GAMES IN HAND…

by .

Manchester United dropped 2 points on a rainy night up at Burnley.

No one really wants to make Top 4 their own this season.

It is up for grabs if we can go to Wolves and not let the usual post-long-break-nonsense happen to us.

We’re in that shitty zone where every game in hand feels like a bit of hope.

Points on the table is always the ideal

We don’t have that ideal.

… but games in hand is always a little better than flunking opportunities.

The prize is there for Arsenal if we want to take it.

If we can do some damage over our next batch of games, then it basically becomes Spurs and Arsenal leading the pack for the top 4. It would also put us in the mixer for 3rd.

Spurs next 3 games are Southampton tomorrow, Wolves on Sunday, and Manchester City away the following weekend.

I’d take a draw at Wolves on Thursday, but if we can squeeze a win and start the ball rolling for a run, we could be level points with Spurs by next weekend.

Again, a lot of ifs, a lot of hope, probably a lot of pent-up heartache to deal with next week… but we’re in the business of dreaming baby, so let’s dream.

The Arsenal web team dropped a bit of a faux pas on the shopping trolley button on the e-comm website. I’m down for elite-level banter at any time, but I do think this sort of gag lacks a little bit of class. It feels like the Roma Twitter feed. The sort of tweenage meme comedy every club seems to be doing at the moment.

I appreciate the jokes, but I think we’re better than this.

Kurt Zouma kicking a cat? Disgraceful. Honestly, I don’t think non-Brits understand quite how insane the country feels about its pets. 15% of people love their animals MORE than their partner. I expect that number would be higher if people were honest. But… he starts for West Ham. I mean, I’m not surprised, David Moyes isn’t going to risk top 4 for beautiful cat… but it’s interesting how much damage that move to start him seems to have done.

Don’t keep animals if you hate them. It’s very simple.

But in the grand scheme of things, it’s actually quite light compared to the grimness elsewhere. Mason Greenwood has been charged with rape and threatening to kill. Raith Rovers tried to sign a 32-year-old convicted rapist, but don’t worry, it was ‘footballing reasons.’ Then you have Marc Overmars losing his job for sending something inappropriate to work colleagues.

Only in football could drop kicking and slapping a cat seem like the least worst incident of the week.

It’s all very sad.

Ok, tapping out.


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Graham62

B63, Nigel, englandsbest etc

Don’t you find it slightly concerning that we have no discernible style of play.

By the way, I like White, Tomiyasu, Ramsdale, Odegaard and Partey.

I don’t have a problem with any of them.

Graham62

Of course I am “totally clueless” and “out of touch with the modern game”..

Tom

”When he has rid the club of the last remnants of Wenger & Emery buys and replaced them or kept the only ones suitable, then and only then will it be HIS team in it’s entirety. That’s when he should be judged and rightly so.” Sorry, but that’s fucking insane! He just extended Xhaka to 2024. Is Xhaka the last remnant who needs to be replaced but kept only for lack of better options? Or is he the suitable one? Name one club that gave their manager enough money and time to replace every single player from previous regime and… Read more »

Graham62

I love my club and I love football but when I have the joy of walking to watch my home town team playing football and paying just £12 in the process and then visibly seeing them do things that are superior to Arsenal, I have to question.

Please don’t disrespect me by saying it’s “ Pub team football”.

Graham62

Anyone who knows anything about the game knows that our style of play is often questionable.
Why is that I wonder?

Bergkamp63

Tom,

Fucking insane you say ? We extended his contract because we (A) didn’t have the money for a. Better replacement and (B) to ensure he has two years left on his contract this summer when we are looking to offload him, that way he has some resolve value.

englandsbest

The Bard

For me, stating the obvious is NOT interesting. So I won’t bother to list the many factors that make a ‘best deal’ for a player. Instead I’ll let you figure them out yourself. Start by imagining yourself as, let’s say, Bukayo Saka. Ask yourself would I, a Londoner, fancy Liverpool, miss my team-mates, dread Klopp. long for my family, identify with an aging team., feel ungrateful….you get the drift.

Bob N16

Go Graham!

Graham62

Do you have an opinion Bob?

