Thanks to the penalty, in an otherwise lackluster performance from us, in the first leg for keeping us in the tie. At home, against Leverkusen, all we have to do is to score first and Leverkusen would have no chance to penetrate our defence.
But, would I love a 1-0 to Arsenal? Fucking no. I expect us to go there and play some attacking shite, score 3 goals and go into the quarters with some confidence. Parking the bus after 1-0 may help us today but we would be playing the likes of Madrid or PSG if we move ahead and that game plan isn’t gonna work.
Am I sounding too positive in assuming that we are going to win? Maybe!
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Playing XI is out. Raya starts in the goal, Ben White is back in place of Timber, Saliba, Gabriel and Hincapie keeps their places. Not sure how serious Jurrien’s injury is, but hopefully he will be back with the team.
Mikel is a stubborn cunt so he starts both Rice and Zubimendi in the midfield along with Eze. Gyokeres start up top, with Saka and Trossard on the wings.
Looks like a decent line up. The only change couple have been Saka in the midfield and Madueke starting on the right wing but otherwise I am happy to see Gyokeres getting a start ahead of Jesus and Havertz.
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Some very interesting games today apart from ours. Chelsea v PSG (2-5) and City v Madrid (0-3) will see two of the contenders out of the league by the time our game is over.
I will keep it short today, see you during the game.
Cheers
This round of the CL is certainly seeing some goals.
Barcodes getting cunted in Catalunya. Absolutely destroyed. Priceless.
Wicksy
Remind me of the quality of the PL in getting 6 teams into the last 16 who have conceded 28 goals between them with 2 of the ties still to play and 4 of the teams (does anyone think the Spuddie’s will do anything other than lose tonight) utterly humiliated?
Marc
Chelsea , city , Tottenham and Newcastle in the 2nd half tonight were abysmal , mainly due to the poor tactics from their managers.
They should have taken a leaf out of the Arteta book of tactical management and played the ties as 2 legged affairs instead of leaving themselves vulnerable in the away first leg by being too attack minded.
Anyway my comment about the Premier league’s strength in depth stands and the key word is depth not necessarily top quality to win the champions league, in saying that there are still 2 English sides in the last 8….
I’m not sure Arteta should be receiving any credit for Eze’s performances, after all it was Arteta who only started Eze once in the league for over 2 months from 15th Dec to 22nd feb,of course this coincided with the return of Odegaard from injury who had a run of starting 9 games in the league , a period when we only won 5 games with 2 draws and 2 defeats.
Put it this way, if Odegaard is/was fit he would be starting and Eze would be on the bench so the injury to Odegaard is certainly a blessing in disguise.
Arteta has got lucky with the Eze situation and the Nwaneri situation will be another one to watch as he is in a similar situation to Eze’s where he may need an injury or 2 to break into the side.
It will be interesting to see if Arteta brings Odegaard back into the side if/when he is fit, if he does it could be a case of Arteta not learning his lesson from earlier in the season.
I know some think that I believe that Arteta can do no wrong but I have no issue in calling Arteta out when needed, for instance his treatment of smith Rowe(and Ozil) were unjust as was selling Martinez ,as was loaning out saliba when he again got lucky with the injury to Ben White at the start of the season which meant that saliba was his only option and as a lot of us already knew , saliba was a top quality cb .
Wicksy
Welcome to the “why the fuck did Arteta sign Eze – we think he’s a good player but where’s he going to play him?” club.
Some of us where there in August. Now maybe Arteta did it because he plans to sell Ode and wanted to give Eze a season to bed in but Arteta’s history of signing players is more fat kid in a sweet shop than strategic planner.
Wicksy
“Chelsea , city , Tottenham and Newcastle in the 2nd half tonight were abysmal”
Chelsea, City and the Spud’s were abysmal in the first fucking leg – all three ties were decided in the first leg.
Newcastle had a meltdown.
Marc
What I actually meant was Tottenham, Chelsea and city were abysmal over the 2 legs but Newcastle had a poor 2nd half in Spain, they probably lost the game conceding a penalty on the stroke of half time when trippier was asleep at the far post.
I suppose in fairness to them it was a shit or bust situation once they conceded just after half time which allowed Barca to rip them apart.
