Ladies and Gentlemen, we took another trip around the Sun and celebrated like it’s the last one. But it’s not, and we have to get back to business in our personal, professional and football world. I will let you deal with the first two, but lets talk about football. We are playing Brentford today on their ground. It’s going to be a tough one because Brentford had a great home run in 2024, they are very well coached for set pieces and we have an injury to our best player.
It shouldn’t deter us though, we saw what happened with Chelsea after a great run and there’s a very good chance that Liverpool will have a bad phase sometime soon. We need to remain closer to them to take advantage of the situation and we need to win today for that.
Team news
Bukayo Saka is out injured for a long time. Sterling is suffering from a knee injury. Ben White and Tomiyasu have not recovered from their injuries as well. But there’s a surprize today in the lineup which we have been asking since long.
Here’s the line up to play –
Nwaneri starts at right wing. Timber and Calafiori are back in the defence so MLS has to sit this one out on bench. Declan Rice gets some rest for Merino with Thomas Partey anchoring that midfield, while Nwaneri and Martinelli starts on the wings and Jesus plays in the centre. There’s no Havertz today, not sure about the reason but I don’t have anything to complain.
We certainly are going to miss Bukayo but lets see what Ethan offers in his first ever Premier League start. I would have loved to see him play in midfield but if he benefits from Saka’s absence, he will have a big claim for that midfield position once starboy is back.
Right, I will keep it short today. Hope you had a blast and lets see out the first day of the year on the positive note with a massive WIN. Liverpool are not backing down and are probably in a place where they will go ahead and win this, but there’s always a chance and a win today will make sure we remain in the mix.
See you during the game.
Back to today’s game, what do we think?
As I said yesterday, I have no idea how to call the result.
I go for a goal scoring draw……
I was sitting at my screen and trying to decipher what language MA spoke other than Spanish and machine gun patter English?
At first, I thought he spoke that more unrelenting “Utter Bollocks” but felt on further reading and sound bites, that the more final but more incredulous “Complete Bollocks” was more appropriate.
As much as the latter fit’s MA’s narratives where MA tells anyone who will listen to his excuses of winning nothing, but saying his he’s achieved many new records in 5 years – omitting most were breaking negative records going back many decades.
I’ve finally come to the conclusion MA’s preferred language is:
I-have-no-idea-what-the-fcuk-I’m-doing, and where as such makes it up as he goes along……
To be fair to Mikel that’s a language few would understand and rates below Dysche & Pulis where even Moyes speaks more sense.
I’m guessing the obvious A+ demographics, and well bred & groomed Tim Lewes is not an aficionado of such languages, as I fail to see how Tim can make sense of anything that comes out of MA’s mouth or would be taken in by such ludicrous excuses.
If Josh is happy with MA’s non-sensical, football patois, then poor Tim will find it hard to dissuade TRVL’s bond villain that in football winning is everything and we keep losing from top position.
Thinking about it from a son & father who wanted a super league with no relegation, the emphasis from them to win is most likely below the bottom line requirements for the club to keep in the CL where the rookie will come good some time.
Yet here we are, Edu’s left and we have Wenger 2.0 in MA keeping KSE’s little UK business ticking over nicely having probably doubled in value.
I think we are where KSE wants to be, so they are happy with the financial status quo.
We may well have MA for at least another 3 years………
It does make me wonder if there’s actually any irons in the fire when the most talked about transfers involve an exceedingly messy and disinterested Rashford, a Barca defender, Ronald Araujo, who from a positional standpoint should be the least of our concerns, and some Norwegian kid, Sverre Nypan, who’s nowhere near ready for prime time…hardly inspiring stuff…it’s so quiet around here that no one’s even wasting their time making shit up…maybe that’s why MA was pleading with the fanbase to stick with him, as he knows there’s little to no chance that anyone of consequence is heading our way in this window…it’s another classic call to arms by our excuse-laden fuckwad
as for today’s affair, it’s difficult to imagine MA not starting whomever he considers to be his best 11, even with our Spurs derby in 3 days time…personally I would place considerably more emphasis on our mid-week fixture, but I get the feeling that MA’s desperate as fuck for some silverware and right now this is looking like the most plausible pathway…I can’t believe I’m saying this, as you know my feelings on the matter, but I hope he simply leans into his flavour of the year bully-ball tactics, as this United side has struggled when defending set pieces this season
as for our opponents, it’s incredibly difficult to predict what version of United we’ll face, but injuries or no injuries we should find a way to win this rather convincingly…problem is, I said likewise before the Newcastle match and we all know how that turned out…this could actually be an ugly affair as I’m not exactly sure where the goals will come from…we’re struggling in front of goal and many of their most likely goalscorers are either “suspended” or in the doghouse
I think Man U and Amorim will be up for this. They know that Arsenal is vulnerable as of now and they what to make a stmt. Amorim would want to make a statement and show that he has arrived. As regards to us and MA have we heard lately about his co called JDP or it’s all now muddies into a No money narrative. No idea who is in charge of our club and what’s going on. But club seems to have learnt headline management while a crisis brews underneath. May be iam overreacting and everything is probably according to a plan.
