136 Comments

Martinelli having a good game.

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Havertz ain't having dat...

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Umm Nigel guess who’s starting at left back ?

It ain’t Kiwior .//

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People saying we aren't at our attacking best haven't considered that we probably had one of the hardest starts to the season of any team. We are doing well considering the circumstances with injuries and the level of opposition we have had every week. Only Wolves were the midtable team we have faced so far.

If we get a draw today, we set ourselves up for a good season coming out of our hardest run in unscathed with players returning after that. If we get to January and we aren't back to playing sensational football, I will be concerned.

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Our schedule hasn't been very forgiving. We are doing ok results wise so far

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Nigel Tufnel

12 hrs ago

“Tom doubts I have a friend who is a Crystal Palace ultra. Not really important either way. But I know he likes to stalk and study every comment I post.“

Yes, study, of course.

Imagine bragging Bowen (the Hammers top performer three seasons running) to Arsenal as an outside of the box innovative thinking when Pedro and half a dozen others, myself included, have said in the past he’d be perfect in Arteta’s system, except they’d never sell him for less than north of £70m.

Anyone else Nigel?

How about Pool’s Diaz, I’m sure no ones mentioned him before.

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He lives in your head. Rent free, yes?

(Try starting a rooftop garden, perhaps?)

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He lives in his mom’s basement rent free.

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So just to be clear we only have odegaard missing from the standard 11 Arteta likes. Every other player is available asides maybe Zinchenko and is debatable he starts away to city.

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'So just to be clear...'

Listen closely, per 'This Shitweasal's Manifesto'...

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I had it in mind that Dekkers was also suspended for this game for some reason.

I still think that their woukd be nothing wrong with getting a draw today.

But getting a win is not impossible either. I really want to see Sterling play today. I know it won't happen and that Jesus will be selected and played up top, but it is a sub I would be happy to see happen in the 2nd half. A front 3 of Martinelli, Sterling and Saka could be interesting as they could definitely stretch out Cheaty's defence.

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Would a MF like this be robust enough vs City?

Rice. Havertz

Jorginho

Timber. CBx2 White

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Rice is suspended for this game.

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He served his suspension against the spuds.

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Ok my apologies. Yes it was a one match suspension. For some reason I was thinking that he was also suspended for this game.

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Straight red is two matches,two yellows is a one match ban.

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Might as well drive the coach that takes our players to Etihad and park it in the 18 yard box!

I'd be ecstatic to seeing us draw (or win😅) today however dirtiy and ugly. ... we owe City and it's about time

Watched a CL match analysis (espn?) and a pundit ex player reckoned the like of Odegarrd , Saka and Martinelli are not ruthless and until they do wouldn't win us trophies etc.

Ummm... well, i recall people/pundits talking about Saka not going down after bumped by a Brighton defender when he tried to score the rebound from Havertz's 1v1... at least he'd have put da ref (&Var) to work.... Thoughts?

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I wouldn't listen to anyone criticizing Saka (B).

- Performed in a bad team (dragging us to results when were finishing 8th two seasons in a row) and won Arsenal POTS 2020 / 2021.

- Come back from adversity (missing Pens in the Euro finals) and won PFA Young Player of the Season 2022 / 23.

- Always available (230 appearances for Arsenal) and delivers consistently (74 G/A in his last 3 seasons).

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This narrative that Arsenal are poorly funded poverty club compared to City is laughable. Arteta has spent close to £650m+ (not including wages) since being appointed. Declan Rice is the British transfer record, and we've spent £200m on fullbacks in 3 years (Calafiori, Timber, Zinchencko, Tomiyasu, White).

The fact is we are in 4 competitions and this manager has to win a trophy this season or it's an abject failure. Please do not suggest he's not been backed to the hilt. We have the data!

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Oh. Fuck. Right. Off.

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Ballpark 100m could be considered write-offs as he (&Edu) learned to pick talent... we have done better last few TWs incl January. Hopefully hit rate would get better, though that will likely come from buying experiences vs 20yo punts.

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'Abject failure' - nonsense!

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Like I said earlier, It will be difficult to get a win tomorrow and it should be. At no point do we expect to go to City and play them off the ball park. No team can do that, ever. For that reason, a draw would suffice but we have to play.

Fine margins, cancellation football where we come out as equals or tactical monsters is good. Backs to the wall defense with the opponents peppering our goal post with shots even if we end up not losing cos of GK heroics is unacceptable

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'Unacceptable' - what a load of entitled nonsense. A back to the walls draw will be unhesitatingly acceptable!

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It's acceptable to have different standards Bob.

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I completely accept you have a different view and I'm sure you'd accept it's reasonable for me to pick you up on it!

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Of course. You already did and didn't get a retributal

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I just read Pedro's article, I am glad to learn, that he is as positive as I am about our chance to win the league, not in the future but at the end of current season. What a time to be a Gunner, if it did not materialize, as our delusion led as to a false Ecstasy, Now Today is a real ecstasy and no one can take that away from me !!

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Tom doubts I have a friend who is a Crystal Palace ultra. Not really important either way. But I know he likes to stalk and study every comment I post.

