CALM YOURSELF!
That is the post.
Goodbye.
Just kidding, but not on the messaging.
Arsenal made 5 changes to their starting 11. The game turned on a fluke screamer. We lost on penalties.
I don’t want to hear that Arsenal bottled the game.
I don’t want to read people overanalyzing the loss.
I don’t want to hear it’s small club mentality to exit a trophy no one cares about.
If we’d won, my feelings on it would have been the same: Europa League is for clubs chasing Champions League spots… not titles.
Manchester City is in 2 cups and a title race. They have at least 6 midweek games over the next few weeks to our one.
Our one midweek game is against… Manchester City. By exiting Europa early, our Southampton game remains on the Friday night before City, giving us 3 days extra preparation. That is MASSIVE.
To make matters even more delicious, Sporting Lisbon drew Juventus in the next round – in the same bracket as United.
Juventus would have been a massive game. We’d have treated it like Champions League. It would have been emotionally significant. Then you’d get United, again, another emotionally draining game over two legs. Leg one would have been wedged between Newcastle away and Brighton at home. BIG PROBLEMS if that’s the case.
If we’d stayed in Europa, there was a much higher chance of collapsing in the league.
We’ve exited it, there’s no chance we don’t make Champions League.
All you lose out on is an away day in Romania and some good feelings you’ll forget very soon.
The priority is the Premier League.
Do NOT underestimate how powerful getting a week to prepare for games will be for Arteta.
Do NOT underestimate how the chances of injury are greatly reduced because we’re not caught in fixture congestion.
Do not think for one minute that all those City games won’t mean dropped points in the league.
This is advantage Arsenal.
The biggest cup final of the next three months is Sunday. City don’t play because they’re up against Burnley. So that gives us the chance to go 8 points clear in the Premier League over the international break. That’ll be huge.
We know City will have to prioritize at some point. If the league looks lost, they’ll go all in on Champions League.
Think about this: City could barely scrape a win against a shocking Palace side. They needed a soft penalty to get them through.
What did they do against Leipzig a few days later? Smashed them to pieces.
City did the inverse of Arsenal. They performed for Champions League / we showed up for the league.
I’m telling you… the only thing that matters to Pep is Champions League.
So let’s see what happens against a leaderless Crystal Palace this weekend.
Ok, that’s me done, check out the podcast below.
You guys got the essays out today. I would like to see Rich do a guest post. Obviously put that monstrous art up of Partey and his for and against arguments on Partey. Sniveling 🤬😂😂😂
Pedro make it happen.
China I think we are getting one of them regardless. Either Rice or Caicedo will be coming in my opinion. We literally haven’t got any weak positions to improve besides that midfield area. With the return of CL football, I wouldn’t rule out getting both. Our attack has Jesus, Eddie, Balogun, Martinelli, Trossard, Odegaard, Viera, ESR, Saka and possibly a new deal for Riess. That is 10 players for 4 positions. So I don’t expect a new face to come in this summer. We could do with one star quality but I think we will give these players another go… Read more »
Rich
You’re just t]driving the same goddam circular conversations another this notion of selling Partey
You’ve stated it eloquently
The message is passed, when do we move on from this.
At some point you need to realize that you’re preaching to a choir of the unconverted
“His arguments are always well thought out.”
Its good that you have the capacity of judging quality of content of other folks’ comments. Maybe start doing that on your own comments?
Arsenal having the best season in 20 years, so close to winning the title.
Thomas Partey one of our more influential players responsible for above.
Understand the context. Read the room. Consider the timing. Surely you have read the majority feedback on your daily ‘Sell Partey’ essays?
Lets face it- If a certain Tom had made the above comments, you’d go in two footed.
Dissenter
I wasn’t addressing you…. I was addressing another poster, who’d addressed me.
If you don’t like my posts…. Then just skip them.
