Diomande Chelsea, Casemiro Man Utd exit

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Arsenal made the most of Manchester City and Liverpool taking points off each other in yesterday’s early game. Following the 1-1 draw at the Etihad Stadium, Kai Havertz popped up with a late winner away to Brentford, giving the Gunners a 1-0 win and sending them top of the Premier League table.

This year’s title race looks very open, as I expected. We’re not seeing anyone running away with it, and I expect it will continue to be close in the months ahead. I’m impressed with Arsenal and see them fighting for the title until the end. I’d still say that Man City remain the favourites but Arsenal are there and will be there.

Liverpool have also shown that they are ready to fight – they’re third at the moment but it’s so close at the top, so it looks like it’s going to be a very interesting battle this season. I expected it to be mainly between City and Arsenal, but it looks like Liverpool will be there too.

Chelsea had a really bad day yesterday, losing 4-1 away to Newcastle United. Mauricio Pochettino was really not happy afterwards, saying he felt this was their worst performance since he took the job.

I have to say I agree with Pochettino – it was a bad performance as the team was not 100% focused in key moments. This is not acceptable at this level, this is why they still need to improve a lot. They remain 10th in the table, and despite some recent encouragement with the 4-1 win away to Tottenham and an exciting 4-4 draw with Man City, they still have work to do.

One position on their agenda for 2024 is a centre-back, and I’ve previously stated that they would be exploring the market in that position.

We’re now seeing talented young Sporting Lisbon defender Ousmane Diomande being linked with Chelsea, but my understanding is that there’s nothing concrete at the moment. Scouting activity for top clubs is normal and he’s very good player but I’m not aware of any concrete discussion so far.

As I recently reported, Arsenal have been tracking Diomande for some time, but there are other interested clubs as well as he’s a big prospect, so it’s normal. Let’s see if the Chelsea links materialise into anything more concrete, but…