Wicksy
I’m not sure “poor 2nd half” quite covers it for Newcastle. I agree the timing of the penalty changed things but top teams deal with it and adapt – Newcastle fell to pieces.
Barca who you’d assume will be our opponents in the semi’s should we make it will be an interesting match – they’re poor in defence but can be dynamite going forward. We’re very strong in defence but less fluid going forward.
At least the other side of the draw gives us “neutrals” some interesting matches to watch.
Achoo—first and foremost what I meant to say was that within the 2nd tier of teams (9 through 16), they were the lowest seed and what I perceived to be our most favourable matchup…that said, after watching some of the other CL matches, Atalanta might have been the weakest link, in that Lever appear to be a more well-organized outfit
I’m still quite surprised that Hjulmand didn’t start Schick once he knew that Tross was in play…our more narrow approach meant that their best avenue to counter would likely come from wider spaces, especially against White…don’t get me wrong, the Cameroonian CF, Kofane, performed admirably in the first leg and will likely find himself on the shortlist of several “bigger” clubs, but his back to goal capabilities weren’t what this match required, unless they were willing to deploy a front 2…with Garcia under wraps, due to the congested middle, they needed to attack with width and get crosses into Schick, who’s a world-class header of the ball…this would require them to commit less men forward thereby leaving them less vulnerable at the back…not to mention, with Grimaldo getting forward seemingly at will, Saliba was already venturing out into wider spaces more often, which would have invariably left Schick in more 1v.1s situations…thankfully we took advantage of their tactical miscalculation and if we had only been more clinical the scoreline would have been more flattering
TRVL
Basically you are saying that the Leverkusen manager was schooled by Arteta who learnt from the first leg.
If some of the other managers of English sides had showed some of Arteta’s tactical acumen then we wouldn’t have seen such a collapse of monumental proportions in the last round..
Of course the reason that we are in the more favourable side of the draw is in the main down to our flawless performances in the league matches, and playing the home game 2nd in every round is also a consequence of finishing top.
Sporting Lisbon to me look like a very good side at home and average away from home so I’m sure Arteta will be going into the first leg first and foremost with the intention of not losing and then to finish them off at the Emirates.
The league cup final will be a nice distraction from the league and Europe, City will not want to go two seasons trophyless as they know this will be their best opportunity of silverware being 9 points adrift in the league and facing Liverpool at Anfield in the fa cup after the international break.
The pressure is on City and so far they haven’t been handling the pressure very well, defensively they look vulnerable and I think we should target Guehi who I feel is overrated, he has received little or no criticism since his move but I’m not sure he is as good as some think, Donnarummar’s performance level has also dropped so it wouldn’t surprise me to see Trafford in goal.
City still have some top quality players and it will be interesting to see if Pep goes with experience rather than the likes of cherki, savinho, marmoush , Reijnders, Ait Noiri and Gonzales.
City are fortunate in that they only have one player in the squad Injured so no excuses there , Arsenal in comparison have 3 possible absences in Merino , Odegard and Timber which shouldn’t affect us too much..
It is probably a game that needs an early goal otherwise it may develop into a tight tactical battle with neither side wanting to over commit….1-0 to the Arsenal.
Wrong again Pricksy…there was no mystery to how we would setup with Tross replacing Marts, so the fact that the Lever boss declined to meet our personnel changes with changes of his own could hardly be defined as a schooling…much like our manager, you just love to dumb down shit…FU
A wouldn’t say we schooled Leverkusen.
We scored 2 very good goals but Leverkusen also had some very good chances. The idea that we blew them out of the water is daft.
Marc
“. The idea that we blew them out of the water is daft”
Daft? Are you sure ?
13 shots on target to their 2 shots on target tells the story.
To put it into context, Barcelona blew Newcastle out of the water 7-2 and they did this with 13 shots on target , the same as Arsenal whilst conceding 6 on target from Newcastle…
And yes Arteta schooled the Leverkusen manager who should be thankful his goalkeeper was in such remarkable form, whereas Newcastle had Aaron Ramsdale in goal ….say no more.
I forgot that Guehi is ineligible for the league cup final .
Chelsea would be better off playing without a keeper than this clown.
Carabao Cup Final post is live.