I would love to see man utd fail to make CL- fact id rather have spuds in the cl v utd
Next league game utd plays newcastle at trafford…
If newcastle wins they leapfrog utd w superior goal difference. If that happens i expect a small run of losing- hopefully utd will be in 5th place in 2-3 weeks
Would it be awesome to have a squad full of players with Xhaka’s fitness record? Sure. But lets not discount the fact that luck is also a factor with injuries.
Personally I’ll be praying to all the footballing Gods that none of our players get injured for the last part of the season. The time to evaluate is after the season ends.
It is interesting that Palace fired Vieira while I’ve been reading West Ham would have fired Moyes but they don’t think there is an obvious coach available to bring in. Owners of bottom eight teams have to decide if they want to try and get away from pack or just hope for best at end of season. I think Vieira had palace at about their level but owners must be panicking if they decided to fire him when there is no manager readily available to take over.
Habesha I agree there’s a high probability of one of them (or an alternative), we’re definitely going in for that position ion the summer. but I’ll eat my hat if we buy two is all. not in the same window and at the kinds of prices expected. since we all agree (apart from Rich) that partey’s not getting sold this summer, it would mean rocking into next season with 3 elite DMs with a transfer value of around 250m competing for one spot. it’s impossible unless you’re chelsea – and this approach has done nothing good for them since they… Read more »
jwl
But Roy Hodgson for goodness sake.
What image does that portray?
No disrespect intended.
jwl I read palace want hodgson back. dunno if it’s true but was mentioned on skysports I think
I haven’t seen that, they really want hodgson? I think that’s crazy, why fire paddy when team in twelfth to just bring back roy, palace owners are panicked and not thinking clearly than.
Yo have to wonder why a 75 year old Woy Hodgson would even be interested in coming back from retirement
Honestly I hope the chasing pack over take Palace and send them down to the championship.
I understand the sacking of Vieira, but how do you fire Vieira without having someone tangible, ready to go.
Ticketmaster being forced to apologize for price gauging and non-sensically high booking fees for a cure concert. About fucking time When I was in England last month I wanted to get tickets to see arsenal at home (think it was vs everton or brentford) and the cheapest tickets were marked as maybe 120. I thought it was a joke but I haven’t been to a game in so very long and decided fuck it is pay. After clicking on the pay button it took me to the REAL cost page where it had booking fees and other associated shit and… Read more »
Reading latest team snippets seems Gabriel, Zinchenko and Trossard are fine for tomorrow. Saliba to be checked in the morning…….just a hunch with the two week break coming up if he feels ok I think he will start. CP Hodgson if it happens I guess it will be a role until the summer only? I know the guy lives for football but at 75 and with the pressure bigger than ever in football if I were a part of his family I would really be telling him don’t take the job. Stay up great, but in for a highly stressful… Read more »
Richarlison off after 2 mins with an injury looking upset
Isn’t he still on 0 goals this season??? If this injury keeps him out for a couple of league games he will be getting dangerously near to the end of the season on a big fat zero 🥴
Martinelli wasn’t invited to the Brazilian squad
I just hope that there’s no late call up to replace Richarlison who just walked off injured in the 3rd minute of the Southampton vs spurs game .
Wtf is walcotts haircut HAH
Shaved up really high but a little flap on top with a tiny tail coming off
It’s… interesting… I’ll give him that. A couple of goals for him today against the spuds would be lovely
James Ward Prowse a decent midfielder. In case we need a back-up, he can be good option to replace Elneny and Lokonga.
Premier league clubs wage bill:
Chelsea (£212,090,000)
Manchester United (£211,875,000)
Manchester City (£182,640,000)
Liverpool (£158,788,000)
Tottenham Hotspur (£110,438,000)
Arsenal (£97,878,000)
Aston Villa (£89,880,000)
Everton (£80,707,000)
West Ham United (£80,060,000
Newcastle United (£76,220,600)
Leicester City (£73,190,000)
Crystal Palace (£67,624,000)
Nottingham Forest (£67,460,000)
Fulham (£56,668,000)
Wolverhampton Wanderers (£52,702,000)
Southampton (£51,496,000)
Leeds United (£48,100,000)
TR7
Especially if and when So’ton get relegated, ward-prowse will be available at a great price
China
I think those that wants both Rice and Caicedo imagines one of them (likely Caicedo) in the left CM role.
