No one should be super confident arsenal will be top 4 next year, but if they are it's based on young players hitting.

If Martinelli, Saka, ESR, Saliba, Nketiah, Vieira are all good they can finish very high. This time last year I didn't think Eddie was a PL level starter. I now think he's a top ~10 striker in the league. He absolutely rinsed Koulibaly the other day a few times. Betting on young guys getting better is just more fun/interesting than getting one more year out of Jorginho, Kovacic etc.

Think for the Palace game we will see:

Martinelli Jesus Saka
Xhaka Ode
Partey
Zinchenko Saliba Gabriel Cedric
Ramsdale

Possible White starts at RB or CB but I imagine his versatility has him on the bench. Tomi, Tierney, ESR and Vieira aren't fit yet. Still want Tielemans for that Xhaka role, then you get someone fit over Cedric and it's a strong team.

Tuchels sucks, he doesn't get players to play to their level and he has a thing for falling in love with donkeys.

If N'golo doesn't godmode for 4 games straight his output at Chelsea is 0.

I hate to breakup the Chelsea bashing itt but wife and I are looking to go to Portugal in a few weeks with our 6 month old son. Two random questions. Do trains in Europe (i.e. Portugal) charge for infant tickets? And can you bring a stroller and breast milk bottles into a football ground over there? Very random I know, but these are our concerns these days.

I for one am ready to pivot to bashing people that take infants on transatlantic flights. Maybe pack some egg salad or curry or something else smelly for a snack.

LOL.

I have a buddy from Israel who loves Jersey Mike's Subs. He flew from LA to Israel with 3 Jersey Mike's subs in his carry on luggage and a Chinese food to eat on the plane. Seems like you'd appreciate him

Not to disrupt the question on European policies regarding breast milk bottle in football stadium but am just debating with a friend the following question :

Take the England women's team and take Man City (men), what is the minimum amount of Man City players that can be fielded against England's women so that Man City is favorite in a game between the two sides? I set the line at 6.5 players , over or under ?

the difference in goalkeepers is so wide im taking the under. but i also think it's a little tired to bring it up

Under for sure. Remember an lol MLS academy team destroyed the best women's football team on the planet. Man City could probably win with 3 and a keeper. If subs are allowed maybe 2 and a keeper

I'd take the over. I played a ton of senior games with unreliable guys the last decade. When you have only 8 guys (7 outfield players) you take up so little room on the pitch. That's 4 defenders 3 mid. On a regulation pitch it's so hard to play with that amount of players.

They probably could win with 9 but would take women or a youth side vs anything less.

lol NO.

a team of 4 beating a team of 11? Absolutely no chance.

Even at 7 you're just defending the width of the box. You absolutely concede wide areas because you don't have enough people to covet those spaces. You also almost have to play a flat 3 in MF to cover that space, like just barely ahead of the defenders and any time you get the ball you're '70-80 yards from the opponents goal and have to counter under those circumstances. We once won a game with 8 players no subs, the other team should have folded.

You think Eddie Nketiah is a top 10 striker in the premier league?

So you now have 2 of the top 10 strikers in the league?

Put 3 guys in the box and bomb long balls to Halland. Who is winning a ball over Haaland and how are you stopping him? Are the women really breaking down 3 defenders in the box AND scoring on a giant like Ederson? I think you grossly underestimate the physical disparity

When you have 3 players on every one of their players, I think they'll be fine.

The ball can travel a lot faster than the players can, and you cannot cover all of the ground with 1/3 of the players.

Right now I'd have a top 10 of:

Haaland
Kane
Vardy
Ronaldo
Jesus

Those guys are indisputably better than Nketiah and there is no road map to him being better than them this year.

Then I'd probably have a next tier of
Nunez
Haverz
Firmino

Not really classifying anyone else on Chelsea, Pool or city as a striker other than Alvarez.

So if he's not top 10 you have at least two of these guys ahead of him:
Wilson
Iheanacho
Jimenez
Toney
DCL
Alvarez
Scamacca
Ings
Antonio

Scamacca and Alvarez are wild cards. Don't know enough about them to really rank.
I think I'd probably take Antonio and DCL over Nketiah but have him over the rest, which puts him 11th on my list. If Scamacca and Alvarez both are good right away that's 13.

Maybe Rashford should be a striker not a wide forward, but he wasn't used as much there last year.

They don't have to break down anything in the box. They have 5-6 attackers where you have 2-3 defenders. They can just make simple passes to score tap ins.

A strategy of "have haaland run 80+ yards through 7-8 players over and over again" isn't going to work on women or teenagers.

When you're down a man or two you now go from having to cover ~10 miles in a match to 11. It's a gigantic difference.

Ah so we're not including wide forwards in this discussion who can play up top, Son, Salah, Bowen etc?

I think until Eddie has played more than games in the prem (scoring 10 goals, yes I know a lot of sub appearances) it's tough to rate him as better than Richarlison, Antonio, Ings, DCL etc.

But we'll see.

Yeah meant just pure strikers #9 types

Then I guess the argument is a fairer one considering most premier league teams play with exactly 1 striker these days. Was going to say he's obviously not better than Son or Salah lol.

And obviously he has a bit of a sample size issue as you say. But the reasons I'm high on him now are the exact reasons I was low on him a year ago. This tike last year he hadn't shown any real skill besides fox in the box stuff. Basically all his goals were from inside the 6 yd area and he didn't do much else. Then all of a sudden his passing, pressing, dribbling, hold up play, running of channels was really good. Kind of came out of nowhere. He came to the ball, spun Koulibaly and Koulibaly had to take a yellow the other day. While other guys have done more, I don't think 10 other dudes have all the skills Nketiah has shown of late. I dont really consider Richarlison a true 9 but he's played more like him but better at passing of late.

Fbref has his "most similar players" as:
Jota
Lautaro
Havertz
Nkunku

If he's 80% as good as any of those guys next year I'll be over the moon.

If I have 4 outfield players I'm putting 3 in the box. I really don't think any woman is beating Ederson from outside 18 yards, so they have to break down 3 players. Then literally clear to Haaland. He can post up 2 giant men CBs. Plus he's 100x faster than their last defender. So they either sit at the halfway line and Haaland beats them for pace or Haaland posts up on the edge of their box and wins everything and finishes.

In my scenario Haaland is never making a single 80+ yard run. He's never crossing the halfway line

A couple Arsenal/England women were on the Forster YouTube channel taking shots on him from outside the box. Scored more than the random YouTubers and just slightly less than Iwobi among the 3 videos I've watched.
They can absolutely score from outside the box. You also can't put pressure on the ball, because you have 3 defenders vs 7-8 attackers and they should get a back post tap in almost every possession.

If it's England women vs Ederson, Laporte, Stones, KDB, Haaland I'd have the women -5.5 goals.

How are they stopping Haaland? Also what's the o/u on this match? Lol

Haaland touches the ball very infrequently. If you think hebwill dribble 50 yards, through 3-4 defenders every time he gets the ball, well lol. He's not Lebron playing against Jr high kids.

Probably would set an o/U around 7.5 or so.

Hes never dribbling 50 yards either. If the women play a high line which would be insane you just play balls over the top. If they sit deep you ping long balls to Hallands chest and he controls, turns and scores.

I'm not sure the physical gap is that big between women NT and elite junior high athletes either

I think the o/u would be closer to 17.5 too.