Liverpool has dropped 3 huge points at home to Crystal Palace. City are 2 points ahead having played an extra game than us. We win today and we go back to the top. We win today and we go three crucial points ahead of Liverpool with only 6 games to go. Every game is a cup final now for the boys and Mikel.
Team News
Strange decision to start Zinchenko ahead of Kiwior, because Kiwior has been doing better than Zinni and one bad game doesn’t mean we are going to hamper his confidence. If it’s purely for rotational purpose, I can live with it. Gabriel Jesus makes his way into the starting XI with Rice anchoring the midfield alone with Havertz playing the more forward role today. Trossard starts today ahead of Martinelli whom I think will come-in at some point to give Saka some rest.
Frankly, I had hated the concept of playing Havertz as CF but he has been doing better up top than he does in midfield. Gabriel Jesus does the dirty work but is not as clinical in front as you would expect your CF to be. Trossard gives me some hope though.
Liverpool is suffering the way we did last season. One loss and everything has gone bonkers for them. They were unbeaten at home from god knows when, and suddenly Atlanta wins 3-0 and they can’t even keep Crystal Palace to a draw. City, on the other hand, have gone full beast mode.
We need to win today. At any cost. First, because Pep is not going to drop any points now and the only way we win the league is by winning all our games. Second, I hate Aston Villa.
Right, a very short one today. See you during the game.
Oops. Missed the match. But looking at the replay , shows how poor Raya was. For the second goal , if he stayed on the line considering ESR was alongside Watkins and in fact got a toe in when the latter shot , might have saved it if he stayed on the line
I will say this, never ever has a manager spent so much on players without goals in them…between Jesus, Havertz, Vieira, Zinchenko, White, Jorginho, Eddie and even Rice, although that’s not really his MO, even though it might have seemed different considering his positioning against Bayern, we’ve spent well over 400M without once targeting a single clinical finisher
TRVL
What about the goalkeeper debacle – Ramsdale was his must have goalie but then Raya flapped his eyelids as well as his hands and ooops there goes another 30million quid down the drain. Emilio is a classy goalie who had reached his prime (as Argentina found out to their advantage in the last world cup). Today he stuck the middle digit of his gloved right hand right up El B’s left nostril. The Arsenal camp is not a happy ship – lots of back stabbing etc.
there’s a lot of noise online surrounding the notion that MA got the tactics all wrong from the get-go, whereas I would suggest otherwise, at least on this day…the fact remains we had loads of scoring opportunities, as no one even marked Havertz for the whole of the first-half…maybe Unai knew full-well that this player alone would never decide a match, unless he was given a half dozen chances from 2 feet out…therein lies the problem, our recruitment practices, which continually targets half measure and ill-equipped for the task at hand players
Norg-as you should know by now, I was never in favour of letting Emi go, regardless of the whole assurances narrative…since that time I’ve likewise spent countless hours knocking MA for the way he’s butchered the hunt for a suitable replacement, which has been an unmitigated shit show…my earlier list was aimed specifically towards the lack of clinical finishers we currently employ, especially after the gobs of monies spent…Cheers
TRVL
I think AFC is a troubled camp. El B was over promoted for winning the FA Cup during Covid. Gasper is the one who has Josh’s ear and no doubt he keeps him abreast of any failings. Gasper has had the embarrassing situation of sitting down with a player, contract on table, pen in hand when El B changed his mind. That player is now at Newcastle. Only Saka is left as an Emery player because El B knows there would be an outcry if he was dropped or moved out. Saka must be aware of the situation. Fail this season and El B will be in a precarious situation next – especially as others teams will be on the rise.
