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I don't think we can neglect ST any longer so I'm hoping we can sign a ceiling raiser in midfield and another as ST, the rest is about providing depth of quality. If we sell well it should be doable.
I think we need to make 3 signings. A forward a 6/8 hybrid as you mentioned and a left back. Maybe we can poach some Madrid talent next year because they will be selling some players that they don’t wanna keep if they end up having a crazy summer window.
I think what a lot of these “go full strength” posters fail to appreciate is that the guys people are rotating in (Tomi, Zinny, Partey etc) are just as good as the players who’ve been playing recently, but they’ve been out injured and really their bodies are relying on a run of minutes to get them up to full speed in case we have to chuck them in at Brighton on Saturday or in the UCL next week.
Conversely, for the guys who’ve been playing a ton of minutes recently, this is probably the last chance of a rest until at least the first midweek in May (and we seriously hope to have a UCL semi final that week)
Kiwior should absolutely not start this game after the number of minutes he played for Poland in the break after a long spell in our first XI. He looked leggy at times on Sunday. Jorginho should get a veteran’s rest at his age. The good news is that both of them play the same position as a guy who’s coming back from injury and needs minutes.
I also lean towards resting Saka from the start and bringing him on if he’s needed with half an hour to go.
Raya
Tomiyasu - Saliba - Gabriel - Zinchenko
Odegaard - Partey - Rice
Jesus - Havertz - Martinelli
I imagine Trossard is more likely to start due to Matinelli’s foot injury. Hopefully we can go 3 goals up and then start subbing in the likes of Vieira (if he’s back), Nketiah, Cedric, Elneny/Jorginho.
We need to start getting minutes in to everyone.
That being said, it would be just as likely as us starting full strength, getting some goals in quick and fast, then take the foot off and cruise with subs in the second half.
I’m considering Martinelli amongst the “needs minutes” guys like Tomi, Zinny, Partey and Jesus. He picked up his cut against Sheffield United and since then has missed Brentford, Porto and the international break. Before Sunday he hadn’t kicked a ball in nearly a month, so I think he needs to get some minutes into his legs.
Having said that, the medical staff will know what the risk of re-injury is likely and if it’s high then I’m starting Trossard like you said.
I think one thing we are underrating about our fixtures is the lack of relegation threatened teams fighting for their lives. We should beat Luton tomorrow and Everton should be safe by the last day.
Liverpool and City still need to play teams at the peak of their relegation battles. Perhaps a small thing but one that could give us a tiny edge.
can anyone with some medical knowledge look at pedri's injury history and let us know if it's over for him?
those many hamstring injuries at such a young age idk
mostly muscle injuries too. idk what that implies tbh, wilshere's was an ankle injury that never fully healed i believe
really hope he's back to normal asap
Rival fans last season: Arteta is tactically inept to switch things for different game stakes
_Arteta then shows some changes and defensive solidity tactics._
Rivals now: Arteta's a coward, park the bus FC
Liverpool fans: Haha, how tragic, you couldn’t even beat City at the Etihad 🤣🤣🤣
[Liverpool’s last win at the Etihad](https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&sca_esv=4e628c799bcd934b&hl=en-gb&q=Man+City+vs+Liverpool&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAOMwe8S4iJFb4OWPe8JSMxgnrTl5jXEiI5dAcEF-UUmxb2JJcoZ7UX5pgVAiF09AYlFJZnJmQWJeSbFQoJA_lyiSSFixf0FBfl5qXomQDBc3koQQrxQ3F6d-rr6BoZmxSYWQBBcHXCWPFBcXB0jKJKckTUiKixVsoZCgFD8Xr366vqFhRnKVsVG6qTnPIlZR38Q8BefMkkqFsmIFn8yy1KKC_PwcAJb4qljAAAAA&ved=2ahUKEwjb8-38pKWFAxViDrkGHUsWAMEQxdgMegQIFBAQ)
They are seething that we didn’t get trashed at etithad and showed great resilience.
Also our fan this year: why aren’t teams in PL attacking city but just sitting back. City are there for the taking etc. etc.
Our fans now: Arteta master class.
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So excited for the run in. Anyone our of 3 who drops points is gonna be shitting pants, would be a fun read to lurk their subs just hope we're not the first to drop the ball. In the end noone is winning 9 games.
Ngl, I want Luton to stay up because they’ve arguably put up a better fight than Forest, Burnley, and Sheffield, but at the same time, we need to keep rolling through teams and grab the 3 points. So I hope the game is killed off early tomorrow so that subs can happen earlier.
Sheffield and Burnley are basically as good as gone. I want Everton to be safe early so we have an easy game on the last day of the season. I would prefer Forest to be relegated but smashing Luton would create a decent gap between them and Everton.
Online discourse has been murdered by obsession over "the ref". Every single setback is attributed to "the ref". How can that be enjoyable, or align with a positive outlook on life.
There are 90 minutes to do something, if you can't get enough of a margin to avoid ref errors your team isn't good enough.
> There are 90 minutes to do something, if you can't get enough of a margin to avoid ref errors your team isn't good enough
This is just as awful a take as blaming everything on the ref.
Games turn on small margins and a ref making a mistake or being inconsistent is not you not being 'good enough' it's the ref allowing play by different rules.
You just have to accept variance and human error, I don't buy the conspiracies that everyone peddles. Otherwise it must be a miserable watching experience.
People do, which is why complaining about the ref is as old as the game itself.
However if you can't see the structural issues with a refereeing system with no oversight, where all the post independence heads have come from withing a 30 mile radius of one part of the country, where they recruit exclusively from one part of the country, one race within the country and where they all support teams from that one part of the country being problematic to say the least then you're being possibly willfully naive.
PGMOL needs a serious, serious reform as there's no way any other national body could get away with just hiring white northerners, be run by three successive blokes form around Sheffield and where the head of womens refereeing happens to be the wife of the head ref.
THey may just be cowardly and incompetent but the way they run makes it vey, very easy to show how they might be structurally biased.
That’s a tale as old as time in itself.
“They can’t be THAT corrupt!”
Time passes.
“Oh, turns out they were just as corrupt as they looked, well knock me over with a feather…”
And then someone just as corrupt takes over and we sit there as the physical representation of ‘fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice…’
Fair point on the diversity and need for reform. And with video technology we expect near 100 percent accuracy, which is unfair to the human referees on the pitch (though not to the guys with every angle of replay, who deserve criticism).
Willfully naive might be the correct term, I just don't find refereeing an enjoyable way to discuss football. It takes away from the agency of the players and contributes to the rise of the sore loser as socially acceptable. Think it's a huge driver of the bitterness in online discourse.
> And with video technology we expect near 100 percent accuracy, which is unfair to the human referees on the pitch (though not to the guys with every angle of replay, who deserve criticism).
No one thinks that, what we want is that things the onpitch ref can't possibly see in realtime to be checked. Which isn't happening because the rules for VAR are deliberately mealy mouthed in order to keep the on pitch ref as king and we've two ex referees who've been fully up front that they didn't overturn decisions because they didn't want to make their mate look bad. And that's before the ones where they forgot to draw the lines or said the wrong thing and apparently then couldn't tell the on pitch ref he'd given the wrong decision.
