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!
Should have been 2 for ManU.
Great saves by Raya.
brilliant!!!
Shit
Timely scramble by Raya
Piss poor result for Arsenal and we’ve got Chelsea next week who whilst inconsistent can score goals.
more dropped points…PSV outing was clearly a one-off performance…we should have actually lost that one based on the grade A chances
Keeping our one point a game maybe the super Mick was taking the piss
Arsenal trying very hard to close the PL chase soon and play rest of the season without any pressure. On the balance Man U should have won. Arsenal can have a max of 85 points this season which is less than last season. Is that progress?
Countrymen of both sides meeting up.
Meanwhile ElB™ striding off all by himself with smoke out of his ears
28 goals with 55 points with Rays saving us too many times.
Marc—a battle of two rather cowardly disciples of Pep…at least Maresca has the excuse of being a first-timer on a club that has quickest trigger finger in the footballing universe
Raya
28 games.
Madhu
I’d say a max of 20 points for the last 10 games is the best we can expect so 75 point finish.
On our season average if it continues expect 65 points of very painful viewing.
Hoopah
Wet sawdust can spontaneously combust.
there will be a Rice-oriented agenda that will be set in motion due in large part to his well-placed strike and the prevailing narrative surrounding his more advanced positioning, but that would simply be another orchestrated attempt to bury the lead…when we’ve needed it most we’ve managed to secure 2 points from an available 9…furthermore, if Rice had that sort of shot sitting at the ready he wouldn’t have a grand total of 2 goals this season
I see the scrote has walked out from his tv duties.
Answer the questions, like any other manager has to.
Absolute cunt.
No one else’s fault, you can’t be a shit Manchester United side.
But yours, you slag.
FACup or league.
To all members of the Sky Sports team, please refrain from asking our “manager” about our lack of a bona fide Striker or this vindictive prick will purposely ignore the position once again come the summer…Thanks for nothing
prior to today’s match MA spoke at some length about Sterling’s positive impact at the club and about how he would play a valuable roll in the run-up, then he never even warmed up let alone played today…that about sums up our disingenuous twat of a skipper…just to be clear, I was only speaking about MA’s total fraudulent behaviour and not suggesting whatsoever that I wanted this shite player called upon…simply put, we’re not a SERIOUS club
TVRL
This fraud, has no fucking right, to treat this reporter, like a piece of shit on his shoe, no fucking right at all.
George Graham and Ferguson, Wenger, Clough, and Jock Wallace maybe, but not this slag.
If this new guy, has anything about him, he will sack him the moment he exits the next round.
Not great was it , at any other time in the last 30 years or so a draw would have been considered a decent result …not this time I’m afraid.
In the first half unoted were there for the taking but we didn’t do enough in the final third of the pitch , some times you have to take risks to open up a defence by pushing an extra body or 2 into the box but we failed to do that and played like we just wanted to control the game and wait for the inevitable opening goal that never came.
After united took the lead we were dreadful , the 2nd half display should concern the manager , if it wasn’t for Raya we could have been on the end of a good beating
The way I see it is our players are so programned to play a certain way and position themselves in a certain way that as soon as we have to chase the game and try something different our midfield and defensive structure collapses and the game becomes chaotic, and if anyone has watched United recently they would see that they thrive when the game descends into chaos..
Nwaneri is too young to be playing 3 games a week whilst travelling into Europe, he looked fatigued and there was no zip in his play today so I expect him to be out of the reckoning v PSV in the week, should be a chance to give Martinelli and sterling a run out and possibly an academy player up front as Merino’s legs had gone by the 70th minute today ..
Staying injury free for Europe is probably just as important as picking up points in the league as the title has gone and top 5 is as good as guaranteed unless we have a total collapse, Chelsea at home next week should put paid to that.
AF—if it were almost anyone else I might not take such offense, especially immediately following a match, as that’s when emotions are at their highest, but for someone who’s used this very same media outlet, along with countless others, to peddle his nonsense on a regular basis, you can’t act like a petulant child when your short-sighted plans blow up in your face…we know damn well that if things had turned out differently he would be the first one out there pumping the shit out of his own tires
as for the match itself, common sense seemed to suggest that after what we put on tape mid-week a few tweaks were required…surely Amorim wouldn’t have been so obtuse as to ignore such a scoreline when it came to his weekend prep…it’s almost as if he simply asked himself what would PSV do, then set out to do the exact opposite, after all our previous Dutch opponents did almost everything wrong when it came to their defensive zone coverage…as such, it was pretty obvious that this was going to be a bus-sitting/counter-attacking kind of affair…shit, Amorim has toyed with Arteta on 2 prior occasions using an almost identical tactical script
knowing this, we should have made the requisite adjustments…most notably, we should have used our backers for width then slipped Ethan inside…this is where late-comers and the “extra” bodies were finding little pockets of space, especially when their backline got stretched and dropped deeper when we made any wider runs…not to mention, this would be in keeping with our primary objective, to get as many set pieces as humanly possible
clearly their plan all along was to double Ethan, so we played right into their hands…instead we should have taken advantage of their slow and soft midfield coverage…just look of how much space Ode had tonight, imagine if we had paired him with Ethan, who’s a much better option from distance…their offensive shape was so narrow, I hardly think sending our backers further up the pitch would have left us too vunerable, especially if Rice was sitting where he should be 85% of the time, deep…which doesn’t mean I didn’t appreciate his 2nd goal of the season, I just think what might have been if instead of him it was Ethan seeking out those very same pockets…llke I said earlier, our overreliance on low percentage options up top can’t continue to be our plan A, B and C moving forward