Pat Nevin on the Premier League: Arsenal's title edge, Joao Pedro vs Haaland and Everton's window

"Tyrique George, he can do that job. I mean, he's brilliant on the wing. He really is growing into his Everton career. You can see the confidence building up even before the goal. He looks the business, he looks all right. So I'm confident that he'll be fine.

"But as a striker, he's just a natural goalscorer. And there's plenty of players out there who can score and are not bad. He's just quite natural at scoring, so you know in extremis he might be one of the options that's needed if Barry gets injured.

"Having said that, you don't want him there, you'd rather have him on the wing. He's just as comfortable left or right, and the lovely thing about him is that he doesn't think, 'I might not go by the defender, I'll turn back.' He just goes forward and he really pushed a good set of defenders back.

"I think in that last period of the game, he was Everton's best player. The goal he scored was a cracker. But more than that, he's now given a lot of trust within the squad. People are turning to him, saying, "Right, okay, you need to be special now."

"He's pretty capable of being very special. So exciting times. I would say being in the stadium, the Everton fans reacted to him better than any other of their players on the day, with the obvious exception of Jack Grealish, who they are deeply, madly in love with. But really, he's won them over, and rightly so."

"It's hard to know who to blame, but here's where we are. David Moyes brought Everton from a team that was struggling every year to being comfortable and maybe even looking at Europe.

"That's extraordinary considering the club was looking at relegation year after year. So he brought them to this safety and security, and what he expected to do was build from that foundation.

"Instead, nothing happened. You've got the smallest squad almost imaginable for a Premier League team, with no wiggle room whatsoever. Whoever came up with the idea of possibly selling Harrison Armstrong showed a real lack of understanding.

"Now, I don't know if you're aiming that at the director of football or the ownership saying they're not investing at that level. They might argue that they got into financial trouble before and aren't doing that again. But in reality, I just don't think it's that.

"There's the possibility of naivety. The club's not set up right for what it needs to be because we've got relatively new owners, so it could be a lot of things. Angling at one individual is dead easy, but it's almost always not just that.

"The one group of people who aren't to blame are the fans who've turned up in huge numbers, the players who have put effort in despite real difficulties, and of course the manager, who has been stunning. I just hope, and I'm not convinced yet, that the owners understand what a fantastic man and manager they've got there.

"There are all sorts of conspiracy theories going round. Are the new owners wanting to sell already to make a quick profit and move on? That was spoken about a lot at Hill Dickinson at the weekend. I don't know, you need inside knowledge to know that.

"Was it naivety? I hope not. To have such a bad transfer window, are they trying to be sensible with money? Maybe, but it doesn't seem to make that much sense seeing as they had a centre-forward in the building in Balogun.

"In the end, it's just been a horrible transfer window, and it's the easiest thing in the world to blame one person when there's always politics further behind it. We shall find out, and I think we'll know in January where the reasoning for that lies.

"Because if you don't strengthen in January, or even before then by getting free agents, fans will have every right to worry. At the moment, clinging on with that sort of fight works for a while, but you need more depth for a whole season."

"David Moyes will create a siege mentality, he'll do that. That's what he does. He didn't want to do that, he wanted to grow something else. He's so well known for that siege mentality and 'dogs of war' fighting, getting the best out of players and putting midfields at left-back, etc., to get a tune out of them.

"Working on a shoestring, he'd rather not have that, I promise you. He actually mentioned it in one of his interviews. He said, 'I don't want to be there. I want to be someone who's up at the top of the league and pushing and chasing there.'

"If you look at the style of the players he was getting last year, he had Jack Grealish in last season, going back again this season, you've got Dewsbury-Hall, you've got Alcaraz. There are loads of creative, attacking players.

"So yes, he'll do that fight, but it's not what he wanted. Another great line from Moysey in the middle of all the madness on transfer deadline day was a big, outstanding statement where he said to the fans, 'Remember, I'm an Evertonian.' Whatever happens, whoever runs things, 'I'm an Evertonian.' And he is.

"He'll do anything to fight for the club and the fans, and that's what he'll do this season under difficult circumstances."

