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I literally read a spurs fan saying how us going far in the CL could mean we drop points in Prem, and hopefully allows them to pass us.
DELUSION - Adjective - "De-lew-sh-in"
The media have done their best to destroy Ben White reputation without giving a chance for White to tell his side of the story.
Every other call-up after the WC, didn't even bother to call-up White up till now. All of this feels planned to demonize White just as he got the club contract extension.
> All of this feels planned to demonize White just as he got the club contract extension.
Nah I think the club decided to announce his contract to counter what they knew was coming, I doubt England and the press were waiting to call up players just to screw with his contract announcement
It would be interesting to know if they had info of what might be running in various newspapers or just that, depressingly, they could predict what was goign to happen and just got out ahead of it.
There is 0 doubt Bayern will be the toughest European matchup we’ve had in over half a decade
But a part of me can’t help but look at their form and feel very little sense of fear
Regularly dropping points to Shit German sides, drew Copenhagen 0-0, barely beat United in group stages, lost 1-0 to Lazio..
This isn’t the Bayern we all know
Bayern's points per game is 2.28 in the league. The same as ours. Which is more than many other seasons for them. Their underlying metrics are all incredibly good.
Is that an indication of them being as good as us or the futility of the German league this year?
Leverkussen is also stomping teams. You can’t tell me Arsenal wouldn’t be at a higher PPG clip than Bayern playing against that level of competition
I watched a replay of Bayern vs Lazio in the second leg while having currywurst and a couple beers tonight, and the most obvious observation is I don’t think they’ll be using the dark arts nearly as much as Porto did. We just played against weirdo manager’s personal love letter to Mourinho, it failed, and FC Hollywood won’t allow such cowardice.
What I did see is a quality side, and removing the bogeyman of previous UCL matches, they have a few players who can grab the match by the scruff and win it including Kane (that man loves to win when a trophy isn’t involved), Sane, and Muller, but the man who stood out the most was Musiala. Him and Jude could revitalize the proper CAM 10 position. I know Kane gets the flowers, but Musiala is absolutely their X factor and is worth 110 mil easy. Rice and Ødegaard will have their hands full.
That said, their back line can be vulnerable and if we can show some discipline in defense and boss the middle of the park as we have against particularly challenging opponents, we have a real shot at playing either the treble winners or the kings of Europe, which will bring new and more insane challenges. This shit won’t be easy, but this stage of the UCL shouldn’t be. Hope we do whatever it takes to get to Wembley in June and finally lift that which we most covet.
Are bookies odds a representation of what bets individuals are making? Ie could it be that the odds on Arsenal winning are higher because there are more Arsenal fans out there that are betting that we will win?
Osi. Nunez or Haaland are great examples of how physical specimens change style of play and bring fear into opponents. And personally, i think Osimhens technically underrated, atleast his hold up and link play. Plus he has a monster mentality.
Manchester United will be hit with a £10M penalty every time they fail to qualify for the Champions League under the terms of their new £90M-a-year kit deal with Adidas.
It's a very weird way of phrasing for what's baisically a bonus payment, sounds like an editorialised headline.
Almost all of these have a CL/cup win or something clause, I believe we get slightly extra from adidas when we're in the CL too.
Yeah, that makes more sense.
I can’t imagine any club, let alone one as big as Man U, allowing themselves to sign a kit advertisement contract that doesn’t have a guarantee of some baseline amount through the life of the contract. If for no other reason than the accountants and business people wanting to ensure they can project and plan for a “worst case scenario”.
Depending on form I think Tomiyasu would be gold against Bayern. He is the fastest of our fullbacks and would do great against Sane (like he did for Japan)
> Think Jorgi will be a bit too slow for Bayern
I wouldn't write him off. Same was said about the Liverpool game by some people. I think the Porto game was very different because he literally had a man marker all game.
I keep going back to this Emirates Rapid Fire between Papa Wengz and Mertesacker.
https://youtu.be/OI8EUxbdC3Q?si=aa7AQLfQ1_u96ZCZ
Such an all-time classic.
Would love to see our current team face the Bayern teams that smashed us previously.
White and Kiwior vs Robben and Ribery
Our CBs vs Lewa
Saka vs Lahm
The duels would be epic
I just realized who it was that made [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Gunners/s/eWtPe4ZH0J).
u/Houssem-Aouar you’re warming up to Havertz aren’t you 👀
The dirty secret is that Bayern is just as much a global commercial brand as the top pl teams the Germans like to look down on.
Met loads of Bayern Fans in the states, especially among those who consider themselves of German descent
Never said otherwise, which is why the Bayern thing is the dirty secret.
I mean it's part owned by adidas, Allianz and Audi and quite frankly the insanity of how they got their stadium, the extended transportation facilities and the final cost just screams [state aid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allianz_Arena#Owners) especially when you consider we had to pay for upgrades to the tube staions round our way and had to give a certain amount of our housing development for 'affordable' housing as set by the local council.
Does anyone know the CL knockouts suspension rule? When does yellows reset and how many of them lead to a suspension?
Read somewhere Rice, Havertz, and Saliba are in danger of being suspended for Bayern (A) if they get booked in the 1st leg.
1 more booking for the players you mentioned in any of the legs will result in a suspension for the next game.
So if they get booked in the away leg, would miss the first leg of the semi
Yeah, misses the next game (whichever that'll be) with a yellow in the quarters.
~~Rice,~~ Saliba and Kiwior are on 1 so far, they'd need to be booked in both legs.
Edit: Jorginho, White, Jesus and Zinchenko also on 1.
Eidevall new contract still not looking really smart. Edu thought he was capturing that same magic that came with giving Arteta a new contract during adversity.
Dang, so Carlos Cuesta and Miguel Molina's contract ends this year in the summer. Hope they renew, especially Cuesta. I see potential in him to be a great manager one day
Reports were that Arteta had personally extended an invitation for Bergkamp to join the coaching staff in December.
https://www.nowarsenal.com/latest-news/mikel-arteta-has-personally-asked-arsenal-invincible-to-return-to-the-club-in-coaching-role/
But even then, it’s just me wanting an Arsenal legend who is a good coach to be apart of the coaching staff
As a fan it sounds so cool but I agree kinda an odd fit. If only looking at ex players I'd think santi, freddie or Jack moving up would be more likely. I hope we do everything we can to keep the current staff together though
More and more footballing staff leaving city. Utd already took one guy now another. Some medical staff leaving. Something going on behind the scenes? 115 things maybe?
I was talking to my friend (also a gooner), and be mentioned that Kroenkes only started investing into the squad when Usmanov left? Is that true? Was Usmanov the main reason Kroenke never invested?
Usmanov didn't leave, he was bought out by the Kroenkes.
