That’s Murphy’s Law, however it’s the variation of it which suits us more – “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time.”
In the pursuit of title, we didn’t need a mid-week game. We played Sporting at home and lost. Now, most of us would have shrugged it off, looking at the bigger picture where title is on the line having been almost qualified for Champions League but everything went wrong for us. Tomiyasu picked up an injury in the 9th minute and by the looks of it, it was serious. If that was not enough, Saliba was subbed in 20th minute because he felt discomfort in his back. We scored first, but gave a goal away from half line. Match went into the extra time, likes of Martinelli, White, Gabriel and Zinchenko had to play another 30 minutes when we have game tomorrow the 19th. Of all, Martinelli’s kick was saved by Sporting goalkeeper and we lost.
Played for 2 hrs, lost 2 players to injuries, have another game in 3 days and went out of Europa against Sporting at Home. And if this was not enough, someone on Twitter added one more to the list – roof leaking.
Our CBs – Gabriel and Saliba have been immense this season, and losing one of them even for couple of matches could be devastating. Holding is no match, and Kiwior is not ready (yet). We could have hoped White to replace Saliba with Tomiyasu on the right, but Tomi is out injured now and for a long time.
Fortunately, our midfield is still safe. We need Partey the most for these 11 games.
Martinelli would be devasted. Over played, missed a penalty which lost the game for us, hopefully it don’t dent his confidence. We need everyone at their best for the rest of this season.
Anyways, all we can do is forget about it, concentrate on the league and Crystal Palace tomorrow. They have sacked Patrick Vieira, haven’t appointed a manager yet and have not won a game in the year 2023. That’s sort of game where we give a lifeline to the teams. I am worried, and hopefully Arteta and Co. will break that curse. We are still on top, if we win, we go into international break with 8-points lead over City even if they have played a game less, it gives a huge mental advantage. They are in Champions League, they too will tire out and chasing 8 points gap will cause problems for them.
Short one today, I will be back before the game against Crystal Palace. You have a nice weekend.
Sorry to hear about Rotherhamgate, KP, how the league used tom play as long as water was in the penalty area. Snow? no problem orange ball and lines. Us old timers used to enjoy real football :).
My pet hate: Xhaka is playing again instead of ESR and his average nothing stats. 2 decent games in a row is asking a lot akin to telling KP not to swear for a week. 🙂
Marc, I’m with you, relegation should be the least punishment, as well as being removed from leg and cup wins being left blank for the historical game and fair play the game seeks to uphold. The look at United and Chelsea and us as Wenger said he stuck to it: Raul? Got to be a grey area at least worth looking into as well as making sure Gazidis has been a paragon of financial virtue in keeping with the FFP.
Our daughter is at a concert in BKK with friends, so we’ve got Pumpkin to look after with him being scratched adequately for a 3:1 win. Mystic Meg is dead, which I bet she didn’t see coming, and my predictions have only been mildly better than Russel Grant’s daily forecasts.
3:1 to us with them scoring first and then running out of ideas.
3 points today and rest. No excuses.
We got lucky
Palace got the early chance I thought they’d get, but we were always going to be too much for them.
Great take by Mary’s.
Marts*
KP-I never meant that Palace would go full-bore, as I don’t think they have the horses, but they certanly have those who could aggressively counter, if given the green light more often…I don’t really blame Vieira for this, as he had to go point hunting for much of the season, not matter the aesthetics, unfortunately the choices he made failed to yield the required results…just to highlight this fact, today’s commentator just informed the audience that Palace had failed to record on shot on target for their last 2 matches
delighted for Marts…hope he scores a couple today, so as to ease his pain
What is it with our RBs? First Bellerin and now White with lop siddd shorts.
Excellent final 3rd football from us and the 2nd goal to settle any nerves. Could be a rout.
there’s no doubt that MA didn’t think Palace would be so adventurous going forward in the first 20, which should have yielded them a goal of not 2, but as soon as we put one on the board they immediately started to retreat…of course, they were summarily punished for this tactical miscue…maybe they didn’t feel they have the requisite personnel to stay their original course, after all, their best midfielder, in more recent times, has been Lokonga, who obviously isn’t available for selection today
if we can continue to get consistent scoring from our wide-side forwards, while adding a more viable option to provide competition for Jesus, then finally redress our midfield Xhaka issue, we could develop into an interesting mix between what City had on offer 3 years back and the more directness of the 2021 Pool side…wishful thinking of course, but certainly not beyond the realm of possibility with the proper scouting and investment
After a more defensive mindset play from Paddy, Palace couldn’t adjust to suddenly being more offensive. Holding has done well and White is linking up well with Saka and Ode. Shame we don’t have the same balance on our attacking left until Martinelli cuts in as he did for his goal.
Hopefully we can get a few more in the 2nd half.
TRVL – that would put us back in the game where we should be: challenging for 4/5 seasons. With good squad management, who knows?
Better rest Xhaka now for Leeds.
Tony-having said that, I’m still not convinced that our manager has any desire whatsoever to move on from our/his actual “captain”; plus the investments made in both Eddie and Trossard, with Balo performing beyond expectation, suggests to me that there won’t be any major signings up top…of course, this isn’t to take anything away from Balo’s potential moving forward, as he’s been stellar out on loan, but I just think if we do have higher aspirations for next season, on multiple fronts, we need to have another readymade bona fide scorer up top…this was always my concerns with both the mishandling of the whole Eddie scenario last off-season and our non-targeted spending in January
of course, as I say all this, Xhaka scores for the second game in a row…having you ever seen a more unmarked individual inside the box(on both ocassions that is)
Palace look as if they shot their load in the first 20+ minutes and have been living on borrowed time since
have NOT having you
Great goal and pick out from KT for Saka’s assist.
What a goal !
good to see Tierney on the pitch and contributing in the final third…we need him for the run-up and for the purposes of raising funds for the summer window
I’ve heard of alligator arm, but Tompkin’s alligator foot almost had us potting a 5 spot…we need to prove that we have a half dozen goals in us
i do think that Holding has worked on his passing skills, as he seems far more confident with his one-touch capabilities, with space and time, but he still needs some considerable work on his positioning, especially when he’s facing anyone with pace
still not quite sure why Partey and Saka are playing a full 90 or why ESR was shoehorned out wide instead of coming in for Xhaka in a more central role…we all know by now that he will never get any significant minutes as a wide-side player, at least not at the Emirates…we should never not use these types of affairs to see what we can get out of players in their preferred positions…otherwise, extremely pleased by the way we reversed course after the 25th minute and emerged with a resounding victory