"In the first half, Everton started quite well for the opening 10 minutes, but United were soon the better side without being brilliant. It was actually a fairly poor first 45 minutes of football.

"The atmosphere was bordering on silent for large parts of it, which felt like a hangover from what Everton fans are currently processing in the transfer window.

"The second half started with a bang thanks to Bryan Mbeumo. From then on, it became a very good game of football, with Everton looking like the better team for the vast majority of the half. After going behind, they attacked well and deservedly equalised. But when Manchester United went straight up the other end and scored through Benjamin Šeško, you wondered if Everton had any fight left in them.

"It was so dynamic. Had United gone behind, they might have turned it around themselves because they would have been forced to attack. It was a strange game, but based on how it played out, United can't have too many complaints. Everton certainly outfought them in the second half.

"Everton shouldn't be outplaying United given the sheer quality in United's squad, but they were definitely outfought. That happens, though at Old Trafford it shouldn't. Are United disappointed? Naturally, conceding a late goal is always tough.

"Was it an unfair result? No, I think it was a fair outcome. Commentary-wise, that moment at the end when Ainsley Maitland-Niles scored was fantastic because everything was building towards it.

"Most fans were still in their seats, and it created one of those genuine spine-tingling moments. For Maitland-Niles, it really was one of the standout goals of the season. Given the context, it was spectacular, and anyone would dream of having a debut moment like that."

"Man Utd as title contenders? They weren't talked about by me as title contenders. Top four maybe. I still think Arsenal are a decent distance ahead. Probably getting further ahead at the moment.

"Again, I'm back to Arsenal with absolute conviction this season. I kind of disagree with a lot of people who think Chelsea is the danger, I still think Man City is the bigger danger.

"But Man United being among the best of the rest, yeah, capable of doing that. Michael Carrick's been there for less than a season. So there's still building to be done there.

"You look at how long Mikel Arteta's been there, how well he's organised it. That's something that's going to be hard to break down now because it's not going to get any worse any time soon.

"It's the classic case of if he loses three players, any three players, be it Gabriel or even William Saliba or Kai Havertz or even Declan Rice, it's fine.

"How many other teams can you say that about, really? You go and pick your best players and say, Right, you've lost them for a couple of months. Imagine Chelsea losing Cole Palmer and Morgan Rogers.

"You can see that in a lot of teams, if Erling Haaland's not playing for Man City, you think, wow, that's a problem. We don't see that at Arsenal. There's enough quality in reserve just about everywhere."

"I've played against Arsenal often enough at their home ground and got beaten to know that you're gutted. But there's also something beneath it, Chelsea were definitely competitive there.

"Certainly, the feeling, the personality of the team, is coming through now, and that's from Xabi Alonso, what he's trying to get the team to do.

"Are they a finished project? Well, they're not. Everyone can see that they're not. It'll help when Moises Caicedo's back in there because you do need a midfielder who knows how to do that job really well.

"I've always felt that a Caicedo, Reece James midfield duo would be pretty good. Because Caicedo's got the energy, movement, and agility to get around the place, while Reece James brings other things that work really well in that position.

"Both of them together would look really good, but it might be a while before you get that. I thought Romeo Lavia had done okay as well.

"Generally, it was pretty good for Chelsea, but they have conceded a lot of goals. And I think they'll keep on conceding them. You can't say it out loud, but Chelsea fans will be thinking, right, we lost to Arsenal, but this is actually really entertaining.

"Chelsea fans love players attacking. I remember all the way back to when I played, they fell in love with players who excited them. All the way through to Cole coming through now, and they love Cole and what he does.

"They're immediately mad for Morgan Rogers. Chelsea fans are just like that. There's not that entitlement with some Chelsea fans, certainly with slightly older ones, where they expect to win everything.

"They expect to do well, be competitive, and hopefully win things. But there's a feeling of wanting to be entertained.

"They haven't actually had that for a while now. So I think Chelsea fans will be getting the tube back down to Fulham Broadway, thinking, "Yeah, it's all right, we're in a good place."