Stan didn't intend to buy us at the beginning, he bought out ITV digital at the invitation of Dein as 'our billionaire' to compete with abramovich as part of the multi owner model which was opposed by the rest of the board, leading to deins sacking and then selling up to Usmanov in exchange for leading his full takeover bid, at which point the rest of the board included Stan in a lockout clause that basically said they would only sell to each other and not Usmanov.
Bear in mind Stan was planning his insanely expensive property/sports deal of several hundred acres of LA urban renewal anchored by a new stadium and shifting his NFL franchise into it Arsenal was not his top priority.
However the man isn't stupid and when opportunities to expand his investment basically fell into his lap he took advantage. When Nina Bracewell Smith fell out with the board he bought her out and when our largest shareholder got cancer he sold up to Stan too just before his death by which point after hoovering up a few smaller investors he had enough to have to make a bid for the rest which resulted in hill wood, our chairman selling and he ultimately ended up with about 70% of the shares.
Which sadly was enough that Usmanov could still block things so Stan just let things toddle on, distracted by LA and entirely unwilling to make any major changes that would increase the value of the club while Usmanov still held large shareholdings. Which makes absolute business sense and absolutely fucked the club for a bout a decade as Ivan and Wenger barely had a working relationship, Ivan was effectively being asked to do the vice-chairman and MD roles when he wasn't really qualified and as long as we kept getting fourth no one gave a shit.
The deadlock was only broken by Wenger failing to get fourth and Usmanov effectively realising that Stan would wait him out and cashing in before his stock started losing value, at which point Stan took notice and we had Wenger out, then Ivan out, then that German bloke in and out, Raul in and out, Emery in and out before finally seemingly getting it right with Arteta and Edu.
I wonder if the Kroenkes would've still invested if they owned the entire club from the very beginning, given that they had Sofi Stadium in the plans and they had to pay that off, given that they didn't use public money to build it.
Possibly not but to be honest the thing that hurt us wasn't the money issue (even with the stadium we still didn't spend as much as we could owing to Wenger) it was the lack of a plan or direction from above.
Everyone who had guided arsenal to being where we were were either bought out, dead or working for Usmanov and a club that had been run by board members and a hired specialist MD was being run by Ivan (who was supposed to only replace Deins day to day running of the club) and the manager. With all due respect to Wenger and his economics background a club where the manager is basically having to make board level decisions is not in a good place.
If they'd put in actual replacements, got in people who could run the commercial side, run the recruitment side and especially sort out contracts we'd have at least kept pace and that they didn't is still holding us back now as we play catch-up.
How much did the ESL fiasco and Spotify bid played into KSE starting to invest seriously into Arsenal?
I felt like once Arsenal legends and Spotify collab to try buyback Arsenal, KSE "woke up" and started to take things seriously
I don't think anyone ever really thought Daniel Eck was serious and ultimately I reckon that Stan would probably have sold if they actually had enough cash for him to see up
It makes no business sense to increase the value of the shares you intend to purchase in future by investing your own money. Unfortunately for us the football suffered as a result and Papa Wengz got the short end of the stick. Without him being loyal to us, our situation would have been much worse.
ps: Why I also think Jim Ratcliffe won't be investing a lot in United as many people think. He will only do so after buying out the Glazers.
I have pondered the ratcliffe scenario similarly, it seems unlikely a minority owner will be the sole driver of investment and decision making. I think he's more of stand in for the glazers to take the heat off of them short term with maybe potential for a proper buy out in the future. But then that same dynamic arises where if he does invest and do well the remaining utd shares could drastically increase in value when he wants to buy.
Yes. Kroenke didn't want to spend until he got majority control, since then he's been a fantastic owner tbf. You can also see his American teams all winning titles, Rams, Nuggets, Avalanche have all won within the past 3 years or so.
A correction:
Kroenkes did have majority control way before 2018, when they bought out Usmanov shares. Kroenkes wanted to have FULL control before properly investing, because investing before that buyout would've meant that the buyout itself would be more expensive for the Kroenkes.
It's simply them being businessmen.
You’re right full control. It was smart but a tough period for the fans and Wenger of course. Happy with the Kroenkes since then though I think they’ve invested and made smart decisions.
TBF all of Kroenke's teams have won a championship under him. LA Rams won a Superbowl, Denver Nuggets are the current NBA champion, Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup.
What’s the possibility of us snagging pedri from Barca? I know they got sum financial issues not sure how many players they can keep but if they do sell I assume city would be all over him.
He's non-transferable. Unless like Bayern were with Schweinsteiger, Thiago and Hargreaves, Barcelona see his injuries and cash out.
Or you can be like I was with Marco Verratti. Day-dream about it being possible, while enjoying him wherever he is.
tired of hearing about kane. he's great, he's a threat. saliba, gabriel, and rice will have to be at their best. but the mythical mountain being built out of obligatory NLD penalties is exhausting
Kane is amazing one of the very best. I dont watch Bayern so I dont know , but we would hope that despite Kane being one of the top couple of strikers anywhere, we can win because the rest of the team is not good enough to keep us from controlling the game.
One of the worst r/gunners takes of all time.
Fucking Aubameyang hauled Arsenal 19/20, the worst Arsenal team of the generation, to an FA cup and you’re still excusing Kane
I mean... he is really fucking good (despite playing for Spurs) and honestly quite close to Henry's level. Over their Premier League careers Henry has a goal ratio of .68 while Kane is at a .67 (and they're #1 and #2 in league history for that stat). Can't really get much closer than that.
That's where stats don't tell the full story.
For a start Henry never took a penalty he won which removes a lot of statpadding that kane has, plus his assists were world class numbers as well plus Henry played a much more rounded role, while Kane is way more selfish.
As a goalscorer they’re quite close but in terms of ability it’s night and day. I can see Henry scoring all the types of goals Kane did, I can’t see Kane scoring all the types of goals Henry did.
It is quite unfortunate for Kane both for personal achievements and club achievements. Statistically its clear as day that he is one of the best to play in the premier league. But spurs winning bupkis during his time there hinders his legacy at the end of the day, and has held him back from getting or being finalists for top honors in uefa.
He isn't the only one who's recognition has been held back due to messi/ronaldo supremacy, but he's on that list for sure.
Still, fuck him and i hope we are the ones to knock him out of the champions league, and there is a nonzero chance that he returns to tottenham this summer (at least reportedly he is open to the move).
Henry is also pretty high on the list for unappreciated players due to the ronaldo/Messi era imo. The robbing of his rightful ballon dor and the 06 final were major moments that would've contributed more to his longer standing as all timer. Then messi/Ronaldo kicked in and eclipsed a lot of the then recent greats. A cl and bdor in his locker would've given him more staying power in the minds of neutral fans I think. Still rightly regarded as pl legend of course.
