I guess I should get a 2 min silence for leaving a nine to five job for Lloyds Banking Group and moving to a more challenging work which requires you to wake up early mornings and including weekends. At least, the money is good enough (sigh).
I have pledged to write at least 100 articles in 2nd year of londonisred.com and so far, I am falling short. At least it coincided with the international break and both football and I are back.
Things didn’t really go our way this weekend. Spu*s managed to win against Newcastle and climb over us in the table on goal differences. What does that mean for us? We have 2 games in hand and we simply can’t afford to lose any easy points. United drew against Leicester which basically made the Champions League spot a 2 legged race betweek north London rivals.
Irrespective of whatever the f*ck happens, north London is and will always be RED!
Crystal Palace v Arsenal – Two projects at WAR!
Patrick Vieira has been doing great at Crystal Palace playing some nice football and picking up points against tougher teams. This year, they have drawn at Brighton, beaten Wolves away, restricted City to a draw at home and beaten Everton by a 4 goal margin in FA cup. Though they are sitting at 12th position, going to Selhurst Park is not going to be easy for Mikel Arteta. We only managed to restrict them to a point at home last time we met in October, courtesy to a last minute goal from Lacazette. I would be very careful with Gallagher and Zaha.
However, I still expect and hope we win. We have lost just one of the last 16 away games against Crystal Palace in Premier League, lets keep it that way. We are on a good run and players look motivated. A team hoping to play in Champions League should be physically, mentally and tactically ready to win against a bottom half team irrespective of circumstances.
Onto the team news, both Ramsdale and Tomiyasu remain doubtful for the game but we have enough coverage in Leno and Cedric. In fact, Cedric has been good enough to not let us miss Tomi. Saka has returned to full training and all other players are in contention to start.
We will probably see the most likely playing XI with the exception of injured Tomi and Ramsdale. I’m still expecting to see Martinelli moved to CF someday but I guess it’s too late to try something new.
Congratulations PV4 for being inducted in the Premier League Hall of Fame. You are a legend, part of a once in a century INVINCIBLES and one of the motivation for a 10 year old in India to follow football and Arsenal.
Right, a short one today. Lets beat Palace 3-0, keep our goal difference better than Spu*s and make a rather dull Monday cheerful for us fans.
I should explain my antipathy. How Higgins is still allowed to play after being caught on camera discussing losing is of Trumpian corruption magnitude to me. And Robertson just gives me the heebeegeebees with that sulky, hang dog look of his and that new romantic barnet.
Well, that was an absolute shit show. PV4 is doing a solid job at Palace.
Jamie
Hiya mate. It was fucking excruciating last night wasn’t it? Worse than Everton. Just shows how close the club is to suffering setbacks. I’ve not heard the news about Partey’s injury but he’s been a key factor in allowing us to win while the team’s been putting in some ordinary performances. Good to know you’re still out there.
Hiya kp,
Yeah, I was expecting a tough match but I still thought we’d get a result. The injuries are as damaging (if not more so) to our season’s objectives than the dropped points.
Nuno (and Sambi) can be forgiven for being below-par; they simply haven’t been given enough minutes. Both KT and Partey are huge misses for the run-in.
This is what happens when you have a paper-thin squad. A win against Brighton or sadly top 4 is gone imo.