2 goals from the last 73 attempts at goal.

Spurs didn’t have a shot on target today but 12 goals from previous 15 shots on target.

Man U bailed out with a Ronaldo hat trick today.

I thought our collective play and our defence would be a big benefit in the race for 4th, but injuries, mistakes, not taking easy chances and opponents having a high chance to goal ratio has completely flipped that on its head.

We desperately miss some kind of match winner.

When was the last time we scored a header from open play? We seem to put a lot of crosses in but it’s a flawed tactic when we don’t have a striker who is a threat in the air or we don’t load the box with players

I don’t think getting rid of the players we did in January is the reason we are where we are, it’s looks far more likely that not getting a CF and CM in is the main reason

Saints 0.65 Arsenal 1.72 on xG

The performance and chances created was probably not much different to the away wins v Wolves or Villa that we all praised. This is where we are, at our level we generally get embroiled in tight games for 75% of our games. Score 1st and we stand a good chance of winning, concede first and it’s likely a defeat.
That isn’t CL quality it’s 5-8th.

I think we’re very dependent on how Ødegaard plays. When he’s good the team are impressive. When he doesn’t perform well the side look poor. He can even have both effects in a single match. He had a dismal first half and the side looked hopelessly ordinary. He was much better in the second half and so were the team.

Didn't see the game but by all accounts it was another mentally fragile performance.

Losing three games on the bounce to Palace, Brighton and Southampton is not just not top four form, its relegation form.

No excuses for the players or manager I am afraid.

So much for Arteta changing the culture of the club, we are still basically a bunch of mental midgets who can't handle pressure and can't bring their A game to the party when it is needed.

If we go a goal down we are *%^@**.

Fully agree Rich.

I'd agree. I think Edu and Arteta were being too clever by half. Many of us thought the squad was too thin if we got injuries. It's no coincidence that we improved when Tierney and Tomiyasu starred at FBs and we are poorer without them. We surely could have found a CF in January.

One has to assume it was Arteta who wanted Edu to sign Vlahovic and as a result we wasted January chasing after a forward who didn’t fancy joining us.

Myself, I honestly believe Danny Welbeck would represent a significant upgrade on Lacazette and Nketiah. So I agree we surely could have found a striker from somewhere in January. Because I think that’s where we went wrong.

I agree partially. I thought he was our best player and it was a committed performance

What happens is he seems to get frustrated with our 2 midfielders not playing the ball forward enough then drops too deep to collect it and pass it himself which is not where we need him. We need him closer to the striker pulling the strings.

Xhaka and Lokonga were hopeless in the first half. Just recycled possession. 2nd half they were better so I wonder if Mikel had a word and told them to be more adventurous

There’s nothing wrong with the spirit or mentality, that’s not the problem. They honestly tried their best today, the team runs for each other and you can see that.

The real issue is we have a real absence of quality in 2 positions that’s desperately hurting us so badly and half our defence that looked so solid earlier this year is missing.

Season can’t end quick enough.

Sounds like yet another game I did well to miss. I followed the text updates on Sky Sports whilst watching an Isthmian League game complete with female referee.

I got excited when I saw that Tottenham lost in the last minute, but the text updates for our game made for grim reading. Not really looking forward to seeing the highlights although I have seen the Forster save from Saka.

I can understand the temptation of shedding aubameyangs huge wages but Balogun and AMN would be getting minutes right now without question but instead we have players like Azeez and Swanson on the bench because they are on loan. You can’t honestly say it makes sense with a straight face.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. For someone who we spent a lot of money because he is allegedly so comfortable on the ball, I’ve been disappointed by White’s passing. I was expecting his passing to be much better than it is.

What does ‘comfortable on the ball’ mean if it doesn’t mean quality passing? I’m not expecting him to pass it like Beckenbauer. That would be unrealistic. But he doesn’t even pass it as well as Ledley King.

I actually do feel White has been a good signing. But that’s more because of his defending than passing.

You are right Bernard, it was assumed we bought him to be the player who could play through or dribble through the lines when teams pressed us high. Thus starting attacks from the back.

White and Gabrielle just fiddle around at the back with slow sideways passes. Where are the progressive passes we bought White to produce. He looks scared to play.

So Ben Whites the latest villain I see. Can’t agree with this stuff.

Now it’s being suggested Ben White might have done his cruciate.