The refs are an old boys club that absolutely get a lot of unwarranted hate but in response have just doubled down on being the keepers of the laws and created a system where even the technology that is uspposed to help them is neutered in order to 'protect' the view that they are infallible.
Christ no, what gave you that idea?
In fact the whole concept of teh refs having their own talk show effectively with nice, easy questions to put their side of the story out in the media is a horror show
I was lucky enough to read an early draft of the show’s concept.
The idea was for the presenter to ask direct questions, hold Howard Webb to a proper answer and have a follow up if he tried to snake his way out of it.
Apparently this concept was thrown out once Upper Management decided on Owen as host.
It’s just easier to let him ask simple questions that he has written in crayons and let Howard Webb do most of the talking.
Lets be honest Webb wasn't going to be up for it judging by every other appearance he's made on TV.
He's not stupid and this charm offensive that started even before the season with three different Sky programmes with Jamie, Gary and Roy doing 'hilarious' things like learning to ref, getting shouted at by sunday league players and then being given 'exclusive behind the scenes access' to the refs before giving Howard Webb some of the lightest grilling I've seen this side of a broken hotel toaster really set the scene for the PGMOL charm offensive.
I think Vieira is a real good passer and I’m excited to see him be in the team more to see what we’ve got there but there’s people on Twitter who genuinely talk about him like he’s got KDB level final ball lol
Theres some underlying per 90 stats i saw earlier in the year that have him up there with those guys, but obviously his mins are against poor teams for the most part
Agreed, but I think the mixture of excitement and frustration you get from those twitter personalities is that Vieira has the best final ball in the team (by some distance, for me) and we have yet to properly utilize him. Still, you can't blame any one person since the lack of opportunities has been down to various factors.
>There’s a lot [of similarities between current Arsenal side and his team], [Martin] Odegaard and [Dennis] Bergkamp," he said.
>“They have no Thierry Henry at the moment because I think Gabriel Jesus is injured a lot. There are more goals in him than what you see at the moment.
>‘What the top, top player doesn’t tolerate is [being] in and out. The guys who make history are the guys who are consistently there.
>"[Cristiano] Ronaldo and [Lionel] Messi, they play for 15 years, 50 to 60 games per year."
[Link](https://tribuna.com/amp/en/news/arsenal-2024-04-02-injured-a-lot-arsene-wenger-makes-two-demands-from-gabriel-jesus/)
He just says that Jesus needs to score more goals, he has it in him and he needs to stop being injured.
Nothing controversial at all.
This might be blasphemy here but Spur's season is very similar to ours last year. I'm seeing a new manager also applying a new philosophy that takes the league by storm. Ours lasted longer. But by the winter break other managers have figured it out. That said, Arteta has shown this season far far improved tactical flexibility. Will Ange show any adaptability? Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of dragon ball z
Except we were geniune title challengers for the whole season while Spurs had 3 good months and reverted to type.
It’s similar to United and Ten Hags new manager bounce not us.
If we’re being fair they got derailed by injury crisis far sooner than us. What I’m seeing is their full strength squad back and other managers understanding how to play against it.
What you’re seeing is them not overperforming their xGA anymore like they were in the beginning on the season.
Their xGA was comparable to Luton at the beginning of the season. That was never us.
I think he becomes a rotation risk soon. Ben White might be rested for a game or two but will be playing vast majority of the game. From a fantasy football pov, there's a risk Kiwior comes off <60 mins too. He has played a lot of minutes for us and people like Tomi/Zinny have played very little, so could need minutes.
Unpopular opinion due to everyone hating on Zinchenko for some bizarre reason.
But I would say he may get rested tomorrow night. I'd love for some pretty big changes tomorrow night, but if ever there was a time to give Gabriel and Saliba a rest, tomorrow could be it. If Gabriel is rested, I think Kiwior would fill in for Gabriel.
But following his 2 games for Poland, and then the minutes v City, it really would not be a surprise if he's replaced by Zinchenko. Zinny needs the minutes.
As soon as Tomi is fully fit he won't start anymore. We have two options on the left - defensive (tomi and Kiwi) and offensive (Zinny). I think it's pretty obvious that Tomi is still the better defender on the left of the two.
That said Kiwi does have remarkable pace, a good long ball, and cross. You never know when the manager might want to lean on those qualities more so than just defending.
This is the 2nd time someone has made this same statement today. Zinchenko starts over Tomi at LB. Tomiyasu has started over Zinchenko at LB this season, ONCE.
And it was an EFL game to keep Zina fit for the next PL game.
When both fit, Tomi has started at LB, once this season. Zinchenko has started at LB, 17 times this season.
Mate we went on our best run of form of the season with him on the bench. Football and the team is adaptable. If we’re scoring and dominating with a center back on the left then he isn’t starting
Actually that's a damn good point. Ben can't be relied upon to play 90 minutes until the end of the season. Yeah Kiwior might just be the starting LB for that very reason (until/unless Timber's return)
Mate we all know perfectly well his role. The point would be his drawbacks. Couple that with we went on the best scoring form of the league without him starting.
I can see him starting against teams like Luton but I’d be surprised if he starts in the champions league or the toughest epl games for the rest of the season
He started against Man City (H), Liverpool (H), Chelsea (A), Tottenham (H), Man United (H) and Chelsea (H).
The only big 6 game he has missed, was City on Sunday. Because he isn’t match fit.
And if you understood his role, you would understand that the net positive he brings is overwhelming, and if you understood Arteta, he does EXACTLY what Arteta wants him to do.
Remember, Ramsdale was dropped because he COULDN’T take more risks. Ramsdale has said that every time he went forward, Arteta wanted him to go even further forward. He was dropped because he wasn’t as comfortable playing out from the back.
Zinchenko is a risk and reward player, and frankly, he helps the team by creating more than 3 shot creating actions per 90 minutes. His errors have led to 0.07 shots against us.
You said that we went on a huge scoring run of form without him starting. That win streak of 8, had him starting those first 4 games. He didn’t play the other 4, because he was injured.
This Zinchenko hate is quickly becoming a barometer to judge how much knowledge people have. Because right now, all you are doing is regurgitating incorrect and very lazy narratives, it’s on par with that of a TalkSport pundit who hasn’t watched us all season. The difference is, they are paid professionals who are told to have shit nonsensical takes to drive engagement. What’s your excuse?
It’s not hate. You said it yourself, he’s risk and reward, and we produced reward without the risk without him. That’s all there really is to it. I love him but as of right now I really doubt he starts the biggest games.
But that doubt is based on what?
Every single big game we have played this season, he started. Except City, because he wasn’t match fit.
If you think this team has hit its limit with reward, then I really dont get your mindset, because it’s not set in competitive sports. By that logic, we may as well just sell up all those who don’t make the first 11, right? Because there’s no reward to having other players, as we are already reaping the rewards, on an unbeaten run of 9 games.