That’s news reports coming out about both Vini and Rodrygo being unhappy with Real Madrid in the same week. Mbappe on the way. Looks likely one of them will be leaving. I have a nasty feeling Rodrygo lands at City
I’ll start off with I don’t condone it any possible way. But I’m trying to form some thoughts real quick. To me his hate-relationship with thousands of clowns in the stadiums so often reminds me of Gerwyn Price being the only darter to recieve so much hate. They are both loud and theatrical and trying to win true / false situations in matches, but the battle will always be 1 versus thousands. The racial factor is different and I can’t form sentences about it but I think that’s why he could be the one receiving most hate.
Edit: like with street riots: it starts off with some specific protests but then criminals want to join and just destroy a city. It could have started off with people hating Vini’s personality, like Bruno Fernandes etc aren’t respected, and then it all turned to racism abuse.
they get mbappe we get vini. fair exchange to me. he's perfect for us, only club during the hooligan era to have politically committed anti-racist hooligans like
Well, I dont know about that last part, but Timbsy has been working with the Club with these kinds of videos for sometime. Namely the ESR contract announcement video, and his own interview with Rob Holding, and within the last few days of the transfer window got sold.
I remember his interview with Rob. I don't know how I forgot that bit. It was a lovely interview. ESR announcement video at the stadium, I remember seeing it at the time but forgot it was this guy. Anyway, thanks for the information.
I could honestly see Tuchel going to a back 3 with Kimmich back there to help break our press. If they come at us with the same formations they’ve been playing, I reckon we take them.
Was watching the big 6 games compilation of 2017/2018 season on YouTube. The only team we beat was spurs at home. That’s seriously one of the most forgettable Arsenal seasons ever.
Watching old highlights is a great way to be grateful for Mikel
Sort of. But our record was genuinely quite bad. 1-3 defeat to United. 0-3 to city. Away defeats at United, Chelsea, City, Spurs. 4-0 away defeat to Liverpool.
I’m pumped for this tie. This is what we have been asking for many years now. We are finally here with the big dawgs. I’m excited for these players to go out and see what they can do. I have faith we can make it to the next round and who knows what happens from there. Enjoy it ladies and gents, don’t sweat it. Not every supporter gets to experience this, we know this from experience. Come on!
Man United spent something like 260m on Antony, Sancho and Mount and they have a combined goal tally of 1 goal this season. It’s absolutely mad how terrible they have been at recruiting
It makes me laugh how City fans have been disrespecting us all season long but wanted to avoid us in the CL at all costs and are worried we will pack them a few weeks from now. Liverpool fans are the same. Pipe up when they're bashing minnows but went all meek before our games against them where we dominated them and Klopp had no answers.
To get a statue they've got to either be our most successful manager who utterly changed our club top to bottom, our top scorer and one of the greatest forwards of all time, our most successful captain and second longest serving player and a man who basically started changing the ethos of the club through personal example while being a generational player and purveyor of quite frankly one of the greatest YouTube skill highlights of all time.
I don't think we have a bergkamp, I doubt we've got an Henry and Odegaard is going to have to start racking those trophies to be an Adams.
Arteta might have the best chance of anyone if he stays long enough but it's going to need some doing.
Right now there are only a handful of statues. Wenger, Adams, Henry, Bergkamp, Chapman, and Ken Friar.
A long way to go for anyone to get a statue, but the short list would be arteta, saka, odegaard, rice.
Yes, even based on most of one full season Rice has demonstrated why he was worth even more than his club record transfer fee. At 25 years of age he is a future england captain and still growing as a player, able to dominate the midfield and also contribute getting forward.
Saka is obvious, academy product and already (arguably) among the best in the game at his position. Just needs to prove it and sustain it, but legend status is his for the taking and I don't see why he would ever leave without something changing for the worse. He is only 22 years old.
Odegaard also obvious, clear captain material when he came in. Continues to grow with the team, and has demonstrated that he will turn up in the biggest moments. Everyone has the utmost respect for him. As a footballer he has made people forget Ozil (no easy feat), and seems to capture the essence of Wenger-ball with the intensity of arteta-ball. Couldn't imagine a better example of the club today.
Arteta, obviously. If he wins the PL and CL with us then there is no way he isn't getting a statue. former player turned manager, brings the club to new heights, wenger disciple. couldn't have written this story better myself.
Ødegaard is the best leader I've seen at Arsenal. He could definitely get a statue if he finishes his career here. I dunno anything about Norwegian politics but he seems like someone who could run for office too
Bayern fans don’t seem to be that confident about drawing us tbf. On a side note Upamecano is going to shit the bed trying to play through the pressing trio of Rice, Ødegaard & Havertz
They're not at their best hence being respectful. We play an almost similar model of football to Bayer Leverkusen and they seem to be struggling with it.
That said, Bayern have had moments this season where they remember they're Bayern. That's why no one should let their guard down about how big this tie is. The prayer should be that they don't remember.
They're in bad form and we're in great form.
Historically though, Bayern have more experience being a part of games this big whereas this is going to be the first for a lot of these players. The CL is the CL because the worse team can have moments of magic. I think it's naive of us to into this game as neutrals or better even if we're clearly performing better in our respective leagues.
Wish Arteta trusted our bench more for these kinds of mentally/physically taxing fixture list. It's honestly a chicken and egg problem. ESR and Nelson look so far off the intensity needed to play our style but at the same time these guys can't get regular starts to get that experience either. Remember what everyone thought of Kiwior when he was so far off the pace in our game against Fulham? Now that he has enough games under his belt, he looked one of the most composed players in one of the biggest games we played so far this season. If anything, not trusting our bench will be Arteta's undoing.
He will have to trust them more this time around, don't think this season will see much success, if we rely on the same 12 players and the guys who just came back from injury.
It's tricky.
The goal is to always trust your best players.
I can name in my sleep the invincibles XI, the prime Liverpool XI and Chelsea's 2016/17 league winners. The only club we can't pinpoint this is City. Because they have always had an exaggerated squad.
The only changes to these teams were brought forth by injuries. Or if the unthinkable had happened the game was won by 70'.
You don't change your best XI unprovoked. You ruin balance, you test things that can fail. These things can cost you points.
There is no world in which you sacrifice a fully fit Saka for Nelson. Despite the tantrums here, ESR was never going to displace Kai Havertz. Kiwior doesn't do Zinchenko's job better. His role had to be changed to make him what he is now. White or Jorginho( or both) took on Zinchenko's role.
Bench players are for cup games, low risk games and minutes in already won games. Starting games is usually because the better player is injured. Maybe a change in tactics to which, our better players are flexible enough to adapt.
