Arsenal

Agree, the Carabao Cup final is so much bigger for us than the Carabao Cup itself. Cant wait to see how we go. Surely we are favourites.

Regarding Scholes. He said that arsenal will be the worst champions(if we win) as we don’t have scorers knocking in 20-30 goals a season. However, we are still the top scoring team. Surely if you had the option, you would want your goals spread across the squad like we have. That way you’re not as exposed as you’d otherwise be if your 30 goal striker gets injured. It was just such a daft argument from the man.

Even Rooney is showing sense. Our skill from corners is being criticised and he said “it’s part of the game, why would you not use them?”

Maybe all potential champions get pointless criticism and actually we’re just lucky it’s our turn.

Part of being a massive club is the noise that surrounds you. We should be grateful, as it shows the strong position we are now in as a club.

You don't hear anything about clubs like Brighton and Bournemouth because they are irrelevant.

Worst champions is silly and a bit of an oxymoron in itself. The only word that matters there is champions. 19 other teams won't be able to call themselves that this season.

Good to have the forum back up. 

Got to have a photo with the Premier League trophy today which was pretty cool. It was on an Australia and NZ tour (Theo Walcott was on part of the Australia bit). In NZ in Auckland for one day today and I happen to be up here for a few days for a show. Also got to meet some of the Auckland branch of the Arsenal NZ supporters club and will be watching the final with them in the morning.

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Well, well, well. It's good to be back!

Lot's of chat over here about a quadruple being on the cards. I couldn't care less, the only thing I want is the perfect double. We win the PL, and Sp*ds get relegated. Anything extra is more and more icing on that most perfect of cakes.

Good to be back on the forums. 
Just saw the lineup for this morn. I know this is how we roll in the League Cup but wouldve much preferred Raya to start. Kepa is decent but its a final dammit!

Spot on buffon

Pretty much.  It's the best time of your life when everyone hates you.  They don't hate you so much when you're shit. They hate you when you're where they want to be. Unsure when it became a club's responsibility to play in a way that gives the other teams more chance and it's truly bizarre that winning with the proceeds of war crime and human rights abuse is so much more agreeable to people than scoring a goal from a corner.  But is what it is.  Apparently the medals only say "winner" on them. 

Watching with the Auckland Gooners group.  100 Arsenal fans here. Hope the 2nd half goes well. 

Eish, we haven't been in this game since the 20th min mark. No idea what our tactics are because we can't hold onto the ball. Definitely showing both that we've played lots of football and that we don't have enough quality across our squad. 

aww come on!
not what I wanted to wake ujp to!

Shit performance really. Second half was a disgrace.

Starting Kepa was never going to go any other way.  For whatever reason the backup keeper was promised it and it ended up being the difference. You start your best team in a final. If only there was some way it could have been foreseen. 

We look like a team who don't think they can win. Gut feeling is we probably crumble in the league again from here. This performance was embarrassing and we'll just have to continue wearing the bottlers tag. 

Promising Kepa the final has to be a black mark on Arteta then, sure Kepa got us to the final but he's not the best keeper in the squad and if you want to win trophies then you start the best!

I think Kepa is being overblown. The bigger concern for me is the entire 11 did not work. The left side was broken, with Trossard not working hard enough to support Hincapie (and Hincapie being hamstrung by a soft yellow). The right side wasn't much better, White didn't want to be exposed so Saka had minimal overlapping runs to feed or get players drawn from. The front two didn't work as he just played route one, both played similarly, neither dropped deep to link well. The midfield two were over run, and without the third man coming from Havertz or Gyokeres we were constantly made to go long.

Yes, Kepa made a howler. But we weren't set up to succeed. Calafiori & Martinelli on the left would have been much more effective going forward, and Saka playing through the middle instead of Havertz or Gyokeres and Jesus off the right would have been more balanced.

I think a couple of weeks away from the title race will do the squad some good. Hopefully Odegaard/Eze/Timber are back in the mixer afterwards, and no new injuries!

I also think that Pep got his tactics spot on and Arteta and the players couldn't adapt. City played with a zonal front 4 press, rather than man-marking which most teams employ against us. This means that there were no passing options for our CBs or Kepa. We tried to bypass the front block but as we weren't setup to play long and being out numbered of our attackers vs their defenders. It gave city almost total control of the game and once they established that, there was really only one outcome. 

It's not just the howler. Raya is so crucial to our build up play with his distribution which Kepa doesn't have. They pinned us back and all he could do was keep hoofing it back to them. There was one occasion at the start of the 2nd half that he took a full minute to release the ball. Also not forgetting the ridiculous charge out of the box when he missed the ball and probably should have been sent off. You could see the panic in the rest of the players after that.   Felt sorry for Gabriel and Saliba having him behind them.  If we were playing the first 11 otherwise then it should have been the full strongest team for the final.  If "it wouldn't have been fair" then Norgaard and MLS should also have played after playing all the way through. 

