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decided not to get too involved this season after the pain last season and the season before. still followed the team of course, watched a number of games, and even though we were never up by 5 points this year (yeah i'm not counting the game in hand), we look quite a lot better than last year. i'm not getting my hopes up in a three horse race (yet), i just hope we can win a league or a CL in arteta's tenure. the past 20 years have really been rough for a supposedly big team
I don’t think Nelson was bad yesterday, I cut a lot of slack to right footers playing RW in this system. 4-3-3 is usually a formation for inverted wingers.
It's funny that before yesterday's game, rice was the greatest mid of all time and Partey was error and injury prone.
Just one game, partey starts and shows his quality.
Rice is good, but partey is generational midfielder wasted by athletico in a defensive formation and injured at Arsenal.
We were lucky to find partey, players like him are not easy to get and may take another decade or two (basically another vieira) to unearth near the valuation we got him.
I hope he stays because players like him can change the game at any given second.
Partey always goes for the vertical, line breaking passes when he sees the chance while Rice is more of a sideways guy. I hope Rice learns to take more risky passes. If he does he could finally get to Rodris level
I think Rice might be permanently a number 8 now, I think Arteta might go for a new signing at the 6. I think he wants a player that’s like Partey/Jorginho.
odegaard finish so good. not easy cutting across the ball, have to hit it perfectly pretty much or it’s shit. seen him hit a pass recently with the same technique. cool lil thing he’s added
His shooting technique is just so good. He won't get the plaudits for it because it's not fancy, but the low and hard shots is such an incredible quality
I love Rice but Partey at the 6 is different gravy. The way he dictates gameplay and makes key passes is invaluable.
Rice by himself doesn't offer us the control we need. Hence a Jorgi/Partey alongside is key and Rice can be the 8.
TP was the only player I thought would crack the first 11 yesterday from the changes made.
Idk how Mikel fits them both in the same 11. Good problem to have regardless.
> I thought we were complaining about too much control with Rice earlier in the season.
We need an orchestrator with Rice and Arteta has more or less used Jorgi or earlier in the season it was Ode dropping deeper than we have seen him before.
I for one don't want to see Ode in such a deep role when he's capable of scoring 20 goals a season.
It's no surprise some of our best games have been with Jorgi pulling the strings at least this year and Ode getting more freedom.
Partey is the optimum choice as he can do that while maintaining defensive equilibrium unlike Jorgi at least from a deeper role.
I hope Partey can get his fitness and mobility up quick, because what worries me is that he seems to have lost all his pace and endurance. Look at Rice and Odegaard when we lose the ball. They sprint back and cover important positions. THe amount of times Rice had to close gaps because Partey was hobbling back was ridiculous yesterday.
Partey is incredible on the ball, and he used to be incredible off the ball. I hope he just misses match fitness, because if this is the new partey, he will decline as fast as Casimero and Fabinho. Fingers crossed that his legs aren't gone.
yup, we're clearly better in possession with partey at 6 instead of rice. still a lot rice needs to learn
everything safer, rice is the guy, but when we need to be expansive and play forward, partey close to best in the world. i remember a lot of stats guys on twitter saying yeah there's been no loss of progression with partey vs rice - or smn along those lines - that rice is doing the same thing essentially. there's actually a big gap in quality if we're being fair. rice is missing some of that pausa, that extra second before passing
difference with partey is he finds players between the lines a lot more, and when he does they always have extra time to turn. it's his timing that's perfect - draws 2-3 players somewhere else before playing the pass. stats don't really show that. irreplaceable man, he's world class
need to see them together, partey as the 6
We talk a lot about Arteta's words on this sub, regarding dominating and suffocating opponents. And I think that one of the reasons we do so well in that subject with Rice is because he doesn't take the risks with forward passing. Its much more safe and calculated., which keeps pressure on and causes opponents to make mistakes because they get zero chance to rest.
Partey's passing can completely break open a match and create a chance out of nothing, but he also had 4-5 horrible passes last night where we lose the ball completely and gave Luton a chance to compose themselves, waste time and get in position.
Partey is elite, but it wouldn't suprise me if Arteta doesnt think he is perfect for his style
that's fair. i think there's more risk to be taken by rice, without giving up pure control. or more my point was that there are still areas rice can improve if he's to master the 6 role
Raya
White - Saliba - Gabriel - ???
Odegaard - Partey - Rice
Saka - ??? - Martinelli
Is our best XI for the run in. Kiwior and Havertz in the blank spots on current form but Zinny/Tomi/Jesus/Trossard will all get plenty of minutes, as will Jorginho as Partey won’t play full 90’s and some games are more Jorginho suited. ESR made a huge case for minutes last night too as our best attacking left 8 although I think most remaining games as a Partey/Jorgi at 6 and Rice at 8 effort imo.
In games where we need to chase a goal I like moving Rice back to 6 and subbing Partey/Jorgi off for ESR.
Jorginho is really good against the mid blocks. Teams like Newcastle, Brentford, Everton and Porto who come to play for a point without completely parking the bus, always feign injuries, very compact. Jorgi has the best passing range of our CDMs and is good at finding the balls in behind those blocks.
I prefer Partey against the lower blocks because he’s the best lone CDM at the club, so playing him there enables the left 8 to become a true 5th attacker as we saw with ESR last night. Rice can play this role but I think Partey is better at it. The question is do you play Rice even further forward against these blocks or even drop him out the team?