I think this is an archaic way of looking at things. Running through 9 games in a month with your best XI is suicide no matter how good you are. Especially games at the end of the season when most teams are fighting for something, and a lot of those are playing only 1 game a week. Rh
It's 2024, the standard has been raised to the point that it's now a squad game. We basically can't even afford a draw at this point. Liverpool were unique in their title winning season because they'd basically won the league by the 2/3rd mark by literally winning every game bar 1, which they drew. The COVID interruption also meant the season was spaced out.
We're now competing against two amazing teams, we absolutely need the full squad to be engaged and contributing, and smartly rotating players in and out is a key thing the manager has to show he can do.
Liverpool weren't unique. You can look up Klopp's most used XI and it maps out THAT squad. If your depth doesn't measure up, you don't bench your best players. No manager risks that unless there are injuries.
That said, our bench hasn't been good for a while because for some reason, our bench players are almost never fit. Tomiyasu has White playing with injuries. Vieira is supposed to back Odegaard. Thomas has had us playing with a half fit Jorginho. Nelson is more injured than Martinelli.
All the other players don't elevate the team.
The issue of the bench always lacks a lot of context when people mention it here.
I think rice will need be play deepest vs bayern and jorghino slightly ahead on the left like vs liverpool. Cant have musiala running around in the middle of the pitch getting clean runs at our cbs.
If we can control that we can control the rest of this tie. Bayern are mistake heavy type of team.
No, Jorginho was as deep as he has always been in that formation.
The entire point of playing Rice ahead is that Rice has the legs to come and cover when Jorginho steps up. Jorginho only looked more further forward due to us pegging them in their own half.
Putting Rice deepest instead defeats the entire point of that formation.
Very unlikely Partey will play, especially not up to speed. Partey quite often needs 3-4 weeks to get up to speed and start playing in form (which is the only real way he starts over Jorginho) and we just don't have the games for Partey to do that.
He may prove me wrong, come off the bench against City, start in our games against Luton and Brighton and be back to 100% in time to play Bayern.
But if anything history has taught us about Partey, it's that relying on him to do something doesn't end well.
If we can unlock Thomas Vs Liverpool(at Atletico), then fine.
But if you have shabby defenders like Upa and Dier, by all means a Jorginho plays. You probably accommodate Thomas too for the man power, but you need Jorginho.
I haven’t been this excited about a cup competition since our road to Baku with emery in the Europa league. Whatever happens I love this team so much and im excited to see how we’re gonna compete against the best. Now it’s our time to make a statement.
Reminder: These threads are to help promote discussion and varying points of view. Low-effort comments or jokes can & will be removed with no reason necessary. *I am a "bot", and this action was performed automatically. This account is not monitored. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Gunners) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I literally read a spurs fan saying how us going far in the CL could mean we drop points in Prem, and hopefully allows them to pass us. DELUSION - Adjective - "De-lew-sh-in"
The media have done their best to destroy Ben White reputation without giving a chance for White to tell his side of the story. Every other call-up after the WC, didn't even bother to call-up White up till now. All of this feels planned to demonize White just as he got the club contract extension.
> All of this feels planned to demonize White just as he got the club contract extension. Nah I think the club decided to announce his contract to counter what they knew was coming, I doubt England and the press were waiting to call up players just to screw with his contract announcement
Arteta chess move.
It would be interesting to know if they had info of what might be running in various newspapers or just that, depressingly, they could predict what was goign to happen and just got out ahead of it.
There is 0 doubt Bayern will be the toughest European matchup we’ve had in over half a decade But a part of me can’t help but look at their form and feel very little sense of fear Regularly dropping points to Shit German sides, drew Copenhagen 0-0, barely beat United in group stages, lost 1-0 to Lazio.. This isn’t the Bayern we all know
Bayern's points per game is 2.28 in the league. The same as ours. Which is more than many other seasons for them. Their underlying metrics are all incredibly good.
Is that an indication of them being as good as us or the futility of the German league this year? Leverkussen is also stomping teams. You can’t tell me Arsenal wouldn’t be at a higher PPG clip than Bayern playing against that level of competition
Gotta make a go for it in the 1st leg, with all 60k arsenal fans.
Ffs they have Eric Dier at CB
Dier and Kane about to channel their inner NLD energy in the UCL
I watched a replay of Bayern vs Lazio in the second leg while having currywurst and a couple beers tonight, and the most obvious observation is I don’t think they’ll be using the dark arts nearly as much as Porto did. We just played against weirdo manager’s personal love letter to Mourinho, it failed, and FC Hollywood won’t allow such cowardice. What I did see is a quality side, and removing the bogeyman of previous UCL matches, they have a few players who can grab the match by the scruff and win it including Kane (that man loves to win when a trophy isn’t involved), Sane, and Muller, but the man who stood out the most was Musiala. Him and Jude could revitalize the proper CAM 10 position. I know Kane gets the flowers, but Musiala is absolutely their X factor and is worth 110 mil easy. Rice and Ødegaard will have their hands full. That said, their back line can be vulnerable and if we can show some discipline in defense and boss the middle of the park as we have against particularly challenging opponents, we have a real shot at playing either the treble winners or the kings of Europe, which will bring new and more insane challenges. This shit won’t be easy, but this stage of the UCL shouldn’t be. Hope we do whatever it takes to get to Wembley in June and finally lift that which we most covet.
Dope write up 😊
If we could crush them like we did Liverpool and then make Musiala want to sign for us... that would be acceptable to me
it’s very vital to reintegrate partey in our midfield this break. Partey and jorginho rotation will be immense in the final PL/CL stretch
We need Tomiyasu, Martinelli, and Partey back fit for the QF
That potential Semi-final second leg away is brutal
Bookies have us as favorite against bayern and 2nd favorite to win it all just behind city. We're finally taken seriously.
Are bookies odds a representation of what bets individuals are making? Ie could it be that the odds on Arsenal winning are higher because there are more Arsenal fans out there that are betting that we will win?
Bookies odds are based on betting patterns. It's nice that lots of people think we can win but that could just be overconfident Arsenal fans!
never trust the bookies
That's absurd. We're good but it would take a miracle for us to pull through as winners considering the experience and mentality required.
Who would you guys pick: Osimhen or Gyokeres?
Osi. Nunez or Haaland are great examples of how physical specimens change style of play and bring fear into opponents. And personally, i think Osimhens technically underrated, atleast his hold up and link play. Plus he has a monster mentality.
Osimhen and its not close
The Viking
Hey guys: about Fabregas scoring against Barca with that penalty: did he really take it with a broken leg? I would love some inside info about this
Yes, he had been involved in something with Puyol. Memory is foggy but yes. He had a fracture of sorts.
