thursday, Calafiori for White and Trossard for Jesus. Right from the kick off Rodri and Havertz clashed, leaving Rodri clutching his face. Cheating little fuck. The tone was set.
City made a good and fast start. After nine minutes, Servino (who I really rate, they’ve found one there) spun off Calafiori and made ground before playing Haaland in with a great ball. He adjusted his body position and toe poked it past Raya. Bugger.
It was all City in the first 20 minutes but then Rodri bumped into Partey and collapsed holding his knee. This time it was for real and he limped off to be replaced by Kovacic. One of several turning points in the game as from that point we had the better of the first half.
We won a free kick in the centre circle. Walker dawdled getting back as he shouted instructions to his team and Partey pinged it over his head to Martinelli in space. He got to the bye line cut it back to Calafiori who, from outside the area hit an absolute beauty into the top corner. Scenes. Pep was so thrilled he tried to destroy his chair 😂😂.
Arsenal won a free kick on the half way line. Doku kicked the ball away. Yellow card ? No of course not. From the free kick Saka won a corner. The tactical genius Pep put Jeremy Doku on Gabriel. Men against boys. Saka put in the perfect ball to the back post, big Gabi climbed and put the ball just over. We won another corner. This time Walker was on Gabriel. He was jabbing away at Gabi, presumably getting touch tight. To no avail. Total repeat of the previous corner. Perfect ball, Gabi climbs at the near post and scores!
Have I ever mentioned that I love it when we score from corners?
2-1 to the Arsenal. Whole atmosphere had changed and we were the better team. And then after eight minutes of injury time, Tross is sent off for kicking the ball away, just before the half time whistle. Was he stupid, was he unlucky? I’ll leave it you to discuss.
We reorganised of course at half time. Saka came off for Ben White so it was clearly “what we have, we hold”. From my spot in the Gods I had the perfect view of the 3D chess that was the second half. We formed two lines, one of six and one of three. City passing it round the semi circle of doom and hitting shots from 25 yards. Every Arsenal player heroic, blocking, tackling, hacking clear. This was the lowest of low blocks. And yes, some time wasting. A man down against the best team in the world. What other tactics were there? And we carried them out magnificently to defend that lead.
And then, just as we dared to believe, in the 98th minute, City equalised. A short corner, a shot, a deflection and it fell to Stones who scored. A gut punch. 60 seconds later came the final whistle and it finished 2-2. Yet it felt like a massive victory.
The away fans, magnificent throughout, cheered the team to the echo. Some handbags at the whistle with Haaland, who had thrown the ball at Gabriel after the equaliser, taking out Lewis-Skelly (who had been booked before coming on for his debut – that boy will go far) and Gabriel fronting up to protect the lad.
We’re in City’s head. It brings back the rivalry with Man United in the 90s. They celebrated their draw at home with wild abandon. They haven’t beaten us in four games now (2 wins, 2 draws). Rude words after from Stones and Silva about negative football. Err lads, when we had a man sent off we were winning, remember? We are living rent free. Mark my words, the rivalry and dislike is real.
The team performance was magnificent and yet again our goalkeeper was superb. They deserved the win. 10 v 11 for well over 53 minutes of the second half. It was so near to being the perfect away day.
After the most difficult two weeks of the season, away to Villa, Spurs and City we have taken 7 out of 9 points. We have lost our Captain to injury. We didn’t land until 3am Friday after an away game in Europe. City played the day before at home. After all that we are just two points behind them.
It’s been a very good week for the Arsenal. A win at Tottenham and a draw at Europa League winners, Atalanta, in the Champions League, both achieved in the face of an injury and suspension crisis with two brilliant defensive displays. What a shame that with one of the biggest games of the season around 24 hours away, the focus of most Arsenal fans will now be split between football and legal matters. Sadly, that is the inevitable consequence of a game against Manchester City.
If the loss of a couple of players against Tottenham last week provoked an extra desire to beat the neighbours, it’s to be hoped that the light on the current hearing into Manchester City’s various misdeeds will do the same on Sunday against Abu Dhabi. It should do as our whole club is still smarting from the failure to lift the Premier League trophy four months ago. Arsenal, under the transformative guidance of Mikel Arteta, have done enough to be deserved champions against all other opposition for the last two seasons. All other opposition, that is, except the erstwhile also rans from Maine Road, Manchester.