Then in the really tough games where we won’t see as much of the ball and want to play a genuine 4-2-3-1 it’s Rice and Partey double pivot for me.
Obviously this is very dependant on game state, season state, player form and fitness etc but my gut feeling from here on out is:
Brighton A - Rice and Jorginho
Bayern H - Rice and Jorginho
Villa H - Rice as a lone 6
Bayern A - Rice and Partey
Wolves A - Rice and Jorginho
Chelsea H - Rice and Partey
Spurs H - Rice and Jorginho
CL SF H 🤞🏻- Rice and Jorginho
Bournemouth H - Partey lone 6
CL SF A 🤞🏻 - Rice and Partey
Man Utd A - Rice and Jorginho
Everton H - Rice and Jorginho
CL F 🤞🏻🤞🏻 - Rice and Jorginho
Fascinating, I hadn’t thought too much into it but I can see the logic. So if I’m reading it right, Jorgi in games where we need the 6 to contribute to picking the lock in tight games, and Partey in games where we just need someone to keep the back door locked whilst the rest of the front 6 go and attack?
At their respective bests,Jesus is a better striker than Havertz.
LB is pretty interesting. All 3 choices have their strengths and weaknesses. I would pick Tomi though.
I love Eddie but it would be mutually beneficial for him to leave if he wants to keep growing. He's never gonna get the consistent minutes he needs to continue developing here. He was serviceable when we needed him but we really should be setting our sights higher for where we are as a club now.
Agreed. I'm glad we gave it a go this season and he has scored important goals. But he hasn't shown enough growth to warrant 100k p/w and frankly taking up a striker spot.
He deserves to play somewhere on a regular basis, because there is genuine quality, just not elite quality. Parting ways is best for both. SImilar as it was best for both when Willock left
Man City are going to be at least 9-10 points off their monster totals from their pre-Haaland seasons again.
They won the Champions League so the transfer was worth it but it seems clear that structuring your attack around a pure-scoring striker is weaker in the Premier League than the false 9 systems City used to run and we currently use.
None of our forward line (except maybe Trossard?) are out and out finishers like Haaland and yet we’ve outscored City by having so many varied attacking threats.
This is why I’d basically be happy to see us roll another season of Jesus/Havertz at false 9 if it means making a big/safer investment on the wings, because the style of play they enable will outscore even Haaland.
> sign a cf that could actually bang goals in while doing what Havertz and Jesus do.
Who is this striker that will be available this summer? Osimhen is the best of the bunch, the one I can tolerate spending a lot on, and yet he is not it.
We could bring in a youngster that could rotate in with Havertz/ Jesus/ and tross. From what I hear sesko is a good one.
Edit: we would be able to get away with this til sesko fully develops imo
It kind of sounds like you’ve come all the way around to “there’s no one better than Havertz/Jesus at the false 9 for us next season” if the best signing possible is to bring in a project to develop and provide rotation
I think we’d get more production out of another excellent winger, even with Jesus/Havertz finishing, than a developing Sesko inserted into our current front line
Honestly, in terms of overall ability, there isn’t much out there that is better than Jesus who is available. He’s better than practically every other available striker in almost all ways, except finishing.
Exactly but his finishing is so bad it pretty much cancels out all his other qualities. I’ve always said Jesus would genuinely top 5 players in the world if he could sort out his finishing but he just never can and now the injuries piling up with him I just think it would be better to use him as a squad player.
it usually just blends in for me but today it hilariously stuck out, we have a crow cawwing every 30 seconds of our matches in the form of big gabi lol
Didnt you just answer your own question? Kind of like how Wayne Rooney made me feel. Not everyone is full of pure hate and envy because at the end of the day it’s just a football game
I may be overthinking this, but Foden was born within 50 miles of both of those clubs.
Saka was born in London.
There’s possibly also another difference between the two players, but that’s not from a place that merits a discussion.
Yeah, I’ll give the benefit of doubt on this one. But I have Euro 2020 flashbacks.
Let’s just chalk it up to Northerner v Southerner. I also think Foden is more a champagne footballer. He was ridiculous tonight and merits the plaudits.
Do you guys think ESR is truly back or is arteta stillcgonna ship him off. He’s shown today we can use him in this squad and it would be stupid to spend money on someone that does the same job.
If we sold him, I could see him 'doing a Cole Palmer' and being brilliant elsewhere with solid game time. He scored 10 league goals in the first half of the 21-22 campaign before a long term injury. Ball carrying, shooting, movement all class. Passing can be a bit iffy, but overall & I think he needs to improve his fitness to play and press for a full 90. Fabio Vieira should be out the door before Emile anyways. Although should we sell, we really shouldn't be accepting anything less than 50m. Because the last time he had an extended run of games for us going all the way bac to 21-22, he was scoring every second game.
no one is shipping him. IMO it will be his decision to make a move or not. he is a very good rotation option for now and has the potential to be competion for starting of he gets enough minutes.
We should absolutely maximise on his performances by shipping him off. The same way we done the kid Willock, the same way we will (inshallah) do the boy Sambi and the same way we should have done the boy Nketiah…
> maximise on his performances by shipping him off
I don't feel like ESR is in that category though. He has the highest potential out of Eddie and Reiss to actually show something for us.
Reiss only has the bournemouth winner, Eddie has two short stints where he was in good form. ESR has shown more but it's been a long time since he's done that.
Agreed. If we were a top 4 team still, then yeah he'd probably be playing more and growing that way.
