Hopefully nothing serious. Possibly a bereavement

Dare I say I thought we looked more balanced without him in the Side?

I’m not advocating dropping him he’s a great player but I thought our front 3 all had a great game and seemed to know their roles yesterday.if you play Aubameyang on the left if you aren’t playing the right type of passes behind the defence he’s wasted there and that wasn’t the case with Pépé who is a handful

Nice goal by Jack in the FA Cup last night. Pleased for him. Hope that this is the new start that he needs and deserves.

I was thinking about that. As Rich suggested before the game, the Pépé, Lacazette, Saka frontline looks good, especially Pépé on the left. All look natural in their positions. One wouldn't want to drop any of them. It's a nice 'problem' to have options when we've got so many games coming up! Our over-reliance on Aubameyang for goals was badly exposed during our poor run, so it is great that the other forwards are finding their shooting boots. Martinelli will hopefully get gametime too.

If it’s a bereavement it’s pretty damn serious for the deceased. Health of a close relative maybe? A divorce?

The great EU is no match for Great Britain

Brexit LIVE: Make them pay! EU faces £200m punishment bill as UK business turns on bloc
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics ... ms-fishing

It's not quite going the right way is it?
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics


And wee Twankie bites the dust as well
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/13893 ... ndence-spt

Sorry Bernard you read that wrong I wasn’t suggesting that death is minor issue just I hoped it wasn’t something serious it I could be.

By the way death isn’t serious depending on your personal beliefs. I personally believe in reincarnation and am hoping to come back as a bird of prey

Do you? Seriously?

No

That's disappointing, TG. I am actually planning to be reincarnated as a bird of prey, and I was hoping not to be left on my Pat Malone.

Finally a proper no 11 in the squad once more. Can we please never give it to a defensive midfielder again.

Whenever I used to see Grealish play for Aston Villa I was always a bit surprised he was allowed to have his socks nearer his ankles than his knees. It was clear he didn’t wear shin pads on his upper shins. For the sake of protecting players from serious injury I’d have thought there’d be some sort of official or Premier League rule saying shin pads had to be worn. Or Villa would have told him to wear them.

I’ve noticed over the last two or three games that Smith Rowe is now doing the same as Grealish. Seems silly. Shin pads are worn for a reason, not decoration. But Arsenal are presumably taking the same lax attitude on this as Aston Villa and letting him do it.

I don't know a lot about this loaned player other than he's an attacking midfielder. I assume he plays through the middle rather than the wings. Yes?

Yes, I would say he's definitely a central player. Not very quick from what I've seen, but very good technique and a great left foot. My view of him is a pretty classical playmaking number 10.

Never heard of this former academy player.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football ... dium=email

Ødegaard signs - good news.

I think this has been a very good window for Arsenal. It has been refreshing to see sensible and decisive decisions being made.

In the build up to the window most fans biggest concern was the lack of creativity in the side, then Smith-Rowe broke through and our concerns moved towards over reliance on him and over playing him, so Ødegaard on loan is sensible. We may go back in the summer or we may move for other targets but either way it helps us right now without over committing.

As well as that we came in with concerns if anything happened to Leno, Runarsson had looked a bit out of his depth so bringing Mat Ryan in on loan is another sensible move. He might not start a single game for us but that doesn't matter. Another position we can revisit in the summer but that we've fixed for now.

Then outgoings for Özil, Sokratis, Kolasinac - and possibly Mustafi.

Still a few murmurings we're looking at back up left back options but they may die down after Cédric's performance last night.

In the summer then we will lose Luiz and Ceballos and Mustafi. Decisions will also need to be made on Elneny, Kolasinac, Nketiah, Chambers and Lacazette. Also we need to make decisions on Nelson, Willock with possible loans and on the future of AMN who may become the sacrifice to raise funds. Not forgetting Torreira and Guendouzi currently on loan. That's 10 players with questions marks over them, and the only one of that 10 who is making any sort of case for staying is Lacazette.

As for incoming players as a minimum we need to be looking at a No.2 GK, creative mid, centre mid (to replace the 3 loan players we have) then review the rest of the squad depending on departures.

I hope he works out. Can't wait to see him and how Arteta uses him.

Ceballos helped in sealing the deal apparently.

Can't underestimate how important Leno's penalty save against Chelsea was to our season. If that match had gone to 3-2 with 3/4 stoppage time minutes still to go it would have been panic stations and I'm pretty sure we'd have conceded, given our fragile confidence at the time. To have given up a 3-0 lead could have had dire consequences for the rest of the season, especially with Fat Sam running off his mouth at the time.

Good work Bernd.

His name doesn't ring a bell. Often these headlines are "Ex-Arsenal....." when they've never got anywhere near the first team because it generates a lot more clicks than saying "Ex-Bradford winger......"

I'm sure I remember seeing him play in the FA Youth cup. Anyway, good riddance.

In the interview he mentions he is a fan of Fabregas' style of play. I like this boy! Which presumably tells me where he is playing on the pitch. We really do need someone dynamic in the middle.
Its looking like a decent spine. Leno, Gabriel (with Holding), Partey, this loanee, Aubameyang, Martinelli. Hmm...maybe even a squad that can go a bit far into Europa cup.

