Running busy a bit, but it’s good to see Saturday night football back. We are playing Bournemouth today in about 15min.
There are some changes to the lineup. Ben White is back in the defense alongside Calagiori, Gabriel and Saliba as Timber isn’t fully fit to make it. Merino starts in the midfield with Thomas Partey and Rice. Odegaard is still out. It’s a strange front 3 – Martinelli makes way for Trossard which kind of makes sense but Sterling starting at the right is a concern for me. Saka is injured, I understand but we have seen Martinelli playing well in that position. Even Trossard can do that job. Unless it’s a precaution to keep Marti safe from the injury he picked up on the international break, it’s a poor decision in my opinion.
Every week is an important one if you are fighting for the title. Liverpool has made it even more difficult this season, sitting at the top with 18 points, ahead of City and Arsenal in equal game. We can’t afford to slip here. It’s a must win game, just like the next 30 ones.
Bournemouth has been a kinder opponent for us, since their return in the top flight we have won all 4 games against them with an aggregate of 13-2, scoring 3+ goals in each of those encounters. They haven’t been able to grab a win against the top half of teams in their last 10 games and we should make sure to keep it that way.
An away game is always difficult in Premier League. However, with our defence and form, and with Bournemouth not doing any great any time, we should be comfortably winning this.
A 3-0 for me, Havertz scoring 2 and Trossard with his signature mask celebration. Short one today, hope you and your family is well. Take care and see you in 15 min.
Cheers!
Match is on
Hey Hoopah what do you think? Nothing to get excited about yet?
without Ode, Saka and Marts, we don’t seem to have anyone to either anchor our attack or play the ball through
I would have benched Partey, deployed Rice in the deepest lying position and played Ethan in the midfield
Tony
The match so far is making me sleepy . Every movement is do pointless
No wonder MA wants Vlahovic, as I think he’s trying to turn us into Juve North
Merino is struggling and it’s not even 30 minutes into the game..
I hate Sterling, I don’t why but I do.
Howard webb messaging VAR to give it a red.. bloody hell.
Here you go.. fuck this shit.
High lines are always risky and Saliba missed a skip. We didn’t need to defend that high against B’mouth.
3 games out now.
Wasn’t the Bournemouth player offside?
Arteta can’t go ultra defensive not getting 3 points today will be a poor result and we’ll be without Saliba against Liverpool next week.
Had guessed that red .
you can’t complain about that call, as even Saliba knew he was a lucky boy to only get a yellow at first blush…the only thing I wonder is if the player in question was in an offside position
Marc
I think he ran from his box but certainly will re-check that..
Next game is Liverpool, without Saliba, it would be a hell lot of a task.
TRVL
I thought he was offside but they haven’t shown a decent reply – I suppose we can at least appeal the red is he was offside but how the fuck is VAR not getting that right in that case?
Shelly RB and White rcb
Ambarish
Liverpool will see that as a huge bonus.
Skelly
Marc—I can’t believe no one in the commentators box even brought up that point…this could have massive implications both this week and next
we don’t really have the bench tonight to properly handle this situation
Raya doing what he does best.. being legendary..
I have this feeling it will turn out to be an offside one and Twitter in couple of hours will have proofs of that..
For fuck sake – you go down to 10 men away at City and you defend for you life.
You go down to 10 men against Bournemouth and you not only find a way to win but you don’t try and play an hour with 10 men behind the ball.
The best would be to switch to a 4-2-3, take out Merino and let Rice + Partey handle the defensive work.
Don’t touch the front 3 ffs..
TRVL
If the player was off we’ll appeal and should get the red rescinded – its the one benefit of a straight red against a second yellow.
Raya shouldn’t have fumbled the ball but did well to recover.
Raya saving one again.. damn.. this is making me bloody nervous.
Looks like an offside – https://x.com/SkySportsPL/status/1847686537393168446?t=4BATKxuCA1J_U62NPxYmdw&s=19
Can’t keep my eyes open. The monsoon drive wiped me out. I’ll pick up the 2nd half in the morning.
We should still take all 3 points but we will exhaust ourselves in doing so in a week we needed to be at our best
Sky have just shown a replay – you can’t see the near side of the pitch so I don’t know where White was but the Bournemouth player was offside from the players you could see.
Oh and no one on the commentary is picking it up.
It’ll be interesting to see what’s said at half time.
Big Stan and his Bond villian son are going to be pissed as this is the nationally televised match in the States
Seeing Ambarish’s post – that’s offside.
How the fuck are VAR not getting that right?
Marc
They just discussed it in the break, and saying it’s a clear offside.. no one thought of raising it as a offside. What kind of pundits do we have.. they had better standards than VAR atleast.
*clear RED not offside. Sorry about that.
OK – the ruling is that the player wasn’t offside because it was a back pass by Trossard.
Very poor play by Tross.
Oh.. that makes sense then.. it’s all on Trossard then, unless he wins us this one and the next one..
Ambarish
I thought the pass had taken a deflection didn’t realise how bad it was.
Marc—at least that makes more sense…my bad
We can’t look to try and just hold out – we tried that against Brighton and conceded doing it, we tried it against City and conceded.
Take off Merino (no reflection on him), drop Havertz into midfield and get Martinelli up front with some pace. It’ll give us an outlet and give them something to think about.
TRVL
We all got that one wrong but I think it was for understandable reasons.