Unlucky Gunners Put On The Spot
Mar 2nd, 2019 by 'holic
Unai Emery opted to stick with the 4-2-3-1 and as expected left Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang and Mesut Ozil, as well as Lucas Torreira, on the bench. It caused Martin Keown and Rio Ferdinand a real problem as they made clear on commentary on BT Sport.
There were less than two minutes on the clock when the first chance of the match fell to Alexandre Lacazette but he pulled the ball wide of the mark. It was Aaron Ramsey, playing in his last North London derby, who sprinted clear onto a Lacazette through ball to round Lloris and give the Gunners the lead a quarter of an hour in.
Middlesex Nomads 0-1 The Arsenal
Eight minutes later Harry Kane was rightly flagged offside when he thought he had maintained his record of scoring in the derby. It was the first threat from a home team we had successfully subdued in the opening quarter of the match. When Son threatened to dance through the visitors defence Nacho Monreal made a timely intervention. It was Eriksen who had their first legal effort but he shot wide of the target.
The Gunners were being forced onto the back foot in the second quarter of the match but looking pleasingly solid in defence. Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Laurent Koscielny were looking like an established pairing rather than an experimental combination. When we were caught on the break after successive corners had been won Henrikh Mkhitaryan got back to avert the danger.
Vertonghen picked off a Guendouzi crossfield pass and tried his luck from distance but the ball sailed harmlessly wide. Back came The Arsenal through an Alex Iwobi curling right-footer which Lloris was just about equal to with a flapping right hand. Then came the moment of the half. Eriksen’s point-blank effort was magnificently blocked by Leno who then reacted quite magnificently to reach the follow-up effort from Sissoko. That was the German’s finest moment in a Gunners shirt.We remained ahead at the break as a result.
At the start of the second-half Unai Emery sent on Lucas Torreira for Matteo Guendouzi. We really should have been two up when Iwobi sent Monreal galloping through and his cut-back was again sliced wide of the far post by Lacazette. The French striker was having a most uncharacteristic day in front of goal. At the other end Alderweireld’s volley from a tight angle found just the side-netting.
Lacazette not surprisingly was withdrawn to make way for Aubameyang. How fortunate are we to have two strikers of their undoubted quality? Mkhitaryan saw the first yellow card of the game for taking Kane out from behind. As the hour mark approached The Nomads sent on Lamela for Wanyama. His first contribution was a dive which Anthony Taylor didn’t buy.
Rose clattered into the back of Mkhitaryan’s ankles but a free-kick was punishment enough for Mr Taylor. Lamela scythed through Xhaka and did see the second yellow. Might it have been worthy of more?
Iwobi worked a yard of space on the left but saw his shot deflected out for a corner that yielded nought. Lamela’s attempted response was slammed wide of the far post which was well covered by Leno just in case. In a goalmouth scramble Rose studs slammed into Leno’s chest and he rightly received the next yellow card.
Mkhitaryan fed in Aubameyang but he was all too easily dispossessed. We paid the penalty when a clearly offside Kane was bundled over by the clumsy Mustafi. Xhaka was booked for dissent and Llorente’s Kane himself despatched the diabolical award for the equaliser.
Middlesex Nomads 1-1 The Arsenal
Just before the penalty Ramsey had departed his final derby as the Gunners highest scorer in the fixture in the Premier League era. Mesut Ozil was now on with a golden opportunity to right a wrong. The hosts sent Llorente on for Son. He soon saw yellow for an elbow on Koscielny.
The nerves finally clicked in as we entered the final five minutes. Both sides were wasteful in possession but when Mkhitaryan again sent Aubameyang clear Sanchez hauled the Gabonese striker down. Penalty for the Gunners which Aubameyang himself took but he hit it too close to Lloris and the chance of a thoroughly deserved winner was denied when he failed to convert the follow-up effort and Vertonghen cleared.
