- We are going to Wembley in Carabao Cup
- Man City dropped points to one of the worst teams in Premier League i.e. Spurs
- Arteta has finally dropped Odegaard
These three things has certainly helped my mood after the un-imaginable loss to Manchester United at Home. We are back on track with 6 points lead to Pep, and are going to play Sunderland in few minutes.
Playing XI is out, and Odegaard is injured enough to not make it on the bench. I don’t care, frankly after his performance against United, or the lack of. Havertz replaces him in the midfield, Madueke is in place of injured Saka and Trossard starts ahead of Martinelli.
Gabriel Jesus leads the line.
Mikel gives you a hope. And then make sure you do not die of happiness. Nwaneri should have been replacing Odegaard but Mikel found a way to put Havertz in the team. I don’t mind Havertz, he is more attacking and has some goals in him compared to our captain and rarely loses a duel.
It’s very important to register a win today because if we do, we will have a chance to go 9 points ahead of the 2nd place. City is playing Liverpool tomorrow, and they will have some time at Anfield. It’s only 14 games left and things are getting serious elsewhere, a win today will move us closer to the title and hopefully Arne does us a favor later.
In the first leg, Sunderland did manage to hold us to a 2-2 draw, courtesy to a Brobbey goal in extra time. We can’t afford to be that lenient and drop any points. February and March has some easy games for us, and will probably define whether we go ahead and win the title.
Right, short one today, only about 5 minutes to go before the kick-off. See you during the game.
Make that 13 games to go
TRVL
“…you never like hearing the commentator say that the opposition are far more creative and adventurous, especially on your own pitch”
Vera will never learn , last week it was a case of using Google for information, and today it’s a commentator saying that Sunderland were ” far more creative and adventurous”, how he came to that conclusion god only knows ,
I suppose Vera would agree with Gary neville,s assumptoon on Tuesday night thar the chelsea manager produced a jose masterclass and we clung on for the win .
The fact that we had 19 shots today to sunderland’s 6, scored 3 goals and were a whisker away from another couple with superb long range efforts from Rice and Havertz should be enough to convince anyone with a football brain that we were the more creative and adventurous side.
Sunderland put up a good fight but ultimately were beaten by the better team with 3 well worked open play goals.
Arteta’s in game management was again spot on , he brought on martinelli and gyokeres and they finished the game off with Eze also coming on to glide effortlessly through the final 20 minutes being very secure on the ball as per usual.
Havertz and gyokeres linked up again for our 2nd goal , as I said previously there is a definite Radford/ Kennedy partnership forming there and just at the right time as it has given gyokeres an new lease of life playing with such an intelligent footballer as Havertz.
Wicksy
Talking about Arteta’s in game management? Don’t be a tit.
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/sunderland/marktwertanalyse/verein/289
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/arsenal/marktwertanalyse/verein/11
Our squad is worth almost a BILLION pounds more than theirs.
Its like comparing an F1 car to a supermarket trolly.
Pricksy, you never cease to amaze…just when I thought you couldn’t be more of a stunned cunt you let your thoughts be known and prove me wrong again…just stick to providing your typically banal analysis of the day’s events then scurry back into your hole you antiquated, know-nothing muppet fuck
Just re watched the highlights. For Gyok’s second goal right at the end, the defender tracking him makes a fucking terrible x-rated challenge a split second after he’s stuck it in. Properly reckless. Luckily, he got up unscathed but the defender shdve seen a red card.
Some may think the title is already done …..I don’t.
Of course if Liverpool drop points today that will be a nice bonus but our next 3 league games are all away …Brentford, Tottenham and Wolves, which on paper may look straightforward but the Brentford game especially has all the makings of a very tight affair, they had an excellent result and performance away to Newcastle yesterday so will be going into the game with confidence. As I mentioned after the United defeat we needed to get our defensive solidity back and that is exactly what has happened with 3 consecutive clean sheets.
Fortunately having such a deep squad that the manager trusts gives Arteta scope to rotate and so far his team selection and in game management can’t be faulted.
Vera had his usual terrible takes on Kai Havertz yesterday which again shows his lack of football knowledge, what we are seeing with Havertz is a player despite coming back from serious injury has hit the ground running with 4 goal involvements in 234 minutes of football and just as importantly has found the key to unlocking gyokeres goal scoring, and their partnership can only get better with time so let’s hope that Havertz remains injury free as we get closer to winning the league.
