We’ve had two courses of vegan sausage rolls (Champions League), tonight, the meats are coming out.
The MIGHTY Rennes, a rack of well-seasoned BEEF ribs, take on the mighty Arsenal, an aggressively bloody slab of NEW YORK STRIP.
This is why people tune into football. So pull out a bottle of Tesco’s own brand ketchup, forget the cutlery, let’s wade into a messy evening of ELITE football.
The most important thing we need this evening:
A WIN.
Yeah, pretty straight-forward analysis today. Unai Emery needs to bring ultimate destruction to Rennes. He needs to put Ben Arfa back in his place. He needs to restore Arsenal pride after a very embarrassing away loss last week.
The French minnows won their match on Sunday. Great news for them, but the story there is they played 4 days out from an away game with us. No HUGE rest for them this time. No fresh legs. No time to plan. That’s advantage us.
The game is interesting because they are counter-attacking specialists. Arsenal has to go for 3 goals (come on, we’re not keeping a clean sheet). Absolutely possible.
It’s an international break after this. That means Emery can go wild and field anyone he deems fit to play. I’d imagine that he’ll go with something similar to the United game. All guns blazing. Play the role of the protagonists. Mix up our attacking combinations. Take advantage of having better players and two unreal finishers to finish them off early.
Should be exciting. Let’s hope we have a full house and an excited crowd. This is a big one.
Short post today. Just want to say, kudos to the comments yesterday. I pen a post about outrageous views polluting the internet and a slew of people attack Simeone as a bad tactician. You couldn’t make it up. Never change Le Grove, never change. x
We have to beat the strongest team with we want to win the trophy so I’m with Qna I rather face them now than later.
If we face Valencia we’ll be facing another Arsenal old boy in Gabriel and Mustafi will be going back to his old club. Perhaps we can invite Gabriel back and leave Mustafi there. 😂
*if we want
Napoli are nothing to be overly concerned about. Ancellotti sits there looking bored out of his brain half the time, I like our man to navigate past them.
I like this from BBC Live.
Ben Ashton: Banter having to make a 4,946-mile round trip to play a London derby in Asia on a Wednesday night when Arsenal play Chelsea in the Europa League Final.
What we need to do most is not concede a goal at home
I remember when we first signed Mustafi the usual folks were touting how good of a signing it was because he was a “World Cup Winner” .Simply being in the squad somehow qualified him as a good defender.
The guy is the at the center of almost every defensive breakdown we have.
Anyway ,when he was assisting and creating chances for fun , le grovellers never gave him an ounce of credit…The opposite in fact. ______________ Pierre- This is actually no true at all… Many on here defended Ozil on here including myself during the great Eriksen vs Ozil debates of past years.. Because at that time Ozil was producing and was the better player. But at some point you have to give up the ghost ,dude, on the basis of reality. He is a shell of his former self at RM and the German national team days. Your a bit like… Read more »
“So let’s blow them at the Emirates.”
I’m afraid I’m busy that day.
@TitsMcGee,
That would be the same that criticised Holding purchase and categorised him as a cheap useless lower league CB. And now are eulogising him.
The same that are demanding that we spend 40~50 millions on a proven player instead of trying to be smart and buy such player before it’s value reaches that amount. The same who will then send vitriol to him when that expensive purchase that they had never heard before does not turn out as good as they were hoping.
We know who you are referring to.
I don’t mind drawing Napoli… you have to play a good team at some point. And maybe it will keep the players focused.. Besides.. as some have said.. Not much fun in watching us play Bate and Rennes who prefer to try and beat us with antics rather then football over 2 legs.
Shoot we got Napoli
Mid west
“. For what we are paying ”
And this is the crux of the matter ” for what we are paying”
Supporters need to forget his wage packet and take him at face value ..if he is benefiting the team and we are winning more games with him in the side than without him then that’s all that matters.
As I said earlier , I think our manager is getting the balance right with Ozil unlike wenger who would play Ozil in games that he really gave us very little.
Pierre-
But you can’t forget the wage packet.. when it limits what we can do.. in the transfer market. If Ozil was on Iwobi wages… I would have a lot fewer issues with him no doubt. Unfortunately, there is a business element to building a good team unless you City or PSG or RM who can do whatever they want seemingly.
“As I said earlier , I think our manager is getting the balance right with Ozil unlike wenger who would play Ozil in games that he really gave us very little.”
Pierre has been stylishly praising Emery this last few days…
Is everything ok Pierre?
Pierre is just getting caught up in the euphoria of winning again,.. hahaha Just think where we could be at if Wenger and Gazidis had Fucked off 4 or 5 years ago..
Of the 4 CL match ups, I think only Manure has a chance to surprise Barc. They’ll have Herrera staying close to Messi. Barc will play their expansive football. Manure can play their strong defense and fast counter. If they get Lingard and Martial back, their counter will be very dangerous.
Though a great result last night , the football wasn’t that great was it . We had 2 decent spells in the game , the first 15/20 minutes and a 10/15 minute spell after the substitutions, the rest of the game was nothing to write home about. Though I do understand that qualifying is the most important thing , there was a distinct whiff of panic in our football for the majority of the game , we were giving the ball away with impunity , the period after half time before we scored our third was very poor . The… Read more »
Chelsea such jammy cunts getting Slavia.
Not overly bothered that we drew Napoli tbh, they’ve not been the same side this season as in previous years. Definitely beatable as long as we keep it relatively tight and bring an away goal or two back with us.
Can Jovic play against Benfica? He’s literally their star CF, could change the balance of the tie if he has to sit out as per the loan agreement.
Looks like Monchi is in talks with Sevilla.
Chance he might return there
Wenger Eagle
Don’t think he will. Big Davey Ospina won’t be playing against us.
CL draw not as tasty as I had hoped, fully expect all four of Man City, Liverpool, Barcelona and Juventus to progress to the SF barring a shock.
SF will be everything that I was looking forward to though if it pans out that way, Liverpool have plenty to hurt Barcelona with and Man City-Juventus would also be very close.
Could finally get that long-awaited Messi-Ronaldo CL Final too.
Dream
Cheers, yeah although I’m sure that Napoli can cater for that ha.
Eintracht will likely play Rebic off of Haller if that’s the case. Very good team that will cause anyone problems.
Midwest
Last season we reached the semi final in Europe and were unlucky to be eliminated plus we reached the final of the league cup so nothing has changed for me.
As yet , any improvement is marginal and our recent improvement is due to the manager bringing back players who he refused to play during our recent 7 defeats in 14 games .
Nothing has changed? Sure lol
So this season we’ve seen improvements from Bellerin, xhaka, iwobi, holding, kolasinac and arguably AMN at a bare minimum We have more than double figures more points than this time last year We have a more resilient attitude on the pitch and battle more We’ve seen a 12 odd game win streak we have a passable record against the top 6 in the league with some excellent wins mixed in We’ve become unpredictable tactically and harder to prepare for We’re still in the EL and we’ve recently become one of the more in form players in the league So for… Read more »
@ China LoL. Good post
” So for all our imperfections, anyone suggesting there isn’t much difference compared with last season is either in total denial or is just bitter that Mr vampire hasn’t done as badly as was predicted”
Like the way you finished it off. ☺️