The agony wasn’t over. Torreira was shown a controversial red card when his momentum carried him through a successful tackle into Rose who needs no invitation to make a drama out of a crisis. Even Jermaine Jenas called it as a mistake by Taylor.
Full marks to the visitors who had been dominant almost throughout but to say just getting a point was frustrating would be understating the bleeding obvious. Nine games to go, we trail the Nomads by four points. It ain’t over yet, as they say.
81 Responses to “Unlucky Gunners Put On The Spot”
Glummest 1st ever
I’m in general agreement with GSD’s #1
Although … glass half full … we never lost, Mkhi played well, Sokratis was excellent and Kane still talks like he’s just been to the dentist for a gobfull of fillings. After being lobotomised.
And they’re still scum.
So all in all, not quite as bad as glummest. But in general yes. Not a happy afternoon ahead.
Cynic. It is the glummest I’ve ever been to get in 1st.
Everything else you say is bang on.
Well posted H.
Top work and that’s why I come here. Great report.
More on Anthony Taylor: Vertonghen was well into the area encroaching on the penalty kick which put him in prime position to block follow up.
Great game that all went glumly pear-shaped at the end with the false penalty, our missed penalty and the red card (how Rose gets a yellow for launching himself boot first into Leno’s stomach but Torriera a red when he wins the ball and isn’t even directly tackling Rose is beyond me). Apart from that some great performances all round, especially Sokratis and Kos. Our season would be looking very different if they had been fit to play throughout.
And what GSD said @4.
Really should’ve one today, but let down by poor finishing, poorer officiating and Mustafi. Sokratis and Mkhi were excellent, I thought.
One? Won, of course. I need a drink.
Thanks Holic for another fine report but I disagree that Rose rightfully received a yellow. It was a red. We were Taylored yet again.
No less than FIVE spuds players offside in the build up to Kane’s penalty and shockingly the linesman was not on line to see it ; from a static free kick ! – Awful officiating that changed the game. Honestly think we would have held on for a famous 1-0 to the Arsenal if that had not happened. Refusing to be too down hearted as we played excellently and would have probably taken a draw befote the ball was kicked.
Auba is good at putting away tap ins or scores when he is given lots of time and space. Otherwise, he has a poor first touch and doesn’t use his pace well and I have generally felt let down by him given the numerous chances created for him. I don’t know if he has missed a penalty kick earlier for us.
All in all we missed a great opportunity to really close the gap to a point from third today. Felt the same way against Man Utd away when we gave away two terrible goals to draw 2-2 after dominating them for most of the game.
Mustafi once again cost us dearly.
And for a £56m striker Laca just not good enough today. Two easy chances missed which you’d expect even an average footballer to score with relative ease.
Sokratis was decent but still gave away the cheap free kick which led to their pen.
The problem is, no matter how well we play, we always have a mistake or a crazy moment in us to throw a spanner in the works.
The next game can’t come soon enough.
@ Bayonne (I can’t bring myself to refer to you as BJ)
I did not wait around to watch the analysis (I almost never do) but that news sucks. VAR. VAR. VAR.
Be bloody handy if Soton hang
on at the Manurey
Barack @13.
Laca is my favourite current player. So I am admittedly biased. He had a great chance to score from a cutback but I’m not gonna gripe at him because that’s football. I’m also not gonna get down on Auba when he missed a penalty. But if I were gonna be upset about either of them it would be guy who did not score a spot kick from 12 yards. Weird priorities you seem to have for apportioning the blame for missed chances.
If the other chance you refer to is the left foot over the shoulder volley then I’d agree he could have done better but that reflects how good he is. The idea that we could expect ‘even an average footballer to score with relative ease’ is not one I can agree with.
ksn, you’re right. It should have been a red.
Good to see all on BT today slaughtering Taylor and his assistant for getting so much wrong.
How on earth can the assistant not be level at a set piece?
How does Taylor miss the encroachment that enabled Vertonghen to make that clearance?
How does Torreira get sent off for passing the ball to Mkhitaryan?