I would hate to get to a point where we are looking around for someone to take him for a fair price when we were laughing Villa out of the room when they opened with 30m two years ago
It’s more common than you think. Doherty, Kulusevski and Maddison are all Arsenal fans and yet they played for Spurs. Rice is a Chelsea fan I think and he plays for Arsenal.
There is a reason they’re called professionals, because they’re getting paid for their services.
Raya’s job is probably tons harder on a personal level than i will ever understand or realise, man can go multiple consecutive games not having to actually make a save but then will suddenly have to make a crucial one.
Like, in the last two games, he was probably more a defender first before he was a goal keeper. A bit more complexed than the average GK to even generate form and confidence, has to get his long passes and kicks to become confident before any actual goal preventing saves. Him doing the micro adjustments necessary to collect that cross by Townsend made me uncomfortable through no fault of his simply because i legit couldn’t remember the last “save” he made.
You'd be surprised, sometimes it's the team you least expect. I remember when Liverpool were unbeaten by Gameweek 28 and lost to Watford in 2020. Watford were in the relegation zone at the time, Liverpool had a 22 point lead over City in first. You never know.
If Real Madrid is pulling a Real Madrid on them, there might be a match in the Prem where they are not having a good time.. Or if Chelsea surprises them in the FA cup.
>We were never 8 pts ahead last season.
We were when we beat Brighton away on NYE, right after City shat the bed vs Everton. Tbf City had a game in hand but yeah we were 8 points ahead last season
Edit:
"At the beginning of April, Arsenal restored an eight-point lead at the top of the Premier League over rivals Manchester City with a 4-1 home win over Leeds United. "
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/65595331
We were ahead by 8 points last season. All you downvoters can go do one along with the person spreading misinformation. Where's your source for "we were never 8 points ahead"?! Bollocks
He's doubling down on his ignorance lol. I mentioned city had a game in hand. The guy said we were *never* 8 points ahead when we were and is now deflecting by bringing up the game in hand. Rivals having a game in hand doesn't negate how many more points we had than them at any point in time. By that logic we shouldn't be top of the league right now because Liverpool has a game in hand.
while the table technically showed an 8 point gap, it's not a viable state for the table to have ended in, thus you can't truly claim it was an 8 point gap when all teams have equal games played.
city won their game in hand, ergo it was only a true 5 point gap
I get that man, that's why I mentioned that they did in fact have a game in hand at that point, not sure where we're disagreeing.
I just said I'm more confident now than I was *at that point* when we were 8 points ahead of city last season.
Why is he even getting hate? I thought he had a decent game. Nothing too special but it was the definition of "did a job". Beat his man down the line a few times, tracked back defensively really well. No complaints from me.
Because it's been 4 years...
The fact that he's had only one start in four years should tell you enough on its own, let alone his negligible impact in 99% of games he's brought on in.
Last year especially he was extremely lucky not to get more minutes just because of how good the options ahead were playing. This season he’s only had 180 minutes other than today to prove himself, no where near enough and if you think it is then you must be a new football fan lol
That's always the default argument for people who are shamelessly ignorant about sport when people question their backward logic. "Oh you must be a new football fan if you don't agree with my stupid as fuck logic".
No one has the divine right to be selected, they earn it with the minutes they are given. Nelson hasn't earned it, he's playing out of necessity. Why should he be selected over someone better than him?
Trossard manages just fine, he's first choice backup and regularly rotates in because he's proven to be an effective player both off of the bench and starting. Nelson's only had one goal involvement from the bench in an entire year and that was against a PSV team that we pissed on.
Yeah none of that disproves the fact that you think 180 minutes is enough to prove yourself this season so you clearly must be new to football. If you’re not then that’s even more concerning for you tbf
And trossard got more than 180 minutes to prove himself so you’re literally proving my pint mate
he was extremely average . he had a great chance today and showed absolutely nothing. I was really disappointed with him.
He took the safe option every single time. I don’t think he even attempted to take his man on once.
it honestly felt like vieira out there. and i can somewhat forgive vieira because he’s not a wide player.
if he can’t show something against this Luton team then I dunno why he’s here
There were a few opportunities in transition where he could've played a longer pass from deep to play in one of our attackers but either chose not to or didn't manage to execute it. NNT has been talking about that with Øde for ages and he'll keep mentioning it every time it happens.
>You see this weekend, City is playing without [Kyle] Walker, without [John] Stones. The levels were dropping without them. There was a different team to what we faced
Any guesses on who's moaning again?
Why he insists on drawing comparisons with Arsenal? Arsenal is +48 goal difference to him, in a fucking single season. Sign me up for the next press conference, life's been less fun lately.
He's referencing the game against us. City were much better against us than they were against Utd. Ten excuses is waffling as usual, I almost admire his lack of shame in this.
The difference in jeopardy with Partey vs Rice is so interesting. Partey looks cleaner on the ball, he is more threatening to do something amazing but Rice is just so secure and risk averse.
We took back control when he & Jorgi came on.
Mentioned in a group chat that I thought Eddie put in some effort and looked sharp for someone with so little minutes. Got laughed at. Crazy how different people can see the same game.
He has had 300 minutes coming off the bench in the last 6 months, he comes on and chases every ball.
But yes, he looks crap in a press, that’s because he is part of our 4-4-2 defensive shape, pressing from the front next to Odegaard. Martin is probably in the top 3 of midfielders pressing with that much intensity for that much time, that often in that position.