ManU are all over the place but they seem to be performing in bigger matches – beating City and getting a draw against Liverpool which they could have won late on.
If they’re up for it today they’ll give us problems purely because we’re struggling to score.
Are you going to the game, Marc?
Hi Tony,
Not today (I haven’t been for a couple of months) didn’t take up the option of the cup ticket – too bloody cold to watch Arteta fuck things up again.
Arteta taking a massive risk by dropping both Rice and Partey.
my feed has been delayed because the fucking Spurs couldn’t score a single goal against Tamworth until extra time…we had better beat their brains in on Wednesday after that showing
TRVL
Not missing much it’s a pretty even stale mate
Marc—what’s interesting to note is how unavailable Rice has been for us considering his history for never missing games at West Ham…maybe it has something to do with his shoehorning up top, much in the same vein as those who’ve likewise been deployed improperly and have become rather injury-prone
TRVL
You’ve also got to add in Arsenal play a lot more games than West Ham and Arteta’s lack of rotation – he plays players until they drop.
Tony—I figured as much, but I certainly didn’t crawl out of bed to watch 30+ minutes of a match that should have been done and dusted in normal time…of much bigger import is this Jesus injury, which appears to be quite serious…I didn’t even notice it at first as I was too busy watching Bruno throwing his cleats out of his pram…that ought to make our window far more interesting
Jesus being stretchered off looks ominous – could be knee or ankle ligaments.
Merino needs to liven up.
Marc—in Rice’s last season they won the Conference League and went further in the domestic Cup than us, so I’m not sure that applies here
that gerbil chasing the cracker in MA’s brain must be ready to fucking explode with no goals scored yet and a Jesus injury to boot
why would Ode ever be in charge of a set piece unless he was passing into the box…he can’t shoot on target from inside the box…now he looks to be injured too
Ode struggling and Jesus already off – ManU will get a decent chance at some point unless we really buck our ideas up we’re not going to score.
I know I tend to belabour the whole shoehorning point, but why would you not try to get the best out of players in their best position, after all that’s how they landed on your radar in the first place, than hope beyond hope that they come good in a secondary role
Oh dear poor defending high up
Havertzhino useless again
defensive error on Gabs part, albeit he was a bit unlucky, followed quickly by the kind of finish we could only dream of…no doubt more defensive recruits are in the offing from our fucktard manager…on a side note, just compare Havertz’s attempt from in front of goal to the one Bruno struck…what a donkey
ManU’s keeper is fucking useless if we could put him under pressure he’ll make more mistakes.
obviously we can still pull this one out, but maybe this is just a karmic bitch slap after MA’s latest plea to the fanbase, which is an all-too-familiar ploy on his part whenever he cocks things up
thankfully for us Dalot went postal when it wasn’t necessary whatsoever…baffling for them, potentially positive for us, as thy’re bang average with 11 men…as I’m writing this Gabs doesn’t something we’ve never seen before and with his foot no less
Gabs does something
based on the swashbuckling nature of some of the tackling, that might not be the last red card we see today
TRVL
You know the ref will even things up if we give him the chance.
Junior said that to me TRVL. Should get this one over the line now against 10men
if we had a bona fide Striker we would be up by 3 by now…maybe MA will play Gabs up top when he buys Araujo from Barca…I know that sounds crazy, but…