haahaaaahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaa!
I mean, come on.
£15m a year.
Pure winner.
Elite.
Squad BUILT for him.
Premier League looking good.
He’s taking Spurs back to the top.
HE WILL NOT LOOK DOWN THE TABLE.
hahahahahhaahah!
2-0 up after the home leg because Jose managed to switch the tie so Arsenal would have to play Spurs after an away leg in Europe. Cruuuuuuising 0-0 on 60 minutes. Then bang. Next thing you know, Mislav Oršić turns it on. 2 goals. Extra time. One more goal. BOOOOOOOOOM
Spurs drop out of the Europa League as Dinamo Zagreb drop a win for the ages.
Hahhahahahahahhaaaaaaaaa!
That loss was for all the melts that maintained Jose Mourinho was an elite hire.
That loss was for all those who did a little wet patch when Spurs were top of the league.
Never, ever forget… Jose is a busted flush.
He’s not coaching a sustainable model of football. He has one trick, if it doesn’t work, he has nothing. They let Dinamo Zagreb have 21 shots at their goal. STAGGERING. A total battering. A beautiful one as well.
Anyway, Arsenal played, we were shite, but we did what we needed to do and made it through to the quarter finals.
But Spurs, come on, isn’t it funny? Poch takes them to the Champions League final, and Jose can’t get a turn out of them after 19 months. INJECT IT INTO MY VEINS.
Back to Arsenal.
The headline is we won. We learned some very important lessons about our midfield and defence. The team has a lot to learn from that game.
The biggest miss in midfield was control. Mo Elneny and Dani Ceballos aren’t going to give you what you need when it comes to control. When central midfield doesn’t work, the entire system fails. That said, we still went into half time giving them two attempts at goal.
The second half was really poor. The Greeks weren’t good, but we couldn’t click, we didn’t work hard enough, and there was a lack of concentration all over the park.
It was the sort of game that shows you why David Luiz needs to be moved on this summer. He was really poor. Switching off when it mattered, giving us a really low energy game. It’s part of who he is, not a good day for him. I also thought the difference between Hector and Cedric was clear… I didn’t trust the runs down the right would amount to much.
Auba had a really, really poor all game. I don’t say this lightly, but he was a disgrace. Was he hungover from being dropped? Was he angry at starting a Europa game? Whatever it was, it was bad. It looked like he was sulking. He fluffed some extremely good chances, his control was terrible, and he was half in it with his movement. Embarrassing stuff from him. I’m surprised he stayed on. Martinelli would have made us far more dangerous. Auba just didn’t fancy it and really, a man of his talents should be killing that game with chances like he had. Very, very sloppy… it was very immature from a man in his 30s.
Arteta had eventually seen enough. He subbed off Mo and Dani and brought on control in Partey and Odegaard. It made things instantly a lot better, but still, we were messy in possession. Thomas Partey was very iffy with some of his play and though he gave us comfort, it wasn’t exactly a reassuring performance.
Sure, we need to do better in the next round, but I’m not sure we’d have played like that if we’d needed to win. Something about the marching orders had the players thinking about Fortnite or whatver they do in the evenings. I’m not sure the squad is professional enough to take a 0-0 instruction set without fucking up. A bit like kids on non-uniform day, they just went straight to slacker mode.
Still, we had enough chances to do more damage than the score suggests. 12 shots, 5 on target… a few really big chances. ESR even popped up to tip a shot of their line. Very kind of him.
Overall, it was the worst performance of 2021 for me. I hope there are consequences for the weekend thinking. Gabriel M came on and offered us control and he created chances and noise that Auba wasn’t really doing. If we drop something like that against West Ham, make no mistake, they will smash us.
Still, we won. We did the bare minimum and limited a decent European side to 2 shots on target in a game they needed to come at us in.
The squad needs work this summer. The midfield is a couple of injuries away from absolute November form. That needs to be fixed. No new deals for players that needed to go last summer, no renewal of loans for players that haven’t found their footing in two seasons… Arteta needs to kick his addiction to players that have no future with us.
Anyway, enough analysis. Today, the floor is yours… let’s all laugh at Spurs ahahahhahahahaaahaha!
That was funny, I mean Spurs, really funny.
1st
Zagreb dumping Spurs was heavenly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NycPDm8gYq0&t=39s
1st?
Spuds!
Bale the game-changer!
Tr4phy
Late….