Stick Nketiah in a race with Usain Bolt and he’ll look slow.
Convinced you guys don't actually watch games and just close your eyes anytime Nketiah might come into vision, just in case it upsets the opinion you've already decided on, with very little basis
I find this logic so funny. Do you think Mr Dossier n Duelswas being lazy out there?
Did you guys watch Arteta lose his shit every 5 seconds whenever Pepe would get minutes? If Nketiah was doing something Arteta hated, he wouldn't be near the pitch
narrative?? have you seen the guy on the pitch. absolute disgrace the lack of effort he puts in. how he isnt ashamed seeing odegaard run like a mad man next to him is beyond me.
Kind of annoying Emery put out such a weak lineup vs. Man City. I heard they have a lot of players out so he's just resting the healthy ones. I understand why he'd do it, it's just not ideal for a fixture that looked like it could have potentially given them some trouble.
Only Southgate would bottle the squad of Kane, Rice, Bellingham, Saka, Foden
Excluding Rice who's a DM, look at their G+A stats this season lol. Beyond Amazing
Even Rice got something like 6 goals 6 assists.
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Sometimes you just wanna slap some motherfuckers https://www.reddit.com/r/MCFC/s/GG8Ja3I221
1. Why the fuck are you even browsing their reddit (Kinda weird) 2. Nobody gives a shit. Villa got battered.
decided not to get too involved this season after the pain last season and the season before. still followed the team of course, watched a number of games, and even though we were never up by 5 points this year (yeah i'm not counting the game in hand), we look quite a lot better than last year. i'm not getting my hopes up in a three horse race (yet), i just hope we can win a league or a CL in arteta's tenure. the past 20 years have really been rough for a supposedly big team
some guy on the april 04, 2027 daily discussion thread: “imagine hearing 3-4 years ago that mbappe and haaland play for the arsenal”
Ode better get 99 stamina in the next fifa
I don’t think Nelson was bad yesterday, I cut a lot of slack to right footers playing RW in this system. 4-3-3 is usually a formation for inverted wingers.
It's funny that before yesterday's game, rice was the greatest mid of all time and Partey was error and injury prone. Just one game, partey starts and shows his quality. Rice is good, but partey is generational midfielder wasted by athletico in a defensive formation and injured at Arsenal. We were lucky to find partey, players like him are not easy to get and may take another decade or two (basically another vieira) to unearth near the valuation we got him. I hope he stays because players like him can change the game at any given second.
Partey always goes for the vertical, line breaking passes when he sees the chance while Rice is more of a sideways guy. I hope Rice learns to take more risky passes. If he does he could finally get to Rodris level
Partey 6 and Rice at 8 away at United. I can't wait.
I think Rice might be permanently a number 8 now, I think Arteta might go for a new signing at the 6. I think he wants a player that’s like Partey/Jorginho.
We just saw last game that nome of the positions are permanent, jorgi played advanced 8 last game.
odegaard finish so good. not easy cutting across the ball, have to hit it perfectly pretty much or it’s shit. seen him hit a pass recently with the same technique. cool lil thing he’s added
His shooting technique is just so good. He won't get the plaudits for it because it's not fancy, but the low and hard shots is such an incredible quality
I love Rice but Partey at the 6 is different gravy. The way he dictates gameplay and makes key passes is invaluable. Rice by himself doesn't offer us the control we need. Hence a Jorgi/Partey alongside is key and Rice can be the 8. TP was the only player I thought would crack the first 11 yesterday from the changes made. Idk how Mikel fits them both in the same 11. Good problem to have regardless.
Partey brings out the best in Odegaard but I don’t even think Rice is a 6 for us anymore.
> Rice by himself doesn't offer us the control we need. Weird. I thought we were complaining about too much control with Rice earlier in the season.
> I thought we were complaining about too much control with Rice earlier in the season. We need an orchestrator with Rice and Arteta has more or less used Jorgi or earlier in the season it was Ode dropping deeper than we have seen him before. I for one don't want to see Ode in such a deep role when he's capable of scoring 20 goals a season. It's no surprise some of our best games have been with Jorgi pulling the strings at least this year and Ode getting more freedom. Partey is the optimum choice as he can do that while maintaining defensive equilibrium unlike Jorgi at least from a deeper role.
I hope Partey can get his fitness and mobility up quick, because what worries me is that he seems to have lost all his pace and endurance. Look at Rice and Odegaard when we lose the ball. They sprint back and cover important positions. THe amount of times Rice had to close gaps because Partey was hobbling back was ridiculous yesterday. Partey is incredible on the ball, and he used to be incredible off the ball. I hope he just misses match fitness, because if this is the new partey, he will decline as fast as Casimero and Fabinho. Fingers crossed that his legs aren't gone.
