Harsh for me. First one is a weird scuff and second he’s just trying to react.

Yep ... distinctly second best . It's simple we just cannot pass the ball accurately ...so many attempted through balls massively overhit ...whereas balls to Jota gave him a fair chance of creating something .

Partey ...words fail ...... What is the criteria for Arsenal midfielders ....... having more than two brain cells we won't sign you ?

A week off with clearly a lot of players not training or still not fully fit.
Swap the ties and yes Liverpool probably still win, but when the first leg was due to be played we had a fully fit squad and Liverpool were stripped of a number of important players (alison, trent, fabinho and firminho plus the afcon 3)

Obviously dissapointing but once Liverpool scored they controlled the game comfortably. I was actually a bit relieved after their 2nd goal because it killed of any hope of an already unlikely comeback.

Just needed to get through it without getting anyone sent off

Pretty good assessment Soc ... two points I disagree with .... the needless mention of "coming back from injuries and Covid " smacks of making excuses , especially when they were missing two main strikers .

Secondly Lacazette 's "physical presence " ....... ??? it's not like he is Joe Jordan , Cyril Regis ... that's what I call physical presence .

Lacazette's more a vaguely annoying pygmy .

My low point was Partey getting stupidly sent off but Nketiah coming on to save the tie was a bit depressing. Overall no point getting too down as Liverpool are a much better team and we looked like a young team who were a bit out of sorts. It will be interesting to see if the club go all out for a top four with some high quality loans/purchases in the next few weeks.

I liked Ode tonight, I thought he was really excellent. Needs better players around him to fully flourish though.

Probably mine was the FA Cup defeat on an ice-bound pitch away at York City.

Rich ... you can torture yourself with a multitude of what ifs ...but I'm telling you even if our squad had been away at some health spa , had the ideal preparation . all fully fit we would not have won that tie .

It's a simple formula , with accurate passing you both expend less energy and create more chances ...... and Liverpool pass the ball light years ahead of us .

Seems Leno is in the verge of leaving. Apparently in talks with Newcastle amongst others.

I agree but I’m also pointing out that we’d have stood a better chance had the original tie taken place when it should have with us fully fit and Liverpool decimated. They are light years ahead but that would have tipped the scales back our way a bit!

Still baffled by the AMN loan. Arteta said Toni played with no training tonight because Cédric and Chambers were injured. We’re down to 1 central mid and a player who covers both positions was let out on loan at the start of the window. Let him go on Jan 31, teams would still have been interested

Same agent

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... 0-000.html

https://www.si.com/soccer/manchestercit ... with-agent

I think he could do with driving forward a bit more , make things happen rather than always passing .

In my view he has a touch of the Hleb's ....... good rum , curry , cayenne pepper enema pre match might help .

Hi Rich,

It only would have made sense had we had a player lined up to come in, which we clearly didn't.

No excuses. Thought before the game Liverpool were slight favourites and so it proved.
I don’t know if any of you were at the game but on TV it looked as though lots of players (Tomiyasu Emile Smith Rowe Saka) were slipping on the surface. Indeed their second came just after Martinelli slipped

I am stating the bleeding obvious here but buying the right players at the right price is a key to success. Every time Jota scores it aggravates me to think that we could’ve got him and Zaha for the price of Pépé. Maybe that’s not a good example but some of the “bargains” that were bought over the last few years shows that there is still value out there in this inflationary transfer market
Son and Moura to Spuds Mahrez Kante and Madison to Leicester Robertson to Liverpool. Jota to Wolves We probably could’ve got Grealish after we beat AV in the final.
Ah well onto Burnley Sunday. An early goal would help settle us down ….as long as it’s goalless the nerves will be jangling.

With Liverpool's deeper bench, etc, I never considered us favorites. Overall, we made a good account of ourselves. We were outplayed after their goal but up till then we were outplaying them. They didn't have many shots on goal to be fair.

The 'good' thing is all we have is the league now. We can put all our energies into it.

Our fans jeered at the end?????????????
That's surprising and unwelcomed.

I think AMN insisted on going. I don't think he trust Arteta anymore. I wouldn't after being dropped from games despite good performances.

Happy Birthday to Alfred H. "Benny" Hill.
The greatest comedian the world has ever known....at least to an American teenager at the time seeing his re-runs.