Tony-if you haven’t watched it already make sure you check out the last round of the Holloway/Gaethje fight…that’s the way to end things…Cheers
Norg—but it’s only the fourth phase of his seven or eight phase master plan and we’re clearly ahead of schedule…normally you would assume that as expectations rise, which has undoubtedly happened following last season and our off-season spending, so should the pressure to prove that he can get us over the hump, unfortunately those metrics don’t seem to apply here at the Emirates…he still has the Kool-Aid crew propagating his nonsense, we’re more relevant than we have been in quite some time, even though that’s more of a reflection of the parity that presently exists, and he was just re-upped again…much like with Wenger and our former bird-wielding captain, Xhaka, unless he goes to the middle of the pitch and takes a steaming dump on an Arsenal kit with Kroenke’s picture on it, he’s seemingly imprevious to the axe…as such, he will likely be here for the foreseeable future, as he doesn’t have the onions required to take his one-trick pony blueprint to another club of consequence
What a complete and utter disaster – Arteta was outthought and out manoeuvred by a manager we sacked for not being hood enough when Arteta’s had ten times the budget.
Add to that he’s just bottled another shot at the PL title when it was in our hands, what odds our seasons completely finished midweek when we lose to Bayern?
The simple truth is Liverpool’s next manager will win a title before Arteta and he hasn’t even been hired yet.
Did I like the result? NO
Did I like the Schadenfreude? I am reveling in it.
1. Don Unai pulled down Tets pants and spanked him. Revenge is a dish best served cold. Even if he wasn’t the manager Arsenal wanted/needed his treatment was despicable and KSE deserves all the embarrassment
2. Third season in a row where Tets start bottling it in April after spending 700mill.
3. There exists a chance that Don Unai will end up with a Trophy and our Apprentice manager is standing there holding the Bottlers trophy and the Nil, Nil draw at City in the other hand.
4. Le-Grove in total melt down and Don Unai living rent free in Pedro’s head. Best one yet.
Let’s see what will happen on Wednesday, don’t have much hope and Tuchel will have studied this match closely for the return leg in Munich.
Killroy-thanks for the LG update…it couldn’t happen to a nicer fellow than that nattering twat Positive Pete…as for the match itself, I, like yourself, despised the result, but took some pleasure in the karmic fuck sandwich that Emi and Unai served up again to their former employers…their double over us could be our undoing, although I hope that’s not the case
regardless of today’s result I’m still surprisingly hopeful that things aren’t over for us on either front…I just don’t think that Bayern or City are the the kind of teams that will invariably take a mile if given an inch…the only thing I really dread is the very real possibility that MA will go into full-bore defensive mode from here on out, as even he knows that he fucked the pooch too many times on the recruitment trail, so we have a fuckload of cooks in the kitchen but no fucking chef
Wednesday all eyes will be on our manager in training and see if his fucked up starting line up against Villa was for the purpose of having Jorghino ready for Bayern and returning to the line up that was most successful. We are hurting at LB and attack what’s knew, has been that way for a few years. Jesus got to go plus the other dead wood in attack and midfield, but then as you readily acknowledge who is going to be the chef in cooking up a trophy winning squad. We will be in the same position that we were in before the start of this season, with one important exception, PSR breathing down our neck.
The worrying point here is we never once looked like we’d beat Villa who have looked half the team that played us last night.
We need fast, fluid football that is slowed by Zinchenko , Havertz and Jesus so we played into Emery’s hands. How Unia would have loved our starting line up!
Wolves next away who will think they can get a result. Pochetino will be licking his lips and Spuds won’t fear us.
Yesterday we lost our fear factor with what El B sees as our best starting selection.
Where teams found our electrically charged movement too much and we scored for fun.
Now Emery has shown our midfield up once again by cutting the supply to our very predictable right sided attack.
Putting Rice under continual pressure with stifling Ode measured passes through the channels or back and forth across just outside the opponent’s penalty area is how we lost last night.
Raya is a joke keeper matching our joke manager.
My take is back to we will win no serious trophy as in CL or PL under El B. 5 years tells us El B’s inconsistency with his tactics to shoehorn his pets in.
LG is funny with Pedro bots out in force quelling the honest negative El B chatter. Same shit different day with LG. Pedro is still loyally touching his toes for his masters’ pleasure. as there was no pleasure in our football v Villa: only lost dreams.
Can anyone see City dropping points with their last 6 games? They are experienced winners each to a man, something El B hasn’t experienced as a player or manager. Only as assistant cone placement manager for Pep.
Bayern are sure to look at our loss when th mirth and merriment. Wednesday’s result is really not in our favour needing 3 goals without reply.
