During the glory days when we went years without losing to sperz in the league, I was nervous about each derby because I feared that game would end the streak.

Since then and they were beating us, often regularly so, now I'm not as nervous about the game. I still hate losing to them. You never get used to it or accept it but I'm not as nervous because we are not the same Arsenal.

My apologies for falling asleep at the wheel for so long.

Hee hee

If he was, I wonder if he’d be given Arsenal games to officiate, either on the pitch or VAR? My guess would be that no, he wouldn’t.

Why is he a free agent at 21?

The obvious possibilities appear to be as follows. First, that he ran his contract down to leave on a free despite the club’s desire to keep him. Secondly, the club paid up his contract to get him off their books. Thirdly, the club didn’t offer him an extension to his last deal so were presumably willing to let him leave for nothing at the end of it.

To me, the first looks the most likely option.

Yep, Seems he ran it down. He's played 19 out of 28 games for Nice this season, including the last game before the league shut down so it doesn't look like Nice were trying to get rid of him. Nice were 5th in the league at the time of shut down. Sarr has represented every national French age group but hasn't yet appeared for the national team.
If you can sell Sokratis for £10m and replace him with someone younger and more talented for free then it seems a sensible move.
I just feel that this summer transfers are going to be few and far between, but prices will have been driven down. Financial Fair Play rules are being relaxed for this summer only because of Coronavirus - there is a real opportunity to steal a march on some clubs if Arsenal could or were willing to make that investment.
So we could go for Sarr, 21, promising back up. Or we could go for Upamecano for £30m (ish), 21 one of the best young CB in germany. I say £30m because they were talking double that a year ago but he only has 1 year left on his deal and prices should come down due to a static market

Paul Tierney is on VAR for Spurs match. He's also the step father of pro rugby player Lewis Tierney who plays for Catalans Dragons in the Super League.
Just a bit of trivia here.

Looks like we appealed Eddie’s Red but it was upheld with no penalty added. Hope they pointed out the ongoing inconsistency, but probably a waste of time. If Lacazette can step up we might not miss him too much, but his energy and sharpness have been such a bonus.

Sorry to be negative about him but I doubt we’ll miss Nketiah at all. He’s a decent enough prospect but at this stage of his career, I think he falls short of the level he’d have to be for us to miss him.

Reading some rumours that City are going to get their European ban overturned. We could talk about that for hours because you don't have to be a genius to understand what the basic principle of FFP is and what it is trying to stop and see what City are able to spend and it doesn't add up.....anyway, if they do get away with it it means Europa League places will only be for 5th, 6th and 7th (7th being for us only as the FA Cup winners spot will go to 7th - so due to the other semi finalists we'll get two bites at the cherry so to speak)
6th wolves 52
7th Sheff utd 51
8th Arsenal 50
9th spurs 49
10th Burnley 49

I won't write all the fixtures out but on a very (very) broad basis each team has 2 easy and 2 hard fixtures left. If we want 7th of better we need to beat Spurs this weekend.

I can see us winning our last two games but can only see a draw at best v Liverpool. Not sure 7-8 points would be enough, needs to be 9-10 points

Fair enough. I don’t really see that at all, seeing as he’s scored an opening goal for us, run hard and closed down defenders. I’d agree he looks to not be destined for the kind of quality that say Ian Wright had, as a maybe similar style comparison, but he’s got the right attitude and will certainly add something. I remember thinking for Harry Kane looked as average as you like before he proved otherwise. I think not being able to bring him on for the last 15 minutes at least for an ineffectual Lacazette for games against Tottenham, Liverpool AND Man City is a big blow to us tbh.

This would certainly be a first. Unless there is some historical record showing differently.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... final.html

AHEAD OF THE GAME: Arsenal lined up for Community Shield - EVEN if they lose to Man City in FA Cup semi-final

RIP Jack Charlton. A cantankerous fecker but a legend.

It will be interesting to see how Arteta approaches the game v Spurs tactically. I think he got it spot on against Wolves who are a very well drilled unit.
I think we know how Jose will play, he'll sit deep and try to counter with the pace of Son and Moura
I think Arteta will stick with the 3-4-3 formation but if we're going to be having a lot of the ball and pushing high the counter attack is one thing our defence is not so good at. I can't see us really going for them, I think controlled dominance whilst staying tight seems to be the way Arteta needs to go. The wolves game is the template.

