Lol. Ceballos was playing because Tierney is injured and Xhaka moved to left back, so Ceballos doesn't count. Remind me which 6 players walk into our first team? Let's face it you're talking rubbish and not for the first time.
Still who cares, we murdered the team that knocked Leicester out of Europe tonight so I'm in a good mood.

You wanna start that boring debate again? We can beat anyone on our day, consistency is the issue,

I’m surprised your in a good mood considering the sheer misery you spout when you throw a hissy fit when we lose a game.

We’re on the verge of a potential final, how horrible for you.

No need to get upset TG Have a cup of cocoa and calm down.

I’m happy, we won. I like it when we win.

We’re so inconsistent. A fine win today, but we’re more than capable of dropping points against Fulham.

We can win the Europa League with the players we have. On paper the most likely final is Arsenal versus Manchester United. The respective league positions of the two clubs suggests they’re the better team. But if we have one of our good days in the final, I’d fancy us to beat them. The uncertain thing is whether we’d have one of our good days. You don’t know what Arsenal is going to turn up in any game.

Can't wait till we play Villareal.

Playing 3 at the back has helprd to dominate midfield and also gives the attack a bit more free reign so Arteta has to be given credit for changing it after the Liverpool game. Same as what Decaf or Haz said , Xhaka could come unstuck with balls over the top to forwards with pace but it's working for now and a great win.

https://metro.co.uk/2021/04/16/arteta-r ... wsnow-feed

Respect to Arsenal, Lacazette & his team. Stamp out Racism.

No changes boss. Let them bed in together.

Give Azeez and Balogun some game time especially if we have a good half time lead.

That is already a quite iconic picture. It is all over the internet. Handy to back up that statement with a 4-0 win and 2 goals from the captain and guy who features is such a defiant statement. Our other two goalscorers were black as well

If we make it to the final it will be our 7th final in 8 years. As much as we’ve gone through a tough time in comparison to the last 30 years we’re still competitive.

It would make 2 finals in 2 years for Arteta in difficult circumstances. Plenty of egg on faces here if he wins the bloody thing after a host of people on here moaned about his in game management and micro analysed every other decision no matter how inconsequential

This sums up America. This is a brief exchange between two coworkers.

"Did you hear about the mass shooting?"

"Which one?"

...and the tone was just this side of 'matter of fact'. The body count, place and type of victims determines the reaction.

I've also realized in conversation that present or former gun owners such as myself who are politically moderate, centrist or towards the left, would have very little issue in a total gun ban. It's the right wing that would gladly wage guerilla warfare in order to keep theirs. I bought mine after a break in our area and I was living alone at the time with the occasional weekend sleep overs of my two young nephews at the time. When I moved to a better area I sold it. No need (the resale value is horrible...lol), cars I think have a much better comparative resale value. That's your typical owner. The far right sees it not for functionality (home protection in a bad area, hunting, etc.) but in part of some ideological fear of an oppressive government and the fringe right as needed for some eventual internal war based on..take your pick: the global elite (code speak for Jews mainly but also the liberal 1% like the newly rich progressives in tech, etc, if that's really possible), a race war with Blacks mainly, supported by the aforementioned 'global elites' (which coincidentally some have killed blacks to spark one. Self fulfilling prophecy. We expect one so let's start one to get it over with because its inevitable...yeah, I know, no one said they were logical). Others for some other fringe reasons.

I've signed petitions or voted for any proposal that restricted access, increased background checks, whatever. I have zero issues with it. And have always loved countries where gun crime was rare if any. I have met Americans in peaceful countries who would comment that it would be hard to live in such places without access to a firearm. You really need one in...take your pic... Bali, Dubai, Tokyo? Really?

And at the end of the day, that's what it's all about

Exactly, Haz.

I wasn't at all confident going into the game given their home record, our inconsistency and our ability to shoot ourselves in the foot, but I am ecstatic to be proven wrong.

Am I confident we can win the thing? Well, we are one step nearer and only a max of three games left to play but this is cup football and it only takes one sub-par performance or some bad luck, some poor refereeing, or even a couple of worldies from the opposition. In short, anything can happen.

I'd like to see United knocked out, that would make me more confident.

This taking the knee nonsense is beginning to grate frankly. It's over a year now.

