Stuffy moralising about a kids choice of team.

I’m with Bernard on this actually. *%^@* sake mate find someone local to support for gods sake there’s plenty of choice where you are. It’s not like it’s even a clear run to Manchester from Hertfordshire, follow someone you can actually watch eh.

There were numerous situations where the big diagonal out to Martinelli was on and neither CB, Xhaka or Partey seemed to want to attempt it, especially White who is more than capable of pinging 40 yard balls. We seem determined to play down the right, with Ode and Saka obviously forming a great understanding but teams have worked out the need to double up on Saka which leaves lots of space out on the left.

We are a bit lopsided.

Regarding Ramsdale, I am not sure people pointing out that he was not at his absolute worldbeater best for a few weeks is deserving of criticism. It was a fairly obvious observation, his level did drop off a little, he made a few fumbles here and there, looked slightly shaky at times and his distribution was not quite at the elite level it was a few weeks earlier. He didn't make any massive howlers but I think he did get away with a few, including the goal that was disallowed against Watford which I thought he should have saved. I think Rich hit the nail on the head, his performances were 7's out of 10 rather than 9 out of 10. No one was calling for him to be dropped, though.

Good point. As a season-ticket holder at Sydney FC for the last 15 years, I can certainly back you up on that. Supporting your local team is great fun, even as you look jealously across at fancy-dans Melbourne City, boasting international stars like Carl Jenkinson in their ranks.

The silly little *%^@ may as well support PSG because it’s just as quick to get a Eurostar to Paris than train to Manchester.

I agree with Socrates.

By the way what was the atmosphere like at yesterday's game?

3rd in the league for clean sheets only behind the Brazilians at city and Liverpool.

https://www.squawka.com/en/premier-leag ... an-sheets/

People saying he’s tailed off must have been kicked in the head by a horse.

Atmosphere was good but *%^@*** hell it’s time consuming getting in the ground these days if you arrive late

Only three more than Martinez, though. Arteta out.

In Block C there only seem to be two turnstiles open. Its madness as on average it takes about 15 minutes to get in.
How about this for an idea. Why dont they just open/add/some more turnstiles?

Arteta should never have sold Martinez

Arteta has an ego problem because he won’t pick …(insert player name who has been behaving like a total *%^@)

We have no recognised style of play! .

Arteta has wasted all our money on overpriced English rubbish

Let’s get Potter to steady the ship !

Ben White is rubbish in the Air !

Arteta has wasted all our time chasing player x

Arteta is rubbish at making substitutions (note; all substitutes are useless)

Ah but he signed Willian

Arteta is ruining Salibas career !





… there you go the complete portfolio of usual nonsense trotted out on here. I think that’s it let me know if I’ve missed one

You forget

Kroenke out Usmanov in!!!!

Xhaka never passes it forward

Bollocks forgot


Arteta is too noisy on the touch line (Note Commenter also complained that wenger was too quiet )

Artetas training session are too complex and hard work and the players don’t like it..

Us, Liverpool and Chelsea are on the best form in the league over the last 5 games, all wins. City 4 out of 5 wins. Feels good.

Now we will see where we are at. We are at home which is worth a lot mentally. Can we eek out a draw? A loss isn't the end of the world. If we lose badly, its a bad omen. Yeah, Wednesday will tell us a lot.

121 corners faced and we’ve not conceded. The only team in the league to not concede one. And we’re scoring a decent number from them too.

Jover the set piece coach we poached from City must take a huge amount of credit this season

Not sure if anyone noticed but Ben White did that off the ball trip on Daka the same as he did on Jimenez in the Wolves home game. It’s when a break is on and the attacker has a yard on him he trips them before the ref has turned to look in his direction and he makes it seem like a tangle of legs. They are deliberate trips. He needs to be careful because it’s an automatic booking if he’s caught

Bernard don’t watch panorama tonight

Stuffy moralising everywhere. (Detailing impressively a horrendous list of stuff by Mr Roman)

Good morning Rich,

I'm not discounting this guys influence. Not at all. But, until it was mentioned by pundits, I didn't notice it at all. Maybe, I am just not as observant. I didn't really notice a change in positioning. I thought sometimes the opposition corner kick wasn't good, or we just seemed to get to it first, or they didn't get much on the ball.

My question is was it obvious we were defending better?

I was pleasantly shocked when I heard this commentary during our game with Leicester. This is absolutely amazing, given that we had the leakiest defence (from corners) at one time. Those days every corner against us was a nail-biting moment. Jover is undoubtedly the key reason for this fantastic record. Additionally, Ramsdale comes out to collect or clear those high balls very convincingly. I love it that he is not static on the goal line during corners. He definitely gives much more confidence to his defence. That said, Gabriel is a really good header of the ball, and can be relied upon to clear those incoming corners.

