FINAL DAY

by .

Well, well, well my dears.

The season draws to a close and the major battle is who finishes 5th or 6th (a distant chance at 4th). My money would be on United. They have an easier game, they don’t have a European final to play, our manager has a history of fielding weak players when he has the vivid taste of Europa in his mouth.

At this point, who really cares?

The objective of the season was Champions League football, so there’s no way Emery is going to do anything damaging in this game for the sake of a few million in prize money.

What I’d like to see is some of the kids given a game. I’d have hoped the manager was going field a few more younger players this season. The age-old banter years conundrum of ‘should I blood a player that’s maybe not ready, or an experienced player that’s shite.’ Today, it’s clear, give the kids a go.

Emery is being clear that his selection is about fitness and preparedness after landing at 6am after the Valencia game… WHICH, my brother, dad, brother in law and his dad went to… and were furious I didn’t mention (photo from brother, who is a DJ if you like trance). Anyway, back to Emery.

“Tomorrow we are going to prepare for Sunday’s match but I am going to decide with the players who are hungry and in good physical condition to play this match.”

The gameplan is simple.

“We are going to play with the idea of imposing our gameplan, our capacity and our team against them. We know it’s going to be a difficult match with long balls, second actions and set-pieces, so we need to defend well in these situations.”

Yep, we’re going to impose the game plan.

Key output of today is that we don’t pick up any injuries… then we can prepare with as much of our squad available as possible. Then it’s with the gods.

I’ll keep this post brief. If you want a great podcast to listen to, jump on the SECOND Arsenal Opinion of the week, this latest was done with guest star, Demian Arriaga. He grew up in Venezuela, so he has some great stories about how he got into Arsenal, and there’s a nice piece on the time he met Edu. He also played SNL last night, pretty epic.

Follow him @DemianArriaga

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Redtruth

The same British propaganda press warned fans not to travel to Russia and it turned out to be the safest ever World Cup.

loyika

Oh well…season done and dusted. Didn’t expect the lads to beat Burnley today so fair play to them and Auba. Now on to Baku and the ELC. Whatever the case, Unai’s honeymoon (if he ever had one) period is definately over. Next season will define how long he stays as Gaffer. He needs a reasonable TW and a good start to the league (no excuses on early fixtures or whatever) I hope he/we gets to win the Europa as it will probably enable him/us get extra funds to spend over the summer. We have to be proactive this TW and… Read more »

DivineSherlock

HighburyLegend , Graham62

Just said what I felt mate . Honestly , we have a Golden boot winner since Van Persie ! A European final to look forward to , A missed opportunity maybe looking at the points table but rather that than out of contention for top4 in fcuking March , players throwing the towel in March ! Some of the criticism is deserved but on here its OTT.

Un na naai

Rt

Yeah but France two years before wasn’t very safe was it? Saying that, France is the terror attack capital of Europe.

Marc

Un

Miki not being able to travel has nothing to do with the local crime rate – they had a Grand Prix there a few weeks ago – it’s to do with local regional conflicts.

Not exactly a good reason to hold a final there I will admit!

MidwestGun

I love blackjack too my friend
________
Yes…. unfortunately Blackjack doesn’t like me.. Although over the years I might have broken even.

As for stopping the rot .. I don’t think we can definitively say that until we see what happens this summer, If Mustafi is still here… then no.. Today’s goal was on him.. again. Stood flat footed and watched his man score. Couldn’t be bothered to move or jump.

MidwestGun

I feel good about beating the Evil Empire at Planet Baku… Especially with Auba and Lacazette in form. Long live the Rebellion!

Un na naai

The country itself has an official national ban on Armenians. The country itself has banned Russian Armenians too bringing tensions with Russia.
Yeah. What an awful place. 💩 hole

MidwestGun

My opinion or not on the politics.. It seems like a ridiculous place to hold a final. Kind of like Qatar and the World Cup… and if it smells funny given Fifa and Uefa’s track record you can be assured there was some sort of bribe money involved. Or foul play.

