Very worried about the Chelsea game. They are playing decently right now. Yes, they lost against City but they were outplaying them in a cup semi final. You'd think City would batter them.

Also, in the fall they were beating us 2-0 at home and we didn't score till close to the 80th minute for the first goal. This has draw written all over it. I don't think they'll win but they can take points. They are having a bad season but they play us tough and are playing better these past few weeks. They've beaten Man Utd and Newcastle and drawn at City in the league among the usual bad results in the last couple months.

Hopefully they are still tired from the game yesterday.

I thought we were excellent except in one respect: decision-making in the box. W over-elaborate and end up taking shots from less dangerous positions or when the defenders have closed in. We had so much good possession and yet our Xg was less than one until our late flurry. I think we are missing a trick by not playing Trossard (or Havertz) as CF. He's our best finisher and he only actually had one shot on goal yesterday (according to this site: https://understat.com/match/22234).

We'll need to be clinical against Chelsea.

6 away clean sheets on the bounce I just read.

So they're number 1 then after all ....

I didn’t see Sky’s man of the match or whether that differs from the prem mini trophy the players get but Rice got the trophy for man of the match.
Raya made 1 good save and didn’t have another thing to do, even if he did get man of the match - which would be bizarre- it wouldn’t have reflected any threat that wolves had.
Surely dominance in a game has to be a combination of possession, territory, chance creation, shots, duels won, and the defensive version of each of those. Did we create enough opportunities to score 4-5? Probably and poor decision making and execution of the final shot let us down. If shots/goals is the only measure of dominance it’s quite a simplistic way of looking at games. For example, whilst not ‘dominating City’ I thought Chelsea were the dominant team in the cup semi yesterday, based on all of the factors above

I’m surprised Partey isn’t being trusted more at the moment, I’d like to see him start some games in the run in. He releases Rice in the 8 position and has the line breaking passing ability to find Ødegaard quickly between the lines. It’s a crucial factor to our build up play and was a big feature of last season.

We really should find a player and the system that allows Rice to be more attacking. He's 'wasted' as a holding midfielder. He can play pretty much any central midfield role, credit to him. He is more useful when he can go forward. It's obvious.

We have been linked in the press rumor mills as going for either Tielesmans or Kimmich in the summer. Either will do as a holding midfielder.

Hi Rich,

Like you I was bemused as to why Partey had not been given more game time. However, watching him closely yesterday he looked way off the pace. Still very cultured on the ball but his legs look like they have gone. He didn't seem able to get around the pitch in the way he did before his injury.

Something seems wrong, is it just a fitness issue or has the injury really impacted him as a player?

On that subject, Martinelli looks really poor at the moment. I love the kid, but he's not been the same player for a while now. I know most of our play goes down the right side but he seems unable to make much of an impact.

The positives going into the Chelsea game is that their season is essentially over. They expended a lot of physical and mental energy in the cup game and they are likely down. We are home.

Their only motivation is to play title spoiler and of course depending on what part of their support you talk to their biggest or 2nd biggest rival. (not really counting Fulham or even Brentford that matter).

Perhaps we can channel the ghosts of derbies past.

I think Partey is a must start against Chelsea but I have to say this season Gabby Jesus is winding me up something chronic and should be left out. I understand the need to rotate and I’ve always appreciated his wild card street football but hes just too unpredictable and illogical. I’m actually surprised he’s featured as much as he is and for me he only starts when Havertz and Trossard aren’t fit to start up top. The moment he went off yesterday we started getting behind their back 4 again with Havertz holding the ball up. I’m not really sure why we have reverted to leaving out Jorginho and not using Partey we were doing okay with that set up.

He’s not a player that is a non contributor and can provide a squad role but If someone offered us decent money for him this summer I’d be sorely tempted to take it.

Honestly him not squaring the ball for saka to tap in when he came on was a sin.

He’s had an odd season. I think he’s missed playing alongside Granit Xhaka who would simply feed him the ball over and over. Deccers and Havertz in the 8 role seem to have less attacking attributes to play him in.

We have quite a few players in limbo really where they aren’t good enough to lock down a place in our first choice 11 but occupy a place in our squad.

I’d say ..


Emile Smith Rowe
Nketiah
Zinchenko (just can’t be trusted in big games, what’s happened to him this season )
Jesus (4 goals in 23 appearances in the league ? Not remotely good enough)
Elneny
Partey
Jorginho
Nelson
Kiwior (we have 3 left backs but really none of them are fit for purpose)
Vieira (if you can’t trust him in games like wolves when are you going to play him)



It will be interesting to see how many of that lot are with us next season. I think we will keep Jesus who is on big money and maybe Partey whose contract runs out in 2025 and I can’t see anyone offering him 200k a week he’s on. Maybe Zinchenko too who is on very large wages that would be difficult to shift.

