General Premier League Thread 2025/2026 - See Post #1 for Mod Note

I know Everton fans hated it, especially in the new stadium as they couldn't get settled into a proper matchday routine ie. Meeting in town, bit of food, walk to the ground etc. All stuff you take for granted and wouldn't be a problem normally as you would have years of experience doing it. I know their atmosphere suffered from it. In contrast Elland Road under lights is amazing and is a different beast.

no hes reportedly to find a new club. No reunion possible. It’s not out of the question that Barca still sign him but given their financial situation and the fact they are after Julian Alvarez aswell it seems a stretch

You are been pedantic now,I told you I was querying whether Saka or Doku were elite? I should of made that clear AGAIN in the above post,I took it you understood what I was referencing. We are going around in circles here. Saka is probably a better player than Gordon,haven't seen much of Doku tbh so will take your word on that,but no way could either be considered elite.

Gordon has 10 goals 2 assists in 12 CL games this season. Saka has 3 goals 2 assists in 10 CL games.

Gordon does indeed seem to turn up in the CL games.

Great for him. I wasnt discussing Gordon at all.

All I know is Saka has scored in 4 of our 5 ties in QF and SF since Arsenal returned to Champions league and hopefully he bags another in the biggest game of all.

You were doing so well until you mentioned Saka and Doku as elite wingers.

While Doku had a very good season, he is not elite either. He just doesn't have the output. And Saka is vastly overrated, he just doesn't have the output that actual elite wingers and wide forwards do, and that is also while being Arsenal's 'main man' the last couple years. 11 non penalty goal over 2 full seasons (over 3960 minutes which equates to 44 games). The majority of his assists come from corner kicks or free kicks. Elite wingers are able to be double marked and still have an output. Salah was slated from pillar to post by people in this thread for his shite season but still had a higher overall output than Saka did, and from open play. This is also present when looking at chances created from open play too, as obviously Saka has a very large amount that stem from the Arsenal set piece routines. This isn't the 4-4-2 era where wingers just ran up and down the line, they are expected to contribute heavily with goals & assists, in the main.

And yes of course Howe is a large reason why Gordon doesn't like the physical PL players now. It's hardly a big gotcha saying this. It's the opposite, it's fairly obvious why he wants to leave Newcastle - he doesn't like playing under Howe or in the games that are reliant on physical size, pushing and blocking over technical ability and how good your feet are at kicking the football.

I think peeps are forgetting that whilst Salah is 33, Doku and Saka are only 24 and their best years are still to come

Saka’s output has been held back by Arsenal’s playing style. A few years ago Arsenal were playing a more attacking style and he was really shining. But now his main job is to win free kicks and corners. But that’s fine, because when he was starring and looking really lively, he wasn’t winning anything. Now he is.

Rashford has more league goals and more league assists than Saka has this season, in less minutes.

Rashford has more CL goals and more CL assists than Saka this season, in less minutes.

Is Rashford elite?

Why is it so controversial to say that Saka perhaps isn't as good as he is made out to be, when some rather average players outperform him in goals and assists? He is joint 17th for PL assists this season, and not even on the list for top goals.

It doesn't mean he is a bad person you know.

Because perhaps sometimes things are a little deeper than just looking solely at goals and assists in a vacuum.

While I think he has the talent and potential to do so, I don't think Saka is playing at an elite level recently for the record. My critique is purely on the absolute neanderthal analysis of breaking everything down to just goals and assists.....combined with the pretending set piece goals somehow count for less.

I don't remember people trying to downplay Beckham's talent because he was a weapon from a dead ball for example.

Sure its deeper and there is always reasons and context.

But generally you turn to context to bridge a gap. For example, to explain why an elite player has not hit the headline numbers you should expect from an elite player. The sort of numbers you get from other elite players that play similar positions.

But what do you do when that gap is an absolute chasm? How much work does context have to do here when the headline numbers are behind a lot of players that themselves are most certainly not elite?

Its the elite tag that I disagree with with, I know there is a dearth of quality players these days but if Saka is elite then the term really has been diluted.

Are they from been overplayed do you think or just bad luck? And what were the injuries?

Salah wasn't being called elite at 24.

At 27, Salah broke the goalscoring record in the Premier League and was still being called 'a one season wonder'.

Salah backed it up year on year.

Saka has not (yet / if at all). He's being overrated far too much. Wait until he does something first.