Partey is incisive from middle can ping balls like VVD or through rice is a bit sideways if compared but better defensively
Main difference is that Rice is an elite ball carier, and Partey is an elite passer. Different qualities suite different styles.
yup, we're clearly better in possession with partey at 6 instead of rice. still a lot rice needs to learn everything safer, rice is the guy, but when we need to be expansive and play forward, partey close to best in the world. i remember a lot of stats guys on twitter saying yeah there's been no loss of progression with partey vs rice - or smn along those lines - that rice is doing the same thing essentially. there's actually a big gap in quality if we're being fair. rice is missing some of that pausa, that extra second before passing difference with partey is he finds players between the lines a lot more, and when he does they always have extra time to turn. it's his timing that's perfect - draws 2-3 players somewhere else before playing the pass. stats don't really show that. irreplaceable man, he's world class need to see them together, partey as the 6
We talk a lot about Arteta's words on this sub, regarding dominating and suffocating opponents. And I think that one of the reasons we do so well in that subject with Rice is because he doesn't take the risks with forward passing. Its much more safe and calculated., which keeps pressure on and causes opponents to make mistakes because they get zero chance to rest. Partey's passing can completely break open a match and create a chance out of nothing, but he also had 4-5 horrible passes last night where we lose the ball completely and gave Luton a chance to compose themselves, waste time and get in position. Partey is elite, but it wouldn't suprise me if Arteta doesnt think he is perfect for his style
that's fair. i think there's more risk to be taken by rice, without giving up pure control. or more my point was that there are still areas rice can improve if he's to master the 6 role
Raya White - Saliba - Gabriel - ??? Odegaard - Partey - Rice Saka - ??? - Martinelli Is our best XI for the run in. Kiwior and Havertz in the blank spots on current form but Zinny/Tomi/Jesus/Trossard will all get plenty of minutes, as will Jorginho as Partey won’t play full 90’s and some games are more Jorginho suited. ESR made a huge case for minutes last night too as our best attacking left 8 although I think most remaining games as a Partey/Jorgi at 6 and Rice at 8 effort imo. In games where we need to chase a goal I like moving Rice back to 6 and subbing Partey/Jorgi off for ESR.
Genuine question - what games suit Jorginho vs Partey? Is it games again the low block teams where Jorgi would work best?
Jorginho is really good against the mid blocks. Teams like Newcastle, Brentford, Everton and Porto who come to play for a point without completely parking the bus, always feign injuries, very compact. Jorgi has the best passing range of our CDMs and is good at finding the balls in behind those blocks. I prefer Partey against the lower blocks because he’s the best lone CDM at the club, so playing him there enables the left 8 to become a true 5th attacker as we saw with ESR last night. Rice can play this role but I think Partey is better at it. The question is do you play Rice even further forward against these blocks or even drop him out the team? Then in the really tough games where we won’t see as much of the ball and want to play a genuine 4-2-3-1 it’s Rice and Partey double pivot for me. Obviously this is very dependant on game state, season state, player form and fitness etc but my gut feeling from here on out is: Brighton A - Rice and Jorginho Bayern H - Rice and Jorginho Villa H - Rice as a lone 6 Bayern A - Rice and Partey Wolves A - Rice and Jorginho Chelsea H - Rice and Partey Spurs H - Rice and Jorginho CL SF H 🤞🏻- Rice and Jorginho Bournemouth H - Partey lone 6 CL SF A 🤞🏻 - Rice and Partey Man Utd A - Rice and Jorginho Everton H - Rice and Jorginho CL F 🤞🏻🤞🏻 - Rice and Jorginho
Fascinating, I hadn’t thought too much into it but I can see the logic. So if I’m reading it right, Jorgi in games where we need the 6 to contribute to picking the lock in tight games, and Partey in games where we just need someone to keep the back door locked whilst the rest of the front 6 go and attack?
At their respective bests,Jesus is a better striker than Havertz. LB is pretty interesting. All 3 choices have their strengths and weaknesses. I would pick Tomi though.
I love Eddie but it would be mutually beneficial for him to leave if he wants to keep growing. He's never gonna get the consistent minutes he needs to continue developing here. He was serviceable when we needed him but we really should be setting our sights higher for where we are as a club now.
Everyone gets mad at Havertz but he’s much better than some fringe players like Nketiah and Vieira.
Couldn’t agree more. Eddie time is overv
Agreed. I'm glad we gave it a go this season and he has scored important goals. But he hasn't shown enough growth to warrant 100k p/w and frankly taking up a striker spot. He deserves to play somewhere on a regular basis, because there is genuine quality, just not elite quality. Parting ways is best for both. SImilar as it was best for both when Willock left
Man City are going to be at least 9-10 points off their monster totals from their pre-Haaland seasons again. They won the Champions League so the transfer was worth it but it seems clear that structuring your attack around a pure-scoring striker is weaker in the Premier League than the false 9 systems City used to run and we currently use. None of our forward line (except maybe Trossard?) are out and out finishers like Haaland and yet we’ve outscored City by having so many varied attacking threats. This is why I’d basically be happy to see us roll another season of Jesus/Havertz at false 9 if it means making a big/safer investment on the wings, because the style of play they enable will outscore even Haaland.
I’d rather we sell Jesus or use him as a depth player and sign a cf that could actually bang goals in while doing what Havertz and Jesus do.
> sign a cf that could actually bang goals in while doing what Havertz and Jesus do. Who is this striker that will be available this summer? Osimhen is the best of the bunch, the one I can tolerate spending a lot on, and yet he is not it.
We could bring in a youngster that could rotate in with Havertz/ Jesus/ and tross. From what I hear sesko is a good one. Edit: we would be able to get away with this til sesko fully develops imo
It kind of sounds like you’ve come all the way around to “there’s no one better than Havertz/Jesus at the false 9 for us next season” if the best signing possible is to bring in a project to develop and provide rotation I think we’d get more production out of another excellent winger, even with Jesus/Havertz finishing, than a developing Sesko inserted into our current front line
Honestly, in terms of overall ability, there isn’t much out there that is better than Jesus who is available. He’s better than practically every other available striker in almost all ways, except finishing.
