I will eat the humble pie after the match if I am wrong, but what in the real world is Mikel doing in team selection? We are playing Fulham away in 30min, team sheet is out and Thomas Partey starts at RB. Gabriel, White, Zinchenko and Calafiori are not even on bench due to injuries but you have Tierney and I am sure he can fill IN as a LB against the likes of Fulham. Thomas is having a great season but putting him at RB puts him at a risk and the midfield is brazen of his skills. Jorginho is filling up in the midfield. Playing Partey at RB also mean we are weaking our right side because Timber is now going to play at LB. I don’t understand this infatuation to have a midfield in defence, I’m sorry. If the idea is to play the game virtually with 3 defenders and allowing Partey to move into the midfield during the play, I don’t understand that as well. You are better off in a 3-4-3 set up if that’s the case.
Martinelli makes way for Leandro Trossard because of his poor form. The games are coming thick and fast and it shouldn’t be a problem, he will get minutes to compete and displace the Belgian. Mikel Merino sits on bench, Jorginho gets to start ahead of him. Gabriel Jesus can’t replace a non-performing Kai Havertz, which tells a lot about him.
We dropped 5 points against Fulham last season, and we certainly would be hoping to do better than that. Manchester City dropped points yesterday, and we could go 4 points ahead of them if we win. We have 3 ex-gooners playing for Fulham, ESR whom we wanted to succeed at Arsenal, Leno – who was also a fan favorite during his time at Arsenal and Alex Iwobi, who is in great form for Fulham this season.
Craven Cottage is a tough place to visit and Fulham is having a good season so far. I don’t see it as an easy game and the likes of Jorgi, Kiwior, Trossard and Havertz would have to show their importance today.
I am expecting a tough game, but hoping we would win 2-0 with Saka and our captain on the scoresheet. I will keep it short today, do let us know if you are happy with the team selection and if it could have been better.
See you in the comments section in 30 min.
I find it difficult to imagine us not getting all 3 points against Everton, regardless of who’s available for selection…that said, we’ve slipped on this particular banana peel in the past when the result mattered more and their squad was significantly weaker…I would suspect that Dyche will try to frustrate us by putting 10 men behind the ball from the off, then try to steal a point or 3 either on the counter or by winning what has been labeled as the Battle of the set-piece kings…as such this might be a difficult watch for large chunks
Everton has been a bit of a Jekyll & Hyde side recently…in their last 3 League fixtures they waxed the Wolves 4-0, got crushed against United, by the same scoreline, and held a typically higher scoring Brentford side to a 0-0 draw, so who the fuck knows what Everton will show up for this one…as long as we don’t play down to our competition, which has happened on several occasions this season, we should be able to duplicate the United skunking…that said, in order to achieve this ends we will need to create some grade A opportunities from open play against a side well-versed in the art of bus-sitting
personally I believe this matchup provides MA with the perfect opportunity to sit Rice deeper, as Partey will likely be shoehorned in at RB, and have both Ethan and Ode deployed as attacking midfielders…obviously I’m a glutton for punishment, as there’s no chance MA will bet on us to beat this clearly overmatched side with our most creative options…instead he’ll likely go full-blown blunt instrument and try to beat them at their own game, which could see us drop points again…here’s hoping that’s not the case and we instead smash these fucking minnows
TRVL- regarding your earlier post on Zinny, if it’s true it’s a sad state of affairs. I mean come on MA these are not kids they are adults and you cannot throw a fit at adults because they have an opinion. If MA wants zombies who follow him and don’t do something out of the line then he is in the wrong business. These are overpaid superstars playing a game which makes them well known faces around the world. So be better manage them as adults or otherwise soon he will lose them.
Regarding the team composition of you see the entire team Ma sets up only 2 of them to be the creative hub with some lee way that is Ode and Saka. He sets up others as disruptors of the opposition. Even Kai is appreciated for his work rate and dark arts. Merino is the same you don’t see him making a break the line pass or dribbling and driving through. MLS will soon be coached out of the same. So expecting him to play both Ode and Ethan as 8s is not going to happen. We have to get ourselves used to his turgid , constipated get to the final third and bring Jover to action kind of football for the rest of the season. Brace up folks.
A hectic weekend for me so only just got round to looking at the state of play as it were.
Agree with you both her MA and that we should have no problem grabbing 3 points as I don’t think Fulham will frustrate Pool as they did us. A stalemate points wise I see with us both getting wins. Ditto the Chavs with Brentford at home.
The Manchester derby should be a comedy of errors to watch.