Old Manchester City Back in the late 1960s and 1970s, City were a proper club with players like Colin Bell, Francis Lee and Mike Summerbee. They enjoyed success in the old First Division and both domestic cup competitions. It didn’t last, however, and their prolonged slide down the English football pyramid finally ended in 1998-99 when they won promotion from Division 2 (the third tier) back up to Division 1. Despite their decline their supporters in those days stayed loyal, and even in the third tier of English football they enjoyed gates of 20,000 – 30,000.
Modern Manchester City The current incarnation is a confected club constructed with the proceeds of Abu Dhabi oil, and was acquired in September 2008 by the Abu Dhabi United Group, an investment company for the Abu Dhabi royal family, which is owned by Sheikh Mansour, who is also chairman of the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates, and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC).
Somewhat similarly to the Spurs fans that GSD described last week, the City fans have nicked a goal celebration from Poland, been given a stadium by Manchester council to help them on their way, and found their club the recipients of untold wealth from the Sheikhs of Abbly Dabbly (thanks, as ever, BtM). Not content with their ability to outspend all who stood in their way, the Sheikhs allegedly (take note, lawyers) felt it necessary to clandestinely enhance their contributions to the club by sneaking a few extra quid under the counters of FFP and PSR to ensure that they won so much in the next dozen or so years that many of their supporters are now too bored to turn up and witness the next victory. That loss of interest might well eventually apply to the demoralised supporters of many other clubs if City’s behaviour is allowed to continue unpunished – and that could have fatal implications for the Premier League.
The Court Hearing And so, from last Monday 16th September, we have finally come to the hearing of City’s many and varied charges of Premier League rule contraventions which is expected to take something like ten weeks. It transpires that due to ‘reporting errors’, City are actually facing not the widely reported 115 charges but, in fact, 130 charges. You can add to that 22 counts of late kick offs in both first and second halves of league matches over the last two seasons, for which they have already been fined £2 million. You can come to your own conclusions as to why they would want to repeatedly kick off late. My own, purely personal opinion, of course, is that it cannot have been anything at all to do with foreign betting markets. Of course it can’t!
Once the initial verdict of the current hearing is announced, C130y are bound to mount all kinds of appeals and try to drag the process on as long as they possibly can, but you cannot allow 130 charges of offences ranging from non-cooperation to fraud, to simply be swept under the carpet and ignored. The league would lose all credibility and with it a significant number of its supporters – that’s to say it’s paying customers around the globe.
Don’t believe it? Well I’m hearing on radio that Premier League clubs are looking at ticket price increases of up to 20%. How many fans, who are struggling to keep up with mortgage increases and cost of living inflation already, are going to cough up even more cash to take part in a competition that is going to continue to be won by a team that everyone knows has cheated their way to six of the last seven titles? And how many paying TV customers around the world will continue to pay to watch games in emptying stadia, increasingly devoid of atmosphere, abandoned by fans who can’t be bothered with a corrupt competition.
So Man C130y are lawyered up to the teeth, with a team led by legal eagle and life peer, Lord David Pannick, and there are those who believe they will weedle their way out of this crisis by courtesy of their huge wealth and their army of legal advisers. Well, there are a lot of very rich, smart operators who own Premier League clubs too, who will also be lawyered up to the teeth – angry at the losses they have suffered over many seasons and seeking appropriate retribution and compensation. The Premier League would surely not have gone public with the news of these charges if they were not very confident of making them stick. Their mistake was probably in bringing all 130 charges at once, allowing C130y’s lawyers to take an absolute age in preparing their defences.
My own feeling is that it may be possible to quibble over specific, individual amounts of money in various holes and hiding places in the accounts, but surely you can’t argue with the basic principle of “failing to co-operate with an investigation”, or “failing to provide the information” requested.