Some big calls need to be made this summer.

How did you get on DHD, Would have been difficult to leave early with us not wrapping the game up till late on.

It was a real pain TG but there wasn’t a choice. Having said that, we seemed well in control. Barring a couple of Kiwior bloopers, they hardly threatened us at all. I wouldn’t say confidence was high when I left but we appeared to have things under control.

Celebrated the Ødegaard goal on the platform as the train pulled in - with crowds of Gooners who were in the same bind.

how do you get a 1 out of 5 rating. That’s some effort

The health inspector must have found the body of Jimmy Hoffa in the kitchen or something.

Some players really get more than a pass from commentators and pundits. In the Man U cup semi-final the commentator just said ‘ball in to McTominey who has done SO well this season’ eh? I know he’s a product of the ‘famous’ Man U academy but the guy is so poor it’s unreal. He’s good at crashing the box and using his physicality and athleticism to bash some goals but in all round play his technique, first touch, creativity is awful and he’s a huge reason why Man U can’t gain any control in midfield when he plays.

Watch him score the winner today now….

No matter how aggrieved you feel at decisions (and I haven’t seen these ones) you can’t have your clubs official Twitter account tweeting things like this!

Hahaha there is McTominey to open the scoring after I slandered him.

It was a typical crash the box tap in from him and he still managed to kick it in of a position half way up his leg instead of his boot

Man Utd is the better team to stop Man Utd winning the double but that would mean Man Utd gets to 13 FA cups.

Hilarious from Man U

But saved by VAR

If I thought Man U winning the cup final would keep ten Hag in the job I’d be all for it. Sadly Man U have had enough of a top level restructure that there is no way ten Hag survives this summer.

I’m desperate for Man U to play Casemiro vs us later this season, I actually think I can run faster than him

An inch away from the greatest fa cup comeback/bottle job/upset ever.

If Man U had to win that’s the best way for them to win. They were too embarrassed to celebrate. They were dead on their legs at the end and Coventry were the ones pushing the issue in extra time and were the better team

They were embarrassed weren't they. So were their fans.

TG….I guess you can add to your list Marquinhos,Tierney,Tavares and Sambi Lakonga

Cannot see any of them coming back though Sambi has played a lot for Luton this year….probably more than Emile Smith Rowe, Nelson and Nketiah combined

I think Ramsdale will go

Some of these players need to be sold for high prices and not be gifted. As I understand it in FFP if you make losses of 105million over 3 years you fail the test. I think over the last 2 years we are about 90 in the hole. There will be some big revenue from CL but if we need new players then it could get pretty tight.

Wow. What a finish for Leverkusen or should I say Neverlusen. They go 1-0 down in the 80 some odd minute at Dortmund and score 1 minute from final whistle in extra time. I really hope they go through the entire season with no losses in every competition.

Forest are calling out the var appointment of Stuart Attwell for their match claiming he is a Luton fan and is therefore deliberating not giving Forest decisions to ensure they lose the match and increase the chances of Luton staying in the league. It’s quite a jump from incompetence to outright bias.

The league do have a problem with referees who declare an allegiance to a particular premier league club. Jared Gillet for example is supposedly a Liverpool fan, this is backed up by the fact that he’s never refereed Liverpool once in the prem but has reffed every other team multiple times. So in a title race why should Gillet be allowed to ref or be var for City or Arsenal games. The PGMOL don’t trust Gillet to be unbiased for Liverpool games so why should he be trusted for games involving their rivals - he can have just as much influence if he wanted.

In 21/22 season when city beat Liverpool to the title by 1 point he refereed 5 City games that season.

It’s worth looking at Gillet’s record on Arsenal matches, just this season he was ref for our away game v Villa when he denied Jesus a penalty and the late Havertz goal which was surely a guess that it hit Havertz hand. He was also on var for our away game v Chelsea where he gave the handball by Saliba and refused to give a penalty for Sanchez clattering Jesus

We do need to offload some players that's for sure but you read some of the twitter feeds and fans seem to think its easy to sell for big money and come up with all sorts of absurd valuations.

In the real world most of the players we want to offload have, partly because of our lack of rotation, barely played this season and their stock is not high. Plus, most are on decent money which smaller clubs will be reluctant to pay unless they get them for virtually nothing.

Plus clubs are more wary of FFP and are reigning in their spending accordingly.

I don't disagree with he players you mention but lets look at a realistic valuation for them:


Emile Smith Rowe maybe £20m if Villa are still interested.