The spine of the side is so strong with gabriel/salliba, Zubimendi/Rice and Havertz/gyokeres giving us power, strength, Height , football intelligence, technical ability and a will to win that will be very difficult for our rivals to beat, momentum is the key and we have that at the moment and winning football matches is the best way to keep the momentum rolling.
Oh Vera, a first 60 mins of chappy takes then you finally shut up.
Zubi, Rice and Kai’s positioning mad no sense to you because you’re a football dullard whose tactical acumen goes no further than ‘put on big boy pants’ or ‘grow a pair’. Or complaints that players are ‘shoehorned’ because and understanding of strategy or tactics beyond the above is beyond you.
While it may pain you to watch an arsenal win, go rewatch the game away from your prism of ‘Havertz isn’t standing where I, tactical dimwit would expect him to’.
Have you literally never played football? Take a look at the midfield, their starting positions and positions in relation to each other and let Tets be your teacher.
Of course we were better than Sunderland, they might be up for a scrap but that carries little weight away from home where refs aren’t going to let passionate crowds influence them. I’d wager the Sunderland players could have had as much joy trying to play football as opposed to playing for cheap free kicks.
Of course with our net spend it’s no shock we were the better team but games aren’t won on net spend alone. In fact net spend wins no games,
Gyok and his scuffs are becoming things of beauty. I think the crowd have made peace with his limitations but games like this, v lower level oppo are tailor made for him and perhaps him charging into centre backs in Europe and getting goals off the proverbial ‘backside’ also has a place. More bull in a China shop than fox in the box but I wont mind if he scuffs another 7 or 8 between now and the end of the season. Along with the goals Havertz scores we’ll be set up well
Havertz has looked class since he returned. Sometimes as fans, we mentally boost absent players. I didn’t get the impression that was the case with Kai. There’s still a legacy of many not being quite convinced about him
He’s shown real quality and reminds us that he wasn’t bought to stand in one position or another, like many Arteta buys, his versatility and game intelligence are part of his value to the team. Sometimes, hear me out Vera, he’ll play furthest forward, sometimes deeper, sometimes central, sometimes a bit wider. Sometimes he’ll do all that in the same.game. Some fools, yes Vera, looking at you, find this difficult to understand and prefer the simplicity of the term ‘shoehorn’
Different games provide different problems, varying the set up provides the oppo with different problems. This isn’t genius level management.
Tldr: Sunderland have been a handful for many teams, including us, this season but mostly at home. At our place they barely posed a threat and gave the appearance of mostly playing for free kicks. Unsustainable by itself, especially against us.
Vera went quiet at 2-0. Art Fraud will bring his Tets Tourettes soon enough but a job well done today and superb game management all round. Not quite ‘ole’ territory but always a good sign when we’re at 65 or so and ‘We’re the North Bank…” starts flowing.
Don’t really care who wins today, either one losing will bring me joy.
Wicksy
I assume you meant if City drop points today? Liverpool are 17 points behind us.
Achoo—your Dunning-Kruger effect is showing again, you might want to up your dose…there’s not a single thing you could offer up, footballing-wise, that I didn’t already know by my 12th fucking birthday…get a grip you dimwitted fuck…word to the wise, you might want to keep gems like “net spend wins no games” to yourself lol
Thank you Slobbadobbaloolai.
Liverpool might have just given us the title – I can’t see even Arteta fucking up a 9 point lead at this point.
If you’d have said at the start of the season that City would struggle because Haaland would hit a serious run because he can’t score you’d have been sectioned.
That was some goal. Could have been a shite one but would have made me equally happy.
9 points lead now with 13 games to go.
Ambarish
Its not only the points gap its City’s form – assuming it ends like this its 4 draws, 1 win and 2 losses from their last 7 in the PL.
7 point from 21 is closer to relegation form that title winning, if they don’t sort it our they could see ManU finish above them. After the season ManU have had that’d be amazing.
And City equalise.
We’re going to see some 10 odd minutes of football.
And that’s reduced to 8 points now.
Massive pressure penalty.
The PL just got interesting.
On a side note it fucks me off that Haaland (yeah he’s an arsehole etc) will get booked for taking his shirt off. Players should be passionate about the game.
You can’t disallow the goal and not show the Liverpool player a red.
This is why people think ref’s are cunts.
In 15min, City are back in Premier League title race. Lol.
Still it’s upto us.