"That's the hardest game of the season away at Arsenal, and we were competitive. Had Estêvão scored that late half-chance, they could have gotten a point.

"So I think there are good days ahead at Chelsea. Is it perfect? Are they going to win the league? I doubt it.

"Why should Alonso win the league straight away after taking over a team that has changed managers every 20 minutes? He needs a bit of time."

"Gabriel's kick is a classic example of never ever judging anything in slow motion. It's absolutely a classic example of it. I don't think he meant to kick him in the head.

"I absolutely do not think that's the case at all, but many things look premeditated when they're in slow motion. So you can see why some players do get sent off for a dangerous kick that they didn't mean.

"So it can happen, I've never been a big fan of that. Going back to Folarin Balogun in the World Cup, I don't think he should have been sent off. He didn't mean it.

"It was a horrible, horrible, horrible looking challenge, but he didn't mean it and he wasn't reckless. There aren't many players I've known over my entire time watching football that would deliberately kick someone in the head. So I think a red would've been harsh."

"Morgan Rogers vs Declan Rice is one of the biggest moments for me this season, because I spend my time telling everybody that Declan's my favourite player, as everything he does is right. He's a great sportsman, he's a fabulous footballer, and he does the right thing.

"But, I think he meant to trip Morgan in this case. What he's done isn't a direct trip, he's run in such a way that his legs entangle, right? And it's about the 'sneakiest' thing I've ever seen Rice do.

"And I don't dislike him for it, I know he has to do it because he needs to get back there. That's why Morgan knows. I hold Declan as a North Star and so it hurts that although most people watching might think it's an accident, it wasn't.

"He's intelligent enough. It's just not his usual style. Generally, he'd catch somebody up, but at that point in time, he wasn't catching Morgan. It hasn't taken away from the fact that he's still my favourite player, and I still adore his attitude and everything about him.

"I know why that happened. I remember once, years ago, I was playing for Chelsea against Liverpool up at Anfield, and a player tried to pull me back, but I was away from him. He tried to pull me again, and I was getting really annoyed. Anyway, the third time he tried to pull me as I was running towards the 18-yard box, I just elbowed him in the face. Me! And I completely wiped him out.

"Ronnie Whelan was a great player and a lovely guy, an Irish international but I absolutely wiped him out. There was a camera that caught me doing it, but the referee didn't see it. I 100% should have been sent off, 100%.

"But it is one of those things you hate in football. You're away and, as an attacker, you're thinking, 'No, I've beat you, I'm gone.' So if you trip me now, you've got to pay for this. But the referee wasn't going to give anything against Declan.

"So it absolutely leaves you raging. It's hard to explain how angry you get. I suppose any of us who have ever played football at any level know that feeling where you feel as if you're going to score a goal or get a chance, but you feel cheated out of it.

"So I understand the anger. Would they be laughing about it by the time they walked out of the dressing room? Absolutely, 100%."

"Chelsea could probably do with a midfielder who's an absolute specialist in there. Remember they lost Andrey Santos as well to Manchester United, they lost two big strong players.

"But they've got Moises Caicedo. Reece James, for me, is perfection there. I think he's now better in that position than he is at full-back, just because of the expectation of pure pace from wingers now.

"Take Bradley Barcola's pace against somebody like Reece. Reece is not slow, but that's a different level. So, with Reece as a centre-midfielder makes sense that Chelsea still have got three for two positions in there.

"Obviously Caicedo's out with a short-term injury, but there is James and Lavia, I'm looking at it and I'm thinking, it's not that bad. It's not like the Everton situation where they're struggling.

"So they can make do. So I think that's fine, I don't think it's a panic. If Chelsea were in the Champions League playing every three days, you'd think, my goodness, this could really haunt them.

"But yeah, come January, Alex Scott's the one they're talking about. But I think if you look around Europe, there are five or six you could bring in.

"Remember, whoever they bring in, they're going to have to be hell of a player to move Reece. They're going to have to be hell of a player to move Caicedo. That's a tough ask.

"So I don't think it's a panic at the moment. The only concern is the problem at the back, that they're shipping too many goals this season. And again, I shrug my shoulders because I like entertaining football.