Oh, and Auba, you owe me three hundred quid!
Feel your loss, boss. I didn’t lose money but I feel that we didn’t grab the opportunity to close in on Spurs, the lucky fuckers. Absolutely gutted.
Does this mean we ruined their drawless record? ?
They are such cunts.
For the first time for a while our ‘magnificent defence’ (cough) was let down by our much vaunted, highly priced, polished and buffed to a high sheen, attack.
Auba doesn’t inspire confidence as a penalty taker. Would he have taken the kick if Laca had still been on the field? You can’t miss penalties and expect much.
Steve’s on his way home from Saracens now, Holic. Give him time to get his hat and scarf off and I’ll enjoy his contribution. I can hear him now, “We miss two guilt edged chances, then a penalty and it’s all the ref’s fault. Really?”
A cheery preview and belligerent post makes me feel comfortable that, happily, you’re on the mend.
“…we didn’t deserve to lose the game – we were better than them…” says Pochettino. Beggars belief.
Poch feels spurs were better in all aspects, don’t know what he was smoking.
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11675/11653047/mauricio-pochettino-tottenham-better-than-arsenal-in-all-aspects
If Laca had been the penalty taker, BtM, it wouldn’t have mattered if Lloris had got a hand to the ball as the force of the shot would have taken the lot into the net.
Two points lost, just finished watching it as I was busy earlier….
We looked better than that lot especially towards the end of the second half!
Please let’s not talk about the referee it’s beyond abysmal!
(I can’t bring myself to refer to you as BJ)
How about calling him Phil? Have a think about that one … or perhaps best not.
Or how about The Bear? Or is that even worse?
Talking about shocking refs, I’ve been at a game this afternoon where the referee booked the linesman for dissent, then sent off the opposition manager for foul and abusive language that was a reaction to him booking the lino.
Got to love grass roots football and linesmen provided by the clubs 😀
The ref’s first act in the game was to heckle a striker for going over in the box when he’d been kicked in the shin so hard it echoed. In basic terms he called him a bit of a jessie and informed him that football was a contact sport.
At half time as the teams were leaving the pitch, one of the coaches just stopped in his tracks and went “Referee… you’re a c&&t”. Which as far as punditry goes is a few steps above Robbie Savage.
Cheered up my afternoon anyway
Gutted at the two points dropped, but really happy with the performance. During Wenger’s last few seasons, we never seemed to perform well away from home against the big sides and Spurs. But this season Chelsea away very early on in the season was a very good performance and arguably we should have drawn if not won that game if Auba (again!) had converted those clear cut chances in that game. Manchester United away was again a very good performance during what was a busy December schedule and again we should have won that game but for a couple of silly defensive mistakes. Liverpool away was the only game in which we folded otherwise we have played well away against top four teams and ideally should have had more points to show for from those games. Emery deserves credit for that turn around in his first season itself.
As for the game Mkhitaryan really impressed today. Rambo getting a goal in his last NLD was great as well and generally speaking Emery had his tactics of hitting them on the counter and playing above their press spot on. Agree with Ned, if Laca takes that penalty, he blasts that through the keeper with full power. Auba just didn’t have that killer look in his eyes while taking the penalty but Vertonghen blocking his second shot after the penalty just seemed to have topped an abysmal refereeing display but Taylor still had to put a Torriera cherry above everything. VAR can’t come soon enough.
In December we had consecutive games against Spurs and United and came out with 4 out of 6 points. Time to repeat that and continue with the good performances recently.
Mark Noble shows how to take a penalty. Hammers 2 – 0 Newcastle.
@ 28 Desi’gner Gooner
Were you the owner/writer of a Arsenal blog site site Desi Gooner because like you he went into tactical detail after every game which I enjoyed
Steve Vallins @30, no I am not that Desi Gunner. Just like you, I used to enjoy his writings. A fascinating aspect of his blog was that he was absolutely methodical about his writings and rarely demonstrated his emotions as a fan. It seems paradoxical almost to write a blog as a fan and not let the raw emotions come out. Despite of that it was always an enjoyable read and like you said he was finely nuanced in his tactical analysis. I don’t think his blog site has been updated since 2014 but I do hope he returns to writing – Emery would give him plenty more to write than Arsene. Am flattered though that you compared some of my musings to his writing… thanks.