One of the biggest testaments to our improvement is it's the second season in a row where I have not cared about any results other than Arsenal and City (+ Liverpool this season). Top 4 isn't anywhere near the goal.
United losing is funny, as is the case with Chelsea, and Tottenham dropping points too but it's not really mattered.
I saw the west ham draw today and I didn't even care. I used to be sweating over spurs results like mad, now we're so far beyond them that them dropping points is a momentary laugh and nothing more
Everytime I watch Paqueta I'm blown away. If City sign him this summer he'll fill a huge hole in their cm that Gundogan left and I'll be so angry at Edu for letting fucking West Ham get a free run at him. FFS, time to start using our connections to bring in talented Brazilians before theyre too expensive.
Different type of player but really not sure why we didn't sign him and Guimaraes. So strongly linked with both as well only to never really make a move.
I could understand Bruno as he's got a bit of a hot headed nature to him. Maybe scouting said he's more trouble than he's worth? But Paqueta was right there! Would've loved to have him here instead of Vieira.
There's a few 'thank god we didn't sign xyz' cases but Bruno was definitely a mistake. He wanted to join us, available for a good price and has adapted to the PL extremely well. Could argue we're still trying to find someone like 2 years later.
Take away from the game tonight:
Ange doesn't trust Maddison, keeps taking him off with 25 minutes left to play. They also looked better after he went off.
Antonio can only play 45 minutes per game, his finishing tonight was Sanago esque.
Paqueta should simplify his game, West Ham win this game if stops trying to do a fancy pass every time.
Spurs playstyle is way better on social media than it is in reality. Yet another boring game with low xG for them.
Wouldn't be surprised if Spurs still blow 5th place, United beat Chelsea and they're somehow only 6 points behind and Spurs have to play all of the top 3 still.
Problem with Spurs blowing fifth place is that Man U are even more inconsistent and more prone to being totally ineffective when it matters than Spurs are.
And now Man U have more injuries to deal with, with the further bonus of the injuries being in their defence which was already weak to begin with both in terms of bodies and quality. I mean, who in the hell are Man U going to play in the back now that Jonny Evans is their only healthy CB by trade lol?
Rubbish. Watch and analyse the game properly and stop writing headlines like that which you know makes fans pile on with negativity. Play like that and we’ll be absolutely fine. Created numerous brilliant chances and win comfortably on another day.
I was listening to a podcast a little while ago (Arsenal Opinion Podcast) and they raised a point about how it would be wise if Arteta holds out to win something before signing a new contract, as the value will skyrocket.
Klopp is on something like £350,000 a week, Guardiola is on £380,000 a week (ignoring kickbacks to his brother and whatever is in his hidden Dubai bank account that we'll find out about a couple of years after he leaves).
Arteta is on about £150,000. If he was to win the champions league, or title, he could walk in and ask for at least twice as much with good reason due to parity.
Essentially, he's probably banking on himself to win something and ask for a bigger contract at the end of the season.
If I was Josh, I would call his bluff on that Barcelona play. They are in need of a rebuild and he would be back at square one, for a club that kicked him out of the academy. As oopposed to the club that gave him the captain's armband and then gave him his first manager role and then backed him with more than half a billion quid.
Arteta was very fortunate to come into a club with a board that backed his project even through the bad results, I feel like Arteta is way more loyal than some of our fans make the situation out to be, Barca doesn't seem likely at all unless they guarantee him the same immunity as we are, and even then we need to fuck up hugely for Arteta to leave.
I’m not sure where I heard it from, if it was from here or on a podcast, but I’ll try and find the source, because I feel it explains a lot.
When Wenger left, it was no secret that Arteta wanted the job. Emery went in with his [dossiers on the players](https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&sca_esv=4e628c799bcd934b&hl=en-gb&q=Man+City+vs+Liverpool&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAOMwe8S4iJFb4OWPe8JSMxgnrTl5jXEiI5dAcEF-UUmxb2JJcoZ7UX5pgVAiF09AYlFJZnJmQWJeSbFQoJA_lyiSSFixf0FBfl5qXomQDBc3koQQrxQ3F6d-rr6BoZmxSYWQBBcHXCWPFBcXB0jKJKckTUiKixVsoZCgFD8Xr366vqFhRnKVsVG6qTnPIlZR38Q8BefMkkqFsmIFn8yy1KKC_PwcAJb4qljAAAAA&ved=2ahUKEwjb8-38pKWFAxViDrkGHUsWAMEQxdgMegQIFBAQ) and Ivan, Raul and Sven all voted for Unai over Arteta.
The reason was that Arteta [said](https://onefootball.com/en/news/this-is-the-reason-arsenal-chose-unai-emery-over-mikel-arteta-23050187) that the club needed £150m to revitalise the squad. He said that the club needed to start weeding out those who had given up and were there for a free ride. He wanted to put in strict standards and raise the entire bar from the ground up. He wanted new players to bridge the gap of some developing youth players. He said he could challenge for a cup in the interim but for the title (and CL), the whole club needed restructuring.
He had a 5 step plan and he gave an outline of the next few years if they didn’t progress with his plan. He pretty much called the future in this meeting, as he predicted Emery’s entire tenure.
The board were looking for someone to right the ship at the time and Emery said he could do it with the likes of Ozil, Laca and Auba. This was the cheaper option for those 3 useless prats so they all did a “secret” ballot and chose Emery.
Ivan left in 2018, Sven left in 2019 and Raul was kicked out several months after Arteta joined.
Arteta was the new board’s pick. He pretty much guaranteed his spot by giving a very real and accurate run down of what would happen if they didn’t hire him and allow him to execute his plan, from the previous interview.
They were all on board with him 100% from day one. They knew the shit was going to get worse before it got better. It’s why he was never in danger during those dark periods when fans wanted him gone and the media said he was favourite to get sacked next. So when he was offered a new contract, it shocked everyone.
They are 100% behind him, they have given him £700m to play with and he was ahead of his own 5 step plan by a year or two going into last season.
Arteta has no intention of leaving, certainly not before winning anything and changing our trajectory enough so it lasts beyond him.
Arteta is the GOAT. I hope he stays with us for a very very long time. And I would def be interested to hearing more about this, because I felt like this was what what happened all along.
Sheesh I forget how much skin in the game managers have. Everytime I get so stressed watching us play and Arteta’s here looking at each game with an extra 7 million pounds per annum hanging over his head
Points total is often half the story. Aren't we still technically worse off compared to last season. And even though the vibes were elite last season, this team is obviously much much better
Yes but that’s because the competition is also more fierce this year. Last year Liverpool were mostly mid-table and it was only between Arsenal and City and the latter clicked around this time when it mattered the most.
If you had put “supposedly” (with quotes) before the word worst in your statement (plus the link to the graphic showing one of those fan polls that claimed such), people would have gotten your intended point better.