Must've been sad for a couple weeks recently.

I doubt Tom has any friends, and i also believe that he follows basketball more than football.

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Rodri makes fun of our mentality last season. We should be angry and going for a win and send a message to City by winning there. But here we are feeling like victims and cowards. City can be beaten, City should be beaten, City must be beaten by Us on Sunday.

Imagine what that result does on our form and next matches. This defeatist mentality is just annoying.

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Let's at least aim to be first to the 50/50 balls and take it from there.... that's hunger ,spirits as much as physical conditions

not yet seeing the crispness from 2H of last season

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What you are doing now is trivialising the prospect of Man City so if they beat us, you can do victory laps and slap the table about what it means to be elite, and if we win, you can say 'I was right, this is standard, no one should be excited'

You are the most defeatist person on here, we see you.

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No Pedro this is you afraid to set ambitions. We saw how you wanted Wenger and Emery to win everything even though they had a worse squad than Arteta yet Arteta gets excuses for 5 years.

When Arsenal looses I hurt, I am pissed. So you are the one afraid of this club actually winning. So you can come to say " a loss to city at this stage doesn't mean much "

Many pundits and ex players have said it. You have to beat your biggest competitors in their place to send a message. Why would you prefer to be timid than be bold.

The Arsenal won the league at Old Trafford by beating United, Won league at Spurs, beat Liverpool at Anfield to win the league in 89. You make people think Arsenal has no history before Arteta or we are bottom half team. We have history, we are the Arsenal.

We are going to beat City at Home either we do it under Arteta or when he finally leaves this great club. It will come and we will become a club with pride. Imagine pre-2006 Arsenal afraid to go to any stadium to get a win. The standards under this manager. Jesus.

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'The standards'

There is not a serious person in world football that would question the standards at Arsenal.

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You seem to confuse a supporter's mentality with Arteta and the players' mentality.

If we win the league and we didn't beat City at their place, I won't give a flying fuck. People like myself are not defeatist or lacking in ambition if we feel like a point would be a top result today.

Our players will try and win the game but they are going to play to their current strengths which is their ability to keep things tight. Undoubtedly we are going to attempt a 'smash and grab' but that 's completely reasonable against a team who barely ever loses at home.

'When Arsenal looses I hurt, I am pissed' -

(to 'lose' a match; I have 'loose' fitting clothes)

All Arsenal supporters hate it when we lose. Some of us will try and get our head around a loss by putting it in a context and rationalising how it's not the end of the world. Fifth game of the season, third away games in six days, not playing anywhere near our best - we will be, at worst, 10pts after 5 games with a decent likelihood of winning our next three games following City which would mean 19 points after 8 games.

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Do you know Bob, that ‘loose’ is the common most mis spelled word in the English language?

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Their you have it! See what I did they're?

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Realistically this is just a tall order away at city. We're great, but it's a bad moment for us.

Merino was going to be a nailed on starter for tomorrow, exactly the kind of battle he was purchased for.....

and, we're trying to adjust to playing without the best chance creator in Europe.

Those stats that Rich posts about Ødegaard, taken out of almost any other team, would be crushing.

A draw would be a a great result under these conditions away.

Then we would only be behind the cheaters by the 2 points stolen by PGMOL (so far).

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Mystic

Really? Øde is equally as important as Rice is to our setup.

The fact that we don't have Rice and Øde is very problematic when we are up against a cheating, well drilled juggernaut that Cheaty are. It's very concerning.

The fact that we already knew that Rice was not available for 2 games and we let Øde go off play for a meaningless International game and get a far more serious injury than he initially had, is pure negligence.

As I mentioned above, this is a real test for Arteta tomorrow.

Getting a draw is what I am hoping for.

PGMOL have been paid off to give Pep his last hurrah before he leaves.

It's up to The Arsenal to foil that plan and show a team with no fucking history what a team with a history can do.

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Is Rice out tomorrow too?

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I get that you think Odegaard is important tomorrow. On paper, he is. He's our best attacking midfielder. But practically, he's not important. Hasn't been in this fixture ever. Not sure it was ever going to change tomorrow.

Reason? We wont have space to play, won't play on the front foot and most likely wouldn't make many chances, with or without Ode.

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Just out of curiosity, who does pgmol work for? Who paid them off? Were they paid directly or to their bosses? If the latter, who indicted City and is looking to throw the book at them that gives some fans great hope of a city relegation? These things are a bit murky for me...

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You must wonder why it is that they get such lenient refereeing sometimes. We seem to get yellow cards for a first time foul when they can get away with similar fouls (although to be fair, any team we play against all seem to get that treatment as well).

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Hahaha, I look forward to his answer

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I'm still waiting for that answer. Safe to say it ain't coming

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Because of nerves and the fear of a 1-4 loss against City, I'm more interested in watching the Milan derby tomorrow. Back in the days, it's been the match no one wanted to miss. Probably the most anticipated derby.

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You definitely would be the type of cunt that would cuntishly mention a backwards scoreline like this the day prior and in the horrible case it actually does happen you’d cunt your way back here and say “oh man that sucked, but I did call score didn’t I oh welp 🥴”

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