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.
Fart Fraud
Real sacked Alonso and won eff all. You need a better analogy.
Going by your previous comments I’d have thought you’d be happy we lost to Soton and Bournemouth.
Teams lose games. City have only gained a point on us since Feb. Take a seat.
Aitcho
Semi’s don’t mean shit unless you win it. Top of the league doesn’t mean shit unless you win it.
Come back and talk to me when he wins something major.
Sad news about our former GK who did a solid job when he had the number 1 shirt. RIP Alex Manninger.
let me get this straight, the two biggest fake news fucks this site has ever known are questioning my posting integrity…now that’s fucking rich…one of you is a compulsive liar and the other is such a fucking simpleton I’m not sure if he knows what’s real and what’s simply a figment of his imagination…FU2
Arteta is a trophy dodger who after spending £1 billion assembled and then coached those players to be just an average team and now without their main weapon ….. Set Pieces & Corners since give it to Saka is not available atm.
On Wednesday, the Premier League’s website published an article declaring Sunday’s clash at the Etihad Stadium “the biggest game for years”.
That is the noise Arsenal’s players are exposed to for the next few days. Who will benefit the most from this? In my opinion City as the fragility and fear of the Arsenal players will be exposed to more stress and most likely create more doubts in their minds that they get a result.
The number of viewers for that match should go through the roof.
I will say this, it’s clear that City are likewise feeling the pressure, which is undoubtedly why Silva chose this particular week to publicly confirm his departure come season’s end…I get the thought-process, but trying to manufacture some sort of “let’s do it for Silva” mindset.is a bit of an amateur hour maneuver..that’s the kind of shit MA would do, which is fitting in that he’s adopted many of the worst traits of both Pep and Wenger…thankfully Silva doesn’t seem like the type of player who’s pending exodus would inspire others to take their game to another level (unlike maybe Kompany or Toure or Aguero or KDB etc…),..not to mention, there’s a lot of relatively new faces in Pep’s prefered starting 11 who wouldn’t have that kind of relationship with Silva…of course I’m not in the room, so I could be mistaken
Squeaky Vera, of course you’re mistaken. You’re just making things up. Again.
Your self declared “posting integrity” is just you making things up. Again.
RiP AM. He did a solid for us when he was called on.
Marc, of course Semis and top of the league in April mean something.
It means we’re a good team. And not winning either doesn’t make us a crap team.
Let’s be clear, none of us would have preferred to do a Spurs last season even with their trophy.
You viewpoint is a little simplistic.
Killjoy, we haven’t spent a billion and even a cursory glance at results and tables show we’re far from average.
Chelsea and Pool might be considered average their spending, even Madrid perhaps. All trophy dodging this season with nothing to play for.
If you can’t see progress since the days of Pablo Mari and Dennis Suarez, I can’t help you here.
The worst possible scenario over the next week is city and Arsenal are level on points with a similar goal difference with 5 games to go, one would expect city to beat Burnley away in the week which is their game in hand.
The remaining fixtures I would say favour Arsenal slightly.
Arsenal’s last 5 fixtures
Newcastle home
Fulham home
West ham away
Burnley home
Palace away
City’s last 5 fixtures
Everton away
Brentford home
Bournemouth away
Palace home
Villa home.
Unlike City , we do have the champions league semis to distract us which may be a good thing.
What has affected our performances recently is having to play players who are not quite match fit after long injury lay offs.
Ben White has struggled after injury as has Havertz and Jesus , also Eze , trossard and hincape are returning after injury and we have odegaard, saka,calafiori and Timber who just can’t seem to get themselves fit for any length of time.
Consequently we have looked very predictable offensively so the return of saka, Eze, Odegaard and Timber will certainly give Arteta better options.
Having hincape and mosquera back after injury was a bonus on Wednesday and I would expect the back 4 and centre mid to be unchanged v City , the front 4 will all depend on fitness and availability, personally I’d like tonsee Havertz start up top as he has better football brain than gyokeres and is more capable in holding the ball up , Eze behind Havertz and then it’s a choice of 2 out of 5 as to who plays wide …saka, trossard, martinelli, madueke or Dowman , again that will be dependent on availability
Wicksy
Have you ever heard of the term joined up thinking?