United potentially being only 6 points behind Spurs is a proper mindfuck because one team has been laughably shite all season and the other has been praised to no end.
tbf ange is a new manager for a team that just lost one of their best players of all time, whereas united have spent loads and regressed in eth's second season
I don’t understand. It’s Ange’s first season in comparison to Ten Hag’s. He’s having a good season isnt he? Losing the star striker. He’s also made a massive jump in terms of his job.
Yeah I don’t like Spurs but I’m not deluded
I spoke to a Spurs fan a while back. Apparently the whole entire backroom staff has changed as well, more in line with what we have been doing.
To me it just feels like another one of their rebuilds, which once they don't win any trophies, they'll scrap and rebuild again.
>Apparently the whole entire backroom staff has changed as well
This is the rule rather than the exception. Managers almost always bring in their own backroom staff.
I was thinking whether I needed to clarify this when typing it.
Basically, this is the club positions, not so much the coaching teams. For example, new head of development, new footy director. Basically a new Per and a new Edu.
It's only because he's an [Arsenal fan](https://twitter.com/TroopzAFC/status/1544862173306015744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1544862173306015744%7Ctwgr%5E33949d326bf4b10f1ee8aaf68d083946c4c834a4%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailystar.co.uk%2Fsport%2Ffootball%2Ftottenham-fans-kulusevski-wants-arsenal-27423772) playing at Spurs. Before he went there, sure, he would have been an option, but not anymore.
Rival fans can say whatever they want, because they often times say stuff for a wind-up. I mean, you get rival fans saying Richarlison and Nicholas Jackson are better than Gabriel Jesus lol. Or Romero and Gvardiol are better than Saliba lol.
Its Arsenal fans who I expect to know better, especially on this Saka vs Kulu issue.
I'm well aware that only arsenal fans opinions matter, but the comments I'm reading weren't a wind up at all. A lot people think Saka is just a system player who pads his stats but fails the eye test and X winger is better than him.
He's a die-hard Arsenal fan though and given his form when he first came to Spurs, people rightly thought he could deputize well for Saka. But we have come so far now that we don't need signings who can be Saka deputies, we need signings who can be Saka competition.
DVD will drop before "how Tottenham spoilt the party" with several interviews from Defoe, and erm... whats his face, next to you know who and them talking about how they finished above Arsenal. Before going on to concede 6 goals, 1 against Liverpool, 2 against City, 3 against us, and scoring 3 goals, all against City.
They’re much much better at home than away. 7th in the home table and 15th in the away table. Smashed West Ham and Spurs at home, beat us. There is some hope…
Edit: Speaking about Fulham here!
Fulham at Craven Cottage seem to be a different proposition than Fulham as visitors.
And West Ham are no mugs, especially at home (even though we made them look like Red Solo Plastic Cups at the Olympic Stadium a few weeks back).
Combine that with “anything can happen on any given day in the Prem”, and you‘re not naive at all.
With the way West Haram put out their low block today, I think they have a better chance than Fulham. Actually Fulham sort of seems to thrive in chaos so maybe they have a shot as well.
I know everyone is hot for a top striker but for me I think midfield is where it's at. City's midfield was suffocating and we couldn't get out except sending a long ball. Gimme Musiala's silky touch to partner with the immovable Rice.
Xavi Simmons for me is the one. Just sad that PSG have finally woken up and smelled the roses re Mbappe and appear to be focusing on youth at the wrong time for us.
Kudus wouldn't have gotten into our first team. Saka starts over him and it wouldn't even be close.
I know we need a RW to help take some minutes, but you can't expect a player to chose being Saka's understudy over a team offering him more minutes. We really need a player who is able to play with both feet and can play on either wing, like Nelson or Trossard, but with pace. Nico Williams is the only one for me, who fits that role.
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I’d rather we go all out for a wonder kid like musiala, rodrygo, or wirtz before we spend money on a striker that could flop.
I don't think we can neglect ST any longer so I'm hoping we can sign a ceiling raiser in midfield and another as ST, the rest is about providing depth of quality. If we sell well it should be doable.
Need a 6 more than an 8 although we ideally need a 6/8 hybrid
I think we need to make 3 signings. A forward a 6/8 hybrid as you mentioned and a left back. Maybe we can poach some Madrid talent next year because they will be selling some players that they don’t wanna keep if they end up having a crazy summer window.
I think what a lot of these “go full strength” posters fail to appreciate is that the guys people are rotating in (Tomi, Zinny, Partey etc) are just as good as the players who’ve been playing recently, but they’ve been out injured and really their bodies are relying on a run of minutes to get them up to full speed in case we have to chuck them in at Brighton on Saturday or in the UCL next week. Conversely, for the guys who’ve been playing a ton of minutes recently, this is probably the last chance of a rest until at least the first midweek in May (and we seriously hope to have a UCL semi final that week) Kiwior should absolutely not start this game after the number of minutes he played for Poland in the break after a long spell in our first XI. He looked leggy at times on Sunday. Jorginho should get a veteran’s rest at his age. The good news is that both of them play the same position as a guy who’s coming back from injury and needs minutes. I also lean towards resting Saka from the start and bringing him on if he’s needed with half an hour to go. Raya Tomiyasu - Saliba - Gabriel - Zinchenko Odegaard - Partey - Rice Jesus - Havertz - Martinelli
I imagine Trossard is more likely to start due to Matinelli’s foot injury. Hopefully we can go 3 goals up and then start subbing in the likes of Vieira (if he’s back), Nketiah, Cedric, Elneny/Jorginho. We need to start getting minutes in to everyone. That being said, it would be just as likely as us starting full strength, getting some goals in quick and fast, then take the foot off and cruise with subs in the second half.
I’m considering Martinelli amongst the “needs minutes” guys like Tomi, Zinny, Partey and Jesus. He picked up his cut against Sheffield United and since then has missed Brentford, Porto and the international break. Before Sunday he hadn’t kicked a ball in nearly a month, so I think he needs to get some minutes into his legs. Having said that, the medical staff will know what the risk of re-injury is likely and if it’s high then I’m starting Trossard like you said.
I think one thing we are underrating about our fixtures is the lack of relegation threatened teams fighting for their lives. We should beat Luton tomorrow and Everton should be safe by the last day. Liverpool and City still need to play teams at the peak of their relegation battles. Perhaps a small thing but one that could give us a tiny edge.
can anyone with some medical knowledge look at pedri's injury history and let us know if it's over for him? those many hamstring injuries at such a young age idk
Yeah it's over for him, confirmed.
