When the season began, I was positive and happy that we were competing for 4 trophies – FA Cup, Carabao Cup, Premier League and Champions League. I was hoping we would pick at least one of the them and put an end to our trophy drought. But things have not panned out as we expected.
Things started going wrong from January. We were ousted by Manchester United in FA Cup third round on penalty. City is most likely going to win this now.
Next was our Carabao Cup run coming to an end in semi finals, where Newcastle beat us twice – both home and away – with 2 to nil.
West Ham (loss) and Forest (draw) have killed our Premier League title chase. Yes, it’s still mathematically possible but we are 13 points behind Liverpool with a game in hand. Even if we win ours, that would be 10 points difference with only 10 games to go. I doubt Liverpool are going to drop that many points and I doubt we are going to take advantage of that situation.
That leaves us with the Champions League.
We are visiting the Dutch side PSV Eindhoven in the last-16 today for the first leg. Champions League are usually very unpredictable and you can’t take lightly any of the games. We have seen City only somehow managing to get into the knockout games of group stage, and we have seen some big teams losing out to qualify.
And the fact that we have a non-existent attack further complicates it for Mikel and team. We are going into the game without our StarBoy Bukayo Saka, our left winger Martinelli and without a CF (even a make shift Havertz). Defence looks okay, Ben White is back from his injury and MLS is back from his suspension. Saliba and Gabriel will hold the fort for us.
It’s not tough to guess who would be starting today, Trossard, Nwaneri and Sterling and it’s not a good sight for the Arsenal fans. We should try scoring first and hold on to the lead because we often complicate it for ourselves and I don’t want to see us leave everything for the 2nd leg.
The players must have been demoralised with the recent run of games and when asked about it, this is what Mikel had to say :
on how to instill belief into the players:
Well, try to explain how we’re going to do it and why we do things, and they try to deliver that in the best possible way. In the last two results it’s been very different, in terms of performance as well, not getting the right result that we want, but we’ve certainly been better, especially in the last game with the opposition. And the fact we still have gears, even with the players that we have, some of them have gears to take us to a different level. When it comes to that stage, it’s about lifting the level and the standards, every individual has to be at their best. When we do that, with the team that we have and the connection we have between us, we are a really strong team.source : Arsenal.com
If we manage to get past the PSV in round of 16, we would face one of the Real Madrid or Atletico in quarters.
Right, so with whatever is available for today, I would personally love a back 4 of White, Saliba, Gabriel and MLS. Cala has been making some mistakes lately so MLS sounds a better option to me. Timber has been doing well but if White is fit, he has got better runs in overlaps and I would try him. Keep Timber on bench in case we need him later in the game.
A midfield of Thomas Partey, Declan Rice and Merino will start but I would never be happy with both Rice and Partey starting in a game. Pick Jorginho ahead of Declan and stick Merino on the left.
Front 3 has been a conundrum but the only option we have is, Trossard in the middle, Sterling and Nwaneri on either side of the pitch. Lets not put Merino up top and lets not expect him to score 2 goals every game.
Right, that’s all for today. The game’s a bit late for me, but I will be up and will see you during the game.
Cheers!
Good play and a great example of staying switched on but boy are we lucky to still have 11 men on the pitch.
Marc—so. much for that theory…Skelly will be in Ligue 1 in no time…not to mention MA will be out buying several LBs before dealing with our front side issues
TRVL
You utter cynic!
Marc—that was actually my glass half-full take!!
what a baffling maneuver by Partey…that’s how you take a penalty!!
we need to run this score up so they have nothing to play for in the return fixture…we had better not go full turtle between now and the 90th…I can just see it now, every fucking defensive player on our bench will be on the pitch by the 60th minute
This team has a giant self destruct button and seem to eager to press the fucking thing – PSV will have a valid argument come the 90 that had Skelly gone off things could have gone very differently.
TRVL
Partey = what the fuck
The pen = I actually like that Raya didn’t bother trying to do a Hollywood dive, the ball was past him before he had a chance to react and he knew it.
Having watched both games during the first half of the Madrid sides I think I’d prefer us to play RM because they’re patchy and slower in the press with AM being quicker to picking up RM’s few passing errors.
Both teams around 93% pass accuracy.
Marc—Skelly could have easily been sent off with a second yellow for what he did with his trailing leg
this is the kind of match where we have to show some balls and continue to press forward…if we do so it could be a 6-2 scoreline, if we sit too deep, it just might end in a draw…this PSV side can score but they can’t defend worth shit, so we had better not invite them on unnecessarily
Tony
Real Madrid with Mbappe beat us comfortably – he is currently on a different level and with our fragility he’ll know it.
Tony—be careful of what you wish for…I get what you mean, but can you even imagine what MA’s tactics would be against a side of Real’s ilk…just remember what he did against a rather pedestrian Munich side last season
TRVL
Agree 100%
I’ll tell you this much, neither Madrid side would have allowed 3 of our 4 goals
we need to put this tie to bed tonight!!
Skelly off for his yellow makes sense.
Finally Ode scores let’s hope it opens the door for more from him.
I can’t remember having so many of our players completely free inside the box so often
How the fuck did PSV make a CL place?
How poor is the Dutch league that they did.
And that’s 5.
Breathtaking that 5th goal. The link play between Cauliflower and Alphatross.
good on the players for taking their chances…if PSV was playing Ajax and this demolishing were to happen, Bosz would be fired this evening
Marc
The mad thing is PSV have lost only once in 60 odd home games.
If we got into double figures tonight you wouldn’t be surprised.
If we had a meltdown and it finished 4 – 5 you wouldn’t be surprised (although mightily pissed off!).
Kroenke
Really?
Are you sure that’s not a “Rachel from Accounts” number?
It’s too easy for us. Tie over for me with more goals to come for us.
PSV are dire that shows the level of the Dutch league being their current champions.
TRVL
Agreed I would have thought RM is the tougher tier, but AM have really controlled the game so look the better side.
RM are patchy and Mbappe was subbed early 2nd half in their last game after a poor performance by his standards. You could argue he was being kept for the derby game and Mbappe never got out of 2nd gear.
AM seem to have more energy with RM trying to play pretty football.
That said RM is 2:1 now. AM still very much in it
KP—they lost in a cup fixture at home last Wednesday
Tony—-AM are the more settled/organized side, as they have a definitive identity, but when it matters most Real seem to know how to push the right buttons, even when the in-match stats might suggest otherwise
Let’s hope our high score can be translated to the PL
another wide open player in the center of the box, too bad Gabs wasted it…if Timber was actually on the pitch that could have resulted in a penalty
TRVL
Well summed up was a very cool goal for their 2nd.
Tony—even the lowest of the low in the PL would never provide us with so many unmarked opportunities…fuck me, even Havertz might have scored a brace in this one
shit, this side is allowing us to cruise seemingly around without a care in the world…maybe even Sterling could pot a goal or two….the home fans might rush the pitch if that were to happen