Right, we are out of Carabao Cup and FA Cup, but not everything is lost. We are 11 points clear of Man City in Premier League and we can take that lead to 12 points if we beat Bournemouth today. City do have 2 games in hand, but if they win both, we will still have a 6 point lead with only 6 games left for the season. In Champions League, we have a 1-0 advantage against Sporting and the second leg is at home. If we managed to get at least a draw, we will be playing Atletico (most likely) in the semi finals. I would rather play Atletico than Flick’s Barcelona.
The chance of lifting a trophy is still a possibility. And a win today will improve that possibility even more. Bournemouth are sitting in the bottom half of the table, and I hope we don’t shoot ourselves in the foot today.
Playing XI is out and I still don’t understand what has gotten into Arteta’s mind.
Why is Martinelli in the playing XI when you have Hincapie available. It’s not the time to be concerned about the injuries, because a loss in any of the games could mean a title. I’m OK with rest of the selection, Eze could have played ahead of Havertz but I’m not sure how much of his fitness is back.
I don’t understand the fact that we spend more than 250m on midfielders (Rice, Zubimendi, Norgaard, Havertz, Odegaard) and yet, we always have 2 DM-profile players and an option to choose from a non-performing Odegaard with a out-of-form Havertz. Anyway, that shouldn’t be a problem for a team sitting on 1st, playing against a bottom half team I suppose.
We need to win today. Man City has to visit Chelsea tomorrow and though I don’t have much confidence in Chelsea beating them, anything can happen. In last 3 seasons, we have always been the favorites going into last 7-8 games but have given it away. There are 7 games left, and 7 test of whether we have learned something over the years.
Right, game starts in an hour. See ya.
TRVL
“firing Francisco in December and replacing him with someone who had top flight experience”
Just watched an hour interview in the US between Sid Lowe and Rino Matarazzo which appears on ESPN Futbol Americas Special: Pellegrino Matarazzo. He is a very likable and unpretentious guy who senses the importance of the culture in the Bask country including learning their language and is loved their which was reflected in the aftermath of the Cup Win.
I’d have expected a bit more joy on here given that City won.
A smart move playing both Eze and Ode. Many of us would have liked to have seen that. Both played well. While Eze showed a bit more in respect of goal threat, Ode kept more control and I can see why he was kept on for the later stages.
For all the talk about tactical classes, the game came down to moments of brilliance and good fortune for all three goals. Far from bottle jobs or playing for a draw. Performances like that bode well for the last 5 games and we still have the easier run in.
Never a red for Gabriel. Wasn’t even a headbutt. Yellow for both would have been right.
Havertz played well up top and showed his class. I’m not going to lose my head over a header slightly over.
Goal aside, I feel dealt with their dribblers well. In truth the game told us nothing knew and was a good performance, far removed from the Carabao calamity.
The title’s still in our hands, we’re still top in April. Reason to be cautiously optimistic.
Fart Fraud, you loon, we were never signing Zidane, Maradona or Fat Ronaldo, that’s not on the fans.
Let’s try it, when do you feel our lack of ambition hindered our purchase of any of those three icons.
Making your whole online discourse swearing about our manager, team and fellow fans is such feeble minded level of obsession.
Take a seat old man.
MB, lots of supporters have never seen their team win.
Making that a condition of your support is such a Chelsea approach. We’re better than that. I’d love nothing more myself but think better of going bananas online when we don’t.
On MOTD Mark Chapman says:
With Arsenal the big discussion for 2 to 3 years has been we need a number 9, than you spend the big money in the summer on the number 9 and than in the big game a possible title decider you don’t pick him you can understand the mixed messages don’t you?
Rooney answered: VicG will be very disappointing that he didn’t start today. Earlier Rooney said what would I be feeling if in a game as big as this sitting on the bench, I would not be happy. Chapman asked, would it effect your confidence? Rooney answered, maybe for the next few games, sitting there thinking does the manager fancy Havertz over me?
That is not a good situation for the next 5 games, knowing that it is no longer in our hands because if both teams win their remaining games GD is favoring City as they have the top scorer in the EPL, are 1st in goals from open play plus our goals from Set pieces have dried up.
It is all good we are on our way for changes on the touchline and technical area on the pitch.
At the end of the season thanks to EL-B there is a good chance that we will be the focus of ridicule. From talking about the quadruple to now Pep winning the treble and Don Unai playing CL next season and winning the EL. Shocking, Embarrassing!
Killroy—I can’t help but think that we’ll be the target of ridicule regardless of how things pan out…of course if MA finds himself on the wrong side of another cock-up the ridicule will reach epic levels, as no one has ever come in 2nd four times, which might not seem so agregious if it weren’t for the particulars involved
how could you possibly move forward with this project if you knew that no lead was safe…surely the weightiness of that sort of undertaking would take a toll…players/members of the coaching staff would leave of their own accord or be sent packing as sacrificial lambs, and you just know it wouldn’t be the players who should be removed from the equation…not to mention, it would become even more difficult to attract the right kind of talent, which is already a near impossible task with this offensively-stunted cunt in charge
for those who thought it was toxic around here when decisions surrounding Wenger’s tenure had fractured the fanbase, just imagine what things might look and feel like if we were to falter again then MA was somehow allowed to run it back again…no amount of bonfires or support animals or salty beef could remedy that fucked up situation
TRVL
Whenever someone mentions bottling in the football world the 2025/26 Arsenal team under Arteta will come immediately to their mind and a new word will be coined “Quadbottle” and a partition will circulate imploring the EPL to start issuing runner up medals.
partition/petition
Thinking about it, should we have approached the city game the way we approached the sporting game in the week.
