Feels weird to be writing 2020. We've been mocking United a lot, but we really shouldn't - they're a better side than us, and probably the fourth best team in the league. Going to take a lot to get anything out of this one, so someone needs to be willing to setup up for Monday's match. TV: NBCSN Time: 1500 EST/2000 GMT Bear Time
Ugh, it's true I'm afraid. As poor as decision making has been at that club the last decade, spending on defenders seems to have paid dividends this season for them. James looks to be a smart purchase as well. They are second in XG against behind only Liverpool, and third in the league based on "expected points". A marked improvement over last year when they were only slightly better than us in the advanced metrics. I hope Arteta has something up his sleeve not because the result really matters this season but because another loss is going to put the pressure on him prematurely from the media and a lot fans.
Sadly no. Chambers likely out long term. Sokratis coming back from concussion... not sure if protocol will allow him to play tomorrow. Saka seemed to have at least a dead leg for the tail end of Sunday's match. Plus he's been deputized a lot at LB, so there might have to be some creative shuffling in the back line. And the probability of Mustafi has gone up. :dread: Ozil's also been playing a lot, so one theory is that he'll sit and Pepe will finally start. If so, for him and all of us, I pray that he does well. The bookies have us as a very slight favorite for this match, but I would be quite surprised if we take 3 points. Prove me wrong boys!!
ManU is like the Yankees - They'll try to spend themselves out of every problem and occasionally that works actually as intended. Er, at least at having some success on the pitch. Still hate em. Kill.
Other than the Spurs match at home this fixture is the biggest game of the season IMO. Quality wise they are very poor but tbh so are we.. their front 4 though is very dangerous and they will give us many problems. They have spent a crap town of money on defense but other than Harry being overpriced it's quite solid. Their weakness is midfield but the problem is so is ours. My head is saying 3-2 to the Pagans but I'll go with my heart and say 2-1 to the good guys! Ugh please don't lose to Yanited at home!
Via Arseblog: ‘Here are tonight’s official line-ups. Arsenal: Leno, Maitland-Niles, Sokratis, Luiz, Kolasinac, Xhaka, Torreira, Ozil, Pepe, Aubameyang, Lacazette Subs: Martinez, Holding, Ceballos, Guendouzi, Willock, Nelson, Saka’
... proving most of our predictions wrong, especially the one about Pepe not starting if Ozil starts. He likes the 4-2-3-1 apparently.
And looks like the boss is treating this one like a big, must-win match... bringing in several players who had very recent injuries (sok, kola), players who should help defensively (xhaka) & ones that have played a ton of successive matches (luiz, torreira, auba, laca)
Thing is, we don’t have a ton of options otherwise right now. Martinelli is injured, Saka pulled up lame in the last match and probably needs to be held in reserve in case Kolasinac can’t go 90 or aggravates his injury (that he seems to have been rushed back from), and everybody hates Nelson for whatever reason.
Think the option is Nelson, his end product isn't there yet but it's not worse than Laca's end product this season, and he offers genuine width and defensive work rate.
I can only pray that Auba doesn't spend most of his time in our half like he did in most of our last match. He was imperious that day, especially in his defensive duties, but IMHO we needed to just throw more caution to the wind, go all out, and attack. IOW if we get another early 1-0 lead, I pray we don't spend the bulk of the rest of the match trying to protect it.
That’s probably what I would do, also. He’s gotten so much ire over the last couple games and I really can’t understand why. But you do have to think that he’s young and played nearly 180 minutes minutes in the last 7 days. Might be too much for him right now.
OMG, did you see that stat on NBC? Arsenal Football Club have never, ever lost 5 consecutive home games. Whoa, if the players know that, I would hope that is one huge motivating factor not to fvck this one up!
I for one am quite surprised to see Kola in the XI. His ankle must be heavily strapped. And on that sprint back I think we can see how they will be attacking him at will. And he had to resort to a pro foul which earned him a yellow card after 2 mins.
Can we please enact some form of penalty for teams clustering around the ref? Only takes 1 to plead you case, lads, otherwise you look like whiny b****es.
Woohoo!!! Pepe proves his start was worth it. 1-0 Edit: And it was from a cutback by Kola, something that used be gold for us.
Pepe had to reach to make that shot so it's nice he was able to make solid contact. Good run by Kola to make that happen. Now can the lads adopt a killer instinct to build on the lead?