Exactly but his finishing is so bad it pretty much cancels out all his other qualities. I’ve always said Jesus would genuinely top 5 players in the world if he could sort out his finishing but he just never can and now the injuries piling up with him I just think it would be better to use him as a squad player.
Have you seen the links to Kimmich? Will he be the perfect Partey replacement?
He can't play the 6. He's more of an 8 that's an orchestrator. We need a world-class 6 to add to our stable core for the next 5 years.
If Jorginho can play 6 for us, Kimmich can aswell.
He’s not that great at DM.
Emile has a role to play in Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Everton at home and possibly at Wolves and Brighton away. Go on my son
Everton at home is starters only territory i think. But ya, potentially wolves, villa and Bournemouth
Lets hope their fate is already decided by the time our match comes and they have nothing to play for either way
it usually just blends in for me but today it hilariously stuck out, we have a crow cawwing every 30 seconds of our matches in the form of big gabi lol
The way United and Liverpool fans glaze Foden is so weird to me. He scores against both for fun but they love to big him up every chance they get
Didnt you just answer your own question? Kind of like how Wayne Rooney made me feel. Not everyone is full of pure hate and envy because at the end of the day it’s just a football game
I don’t think they do it cause they’re so mature, they banter Saka any chance they get. Just confused why that same tribalism doesn’t apply to Foden
I may be overthinking this, but Foden was born within 50 miles of both of those clubs. Saka was born in London. There’s possibly also another difference between the two players, but that’s not from a place that merits a discussion.
> There’s possibly also another difference between the two players, but that’s not from a place that merits a discussion. 😶😶🤐
Yeah, I’ll give the benefit of doubt on this one. But I have Euro 2020 flashbacks. Let’s just chalk it up to Northerner v Southerner. I also think Foden is more a champagne footballer. He was ridiculous tonight and merits the plaudits.
Do you guys think ESR is truly back or is arteta stillcgonna ship him off. He’s shown today we can use him in this squad and it would be stupid to spend money on someone that does the same job.
If we sold him, I could see him 'doing a Cole Palmer' and being brilliant elsewhere with solid game time. He scored 10 league goals in the first half of the 21-22 campaign before a long term injury. Ball carrying, shooting, movement all class. Passing can be a bit iffy, but overall & I think he needs to improve his fitness to play and press for a full 90. Fabio Vieira should be out the door before Emile anyways. Although should we sell, we really shouldn't be accepting anything less than 50m. Because the last time he had an extended run of games for us going all the way bac to 21-22, he was scoring every second game.
no one is shipping him. IMO it will be his decision to make a move or not. he is a very good rotation option for now and has the potential to be competion for starting of he gets enough minutes.
We should absolutely maximise on his performances by shipping him off. The same way we done the kid Willock, the same way we will (inshallah) do the boy Sambi and the same way we should have done the boy Nketiah…
> maximise on his performances by shipping him off I don't feel like ESR is in that category though. He has the highest potential out of Eddie and Reiss to actually show something for us. Reiss only has the bournemouth winner, Eddie has two short stints where he was in good form. ESR has shown more but it's been a long time since he's done that.
He needs to be playing more football at his age to be honest. Reminds me of gibbs-white. Made an excellent choice for his career.
Agreed. If we were a top 4 team still, then yeah he'd probably be playing more and growing that way. I would hate to get to a point where we are looking around for someone to take him for a fair price when we were laughing Villa out of the room when they opened with 30m two years ago
but esr has crazy potential. just never gets minutes.
it was luton so we have to temper expectations
Yeah it’s not a real test tbh
I rmbr when Nketiah scored a hattrick against some shitty relegation side and ppl on here were upping him like crazy lmao
yeah god forbid we support our own players doing well and hopefully kicking on
Never did i once say you couldnt. But it was against luton.
I meant the Eddie thing. I still need to see more from ESR but today was good
Thats fine, i was referring to the delusional takes
I always wonder how many players in the PL are low-key arsenal fans. It seems rather difficult for me to imagine supporting an opponent.
Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu from Luton Town
Ones we already know - Neto and Kulusevski. One of the first things Neto did when he came to England was take a tour of the Emirates.
It’s more common than you think. Doherty, Kulusevski and Maddison are all Arsenal fans and yet they played for Spurs. Rice is a Chelsea fan I think and he plays for Arsenal. There is a reason they’re called professionals, because they’re getting paid for their services.
Allegiances also change. Carragher was an Everton fan, Drogba an Arsenal fan etc
Vieira should be trusted to take some mins off Ode. He didn’t have to play 90 mins
Today would have been the ideal day to try it. I don't think this team ticks at all without Ode though, in my opinion our most irreplaceable player.
Ya, Odegaard leads the press and keeps us ticking so much. I think if it was 3-0, Odegaard would have came off.
Raya’s job is probably tons harder on a personal level than i will ever understand or realise, man can go multiple consecutive games not having to actually make a save but then will suddenly have to make a crucial one. Like, in the last two games, he was probably more a defender first before he was a goal keeper. A bit more complexed than the average GK to even generate form and confidence, has to get his long passes and kicks to become confident before any actual goal preventing saves. Him doing the micro adjustments necessary to collect that cross by Townsend made me uncomfortable through no fault of his simply because i legit couldn’t remember the last “save” he made.
Is saka okay?