Nketiah £15-20m

Zinchenko would get our money back maybe, £30m

Jesus £50m maybe if Madrid still fancy him

Elneny £2m or might even me let go for free given his service to the club

Partey £15m because of his age and injury record

Jorginho £8m

Nelson £10-15m

Kiwior might get our money back as he's still pretty young £20m

Vieira who's going to buy him for big money when he's not proven in the PL? Maybe a loan to France or a smaller PL club.


I'd say the most likely big money departure is Ramsey who we might get £50m if a few big clubs are interested but more likely £30m.

I have never considered this collateral issue, but is pretty persuasive argument: he shouldn’t have control of other games which could benefit his team. I am not thinking about what you considered were his errors against us. It just doesn’t pass the pub test at all.

A few up and down for me. Jesus 20 if we are lucky, Jorginho worth at least that but near the end of his contract so less, Smith Rowe more because he is English. Otherwise around the figures you suggest, but lots of clubs seem to be near FFP limits and I think we will struggle to find buyers. I assume Ramsey should be Ramsdale.

I read an interesting piece on our pressing structure and how a few teams have countered this recently, and what we can do to re-counter.

Arsenal press man to man, but ask Ødegaard to effectively do 2 jobs in the press, he presses the left-sided CB and ensures the line he runs to press him also blocks off the left CB passing in to the deep lying midfielder. It is a very good skill if you can do it successfully and Ødegaard is one of the best at doing this.

But what Bayern, Villa and Wolves have all done is push their left CB very wide (Dier, Pau Torres and Killman) which makes it virtually impossible for Ødegaard to do this double job, it means the CB can bring the ball out under little pressure or he has an easier pass in to the deep midfielder.. Saka is forced to cover the left back who is often stationed very high, he has to do this to stop a 2v1 against Ben White

The counter for this is for Arsenal to be even more aggressive in the press and we push up our defensive mid (Rice/Jorginho) right up high on to the opponents defensive mid and allow Ødegaard to press the CB. It is incredibly risky because you're all but emptying your midfield to try to win the ball in the opponents third, and it relies on our defensive line to also be ultra aggressive on any direct ball in to them.

Maybe its just me that finds all this stuff fascinating, but it shows how Villa were able to easily beat our press and get the ball in to Watkins or down the line to Zainilo who were then winning their duels with our defence and Villa's midfield wining second balls. You could sub in Kane winning duels for Bayern and Goretzka and Laimer winning second balls. Wolves tried it but they just weren't skilled enough to do it

Raya has 13 clean sheets this season and is 3 clear of any other GK for the golden glove award. And he had to sit out the Brentford clean sheet and Ramsdale got a clean sheet in the first 4 games as well. 15 clean sheets for The Arsenal this season

No idea how Opta calculates these things but these are the % chances of winning the league for the top 3 at every point this season. At no point have we ever been favourites

Some rumours that Cole Palmer may miss the game with us - big bonus is true as he's been by miles the only good thing for Chelsea this year.

They have proven (somehow) in the big games they are a threat still. Their results v the traditional big 6 are not too shabby - we need to take them very seriously. I'd expect a few tweaks to the line up, I'd be playing Havertz up front for this one and v Spurs at the weekend

Timber has travelled with the U21's to play Blackburn today - first match for him since he did his ACL

Apart from Ipswich, those teams fighting for promotion from the Championship have a very yoyo feel about them.
Leicester are in pole position to return at the first attempt, then its Ipswich - 3rd and 4th are two more of the teams that went down last season, Leeds and Southampton - and West Brom and Norwich make up the rest of the play off positions with no one else likely to break in to them.

So currently Arsenal and Liverpool sit 2 points above City with City having a game in hand. Fixtures in order from here go:
1. Arsenal v Chelsea
2. Everton v Liverpool
3. Brighton v City

Next weekend the order of games is
1. Liverpool
2. Arsenal
3. City

1. Arsenal
2. City
3. Liverpool

1. City
2. Arsenal
3. Liverpool
and then City play their game in hand

Then we all play the same time on the final day. With the TV companies dictating that the title chasing teams all play at different times so they can maximise the hype on the run in its good to see at least that we don't have the situation of last year where we played after City in far too high a proportion of the games

I'm finding watching Liverpool and City hoping they will drop points and normally being disappointed very draining, not to mention time-consuming. Not fun at all. It's just too much and the TV companies are taking the piss.

It is so much more enjoyable watching Arsenal while keeping an eye on what is going on in the other games. At least they are still playing simultaneously for the final game but I would be pleasantly surprised if we are still in it then.

I understand what you mean, its why in theory it is far easier to get out of the relegation fight than to catch a title rival. In a relegation fight your rival is definitely dropping points so it is in your hands. We could win 16 draw 1 and lose 1 of the final 18 games and not win the title.
We need to be top going in to the final game to have a chance - all 3 teams play 'easy' home games on the final day and I can't see any dropping points