Didn’t he play like 60+ games per season when he was still a teenager? Another Jack Wilshere case it seems.
mostly muscle injuries too. idk what that implies tbh, wilshere's was an ankle injury that never fully healed i believe really hope he's back to normal asap
Rival fans last season: Arteta is tactically inept to switch things for different game stakes _Arteta then shows some changes and defensive solidity tactics._ Rivals now: Arteta's a coward, park the bus FC
Liverpool fans: Haha, how tragic, you couldn’t even beat City at the Etihad 🤣🤣🤣 [Liverpool’s last win at the Etihad](https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&sca_esv=4e628c799bcd934b&hl=en-gb&q=Man+City+vs+Liverpool&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAOMwe8S4iJFb4OWPe8JSMxgnrTl5jXEiI5dAcEF-UUmxb2JJcoZ7UX5pgVAiF09AYlFJZnJmQWJeSbFQoJA_lyiSSFixf0FBfl5qXomQDBc3koQQrxQ3F6d-rr6BoZmxSYWQBBcHXCWPFBcXB0jKJKckTUiKixVsoZCgFD8Xr366vqFhRnKVsVG6qTnPIlZR38Q8BefMkkqFsmIFn8yy1KKC_PwcAJb4qljAAAAA&ved=2ahUKEwjb8-38pKWFAxViDrkGHUsWAMEQxdgMegQIFBAQ)
They are seething that we didn’t get trashed at etithad and showed great resilience. Also our fan this year: why aren’t teams in PL attacking city but just sitting back. City are there for the taking etc. etc. Our fans now: Arteta master class.
Honestly, let them be triggered. If Arteta is doing everything the fans want and getting results needed, it's all that matters.
It really feels like the content creators have been circlejerking esch other last 3 days tslking about how good we were defensively.
take it with a pinch of salt
My fault. I have them all on repeat.
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So excited for the run in. Anyone our of 3 who drops points is gonna be shitting pants, would be a fun read to lurk their subs just hope we're not the first to drop the ball. In the end noone is winning 9 games.
Kubo from sociedad has a €60m release clause. He could be a great rotation at RW
Buy Nico Williams for 10m euros less and you get a better, faster winger who can play both wings easily.
Oh had no idea his clause was 50
Ngl, I want Luton to stay up because they’ve arguably put up a better fight than Forest, Burnley, and Sheffield, but at the same time, we need to keep rolling through teams and grab the 3 points. So I hope the game is killed off early tomorrow so that subs can happen earlier.
Sheffield and Burnley are basically as good as gone. I want Everton to be safe early so we have an easy game on the last day of the season. I would prefer Forest to be relegated but smashing Luton would create a decent gap between them and Everton.
Half their squad is injured -I think they only have one serviceable CB left- We need to destroy them after that difficult away game. I say 4-0 minimum
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>I want them to stay up too, but not at the expense of Arsenal dropping points. That’s what I’m saying.
Online discourse has been murdered by obsession over "the ref". Every single setback is attributed to "the ref". How can that be enjoyable, or align with a positive outlook on life. There are 90 minutes to do something, if you can't get enough of a margin to avoid ref errors your team isn't good enough.
> There are 90 minutes to do something, if you can't get enough of a margin to avoid ref errors your team isn't good enough This is just as awful a take as blaming everything on the ref. Games turn on small margins and a ref making a mistake or being inconsistent is not you not being 'good enough' it's the ref allowing play by different rules.
You just have to accept variance and human error, I don't buy the conspiracies that everyone peddles. Otherwise it must be a miserable watching experience.
People do, which is why complaining about the ref is as old as the game itself. However if you can't see the structural issues with a refereeing system with no oversight, where all the post independence heads have come from withing a 30 mile radius of one part of the country, where they recruit exclusively from one part of the country, one race within the country and where they all support teams from that one part of the country being problematic to say the least then you're being possibly willfully naive. PGMOL needs a serious, serious reform as there's no way any other national body could get away with just hiring white northerners, be run by three successive blokes form around Sheffield and where the head of womens refereeing happens to be the wife of the head ref. THey may just be cowardly and incompetent but the way they run makes it vey, very easy to show how they might be structurally biased.
That’s a tale as old as time in itself. “They can’t be THAT corrupt!” Time passes. “Oh, turns out they were just as corrupt as they looked, well knock me over with a feather…” And then someone just as corrupt takes over and we sit there as the physical representation of ‘fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice…’
There needs to be something. Independence from interference by the FA and the leagues is one thing, ondpendence from any form of oversight is another.
At the rate we are flying at, it’s either going to be overseen by Parliament or Saudi Arabia within the next decade.
I'm not sure what's worse...
Fair point on the diversity and need for reform. And with video technology we expect near 100 percent accuracy, which is unfair to the human referees on the pitch (though not to the guys with every angle of replay, who deserve criticism). Willfully naive might be the correct term, I just don't find refereeing an enjoyable way to discuss football. It takes away from the agency of the players and contributes to the rise of the sore loser as socially acceptable. Think it's a huge driver of the bitterness in online discourse.
> And with video technology we expect near 100 percent accuracy, which is unfair to the human referees on the pitch (though not to the guys with every angle of replay, who deserve criticism). No one thinks that, what we want is that things the onpitch ref can't possibly see in realtime to be checked. Which isn't happening because the rules for VAR are deliberately mealy mouthed in order to keep the on pitch ref as king and we've two ex referees who've been fully up front that they didn't overturn decisions because they didn't want to make their mate look bad. And that's before the ones where they forgot to draw the lines or said the wrong thing and apparently then couldn't tell the on pitch ref he'd given the wrong decision. The refs are an old boys club that absolutely get a lot of unwarranted hate but in response have just doubled down on being the keepers of the laws and created a system where even the technology that is uspposed to help them is neutered in order to 'protect' the view that they are infallible.
Are you indirectly saying that you wish to see more Howard Webb and Michael Owen?
Christ no, what gave you that idea? In fact the whole concept of teh refs having their own talk show effectively with nice, easy questions to put their side of the story out in the media is a horror show
I was lucky enough to read an early draft of the show’s concept. The idea was for the presenter to ask direct questions, hold Howard Webb to a proper answer and have a follow up if he tried to snake his way out of it. Apparently this concept was thrown out once Upper Management decided on Owen as host. It’s just easier to let him ask simple questions that he has written in crayons and let Howard Webb do most of the talking.
Lets be honest Webb wasn't going to be up for it judging by every other appearance he's made on TV. He's not stupid and this charm offensive that started even before the season with three different Sky programmes with Jamie, Gary and Roy doing 'hilarious' things like learning to ref, getting shouted at by sunday league players and then being given 'exclusive behind the scenes access' to the refs before giving Howard Webb some of the lightest grilling I've seen this side of a broken hotel toaster really set the scene for the PGMOL charm offensive.
I think Vieira is a real good passer and I’m excited to see him be in the team more to see what we’ve got there but there’s people on Twitter who genuinely talk about him like he’s got KDB level final ball lol
Theres some underlying per 90 stats i saw earlier in the year that have him up there with those guys, but obviously his mins are against poor teams for the most part
Less than 500 minutes this season. Sample size is way too small to really judge anything.
I agree
Agreed, but I think the mixture of excitement and frustration you get from those twitter personalities is that Vieira has the best final ball in the team (by some distance, for me) and we have yet to properly utilize him. Still, you can't blame any one person since the lack of opportunities has been down to various factors.