He's probably going to get thrown into the deep end is my guess.

PEA does have a brother. Hopefully nothing Covid related or other health issue within his family.

Aubameyang has just posted on social media that it was his mother who was quite ill, he said she is much better now, thanks the doctors and well-wishers and that he is returning (assume to London) tonight.

Good news on that then for his mother. Hopefully Aubameyang will be in Saturday's match.

Yeah Bradford is less worthy of such sensational publicity within the ranks.

A bird of prey. As a vulture or a prehistoric Pteranodon.
I just had to as it was amusing.

Without being pedantic vultures are scavengers and Pteranodons were flying lizards

Villa losing and Chelsea drawing tonight. Lots of teams all taking points off each other combined with our good run has really put us back in the mix for European places. Top 4 really does seem a step too far, but if we can keep our last 6 from over the next 12 then we would be in for top 4

Actually a bearded vulture is a bird of prey. A buzzard is more of one. But Pteranodons did go after what they wanted.

I stand corrected on the bearded vulture. As for the Pteranodon, I may be knocking on a bit but I've never seen one in action. Perhaps Hoy or LTG can enlighten us?

I’ve watched all the Jurassic Park films. Does that count?

Crikey. Nice one Sheff Utd. Let’s hope that we can repeat that result on Saturday.

Good news on the Aubameyang front

MU losing at home to Sheff Utd, a shocker. Though we've been there many times this season. And all the dropped points from other teams bodes well for us. Time for Arteta to instill stronger belief in his players. We need to go on a strong run.

If it wasn't for City, I'd say we still were in contention for the title. None of the other teams is the least bit convincing. For example, if we beat United we'll be only 7 points behind them, and they could easily go on a run similar to Liverpool's. I'm also not convinced that Liverpool, Spurs, or Chelsea is going to find consistent form this season.

Not that I think us making the top four is likely. We also still fall into the 'not convincing' category. But it is still interesting!

The other qualification would be not having a fear of heights. If I was a bird of prey I would be hopeless at circling ominously (vertigo) and wouldn't be able to swoop on my prey without losing my lunch.

2008. Wall Street banks and companies targeted the average consumer. They used vague language in fine print all the way out to outright fraud. Rating agencies were bribed or pressured financially to give better ratings for toxic investments. Yet, they were bailed out, not the victims, the American people. Rewarded for fraud. The only one who went to jail was Madoff. Why? He robbed the 1%.

If you target the 1% or elected government officials that is the line in America these days. The government has known that for at least 20 years far right wing individuals and groups in a concerted effort, infiltrated institutions in America. Specifically, police departments across the country both large and small. And all the branches of the military. Despite being about 40% ethnic minorities of the military in general, the elite forces (SEAL teams, black ops of the various branches) were visibly bereft of much of them. There was a concerted effort to keep them out. Its a brotherhood that has a special bond not unlike the SAS in the UK.

They have also become teachers in order to shape thought at a young age and target others for failure. There has been a huge rise of latinos and blacks in the early grades, kindergarten, 1st grades, actually suspended from schools. 40% or more than any others. They have also attempted to infiltrate Google, Yahoo, etc. They are often the administrators that determine what can or can not be in the comments area. Yahoo News specifically has had bots, fake accounts, etc, that will target certain articles for comments so that it goes viral, for many years and only since a year ago has Yahoo stopped comments on articles. Youtube has long had this issue as well.

The government didn't bother to address the issue since the targets of these far right militant groups are ethnic minorities, Jews, immigrants, Moslems, etc. Now that they have turned their ire towards the governors of states, the Congress, even the former VP, all of a sudden its an issue. The CEO of Twitter has phalanx of security.

A recent article made the same observation I did. 75 million people voted for Trump and presumably support the Capital building attack and if not believe or at least sympathetic to the various conspiracy theories. A Republican congressperson or two have carried guns to the capital building and refuse to go through metal detectors. I don't see them doing that at the airport but....

The split is too big to address adequately I fear. Who knows how many in the FBI are going to be charged with investigating groups they secretly belong to or are sympathetic to.

No governor or mayor has ever been denied national guard requests in times of emergency ,ever, except once. The mayor of Washington D.C, while the Capital building was being invaded. It hasn't been fully investigated why. My guess is because 'they' don't want to know how far up it reaches. Similar to the 911 commission when an FBI agent who investigated the curious actions of certain Saudis taking flight lessons, members of militant groups, etc. and somewhere up the chain of command the agent's request to increase investigation was rebuffed. Someone had to have been the final no. We have never been told whom. Presumably it was someone high up who no one wants to embarrass.

The country is a mess and its an unfixable mess I think. It's a tinder box and history tells us there will be some event. Some arcane event that will trigger it. George Floyd was such an event for the BLM protests. There were other suspicious police shootings, with far more egregious circumstances (Breonna Taylor in Louisville for example) but his was the one that set things off.

The Covid19 response is rightfully the most important issue to address right now. However, the potential domestic terrorist events will need everyone to face hard truths once we hold up a national mirror. The government, I suspect, won't address this issue with the honesty and severity it requires.

Little thing that bugs me, but he got around 74.2 million votes. People need to stop rounding that up to 75 million.