I try not to be one of those childish “I told you so” kind of guys.
But for those of you who took the piss out of me a few weeks ago after I said “Norwich are one of the better "footballing’ sides in the league”, well please try and explain to me how, without sitting 10 men deep and lumping up high balls, they managed to undo the best team in England?
I said it on the radio again on Friday, “this will be an interesting game, both sides play a very similar style of football, but City’s quality of players will probably see them through”.
It wasn’t a lucky win, the Canaries hustled and bustled for 90 minutes, disrupting the usual fluidity of Pep Guardiola’s game.
They equalled the Citizens in their neat passing and movement and thoroughly deserved the three points. It’s mad to think that a Sergio Aguero or Kevin de Bruyne, or just about any City individual is worth more than the entire Norwich team!
It’s lovely, gives a person a bit of hope as the mighty spenders dominate the game.
Guardiola said his side “didn’t have urgency in the final third”, but for me they were simply unable to find the final ball or the killer finish because of the stubborn, hardworking defence that had been masterfully set up by brilliant coach Daniel Farke.
It was a massive weekend of results for a few sides. Norwich will have the spunk in their boots that’ll tell them they can beat anyone on the day and of course the result was huge for Liverpool, who cruised past Newcastle.
Elsewhere, Spurs pulled a surprisingly good performance out the bag against Watford, who are struggling, but coach Mauricio Pochettino will take a lot from the energy his team showed after a couple of very average outings.
Frankie Lampard will be disappointed in the way his side defended after killing the game, letting in two relatively soft goals, but that will only reinforce the obvious, which is that Antonio Rudiger needs to be on the pitch to give the right balance and leadership.
Following his precautionary withdrawal, there wasn’t the same calmness as Wolves came forward.
But five goals at Molineux is no mean feat even though they’re struggling to get their season moving.
With Callum Hudson-Odoi (apparently) putting pen to paper this week and N'Golo Kante and Ruben Loftus-Cheek almost fit, it’s looking a lot brighter for the Blues.
NEW DIRECTION: Chelsea youngsters are on fire now. Photo: Andy Rain/EPA.
It’s amazing that all of Chelsea’s goals this season have come from academy graduates.
Had Fifa not given a double-window transfer ban, would these players have even been on the pitch?
For us Chelsea fans (the real ones) the whole scenario is a blessing in disguise. It's a new direction, a new defined personality and a strategy to take the club forward!
With the top four all in Champions League action on Tuesday and Friday, oh, and United and Arsenal Thursday night, squad depth and rotation immediately comes under the spotlight.
It’s going to be interesting to see who Lampard and Jurgen Klopp deploy ahead of this Sunday’s blockbuster.
Of course, the Scousers are favourites to nick all three points at the Bridge, but I’m predicting it won’t be as straightforward as most people think.
I’ll be happy with a point, however, anything less than three for league leaders Liverpool will be considered a bad result for them.
One thing that was quite evident this weekend past, (although I didn’t watch 90 minutes of every game), is that VAR seems to have pulled itself back a bit?
There appeared to be less interruptions despite quite a few contentious moments.
I’m wondering whether the continuous questioning and criticising has resulted in an instruction to officials to rather use faster audio communication in an attempt to take the heat off?
Can Frank do a Farke on Jurgen this weekend?
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