Trust the process

Quite strange to see headlines today emphasising ‘ANOTHER’ season without silverware for Arsenal. I mean we won something only 2 years ago and won 4 FA Cups in 8 years. I wonder if Man U will get the same headlines. I won’t expect it of Spurs because perhaps we are rightly held to higher standards as the vastly bigger club!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/60078091

This bbc article says of Arsenal don’t make top 4 then the season must be considered a failure. Really? Disappointing considering the position we’re in but not one pundit or sports journalist said we’d finish top 4 this season in fact most had us 7th at best. They probably had us even worse after the first 3 games and the apparent ‘underwhelming’ transfer window.

This Matt Turner the US gk transfer rumour has picked up pace. Looks like the sort of deal that will go through quite smoothly and out of the blue. £5m, 27 years old.

Of course not finishing fourth should be considered a failure. The money it has recently spent and can spend including the wealth of the owners, the stature of the club, the size of its domestic and worldwide fan base, and the size and quality of the squad at the beginning of the season. I think it’s horrible if Arsenal fans just sit back and think ‘oh well, we cannot expect us to compete for fourth’. That’s the type of losers attitude and mentality I see as unacceptable in the club’s staff, owners and players. I even see it as disturbing in supporters.

https://twitter.com/tk8pic/status/14842 ... 78659?s=21

It appears the refs in Germany are no better than here. Kroos got a yellow card for this!

‘Competing’ for 4th yes, a failure of this season we don’t finish 4th? I think it’s stretching it. You talk about money and size of club but there also needs to be an understanding of the current quality of the playing squad.
At the start of the season there were very few Arsenal fans saying we have to get top 4 otherwise the season is a failure. Most of the talk was about getting 5/6th and getting back in Europe.
We shouldn’t be having West Ham and Leicester finish above us that’s for sure, but City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Man U….right now? It’s not accepting mediocrity or losers mentality, it is being realistic.
You talk of the money that has been spent but that needs to be viewed in where we were. If Newcastle drop £200m in the summer should they be expected to make top 4, top 6 just because they’ve spent loads of money? Our squad was an absolute shambles and we were quite rightly 8th two seasons running.
Do we as fans all want to be back amongst the elite? Of course we do. We don’t want to be where we are.
In the summer my bet is that we will have turned over virtually an entire squad of 25 players in a little under 3 seasons.

Fred Scuttle referring to Jackie Wright as a swami: Be careful of your thoughts. He reads minds. In some parts of the world he's revered as a god!

Interviewer: You're not saying his omnipotent?!

Fred Scuttle looking confused about the word at first: "Well, you'll have to ask his wife sir"

Benny was pure genius to me as a teenager. Haha....You know how many people visit Morrison's grave in France? My brother and I plan to do that in England for Benny.

I'd suggest there were varying goals for us depending on our form. Before the season, I think most fans and probably the club management saw top 6 as the main goal. Get back to Europe.

I think after the first month, we re-adjusted our goals and finishing top half was what we would try for and we'd likely end the season with a different manager in so doing.

However, as we moved up the table, I think top 4 was only a goal once we came within ear shot of top 4. I think its top 4 now but was never that before the season started and was completely out of the question after the first month.

If we don't finish top 4, I think it will be seen as a failed season since being close but Arteta will keep his job if we lose out to top 4 by a game maybe. We'll still be in Europe and that was the original goal anyway.

Having nothing to compete for but top 4, getting players back from Africa, and possibly buying a player (or two) it will be seen as very doable. There are a number of variables that has to be factored in. Injuries to us and challengers. Who we or our challengers buy in the window. And plain old luck that has been bandied around on here.

I think if we play like we did over most of this cup tie, we'll not only get 4th, we'll make a decent run at 3rd as it seems Chelsea are looking a wee bit more vulnerable than the world beaters they appeared to be weeks ago.

City wil in the league, Liverpool will be runner up and Chelsea will be fighting off whomever emerges out of the top 4 challengers.

I listed our squad a couple of times at or near the beginning of the season. It should easily be a realistic challenger for fourth place, and considering the seasons both Manchester United in particular and three man Tottenham have had, I myself think we should now consider lower than fourth a failure. Moreover making excuses for it strikes me as a little feeble.