Ramsdale coming for crosses makes a big difference. Watch De Gea next time you have the misfortune of watching a Man U game to see the difference. He sticks rigidly to his line on virtually every ball in to the box

Even if Leicester reduce their price for Maddison, will it be to a level we should spend on finding someone to cover Ødegaard in cup games, when he’s rested or injured? Ødegaard is fast approaching the point when I’ll look on him as a genius. I think he’s utterly brilliant, and is pretty well week in week out. His back up is all Maddison would be as there’s no way he’d replace Partey or Xhaka.

Our Manchester United fan from Watford will be 19 early next season, in mid-October. If Patino is half as good as he’s supposed to be, that’s who I see being Ødegaard’s back up. By far the biggest priority in the summer will be recruiting a couple of forwards, one of whom will have to be top drawer so very expensive. If Lacazette and Nketiah both leave, which I expect to happen and to be brutally honest I hope it does, depending on how Martinelli’s role develops the only forward will be Balogun. Up front is where we need to spend big, not on cover for Ødegaard.

I’m sure you’d welcome a replacement for Xhaka. Maddison won’t do that. It simply isn’t his game. Talking of Leicester players, Ndidi I can see the arguments for, not Maddison.

Probably not. I read that he said he sees his preferred position as more of an 8 which is where Xhaka seems to be operating but he only seems to be assuming that role when we play a lesser team. Maddison and partey sounds to unbalanced a bit. You could have him brought in as cover for 3 positions but it’s hard enough right now with Smithers not getting games. (I’d play him tomorrow btw in for martinelli)

I think I can see us agreeing an extension with Lacazette possibly. He’s 31 next season and on 180k a week. I can’t see many teams offering him that but we might.

If it was left to me, my first priority is a replacement for Lacazette
Second priority is replacement for Xhaka

We probably have just been lucky, 121 times.

PS You asked a question about unsacked Premier managers a few days ago but then didn’t follow it up.

If Lacazette and Nketiah go, we’ll be left with Balogun. Martinelli and Pépé, even if the latter stays which looks unlikely, look more like wider players. We’ll need two more forwards I think. A top level one as the first choice and a cheaper one as back up with Balogun. I bet that’s where Arteta sees the main priorities, more than a Xhaka replacement.

It’s highly likely we will be playing 2 games a week next season so that will have to be considered in the transfer business


We lose elneny, guendouzi, Torreira and probably Ainsley. We will need to bring in a midfielder for sure.

I think you have gotten to the bottom of it there!

First priority is a replacement for Aubameyang ... If we only replace Lacazette we will still be very short

Hey ltg, I posted this right after my question and right before your answer. I thought you saw it.
Now, you're going to have to watch the video...lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N5NmpfEUs0&t=694s

Pretty much everyone I know who follows us was surprised at the stat. We gave up a LOT of goals early on, didn't recall any of them NOT being from a corner. I don't recall any one talking about it before pundits mentioned it (although, it could have been discussed but I didn't 'see' those posts )
Amazing stat but I don't think it will go the whole season.

We want Man Utd to go through to the next round in the CL, right?

NO.

I have assumed Nketiah will/might stay on

Chelsea want FA Cup tie with Middlesbrough played behind closed doors https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/60747640

Chelsea already pissing people off with their *%^@. Can’t buy class.

Chelsea wanting their opponents to play without a crowd, citing 'fairness', is actually quite mind-boggling in its lack of self-awareness. Fair play to Middlesborough for calling it what it is.

Hopefully then Chelsea will offer to play their remaining home league games without a crowd then, as opposed to only their season ticket holders being able to attend.

What a truly loathsome bunch.

From a PR perspective this seems like such a horrible move. At a time when the club could probably use some good PR to create a little goodwill around the club, they do this... Can't imagine anyone who isn't a Chelsea fan approving of it. I probably shouldn't be, but I'm amazed at how tone deaf this is.

It’s just a classic classless piece of true Chelsea that stuff today.

What is it about that club. Even with different ownership, managers and people involved the level of self entitlement and self pity is always evident throughout the years.

I mean, they actually used the phrase 'for matters of sporting integrity'. Just wow.

....whilst in other news, Newcastle manager declines to comment on the fact that the Club's 'fit and proper' Owners have just executed 81 people.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/03/15/sau ... ion-81-men

That man in the picture is not just the crown prince and minister of defense in Saudi Arabia, he's also the chairman of the public investment fund that bought Newcastle in October 2021.