Would prefer someone a bit more technical and attacking in that role myself but I see the point.
A Mac Allister or Szoboszlai type player to match Ode on the right would be nice.
We’ll see what happems in the summer. The squad is nearly complete so we can go for 2 higher priced player now instead of stretching our budget on 4-5 players like we had to before.
The scrap down the bottom is brilliant this season….. Think I had Forest, Bournemouth, Southampton at the start of the season, and West Ham top half…..
But West Ham + Leicester’s positions now looking precarious. Any of 3/9 clubs could realistically get dragged down quite easily.
Yea, I agree that one of Leicester and West ham will be going down
This is the most competitive reaction scrap ever.
No team is out yet and at least 9 teams are involved
The clubs have been more proactive than usual, in firing managers, all except Leicester and West ham
Arsenal has done amazingly well this season compared to its wage bill. ETH can suck it
*This is the most competitive relegation scrap ever.*
That wage bill makes no sense and will make even less sense when all the new contracts and CL premiums are factored in
Dissenter
It’s all a giant bubble
Supposedly Gabri Veiga may be keen on Arsenal. I’d be very happy if he came in with Fresneda and one other, Rice or Caceido. If Rice came in I’d see his leadership value as well as an ability to play box-to-box and DM as strong attractions.
If we were to go down the non PL player incoming, I’d want them to come in at start of pre season to get some acclimatisation in. I guess that’s one of the key considerations, PL ready but more expensive.
Bournemouth are using that narrow loss to Arsenal as the catalyst for their season.
Good for them.
Just reading guardian live football blog and I saw this. Id forgotten about chuba, doing well for himself finally, might be prem player next season.
“A 24th goal for the season for Akpom gives Boro the lead. The Boro forward’s hot form infront of goal could well fire Michael Carrick’s side into the reckoning for the automatic promotion spots …”
FL That’s exactly what I was thinking with Rice + Caicedo. Rice is nowhere near as aesthetically pleasing to watch or as silky as Partey…. But he’s a really good front footed midfielder who has the capacity to defend high up the pitch, and keep us on the front foot. Caicedo is a really clever player, who has the type of versatility that Arteta covets, in that he can seamlessly play as a No6 or No8 As long as the safety net of a lucrative contract doesn’t put him to sleep…. He should have a really good career ahead of… Read more »
Whoever manages Leeds…. They’re a mental team.
Pure value for the neutral… For their own supporters, supporting them should come with a health warning
China
If we get both Caicedo and Rice, they won’t be competing for the same spot. One will compete with Partey and the other with Xhaka. Both are capable of playing a CM role.
Saints equalise!
Lol Spurs. They just can’t seem to win two games in a row.
Mental that Palace are in 12th with 27 points and bottom side Southampton are on 23 points. Literally 9 teams are still in danger of relegation.
Habesha
There’s also a crush around the European places
From 10th place Villa to Spurs, the European places are still within reach
Just goes to show why there aren’t any guaranteed three points for us … or City
Every game is indeed a final
Spurs are hilarious!! Bob – I didn’t realise Veiga is interested. He certainly looks a real prospect with a massively high ceiling. Finding it difficult to fully get behind it when Jude, SMS and Macallister are on the table, but then I do think he has a much higher ceiling than Alexis, but may take a year to bed in. Decisions, decisions! If Nwaneri was staying I might be inclined to lean towards SMS to give him a pathway. If he pisses off to Chavs, I have to bow to Edteta’s superior talent ID as I’m just not qualified to… Read more »