I still think we will get fourth. Though so far January has been a poor window letting Maitland-Niles leave, which now means we need a midfielder with Guendouzi being on loan.

The big priority is still a top forward considering Aubameyang’s exclusion for disciplinary reason, which perhaps make the subsequent stories of health issues less material. There’s also Lacazette, a decent forward who has some good qualities but is way off the level required for being the first choice in our team, which since Aubameyang has fallen out of favour he has been. Then there’s Nketiah. I know some rate him but I do see him as Crystal Palace level. All three will presumably be off in the summer but we need someone now, and if Edu fails to recruit then questions should be asked of him.

Whether it’s Vlahovic or not, I don’t know. But we need a top forward.

If we don't sell Aubameyang this month, Arteta should be using him to get us to 4th. Okay, he's out of favor. Then use him to rest whomever we have above him in the pecking order or use him off the bench.

We are within striking distance of top 4. If we don't put everything in it, we're doing ourselves a disservice. We found ourselves in a position (top 4) that we didn't envision for at least a couple years if that.

With Newcastle with money, they'll be challenging top 4 in 2 to 3 years. Next year, we'll have the same issue trying to get top 4 (Tottenham, Chelsea, Man Utd, Leicester may make a comeback, others).

Squad rotation, strategy and keeping the fear no one mentality we are playing with is needed for the duration of the season.

Spot on. Without a striker being signed, I think Top 4 may be prove to be beyond us.

Maybe... maybe not. I'd even shade toward a 'weak' likely. Why?

We got to top 4 with an Aubameyang that was average at best, often below average when he played and hasn't been played for weeks now.

Had we relied on him as we did in other seasons I'd agree. Now, do we need a striker? Certainly. We can't keep running this bunch week in, week out without it taking its toll. But is it possible to get top 4 without one? Yes. Difficult? Yes, but if we got to where we are now as things are, why would that change dramatically? That's all I'm saying.

Don't get me wrong. I'd be disappointed if we don't make a buy, but I also don't think its a foregone conclusion 4th is gone.

I think the difference here is you said it at the start of the season. Most pundits (pretty much everyone I saw) had us at 7-8th when the season started, so it feels a little bit hypocritical of them to now say it would be a failure if we didn't get top 4.

Personally, it's not just about 4th or 5th place for me. If we end up missing out on top 4 but continue to show the type of progress we've done in the last few months, that would still be a good season for me, and something to build on for next season. It would still mean we've shown a lot of improvement compared to the past two seasons.

Then again, if we continue to perform the way we've done recently, I think we will get top 4 in the end.

This might be the case...then again, our rivals for 4th place are weaker than us in other areas. Xhaka is a player most fans feel could be improved upon, but to me he still walks right into the starting eleven of Tottenham and Man Utd without even breaking a sweat.

What we're missing compared to them is the type of match winners they have with Ronaldo, Fernandes, Son and Kane. But team wise we're more balanced in my opinion. Our best performances (City, the first halves against Leicester and Tottenham) are a level above anything I've seen Man Utd or Tottenham do this season.

Thinking over last nights game. I don’t think we’ll get 4th, I wouldn’t consider it a failure if we don’t either but I just don’t see it.


I just look at this squad I don’t see one that’s got the right ingredients to compete in multiple competitions.

https://www.arsenal.com/men/players

Out of the whole squad I think there’s about 14 players the manager feels he can rely on and that’s it. It’s just not built for a title challenge

If you look at Liverpools squad they have 4 players in Mané, salah, firmino and jota who can get you a goal when you aren’t playing well and score half chances. Spurs have 2 in Kane and son. I don’t think we have 1, we have to play very well to win and create more chances as we know well miss many. If jota was on that chance in the first half instead of Lacazette then it’s a different game. If we can’t get Vlahovic we might need to sign 2, maybe Calvert Lewin and Ollie Watkins so we can mix it up.

It’s irritating because we seem to falter the moment it matters but I still think we are heading in the right direction.

To me it seems to be missing that match winning element to enhance our current structure. There’s not too much more work to do there’s some decent ingredients there

One of Chelsea and Spurs, or both, will drop points on Sunday. They are playing each other.
My preference is Spurs to lose.