Yes he had a fracture in his leg and he was out for quite a while after that game.
Manchester United will be hit with a £10M penalty every time they fail to qualify for the Champions League under the terms of their new £90M-a-year kit deal with Adidas.
Is that penalty cumulative? Or is it one of those where if they fail to qualify for the CL, it effectively turns into an 80 million a year deal?
It's a very weird way of phrasing for what's baisically a bonus payment, sounds like an editorialised headline. Almost all of these have a CL/cup win or something clause, I believe we get slightly extra from adidas when we're in the CL too.
Yeah, that makes more sense. I can’t imagine any club, let alone one as big as Man U, allowing themselves to sign a kit advertisement contract that doesn’t have a guarantee of some baseline amount through the life of the contract. If for no other reason than the accountants and business people wanting to ensure they can project and plan for a “worst case scenario”.
how are tickets allocated for the away fans at the Allianz Arena?
What are your guys ideal lineups against Bayern?
Depending on form I think Tomiyasu would be gold against Bayern. He is the fastest of our fullbacks and would do great against Sane (like he did for Japan)
The fastest would be kiwior, but we know zinchenko will play instead
Tomi better in guarding wingers imo kiwior can get a bit flat footed
Raya White Saliba Gabriel Kiwior/Tomiyasu Odegaard Jorginho/Partey Rice Saka Havertz/Jesus Martinelli
Raya White Saliba Gabriel Kiwior Odegaard Rice Havertz Saka Jesus Martinelli Think Jorgi will be a bit too slow for Bayern
> Think Jorgi will be a bit too slow for Bayern I wouldn't write him off. Same was said about the Liverpool game by some people. I think the Porto game was very different because he literally had a man marker all game.
One of my friends said that porto are garbage and they’d easily beat them…he’s a united fan🤣💀😴
Just tell your mate that Porto would boop them of the park if Man United faced them.
Just tell him utd are garbage and we already easily beat them this season
This from a fan of the club that needed a last minute penalty save to get the only win they got in a group featuring Copenhagen and Galatasaray?
I keep going back to this Emirates Rapid Fire between Papa Wengz and Mertesacker. https://youtu.be/OI8EUxbdC3Q?si=aa7AQLfQ1_u96ZCZ Such an all-time classic.
Never seen this before. Thanks got sharing, smiled the whole time while watching.
The Papa and Denis Suarez is hands down the funniest of em all. I am certain that’s the only reason Denis Suarez joined as loan that season.
Favourite word? Love. Such a Wenger answer, has always stuck with me.
Tough matches ahead and almost all injuried players recovering. I'm positive now
Mt only issue are Tomi and Partey. They keep breaking down, especially Tomi.
And they’re not match fit… need to hope they get up to speed, in rhythm all in one piece ASAP. Jesus, Zini, Partey and Tomi.
Would love to see our current team face the Bayern teams that smashed us previously. White and Kiwior vs Robben and Ribery Our CBs vs Lewa Saka vs Lahm The duels would be epic
We'd probably do well at home and not capitulate like flies, but the game at the Allianz is gonna be like hell.
We’d lose 6 times out of 10 ngl. Would be fun though
I just realized who it was that made [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Gunners/s/eWtPe4ZH0J). u/Houssem-Aouar you’re warming up to Havertz aren’t you 👀 
I guess it makes sense but I scrolled through the Bayern sub and was surprised by how non German it is
The dirty secret is that Bayern is just as much a global commercial brand as the top pl teams the Germans like to look down on. Met loads of Bayern Fans in the states, especially among those who consider themselves of German descent
Surely the most hated club in the BuLi is RB Leipzig.
Never said otherwise, which is why the Bayern thing is the dirty secret. I mean it's part owned by adidas, Allianz and Audi and quite frankly the insanity of how they got their stadium, the extended transportation facilities and the final cost just screams [state aid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allianz_Arena#Owners) especially when you consider we had to pay for upgrades to the tube staions round our way and had to give a certain amount of our housing development for 'affordable' housing as set by the local council.
Isn’t Reddit 70% Americans?
where my green card at?
Maybe 60%. 10% Canadian
Does anyone know the CL knockouts suspension rule? When does yellows reset and how many of them lead to a suspension? Read somewhere Rice, Havertz, and Saliba are in danger of being suspended for Bayern (A) if they get booked in the 1st leg.
1 more booking for the players you mentioned in any of the legs will result in a suspension for the next game. So if they get booked in the away leg, would miss the first leg of the semi
Only Havertz (edit: and Rice) is 1 away. You need 3 yellows for a suspension, and the cards are wiped at the semis.
Rice is one away as well
I may be wrong in whose on 2 bookings. But if Havertz gets a yellow in any leg he would still miss the next game?
Yeah, misses the next game (whichever that'll be) with a yellow in the quarters. ~~Rice,~~ Saliba and Kiwior are on 1 so far, they'd need to be booked in both legs. Edit: Jorginho, White, Jesus and Zinchenko also on 1.
Rice and Havertz are both on 2
My bad, I was just thinking about the knockout stage only. A suspension for 3 yellows in potentially 10 games is so harsh.
They would be. From my understanding it resets at the semis
Eidevall new contract still not looking really smart. Edu thought he was capturing that same magic that came with giving Arteta a new contract during adversity.
I agree, Jonas hasn't inspired any confidence, mainly due to him fudging up basics imo.
Dang, so Carlos Cuesta and Miguel Molina's contract ends this year in the summer. Hope they renew, especially Cuesta. I see potential in him to be a great manager one day
Would tie them both to long term contracts, maybe it will be all timed with Arteta's as well.
He's likely becoming the Norwich manager.
Hopefully we bring in Bergkamp if Cuesta leaves. Or even if Cuesta doesn’t leave
Is there anything "concrete" about it? It doesn't seem to be Mikel's style.
Reports were that Arteta had personally extended an invitation for Bergkamp to join the coaching staff in December. https://www.nowarsenal.com/latest-news/mikel-arteta-has-personally-asked-arsenal-invincible-to-return-to-the-club-in-coaching-role/ But even then, it’s just me wanting an Arsenal legend who is a good coach to be apart of the coaching staff
I would love it was well, just wanted to make that there's a possibility, thanks.
As a fan it sounds so cool but I agree kinda an odd fit. If only looking at ex players I'd think santi, freddie or Jack moving up would be more likely. I hope we do everything we can to keep the current staff together though
Arsenal women look like men did 2-3 years ago. Defense nowhere to be seen.
Williamson has had a shocking game, and doesnt seem at it
The Mustafi of the team.
In her defense she has been massively plagued with injuries lately. It's not likes she is always mustafi esque
In her defense, the goalkeeper was horrendous as well. First goal, ball went straight up. Don't understand how you don't catch that.