Never going to happen unless the ref screws up badly and reduces Bayern to 9 players as I doubt we’d beat a 10-man Bayern.
I honestly can’t see what there is to be positive about going forward.
We got beat by a cup football specialist manager. Josh and Daddy rue will what could have been had they backed Unia by what Unai is doing with Villa.
A bad day for all real Gooners.
Spot on Kilroy El B thought he’s better than Unai even though Emery keeps handing El B his arse on a silver platter.
El B has always believed in his god like prophecy where only Josh and Pedro have bought into the process’s levels and spent half a billion GBP to
facilitate El B’s patois no one else understands.
Anyone here willing to bet on PL success now or lifting the CL trophy?
Back to the drawing board it is then and another 5 years of almost-there torture.
Can anyone tell me where the fcuk we are now because I even considered I’d woken up this morning in my unfamiliar suite and hoped it was a parallel universe.🤔
Waking up my MacBook revealed reality differently.👀😱
So I headed for the pool.
Another 5 years should do it. Pedro will be near retirement so will adjust course if he’s still got all his marbles. Any bets?
Have to say LG was pure Comedy Central last night.
So, El B went for his balls being in 2 baskets as last night’s selection suggests and picked up here.
Failed abysmally on all counts including persisting with Raya with Ramsdale wanting to prove a point. Last night was just unnecessary and El B was clueless as he rolled out his predictable subs: like Eddie was going to do something special? Takes off Ode off in favour of minute less ESR who looked lost.
El B has managed to nullify our impetus and speed of our game. Last night we were pedestrian in midfield and Jesus needs 3 or 4 guilt edge chances to score a goal so what chance him scoring? Ditto Havertz and Eddie.
Where were the goals going to come from?
Onto Munich and if we go back to Havertz up top, one could accuse El B of throwing the PL in favour of the all crowning CL and pure narcissistic levels of adulation for winning 🏆
Except unlike the PL the 2nd leg is a hope and a prayer at best. But El B sees it as the path of least resistance to joining the managerial gods and thus top jobs.
Just 2 games? PL then? 7 games!
Should we have expected anything different really?
I’m probably the biggest LIR mug here as I honestly thought El B would keep to the winning recipe for all remaining games and put PL importance ahead of CL for this season.
I was hoping TRVL warnings were over cautious logical thinking in my misguided thinking. Kudos brother next time I’ll pay deeper attention to save the needed mind numbing hours of today as it all sinks in yet again.
Tony
I switched off LG a while ago – Pedro is so far up his own arse (and El B’s) he reminds me of Angela Rayner – gobby bitch.
Lose on Wednesday and I think we will crumble. Will Stan & Josh do anything – I doubt it in the short term but at the end of next season if we do not look like achieving anything it will be goodbye El B.
I haven’t checked if this is correct but on the radio this morning the news / sports presenter said yesterday was the exact same fixture as when the wheels came off last season.
If correct then the chances are Arteta knows it and completely bottled it. Arteta really loves racking up the unwanted records.
Marc – I am not a doom monger but it makes you wonder where AFC will finish when Man U and Chelsea get there act together. Add into the equation Villa and the Tiny Tots.
Cunt.
Always will be.
Emery has his bitch.
Six easy points this season.
And they played Thursday.
Norg
I got a sign die ban from LG about 2 years ago but it was funny seeing it all again. Traffic looks down page wise. I’m surprised some of the better poster don’t try here as newcomers get good receptions.
I’m hoping Stan sees that Chelsea and Manure are about 12 months away from any consistency, but I doubt we’ll be much more advanced than now where familiar patterns will blight us with El B as they have for the last 3 seasons. There will be a top 8 soon enough.
Marc
What was your take yesterday from the Emirates? Fans leaving early?
Norg
He just continues to make decisions that don’t make sense. Zinchenco has looked poor all season especially with this inverted full back bollocks – he gets injured and we put Kiwior in as a makeshift and then go on a 10 game unbeaten run of 9 wins and a draw away at City.
Zin comes back Arteta starts to fuck about and we lose to Villa and cock up against Bayern.
I’m so fucked off its a joke.