PS: Speaking of blog writing and emotions, I have to say that maestro holic does a mighty fine job of expressing emotions but at the same time doing a fine balancing act of never being jingoistic or disrespectful to anyone. Some of his writing during the end of Wenger era (a particularly divisive time amongst Arsenal fans) was exemplary – top top top quality.
Thank you, that is very kind.
@31 and 32.
Also very accurate. Well written Desi.
H – we do all keep coming back for a reason.
(Mainly that Lars left a credit card behind the bar that he still has not cancelled ?)
Excellent report H
A typical NLD.
Great atmosphere,very very physical,tackles flying in from all angles,goalmouth scrambles,missed chances,controversial decisions by Officials,who it must be pointed out,have about a nanosecond to make a subjective decision,fanatical supporters on both sides who see the same game through 2 completely different red and white sets of eyes,and would have you believe as an independent observer, that the game was not the one you were watching.
That stress among the 2 sets of supporters clearly translated to the players,who know only too well the consequences of losing to your hated neighbors,and was shown in microcosm,as Auba stepped up to take the potential match winning penalty,he looked like a man approaching the Gallows.
A point was what i hoped for given our dire recent away form,a tactical masterclass from Unai,and a resilient much improved away team effort from the boys almost gave us all 3.
I missed the game completely only hearing my Spurs supporting son-in-law describing Auba’s Penalty on the radio as we climbed the stairs to the theatre. I’ve now watched it through and seen MOTD and I think they substantially got the rub of the green in almost every major decision. Their pen was offside, I thought ours was a pen ( Sanchez made two very naive attempts to halt Auba) and Vertonghen was almost level with Auba when he took his kick! As for Torreira’s red card it was totally accidental.
Credit to Emery. We set up well and defended bravely with our best pair of Centre backs excellent. In midfield we were fluid and Mkhitaryan had a great game. Lacazette missed two great chances.
I think the Spuds have gone, they had panic etched all over their faces and they are so dependent on Kane . He plays the NLD like a man with a mission and is very worked up but we dealt with him very well.
We won an FA Cup because of Taylor but he was poor today but so were his Assistant referees.
For some reason there are many on here that seem to think that I overly defend the officials? I have no idea where that comes from. There are many aspects of the game that I really don’t like. The constant cheating and lack of VAR being two of them. Two reasons why I often have sympathy with the officials.
But not today. In fairness, Xhaka was the first to get away with one for a nasty one on the back of Kane’s knee. There is no doubt that their penalty should not have been given. Very poor from the lino and with no excuse for it. On a side note, what the hell was Mustafi doing?
Rose should have had a straight red for an awful lunge on Leno. If he gets a red then he’s Not their for the Torriera foul in injury time.
I thought our penalty was soft. Aubameyang’s strike even softer and Vertonghen has now been measured as being 7 yards inside the box at the tine if the strike.
There were several positives from today. The fact the spuds are celebrating a home point tells you all you need to know. We had more than enough chances to win the game and should have put it to bed.
Xhaka and Mustafi are both weak links and a liability.
Nice report H. Just think, when you are back and firing on all four then you will officially be a “like a new signing.”
4 games in 10 days. 3 wins and a draw. I’m sure we would have probably settled for that. That said, this does feel like points dropped.
Onwards and upwards boys and girls.
Steve T.
Very fair and I agree with almost
all of it.
Just a word for Mus yesterday.
He was filling in yesterday and did
a decent job defensively. Yes, he
shot us in the foot with the penalty
but….the main reason it happened is
that Kane has got the run on him and
Mus’ position is bad. The reason for that
is Kane went early and was offside.