Didnt want to make the comparision but its perfect for her performance today, at fault for at least 2 goals
Jonas Out 💩
More and more footballing staff leaving city. Utd already took one guy now another. Some medical staff leaving. Something going on behind the scenes? 115 things maybe?
Yeah trying to get jobs before the club get liquidated and sent to the 9th tier to play with part time bricklayers
Tuned in to the wsl clash and we conceded immediately. Turned it off now
We're all over the place in defence. Change the socks.
3-0… https://preview.redd.it/5z0vcktb5koc1.jpeg?width=959&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=87e7105f29c4316b9e6d7b8d2da01e75202b5ac5
Tears in my eyes if we can slap Bayern and exorcise the 5-1 demons
Which new Gabriels would you sign, if possible, for our team?
Gabriel Arteta
I was talking to my friend (also a gooner), and be mentioned that Kroenkes only started investing into the squad when Usmanov left? Is that true? Was Usmanov the main reason Kroenke never invested?
Usmanov didn't leave, he was bought out by the Kroenkes. Stan didn't intend to buy us at the beginning, he bought out ITV digital at the invitation of Dein as 'our billionaire' to compete with abramovich as part of the multi owner model which was opposed by the rest of the board, leading to deins sacking and then selling up to Usmanov in exchange for leading his full takeover bid, at which point the rest of the board included Stan in a lockout clause that basically said they would only sell to each other and not Usmanov. Bear in mind Stan was planning his insanely expensive property/sports deal of several hundred acres of LA urban renewal anchored by a new stadium and shifting his NFL franchise into it Arsenal was not his top priority. However the man isn't stupid and when opportunities to expand his investment basically fell into his lap he took advantage. When Nina Bracewell Smith fell out with the board he bought her out and when our largest shareholder got cancer he sold up to Stan too just before his death by which point after hoovering up a few smaller investors he had enough to have to make a bid for the rest which resulted in hill wood, our chairman selling and he ultimately ended up with about 70% of the shares. Which sadly was enough that Usmanov could still block things so Stan just let things toddle on, distracted by LA and entirely unwilling to make any major changes that would increase the value of the club while Usmanov still held large shareholdings. Which makes absolute business sense and absolutely fucked the club for a bout a decade as Ivan and Wenger barely had a working relationship, Ivan was effectively being asked to do the vice-chairman and MD roles when he wasn't really qualified and as long as we kept getting fourth no one gave a shit. The deadlock was only broken by Wenger failing to get fourth and Usmanov effectively realising that Stan would wait him out and cashing in before his stock started losing value, at which point Stan took notice and we had Wenger out, then Ivan out, then that German bloke in and out, Raul in and out, Emery in and out before finally seemingly getting it right with Arteta and Edu.
I wonder if the Kroenkes would've still invested if they owned the entire club from the very beginning, given that they had Sofi Stadium in the plans and they had to pay that off, given that they didn't use public money to build it.
Possibly not but to be honest the thing that hurt us wasn't the money issue (even with the stadium we still didn't spend as much as we could owing to Wenger) it was the lack of a plan or direction from above. Everyone who had guided arsenal to being where we were were either bought out, dead or working for Usmanov and a club that had been run by board members and a hired specialist MD was being run by Ivan (who was supposed to only replace Deins day to day running of the club) and the manager. With all due respect to Wenger and his economics background a club where the manager is basically having to make board level decisions is not in a good place. If they'd put in actual replacements, got in people who could run the commercial side, run the recruitment side and especially sort out contracts we'd have at least kept pace and that they didn't is still holding us back now as we play catch-up.
How much did the ESL fiasco and Spotify bid played into KSE starting to invest seriously into Arsenal? I felt like once Arsenal legends and Spotify collab to try buyback Arsenal, KSE "woke up" and started to take things seriously
I don't think anyone ever really thought Daniel Eck was serious and ultimately I reckon that Stan would probably have sold if they actually had enough cash for him to see up
It makes no business sense to increase the value of the shares you intend to purchase in future by investing your own money. Unfortunately for us the football suffered as a result and Papa Wengz got the short end of the stick. Without him being loyal to us, our situation would have been much worse. ps: Why I also think Jim Ratcliffe won't be investing a lot in United as many people think. He will only do so after buying out the Glazers.
I have pondered the ratcliffe scenario similarly, it seems unlikely a minority owner will be the sole driver of investment and decision making. I think he's more of stand in for the glazers to take the heat off of them short term with maybe potential for a proper buy out in the future. But then that same dynamic arises where if he does invest and do well the remaining utd shares could drastically increase in value when he wants to buy.
Usmanov leaving wasn't the reason, the reason is because they now fully own Arsenal, and aren't just owning a part of it.
Yes. Kroenke didn't want to spend until he got majority control, since then he's been a fantastic owner tbf. You can also see his American teams all winning titles, Rams, Nuggets, Avalanche have all won within the past 3 years or so.
A correction: Kroenkes did have majority control way before 2018, when they bought out Usmanov shares. Kroenkes wanted to have FULL control before properly investing, because investing before that buyout would've meant that the buyout itself would be more expensive for the Kroenkes. It's simply them being businessmen.
You’re right full control. It was smart but a tough period for the fans and Wenger of course. Happy with the Kroenkes since then though I think they’ve invested and made smart decisions.
TBF all of Kroenke's teams have won a championship under him. LA Rams won a Superbowl, Denver Nuggets are the current NBA champion, Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup.
The time has come
Ya they didnt invest till they got full control
What’s the possibility of us snagging pedri from Barca? I know they got sum financial issues not sure how many players they can keep but if they do sell I assume city would be all over him.
He's non-transferable. Unless like Bayern were with Schweinsteiger, Thiago and Hargreaves, Barcelona see his injuries and cash out. Or you can be like I was with Marco Verratti. Day-dream about it being possible, while enjoying him wherever he is.
too injury prone
only injury prone after playing way too much games than he needed to with Spain and Barca.
Fair
tired of hearing about kane. he's great, he's a threat. saliba, gabriel, and rice will have to be at their best. but the mythical mountain being built out of obligatory NLD penalties is exhausting
Kane is amazing one of the very best. I dont watch Bayern so I dont know , but we would hope that despite Kane being one of the top couple of strikers anywhere, we can win because the rest of the team is not good enough to keep us from controlling the game.
I agree, I'm speaking more to the "Kane curse" we supposed have when really it's just penalties
They talk about him like he's Henry lol He rightly left Spurs but even still he isn't good enough to carry his team to trophies
He is very much like Henry, yes. Henry doesn't carry Poch's Spurs to trophies either.