Last night I watched Dinamo vs spuds with my dad, guess after 15+ years we watched a Dinamo match together, it’s a club I grew up watching since I learned to walk and I lived 100 yards from the stadium since I was born. Was pretty confident of our win vs Olympiakos so chose to watch this instead. You can imagine my happiness – sharing the win with my father, seeing that lot go out and watching maureen mope on the sidelines. Just a magical day in these crazy times. If you haven’t seen the goals or highlights, I highly… Read more »
Still can’t get over the fact that Spurs lost to a team whose gaffer is in the nick 🤣
Nice one, Domi! Jose is the gift that keeps giving!
The contrast to Auba last night and Vardy’s performance for Leicester at the weekend end was striking – one gives a damn and the other maybe not.
Auba sort of reminds me of when I used to play Sunday morning footie for fun in Bristol years ago, run around a bit, try a few tricks and then go for a Pint. The main difference is that I did not drive home in a gold plated Ferrari !
The best was Kane missing that sitter at the end that would have sent them through🤣
Laughing hard at spurs
It is really scary how we still so easily manage to turn in tepid performances like last night.
I just hope Arteta and Edu can see what the issues really are and fix them this summer.
interesting that Bellerin was subbed off for Chambers, maybe Arteta has finally twigged how useless he is defensively.
The thing about Maureen is the fact he is so hard to like. If you’re a player playing for him, you know he’s going to throw you under the bus at any moment. He sucks the pleasure out of playing the game, the freedom to express – because he’s all about defence first and employing the dark arts. I can’t stand Dele Alli but he doesn’t play because he’s not a percentage player, he’s as likely to create a chance as he is to lose the ball with a misplaced attempt to create. That team does not enjoy playing the… Read more »
Gabriel has started 8 games since the Chelsea game.…no clean sheets…10 goals conceded.
Luiz
Played 14 …3 clean sherts …13 goals conceded
Mari
Played 7 games …3 clean sheets ..4 goals conceded
Holding
Played 11 …5 clean sheets …7 goals conceded
.Make of this what you want but I know who i prefer as my centre back partnership.
Foxy “The contrast to Auba last night and Vardy’s performance for Leicester at the weekend end was striking” When you look at players like Vardy, they bust a gut for the team. He chases hopeless balls and harries defenders, you never get a minutes rest. Compare that to Auba, at times he looks like he is just going through the motions. Yesterday, despite him not doing much, we still created chances for him, a couple of sitters that I would have finished and my best days are behind me. There is no doubt in my mind, we need to buy… Read more »
Pierre.
Holding would start for me, all day long.
Holding for me too
Spuds Hahahaha. Now to us. Our manager has no clue as to the picking of teams or the reading of players. What did anybody expect with that team last night. Subs was dropped because of time issues over the weekend. He was still late all night last night. He did what he did at the weekend and was still played last night. That’s terrible. Even worse he played with a strip. There was zero energy all over the pitch. He finally gives Martinelli ten minutes and showed more energy in that ten than Subs the whole game. To be a… Read more »
I genuinely can’t believe that Spurs got rid of Poch the year after he took them to the CL final and replaced him with Mourinho. I couldn’t believe the stupidity of it at the time and I can’t believe it now.
Mourinho reminds me of what used to be said about Balotelli: “Everyone cheers when you sign him. But everyone cheers much louder when you get rid of him” (or words to that effect!). Poch is class and I had genuine (admittedly-begrudged) admiration for Spurs under him. Delighted that that’s no longer the case lol
Back to Arteta bashing, didn’t take long !
Difference is, last night we didn’t need to put in a performance, just shut them out and conserve energy and legs and move to the next round.
Jeez !
AFC
” We are where we are in the league because of the chances he has missed and his performances pre-Christmas were abysmal ”
I disagree….no creativity = no goals..
I don’t think any striker on the world would have scored goals for the Arsenal team, pre chelsea game, due to our chronic lack of creativity.
I would hazard a guess that even this season , Aubameyang has a better goals per shot success ratio than kane..
Pierre
Pretty damning if you ask me. What the hell was Arteta thinking? The pairing clearly worked so well it practically eradicated Leno’s mistakes. He’s been back to his usual flappy, indecisive self since holding and Mari were dropped.