He’s getting a lot of flak for being at
the wrong end of a shitty stick after
what was overall a good shift he put in
for the team.
I mus add though, I still think he’s too
error prone generally and we should
sell him this summer.
Very fair points made by Steve T and OM . I think I discern a positive direction of travel by Emery but one concern is his failure to develop some of the excellent young talent we have. Mavropanos and Nketiah are not on his radar at all. They may not be good enough but we have no way of knowing as he uses them so sparingly. Eddie would be much better on loan getting first team experience than just playing the odd U23 game. It is irrelevant that Mavropanos was injured for months because Emery never uses him yet we revert to Mustafi ( playing him at RB is a separate issue. We’ve signed Suarez who again has not figured in any meaningful way when we could be developing Saka or Amaechi . Yet Guendouzi plays more than anyone and yet has a big learning curve ahead of him . Don’t get me wrong Guendouzi is terrific but his use of young players is inconsistent and will lead to losing very important assets for inadequate prices.
On the plus side I think Leno is a fine keeper and has developed well this season
Excellent report and appendix @17, Guvna. I watched the whole match and final analysis yesterday evening as I was otherwise engaged at lunchtime. The drinks pretty much summarise the issues which lead me to be both disappointed at the result and the quality of decision-making by the officials and encouraged by the performances, attitude and workmate of the team. We deserved to win it. Top four remains in play. Onward.
Still upset over having two points taken away, but cannot be as upset as having three hundred quid taken away on a horrible Auba penalty kick. The guvna needs a name change to Hardluck ‘Holic.
Speaking of penalty kicks, with Lacazette out of the Rennes tie, who would you entrust to do the honors, now that we’ve seen Aubameyang from the spot in a pressure situation, and Ozil does not inspire any confidence? Ramsey (if Emery elects to play him)? Mkhitaryan? Xhaka?
Bayonne Jean
I’d go with Auba again . I’ve seen Mkhi miss and if you want to see Xhaka take a penalty refer back to the Euros when Switzerland had a shootout. It is now circling the Hubble Space Station! Ramsey scored in Europe but I’ve seen him miss. If we needed a replacement I’d go with Nacho.
TTG and Matt, thank you.
I take your point about Kane being offside. It’s more than valid. But my disappointment is in the fact that Mustafi considers it necessary and makes the decision to give him a shove. I don’t see that he has any need to. We live in a world where someone can sneeze in the top tier and it results in a player going down and being out for weeks. No one is going to miss the opportunity to fall to the floor in an absolute heap after a small shovefrom behind? So why run the risk?
Penalty’s are another mystery to me. Surely if you are a regular penalty taker then you would practice taking them at some stage in training? In the grand scheme of things that can’t be ground breaking stuff. I’ve seen several training videos where they put a net over the goal with only the four corners open. The drill is obviously to score in the corners. Why a penalty taker would not practice that on a regular basis is beyond me.
Whilst I understand why Suárez didn’t play yesterday, I do think he needs to be staring games. What is the point in taking a player who sits on the bench at Barca, only for him to sit on the bench here???
Goal from Calum to get Fulham
level but they quickly gave away
another. Their defence is just
amazingly bad.
Watching the Bindippers Derby and saw Fulham / Chelsea earlier .
Chambers had a very good game in his midfield role. Theo is just as much a pussy as he was when he played for us in red blooded games.
I thought Calum did well too.
Quite probably we will sell him this
summer but actually he looks a
better squad option than Elneny.
Just watched Theo blaze over.
He used to finish those for us 🙂
Ox had overtaken Theo as a player by the time Theo joined Everton. He has stagnated and Ox was making a huge impression with Pool till his unfortunate injury. If he comes back from the injury with his pace intact we may still regret selling him. We sold Theo at the right time and OM is right that he was a better player when he was with us. Now he gets fewer chances and in his anxiety to score snatches at them and is thus less effective.
Of those we sold recently, Gnabry is one regret.