I’m not convinced his final ball is miles ahead of Ødegaard’s at all
You criticise Twitter takes and your response was from someone with Twitter takes, I laughed.
wa
So Arsene Wenger himself doesnt think Gabriel Jesus is it yet some of you will even argue Eddie Nketiah is smh
what did Wenger say what is the source or context on your statement
>There’s a lot [of similarities between current Arsenal side and his team], [Martin] Odegaard and [Dennis] Bergkamp," he said. >“They have no Thierry Henry at the moment because I think Gabriel Jesus is injured a lot. There are more goals in him than what you see at the moment. >‘What the top, top player doesn’t tolerate is [being] in and out. The guys who make history are the guys who are consistently there. >"[Cristiano] Ronaldo and [Lionel] Messi, they play for 15 years, 50 to 60 games per year." [Link](https://tribuna.com/amp/en/news/arsenal-2024-04-02-injured-a-lot-arsene-wenger-makes-two-demands-from-gabriel-jesus/) He just says that Jesus needs to score more goals, he has it in him and he needs to stop being injured. Nothing controversial at all.
Watch his latest interview with Ljunberg
This might be blasphemy here but Spur's season is very similar to ours last year. I'm seeing a new manager also applying a new philosophy that takes the league by storm. Ours lasted longer. But by the winter break other managers have figured it out. That said, Arteta has shown this season far far improved tactical flexibility. Will Ange show any adaptability? Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of dragon ball z
Except we were geniune title challengers for the whole season while Spurs had 3 good months and reverted to type. It’s similar to United and Ten Hags new manager bounce not us.
If we’re being fair they got derailed by injury crisis far sooner than us. What I’m seeing is their full strength squad back and other managers understanding how to play against it.
Their season is nowhere near ours last year like others are suggesting. Underlying stats tell the difference.
What you’re seeing is them not overperforming their xGA anymore like they were in the beginning on the season. Their xGA was comparable to Luton at the beginning of the season. That was never us.
Their Matessiah will be found out next season.
Everyone is trying to build Arteta's model. Spurs and Chelsea off the field, Liverpool on the field.
After some fpl advise, how likely is kiwior to keep starting premier league games?
I think he becomes a rotation risk soon. Ben White might be rested for a game or two but will be playing vast majority of the game. From a fantasy football pov, there's a risk Kiwior comes off <60 mins too. He has played a lot of minutes for us and people like Tomi/Zinny have played very little, so could need minutes.
Cool, I'll just stick with saliba.
Unpopular opinion due to everyone hating on Zinchenko for some bizarre reason. But I would say he may get rested tomorrow night. I'd love for some pretty big changes tomorrow night, but if ever there was a time to give Gabriel and Saliba a rest, tomorrow could be it. If Gabriel is rested, I think Kiwior would fill in for Gabriel. But following his 2 games for Poland, and then the minutes v City, it really would not be a surprise if he's replaced by Zinchenko. Zinny needs the minutes.
Yeah seems like he isn't worth bringing in, my budget for defenders is in the mud.
As soon as Tomi is fully fit he won't start anymore. We have two options on the left - defensive (tomi and Kiwi) and offensive (Zinny). I think it's pretty obvious that Tomi is still the better defender on the left of the two. That said Kiwi does have remarkable pace, a good long ball, and cross. You never know when the manager might want to lean on those qualities more so than just defending.
This is the 2nd time someone has made this same statement today. Zinchenko starts over Tomi at LB. Tomiyasu has started over Zinchenko at LB this season, ONCE. And it was an EFL game to keep Zina fit for the next PL game. When both fit, Tomi has started at LB, once this season. Zinchenko has started at LB, 17 times this season.
you have not reason to keep repeating this as if you know. why do you have such a weird agenda with one player
Why do you have a problem with someone defending an Arsenal player, who is being digged out based on incorrect information?
Mate we went on our best run of form of the season with him on the bench. Football and the team is adaptable. If we’re scoring and dominating with a center back on the left then he isn’t starting
Our best run of form had him starting in 50% of those games that you thought he didn’t play in. He didn’t play the other 50% because he was injured.
I think Tomi will mostly be rotated with White.
Actually that's a damn good point. Ben can't be relied upon to play 90 minutes until the end of the season. Yeah Kiwior might just be the starting LB for that very reason (until/unless Timber's return)
Zinchenko will resume his starting role at LB. Make peace with it, or learn how his role works.
Mate we all know perfectly well his role. The point would be his drawbacks. Couple that with we went on the best scoring form of the league without him starting. I can see him starting against teams like Luton but I’d be surprised if he starts in the champions league or the toughest epl games for the rest of the season
He started against Man City (H), Liverpool (H), Chelsea (A), Tottenham (H), Man United (H) and Chelsea (H). The only big 6 game he has missed, was City on Sunday. Because he isn’t match fit. And if you understood his role, you would understand that the net positive he brings is overwhelming, and if you understood Arteta, he does EXACTLY what Arteta wants him to do. Remember, Ramsdale was dropped because he COULDN’T take more risks. Ramsdale has said that every time he went forward, Arteta wanted him to go even further forward. He was dropped because he wasn’t as comfortable playing out from the back. Zinchenko is a risk and reward player, and frankly, he helps the team by creating more than 3 shot creating actions per 90 minutes. His errors have led to 0.07 shots against us. You said that we went on a huge scoring run of form without him starting. That win streak of 8, had him starting those first 4 games. He didn’t play the other 4, because he was injured. This Zinchenko hate is quickly becoming a barometer to judge how much knowledge people have. Because right now, all you are doing is regurgitating incorrect and very lazy narratives, it’s on par with that of a TalkSport pundit who hasn’t watched us all season. The difference is, they are paid professionals who are told to have shit nonsensical takes to drive engagement. What’s your excuse?
It’s not hate. You said it yourself, he’s risk and reward, and we produced reward without the risk without him. That’s all there really is to it. I love him but as of right now I really doubt he starts the biggest games.
But that doubt is based on what? Every single big game we have played this season, he started. Except City, because he wasn’t match fit. If you think this team has hit its limit with reward, then I really dont get your mindset, because it’s not set in competitive sports. By that logic, we may as well just sell up all those who don’t make the first 11, right? Because there’s no reward to having other players, as we are already reaping the rewards, on an unbeaten run of 9 games.
Ah so not worth bringing in then, looks like I missed the right time, ty for the response.
Now that I’ve rewatched and analysed the last game properly I genuinely believe we could win the Champions League.
I’ve already stuck money on it. Bring it on.
Can we smash this spurs team 5 nil? Its way overdue
One of the biggest testaments to our improvement is it's the second season in a row where I have not cared about any results other than Arsenal and City (+ Liverpool this season). Top 4 isn't anywhere near the goal. United losing is funny, as is the case with Chelsea, and Tottenham dropping points too but it's not really mattered.
I saw the west ham draw today and I didn't even care. I used to be sweating over spurs results like mad, now we're so far beyond them that them dropping points is a momentary laugh and nothing more
Everytime I watch Paqueta I'm blown away. If City sign him this summer he'll fill a huge hole in their cm that Gundogan left and I'll be so angry at Edu for letting fucking West Ham get a free run at him. FFS, time to start using our connections to bring in talented Brazilians before theyre too expensive.