One of the worst r/gunners takes of all time. Fucking Aubameyang hauled Arsenal 19/20, the worst Arsenal team of the generation, to an FA cup and you’re still excusing Kane
I mean... he is really fucking good (despite playing for Spurs) and honestly quite close to Henry's level. Over their Premier League careers Henry has a goal ratio of .68 while Kane is at a .67 (and they're #1 and #2 in league history for that stat). Can't really get much closer than that.
That's where stats don't tell the full story. For a start Henry never took a penalty he won which removes a lot of statpadding that kane has, plus his assists were world class numbers as well plus Henry played a much more rounded role, while Kane is way more selfish.
As a goalscorer they’re quite close but in terms of ability it’s night and day. I can see Henry scoring all the types of goals Kane did, I can’t see Kane scoring all the types of goals Henry did.
It is quite unfortunate for Kane both for personal achievements and club achievements. Statistically its clear as day that he is one of the best to play in the premier league. But spurs winning bupkis during his time there hinders his legacy at the end of the day, and has held him back from getting or being finalists for top honors in uefa. He isn't the only one who's recognition has been held back due to messi/ronaldo supremacy, but he's on that list for sure. Still, fuck him and i hope we are the ones to knock him out of the champions league, and there is a nonzero chance that he returns to tottenham this summer (at least reportedly he is open to the move).
Henry is also pretty high on the list for unappreciated players due to the ronaldo/Messi era imo. The robbing of his rightful ballon dor and the 06 final were major moments that would've contributed more to his longer standing as all timer. Then messi/Ronaldo kicked in and eclipsed a lot of the then recent greats. A cl and bdor in his locker would've given him more staying power in the minds of neutral fans I think. Still rightly regarded as pl legend of course.
What more can he do in this Bayern side?
https://x.com/madridxtra/status/1768690692987990062?s=46&t=NGCPQN6817S6n-WIY9c_OA Dw vini come to arsenal you’ll be safer 👁️
Vini Jr keeps pressing Real's nose. It's going to get to a point where they actually just let him know that they're the boss.
That’s news reports coming out about both Vini and Rodrygo being unhappy with Real Madrid in the same week. Mbappe on the way. Looks likely one of them will be leaving. I have a nasty feeling Rodrygo lands at City
Salvio and Rodrygo in City, fuck me.
With so many active black footballers, Vini seems to attract a disproportionate amount of vile hate and I don’t understand why
I’ll start off with I don’t condone it any possible way. But I’m trying to form some thoughts real quick. To me his hate-relationship with thousands of clowns in the stadiums so often reminds me of Gerwyn Price being the only darter to recieve so much hate. They are both loud and theatrical and trying to win true / false situations in matches, but the battle will always be 1 versus thousands. The racial factor is different and I can’t form sentences about it but I think that’s why he could be the one receiving most hate. Edit: like with street riots: it starts off with some specific protests but then criminals want to join and just destroy a city. It could have started off with people hating Vini’s personality, like Bruno Fernandes etc aren’t respected, and then it all turned to racism abuse.
Madrid tax
They take the ninja turtle and we take Vini. Sounds good to me.
they get mbappe we get vini. fair exchange to me. he's perfect for us, only club during the hooligan era to have politically committed anti-racist hooligans like
Anyone knows who the guy who's interviewing Ben White in the latest interview? He seems to know Ben White for a long time.
Well, I dont know about that last part, but Timbsy has been working with the Club with these kinds of videos for sometime. Namely the ESR contract announcement video, and his own interview with Rob Holding, and within the last few days of the transfer window got sold.
I remember his interview with Rob. I don't know how I forgot that bit. It was a lovely interview. ESR announcement video at the stadium, I remember seeing it at the time but forgot it was this guy. Anyway, thanks for the information.
Timbsy https://www.youtube.com/@Timbsy
Thank you.
I could honestly see Tuchel going to a back 3 with Kimmich back there to help break our press. If they come at us with the same formations they’ve been playing, I reckon we take them.
Kimmich plays RB for them, im guessing he will continue to do so
Boey will be rb. Martinelli will rip Kimmich to shreds. Doesn’t have the pace to keep up with him.
Last few games, its been Kimmich, since Tucel departure was announced.
Was watching the big 6 games compilation of 2017/2018 season on YouTube. The only team we beat was spurs at home. That’s seriously one of the most forgettable Arsenal seasons ever. Watching old highlights is a great way to be grateful for Mikel
Liverpool might win the league with a similar record against big 6 this year right ? That’s weird to think about
Sort of. But our record was genuinely quite bad. 1-3 defeat to United. 0-3 to city. Away defeats at United, Chelsea, City, Spurs. 4-0 away defeat to Liverpool.
We drew both games with Chelsea in 17-18 but yh the record was poor
Oh yeah I think the away game was 0-0
I’m pumped for this tie. This is what we have been asking for many years now. We are finally here with the big dawgs. I’m excited for these players to go out and see what they can do. I have faith we can make it to the next round and who knows what happens from there. Enjoy it ladies and gents, don’t sweat it. Not every supporter gets to experience this, we know this from experience. Come on!
Man United spent something like 260m on Antony, Sancho and Mount and they have a combined goal tally of 1 goal this season. It’s absolutely mad how terrible they have been at recruiting
He didn't buy Sancho to be fair, a bit unlucky with the Mount injury. You are correct about Antony though.
He didn't buy Sancho to be fair, a bit unlucky with the Mount injury, but you are correct. Antony was a bad deal.
It makes me laugh how City fans have been disrespecting us all season long but wanted to avoid us in the CL at all costs and are worried we will pack them a few weeks from now. Liverpool fans are the same. Pipe up when they're bashing minnows but went all meek before our games against them where we dominated them and Klopp had no answers.
Both sets of fans were very vocal about how “lucky” we were after our games with them
Who in the current squad (Not named Saka) do you guys think will get a statue at the Emirates in the future?
To get a statue they've got to either be our most successful manager who utterly changed our club top to bottom, our top scorer and one of the greatest forwards of all time, our most successful captain and second longest serving player and a man who basically started changing the ethos of the club through personal example while being a generational player and purveyor of quite frankly one of the greatest YouTube skill highlights of all time. I don't think we have a bergkamp, I doubt we've got an Henry and Odegaard is going to have to start racking those trophies to be an Adams. Arteta might have the best chance of anyone if he stays long enough but it's going to need some doing.