If that’s true he’ll miss the rest of the season and you dinlows can see how much better Rob Holdings distribution is next game.

We didn't but Rob Holding for his distribution.

There’s nothing wrong with Ben whites distribution whatsoever. Both our centre backs are very good at passing out from the back certainly better than their predecessors


https://youtu.be/ctDXNL441JY

This stuff really shouldn’t need saying

Not lately they haven't. Shaky defensively and far too ponderous in possession.

I sometimes wish we just went all out attack right from the off, commit players, push full backs on, play at a ridiculously high tempo. It probably has a lot more turnovers of the ball but I don’t see us as a team that gets caught all miles out of position and caught on the counter. It’s all about tempo.

Stick Tierney and Tommy next to them and they will look better but regardless they are good at what they do. Gabriel is so awful he’s being linked with Barcelona right. Apparently white is playing with a knee injury, he had his right knee strapped today.

After a defeat people go so overboard it’s ridiculous. There’s nothing wrong with those players distribution.

I’m resigned to a disappointing end to the season now. The squad has proved to be too small to absorb the recent injuries and now we look adrift. What a shame that such a promising trajectory has stalled just as top four was in our hands. The responsibility is now on the board to continue a high quality squad rebuild this summer.

Cucerella has been a good signing for Brighton. Bissouma had another good game for them as well.
Cucerella did Kulesevski a huge favour by not rolling around on the floor in faux agony today, it is a farce that the spurs man didn’t get a red card. These things matter, spurs shouldn’t have him for the next 3 games and he’s been a big player for them.

One thing that always annoyed me back when we were top dogs was our reluctance to strengthen the squad from a position of strength. Liverpool have sadly shown how to do it. They have the most deadly front 3 in the league and make it stronger by adding £40m Jota, then if that wasn’t enough they see the opportunity to make an earlier than planned move for Diaz for another £40m and their forward line is just ridiculous now. And a established and very good CB pair of van Dijk and Matip, with Gomez as back up and they sign Konate for £35m. It is signing players to challenge and be good enough to take a first 11 spot rather than signing up potential.

Nobody has called White a villain. I said his passing has been disappointing considering he was apparently bought for his comfort on the ball. What does that mean anyway, if it doesn’t mean good passing?

Are you telling me you’ve found White’s passing ‘all that’? I said I rate him as a good signing but more for his defending than his passing. Is that what you refer to as calling him a villain?

You seem to have players you can’t stand seeing anything positive about and those employees, as I include Arteta in that observation, who can only be praised.

I’ve seen a bit of criticism saying some of the reserves should have been rotated in more to keep them sharp. I think this missed the point that a lot of our matches were tight wins. Who is to say if we rotated players in we’d have still won those games? The past 3 games probably prove more so that we wouldn’t have won those tight wins we got with our best 11

Interesting that Charles Watts ranked Tavarez and Sambi at 6/10 the highest of any players on the pitch. The decision not to play Tavarez last match and so totally unbalanced the team looks like amateur hour. But you can bet Arteta will throw Tavarez under the bus in the next 3 games. There will be a need for double marking if some of the Chelsea and Man U players but I suspect Arteta will not change his ways. I am still waiting for someone to explain to me our style of play. It appears every 5 matches we change and other managers quickly figure out how to shut us down.

I was thinking the same. Balls are punted into the box, with hope, not assuredness.

I think Liverpool had a big advantage even before the semi final yesterday. They had a comfortable CL night v Benfica at home and rested many of their stars whilst City had a tough game in Madrid. No idea why Pep played his reserve GK in a cup semi against Liverpool. Add in injuries to de Bruyne, dias and Walker and Laporte on the bench, no Rodri it felt like a second string City side. For all the talk of City’s money and squad quality I think it is Liverpool who have the far deeper and better squad.

Just watched Man U’s goals. 2 howlers from Norwich, dawdling on the ball in their own box and then Krul makes an easy save from a free kick look difficult, gets two hands to it and just helps it in to the net.

Part of the VAR problem is you’re still relying on a human to draw the lines in the right place and stop the tape at the exact moment the ball leaves the attackers foot.
This one doesn’t even look like they’ve taken the line from the Watford players sleeve.