Un na naai

Marc

It’s for safety concerns
As inthe people who live there may attempt to attack Mkhitaryan and/or the squad or the hotel or god knows. Meaning the country houses enough unhinged violent people that it’s authorites aren’t sure they can police the situation without additional measures being out in place from external sources

Yeah. Safe as houses.

Same as World Cup in South Africa. It all went off without a too much issue but it was policed to the nines and you weren’t allowed to leave certain safe zones because we all know what South Africa is dont we.

Marc

Un

“Meaning the country houses enough unhinged violent people that it’s authorites aren’t sure they can police the situation”

Sounds like Liverpool!

Marko

Everywhere is a shit hole to you Don London Baku South Africa Paris. Your poor mother takes a squat down an alley and out pops you and it’s all downhill from there. Nowheres that clean or safe.

Un na naai

In all seriousness
No there are lots of places I’ve enjoyed and felt perfectly safe and comfortable.

But let’s be fair here Baku is not a city in which you want to be holding a European final. The Mkhitaryan situation alone is enough to deter any organization that wants to be taken seriously. The decision by UEFA is nothing short of a disgrace and is further compounded by the allocation of 6000 tickets per club citing poor infrastructure. If there’s insufficient infrastructure in place then why choose the fucking city in the first place?

Marc

Un

But it did come with a huge brown paper envelope stuffed with cash.

Marc

Pedro

Fucking hell mate have you just won a contract from Thomas Cook?

Marc

Pedro

And I’ve always taken the piss out of everyone I can.

Marc

Pedro

On a serious note give me some honest feedback on this. The company I left some months ago because a couple of new managers were shocking leading to the entire sales team leaving – so anyways the marketing team who amongst other things have handled a major rebranding to much applause recently won an industry award for best marketing etc get an email from the new MD – “don’t boast about being top of a shit pile”

Company shocked when head of marketing hands in notice!

Have you ever heard of such demotivating behaviour?

Samesong

Pedro

Do you work in Digital advertising?

Samesong

Pedro

Ok, So do I. (Tech)

Marc

Pedro

I couldn’t believe it when I heard it. So glad I’m out.

Redtruth

Give Guardiola his due, being backed by a billionaire is not easy.

Samesong

Good one Red.

Champagne Charlie

Yea maybe City will go for Emery after Pep, aim for that coveted Europa league title that eludes them

Redtruth

This league is a one horse race with one exception Liverpool who for one season were the reception to the rule.

Redtruth

This league is a one horse race with one exception Liverpool who for one season were the exception to the rule.

bennydevito

Evening Grovers,

All’s well that ends well. City saving the internet from insufferable scousers and Aubameyang sneaking up on the outside for a share of the golden boot, lovely stuff.

So when’s the EL final?

Redtruth

Aubameyang is a hit and miss striker who Arsenal cannot afford at this moment in time.

bennydevito

Tottenham’s last 4 season finishes: 3rd – 70pts 2nd – 86pts 3rd – 77pts 4th – 71pts So since finishing 2nd, Spurs have dropped a place each season with lesser points each season too. As trajectories go this could indicate that next season Spurs will finish 5th with less points than this season. Based on this, what confidence do the Spurs board and fans have in Pochettino taking them on an upwards upward trajectory in the Premier league, not the CL? Also regarding our future progression, Emery has stopped a rot of Arsenal dropping down the league from 5th to… Read more »

bennydevito

I know we’ve talked about Zaha for us but I just think Woy won’t let him go any lower than at least £60m, so what about Batshuayi?

He’s on loan from Chelsea yes? Could we get him off Chelsea for around £25m? He’s had a pretty good spell at Palace and is younger than Zaha, surely won’t want to go back to Chelsea after his last spell there and could be tempted with CL football if we get it?

bennydevito

New post, balls. Will post over on the new one.

Sid

Came across this beautiful nugget Klopp 1 season – 30 games – 40 conceded – 1.33 goals pm Emery 1st season -38 games – 52 conceded – 1.36 goals pm Point being, improvements can be made given time. Regardless of the unjustified uproar emery is going to be here for another season, and no one can really do anything about it. The whole emery back and forth here is getting tiresome. Next season emery has to get 80 points+ if he does that, he would have shown he can take the next step with the club, if not we find… Read more »

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