We will all now have to wait another age to learn anything about the hearing as in the interests of clarity and transparency – cough – it is being held in a secret location and will be closed to the public. All we will get is the eventual verdict which, considering the points deductions handed out last season to Everton and Nottingham Forest for their relatively minor offences, should see Manchester City relegated to the National League North. One good thing about this hearing compared with the UEFA investigation into their FFP contraventions, is that City will not have the option to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
This all reminds me of what happened to a friend of mine when he had to take recourse to the law. He initially asked his solicitor: “If I give you £400, will you answer two questions for me?” His solicitor replied, “Absolutely ! What’s the second question?” At the end of the hearing and with a guilty verdict, the solicitor said, “Judge, I wish to appeal my client’s case on the basis of newly discovered evidence.” Judge: “And what is the nature of the new evidence?” Solicitor: “I have discovered that my client still has £500 left.”
Manchester City Team News Honestly, who cares? There are rumours that de Bruyne could miss the game with an injury sustained in midweek, but I’ll believe it when I see it. If any of their squad are unavailable, they will bring in £50m – £60m replacements and it will make no difference to them – or they will play a thug like Kovacic to maim a few more of our players with continuing impunity as their pet referee Michael Oliver will be in charge.
That’s the very same Michael Oliver who – i) was paid £20,000 in 2023 to referee a game in UAE, funded by Man City’s owner Sheikh Mansour ii) allowed Kovacic to escape a red card for two horrible challenges on Rice and Ødegaard when the teams met at the Emirates last season iii) has awarded fewer yellow cards to Man City than any of the other top 8 clubs iv) has awarded Man City 11 penalties in games he has refereed and v) has never issued a red card against a Man City player.
Remember the scandal in Spain when Barcelona were found guilty of paying referees to fix marches? The Director of Football at Barcelona at the time was Txiki Begiristain who just happens to have been Director of Football at Manchester City since 2012. How is it possible for a referee to be on the payroll of the owner of one of the clubs in the league in which he officiates?
Arsenal team news Martin Ødegaard remains sidelined. I don’t know where the rumours are coming from but the end of November is being suggested as his possible/likely return date, which would suggest a serious grade 2 tear to his affected ankle ligament(s). The club has quite rightly issued no detail on the injury so this has to be all conjecture at this stage. There don’t appear to be any new problems after the game against Atalanta, so Calafiori, Timber, Jesus, Sterling and Jorginho should all be available. Extra baggy shorts have been ordered for William Saliba as he will again be expecting to keep Erling Haaland in his back pocket.
There has been a lot of nonsense talked in the various media this week about how Arsenal lacked ambition and parked the bus at the Emptihad last season. It seems we didn’t make the game exciting enough for the poor loves because we shut City down. Well you bet we did – and I’ll be delighted if we manage to do exactly the same on Sunday. Mikel Arteta’s job is to win games for the Arsenal, not to entertain the press – and especially when he is having to do it with a makeshift midfield that is also impacting the attack.
He told the press yesterday that the club has been preparing for this exceptional week of away games since pre-season. His original plans were then shot to bits by the clutch of injuries and suspension we suffered to all our new players, holding midfielder and captain. So he has had to try to adapt again, one week before that horror week began. Whatever he comes up with on Sunday will be the very best the club can do, for all the reasons we know nothing about. That will do me just fine. I’m actually finding it fun, while the present circumstances persist, to watch teams banging their heads against our impenetrable defensive wall. One-Nil to the Arsenal would be absolutely fantastic. Nil-Nil would also be a job extremely well done.
“You’ll fall in love, I know you will …. Our No.6 is the king of Brazil”
The Holic Pound I decided that betting on this game, given some of the information above, really would be a mug’s game. Instead I’ll leave you with a topical tale that occurred in the Holics’ pub of choice – A man walked into the pub and shouted for all to hear, “Lawyers are all ASSHOLES!” A man at the back of the bar stood up and shouted back at him “I take exception to that statement and I resent it greatly!” The first guy asked, “Are you a Lawyer?” The man at the back responded “No, I’m an asshole!”
Match time Kick off is on Sunday 22nd September at 16.30 UK time. TV coverage on Sky Sports. Try to enjoy the game. Safe journey if you’re going.
And finally, words of wisdom from Winston Churchill – “Lawyers occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.”
And so to Bergamo, home of Atalanta, where 1300 lucky Arsenal fans took their place at the newly revamped stadium. A quick glance at my Everyman’s Classical Dictionary tells me that Atalanta, for whom the club was named, as per Ned’s peerless match preview, was exposed at birth and suckled by a she-bear. Further it states, “when her father wished her to marry, she required that every suitor should contend with her in a foot race; she would wed the first man who outstripped her, but unsuccessful competitors would be put to death.” The Atalanta players certainly did her name proud last night.