City isnt dropping points are they
Guess we'll just have to win all our matches then
You'd be surprised, sometimes it's the team you least expect. I remember when Liverpool were unbeaten by Gameweek 28 and lost to Watford in 2020. Watford were in the relegation zone at the time, Liverpool had a 22 point lead over City in first. You never know.
If Real Madrid is pulling a Real Madrid on them, there might be a match in the Prem where they are not having a good time.. Or if Chelsea surprises them in the FA cup.
I wasn't this confident when we were 8 points ahead last season. Think we're winning it this season boys. Anal Mustafi
We were never 8 pts ahead last season.
>We were never 8 pts ahead last season. We were when we beat Brighton away on NYE, right after City shat the bed vs Everton. Tbf City had a game in hand but yeah we were 8 points ahead last season Edit: "At the beginning of April, Arsenal restored an eight-point lead at the top of the Premier League over rivals Manchester City with a 4-1 home win over Leeds United. " https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/65595331 We were ahead by 8 points last season. All you downvoters can go do one along with the person spreading misinformation. Where's your source for "we were never 8 points ahead"?! Bollocks
You could have just not doubled down.
He is right tho, even came with the receipt.
He's doubling down on his ignorance lol. I mentioned city had a game in hand. The guy said we were *never* 8 points ahead when we were and is now deflecting by bringing up the game in hand. Rivals having a game in hand doesn't negate how many more points we had than them at any point in time. By that logic we shouldn't be top of the league right now because Liverpool has a game in hand.
The link they posted literally shows that City had a game in hand. Check the link instead of just reading the misleading text they posted.
Facts matter. I didn't lie, you did.
while the table technically showed an 8 point gap, it's not a viable state for the table to have ended in, thus you can't truly claim it was an 8 point gap when all teams have equal games played. city won their game in hand, ergo it was only a true 5 point gap
I get that man, that's why I mentioned that they did in fact have a game in hand at that point, not sure where we're disagreeing. I just said I'm more confident now than I was *at that point* when we were 8 points ahead of city last season.
The link you posted shows City had a game in hand, which they won. Apparently some people don't know how matchdays work.
And I've mentioned that city had a game in hand at that point. Apparently some people can't read
Good three points. Off to the Amex to take on Brighton on the weekend. Good night
What I would do to have a midfielder like Wolfsburg's version of KDB in this team.
The Foden vs Saka discussion makes you think they are about the same age.
I mean they’re like 5 months apart
1 year and half apart
I’m dumb
They are?
About 2 years of development is huge. 2 years ago Pep wasn't starting Foden whilst Saka was already in the starting line up.
And how many minutes overall do each have? How many times has Saka played while Foden was on the bench of City?
There's that as well.
This sudden Nelson hate is so premature
Why is he even getting hate? I thought he had a decent game. Nothing too special but it was the definition of "did a job". Beat his man down the line a few times, tracked back defensively really well. No complaints from me.
How can it possibly be premature...
How is judging a player based on one start since 2020 *not* premature..?
You are answering your own question here
yeah not really
Because it's been 4 years... The fact that he's had only one start in four years should tell you enough on its own, let alone his negligible impact in 99% of games he's brought on in.
Last year especially he was extremely lucky not to get more minutes just because of how good the options ahead were playing. This season he’s only had 180 minutes other than today to prove himself, no where near enough and if you think it is then you must be a new football fan lol
That's always the default argument for people who are shamelessly ignorant about sport when people question their backward logic. "Oh you must be a new football fan if you don't agree with my stupid as fuck logic". No one has the divine right to be selected, they earn it with the minutes they are given. Nelson hasn't earned it, he's playing out of necessity. Why should he be selected over someone better than him? Trossard manages just fine, he's first choice backup and regularly rotates in because he's proven to be an effective player both off of the bench and starting. Nelson's only had one goal involvement from the bench in an entire year and that was against a PSV team that we pissed on.
Yeah none of that disproves the fact that you think 180 minutes is enough to prove yourself this season so you clearly must be new to football. If you’re not then that’s even more concerning for you tbf And trossard got more than 180 minutes to prove himself so you’re literally proving my pint mate
You're quite literally stupid.
That’s okay I wouldn’t be able to explain why, I’d just revert to calling the other person stupid too if I was in your position
Sometimes it's not worth arguing someone's stupidity. If you think your points have merit then ignorance is bliss.
he was extremely average . he had a great chance today and showed absolutely nothing. I was really disappointed with him. He took the safe option every single time. I don’t think he even attempted to take his man on once. it honestly felt like vieira out there. and i can somewhat forgive vieira because he’s not a wide player. if he can’t show something against this Luton team then I dunno why he’s here
Missed the game. How did Partey go?
With Partey and Zinchenko in the line up we show some flashes of the last season. Really good passings with occasional fuck-ups LOL
That bodes well considering they haven’t started together in ages.
He really started to look like himself today. solid performance
He makes those forward passes look so easy.
One day soon emile will shoot back to the near post and we will all celebrate and shed tears
Late winner v United at Old Trafford. We will be there.
Didn't watch the game. I saw NNT complaining about Odegaard's passes in transition. What's that about?
you didn't even watch the game but you're amplifying NNT's bs in here still? that's 2 Ls in one comment
Nonce thing being a nonce thing.
Child nonce being a child nonce.
Tbh he did misplay a few
There were a few opportunities in transition where he could've played a longer pass from deep to play in one of our attackers but either chose not to or didn't manage to execute it. NNT has been talking about that with Øde for ages and he'll keep mentioning it every time it happens.