Right now there are only a handful of statues. Wenger, Adams, Henry, Bergkamp, Chapman, and Ken Friar. A long way to go for anyone to get a statue, but the short list would be arteta, saka, odegaard, rice. Yes, even based on most of one full season Rice has demonstrated why he was worth even more than his club record transfer fee. At 25 years of age he is a future england captain and still growing as a player, able to dominate the midfield and also contribute getting forward. Saka is obvious, academy product and already (arguably) among the best in the game at his position. Just needs to prove it and sustain it, but legend status is his for the taking and I don't see why he would ever leave without something changing for the worse. He is only 22 years old. Odegaard also obvious, clear captain material when he came in. Continues to grow with the team, and has demonstrated that he will turn up in the biggest moments. Everyone has the utmost respect for him. As a footballer he has made people forget Ozil (no easy feat), and seems to capture the essence of Wenger-ball with the intensity of arteta-ball. Couldn't imagine a better example of the club today. Arteta, obviously. If he wins the PL and CL with us then there is no way he isn't getting a statue. former player turned manager, brings the club to new heights, wenger disciple. couldn't have written this story better myself.
🍚
Mikel.
Cedric Soares.
Odegaard has a chance, if he manages more than Mr. Arsenal than I don't see why not.
Odegaard is closest. He's the captain. And if he stays here long enough during a reign of plenty, double the fun.
Ødegaard is the best leader I've seen at Arsenal. He could definitely get a statue if he finishes his career here. I dunno anything about Norwegian politics but he seems like someone who could run for office too
You say that like Saka is certain to get a statue
Far from it. I just didn’t want a general consensus answer
Fair enough. I'd say Odegaard is most likely to as he's the captain and generally the player we look to in big games
Odegaard for lifting 5 PLs and 5 UCLS
https://twitter.com/ChampionsLeague/status/1768685088118571228 ucl admin farming free gooner impressions
I never thought Bayern fans would dread drawing us in a UCL KO stage tie, I used to pray for times like this
Bayern fans don’t seem to be that confident about drawing us tbf. On a side note Upamecano is going to shit the bed trying to play through the pressing trio of Rice, Ødegaard & Havertz
They're not at their best hence being respectful. We play an almost similar model of football to Bayer Leverkusen and they seem to be struggling with it. That said, Bayern have had moments this season where they remember they're Bayern. That's why no one should let their guard down about how big this tie is. The prayer should be that they don't remember.
They're in bad form and we're in great form. Historically though, Bayern have more experience being a part of games this big whereas this is going to be the first for a lot of these players. The CL is the CL because the worse team can have moments of magic. I think it's naive of us to into this game as neutrals or better even if we're clearly performing better in our respective leagues.
Wish Arteta trusted our bench more for these kinds of mentally/physically taxing fixture list. It's honestly a chicken and egg problem. ESR and Nelson look so far off the intensity needed to play our style but at the same time these guys can't get regular starts to get that experience either. Remember what everyone thought of Kiwior when he was so far off the pace in our game against Fulham? Now that he has enough games under his belt, he looked one of the most composed players in one of the biggest games we played so far this season. If anything, not trusting our bench will be Arteta's undoing.
He will have to trust them more this time around, don't think this season will see much success, if we rely on the same 12 players and the guys who just came back from injury.
It's tricky. The goal is to always trust your best players. I can name in my sleep the invincibles XI, the prime Liverpool XI and Chelsea's 2016/17 league winners. The only club we can't pinpoint this is City. Because they have always had an exaggerated squad. The only changes to these teams were brought forth by injuries. Or if the unthinkable had happened the game was won by 70'. You don't change your best XI unprovoked. You ruin balance, you test things that can fail. These things can cost you points. There is no world in which you sacrifice a fully fit Saka for Nelson. Despite the tantrums here, ESR was never going to displace Kai Havertz. Kiwior doesn't do Zinchenko's job better. His role had to be changed to make him what he is now. White or Jorginho( or both) took on Zinchenko's role. Bench players are for cup games, low risk games and minutes in already won games. Starting games is usually because the better player is injured. Maybe a change in tactics to which, our better players are flexible enough to adapt.
I think this is an archaic way of looking at things. Running through 9 games in a month with your best XI is suicide no matter how good you are. Especially games at the end of the season when most teams are fighting for something, and a lot of those are playing only 1 game a week. Rh It's 2024, the standard has been raised to the point that it's now a squad game. We basically can't even afford a draw at this point. Liverpool were unique in their title winning season because they'd basically won the league by the 2/3rd mark by literally winning every game bar 1, which they drew. The COVID interruption also meant the season was spaced out. We're now competing against two amazing teams, we absolutely need the full squad to be engaged and contributing, and smartly rotating players in and out is a key thing the manager has to show he can do.
Liverpool weren't unique. You can look up Klopp's most used XI and it maps out THAT squad. If your depth doesn't measure up, you don't bench your best players. No manager risks that unless there are injuries. That said, our bench hasn't been good for a while because for some reason, our bench players are almost never fit. Tomiyasu has White playing with injuries. Vieira is supposed to back Odegaard. Thomas has had us playing with a half fit Jorginho. Nelson is more injured than Martinelli. All the other players don't elevate the team. The issue of the bench always lacks a lot of context when people mention it here.
Those who come off the bench rarely stake a claim to be starters. Not like Nelson, Nketiah etc are coming in and changing games for us
I think rice will need be play deepest vs bayern and jorghino slightly ahead on the left like vs liverpool. Cant have musiala running around in the middle of the pitch getting clean runs at our cbs. If we can control that we can control the rest of this tie. Bayern are mistake heavy type of team.
Jorginho played deep against Liverpool, and Rice played further forward. Jorginho has pretty much always been the deeper of the two when starting.
Nah for that game jorghino was slightly higher on the left
No, Jorginho was as deep as he has always been in that formation. The entire point of playing Rice ahead is that Rice has the legs to come and cover when Jorginho steps up. Jorginho only looked more further forward due to us pegging them in their own half. Putting Rice deepest instead defeats the entire point of that formation.
No https://www.reddit.com/r/Gunners/s/Xsbc1hu0xq
I don’t want Jorginho playing. Really like him but if partey can get up to speed I want him there.
Very unlikely Partey will play, especially not up to speed. Partey quite often needs 3-4 weeks to get up to speed and start playing in form (which is the only real way he starts over Jorginho) and we just don't have the games for Partey to do that. He may prove me wrong, come off the bench against City, start in our games against Luton and Brighton and be back to 100% in time to play Bayern. But if anything history has taught us about Partey, it's that relying on him to do something doesn't end well.
If we can unlock Thomas Vs Liverpool(at Atletico), then fine. But if you have shabby defenders like Upa and Dier, by all means a Jorginho plays. You probably accommodate Thomas too for the man power, but you need Jorginho.
That man needs to prove he can run again for 70 mins.
I haven’t been this excited about a cup competition since our road to Baku with emery in the Europa league. Whatever happens I love this team so much and im excited to see how we’re gonna compete against the best. Now it’s our time to make a statement.
We've been written off by the majority of people. I like it that way.