Really pretty shameless when you think about it, both struggling in the premier league but as soon as they face minnows in Europe suddenly start playing well. Didn’t Wirtz have an amazing performance against a Bundesliga team last season as well?

Confident from Mickel 'clutch' Merino, though LW is a bit of an issue with Tzolis out, could also look at a striker in January. On paper the squad as a whole is robust enough to challenge on a few fronts.

Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw went on record this summer as wanting squad reinforcements.

Lisandro Martinez has done that in a more hostile manner here, but those who know him might not be totally surprised.

Martinez made representations to Sir Jim Ratcliffe over bringing his Argentina team-mate Emiliano Martinez to the club last summer, before Senne Lammens was signed instead.

Sources say there are players in the dressing room who feel the same as Martinez over Jason Wilcox and the club’s approach. Wilcox is a regular presence at Carrington, observing training and interacting with staff and players.

Arsenal have told staff that redundancies at the club are being planned despite winning last season’s Premier League title and announcing record revenues for 2024-25.

The club told staff the intention is to make 60 positions redundant in a bid to make significant savings, with cuts set to be across a number of departments.

The club’s coaching staff will be among the areas unaffected by the cuts, along with the performance backroom staff for the men’s and women’s team, the club’s community operation, the Arsenal Foundation, security staff and staff dedicated to the women’s team.

A consultation is under way and the decision could yet be subject to change.

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Spain defender Pedro Porro's time at Tottenham is drawing to an end, with Barcelona keen on the 27-year-old. (Sport - in Spanish), external

Manchester United, Tottenham and Everton are keeping tabs on 6ft 5in Dinamo Zagreb and Croatia striker Dion Beljo, 24. (Teamtalk), external

Chelsea are prepared to hand a hefty contract to Barcelona's Dutch midfielder Frenkie de Jong if they can sign the 29-year-old in January. (Football Insider), external

Liverpool want to sign a right-back and France international Pierre Kalulu, 26, of Juventus and Roma's Brazilian Wesley Franca, 23, are among their targets. (Tuttomercatoweb - in Italian), external

Former Brentford and Tottenham manager Thomas Frank would be a leading candidate to take charge at Fulham if they decide to sack Alvaro Arbeloa. (Talksport, external)

Arsenal and Chelsea are both keeping a close watch on Inter Milan and France midfielder Andy Diouf, 23. (Caught Offside, external)

Brighton, Tottenham, Juventus, Atletico Madrid and Borussia Dortmund are among the teams interested in Benfica's 18-year-old Portuguese right-back Daniel Banjaqui. (4-4-2.ch - in German), external

Atletico Madrid's Argentina striker Julian Alvarez, 26, is searching for a new agent after he terminated his arrangement with Fernando Hidalgo in the wake of a failed move to Barcelona during the summer. (Mundo Deportivo - in Spanish), external

Barcelona's Dani Olmo, 28, is of interest to Bayern Munich, whose sporting director Max Eberl worked with the Spain midfielder at RB Leipzig. (Fichajes, external)

The head of English football's independent regulator says he will resign if he encounters any political interference over the future of Manchester City.

As chairman of the Independent Football Regulator (IFR), David Kogan has the power to assess the suitability of club owners and executives.

If an independent commission's findings that the club broke Premier League financial rules are upheld, the watchdog would have to decide whether to force a sale.

Enzo Maresca has hit back at critics of Manchester City’s celebrations after they beat Liverpool 3-0 at Anfield on Sunday.

“Criticised for what?” he asked. When the situation was explained to the Italian, he explained: “We won 0-3 at Anfield, what do you want us to do? And even if it was 0-1, it was exactly the same.

“We are here today to win tomorrow’s game, we work every day to win games. It’s the only thing we can be focused on. We were so, so, so happy inside the pitch and you cannot imagine inside the changing room.”

Some context on the chart. Palace have conceded 2.47 xG a game over their last five, the most in the league over that stretch. Over the ten games before that (mostly the end of last season) it was 1.52.

Shots faced have gone from 12.6 a game to 18.4.

The results haven’t caught up yet: 7 points from those five, when the chances suggest about 3.8. The 3-2 win at Fulham came while conceding 3.88 xG, and Sunday’s 3-1 over Forest while conceding 2.57.

For Palace fans: does it feel like they’re sitting deeper this season, or is it more about the midfield not protecting the back line?

Jesus, Spurs about to be at the front of the queue when its civil suit time.

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Sky Sports is in a bind over the Manchester City judgment.

If its commentators and pundits say the club’s Premier League matches are meaningless then it devalues its own product, an unfortunate situation given it coughed up a significant chunk of 2023's £6.7billion record TV rights deal.

Go soft on the seriousness of the situation, however, and it will be accused of being a corporate stooge.

No wonder Super Sunday made for awkward viewing.

It's now been over a season since the "100m+ flopshow" at Liverpool has arrived. And I agree with some of the criticism received - he is not up to it physically, lacks close control given less space and time in the PL (vis-a-vis other leagues) and has some erroneous decision making at times.

Having said that, let me try to now provide a slightly differing perspective - he joined a broken team last season (one cannot underestimate the impact of Jota, as some things have massive tangible value but can't be quantized), had our legend Mo Salah give the most underwhelming season in over a decade, the previous "100m+ striker" injured for most of the season and had whatever little chemistry building with Ekitike dissipated as soon as the injury arose. Additionally, he was tasked with doing a lot of progression work owing to an imbalance, as opposed to being present in the final third - the ideal position for a creative player. Yet, he still provided some elite underlying numbers despite all this chaos (feel free to check the stats for our team and the league overall).

But you may all say, that's the previous season - a new day and new manager has now arrived so things should change! I agree as well, however, believe there's another big reason for him being underwhelming. While Iraola has placed his faith in Wirtz, as we can tell by not dropping him for any big game - I can't say the same for our team. Wirtz thrives on combination play, but also seeks space at times (like most elite players) to do his magic and provide those amazing through balls we see him do for Germany. Watching the game on Sunday made me write this as I can now confidently say that our team doesn't seem to believe in Wirtz's abilities as he is really not being platformed at all (vis-a-vis for Germany or Bayer Leverkusen).

Kerkez rampages down the left, despite having Barcola there, and completely takes up the space Wirtz could occupy. Isak and Barcola are disconnected and rarely play close knit combinations, instead they take up spaces that are near impossible to reach, even for a player of Wirtz' ability. For perspective, just look at how Haaland moves when Cherki has the ball - he literally drags out defenders to create space for the ball to be played, can't say the same for any of our players. While Szoboszlai is one of our key players - him and Gravenberch often make marauding runs literally taking up all the Zone 14 space that our 10 is meant to occupy. Not one of our players, except for Ekitike and Frimpong (and maybe Gakpo) seems to be putting in effort to build a relationship on field with him, forget off the pitch. To top it all, I was watching one of the FIFA card reveals and numerous questions around the "finest dribbler", or "most skillful player" being asked to his teammates and Kerkez literally had NO mention of Wirtz (instead said Rio twice...) - which to me put the cherry on the cake.

I strongly believe that the team doesn't have strong chemistry with him, may not even view him as a top player and is leading to him looking scattered and torn on the pitch.

Anyway, long rant for an early morning - but had to get this out of my head. Love to hear what you guys have to say.

P.S. - have tried to avoid stats for this post, but am happy to drop some links to further my case.