Thoughts on Mari? Looks composed and comfortable but it is Portsmouth.

A good start, as you say though not very demanding opposition.

Was there no other player available than Xhaka to come on. Maybe a young player for a few minutes. I shake my head

Pépé ?

We’re all desperately hoping that there’s a quality centre back there. We sure need one.

We just to miss that bit of guile to open up teams. That final ball

AMN either would do. But instead Xhaka gets another appearance bonus.

Well we do have official sponsors of Ovaltine and Mogodon.

Another goal or two would have been nice. We've passed them to death second half.

AMN on in the 90th minute. We are 2-0 up. What is the point?

74% possession.

Arteta doesn't fancy Ainsley much, does he.

Decent result. We need to try and be more direct from central positions though

Ha ha. Nice one Martin Keown. Just slipped in the fact that Arsenal went a whole league season unbeaten. What a star.

After a slow start some good performances from the younger or newer players. Some will say it was only Portsmouth but then again some well paid players at the club only had to play Olympiocas the other night and we were already leading 1-0 before we started. So not brilliant but a functional win and we repelled them pretty well.

I'm 63 and probably ahead of him in the pecking order at the club

Such biased commentary in potential giant killing cup sides is so annoying. I get that a lot of people will tune in hoping for the upset but commentate properly. Amongst other things it is patronising to the smaller team.

I see big teams dominate games and lose 1-0 and it is a totally deserved victory for the small team. If the roles were reversed and the same game played out it would be incredibly harsh on the minnow who deserved much more having dominated the game.

Job done. Relatively straightforward in the end. They never really laid a glove on us.

We still cry out for craft in mf - someone who can thread a pass to our young, fast and willing runners up front.

I always want the underdog to win so I'm okay in principle if the commentary hopes for an upset, but I do object when it goes from light support to blatantly skewing the description of the game being played. Portsmouth did okay in the first half hour, but lets not pretend they were dominating the match.

Nice setting to enjoy the win.
3 or 4 other Gooners about the pub.

Good to see the future of Arsenal FC on display against Portsmouth. Eddie should start ahead of Lacazette from hereon. I prefer the directness of Reiss to Pépé's useless trickery.

We are going to win the FA cup and upset Liverpool's treble in the final with Aubameyang doing his impression of Thomas in '89 (I know that was a league match, beating pedants to the punch) and Man Utd fans will thank us on twitter. The Oracle of Arsenal has spoken.

Actually I did know that lesser-known teams participating the UEFA are not necessarily 'also-rans' in their leagues. But, yes, I did google Qarabag FK to check. I'm glad I did because theirs is a rather an interesting story actually.

Arteta’s thoughts: he was comfortable, very vocal and he commands the back four. He looks like he’s played here for months.

One stat I saw was that Mari completed 13 of 17 long balls, no one else in the team even attempted more than 9.

Hope his good form carries through

Those long winter nights must fly by round your place.

More like mosquitos flying around my place. So a miserable night indeed, although not long by your standards.

And its going to 38C and humid tomorrow .

This time last year, Decaf I was in Franschhoek and Cape Town. Bugger the mossies - it was the power cuts that pissed me off. Are they still going on?

Yes indeed. Regular 'load shedding' plus in our town powerfailures all the time and water outages too. The country is in a sad state.

I'd forgotten about running around in a shower trying to get wet - and collecting your shower water afterwards. Also having to ask at Reception for a bath plug, even in the poshest hotels - and getting frowned at for asking!

Having said that, you're very lucky to live in such a stunning country. I know you're eastern cape but Cape Town is a fantastic city while Franschhoek and its wineries are just a brilliant place to be. I'll be back.

I was there a couple of weeks ago. Yes the load shedding is still going on.

Every time that I go there I worry that it may be the last. The whole set up there has every possibility of imploding.

A good crop of young players for sure. AMN hasn't played lately, so he's had no chance to impress. Can't help thinking he'd do a decent job instead of Bellerin though, who doesn't look to be properly over his injury yet.

The wheels coming of the Liverpool season. They look tired and lack the dynamism of earlier in the season.

But I thought they were the greatest team of all time.

‘The greatest team of all time’TM

Haven’t they got Atletico coming up again? I’ve always liked that Simeone, decent and fair chap. Paragon of virtue etc etc

You just had to bring me down didn’t you

For future reference these are the topics that will cause me to have the vapours so please kindly do not mention them:

1. How good we used to be. Because it reminds me of how rubbish we are now.

2. How rubbish we are now. Because it makes me realise how rubbish we are now.

3. How hard it’s going to be to not be as rubbish as we are now because the future is uncertain and scary and we might still be as rubbish as we are now for an indeterminate period of time.

So as long as you don’t mention the past the present or the future you have my blessing to talk about whatever you like. Honestly some people...

Liverpool is looking like they are having a week like we had in April in our invincible season. They will win the league but the CL is looking a bit tougher. They are losing games in Europe even though for most of the season they are visibly the best team in the world.

That week in April 2004 for us was heartbreaking. We really could have won the treble that season. The FA cup game against Man Utd was against a weak Man Utd team that was spiraling down in bad form. Wenger thowing Cygan at wing showed you how he panicked.

It was a week from hell fixture wise. Man Utd in the FA Cup, Chelsea over2 legs in he CL with Liverpool after.
The FA cup tie could have been drawn. Even won with a bit of luck. The CL was the most egregious. Up 2-1 agregate with 45 minutes to go. We reached from depths to beat Liverpool in the 2nd half being down 2-1 at the half but it could have been a glorious week. The CL was there for the taking. We could have beaten Porto.

Anyway, If Liverpool fails to win the CL in a strange way some will see their season as a downer despite winning the league for the first time in 30 years. They will win the league well before the season is over. I wonder if the media will still treat them? They will be overjoyed playing up the 30 years but it won't be the same possibly because they were chasing our records.

If City win the domestic double in cups, how much lustre will that take from Liverpool?