Maybe he’s trialling something for next season
Maybe he’s using Luiz’ native tongue to help bed Gabriel in to the team
Odd
Arsnil I have plenty of criticism for Arteta over the season but gotta say I don’t agree with you on this. We were 3-1 up from the away leg and have a very busy schedule to play. I think the team he put was fair enough and should’ve performed a lot better than they did. Auba (I assume that’s who you mean by Subs??) was terrible but he was right to be played. Arteta made the right decision to drop him against Spurs but that was his punishment, you don’t keep on punishing him now (unless there is further reason… Read more »
Watching the game last night , i was amazed at how many times in the first 10 minutes we misplaced simple passes in the final 3rd from very good positions …very frustrating. Olympiakos were there for the taking but the number of wrong decisions and sloppy passes from the likes of Pepe, Ceballos , Xhaka and Aubameyang took me back to the Emery days and Arteta pre chelsea . The game could have been put to bed early on, we didn’t improve until Odegaard came on and i thought he looked head and shoulders above the rest last night, though… Read more »
I think Pedro meant to single out Ceballos instead he wrote David Luiz.
Spuds are good laugh at but let’s not 😂 😂😂 too hard 5hat we forget that we lost to Olympiakos at home again.
We couldn’t even rally to score after they lost one man to a red card.
We have to do better if we are to win this competition.
I really don’t think we should be looking to buy Ceballos. He has his good moments but he’s been far too sloppy far too often. Not just the obvious defensive errors which have cost us, but even his forward play has been really off; simple passes not finding their man, gifting away possession. I see him as a similar sort of player to Guendouzi and think Guen is prob just as good at this moment in time. Which isn’t to say that I want to keep Guendouzi, but think it would be stupid to buy in another player who is… Read more »
Pierre I agree with you about our lack of creativity pre-Christmas but you cannot absolve Aubamayang from blame. He was in the team and has a responsibility to create with movement. Creativity doesn’t just come from creative players per se, you need good movement ahead of you and between the lines. Aubamayang wasn’t doing that, he was pretty static. We saw the same from him last night, his movement was poor, it looked to me like he was going through the motions. I have been a massive Aubamayang fan but this season he has not performed and there have also… Read more »
DM
+1
Big no to Ceballos. Even for 10M I wouldn’t buy him. Would rather play and develop Azeez/Cirjan at CM.
Not too bothered by the result last night, we went through that is all that matters. We had to rotate players with West Ham on the horizon and the same players that didn’t perform pre-Christmas were poor again, as a collective and individually. (Interesting how much better we were with the ball when Odegaard came onto the pitch, he is a top player). Aubamayang must also take some blame, either of his relatively simple chances would have finished the tie. Never easy when you don’t know whether to twist or stick but ultimately we had no injuries and should be… Read more »
I agree poor performance but job done. The auba issue is problematic because as I’ve said before if he isnt banging in goals he offers very little.
I dpnt think we need to buy another striker we just replace him with Martinelli. I would rather spend the money on a top notch midfielder and a right back.
With such a busy schedule I just don’t get why Arteta did not rest a clearly tired Luiz and Gabriel and give Holding and Mari much needed game time. They have after all proved to be a good pairing. Does he intend to play Luiz and Gabriel again on Sunday?
Defenders tend to get much less tired than any other outfield players, it’s not like they are running up and down the flanks all game, those that have to participate in a high press or cover a lot of ground during matches are the one’s we need to protect along with those who need to produce bursts of speed regularly.
😂😂😂
still soaking it up.
That clip from Merse…
Priceless.
Take a bow sir. You did the Arsenal proud.
I get it now. The moaners love to moan, the wailers love to wail. No matter what.
Last night we reached the quarter finals of the Europa. The chance to win a major trophy, a way of getting into next season’s CL. A cause for celebration? Not for the nitpickers.
I hope to see Chelsea gets PSG and later Arsenal gets Villareal
Manchester City vs Borussia Dortmund
Let’s not ignore that we created a number of great chances. The story of the game would be very different if we’d put those away. Chances and goals define games.
Porto vs Chelsea
Bayern vs PSG
Real vs Pools
Chelsea has the best draw
Soft draws for the English clubs.
Expect Man City and Chelsea to progress without much fuss.
Real Madrid are a tricky proposition for Pool but a far more winnable tie than Bayern or PSG.
Bayern vs MC if they win.
Pools vs Chelsea if they win.
I am picking Chelsea to advance to the final against either MC or Bayern
Disappointed that we lost of course but Tottenham losing AND failing to progress in the same competition makes up for it. Very surprised that Ceballos didn’t step it up last night. With Odegaard making his mark, you would have thought he would have been motivated by the internal competition to get himself noticed too… although one could argue if we were being kind to Cebellos that he wasn’t paying in his strongest position… as a no. 10. I would have preferred to see the no. 10 position filled by ESR and Cebellos play further back, perhaps as Partey’s stand in…… Read more »
Chelsea has had a bit of luck there.