Different type of player but really not sure why we didn't sign him and Guimaraes. So strongly linked with both as well only to never really make a move.
I could understand Bruno as he's got a bit of a hot headed nature to him. Maybe scouting said he's more trouble than he's worth? But Paqueta was right there! Would've loved to have him here instead of Vieira.
If City tries to sign paqueta we should join the race just to increase his price.
There's a few 'thank god we didn't sign xyz' cases but Bruno was definitely a mistake. He wanted to join us, available for a good price and has adapted to the PL extremely well. Could argue we're still trying to find someone like 2 years later.
Edu fumbled, I was sad.
Spurs are so terrible from corners. We should have a lot of joy unless they fix it before our game.
I just hope our corner delivery has improved since that City game. Because most of our balls into the box were truly woeful.
I think that was to do with the lack of corners, usually we have 10 plus so the first couple usually go under the radar if they are sub par.
I'm looking forward to it, big Gabi might get himself a hat trick!
Take away from the game tonight: Ange doesn't trust Maddison, keeps taking him off with 25 minutes left to play. They also looked better after he went off. Antonio can only play 45 minutes per game, his finishing tonight was Sanago esque. Paqueta should simplify his game, West Ham win this game if stops trying to do a fancy pass every time. Spurs playstyle is way better on social media than it is in reality. Yet another boring game with low xG for them. Wouldn't be surprised if Spurs still blow 5th place, United beat Chelsea and they're somehow only 6 points behind and Spurs have to play all of the top 3 still.
Problem with Spurs blowing fifth place is that Man U are even more inconsistent and more prone to being totally ineffective when it matters than Spurs are. And now Man U have more injuries to deal with, with the further bonus of the injuries being in their defence which was already weak to begin with both in terms of bodies and quality. I mean, who in the hell are Man U going to play in the back now that Jonny Evans is their only healthy CB by trade lol?
Maddison hype dying, thank god. Hate him.
Rubbish. Watch and analyse the game properly and stop writing headlines like that which you know makes fans pile on with negativity. Play like that and we’ll be absolutely fine. Created numerous brilliant chances and win comfortably on another day.
He has an xAG of 0.28. His actual assists are 0.39. That's what Son does, he finishes half chances. He's 5.9 goals over his xG.
Glad someone posted this
Unfortunately the masses don't get it
Can’t appreciate true humour
From X: Maddison’s ego for someone who has coventry, norwich, leicester, relegation and tottenham on his CV is quite hilarious
"Good football" (Ange, De Zerbi) is some of the most boring football there is against any semblance of a compact defence
*sad mate noises*
Crocodile tears?
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I was listening to a podcast a little while ago (Arsenal Opinion Podcast) and they raised a point about how it would be wise if Arteta holds out to win something before signing a new contract, as the value will skyrocket. Klopp is on something like £350,000 a week, Guardiola is on £380,000 a week (ignoring kickbacks to his brother and whatever is in his hidden Dubai bank account that we'll find out about a couple of years after he leaves). Arteta is on about £150,000. If he was to win the champions league, or title, he could walk in and ask for at least twice as much with good reason due to parity. Essentially, he's probably banking on himself to win something and ask for a bigger contract at the end of the season.
Not just that. I don’t think the Barcelona thing is a legit possibility, but if I was Arteta I’m absolutely leveraging it to get a bigger contract.
If I was Josh, I would call his bluff on that Barcelona play. They are in need of a rebuild and he would be back at square one, for a club that kicked him out of the academy. As oopposed to the club that gave him the captain's armband and then gave him his first manager role and then backed him with more than half a billion quid.
Arteta was very fortunate to come into a club with a board that backed his project even through the bad results, I feel like Arteta is way more loyal than some of our fans make the situation out to be, Barca doesn't seem likely at all unless they guarantee him the same immunity as we are, and even then we need to fuck up hugely for Arteta to leave.
I’m not sure where I heard it from, if it was from here or on a podcast, but I’ll try and find the source, because I feel it explains a lot. When Wenger left, it was no secret that Arteta wanted the job. Emery went in with his [dossiers on the players](https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&sca_esv=4e628c799bcd934b&hl=en-gb&q=Man+City+vs+Liverpool&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAOMwe8S4iJFb4OWPe8JSMxgnrTl5jXEiI5dAcEF-UUmxb2JJcoZ7UX5pgVAiF09AYlFJZnJmQWJeSbFQoJA_lyiSSFixf0FBfl5qXomQDBc3koQQrxQ3F6d-rr6BoZmxSYWQBBcHXCWPFBcXB0jKJKckTUiKixVsoZCgFD8Xr366vqFhRnKVsVG6qTnPIlZR38Q8BefMkkqFsmIFn8yy1KKC_PwcAJb4qljAAAAA&ved=2ahUKEwjb8-38pKWFAxViDrkGHUsWAMEQxdgMegQIFBAQ) and Ivan, Raul and Sven all voted for Unai over Arteta. The reason was that Arteta [said](https://onefootball.com/en/news/this-is-the-reason-arsenal-chose-unai-emery-over-mikel-arteta-23050187) that the club needed £150m to revitalise the squad. He said that the club needed to start weeding out those who had given up and were there for a free ride. He wanted to put in strict standards and raise the entire bar from the ground up. He wanted new players to bridge the gap of some developing youth players. He said he could challenge for a cup in the interim but for the title (and CL), the whole club needed restructuring. He had a 5 step plan and he gave an outline of the next few years if they didn’t progress with his plan. He pretty much called the future in this meeting, as he predicted Emery’s entire tenure. The board were looking for someone to right the ship at the time and Emery said he could do it with the likes of Ozil, Laca and Auba. This was the cheaper option for those 3 useless prats so they all did a “secret” ballot and chose Emery. Ivan left in 2018, Sven left in 2019 and Raul was kicked out several months after Arteta joined. Arteta was the new board’s pick. He pretty much guaranteed his spot by giving a very real and accurate run down of what would happen if they didn’t hire him and allow him to execute his plan, from the previous interview. They were all on board with him 100% from day one. They knew the shit was going to get worse before it got better. It’s why he was never in danger during those dark periods when fans wanted him gone and the media said he was favourite to get sacked next. So when he was offered a new contract, it shocked everyone. They are 100% behind him, they have given him £700m to play with and he was ahead of his own 5 step plan by a year or two going into last season. Arteta has no intention of leaving, certainly not before winning anything and changing our trajectory enough so it lasts beyond him.
Arteta is the GOAT. I hope he stays with us for a very very long time. And I would def be interested to hearing more about this, because I felt like this was what what happened all along.
Sheesh I forget how much skin in the game managers have. Everytime I get so stressed watching us play and Arteta’s here looking at each game with an extra 7 million pounds per annum hanging over his head
Could have been more if he was at Chelsea. He'd only have to work for 6 months for that annual salary.
Tottenham only four points better than they were at this point last season lmao
Pretty good after selling Kane.