"If you win 4-3 and it's been a great game, I still walk away smiling. Owners don't feel that way right now, I suppose, but the team is close to what Chelsea's DNA is at the moment. They're flawed, but they're really good to watch. So I'm all right with that.

"I'm not in the camp of, 'you've blown it completely by not getting another midfielder.' Once Caicedo comes back, you'll think, What was all the fuss about?"

"I can see why Chelsea let Mykhailo Mudryk go because he just wasn't going to get a game for them. In the position he plays, it wasn't going to work, he wasn't going to get a sniff.

"So he needed to get out there and find somewhere to play, especially having not played regular games for a long time. It almost reminds me of the Timo Werner situation, where Spurs have brought in a flawed player who never really hit the heights with Chelsea compared to what the expectations were.

"It wasn't really working for him at Chelsea even before the loan move. Can the manager get something out of him at Spurs? Well, he believes he can, and he knows him quite well.

"But if I'm asked to tell Spurs fans, 'You've got a cracker there, don't worry, he's going to do it,' I'm afraid I can't say that. He simply hasn't done enough in English football to prove that yet, although he certainly has ability.

"The one major attribute he relies on is his sheer pace, he was really, really fast. The key question now is whether he still has that pure pace and the willingness to use it. If he doesn't, he's going to struggle again.

"Every now and again, you need to take a long shot, and bringing him in on loan is exactly that. That's all I can really say to Spurs fans, it's a long shot."

"I was interviewing Steve Clarke at an event recently, his first interview since the World Cup. He's a good mate of mine, but Gary McAllister was there too, and the three of us got chatting about the Chelsea vs Leeds rivalry.

"How long ago was that rivalry at its height? The 1970s? You'd think surely that's gone away, but we all agreed that it hasn't. It's definitely still there from the Leeds point of view.

"For plenty of Chelsea fans too, it remains one of the biggest and most important games when Leeds are in the division. There's going to be great passion, and being a cup game makes it even better given the history between the clubs.

"I think doing well in the cup is vital for Chelsea. Winning it for Alonso would be great and give them momentum. The fans are already behind him because he's giving them what they want, it doesn't matter that he played for Liverpool.

"A good cup run also buys credit with the owners. Every time a new manager comes in, the board says they'll give him time, but looking back at previous statements, things can look very different in nine months.

"He needs credit in the bank, and a cup run helps build that while aiding this new-look squad, especially that front three, which people are already calling 'JP Morgan' which is a name I'm not sold on.

"If they lose, is it fatal? Absolutely not. But Chelsea fans aren't entitled, they still celebrate a League Cup or Conference League win like nothing else. They've been used to winning trophies since the Roman era, right up to the Club World Cup last year, and they miss trips to Wembley when they're not there."

"Everton can adapt and play a false nine, that's a possibility. I think Tyrique George is the most obvious one, but I've never known a wide player who doesn't think they can play as a 10 or a 9. We all think we can.

"I had never played on the wing before I turned pro, I'd always been a nine or a ten, so we can all kind of do it to some degree. Everyone thinks you must put a big lad up front and hoof long balls, so what's the point of having Tyrique George up there?

"He won't win many aerial duels. Well, don't play that way then, play a different way. So there are other possibilities. The other extreme option is playing one of the centre-backs up there.

"I don't think he's going to go down that route unless he absolutely has to, but you could actually do that. Look at someone like James Tarkowski, he's just incredible in the air, he fights for everything, and he's already scored a goal this season.

"But Moyes will look around at everything he's got. He's got one or two kids as well, there are two of them pretty highly rated, so he might have to go down that route as well.

"You can try one or two of them knowing you're not going to get a lot of goals out of them, but you get someone who ties up defenders, and sometimes that's as good as anything.

"It is completely suboptimal, and it shouldn't be allowed to happen, but it all comes down to Folarin Balogun.

"Balogun's all right, but he's not brilliant. It's not as if you've just missed out on the new Wayne Rooney. He's okay, and it would have been good to have him. I talked to four or five former Everton players at the weekend, and we all felt the same thing.

