Thursday is absolutely crucial now.
Will we stand up and be counted?
Really need to take at least a 2 goal lead preferably 2/3 nil into the 2nd leg.
Slavia Prague are decent.
Will be tough.
No way we should be giving up in the league.
Have a half decent run in.
Can still get top 7 and Europa for next season as a minimum.

Nope 12 league defeats, let alone being 10th in the table shouldn't be acceptable to anybody. A loss against Prague wouldn't/shouldn't be acceptable either Thursday.
Under the circumstances, Arteta really hasn't much choice but to pick a strong side for Thursday. Whether or not the motivation is there from the team will be from sheer cohesion, determination they aren't accepting of the club status.

Well be fair TG, your Saka / McGoldrick comment was hysterical.

Arsenal surely have more creative players than Crystal Palace. So I’d suggest Zaha would have had more to “thrive off” with us than he does at Palace.

Thank you sir

Really not that impressive...

https://www.90min.com/posts/mikel-artet ... ene-wenger

I wasn’t talking about Crystal Palace

On Saturday in the rare occasions we had the ball we just passed sideways. Not sure this is the type of service wingers thrive off. Look at Fabinhos chipped ball to Salah to pursue surely that’s needed. I think in some scenarios it’s hard to judge players in a side that’s struggling.

3 different managers, 3 different coaching teams all with very similar results. We’re having really bad luck getting the right coaching team in place.

Wide players need balls inbetween the lines like the one on 1.02 minutes. We’re missing a playmaker

(Sorry for the shocking music and video)

https://youtu.be/nF7qzDVGKS4

Considering Xhaka seems to ‘thrive’ at Palace I assumed you were.

You edited my post

Hypocrite

Playing Russian Roulette of ever getting back into the CL on Thursday.

Is poor selection by the executive team choosing the coaching staff necessarily the same as bad luck? Questions are clearly being asked of Arteta. We’ve seen that here. Without getting into the debate on how good or bad a job he’s doing, all I will say is that I’m not surprised those questions are being asked.

Arteta's Michael Corleone 'head of the Arsenal family', needs a Vito Corleone assistant manager.

Still nothing on the Arsenal app about Tierney. Reports elsewhere that he will miss both Sparta games at least. This makes our task difficult. Not sure about Saka and S-R’s injury.

The latest I saw was that Tierney would be out for a ‘few weeks’ (whatever than means as a few weeks can turn into months)? So it’s presumably guaranteed he will miss both Prague games. I just hope this is one of the times the phrase ‘a few weeks’ isn’t being used to hide an absence through injury that’s likely to last much longer.

Would surely be the worst kit we’ve ever had but this is the rumour !


https://twitter.com/aftvmedia/status/13 ... 25634?s=21

We're one of a number of clubs being linked to Hakan Calhanoglu who is available for free at the end of the season with his contract expiring at Milan. He's 27 and presumably would command pretty high wages - as players of 27 and on a bosman tend to do.

Primarily I think we should steer clear of these sorts of signings but I think the club has an incredibly difficult balancing act when signing players as they will need to look around the free transfer market and take some risks. People probably thought signing Willian was pretty low risk!

We've also been linked to Thierry Small a 16 year old highly thought of left-back at Everton who hasn't signed his first pro contract. That is a very low risk signing we could easily make.

Not a fan of that. Although there are so many leaked kits this time of year
https://www.givemesport.com/1669723-ars ... een-leaked

Here's the 3 I've seen 'leaked' for next year.

Are you a wee bit of an 'Arsenal purist' like I am and only want to see white sleeves?

With you on the free transfers. Haven’t done too well from these as we overpay in wages and then can’t get rid of them if they fail to perform. 27yo means little resale value.

In principle yes, I like white sleeves and a white colour. I don't overly mind a bit of trim down the sides - something you often see with the 3 adidas stripes in an alternate colour.

In reality though Id take a kit that is likely to sell millions over a kit I personally like as I'm not exactly the market these guys design for. I see more and more kids wearing these pretty radical designs with garish colours and patterns.

Watched a bit of Jude Bellingham last night and for England. at 17 he is a phenomenal talent. We were supposedly very close. A player like him is exactly what we're missing, can play deep and screen the defence but has vision and quick simple passing range to get the ball forward as well as being comfortable on the ball in the final third. He's tall and well built for a 17 year old as well.

England should absolutely be taking him to the Euros in what is a bit of a problem position for England.

Top Guns comprehensive actual list of stuff Arteta is probably getting wrong

Aubameyang wide left, He's not the first to do this but its *%^@*** pointless playing him there and asking him to chase opposing right wingers for 90 minutes when he's our most dangerous player.

Changing the side too frequently, On occasion he's simply changing the line up too often especially the front 3. Find a front 3 and stick to it. How are they going to understand each others movement.

Player X, Playing far too frequently and unwilling to try other central midfield combinations. (which admittedly is a poverty of options )

Ainsley Maitland-Niles, I dont understand what he's done with the player. Looks talented and surely a better more fluid option in midfield.

