Thursday 18 March 2021 Europa League R16 Leg 2 Ashburton Grove USA TV: TUDN, CBS All Access 1:55pm ET OK, back to what many think is the only competition that really matters for us now (although if we have a blinder of a run-in in the league, and finish 5th, that might be debatable) We start this match with a nice 3-1 aggregate advantage & 3 away goals. Comfy enough for us to “manage” this match, right? Who am I kidding, this is Arsenal we’re talking about! Masters at making things hard for ourselves. Will we just play for a nervy draw or friggin go for the jugular by scoring a few more goals early?! Team News? Everyone's fit supposedly. But I think we should expect no Saka starting, as he was pulled at HT vs Spurs due to hammie? Players who I think might come into the XI include: Mari, Bellerin, El Neny, Pepe, Auba and... wait for it... Willian. And how about Martinelli??? Not likely... Mikel is holding him back for some mysterious reason (“It’s my fault not his”) Just praying that Arteta doesn’t overuse, burn out or injure the like of Tierney, Xhaka or ESR. In the end, I expect us to advance to the QF’s for Pete’s sake!
We should win this tie. Really, we should. I wish he would start Martinelli, he looks good but I can't remember. Play him or lose him.You hear me Arteta? Play him or lose him.
Busy facilitating a local government event today (darn work!) so now live viewing for yours truly. But c'mon you Gunners! Let's win this, advance, and keep building momentum. A strong end to the 20-21 campaign!
Cmon on let’s win and not make it harder than it has to be. Nice easy win please. Two or three goals and a clean sheet
I would have preferred more rotation than this. Hopefully the tie is over by halftime and some of the kids can get runouts as subs. ✅ Team news is in… 🇪🇸 @HectorBellerin returns 🇪🇬 @ElNenny starts 🇬🇦 @Auba leads the line 🏆 #UEL— Arsenal (@Arsenal) March 18, 2021
That link isn't working for some reason, so here's a snip... This is about the level of rotation I expected. Happy to see Willian didn't make the XI. Everyone else is on the bench, except for Saka who obviously is still injured. Also, I'm not certain this is going to be the usual 4-2-3-1. With Xhaka, El Neny & Ceballos.
Looks like a holding 4-3-3 to me... ------------------ PEA ------------------- ESR ------------------------------ Pepe -------- Xhaka --------- Dani ---------- ----------------El Neny ------------------ Tierney -- Gabby -- Luiz -- Bellerin You could probably swap El Neny & Xhaka as well but based on how it is listed on twitter I'm thinking Xhaka is on the left.
Tierney has started the last 6 matches, I don't want to overwork him. Luiz has started the last 5 matches, isn't it time to move on from him if he is leaving on an expiring contract? I would have liked to see Martinelli get a start at ST over Auba, but I guess he and Arteta kissed and made up. Sometimes with imbedded tweets, if they don't show up, just hit refresh and they will work.
Yeah, would have liked to see Chambers or Holding in for Luiz. Joel Lopez for Tierney. Would have been nice to see Martinelli but I get why they gave PEA the start. Hoping we snag a couple of goals before half so we can see Nelson & Martinelli get atleast 20-30 min in the 2nd.
A little more rotation might've been nice, but this is clearly as far as Mikel is comfy with. But Joel Lopez??? I have virtually no idea who he is, I can't recall him playing for the senior team, and more importantly he's not even on the bench. Cedric seems more likely to play at LB than Lopez. But he's getting a rest apparently. But I too am crossing fingers that Tierney doesn't go down with an overuse injury. UEFA allows huge benches. I think he's done it before in UEL.
The ball bounced back and hit ESR in the face. Socrates got a cleat to the top of the foot. Both shold be ok
Auba misses a fantastic opportunity (best of the game so far)... blasting it over the bar from 12 yds out. Edit: If Laca had done that people would be saying "Auba woulda buried that".