I think Theo looked better with us because we are a much better team than Everton. He really looked a poor player today. I agree that we sold him at a good time and for a decent fee
Pool drop two points!
Everton was mostly long ball but faught tooth and nail. Pool did not play a technically much superior game either and never really pushed Everton. A deserved point for both teams which means City lead the table with 9 matches remaining. Title, 4th place finish and relegation all in sixpence which is why EPL is the best league to watch.
Ksn agree about selling Gnabry especially at that price as a huge regret. Another regret although smaller in scale would be selling Gabriel Paulista instead of Mustafi. I saw a few Valencia games earlier in the season including one against Barcelona at the Camp Nou, and Gabriel was very good in each one of them. His short Arsenal stay was hampered with unfortunate injuries and he never really had consistent run in the side to prove his credentials.
Given Torreira’s straight red means he misses next 3 league games against Man Ure and Newcastle both at home, and Everton away, one assumes he will play the full ninety in both legs against Rennes to keep up his match fitness.
He won’t feature in the league again until the Watford away game on Monday 15th April.
In fact after the Rennes 2nd leg game on the 14th March,the earliest he could appear again in an Arsenal shirt will be the 11th April which will be the first leg of the EL qtr final,assuming we get past Rennes.
His only other game time of any sort will be with Chile during Int’l break.
So a very costly red all round.
A red which by the way i cannot disagree with,yes he did get the ball first,but his foot was very high and his studs were showing,so no complaints from me.
Clive@52: I think the complaint is about the inconsistency of punishment. When Rose’s foot was very high and his studs were showing, so high, in fact, his studs ended up in Leno’s chest, a yellow was given, not a red. Also with Torriera’s red, Rose jumps in with both feet off the ground going for the ball and his studs miss driving into Torriera’s knee by a gnat’s whisker. Had they landed on it, would both players have got red?
Ned
Having viewed it again, whilst i take your point re Torreira/ Rose clash, i still think it’s a red,whilst to go against general opinion in the bar,i still think yellow was right call for Rose/Leno incident.
To add my tuppence worth on
inconsistency, Rose shouldn’t have
been on the pitch even if the
challenge on Leno was a yellow –
(it wasn’t IMO) he dived obviously in
the 1st half and it was a clear yellow
that Taylor just smiled away.
He is not a lovable little scamp to
smile upon and let it go, he is a
cheaty,sulky little fuck who should
have been booked, Derby game or not.
There are no angels in the PL (including
us) and it needs a consistent approach
if the situation is to be improved- not
so called “big personality” refs like
Taylor being allowed to impose their
own feeling of the moment judgment
on a case by case or person by person
basis. Er….I’m ranting so I’ll stop.
Agreed about Rose dive. Yellow card should have been out straight away.
@OsakaMatt ,
I agree with your comment that EPL referees manage the games on what they think is good and not to the laws/rules that dictate what they should do , hence the inconsistencies from game to game .
Having viewed the game twice now,my first impressions about my man of the match,were reinforced the 2nd time as well.
I thought Mikki had his best all round 90 min game against a top 6 side since he joined us.
In defence and attack he was indefatigable,and an ocean of calm
in a very congested midfield.
Long may it continue.
Before the game, a draw would have been fine but after the game, it left a bitter taste in the mouth. It was not just because of the penalty miss, it was more so because we were the better team, whatever poch tells. We had the better chances, never looked like conceding( blimey) and we had our midfield falling back to support the defense which was another first.
For me this was one of Emery’s best team management since he has come, everything he did except Mustafi who just should not play for us apart, was perfect.
Kane is arguably the replacement for shrek as the most hated around, he is plain annoying, over hyped and simply put a typical spurs player.
On to Rennes midweek and then United, if we need to finish top four we need to beat united, no two ways about it.
Alas poor Mus.
Manu Petit calls him “The King
of Blunders” in the papers.
Anyway, time to move on to
Rennes. Auba will have to play
and it would be great if he could
get a goal to help him forget about
the penalty.
