I’m finally done with the rituals that comes with having a kid in our culture. A month at my ancestral village, with AQI in double digits, fruits and veggies from the farm, empty roads and no honking, clear and visible night sky – things that are “normal” for them were something “awesome” for me. Made up my mind, 10 years and I will go back to where I was born.
But, before that, are we going to WIN? City are only 2 points behind us with 10 games to go. Last couple of months have looked familiar, we have seen it 3 times under Mikel and we dropped points to Wolves and Brentford. We did win NLD but hey, their ex-manager is calling them ‘spursy’ on podcasts these days and it’s hardly a contest in recent time.
Today’s a challenge. Anything but a win and City will be level on points. I don’t see us making it from there, Pep knows how to win things when it matters. And Chelsea are not going to make it easy for us. All we have to do is win our games, let them drop points before we do, and then we can think of winning the league this year.
Kai and Merino are out. Ben White is a doubt but hopefully we won’t miss him. I would personally go with the same playing XI we had against Tottenham. Calafiori in place of Hincapie can be OK, but lets not go back to Odegaard. Eze did well, and he needs couple of games in the #10 role to truely dominate games. He is our only players apart from Martinelli who got creativity outside of Mikel’s system and can do something on his own. The first goal against Spurs was a brilliant one and that short of ball wins you game.
Gyokeres has finally picked up. He scored 2 brilliant goals against Spurs and was moving better through out the game. Frankly I was disappointed so far with him, but he has got 10 games + CL + FA Cup + Carabao Cup games to prove me wrong.
Right, I will keep it short but I promise I will be more active. 3 very exciting months ahead for us, where we can win everything. Lets hope we do.
Trossard had a good run, passed the ball to Hincapie and there were only 2 players in box – Zubimendi and Rice.
What the actual fuck is wrong with Mikel fucking Arteta..
It was Eze and not Zubi but my point still stands.
And Havertz couldn’t score it…
Welbeck coming in… you know how it’s gonna end for us now?
I can’t believe Bambi didn’t come in much earlier in light of their scoring deficiencies…even he would have bungled in one of their handful of chances in the box
maybe that’s why Trossard hates playing on the right
not sure about those BHA subs…Hurzeler is no DeZerbi, regardless of how this one ends
City dropping points (as it stands) they really are a shadow of the team from a couple of seasons ago.
not sure just how much open space Havertz requires to score but it seems like it would have to be a ridiculous amount
If the matches end with the current scores I fully expect Pep to run the “we can’t win it now” line to put Arteta under even more pressure.
Marc—until Pep realizes that he’s going to have to win most nights by outscoring his opponents they will continue to struggle at times, as they’re a below average defensive side when they invite pressure
TRVL
Never thought I’d see a Pep team doing (or having to do) a Keagan.
We play that fucking badly AND gain 2 points on Man City. Madness.
Really bad night for the spuds as well.
somehow City didn’t score right before the final whistle…that one’s going to hurt…dream scenario for us
I hadn’t even looked at the bottom of the table results.
If Palace get a result tomorrow the Spud’s are in really serious shit.
if we can continue to win in such a pedestrian fashion maybe this is our year…bizarro world
Looks like the season is panning out how I predicted before our game with chelsea .
February 26, 2026, 9:20 am
“Before we play city at the Etihad we could be in a commanding position, some call this match the title decider , I don’t, the title could be decided in the next 4 games”
So , before we play city at the etihad we now have 2 home games against Everton and Bournemouth whilst City have 2 away games against West ham and Chelsea.
Another aspect in our favour is that city have 2 tough away games in the cups v real Madrid and Newcastle , whereas we have Mansfield and Leverkusen meaning lots of rotation.
If all goes to plan we could go into the match at the etihad as many as 9 points clear, possibly more.
Yes the football was rubbish today but it is all about getting the 3 points, I’d rather we play rubbish attacking wise and win than play free flowing football and lose.
You’d like to think that in the upcoming cup games we can relax and play some decent football, the Mansfield game is another opportunity to play the fringe players that have served us so well this season and maybe even the likes of madueke, jesus, havertz and possibly Dowman can push for a regular start especially as gyokeres is really not good enough as it looks like his performance v Tottenham was a false dawn, his last 2 games have been dreadful really.
The Brighton manager is an embarrassment with his time wasting comments, maybe he should look at the facts before shouting his mouth off , Arsenal are 3rd for the amount of time the ball is in play, Brighton are close to the bottom..
Arteta is the master of the press conference , he’s confident and smart as he can read the room to perfection when they fire questions at him, he is totally respectful to the opposition and managers and won’t get drawn in when the reporters are looking for a reaction to outside criticism..
As I said before the game yesterday, the outside noise will make the group stronger as a seige mentality has now set in.
The perfect scenario for Arsenal now would be for Arsenal to win the league with a few games to spare to allow us to focus on the cup comps as we go into May if we are still in them , the result at the etihad will determine whether that will happen, City don’t usually crumble , it is a possibility but doubtful.
City will need to pick themselves up after yesterday’s poor result and Newcastle and real Madrid away are hardly the perfect games to do that, Newcastle will be 100% up for it so don’t be surprised to see City knocked out this weekend.
The whining and a-whingeing coming out of Brighton’s no-mark manager and their shit fans makes them look like babies. A nothing club making up the numbers in the PL, without even a proper derby rival. I know Brighton is on the south coast but these cunts moan like fully fledged northerners. That’s not to excuse the shocking catennachio on display last night. Play with a fucking flourish Arteta and put cunts like Brighton out of sight by half time.
Ambarish
Turning my attention to the FIFTH thing Arsenal could win this year, ie spudelegation, how about setting up two temporary blogs to act in harmony with this one?
EastMidlandsIsRed where we can comment on Forest games and hope they win and…
EastLondonIsClaretAndBlue for Hammers fans.
C’mon Palace tonight (and just for tonight of course).