The atmosphere, albeit filtered through TNT Sports inane set of pundits and commentators – Ferdinand? Savage? Really? – was fantastic especially given that the ground only holds around 25,000. Pre-match there seemed to be a lot of very positive and borderline dismissive talk in the Goonersphere about the relative ease with which we would despatch the opponents. I didn’t really understand why that should be, given that these were the Europa Cup holders, easily beating a Leverkusen side which hadn’t lost a game all season in the final. And so it proved to be.
Atalanta under manager Gasperini play a Bielsa-like game, man marking all over the pitch. While we started well, being clearly the better side in the first 15-20 minutes, slowly the attritional relentlessness of the pressing of Atalanta began to wear down the sharp point of our attacking. After 3 mins a smart Arsenal attack resulted in a shot from Saka deflected wide of the goal. 9 minutes later, Saka made the keeper work hard to save a free kick, struck low and hard down towards the keeper’s far post. Somehow the otherwise excellent officials failed to award a corner with the last touch clearly coming off the keeper. 5 minutes later we had arguably our best chance of the half when Martinelli was put in by a smart touch from Jesus, only to balloon his shot over the bar. In fairness, Martinelli did need to adjust his feet very quickly and was as a result somewhat off-balance when he struck it, but a year or so ago that would have been in the net.
In the last 20 mins of the half, the home side started to get on top and in the 30th minute had their only real chance of the half when a smart lay off from Retegui allowed de Ketelaere an opportunity to shoot from 16 yards. Fortunately, he ballooned the ball well high and wide..
Notable points from the first half were that Martinelli was all action but just can’t buy a goal. He put in a hell of a defensive shift, ensuring that Timber was never left exposed at left back and contributed some very good build up play. The rest will come. Partey looked sluggish and his control and passing were poor. Perhaps playing a tough full 90 minutes on Sunday followed by almost 60 last night were too much. I can see him being needed alongside Rice and Jorginho on Sunday so I hope he can recover quickly. For them, Ederson seemed to be trying to channel his inner Son, so much time did he spend falling over and trying get Arsenal players booked. Credit to the referee for ignoring his antics. Are you watching, PGMOL? Unlikely as they already know it all! Retegui struck me as the kind of striker who runs around a lot but doesn’t really do it. 21CG and I watched him do exactly the same for Italy vs France during the last Interlull.
Half Time Atalanta 0 Arsenal 0
No sooner had the second half started than Partey gave away a penalty. He fouled the vertiginously challenged Ederson outside the box and was then rather unfortunate to make unintentional contact in the box. Maybe if Jorginho hadn’t put in the top distance covered on Sunday and wasn’t likely be a starter on Sunday, he would have been hooked at half-time.
After an interminable PGMOL style “it’s all about us” VAR review, Retegui stepped up to take it. Raya had used the time well and managed to speak to the coaching staff, presumably to get some insight into Retegui’s penalty preferences. Whatever, it worked. A cat-like dive down low to his right saved the penalty. However, the resulting rebound from a well struck penalty bounced up to Retegui again. He didn’t get the greatest direction on the header but all credit to Raya for reacting with the agility of a hummingbird to get up and dive low past the middle of the goal to scoop the ball away on the line. A brilliant double save, but Retegui should have scored. Told you about him…..
The game was played out with little more action, apart from a couple of typically showy but wayward efforts from Atalanta substitute Cuadrado. Once again, after Sunday, the defence was imperious and stifled the all-action style of the home side.
Final Score Atalanta 0 Arsenal 0
It looked to me at times as if we may have been trying to conserve some energy for Sunday away at C115y, following 2 tough away trips in a week. City were kept quiet at home this week by an admittedly very good Inter side, and we will need all our energy and concentration to do the same. I thought Timber looked good, as did Calafiori when he came on for the last 18 minutes. An awful lot to like, given the injury situation. Winning teams grind out results in tough places and the last week showed that we have the requisite grit and determination in spades.
“You’ll fall in love, I know you will …. Our No.6 is the king of Brazil” 