“Unlike City , we do have the champions league semis to distract us which may be a good thing.”
Followed immediately by:
“What has affected our performances recently is having to play players who are not quite match fit after long injury lay offs.”
Our players look knackered 2 high pressure matches against a tough Atletico team will put even more strain on them. After spending so much Arteta should have the tools at his disposal to keep players in good condition and minimise injuries but we see the same every season end players who have been overplayed just breaking down.
As an aside to what happens over the next few weeks I do think the club have a decision to make on Ode – he just doesn’t seem to be able to get fit and then stay fit. Has he been over played, is there an underlaying problem that can be fixed or has he hit a brick wall?
Why do I think it is a single flu virus
when it goes
Atishoo – Hicksey – Atishoo
in quick order ?
Don’t follow what is happening in City’s club life unless it is relating to Arsenal.
“A mystery player or staff member is set to auction off their medal collection from Manchester City’s historic Treble-winning season. ”
The set includes the 2022/23 Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League winners’ medals plus the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup medals in 2023. That is a total of 5 medals in 1 season which is 4 more then Arteta has done in 1 season and who still has fuck all since the 2020 FA Cup.
At least we can see what medals look like.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-15742353/Man-City-selling-Treble-winners-medals-Mystery-iconic-season.html
You tried Hookah. Maybe the the ‘popular lads’ will give you a pat on the head.
Killjoy,
You trawl the Daily Mail. For ManC stories.
That’s a double haram brother.
Marc, serious question on Ode. I wonder if he has plateaued.
When we were a bit crusty he was the bees knees. He’s got obvious quality but we haven’t seen it consistently for a couple of seasons now.
I’d put him on a list of early gen Tets players that we should be able to consider getting the most out of financially as I don’t see their value rising at this stage.
Aitcho
I think the form issue with Ode is secondary to fitness – he’s never going to find form if he can’t stay fit. There’s no argument he’s a talented player but he’ll be on big wages and he keeps having knee problems.
If it isn’t something that can be fixed then I’m erring towards cashing in on him if we can get a decent fee.
We’ve got Eze and Nwaneri who can play in his position (although I still have a feeling Arteta will look to sell Nwaneri in the summer) and then Dowman coming through although I think we need to give him time to develop.
Marc—there’s little doubt that Ode’s inability to stay healthy has raised some red flags, but let’s face it MA’s tactical “tweaks” this year and last certainly haven’t done him any favours…tbf though those tweaks might have come in some small measure as a result of Ode’s inability to affect games from the pocket as much as he once had and the fact that he had become more injury prone..unfortunately this has led to a greater reliance on the likes of Merino, Rice and Zubi in more advanced positions…keeping in mind that Eze wasn’t even the first choice replacement option until other injuries forced MA’s hand
the fact that Ode and Eze have only started in the midfield together on a few occasions speaks volumes about our tactically stunted/gutless manager…MA’s love affair with the Rice/Zubi tandem has left Ode playing his typically static role on the right, whereas if we played a more traditional back 4, without the inverted bullshit, then had Rice sitting deeper, we could employ this duo together in a variety of ways (either side-by-side or high/low, with each taking turns coming deeper to help with our largely nonexistent transition game, and/or have them switch sides on occasion etc…)
of course this doesn’t mean that our backers couldn’t make their way up the pitch in an overlapping capacity or as an extra man coming late into the box now and then, it just means that focus of our offence would finally shift towards our most talented offensive options…only in MA’s Arsenal would that seem like a crazy fucking notion
Ode’s not the kind of goalscoring threat that he needs to always be stationed on the right so that his more dominant foot is in play (far from it in fact)…shit if he potted even a fraction of his chances his whole narrative would be vastly different…regardless he should be showing up on both sides of the pitch, with Eze doing likewise, as that would undoubtedly put opposing defences into a blender on occasion
as of right now our overtly robotic tactics plays into the hands of the seemingly endless amount of low blocks we face, which is why we’ve had to rely so heavily on set pieces/own goals for results…not to mention, this modifications could add some much-needed directness into our attack, which could help to unlock both Marts and VG, who are still treated like periphery options…frankly I’m shocked VG has as many goals as he does considering the fact that the tactics we employ are totally counterintuitive to his skillset…Cheers