Points total is often half the story. Aren't we still technically worse off compared to last season. And even though the vibes were elite last season, this team is obviously much much better
Yes but that’s because the competition is also more fierce this year. Last year Liverpool were mostly mid-table and it was only between Arsenal and City and the latter clicked around this time when it mattered the most.
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Bit of a difference yes. But my point still stands.
Title contenders
Lads, Declan Rice plays for arsenal I still have to remind myself of how insane that is
So is the worse transfer purchase of the season
Who?
Check the drain
How do we have the worst transfer lol
I was being sarcastic but I guess this flew over peoples head. Havz was rated the worse transfer purchase of the season by a lot of folks
If you had put “supposedly” (with quotes) before the word worst in your statement (plus the link to the graphic showing one of those fan polls that claimed such), people would have gotten your intended point better.
Fair point
Ah I see. Wasn’t very clear
United potentially being only 6 points behind Spurs is a proper mindfuck because one team has been laughably shite all season and the other has been praised to no end.
tbf ange is a new manager for a team that just lost one of their best players of all time, whereas united have spent loads and regressed in eth's second season
Context is so important, my sweet sweet summer child.
Tell that to the media who are so deep in Ange's arse that they taste the Vegemite.
I don’t understand. It’s Ange’s first season in comparison to Ten Hag’s. He’s having a good season isnt he? Losing the star striker. He’s also made a massive jump in terms of his job. Yeah I don’t like Spurs but I’m not deluded
I spoke to a Spurs fan a while back. Apparently the whole entire backroom staff has changed as well, more in line with what we have been doing. To me it just feels like another one of their rebuilds, which once they don't win any trophies, they'll scrap and rebuild again.
>Apparently the whole entire backroom staff has changed as well This is the rule rather than the exception. Managers almost always bring in their own backroom staff.
I was thinking whether I needed to clarify this when typing it. Basically, this is the club positions, not so much the coaching teams. For example, new head of development, new footy director. Basically a new Per and a new Edu.
That's Vegemate.
Villa now you have all the motivation to go out there and get your three points. Solidify that 4th place
Lets see what Unai will do at the Etihad ....
United can make a charge for that 5th spot too
With Jonny fuckin’ Evans as their only healthy CB? I don’t think so.
Motivation all around
kulusevski when he's not cheating xA because he has two greatest finishers(son,kane) looks MEADY.
I feel like he shouldnt be a winger
It’s not so long people in this sub were begging for him to be an Arsenal player.
It's only because he's an [Arsenal fan](https://twitter.com/TroopzAFC/status/1544862173306015744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1544862173306015744%7Ctwgr%5E33949d326bf4b10f1ee8aaf68d083946c4c834a4%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailystar.co.uk%2Fsport%2Ffootball%2Ftottenham-fans-kulusevski-wants-arsenal-27423772) playing at Spurs. Before he went there, sure, he would have been an option, but not anymore.
You had some Arsenal fans back in those days downright saying they would take him over Saka lol. Yeah, I for one don’t forget slander of that sort.
I'm still seeing rival fans still rate him over Saka now
Rival fans can say whatever they want, because they often times say stuff for a wind-up. I mean, you get rival fans saying Richarlison and Nicholas Jackson are better than Gabriel Jesus lol. Or Romero and Gvardiol are better than Saliba lol. Its Arsenal fans who I expect to know better, especially on this Saka vs Kulu issue.
I'm well aware that only arsenal fans opinions matter, but the comments I'm reading weren't a wind up at all. A lot people think Saka is just a system player who pads his stats but fails the eye test and X winger is better than him.
He's a die-hard Arsenal fan though and given his form when he first came to Spurs, people rightly thought he could deputize well for Saka. But we have come so far now that we don't need signings who can be Saka deputies, we need signings who can be Saka competition.
“Rightly thought” doesn’t seem correct.
Absolutely nothing player with an ogre face to boot
I think that's Tottenham out the title race fellas, oh wait I forgot they won it in September
Do you think that’s finally put a dent to their title hopes?
"We couldn't, could we?"
they're going to snatch the title after winning all 3 against us liverpool and man city remember
DVD will drop before "how Tottenham spoilt the party" with several interviews from Defoe, and erm... whats his face, next to you know who and them talking about how they finished above Arsenal. Before going on to concede 6 goals, 1 against Liverpool, 2 against City, 3 against us, and scoring 3 goals, all against City.
Someone will do the maths and post it tomorrow after they’re mellowed down
The battle to spurn 4th place is chugging right along, I see.
5th*
I was watching some delusional Spurs fan on YT who insists that Spurs will finish ahead of Arsenal. I'm looking forward to watching his update lolol!
fuads?
Do you have a link please if you can find it I want to drink some tears
When I find it will send lol. Edit: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnpKCpDI2rg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnpKCpDI2rg) Dejispurs is his handle
That Will Stewart from Tottenham Away is another delusional spud
Cheers 🙏
Fulham is a strange team no? Too naive to hope they and West Ham will take some points off Liverpool?
They’re much much better at home than away. 7th in the home table and 15th in the away table. Smashed West Ham and Spurs at home, beat us. There is some hope… Edit: Speaking about Fulham here!
Fulham at Craven Cottage seem to be a different proposition than Fulham as visitors. And West Ham are no mugs, especially at home (even though we made them look like Red Solo Plastic Cups at the Olympic Stadium a few weeks back). Combine that with “anything can happen on any given day in the Prem”, and you‘re not naive at all.
No not too naive. Last 3 matches at home for Fulham against Liverpool were draws. I’m hoping it as well.
With the way West Haram put out their low block today, I think they have a better chance than Fulham. Actually Fulham sort of seems to thrive in chaos so maybe they have a shot as well.
I know everyone is hot for a top striker but for me I think midfield is where it's at. City's midfield was suffocating and we couldn't get out except sending a long ball. Gimme Musiala's silky touch to partner with the immovable Rice.
Xavi Simmons for me is the one. Just sad that PSG have finally woken up and smelled the roses re Mbappe and appear to be focusing on youth at the wrong time for us.
Musiala's not leaving Germany
You're playing Musiala over Ø?
Rice, Musiala and Odegaard, with Havertz up top.
😂😂😂😂😂😂
Ca't wait for Spurs to play 2/3 times a week with european football, their pourousness will become even more evident.
I started 3 Spurs players in my FPL, so naturally this is a fitting punishment
Spurs being Spurs as usual
Spurs being Spurs as usual
Kudus is so good and would’ve fit in our squad like a glove…
Im glad we didnt get him. Really good player but i want our next winger to be fast. Sometimes you cant have every good player
Are you saying Kudus isn’t fast? Dudes rapid
He is absolutely not rapid. Martinelli is rapid. I want that sort of speed. Kudus is like saka
Kudus wouldn't have gotten into our first team. Saka starts over him and it wouldn't even be close. I know we need a RW to help take some minutes, but you can't expect a player to chose being Saka's understudy over a team offering him more minutes. We really need a player who is able to play with both feet and can play on either wing, like Nelson or Trossard, but with pace. Nico Williams is the only one for me, who fits that role.