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.
so far Oblak’s deep kicks have done us a favour, as their diminutive frontline will struggle mightily to gain any advantage with that plan
Sakaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
I’ll be interested to see what adjustments are made at half…they were much better when they were chasing a scoreline in the first leg
thankfully Ruggeri played Saka onside
Trvl
I think we are good. Hincapie for Calafiori may be, but I can live without it.
You have to admit AM does not belong in the final as they would make a terrible opponent to either Bayern or PSG and we would have possibly the dullest CL final ever.
Ambarish—I was thinking more about them than us…MA’s not really an adjustment wizard…I would likewise suspect that AM’s familiarity with Zubi influenced the Skelly decision
Killroy—I might think differently if Barca or Real were in the mix, but with it being either Bayern or PSG I’m of the same mindset
I’d be very surprised if we don’t see Sorloth very soon
to our benefit their players haven’t spaced themselves out very well in our box…twice they’ve actually helped to thwart a couple decent opportunities
how they haven’t levelled things up is nothing short of a miracle…good on Gabs for his efforts
I always expected this to be either a 1:0 or a draw with going to penalties. Nothing like what we can expect tomorrow.
surprisngly positive changes, as they make us a little weaker defensively, minus the Hip for Cala one…good to see MA going against his more conservative inklings…here’s hoping it proves to be the right choices
we’ve become the unflattering masters of feeling contact
Atletico aren’t anywhere near as good at the back as they used to be and don’t look great going forward.
PSG or Bayern would annihilate them.
TVL
We’ve got a serious issue with premature falling over.
I don’t care for all his remonstrating, but I would take VG up top over our German mope everyday of the week
Marc—I wouldn’t be so disturbed if it wasn’t for the fact that we might be the largest squad in all of football…it’s a real cake and eat it too fuckfest
Yep, only a CF who tries, will miss.
Simeone’s attempt to revert to a cross-heavy team simply because Sorloth came on hasn’t worked out as of yet,,,in fact it’s played into our hands so far
Commentator talking about the difference between the PSG / Bayern 1st leg and tonight and saying grinding it out yada yada yada has its own appeal.
That’s like a mate setting you up on a date and when you ask what she looks like saying she has a nice personality.