"You'd think we'd be furious with Balogun for walking away at the last moment saying he wasn't feeling it, but every one of us said the same thing: we don't blame him at all.

"If you're moving to another country as an established international, moving your family to a new league, uprooting everything, and you go to a place where you're not sure they really want you, you just wouldn't go if you rate yourself highly.

"There's no anger about that; they just misread the situation, and that's something the people in charge cannot let happen again."

"I've been writing for over a year now that Iliman Ndiaye is a good enough player to play for Manchester City. He was the most enjoyable player to watch, so Everton are going to miss a very, very good player.

"Watching Jack Grealish has made me think they'll be fine. For goals scored and created, there's no great difference between the two of them when Jack is fit. I was a bit confused as to why Moyes didn't bring Jack on earlier, it was around 67 minutes because he absolutely changed the game with real intelligence.

"Moyes will have good reasons, but Jack is now the main man, and he really flourishes when he's the main man. Remember when he was at Villa? He was the main man: 'Give it to me, I'll do it all.'

"When you're the main man, you get the ball all the time, whereas if you're third, fourth, or fifth fiddle like he was at Man City, you get far fewer opportunities in the final third.

"So can Jack fill that gap? Yeah, he can. Brennan Johnson had a difficult day, particularly defensively, but when Jack came on on the left and Tyrique George went over to the right, the balance looked really good. You had one player on either side, confidently moving with the ball, willing to take players on, and displaying good match intelligence.

"If those two, plus Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, can stay fit, a big 'if', that side of things is fine. But they still need more up top, simple as that."

"I watched Nathan Patterson play against Brazil for Scotland at the World Cup, and I would say he was Scotland's best player. Now, he's had these tough times. He's not a right-back, I must admit, which shocks people, he's a wing-back.

"There is a difference between the two. He's quite a specialized wing-back who is better at attacking than defending. He's got a great engine about him, and he's also filled out and grown stronger.

"But for Moyes, who wants a player in that position to be a full-back first, I don't think he fits. So that's why he's gone, I'm pretty convinced of that. Will he do well? Well, if he's played as a wing-back in Italy, yeah, he'll be fine.

"He's an international player that I rate really, really highly, but he needs to stay fit. It's very similar to Aaron Hickey, who came back over to the UK. He's a wing-back and a really, really good one, and in Italy that's not a problem, but it's just much harder in the Premier League.

"So I wouldn't worry for a millisecond about him, I think he'll be okay. In fact, he'll become a better player because he'll play more often.

"What it did leave for Everton was a big gap, but it was funny watching Merlin Röhl. I really like him, he's got a fabulous attitude even when Marcus Rashford gave him a really tough time, so that was a worrying position for Evertonians.

"You've got Röhl and also Maitland-Niles who can play quite a few positions. He came on and didn't do too badly today in that position, so that's one wee area where I think Moysey has just managed to plug the gap to a level where it's not a real concern anymore. Cover at left-back may be a bigger concern."

"One or two players from Brentford and Bournemouth, for example, might be capable of getting close to Erling Haaland, but they won't get as many chances as Haaland, so that's probably not going to happen.

"You need to look at the clubs that are going to be right at the top and pushing. Could Alexander Isak do it? It's a good start.

"But those are big numbers, and he's never had quite those numbers before, so I think it's going to be a big ask for him, but he may get closer.

"You look around a little bit further, Joao Pedro. Yeah, he's a great player. I think he's a better footballer than Haaland, but is he a better goalscorer? No, absolutely not in a million years.

"So that's a tough one. I'm not sure about that, I think he could be second, third, or fourth. Absolutely. I adore Kai Havertz as a football player. I think he's just the most brilliant football player.

"Has he really been fully fit at any point for Arsenal? There have been big gaps where he's been injured or he's been playing as a centre-forward. He's not really a striker, he's been playing one behind the striker.

"But at the moment, he seems to have settled. He's starting the season, he's had a pre-season behind him, and he's got an amazing team behind him as well.