Alexis Sanchez is injured and will be missing for the next few weeks for Manure. Is that good for us?
Pat Jennings
David Seaman
Ray Clemence
Peter Shilton
4 of the very best keepers of their time,all gathered together today,to pay their respects at his funeral,to the greatest of them all,
Sir Gordon Banks.
Re: ksn @61. It is interesting that the question even needs to be debated, but you are correct in that the answer is difficult to ascertain, the reason being Sanchez has been nearly irrelevant in the success or failure of their season, from what I can tell.
The U23s came back from 2-0 down at half-time against Swansea tonight . Amaechi was apparently the inspiration for our recovery. Sad news then that Bayern are looking to sign him. Good luck Unai in convincing him his future is with us when he hasn’t been near the team this season. How ironic Bayern may replace Robben and Ribery with Gnabry and Amaechi .
Still we’ve always got Dennis Suarez.
Speaking very generally in answer
to ksn @61 – injuries to our rivals
players is always helpful to us.
Less options for them and more
strain for the remaining players.
bt8 is right too though – he’s
done nothing this season
(Alexis that is, not bt8, who’s
been staunch as ever:)
Sanchez did score against us in our loss to Manure in the FA Cup in December.
Yes, he did score against us and it was an important goal. But I don’t think even Sanchez himself would say it has been anything close to a good season for him. Unless he has developed a new liking for sitting on the bench for an inordinate amount of time.
Staunch in the face of techno headwinds, ’tis I indeed OM and thanks for noticing. 🙂
Upon reflection I am no longer worried about the Rose dive, especially as I have a feeling his form may be headed for an even more exaggerated Nose dive. 😉
Bale booed off in Madrid. I don’t
suppose he will sign for us given
his Spud connection though he is
the type of goal threat wide player
we need.
£50 million-60 million for someone approaching 30, OM? Doesn’t seem the Arsenal way. Especially the £50 million-60 million bit.
Auba?
But yes, I suppose we won’t do it
again. Anyway, he wouldn’t join us
as he pretends to like Spuds.
OM
As it happens Gareth Bale supported Arsenal as a boy! But there is no way we will sign him. His financial demands and the fee put him way outside the Kroenke model. I have real concerns about a bloke who lives in Spain for six years and can’t speak a word of Spanish! What a waste of an opportunity to broaden your horizons just like Gazza and Ian Rush.
I’ve been looking at Rennes’ recent form. They play in an inferior league but are unbeaten for three months and we lost our last away tie to BATE. And we may have to play Mustafi at CB! A draw might be a good result.
Bale and everyone else on Real will be available at deep discounts after Ajax tore them apart 1-4 at the Bernabeu. Ajax led by their central defender de Ligt, and he’s also their captain at 19 years old. The new Tony Adams? We couldn’t afford him.
I wonder how many of that Ajax team will still be there in a year’s time. Must be a lot of agents rubbing their hands right now.
Quite agree Ajax are about to
become much,much richer!
Pity in a way as it would be nice
to see if they could get close to
the 70s team but that won’t happen
in the current system
Also agree we won’t pay Bale, if he
does come back I think only the
Manchester clubs will pay his wages
as the Chavs have tightened the
purse strings for the last few years
Agreed with both points made by TTG @72. Bale probably didn’t even learn how to eat tapas at his local bar, the no good Spud.
I watched Ajax tear Real Madrid apart. Quite remarkable and a signpost marking the end of an era. Not even Cristiano Ronaldo would have made much difference and I doubt he will make much difference for Juventus in the last stages of the Champions League at his age.
I hope the Arsenal players learned something from watching Ajax playing against Real Madrid, namely not to go in to their tie with Rennes taking anything for granted.
I was just thinking about the team
for tomorrow. My guess is
Cech
I don’t know (x4 or maybe x3)
See above
Aubamayang
And I suppose Torreira will play
as the FA rejected his red card
appeal.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>