Did we really have to go looking for the win , did the criticism of our performance v sporting influence Arteta’s tactics.
For me, there was very little difference in what outcome was needed for both games , a draw was suffice , it was enough for us to qualify for the semi and a draw yesterday would have been enough to maintain the 6 point lead.
As far as I’m concerned we could have stunk the place out like a Jose defensive masterclass , but no Arteta decided it was time to appease all those who criticised him for the 0-0 at home to sporting , and with a bit of luck the result could have gone our way .
Yesterday with the scoe at 1-1 I feel we were over extending ourselves going forward, leaving us open to a quick transition and city’s winger came about because martinelli was too high up the pitch which allowed the dangerous O’reilly to saunter the whole length of the pitch without challenge leading to Haaland scoring the winner.
With the score at 1-1 with 15 minutes or so left , there is no way we should have left ourselves so vulnerable down our right hand side, we should have replicated our performance v sporting as we didn’t need a goal, stay compact , disciplined and protect the back 4 but that didn’t happen .
It is all very well Arteta saying in the post match press conference that we were looking to win the game but that is naive thinking as the only thing that really mattered in this game was the result not the performance.
I do think that Arteta fell into the trap of being affected and swayed by the criticism of his tactics in the sporting game and now what we have is the media and fans applauding our performance against city saying it was great game for the neutral which actually means very little when you consider the vitriol aimed at Arteta and the players after qualifying for the champions league semi final.
The situation we are in now is the same situation we were in back in December when we were 2 points clear at the top .
Yes there were times when we were 6 or 9 points clear but city always had a game in hand and the game at the Etihad was always waiting for us.
The points difference between city and Arsenal has fluctuated over the last 4 months, city have dropped points they shouldn’t have as have Arsenal.
So, the situation now was always a possibility as winning at the etihad is never easy and the game in hand at Burnley one would imagine will put city level on points with a marginally better goal difference.
City do have the harder run in but unlike Arsenal they have the momentum and that will need to change if we are to become champions.
It could come down to goal difference so this is where I would expect to see a change of tactics from Arteta, of course the aim is to win all our games but we have a few games where we can seriously improve our goal difference, Burnley at home , a struggling Newcastle at home and Fulham at home , even palace away on the final game of the season are all games that we should dominate and as I have continually said in the last few weeks it’s all about being clinical in front of goal , something city have excelled at recently whereas we have been misfiring.
Am I confident, believe it or not yes I am and it may be the time to unleash max dowman as our wide players are struggling, With Dowman , Eze and Odegaard in the side it will give us the creativity we have been missing.
Slag 1 ,
Slag 2,
Question of the day.
I am reading, this moronic cunt has never won at Eithad or Anfield or beaten them in any cup matches when they have met ?
Can you confirm or deny before you send in your next pile of excuse addled cack.
Yours faithfully
Fart Fraud.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/arsenal-man-city-haaland-gabriel-37040445
Thought so too . If Haland had done the normal shot dog rout , Gabriel would have got a red and out for 3 games
– no matter what a pricksy says over tinted lenses
Wicksy, given the Carabao Cup performance and ManC generally, going full turtle for 90 and expecting anything would have been even riskier. We had to give them something to think about rather than inviting pressure and we did to some degree.
As for Gyok’s feelings, if he’s honest with himself, he’s been found lacking. We all thought, despite his underwhelming stats, that he would be that final piece, a proper number 9 hallelujah. Unfortunately, he’s lived up to his metrics. Had Merino been fit, I’d imagine we’d have seen a lot less of him this season.
What’s the point you’re trying to make Fart Fraud?
You think Arteta is a cunt, is that it?
That’s some squeaky Vera level analysis right there. A budget Eni Aluko.
Poopah, what did they tell you about copypasting secondary source opinion pieces and presenting them as facts in yr3 history lessons.
“Well the Mirror says so, so it must be true” is a truly laughable level of dimwit football insight. There was no headbutt, you saw what we all did, don’t make yourself red in the face for no reason.
Unless you think it’s the only way the ‘popular lads’ (all two of them) will accept you
I know he is a cunt
I want you slags , that rate him to call him a cunt and stop making excuses for the cunt.
Killjoy seriously thinks it’s possible to bottle a quadruple.
How daft.
On that basis there’s a lot of bottling going on every season with every team. Theresa reason why quadruples dont happen and it’s not bottling. Do you know what it is yet?
Don’t fall for it man, you’re not that, I hope, thick.
Hoopah
If the actions had been reversed and Haaland had thrust his head forward into Gabriel Wicksy would be screaming for a red card, that the ref’s are biased blah blah blah blah.
The effect a red would have had on our next 3 matches could have been huge. You’d think the fan boys would have the sense to avoid criticising the ref.
To Whoever is a pr-1k
There is basic coging material called guides to help the weak headed understand.
So posted the 2nd hand knowledge.
Hopefully it helps.
You are welcome