Surely even if you think that you must have enjoyed that image from last night, pretty iconic.

Well done to him and the team. Saka's glare is quite something too. Massive respect.

I frankly disagree.

Same. I think last night showed exactly how powerful it can be. That picture of Lacazette will live long in the memory.

I think we need to rest players this weekend. The league is done, frankly. Put everything into the Europa, rest some key players in the PL and give the fringe and young players some minutes.

I totally agree but the problem Arteta has is the moment he drops any key player he gets attacked so he can’t win. The hysteria that follows any result that isn’t 3 points for us affects confidence. It’s an absolute furore

Really impressed with Lacazette this whole season: for his role on the pitch, and as an example and leader for the younger players.

I'd rather be playing Utd in a one off game than over two legs.

Heard on the radio this morning that next seasons European Super Cup Final will be held in Belfast!! Here's hoping to see the arse back in town, been a while.

I'm focussing on the upward trajectory in our mean performance (even if that is harder to detect definitively in our results), and trying to shut out rather significant scatter around that mean

Arteta needs to figure out how to cut out those frustratingly sluggish starts. Against Liverpool and West Ham, the mentality might have been to keep it tight which leads to tentativeness and it goes pear-shaped from there. We are simply not playing to our strengths. Ditto the first league against Prague. If you are the home team in first leg, you need to put the fear of away goals completely out of mind.

I thought we could have made some subs earlier, given them half and hour whilst resting the likes of Emile Smith Rowe and Saka for another day. I mean not even we could have conceded four goals in half an hour? Could we

What do you mean ? You think Arteta shouldn’t be sacked for bringing on El Nenny for 14 minutes in a sewn up game ?

Lefty woke nonsense off with the guys head.

If we get past Villarreal I dont think my nerves /health could handle a final against Utd.
Losing to Chelsea in Baku was bad enough but losing to those tossers would be excruciating.
I'm praying Roma can knock them out but are they strong enough to? I have my doubts.
Can only hope and pray.
Utd are a very good team but so are we on our day.
But first Villarreal......

He’s not perhaps quite up to the standard required for a title challenging team, but he’s an honest professional and in my opinion, a far better choice for Captain than anyone else at the moment.

And keep taking the knee; if people say they’re getting hacked off with it, it means there’s still work to do in getting rid of racism.

But the ugly face of racism is still happening

But far less than it used to. Furthermore the knee taking is now so perfunctory and done so often it has lost its meaning if ever it had any. Certainly racists aren't going to change their ways because a bunch of highly paid players kneel down.

Our club told Mesut Özil to shut up for the temerity of mentioning an ongoing genocide. Somehow that racism seems not to be worthy of mention. I smell virtue signalling.

Well said John.
How anyone can get hacked off or bored of it beggars belief.

Dont agree that we should just give up on the league.
Of course we have to give our all to winning the Europa but while there is still a chance to nick a Europa spot via top 7 we have to go for it.
We get knocked out or lose in the final at least we have achieved qualification for next season.
Spurs run in on paper is harder than ours and we are only 4 points behind them.
Top 7 still can be done.

On reflection, I would agree that beheading would be a bit harsh.

Really? I would LOVE to visit Belfast. As soon as this covid19 mess is over, I'm heading to games. It's interesting, the pandemic has made me feel a certain way of not being able to make games that I didn't make a great enough effort to go to prior.

I'm definitely going to some when we're able to go to it live. PS: I'll be wearing the Mustafi shirt.

Never really expected to beat Chelsea in that final. However despite them being 2nd in the table and likely finish runner up, Man Utd are very vulnerable. They are no where near Ferguson's Man Utd. It's not a stretch to see us beat them and that is what would make a final nerve racking. Knowing we are definitely in with a shout and losing a game that is very winnable if we do what we all know we are capable of.

Kaepernick got a lot more flak for his stand than Özil did. In my view, Özil and co should persist with their activism. Kaepernick's refusal to be cowed was certainly effective. I think that Özil's stand was arguably more political (it was a direct criticism of the Chinese government) whereas the anti-racism stance is not singling out any political entity, and it is something that football has already bought into. Finally its impossible to imagine that what we saw last night was virtue signalling from Lacazette, and the reports are that he talked to Arteta about it first. He conducted himself in a professional, and I think, inspiring way.