Kickoff takes place at 12:30pm GMT/7:30am EST/2:30am HST. Live pictures from Ashburton Grove will be broadcast by NBCSN in the States. Bad performance and worse result at Anfield, but we’ve got a lot of winnable fixtures coming up before the turn on the year. It’s an opportunity to put together a similar run we just ended. We might as well start here by maybe creating some chances and scoring some goals, yeah? Let’s smash these punks. Up the Arsenal.
I would be surprised if Tierney doesn't come back in at LB. Good chance we see Odegaard in for Lacazette. And wouldn't shock me if AMN starts in midfield.
Just watched Mikel’s presser. He was even more confident & upbeat than typical. Praised his players/leaders for their their reactions in the locker room after the Anfield defeat. There are no new injury concerns. And on the opposite aide, Eddie Howe has surprisingly been cleared to be on the touchline.
Interesting to see him go with both Nuno and Sambi again, given their “challenges” at Anfield. Most pundits had Kieran reclaiming his spot. Nice to see the manager is still in charge! Also nice to see Martin get a start… Let’s hope he justifies it.
38' Klafth goes down with an obvious head injury. What is the point of the concussion protocols and the new concussion subs rule... if they are never employed?
HT 0-0 80% possession. 12 shots, 2 on target. (1 of which was a gaping miss) First 35' were fairly tepid but the last 10 mins was much much better... we finally got a fire lit under out butts.
Its frustrating that we have a lightning quick front 3 and yet Arteta still has us playing U shaped football and not making use of the fact that when we recover the ball in midfield we seldom look to use the space. We might have done it 3 or 4 times where there has been a massive opening and we put it into space. I still can't get the Arteta support when we play a style that generates such few decent chances despite dominating possession.
Slept in, but halftime allowed me to catch up. Not sure having fullbacks take all the shots is the best approach.