See you at the game lads
Ambarish
I only use my mobile game day or outside the house, so no real problem but the text is still very big and unusable. Just letting you know old chap lol
Good to see Skelly start. Only a win will do…..
Good to see Timber in his rightful position and Gabs back fit…it will be interesting to see who plays in the more advanced role between Merino and Rice, especially with Partey not on the pitch
If only Ode was more clinical with his finishing…
So pedestrian from the back. We never change..
Fulham being one up against Pool works fort us.
decent enough start, unfortunately I might have to watch the rest of this one later, as I’ve got to deal with some family matters…for some reason the extreme overnight temps have somehow triggered an unusual response from my mother-in-law, who suffers from dementia…such an intriguing malady, with wild swings in every direction, so much so it oft-times feels like it’s all an act, which of course it’s not
Ode’s finishing needs some serious fixing, as you suggested earlier Tony…on a more positive note, I do think Rice has been better with his passing/crosses today
Sorry to hear that with your mum in law. Hope she settles can’t be easy dealing with that emotionally. The games is slow and ponderous with us doing nothing new.
We should be 3 up if Ode was on target.
As always this season we need to be doing better than just repeating our bring play. We need intensity and quicker ball from the back. Don’t rule Everton out from a smash & grab goal.
Only Saka is capable of doing something. But it appears Pickford is in his elements.
Arsenal is surpassing Everton in possession and every metric by far , but it is all barren still.
One thing I noticed is Everton is moving the ball accross very quickly. Maybe our juego is not appropriately positional ? They been doing it in 2-3 touches or so.
The giraffe brains are very far from his feet. Guess the reason Havertz fumbled trying to figure which of the chopsticks he should use.
We will rue the missed chance s , including from Odegard
thanks Tony…we given the facility a no medication without authorization order, but sometimes the weekend staff don’t follow that protocol, so I just spent the last 20 minutes ripping someone a new asshole…it does mean that we don’t have to go in for an hour or so now, which is hardly a saving grace
can someone tell me why Ode went off…I was just getting excited about the notion of Ethan and Ode being on at the same time…I must have missed something while I was on the phone
RVL
Me too was hoping that there would be a fleshed up midfield when Rice was started to move out first.
But it appears El B has a single template . So substitution has to be one to one. Of course, except for more energy rest proceeds as usual
Havertz is a nuisance out there far too often…how could it be better to have Havertz in the midfield with Ethan instead of Ode, especially if we’re hunting for goals…baffling subs…time now to win in spite of the manager again
TRVl – twos shall not play together doctrine of MA in relation with Ode and Ethan . Ethan come in Myles goes and Partey as RB.
Hoopah—so did Jorginho come in for Ode and then Ethan replaced Rice??
Other way TVRL- Jorge playing as holding central and Ethan in place of Ode. Both Kai and Jesus are playing assuming we are 442 now.
Madhu—I know where they’re playing from a positional standpoint, but I swear I saw Ethan come in for Rice and Jorginho was already on the pitch…like I said, I could be wrong as I was in quite an angered state at the time, so it might have been a 2 for 2 substitution and I simply missed the first part…Cheers
so it looks like we’re praying to the set piece gods as per usual
Partey tackle they won the ball fair and square. Is not a foul
TRVL it was a double sub I think. But for some reason MA will not play ode and Ethan together.
very common sensical take Hoopah, but you know what the overwhelming narrative will be if we cock this up
so let me get this straight, we move Timber to his much weaker side, to accomodate Partey, who could have come in instead of Jorginho, then we remove Rice, who was kicking the ball better than I’ve seen in ages, put Trossard out wide, which makes no sense, then bring in Jesus to accompany Havertz up top, even though Merino’s a far better header of the ball than the aforementioned two, then proceed to send in a shitload of crosses…what a shoehorning fucktard
Fulham is 2-2 against Liverpool. Still 7 minutes to go
Doesn’t look like I missed much today, except that we could have shorten the Liverpool lead by 2 points and we couldn’t.
Hoopah—meanwhile we can’t even score against Everton at our home park with 11 on the pitch…if MA can’t field an all out offensive side against the likes of those bus sitting fucks, he doesn’t have the balls to be a top flight manager…of course, some of us have known this for quite some time now
Ambarish 3 Arsenal rejects which Fulham took on are fighting it out for the Alma Mater . Liverpool drew too
ESR needs counselling. Still suffering from abuse by El B. Remember how he used to shoot with so much panache. Has to exorcise the demons. Leno has improved under Marcus Silva