As soon as I saw Arteta’s team sheet for yesterday’s game I could envisage the type of performance that we would have to endure. Almost a complete lack of creativity in Midfield would I presumed result in watching the ball played slowly and predictably from side to side and more backwards than positively forwards.Bellerin has illustrated on numerous occasions, this Season,that he has no ability to link play with Pepe.This was just the type of game (with little to supposedly play for) when Luiz most often suffers with “brain freeze” ( and so it proved).If anyone needed a rest it… Read more »
Tuchel will be sporting a semi looking at that draw.
Porto in the QF, avoiding 3 of the best teams left in Bayern, PSG and City in the SF.
Lampard’s probably alone in a dark room right now.
Klopp will be happy too.
Draw literally couldn’t have gone better for them other than swapping Dortmund out for Real.
Real missing about half of their squad with injury.
Really surprised Arteta did not sub a clearly tired Tierney and protect him from injury rather than sub Bellerin – that’s why we question his in match judgement
Foxy
I fully agree. Tierney looked spent last game.
Bayern vs city
Madrid vs chelsea
City vs madrid
City
Because it’s due and thats how football works
Of the remaining teams in the Europa Cup competition, Ajax looks good. Their passing game is beautiful to watch.
This is Manchester City’s best chance ever of winning the Champions League. The Spanish teams are miles away from what they once were, when Barca and Real were in their pomp. That Barca team with Xhavi, Iniesta, Messi etc was something.
Good draw for Chelsea and man city – what odds now on 3 English teams in the CL semis?
Really tough draw for Man City. Don’t expect them to make the final
tough potential semi for City though – some cracking games ahead
Madrid will batter Liverpool..who said they have half the team out? Casemiro was suspended not injured. Only Hazard and Carvjal are out
I just hope Arteta and the entire coaching crew understand that Mari and Holding is the best our of CB pairing.
Arteta doesn’t do subs well. City’s weird squad rotation must have messed with his head.
I also really don’t believe in using Foden as a barometer – he’s just one player.
Clichy better gives us good luck!!!!
Dream10
Man City have essentially got the league sewn up, like Bayern, so that helps them manage the CL games. I really can’t see them not winning the CL this season. Bayern will be a tough game but I can’t see them not going through with the players they have.
Tuchel’s Chelsea has to be taken seriously after that job they did on Atletico
They even got the kinder draw today.
Fucking mancs the jammy cunts
Granada vs Manure
Fuck Granda vs United
Jammy cu*ts
Slavia praha it is
Arsenal vs Slavia Prague
Arsenal vs Slavia Prague
Decent draw for us.
Not bad for us
Ajax vs Roma
I think we’ll get Roma.
You can well imagine the stark realization for Daniel Levy waking up this morning only now now firmly realize that he has so totally screwed up the Sp*rs and can’t afford to sack yet another manager.
How Jose Mourinho is still employed today is beyond imagination. I cannot recall a more toxic manager since, well, Mourinho was at United. Admittedly, watching Sp*rs implode like this is so heartbreakingly beautiful.
GNK Zagreb vs Villareal
Shit. Spoke too soon.
Thank fuckk..utd vs roma/ajax
Leno: “ ‘In the dressing room it was quiet because everybody knows that it was not a good performance from us. We cannot change it any more, but the positive thing is that it was a warning.’”
Let’s not get too heady
We’ve reached the semis and finals of this competition before. Winning it is all that will count.
We have to cut out that the type of yesterday’s performance to stand a chance.
Olympiakos shocked us last season….but that wasn’t enough to get us fired.
Hope Arteta sorts it out quickly.
Manure vs Ajax
Perfect!!!!!!
No Man U in semis.
A great draw for us.
We will have home advabtage in second leg if we go through to semis
We can get Villareal in the Semi. Ha! Ha!
decent
Perfect draw for us…no excuses now
Possibly Emery in semis, could be a laugh!
We can get Villareal in the Semi. Ha! Ha!
Same as 2006!
I expect a United vs Arsenal final
Won’t get a better chance than that !
Amazing draw for us. Could only have been better if we got Zagreb and walloped them.
“I expect a United vs Arsenal final”
Same… 🤢
Is it a coincidence that they kept United and Arsenal apart?
And that the semi finals are lined up to be quite tasty?
Go straight to final
Do not pass go
Do not collect £200
Just hope someone knocks out Utd – I hate European matches between English teams anyway plus we always lose them.
Slavia QF; either Gudibini (The Le Grove derby) or Zagreb (show up Spuds) in SF; United in final.
The stage is set.
So we get the racist Slavia Prague . I saw how they wound up Kamara yesterday. I hope Pepe keeps his cool while playing them