Wednesday 19 May 2021 Selhurst Park USA “TV”: Peacock 2pm ET Well I’ve been uncharacteristically AWOL from footy and my thread starting duties. But then again nobody seemed to be clamoring for this thread. Heads-up that KO is oddly 1 hour earlier than typical... 2pm. Selhurst Park with fans in should be a factor. They can be a loud feisty lot. I was lucky to attend this fixture back in August 2015 and I’d say the atmosphere was well above average. All that comes to mind in that game was that we squeaked out a victory and Giroud scored a difficult sidewinder, just to piss off his critics. Not as famous as the scorpion one, but a damn good strike. For some reason there aren’t any good videos of that goal Anyway, fast forward to 2021 and we’re in a radically different place in so many ways. But I’ll leave it to the rest of y’all to frame this match.
Those Pumas Giroud is wearing were some of my faves. I saw that fixture from a bar in Hawaii. Anyway, time to send off Woy in the worst way possible, with a 4-0 win. ESR with 1, Saka with 1, Martinelli with 1 and Leno with 1.
🚨 TEAM NEWS IS IN… 🇬🇭 @ThomasPartey22 in midfield 🏴 @EmileSmithRowe starts 🇨🇮 Pepe returns out wide #️⃣ #CRYARS— Arsenal (@Arsenal) May 19, 2021 I like most of the team selection. Keeps ESR central, which is good.
I'd like to see more kids get a chance, but if Arteta isn't willing to do that, at least he's playing guys that are likely to be here next season. Leno and Elneny probably the biggest questions, but I could see both returning. And no Ceballos or Odegaard or, best of all, no Willian.
Nice touch for both teams to give Hodgson a guard of honour. He's had a good career and part of dwindling pool of old-school gentlemen left in the sport. Dwindling? Nah, all but gone. On a more negative note, so far no signs of blue shorts being used with the new away kit.
Just noticed that Emi Martinez & Villa are leading Spurs 2-1 at the toilet bowl early in 2T. If it's St.Tott's day we're after then come on you Villains. If it's our own league position, a draw might be best? Edit: Scratch that last thought... Villa are further behind us that I realized.
Re fans in the stadia this week, there's no consistency on how clubs implement or enforce the de-densification. In Palace's case, there are virtually zero fans in the opposite stand, as they're all crammed into the traditional home end. Helps the atmosphere, but seems a stupid way to allow the new reduced capacity experiment to be executed.
If we lose today and Villa closes out the win, we'd still be 3 points ahead with (probably) a GD advantage. They're extremely unlikely to surpass us in the table.
ESR popping up everywhere. I would normally be annoyed at the Palace fans treatment of Tierney, but kind of miss it in that fake crowd noise never did that and I'm pretty confident Tierney doesn't give a f*ck.
Fun fact: we have scored from 1 corner in the league this season. It happened in the first game of the season. We have taken 194 corners. Abysmal return.
Saka would've earned that PK had he not been several inches offside. Most promising move we had so far. Then Schlupp down the other end forces Leno into a good save.
I missed that little altercation. Did Elneny actually do anything to earn a yellow? Benteke certainly did... coulda been red, from another HR or VAR.
To add: we have created the second-fewest shot attempts (39) from dead balls in the league. Only Sheffield United has created fewer. If we have a dedicated set piece coach, he needs to be sacked immediately. If we don't have one, we obviously need one.