"I think it's unlikely, but I wouldn't be shocked if Kai Havertz was the second top goalscorer this season. That's a big jump for Kai, but I think he's got it in him."

"There's always pressure if you're a big buy and you go to a top club where everybody's looking at you. I hope Liverpool fans know what they're getting in Bradley Barcola.

"There is a reason why he wasn't playing every week for PSG. He's not as good as Kvaratskhelia or Doue, and with the French national team, he's fourth in line behind players like Mbappé.

"You can be a very, very good player, but there are reasons why you're fourth in line. He is staggeringly, stupidly, ridiculously fast. I really can't underline how fast this guy is, he will destroy defences with his pace.

"But when he gets beyond defences, I've seen better people picking out passes. I'll try to put this delicately, he's not the finished footballer yet. He's not terrible, but he has slight flaws in his game.

"It's amazing the flaws you can mask with blistering pace. You're getting somebody with world-class pace, that's the best way to put it. His skills are okay to good, but his vision is not at that level. So, he will be good, but you have to remember his limitations.

"The big thing, underlying it all, is that you also need space to run into. If you play for a team that is always breaking into space, it's great because you can run into those gaps.

"But if you're really fast and playing against a low block, there's nowhere to run. At that point, you need pure skill and intelligence, not just speed."

"I wouldn't be surprised if Newcastle challenge for Europe. The new faces have done quite well since they've come in, and the new buys look all right. And that's one of the big things.

"Yoane Wissa looks like the player he was again, whereas he wasn't doing so much last season. I like what I see.

"Whether that strength and depth is going to serve them well, I don't know. But I love Sean Steur, he's 18 and really special. You sometimes look at the players brought into certain clubs, take Chelsea, for example, they bring in 10 players every year, and you think, 'Well, maybe two of them might be good enough.'

"I think the strike rate is going to be better here. The recruitment looks very, very good. And that midfield, the other day they had Lewis Miley and Sean Steur in the centre. That's an 18 and 19-year-old in the core of your midfield.

"You never do that in the Premier League. It's rare, but it's working. I like what they've done. With players like Anthony Elanga looking like their old selves again, a top-half finish is perfectly achievable, and then we'll see where they go from there.

"It's amazing, considering the money they had to make and the big-name players they had to sell. I think they'll do well."

"I'm quite confused by Aston Villa, I have to say, I need to watch them a bit more. Normally, you'd think this is an odd thing to say, but they could probably do without Champions League football. I know the money is great and it helps them rebound, but look at Newcastle.

"When they were in the Champions League before they were ready, it destroyed their season due to the stress, pressure, and the resulting injuries. I worry for Villa to be honest.

"I don't think they'll be relegated, there's no sign of that, even though they're currently near the bottom. However, I am concerned about them.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they finish mid-table, but I would be very surprised if they finished in the top four again this season. As much as I rate the manager, he can't perform miracles year after year, especially with so many key players leaving at the same time."

"I had an old friend, John Peel, who was a hero of mine, but he became a friend as well. Anyway, he used to have a party every now and again, and I went to his party near his house and as I walked in, the first person that walked up to me said, 'We hate you, Nevin!'

"I said, 'Hello Delia, nice to meet you.' And it was Delia Smith, the owner of Norwich. The reason she was saying it is because I scored the winning goal in the semi-final of the FA Cup against Norwich. It was their only chance to get to an FA Cup final, and it was me that beat them. But she said it with a smile as well and a glass of wine.

"The reason for telling you is that she is Norwich, she's Mrs Norwich. Anyone who can get interest and money without being arrogant is worth considering.

"The way that it's going, and of course Wrexham is, is really, really interesting and I've really enjoyed it. I think most fans are enjoying it as well. Do I expect it to go the same way? No, I don't. But we shall see. I don't think Hugh Jackman is probably going to be as invested as those two are.

"But can I see that many negatives? No, not really. I think it's great to have interest. If it engages people from across the pond, then great, that's all right.

"There are a lot of clubs out there that try to get people interested in them and try to build a narrative. I think it's fine. I'm very hopeful, as long as he doesn't come in and want to be the big 'I am' all the time and change things with limited knowledge.

