Ah there she is.
What a fine thing. Have to keep reminding myself how early it really still is in the season. We won our first six last season, too. This is different, however. At this point last season, we were still waiting for the team to start to look fluid, balanced or even coherent. We were adjusting to playing without an attacking midfielder like Oxlade or Lallana and wondering if missing out of Fekir would eventually cost us. Bobby Firmino dropping deeper into midfield as a result, and the reduction in space and chances up front that followed that.
This is different. Six points is six points, and nothing will be won for a very long time yet, but the performances so far this season have looked asured, polished. The team fully understands one another, and the system. While we didn't dominate Chelsea at Stamford Bridge for the entire ninety (and you have to love that for so many of us that now seems like a reasonable thing to ask) we produced better football in the first half there than we arguably saw until after Christmas last year. The bar has raised, and so have our expectations.
Meanwhile some of our "rivals" have been having real difficulties. Manchester United's baffling decision to sell all of their strikers and not buy any more is starting to look more like criminal negligence than poor judgement. Their solution to De Gea being unable to come off his line has been to buy a defender to do that side of things for him. So now they have Martial and Rashford up front, who between them score as many as a decent Premier League striker, and De Gea and Maguire at the back, who between them cover the same sort of territory as Alisson does alone. I seriously believe that we will be seeing calls for Leicester to be included here before the end of the season, and I think they have a better shot at sixth than the Mancs.
I've started to see those bar graphs as health bars. So far Liverpool are unwounded, City have taken some damage and Chelsea are bleeding out, having already dropped too many points at home to make a title challenge. In reality I think Chelsea are going to have an interesting season, having so many younger players, somewhat lowered expectations, the pressure is off a bit there. There is clearly a lot of talent at that club, but much of it is unproven and raw. They will be brilliant but inconsistent, possibly worth a punt for one of the cups, but it could get hairy in the race for fourth for them.
Anyway, don't get on here as much as I'd like to these days, we'll see how that turns out, but I always liked this thread and just wanted to come in and go "yerse" and maybe say a bit more. Best of luck with the recovery Sox. Thanks for everything Prof.
We're winning this.
