Six P Principle

The reason why Arsenal have made such an impressive start to the season is planning and organisation. 

At the beginning of the summer, after the end of last season, Mikel Arteta sat down and made a plan, decided what areas he needed to strengthen, which players he needed to change and who he wanted to bring in.

The plan worked like a dream and the coach was backed 100% financially by the club.

The opposite happened at Manchester United, Chelsea, Leicester, Everton and Liverpool where the clubs had no clear transfer policy.

The result is there for everyone to see with all of these famous clubs currently in the bottom half of the table and struggling. Arsenal meanwhile are top of the league.

I call it the SIX P Principle…Perfect Planning Prevents Pathetic Poor Performance!

Matches this weekend…

Arsenal v Fulham

Aleksandar Mitrovic will bully the Arsenal defence however William Saliba has been dominant in his central position and this could come down to a personal battle between the two. Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard and a flying high Gabriel Jesus are on top form along with Martinelli and Zinchenko and they will dominate the game. Not many people predicted that Marco Silva’s Fulham would be seventh in the table with a win and two draws. Having drawn with Liverpool and Wolves and beaten a very good Brentford side, Fulham now face a tough test against the Gunners. Silva uses what is known as positional play. He trains his team at Motspur Park, which is about 8 miles from Craven Cottage in south west London. During training Silva sets up the Fulham team to play plenty of diamond shapes with triangular passing. He prefers the 4-2-3-1 shape and this will test Arsenal. Teams that play positional football generally dominate possession. Two Fulham players to watch out for are creative midfielder Andreas Pereira, who spent 11 years at Manchester United and is now shining for Fulham and was man of the match in the Brentford win last weekend. The irrepressible Aleksandar Mitrovic is on a mission to prove he is Premier League quality and has started the season with 3 goals in 3 games.

Southampton v Manchester United

Before the Liverpool game, Manchester United boss Erik Ten Hag called his players together and told them that unity was the key to the game. He told them not to play as individuals, as I explained to you last week, but to group together and play for each other with passion and energy. He removed Ronaldo and Maguire for that very reason…to inject pace and speed into his strategy. It worked perfectly and watching from the stands was Cosimero, who in my opinion is a genius signing. He is exactly what United need with his 100% commitment to 90 minutes, a fighter off the ball and possessing excellent skills when driving forward. He is aggressive and will bring the kind of spirit that United had been lacking in their first two games but displayed in abundance during the win over Liverpool. He is a nightmare to play against. Southampton are perhaps the perfect team for United to play this weekend. They are short on confidence and their manager Ralph Hasenhuttl’s position as coach is being reviewed after his players claimed he has lost focus and does not communicate with them. Hassenhuttl says the club is building its squad with most of this summer signings under the age of 21. Key to their game is James Ward-Prowse who not only captains the side but is their main hope against a United side which is far superior to last season. Saints have spent £50 million this summer and are still in the market to sign Goncalo Ramos of Benfica for ­­­£25 million.

I take United to come away with a win and move up the table again.

Chelsea v Leicester

This is another fascinating challenge but Chelsea should win given Brendan Rogers problems. They have not signed any new players in the transfer window and arguably their best player Wesley Fofana is currently in a stand-off with the club as he eyes a move to Chelsea. Rogers said, “If the players aren’t totally focused and committed to the club being here, they are just not in the right mind set and that won’t help us.” However, it is Chelsea who are the surprise club in trouble. Tuchel tore into his players in the dressing room after their humiliating loss 0-3 to Leeds and vented much of his anger on Kalidou Koulibaly who was sent off six minutes from time. Chelsea are vulnerable when teams run at them with pace and energy, giving them no time on the ball but Leicester are not capable of that at the moment. Tuchel has had an awkward talk with owner Todd Boehly and knows he is on borrowed time if results do not improve. He is considering switching to a back four with Ruben Loftus-Cheek in midfield and Ben Chilwell will come in as wing back. Tuchel was critical of his players and denied that it was the pace of Leeds which caused the loss. He said, “It was simply nothing to do with pressing, nothing to do with running less kilometres. We made mistakes and if we give goals away like Mendy we cannot win matches.” Hakim Ziyech could also be going back to Ajax and he met some of their representatives after the game against Leeds. Callum Hudson-Odoi is heading for Bayer Leverkusen. I am hearing from Cobham that Mendy will retain his place and Chilwell, Azpilicueta and Chalobah could return.

Liverpool v Bournemouth

This should give Jurgen Klopp a chance to kick start a revival as the Reds take on Scott Parker’s Bournemouth. I am not saying that Bournemouth are not capable of pulling off a shock win or draw however the atmosphere and noise at Anfield is deafening, intimidating and when the Kop gets into full voice it is worth another player on the pitch. Klopp called his players into training on Tuesday morning after the loss to United on Monday. He focused first on the clear heated exchange between James Milner and Virgil van Dijk after Manchester United scored on Monday and then spent four hours going through the lack lustre performance which succumbed to United’s relentless energy and pace. Liverpool were harried whenever they got the ball and were not given chance to settle. Klopp recognised that his team did not respond to being pressured and concentrated on that.

Scott Parker’s Bournemouth season has not started the way he planned and they sit in 15th place with only three points. Parker intends to use Keiffer Moore as his muscle man to bully the Liverpool defence which is under siege with injuries. One time life-guard and personal trainer, Moore has decent footballing skills but is a dangerous threat in the air and Bournemouth intend to shoot high balls over to him and training this week has focused on wing backs driving forward and making those deliveries to Kiefer.

Moyes trying to improve squad after poor start

West Ham are in shock having started the season so badly. They sit bottom of the table with no points. Coach David Moyes met his directors a few days ago and they approved the purchase of 28-year-old left back Emerson Palmieri from Chelsea. Moyes feels he needed to strengthen at the back and also his midfield and consequently the club have increased their offer to £13 million for Belgium’s Hans Vanaken who plays for Club Bruges.

Moyes also wants another striker but I understand they have not made a decision and are looking at options.