"However much he loves football, which I think he does, go in and learn first if you're going to spend time and have any effect on it."

"Dastan Satpayev is very young, isn't he? We've known about him for a couple of years before he actually signed for Chelsea, but they've been working on him for a long time over there in Kazakhstan.

"I saw him playing once when he'd just turned 17, and he'd already been playing in the Champions League and in Europe, looking absolutely and utterly comfortable, not only playing at that level but also being the main man.

"How often does that happen really? He's got real talent and real skill, but now comes the next jump. The big question, which you can't answer with algorithms or data, is whether he can keep on improving at this level.

"The progress he made from 15 to 17 was giant, but you have to keep pushing. If you stop there, you end up playing at Burnley's level rather than making that next step.

"He definitely has a chance, though. You look at someone like Estêvão, who has come in and looks absolutely fabulous with the potential to be one of the top players in world football, but he's hit a bit of a ceiling recently simply because he got injured and couldn't get games.

"Once you're in the Premier League, that's the absolute top level. If you put players like Satpayev and Estêvão in Spain or Italy, they'd have a fantastic time, but the Premier League is just tough.

"I think Burnley fans will enjoy having him for the season regardless. Can he make it back to Chelsea and be one of those options? Possibly, yeah. Out of many youngsters where I wouldn't be sure, he has as good a chance as any because he's pretty special."

"It's hard to imagine Russell Martin changing because he was so strongly stuck to his ways even before he was at Rangers, even when it wasn't working.

"You've really got to adapt a wee bit, and he simply didn't and wouldn't. Maybe what is even more worrying than that, and I've been talking to a couple of managers recently about this, is that the game has changed and moved on.

"Looking at it, that's basically Pep's old style, isn't it? But who's really doing that now? It's moved, it's changed, that's the past. You can use bits of it, but are Arsenal playing like that? Absolutely not. Are Chelsea playing like that? No. PSG? No. Man City?

"They're changing, and Pep was already evolving from that methodology. Now, it's not as absolutely simple as that and Russell had some of his own ideas, but the game has changed. It always does. I always laugh when people say, 'It was different back in your day.' It's different every three or four years, and some of the ideas are ones you go back to.

"I met a guy the other night at a very fancy dinner, and I didn't realise he was one of the directors at Wimbledon back in the Crazy Gang days.

"He was saying to me about how mad it was in those days. For younger people listening, they basically hit the ball long and closed down. But I can tell you right now, having played against them, they were the best at pressing that I've ever seen.

"You talk about the modern game and how important transitions and pressing are, and think it's so modern, but Wimbledon, considered the most agricultural team, were doing it in the middle of the 1980s and doing it fabulously well.

"Different little bits of the game, tactics, and technical details are always adapting, and you must adapt with them. If Russell keeps doing it his way, it'll probably become a stylish way to play again in about 20 years, which is going to be a bit too long to wait. I think you need to adapt. If you don't adapt to the game, you will be left behind."

"I wouldn't write Rangers off quite yet. Celtic are the strongest team right now, but Rangers have added a lot of players.

"Celtic have fleshed out the squad a bit since going out of the Champions League. So, yeah, they're in a very good place compared to where they were at the start of the season, and they are the favourites then.

"Rangers have been written off completely, but I think that's madness. With the number of players they've brought in and the money they've spent, it just takes time. We're in a modern era where everyone expects new signings to hit the ground running immediately, but it takes a while to see who fits well with whom.

"I remember when I went back to Scotland having played at the top level in England for the vast majority of my career. Late in my career, I went back up to the SPL thinking it would be fine and I'd have it easy. But it was hell for six weeks, absolute hell.

"I was thinking, 'Do I not know how to play football anymore?' because it was so different, frantic and rushed. If I dragged someone away, players wouldn't move into the space I was opening up for them. Down in England, everyone could read that. So your mindset really has to change, but you also have to appreciate the good aspects of the game up there, that passion for chasing everything and closing down.

"So be careful about writing Rangers off so quickly. Hearts are in a similar position, they lost a lot of good players, brought a bunch of new ones in, and we don't know how good they're going to be yet.