Said Benrahma has to be the best player outside the prem. To be honest he looks a lot better than quite a few in the prem as well. Left winger. Brentford may make it to the Prem next season, Benrahma may be snapped up by another club even if they do. Don't know what his cost would be but he strikes me as the sort of player the big 6 wouldn't necessarily go for because he comes from the division below in an unfashionable team. If I were Leiciester or Wolves I would snap him up, but I think he could play for a top 6 prem side.

Let's take a look.

I have heard his name bandied about a bit, linked to a few prem clubs, of all positions we've got that fairly covered right now, and by probably our two brightest prospects in Saka and Martinelli and Aubameyang in the meantime. Can he play defensive mid?

Chelsea getting done 3-0 by Sheffield Utd, of course they are, it's my fault really for wanting them to win.

Me too Ash
Nice of liverpool and Chelsea to do us favours today.....not
Real fight on our hands to finish top 7

Yeah you'd have to say odds against, especially if what Rich said about City overturning that ban turn out to be true, which brings us back to the question of a season outside Europe, blessing or curse? If it aids us finishing in Champions league places all will be forgiven and forgotten I suppose... For me I'd say in the Europa would be better than nothing, but I'm only probably 60/40 for that...

Being that the Guendouzi drama is still raging on...would gather that he won't be in the NLD line up tomorrow.

I'd prefer us to be in Europe but if not to be and it aids our bid to qualify for champions league successfully then I'd take that.
Just like the idea of having another route via the europa.

I think I read that next season the league cup wouldn’t include teams in Europe, in order to cut fixture congestion.
If we don’t make the europa league it could be a fantastic chance to win a trophy, ok it’s a trophy everyone sneers at but I totally subscribe to the theory that the taste of success pushes a team on, especially a squad like ours where very few of the players have won a trophy in the red of The Arsenal

Maybe a decent chance of an Arsenal vs Tottenham final if they avoid each other in earlier rounds. Seen quite a few semi-finals across the domestic cups but never an actual final. Gawd blimey, I just thought. What if Tottenham win it? What a horrible thought. A game with two possible extremes regarding the outcome and result.

To those who normally attend at the Armitage Shanks stadium, are you totally pissed off at not being able to go today, or secretly relieved you don’t have to run the gauntlet of those Sp*rs fans of violent intent?

I’m totally pissed off. First North London derby I’ve missed since I started going to games in December 1967 (against Nottingham Forest at Highbury) as a kid with my dad, some years before leaving Primary School. I looked up the head to head record for competitive Arsenal vs Tottenham games. My first was a 0-1 defeat at White Hart Lane on 20th January 1968, meaning the last I didn’t go to before today was a 4-0 home win on 16th September 1967.

Assuming the head to head record was correct, I’ve been to 120 North London derbies. 102 in the league, 5 in the FA Cup, 12 in the League Cup and 1 Charity Shield match. So I’ve seen Tottenham play at least 125 games as I can recall another 5 when they didn’t play Arsenal. I guess I’ve therefore seen them play a lot more games than the huge majority of Tottenham fans, even though there was only one that I remember wanting them to win (against Manchester United).

Respect to you and all the others like you.

One of my life’s biggest regrets is that I wasn’t born or lived closer to Highbury. At my very best period I only managed to get to about half of the home games a season and about a quarter of the aways.

Oh well.

COYG

Shot!

Unstoppable! Lacazette 1-0

Stunnnnaaaaaaaaa...................

Boom! What a hit by Lacazette

Jesus wept

25 yards plus, Lacazette just lines it up and smashes it in the top corner. Lloris nowhere near it.

one chance each before that, feels like we've controlled most of the ball so far

Lacazette !

Kolasinac error

Utter shambles at the back - Kola a terrible pack pass and Son equalises

Aaarrrghhhh unbelievable

Why pass it back ffs......................

Exploding clown car defence. We’ve made several daft unforced errors so far. This one proved costly.