I think Lampard has kept his job but I don't see OGS keeping his.

What I would like to see is Martinelli in the same role as Lacazette more often and see what he can do. I'm very excited about him. I hope we nurture that young talent carefully. If Pépé can get better (and smarter) in his role, along with Martinelli, Saka and a few others, we have a very, very good attack going. Shore up the back line and a box to box center mid and we have a decent squad.

I see that Daz is back in action. Cobra starts this coming Friday on Sky. Initial preview reports are complimentary.

Back to his fine form on Spooks I hope.

At least 7 fouls. Nothing given.

Unfortunately its on at the same time as "Watching Paint Dry" on BBC2, it just edges his show. I'll be sure to tape it.

Here in the very biased American major news outlets, we keep hearing about how Meghan Markle is hated by the British press and by extension the people. If its so, why? There is an elephant in the room as to why, but I don't want to make assumptions.

She's disliked by the right-wing tabloids as she's a) of mixed heritage b) foreign and c) stands up for causes which get right up the noses of the idiots who control our media. Our media is driven by a nasty, bigoted narrative and she is the current target. It's the same nonsense that convinced people the root of all our problems are the EU. When your PM has form for racism, your media has from for racism and your newest princess is an American of black heritage, then it doesn't need a scientist to explain how it will play out. SO here we are.

I really don't care either way on the royal family but I do think it's a ridiculous institution. I like the way Harry and Meghan though are looking to go it alone. *%^@ the haters and people should just leave them alone to enjoy their family.

What Darren said.

Kind greetings to you too Rich ..... well put and I'll respond in kind .

"Taking someone elses view " Bernard made a statement I happened to agree it with him . [ that's a milestone in itself ]

This is a forum after all .... so the "decent debate " as you put it shouldn't be confined to just two participants .

I find your general perception of football to be very good ; I just find your constant harping about the officials [ which happens every single game ] devalues what good points you have made .

All the best to you for the rest of the year

Now I'll finish up my coffee and face the wonderful prospect of dragging my weary septuagenerian bones out to the shed and start cutting / welding my son's rusty boat trailer he bought at the weekend

Doubly exciting because the goddamn boat with a bloody enormous 250 kg outboard are still in place on the trailer ..... so access is limited .

There'll be plenty of cursing 30 minutes from now ..

Don’t worry about the cursing. I won't rule a fire out as a possibility. Grinder probably full fuel tank, probably a leaky fuel hose as well. Yeah leave that boat in place - what could go wrong.

There’s many elephants in one obvious room. As others pointed out she’s pretty hot, foreign and of mixed race. Not very appealing to the Brexit lot who have had their brains manipulated.

British press is a nightmare, printing lies daily stimulating idiots to create an opinion based on nonsense. The general public have been told for 20 years now that everything wrong with our country is because of foreigners. What did we think would happen if one married into the royal family ? It’s all tragically entirely predictable.

Also as part of my job I have been lucky enough to travel to many countries. It genuinely pains me to suggest that unfortunately I feel Brits are less forward thinking than most of the people in the countries I’ve visited. Most people in Britain complain relentlessly about others and what they haven’t got in their lives rather than what they do Have.

In turn all of this contributes in creating people like this guy ...

https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/mor ... s-21252969

Well, the 'elephant' in the room is real.

What Darren and Top Gun said.

She didn't seem to be another "Mrs. Simpson"
We had the same issue here. Michelle Obama was treated horribly. Called all kinds of bigoted things, even by elected officials.
The hypocrisy between how the right wing has talked about Melania is stark. Michelle Obama got critiqued by the evangelicals for wearing a sleeveless dress. But Melania's soft porn past was said to be 'art'.

Personally, I think its a great thing that one can rise from whatever their past is to be first lady of the nation (or even President if they are good at heart). Michelle from poor, working class Chicago stock and Melania from poor, working class Slovenian stock who had forays into nudity and if the rumors are true, some escort work.

I love that either could rise to where they are. The Democrats did not rise to the same level as the Republicans. Melania is an easy target, but they respected the position of first lady. The Republicans still talk about Michelle Obama, shockingly knowing their own first lady is such an easy target but they know people won't do that.

Both the targeting of Harry and Meghan and the Obamas are sad but unfortunately until they are called out by the public en masse they will feel emboldened. I am a Bernie Sanders supporter and I know if he wins (fingers crossed) the anti semetic memes will come out. The same way the supremacists came out when Obama got elected. The same will happen if/when we elect a gay president as well.

The old adage about good men doing nothing come to mind.

Anyway, Sheffield United next. Year ago I had great convo at the pub in Asia watching a match with a Wednesday supporter. At the time, I had no idea the city gave birth to some of my favorite 80s bands: Human League, Heaven 17, ABC.

He said that the city was similar to our Pittsburgh. Iron works, etc. Blue collar, tough, manly town and that these adrogynous bands of the '80s were really a form of rebellion against their fathers. The one thing their tough, working class fathers hated was anything 'ponce' and so they portrayed what their fathers and elders hated in acts of rebellion. That's his view. Not sure if its true but it made sense to me.

Feckless. How do you lose PK shoot out 4-1?

(Edit - video blocked)

Has our midfield stopped Aubameyang from scoring though? I have seen Lacazette miss good chances but even if his finishing isn’t that bad, which I don’t think it is, might not getting into positions to miss chances be an even bigger concern?

For me Lacazette’s main strength is his work rate. As I said yesterday I’m not as convinced about his hold up play as you and socrates might be. I honestly don’t think it’s as good as Giroud’s used to be.

It was me who said Lacazette may have lost confidence in the box. Perhaps I’m wrong and as Darren implies he just isn’t an elite striker? Because as Darren implies, don’t top forwards produce away as well as at home, and against big teams?