"This is really the start of the Bloom era for them, last season was a bit of an anomaly. It may take a year or two, or it might click this season. Celtic are favourites, but it's certainly not time to wrap up the title race and ignore the rest.

"One big advantage the other teams might have is that Celtic are in Europe, and that heavy schedule of games will test them.

"That's another factor to watch out for. The teams not involved in European competition have that edge over Celtic. So while Celtic are favourites, do not write the title race off yet, absolutely don't do that."

"I think they need game time, especially Landon Emenalo. But it is a great move for them both. One of the wonderful things about football is what you learn between the ages of 17 and 21. It sets you up brilliantly for the rest of your career.

"Getting regular first-team football, building confidence through winning, and competing for trophies helps develop a winning mentality. Joining a club like Celtic gives them every opportunity to thrive.

"It is a move that benefits Celtic, as both players will be needed, but it is even better for the players themselves. Celtic and Rangers often bring in loan players, and for youngsters, it provides invaluable experience.

"However, whether it is beneficial for Scottish football as a whole is another matter. We have a significant, ingrained issue with promoting our own youth talent.

"So, while Celtic and Rangers operate as businesses and naturally focus on their own priorities, Scottish football needs to find better ways to ensure young local players get opportunities at the top level."

"Derek McInnes has got a lot of work to do, but he's only been in there two minutes. You need a bit of time. It's a funny thing because I often say to fans, if a new manager comes in and they go, 'That's terrible, why are you putting him at left-back? He always makes that mistake.'

"But fans have been watching him every week. The new manager hasn't. He's just learning this stuff. But Derek is learning quickly.

"He's learning the capabilities of all the players he's got there, including the ones he's brought in. So there's a lot to do, but having watched what he did at Hearts and before that at Kilmarnock, he's good.

"He'll get the best that you possibly can out of that group of players, but it may take a little bit of time. Cutting out the mistakes is essential, and that's what he'll work at.

"Getting a new striker in Kevin Kelsy was 100% needed. Remember, Shankland can play one off the striker as well, but of course, Shankland's injured already.

"He got injured this week, so you need that backup. Look at what Celtic have got, they bring Kasper Hogh, he looks absolutely phenomenal, but then he's injured, so you're lucky you've got Camilo Durán.

"You just need that cover. So I thought bringing in Kevin Kelsy was a real statement of intent for Rangers. How do they afford that? I don't know, they're putting a lot of money into it at the moment.

"But certainly, I thought that was a very good move for Rangers, not a questionable one at all."

"It's very interesting watching Neil McCann's teams play from a tactical perspective. He tries things that are theoretically great, even if they don't always work out. To his credit, when something fails, he takes full responsibility for it.

"When I watched them play against Celtic at the start of the season, I was genuinely amazed by his tactics. Attempting that setup against a team like Celtic is extremely risky, you risk getting overrun, and that is precisely what happened.

"Reflecting on it afterwards, you have to admire the ambition. Some might call it naivety, which is a fair argument. Others would say the only way to test whether players can adapt to a system is by putting them in that situation. He is still testing those boundaries.

"That said, supporters and owners quickly lose patience when the team is bottom of the table and facing relegation, making this a worrying period.

"From a tactical standpoint, he deployed a three-at-the-back system against Celtic while asking his left full-back to push high into a left-wing role, similar to how Arsenal overload the midfield.

"Against top-tier opposition who kept three forwards high, that left them exposed, and Celtic capitalized on it.

"Interestingly, the left-back who pushed forward actually scored a goal, so you could see the underlying logic behind the strategy. Afterwards, Neil openly admitted his mistake and explained his tactical vision.

"Neil has shown remarkable tactical bravery in his approach, which is almost the exact opposite of Russell Martin's rigid style. However, given their position, there comes a time when pragmatic, defensive stability must take priority."

"As a player, you love the cup games. There's much less pressure around them. Playing when you're at the bottom of the league is really hard and stressful, it's so difficult to play with freedom. A cup game allows you to just go for it, it's a welcome distraction for Kilmarnock."