What do you think about our ID?

englandsbest

Graham62

You pressed the right button. Speed. Or lack of it. If the team play at the tempo Arteta is striving for, it will be like clockwork. There are moments when they hit the pace – and it’s magical.

But like anything that’s great, it takes time to create.

Patience, pal, patience

Emiratesstroller

Herbs Army Liverpool have won two major trophies in the last 7 years since Klopp joined the club. Those were Champions League in 2018-19 and EPL in 2019-2020. They have won until now no domestic cup competitions since Klopp arrived at club. Their previous League Title was 1989-90. So they have won the Title only once in the last 31 years. I acknowledged that Liverpool are currently a better team than us but that does not mean that will be the case in 2 years time when Klopp’s contract expires. The hard facts are that Man United, Man City, Chelsea… Read more »

Bob N16

Graham, You complain about the use of the word ‘process’ yet you are happy enough to use the expression ‘ID’. We too often lack fluidity in our attacking play. If Partey gets to have a decent CM partner I’m hoping that we’ll have a greater ability to move between the lines. Saka and ESR need to be encouraged to interact more. With those two combining and Odegaard searching for the ‘assist’ pass we hopefully have enough chances but are we going to be clinical enough when shooting? Football is about passing and moving when you’ve got the ball and denying… Read more »

The Bard

Englandsbest do you seriously expect me to believe that if City offer Saka £200000 a week he’s going to turn it down because he misses his family and mates and it’s wet in Manchester ?

Batistuta

Yes let’s replace every single player with new ones for the manager and then we’ll see be able to judge Jim properly. Imagine if clubs did that for every new manager, pretty sure Watford will be non-existent by now

Bob N16

Batí, who have we got rid of that you think was worth keeping?

Graham62

Anyway, let’s see how things pan out tomorrow against Wolves.

Tee

“Arteta said that he is the solution. You can’t help to think that an experienced coach would have multiple solutions. Auba is a proven striker. Since he is not suitable for plan A, then study how he became a golden boot winner and develop a plan B.”

How many times did he win these golden shoe? It’s not has if he was consistent in winning it.

Isn’t it a worthlessness effort developing a plan b for a has-been top striker on a massive wage when there are younger players who can and are doing better than him?

Batistuta

Bob

I’d have kept AMN but my point in regard to that conversation is the fact that there’s a feeling we’d need the manager to have a squad of 20 of his own signed players before any concrete metric is used to judge him

OCGooner

B63 is right, counting the players that are still out on loan. I actually counted 15. Most on loan are never actually coming back and we haven’t missed them but they’re still on the books. Contract rundowns on a few. And we don’t actually need to replace all of them, our squad was bloated for years.
Leno
Cedric
Elneny
Xhaka
Lacazette-not signing
Pepe
Nketiah-not signing
Runarrson-loan
Bellerin-loan
Mari-loan
Mavropanos-loan to perm (should have kept him)
Torreira-loan
Maitland Niles-loan (should have kept him)
Guendouzi-loan to perm
Nelson-loan

Tell me which of those you would keep, besides the ones I indicated.

Bob N16

Bati, I agree with you that managers can start to be judged within a couple of months of arriving, which means they have to get a tune out of players they’ve inherited.

That said, our first 11 just needs a top quality, all round CF and one other top CM. When that happens in this summer’s TW, coupled with a few decent squad members for cover then Arteta will have nowhere to hide if we don’t keep close to City, Liverpool and Chelsea’s coat tails.

OCGooner

We don’t need to wait to judge Arteta until all those are gone. He has to get results with what he’s got. Europe minimum this year, Top 4 next. He has enough squad to get 6th this year. Then with proper recruitment in the summer (CF, Box to Box MF, Backup RB top priorities), Top 4 minimum next year.

Batistuta

Bob Agree with you on positions needed to fill but they also needed to be filled last summer and we spent 150 million and barely if even added any goals to a squad off the back of our worst goalscoring season, I’d still maintain we maybe didn’t need to spend 50 million on another defender when we had 2 young players off the back of successful loan spells. Anyway thats in the past now, hopefully look like you said next season they do actually fix the problem positions cuz seems have just about checked out for this season and except… Read more »

The Bard

Englandsbest do you seriously expect me to believe that if City offer Saka £200000 a week he’s going to turn it down because he misses his family and mates ?

Bob N16

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