I'm mostly worried that the 2nd half schooling is what we're going to keep seeing in the crucial moments in everything else now.  Team looks like it doesn't know how to get over the line. 

The women are absolutely punishing Chelsea in the first half. Love to see it. Hope they can kick on in the 2nd!

2 goal lead going into the second leg. That was pretty convincing this morning. Hope we can keep them out at Stamford bridge 

Gyokeres has just scored a hattrick for Sweden to send them to the WC qualification playoff final. Norgaard also scored for Denmark and they go through too.

hope they can bring some of that form back for us! we need Gyokeres in particular to be scoring!

Well now. Gyokeres scored the winner to send Sweden and comes back to us on a massive high. Calafiori suffered Italian heart break going out on penalties after a rash red card. Norgaard and Denmark went out too. I’m hoping all the withdrawals aren’t too serious. B team in the cup for extra rest ahead of sporting away please.

Pleased for Gyok but that absolutely stinks that Sweden are there.

They didn't win a single game in their qualifying group.

Italy shit the bed yet again. Remarkable that their last World Cup appearance was 2014.

My partners Italian and we're in Italy over the World Cup...going to be way less fun for watching!

I watched the England U21 highlights over Moldova, and it was the MLS and Nwaneri show. MLS was everywhere but looked lethal in the final third. If MLS can get back to that form for the run in I'd be buzzing, and Nwaneri keeping up his growth journey ahead of next season would be ace.

Women through to the CL semi final again after knocking out Chelsea. It's been on ESPN here in case you didn't know.  Huge performance  in the 2nd leg this morning.  Lovely stuff. 

City smash Liverpool and we make a championship side look like peak Barcelona. Not a good omen for the rest of the season

And of all the concerning aspects of this game, it's the speed and ease they have been able to cut our defence apart. Like they run at us at will and we just let them. But when it comes to our attack we are ponderous as fuck and piss about closing up any space we might be able to play into. 

Falling apart.

What the fuck is going on.

fuck me, end of season blues seems to have impacted us for the last few years.
cant complain about being over worked as the squad we have removes that big time.
headspace!!

Well that's 2 out of 4 gone. CL next in the week. Bottlers FC forever. No doubt some will say "it's only the cups it doesn't matter to the league" etc but the 2 performances in a row have been dire. We look like we don't know how to get over the line when it matters and pressure increases ten fold for me now with yet more trophies conceded. It feels like everything is slipping away now. Can't see anything other than another collapse in the league. This team doesn't have it in them.

gotta win the league to be able to say that though

I could excuse the league cup final given the rotations forced via injury, but yesterday was something else. Watching all of our defenders make ridiculous individual errors was bizarre. Really hope the injuries aren't too serious. Gabriel going off, plus Rice, Saka, Trossard, and Hincapie not in the squad is a scary prospect ahead of the run in for the CL and PL.

After our recent performances, I'm really hoping for us to put on a show tonight. Put the tie to bed in the first leg. Get some confidence back that we can take into the league.

we need a strong performance today, win would be great, but I want a good win not a bumbling lucky one

At the death!! Torrid old game but we got the win!! 

lots to work on for sure, still at elasdt we won away
Bournmouth at home next

Away wins in the CL are always a big result. Hope it doesn't cost us too much this weekend in terms of fatigue or any more injuries. The struggle to create a chance remains the main concern.

Good result. You would back us to go through from here.

Good to get a win before Bournemouth as well. That game is massive.

This weekend against Bournemouth is massive. Must win, by any means necessary. 
Away win in the CL and a routine home win in the League would ensure we steady things for the run-in, after the cup wobbles. 
Remember the invincibles going out of the FA Cup and Champions League in a week, then down to Liverpool at home in the league, took a 2nd half Henry masterclass to steady the ship and ensure we had the bottle to see out the league. 
This team doesn't do it that way (via a brilliant individual) - this team's way would be a 2-0, with the opening goal from a corner. I'd be very happy with that. 

Gotta focus on the winnables, and Bournemouth is just that, we have struggled against them before but this game we need to secure points to put us in the frame to hold onto the title.
EPL title and Champs league final are a must!

Very nervous for this one. Goals are looking a struggle and can foresee this being very nervy and still 0-0 late in the game. Early goal would settle everything. Massive opportunity to make the gap 12 points before 115FC play and pile the pressure on them. Albeit with 2 more games played, but points on the board mean so much more than assumed points at this stage. So much rides on these next 2 league games.