Loans in (partially his fault and also the clubs and a policy decision) ... Dont loan any players for our first team even Ødegaard, Just doesn't seem befitting a club of our stature to have players on loan littering our first team so our competitors can sign them later or alternatively the player is rarely good enough. Whats the strategy ?

Man Management (sometimes) Not too frequently but there's evidence his man management may not be great judging by the Aubameyang late saga. Its hard to tell but theres a few little indications pointing to a lack of experience. Not a major problem and will ease probably with experience.

Squad building, (partial not totally his fault) Not an easy criticism but there's no way he should have started the season with our midfield options he should have put more pressure on the board rather than scrambling to get loans when we blew our first half of the season.

Have to say I don't mind any of those three. The third kit looks like a throwback to the 94/95-95/96 away kits - the 95/96 away kit was the first Arsenal shirt I ever owned.

It is, I also owned that kit with Wright 8 on the back, ended up getting stolen from football changing rooms whilst I played U15 football!
Interesting that that particular kit was a Nike kit whereas Adidas have so far been reinventing 'their' old Arsenal kits

Top Guns list of nonsense our fans spout on the regular about Artetas "mistakes"

Lets drop Aubameyang ! yeah right, our most dangerous player and best chance of scoring. Get a grip idiots

He should have kept martinez! no chance we aren't paying a reserve keeper what villa would but feel free to harp on.

Playing Martinelli, Nketiah, Nelson fixes all our problems! There's no actual *%^@*** evidence of this what.so.ever. Sort yourselves out.

Arteta should be getting more out of blatantly and visibly average midfield player x,y,z !! No chance we know these guys too well by now.

Tierney is always injured and its a massive problem!, no problem see how far playing the alternatives get you morons

Arteta is too conservative, not really he just hasn't got the players to play the way he wants right now and attack at pace.

Arteta is too inexperienced Well wenger was too old, Emery middle years and lets be honest Arteta was a shoe in for the city job when pep goes so others don't see his age as a problem.

We shouldn't sign Players with no resale value like Willian! We don't have 250 million to spend each summer folks a compromise is required.

Buendia playing superbly well for Norwich who are surely coming back up to the Prem. They have done well to keep hold of him, Pukki, Aarons and Cantwell. Buendia scored 1 and assisted 3 last night, 12 goals and 16 assists for the season.
He's almost certainly out of our reach now as Norwich have little reason to sell if they're coming up this year. Probably the best player outside of the Prem.

Like the Ajax kit also by Addidas.

Tierney confirmed out for 4-6 weeks. Time to consider Saka at left back for the balance?
Or Pépé on the left wing with Cédric behind

Saka, Smith-Rowe and Xhaka all trained but Ødegaard is a doubt for Thursday.

I'd like to see
Leno, Bellerin, Cédric, Gabriel, Mari, Xhaka, Partey, Saka, Emile Smith Rowe, Pépé, Aubameyang

Well that really means the rest of the season then. Unless he gets a run out in the Europa League final.

If Saka goes to left back and Ødegaard isn’t fit it could mean Pépé and Willian on the flanks. I’d rather that than putting Aubameyang out there again. We’d need big performances from both the wide players, be timely for Willian to get his first goal for us!

I’m sure what the fans would like to see is Martinelli out wide left but I doubt there is any chance of that, particularly if Aubameyang starts as striker

So Mikel says he'll axe players who are treating the club as a retreat. A few of the older players are "cruising" along. Guess a few will have to "cruise" on out.
Well some of a certain age who are not much younger than Arteta, seem to feel it unnecessary to follow his tactics, etc. Stated sometime ago that players close in age to Arteta, feel they either know better or don't need to put in the effort.
Should be an interesting lineup against Prague.

Has the name for this forum just been changed? Seems someone thinks he is the voice of the forum. That child is just getting more childish.

Although seemingly unlikely, anything can happen in a cup competition. So, if the football gods deem it so and Chelsea wins a second CL to our none, I swear I might go into depression.

Or if the gods smile on us, we may see Poch win his first trophy as manager and it will be the biggest prize of them all and give the finger to Totts.

The answer is yes. Although there are posters on here who suggest that he isn’t. It’s like having a Jag. When it’s running it’s brilliant.

When it’s broken down it lets you down. That’s 2 seasons in a row now. And our brilliant manager backed himself into a corner with no replacement. Oh yes, people will say play Saka there. Well I would prefer him upfront with S-R. We have got lucky because I think 2 of Spartas best players are likely to miss the game.

And while I am stirring the pot. On 3 podcasts I have listened to people thought Leno should have done better with the first Liverpool goal (soft wrists were mentioned by at least 2 of them) so I will mark that as another mistake.

The ideal scenario is the kill the tie tonight with a good scoreline. We'll see.

I like Leno but one of the things I've seen mentioned is the lack of proper competition and rest. Rest for GK is still important for the mental fatigue more than physical I'd have thought, one effects the other in terms of reflexes.
Everyone in the squad needs to be kept on their toes with a quality player competing for their place. A proper No.2 is still required in the summer