At least the illustrious Xhaka will wear the Swiss armband against England this Saturday.

Maybe he can two-foot Kane, take the red and be back for the World Cup.

Vieira has been inducted in to the premier league hall of fame, 7th player in. Henry and Bergkamp already in there.

I think I would argue with anyone to say that Vieira is the greatest central midfielder in the premier league ever. I think people’s views get a bit skewed with the formation for 3 man midfields now where midfielders can decide if they don’t want to be good at attacking or defending, Vieira did it all in a 2 man midfield. He’s known as a tough tackling, physically dominant leader but that underplays the skill and touch he had, not to mention his cool finishing ability 1v1. Other fans will throw out names like Scholes, Keane, Gerrard, Lampard but Vieira bested them all in my opinion.

Maybe put in a few fouls on Saka to cheer Steve Gerard up.

On the other hand, we finished 4th that season, 7 pts behind the champions and lost fewer games than we have this season. And we won the FA Cup.

Try adding up all of yours unless you want to be a hypocrite.

And in 2011/12, the season we lost 8-2 at Old Trafford, we finished third. Strange days.

It is in our hands, but can't count the chickens until they are hatched
I am also worried they can win most of these games

Xhaka was unfairly booked in the Villa match. Unfortunately his reputation precedes him.

Rich, having a few minutes to kill, I thought I'd check how the forum felt about Xhaka's red card against Swansea at the time. One or two interesting reactions...

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=6&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=459480

9. Seek help

Haha Thanks for that. Some of those frustrations are the same things we’re discussing now. Ex refs tying themselves in knots to agree with the onfield decision, precedents being set for arsenal players and never seen again…..I’m pleased that at least I stayed consistent in my view of the incident….

To use a phrase that often gets overused Viera would take games by the scruff of the neck at times. When he was in the mood he ruled the midfield imperiously.

Can you honestly not see the hypocrisy of you saying this?

10. Seek help

Any responses to a post about granit where you lay out a dozen posts of accusations following it when this is your problem meets this course of action now.

Unlike Too Gun who said this in post 459488.

Haha who’s obsessive ?

No it isn’t. It is YOU who cannot stop moaning about Xhaka. You cannot let it rest about him.

As I said, he gave a talk at an AST do recently. I’ve heard he spoke very well. But that is what I’ve heard, not my view because I didn’t bother watching it. That can only show I’m not really interested in him or his views. I simply respond to your grossly over the top criticisms.

Clearly you are.

Yes, Bernard, but that was before Top Gun became obsessed with Xhaka, back when he treated him just like every other Arsenal player. I remember those halcyon days.

Thats up to 12 now. Seek help

All in response to a post suggesting the guy had created his own reputation. Few would disagree with this but still you continue

Bernard, his own post of 7 March 2022 gave the best advice on any issue he even mentions: just ignore everything he says. I have found it an easy mantra to apply.

Wahay I’ve been waiting for the forum imbecile to try and pile on.

.. but you still comment all the time

https://twitter.com/Mikega2020/status/1 ... 15r-H51LFQ

Wow, I sat open mouthed listening to this. How do these views even still exist in football?

This Mings tackle on Saka to me is clear what has happened. Mings knows he is going to get there first, he knows he can almost certainly stay on his feet and get there first and pass the ball and collide in to Saka afterwards with both of them on their feet, he chooses to use the excuse that he knows he's going to win the ball cleanly to take the cowards approach and make it a sliding tackle to ensure eh a) gives more protection to himself and b) makes sure he leaves something on Saka.
Nicol manages to say this is all Saka's fault that he got injured by this. Absolutely amazing. As for the other no mark in the video - just wow

Also, the acid test as always, ask yourself if Mings was about to collide with his own team mate would he has done so in the manner he did v Saka? Or would he have braced his body, belt his leg, lowered his studs to minimise the impact?

Is he really talking about Saka when he says it doesn't take much for him to come off in a game?

'He's had quite a few knocks where he hasn't played the next game, for two or three weeks' - according to Saka's injury history on transfermarkt, he's missed a total of two games in three seasons due to injury. From my memory, I'm not sure I can think of a single game where Saka hasn't been available for selection.

Top Gun on Xhaka's red card against Swansea in 2016: 'For gods sake it's not a red, it just isn't.'

Hi TG, tell us again how you feel about that decision.

I already have. As I said to Rich yesterday I thought it was a debatable decision out of all the reds, I still think it is but still but my position on this has loosened several years down the line of watching the bloke accumulate more yellows than Putin has tanks. I’m more philosophical. You have a player who walks round the pitch properly doing other players if he loses the ball to avoid his limitations being exposed. If you go to Arsenal week in and week out you know this. The refs now know this. He’s gonna get reds and yellows, some time he will deserve them, others not. A bloke broke into the London zoo a few years back and stuck his head in a lions mouth and got mauled. Let’s all scream at the zookeeper eh.

Son just scored a stunner for Korea in their WC qualifier against Iran. We need to watch out for his long range shots when we play Spurs.

lol

it is a huge bugbear of mine when listening to pundits, they spout stuff without having done any research to back up what they're saying - and no one challenges them on it. Plenty of ill-educated and lazy football fans will just believe what they say and regurgitate it.
It is their job, they are being paid for their opinions but they just spout cliches and rarely add anything of interest, there are plenty of casual fans who sit behind a keyboard who would know far more about teams, players, tactics and stats.

Mesut Özil has been 'excluded' from the Fenerbahce squad.....

‘Indefinitely’ apparently.

Well said Rich.

You cant really blame the Fenerbahce people though for not knowing about Özil.

How could they have seen it coming ?

Quite a few rumours about us being in for Darwin Nunez from Benfica. I haven't seen him play but he has scored a lot of goals. A few reports I've read mark him as similar in style to Cavani - which may just be a convenient comparison because of the similar looks (flowing locks!) and that their both from Uruguay.

WHU are also in for Nunez this summer. Cost is £67m.

Saka has withdrawn from England camp due to Covid. He's self-isolating. Won't be playing Saturday then. His words.

Hopefully it’s a mild case, ideally non-symptomatic.

Italy won’t be going to the World Cup in Qatar. Knocked out tonight by North Macedonia. Italy didn’t make the World Cup in Russia in 2018 either, but yet they are European Champions! The last World Cup knock out hand Italy won was when they beat France in the final in 2006