There’s certainly a credible suggestion he’s not a top striker. I think Aubameyang is clearly a better striker but it also helps he can run from a wide left position and lose his marker.

The big question I have when we play these days isn’t if our defence will let a goal slip it’s if we will create a chance in an entire half. These days we are more than capable of going through an entire 45 minute period without creating a single chance. For example apart from the Pépé snapshot we did nothing in the second half on Saturday.

There’s never an early through ball from our midfield to run onto and I don’t see Lacazette missing many chances, name his last guilt edged miss. There’s certainly evidence he is a clinical finisher and if we put him on the transfer list I’m sure he would get a lot of interest from other clubs.

I think the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. He’s not a world class striker but we don’t create anywhere near enough chances to criticise him as he works hard and certainly can finish.

Morning Kiwi - Thanks for the reply.

Only thing to add to avoid confusion, and this is nearly always down to me being able to express my thoughts better in speech than in text (in text I read it back to yourself how you'd want to speak it but others wont) when I said 'taking some elses view' I meant my own view, and I certainly wouldn't want debate contained to 2 people, I myself have gingerly tiptoed in to other people's debates if I felt I had something to add.

On refs, I do realise in the heat of the game I will have a more bias view on Arsenal games, but do see the same problems in games not involving Arsenal. What I'd like to do, and try to do - possibly unsuccessfully - is certainly not to blame the refs for every game we don't win - I think if you look back to Emery's terrible run, and certainly the end of Wenger's run my ire was directed far more at the manager and team, but to look at the poor state of officiating in the country generally and how these things certainly don't even themselves out over the course of a season.
I think sometimes the forum has a tendency to jump on any mention of a ref in a game and claim that person who mentioned him is trying to blame the ref for us losing. I don't see it as only ever being able to blame one thing, ie: Arsenal can be an utter shambles but also get some poor decisions from a ref. I have played football a lot and I can tell when someone is trying to 'do someone' or someone is bending the rules as far as they can, just small bits of gamesmanship/cheating and find it frustrating that refs appear to have no idea about it (as much as he's a Panto villain, I actually thin Mike Dean is one of the best at the 'not on my watch' refs - he has other faults though!)

I can make it clear that I do not or have never thought refs are out to get Arsenal, or have some pre-conceived agenda against us, but they are human so will be influenced by a huge number of external factors. For me it all boils down to consistency.

One thing I do also realise is that by putting the scrutiny on these things myself I am naturally going to see more of it - an unconscious bias. Much like when I was younger I had my heart set on buying an Audi A3 car - everywhere I went I kept seeing Audi A3's as though they had suddenly become popular - clearly not.

Have a great day, here's hoping Mikel can somehow squeeze us to a Europa league win and back in the promised land of the corporate, money driven Champions League!

A problem with the Champions League now is that we used to underachieve even when we had a side of real quality.

And that side had the huge advantage of being seeded in pot 1 due to their coefficient. If we do ever manage to claw our way back then it seems likely that we’ll be seeded as rank outsiders and it would be tough to progress.

Do you know off hand what effect winning the Europa League, the only realistic way of Arsenal getting back in it next season, makes to our coefficient compared to a fourth place finish? I’ve no idea how they calculate each team’s coefficient. From not being in the Champions League since 2016/7, would we be in the same pot whether we win the Europa League or finish fourth?

Thanks Greeny. So reaching the final of the Europa League last year got us plenty (26) of points. If it’s solely based on results in European competition, unless I’ve misunderstood your post, winning the Europa League is a better way of getting in the Champions League than a top four finish, or even winning the Premier League?

Keeper.

Take a few minutes to look at this - it is quite wonderful.

https://neal.fun/deep-sea/

Wow. I’m surprised by that. I had expected us to have plummeted.

Scary descent by those guys in 1960. Unbelievably brave.

What’s interesting is that Chelsea won 30 points from winning the Europa League last season whereas Liverpool won 29 from winning the Champions League. We got 26 from being runners up in the Europa League. Tottenham got 26, the same as us, from being runners up in the Champions League.

Yes of course. Point taken. I was making my observation solely on the grounds of which would help our coefficient rating more, not the pleasure or satisfaction that would be incurred from seeing us win the league again.

That surprised me that Europa is weighted so heavily, good news for us. We really should be making at least the Semi's again. Man U, Roma, Sevilla and Inter look like the heavyweights this year - I think Olympiacos will be very tough to get past

It would never happen but I'd love to see Fabregas back with a box to box Vieira type midfielder partnering with him. He's "only" 32.

Can't believe the years have gone by so quickly. One of the times Wenger's pettiness where he put his own feelings above what was best for the club. We could have gotten him after Barca. Same with Anelka.

Neat - I like stuff like that.

Glad I didn't see Arsenal in the relegation area at the bottom too.

We really let the decade pass us by didn’t we ? Refused to innovate or change until the damage was done, fell behind and became an academy stepping stone for our best players to get to our competitors.

All of this is the fault of Meghan Markle. Useless cow

Omg

The puffer fish can cover more ground than Granit Xhaka

Hilarious response from someone whose entire existence is based on dragging arguments on and on and on etc etc.
Tosser.

All very odd and extremely counterintuitive. Seems to be working in our favour though - if only we could get back into Europe of course.

I think I'm right (happy to be corrected if not) that the points are per result over the whole competition. It's fairly safe to say that the group stages of the Europa are a lot easier than the group stages of the Champions League giving more chance to pick up points. Add to that the extra games in the Europa and even with competition weighting it starts to make sense as to how these figures come about, if not why. If I'm right, anyway.

You’re quite right

https://www.uefa.com/memberassociations ... lub/about/

I recently saw an interview of Nigerian multi billionaire Dangote and he still wants to buy Arsenal one day. I'd welcome him over Kroenke.