Villa have gone full strength for their European game tonight

Liverpool put out a weaker than usual squad, paying for it. Down 3-0 and the super subs (starters) came in at 2-0...at home!

Sadly, they can make it up at Atalanta. The opposition isn't really that good.

West Ham defended resolutely. Leverkusen had tons of shots on goal. Fabianski was fantastic. 5 at the back at times but alas 82 minutes of bombardment, Russians at Stalingrad comes to mind, they couldn't keep them out.

Good result in the Liverpool match.

If Atalanta gets past Liverpool they may have handed the Europa cup to Leverkusen. I didn't think Leverkusen could beat Liverpool. The toughest club they have played is Bayern Munich. 2-2 away, 3-0 at home. Liverpool are a level up. My speculation but don't see them beating them. I think they are very capable of beating whomever is left, Marseille, Milan, Benfica whomever goes through.

People are still talking about the Raya/Gabriel penalty incident. All this does is show how desperate they are for Arsenal to lose and they mask it up as some black and white rule.
What if after the ref blew the whistle Raya dropped the ball down in the 6 yard box and rolled his foot over the ball to place it in the position to take the goal kick, would everyone determine that is him taking the goal kick and therefore when he actually takes it it would be a foul for touching the ball twice?
This technical incident in a variety of forms will happen in every game every week. What about when one player is ready to take a throw and decides to leave it for a team mate, usually dropping the ball or throwing it underarm to him - are these deemed foul throws?

People demanding it should have been a penalty need to grow up because they are showing how bias they are and letting that cloud any rational thought

Midweek European results have put the 5th champions league place in jeopardy for England. Germany are ahead now. If Bayern knock us out and Leverkusen knock West Ham out, and Liverpool’s position looking perilous England could be left with a top 4 only. Spurs are in charge of that but they have a very difficult run in playing Newcastle away, Chelsea away and all the top 3.

It could be quite tight between Villa and Spurs for 4th

I still think we’re another world class central midfielder missing.
Rice and Ødegaard are excellent. Jorginho does a very good job against a lot of teams, Partey looks unlikely to rediscover his absolute best form, then you have players who play in the left 8 like Emile Smith Rowe, Havertz who can be effective but against the very best we need more

And central defense. Saliba and Gabriel have already both played 42 games this season.

I just saw that . Hopefully the wheels are coming off.

The latest rumor is Kimmich. I can't say I was overly impressed but he'll fit in.

I presume Timber is there to fill that role. For me, striker is the position that needs upgrading. Our primary goal threat is Saka, and as good as he is, he's not at Mo Salah levels so we need a really dangerous centre forward to take our attacking up a level.

Who is they?

There a variety of small 'incidents' in each game that are overlooked. I can see where people who dislike a club will make more of it than it should be. On balance, if it was the other way around I can see some Gooners making the same claim. It's a bit of a wash effectively.

Overall, we could have beaten them pretty handily were it not for the first uncharacteristic mistake. Had they not had that goal and pressed, I can easily see a few countering opportunities to go up 2-0.

It also kinda hurt to see Kane scoring on us...again. Even if it was a PK. Second leg will be interesting.

I wonder how he is now? Same or changed his style a bit.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/20W0s-wNNBE

I never really felt we could win a CL under Wenger. No disrespect to him. I do think under Arteta we can get to another final and I also thought had Umery stayed we'd eventually get to another final.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/uXa10xm1xmk

I didn't think that when 10-man Arsenal took the lead against Barca in the Final

Sorry, but she comes off with silly predictions.

6 people stabbed to death in a large Bondi Junction shopping mall this afternoon in Sydney. Attacker shot dead by poilce.

A 9 month old baby and the mother also stabbed multiple times. The babys mother died in hospital.
8 more victims in hospital also. Jesus.

...more predictions. Everyone finishes on 89 points.

Awful.

What a world we live in.

Spurs

Mothers & babies. WTF?

Like you I’m guessing Decaf, I’m watching the humbling of ‘Player of the Season’ GOAT Van de Ven. Dumped on his arse for the first two in very quick succession. Then, the ‘quickest player in the league’ is left for dead in a chase from the halfway line by Isak

edit
….and now beaten in the air for their fourth.

Not much is being said about the race for top 4. Spurs have a slightly harder run in between them and Villa. Spurs have to play all 3 title contenders and Chelsea. There is an outside chance Man Utd might catch up them either of them if Spurs lose to all three contenders and drop points or lose to Chelsea.

That spurs humbling has absolutely been coming. The underlying stats have betrayed the results they’ve been getting all season.

No doubt the tactics of pushing both full backs in to central advanced 8 positions are innovative and took the league by surprise, but being so tactically inflexible and so open at the back has led to teams figuring them out.

I still do rate Van der ven despite his litany of mistakes today, the system relies on him to cover a huge amount of ground and it is going to catch them out.

Also worth noting spurs under Ange have 60 points after 32 games, spurs under Conte last season also had 60 points after 32 games. And the goal difference is worse.
It’s amazing what a bit of media spin can do

Jermaine Defoe
“But I still think for me Tottenham are one of the most exciting [teams] to watch and if we didn’t have those injuries at key moments to Van den Ven and Maddison, Sarr and Bissouma, we’d be top of the league.”

I'm also enjoying seeing the Spurs fans turning on Bissouma. They thought they had put one over us there

United 2-1 down at Bournemouth. Ten Hag looking helpless on the sideline like a dead man walking.

That is their level, their general play is of a team in 10th, they were incredibly lucky to be 6th for so long

Coman will be missing for Bayern next week. Davies is suspended and I think I read Gnabry is struggling with an injury as well

What’s Coman’s issue?

Obviously their first 11 will still be chock full of quality but it limits what they can do off the bench which could be key. I think we should do it. But I have a feeling in my stomach that we won’t..

Just seen. Hobbled off with a knee injury today.

16 year old Arsenal academy player Chido Obi-Martin scored 5 goals today in an 8-1 win for the U18’s, so he’s playing up an age group. Same kid has hit a hat trick, 4 goals and ridiculously 10 goals in separate matches this season.
The chances of him making it even when he’s putting up unheard of numbers in age group football remains very, very slim however. It’s just the way it always is.

Well we have no excuses when we play them. We must crush them.

No idea why it double posted

Because you are doubly sure we will crush them