It’s my main gripe this season with the decisions we’ve got. I can’t think of any time we’ve benefitted from a real marginal one, or a poor onfield decision that var won’t over turn. When did we say ‘phew he was lucky to not be sent off there” or something similar?

For those interested, the Women’s FA Cup semi final with Arsenal playing Chelsea is being shown on BBC Two today between 12.15 pm and 2.35 pm. The game is being played at the Arsenal Women’s home ground in Boreham Wood.

I presume Arsenal got lucky with the draw to be played at Boreham Wood, as the other semi final yesterday between West Ham and Manchester City was played at West Ham Women’s home ground in Dagenham. City won that.

Expect West Ham to win today which pushes us down to 7th. We play twice before spurs play again. Can’t see anything but another defeat at Chelsea. Man U go away to Liverpool, if Liverpool play at even 50% of their ability they’ll win that. Then it is a must win at home to Man U with spurs away at Brentford later that day. That has to be a ‘must drop points’ I think.

Looking at Man U’s remaining fixtures and the form of some of the ‘lesser’ teams they play you could make a case for them not winning any of them.

Worst differentials between Goals & Expected Goals in the Premier League

17 Leeds -9.0
18 Watford -9.1
19 Arsenal -10.2
20 Brighton -13.6

Add 10 more goals to our season, and that is 10 that an ‘average’ striker should get and we’d be huge shoe ins for 4th

Hi Rich
I thought spurs would nail down 4th yesterday.
Them losing presented us with a reprieve to join them on the same points and we messed up again.
0 points from last 3 is a disgrace.
Were we to somehow win our next 2 we would be 3 clear of spurs and the pressure is really on them for the Brentford game.
Sadly can't see anything but a loss against Chelsea.
Another hammering probably.
Utd have a lot of tricky games left where they will definitely drop points as do west ham.
Hopefully Chelsea win today so europa league drops down to 6th.
Still expect spurs to finish 4th but as their result showed yesterday anything is possible.
It could be who loses the fewest fills 4th to 6th.
We look dead on our feet and uninspired.
How has the loss of 2 players derailed us so badly???
Finish out the top 6 and I want Arteta gone.
In a season with no europe and mostly one day a week 7th is Unforgiveable.

Club won’t go anywhere if it continually changes it’s leadership every 2 years. It won’t instil any confidence in its best players if it’s doing this either they’ll *%^@ off in a heartbeat.

6th is about right for us, add 2 strikers 2 midfielders and more experience and there’s a good formula here to move forward. Economically you can’t equip any manager with our squad and expect success. No chance no matter what fairy land you live in. We’ve been punching above our weight for too long.

If West Ham win the Europa League - which is easily possibly, they'll automatically go in to the CL next season, assuming West Ham dont also finish 4th we'll have 5 teams in the CL. If Chelsea win their FA Cup semi final today then the Europa League place for winning the FA Cup will drop to 6th place in the league - if West Ham finish 5th or 6th then I think that Europa place would drop to 7th. The League Cup Europa Conference league position will drop to 7th or 8th in the league (depending on West Ham's situation) as Liverpool won that earlier in the season. Then if Leicester win the Conference league they will automatically go in to the Europa League next year.

We really should finish 5th at worst given the run ins of all the teams. Spurs still big favourites for 4th

Weren't we the biggest spenders in europe last summer? Our squad is no worse than the 6th best in the league so by that token Arteta is not overachieving despite only having one game a week and all the training ground time he wants.

Listen, I don't know if Arteta is the right man for the job or not, in my mind its no better than 50/50. He may be a great coach but that doesn't necessarily translate to him becoming a great manager, we've seen plenty of coaches and no.2s over the years who just couldn't handle the manager's job.

There are so many facets to the managers job, training ground coaching is just one of them. You have to be able to handle big egos and personalities, get the best out of players you may not even like. You have to be able to motivate players, some of whom need an arm around the shoulder and some who need a kick up the backside. You need to learn the art of team selection and master the tactical side of things both pre-game and intra-game. It's not easy and not everybody is cut out for it. Infact, a lot of the best players in history have failed miserably as managers.

Let's see how the rest of the season pans out but its not looking great at the moment.

https://twitter.com/ckftbl/status/15156 ... YrbdvYhhhw

Brooke Norton-Cuffy

He seems like one of the most promising young players we have. The Physique and athleticism he already has at such a young age has allowed him to transition to men’s football very quickly.