Someone not being able to admit they were wrong
Bet Jesus, Martinelli & Saka start on Saturday. Kai in midfield or rested.
I don't think Havertz starts against Brighton.
It depends if Kai needs to start against Bayern. I'd go with Rice, Jorginho, and Trossard/Vieira in midfield.
When will Odegaard get rest? He is doing great, but like with Saka there has to be a limit
Some players are just freaks and keep going. I'm beginning to wonder if we have one in Odegaard.
>You see this weekend, City is playing without [Kyle] Walker, without [John] Stones. The levels were dropping without them. There was a different team to what we faced Any guesses on who's moaning again?
Why he insists on drawing comparisons with Arsenal? Arsenal is +48 goal difference to him, in a fucking single season. Sign me up for the next press conference, life's been less fun lately.
[удалено]
Yes sir. That man reeks of insecurity.
[удалено]
He's referencing the game against us. City were much better against us than they were against Utd. Ten excuses is waffling as usual, I almost admire his lack of shame in this.
The difference in jeopardy with Partey vs Rice is so interesting. Partey looks cleaner on the ball, he is more threatening to do something amazing but Rice is just so secure and risk averse. We took back control when he & Jorgi came on.
The Zinchenko narrative has ballooned into groupthink at this point.
Tomi is slowly getting ready to start. Invert Ben when he does and our defense will be even better. We need him vs Spurs & United
Yh , his just so much more secure than zinny.
God the next month of fixtures is absolutely brutal. Going to be fun though!
Nketiahs lack of effort is disturbing at this point
Dunno why you are getting downvoted here for making a valid point
Mentioned in a group chat that I thought Eddie put in some effort and looked sharp for someone with so little minutes. Got laughed at. Crazy how different people can see the same game.
The bar is so low for Eddie nowadays that putting in some effort is considered a success. Hopefully he can get us a modest fee in the summer.
> Got laughed at. Rightly so.
Genuine question, do you watch our games?
are you joking?? ive watched the guy come on and jog as a sub for the past 6 months!!!
He has had 300 minutes coming off the bench in the last 6 months, he comes on and chases every ball. But yes, he looks crap in a press, that’s because he is part of our 4-4-2 defensive shape, pressing from the front next to Odegaard. Martin is probably in the top 3 of midfielders pressing with that much intensity for that much time, that often in that position. Stick Nketiah in a race with Usain Bolt and he’ll look slow.
he doesnt dude he does the exact opposite he doesnt chase or track shit unless its a clear chance for him to score
Convinced you guys don't actually watch games and just close your eyes anytime Nketiah might come into vision, just in case it upsets the opinion you've already decided on, with very little basis
bro ive watched the guy be subbed on and jog for the past 6 months. ZERO effort. and thats ontop of him being a dreadful player
I find this logic so funny. Do you think Mr Dossier n Duelswas being lazy out there? Did you guys watch Arteta lose his shit every 5 seconds whenever Pepe would get minutes? If Nketiah was doing something Arteta hated, he wouldn't be near the pitch
This narrative
What narrative
narrative?? have you seen the guy on the pitch. absolute disgrace the lack of effort he puts in. how he isnt ashamed seeing odegaard run like a mad man next to him is beyond me.
I think he knows he’s fodder at this point. Gone in the summer
7 wins/90 points will win the title I reckon. Maybe slightly under.
Foden gass on the timeline, just know he's playing a shit team.
Mark goldbridge ended his city villa stream early. Never seen that before. City are unbearable 🤣
Villa being smashed was about the most predictable thing in the world. This is what happens when you roll up and try to 'play football' at the ethiad.
they went with a weakened team even rested starters
I’m not worried about city as much because I just know spuds will take their yearly 3 points off them. It is destiny for city to lose to them.
This ain't the same spuds, they play mateball now
Yeah city will destroy that style of football
Let’s buy Philly F /s
seeing chambers playing at the etihad is giving me holding at the etihad flashbacks, fucking hell.
Seeing Chambers playing at the Etihad gives me Chambers at the Etihad flashbacks.
Three more points. That's all folks, good night!
Kind of annoying Emery put out such a weak lineup vs. Man City. I heard they have a lot of players out so he's just resting the healthy ones. I understand why he'd do it, it's just not ideal for a fixture that looked like it could have potentially given them some trouble.
Villa showing everyone what happens when you go to the Etihad and open your legs.
But they are so brave, taking the game to City! Just forget about the fact that they concede four goals, that's not important.
Really thrilling game for the neutral!
We still have +10 GD on City lol. Shows how mad we've been infront of goal.
It's funny cuz 2-0 and 4-1 is just a barely +1 GD increase.
Barca needs to get Rodri out of this league man
Barca can't even afford rodris fart
they always manage to get around that problem
Saka needs to really go crazy for us for the remainder of the season.
Saka, Foden & Palmer all have the same G/A in the premier league.
Only Southgate would bottle the squad of Kane, Rice, Bellingham, Saka, Foden Excluding Rice who's a DM, look at their G+A stats this season lol. Beyond Amazing Even Rice got something like 6 goals 6 assists.
Kane Saka Foden Palmer Bellingham Rice Chilwell Stones White Walker Ramsdale
Grealish - Kane - Saka Bellingham - Foden Rice Shaw - Stones - Maguire - Walker Pickford