(The not-so-temporary quite-official) Gooner Thread (Part 3)

Performance improvement is rarely linear, sadly.

What a shark start to the week... hopefully they'll confirm a PEA extension to positively shift the narrative.

With Torreira back I'd like to see him come in for Kolasinac, with Xhaka dropping back and Torreira partnering Ceballos.

Adds a bit more energy to our midfield, keeps Xhaka in the 11 to add some leadership at the back, and a left footer who is good on the ball at LCB.

I was in Mt Maunganui on the weekend and The Soccer Shop at Bayfair had what looks like next years new shirt for sale. They only had kids sizes. I should've taken a photo but I found this picture online and this is exactly the same as what I saw in the shop.

Its a darker red and has Emirates Fly Better on the front. From what I've also seen online, they will be going back to red socks as well.

Imagine how excited Salah must be about coming up against Mustafi, Kolasinac and Luiz this week. That golden boot is there for the taking. 

Guys, there is technically still a chance that Sp*rs finish 7th and we win the FA Cup pinching Europe from them.

It's the hope that kills you. But now I need to find the next thing to put hope in.

Does that make me a masochist? Probably. 

Does it make me an arsenal fan? Definitely.

You know what I'd enjoy tonight? Another Liverpool vs Arsenal 4-4. Given how bad our defence can be, and the fact that the 'pools fallen off the decent bandwagon it could happen.

If we painfully get picked off for a 2-0 or a 3-0 it'll be both boring and a bad result.

Do it for the fans you dickheads.

Interesting lineup this morn... Only luiz remains in his original spot in the back 5, auba and ceballos rested, reiss nelson at lwb?

good lord we are terrible so far, the massacre is on.

were losing the possession battle but leading 2-1, I'll take it.

I don’t understand what I’m witnessing.

At 93.48 I said to the mrs “we might get a point out of this”. Fudgeing hell.

What a result.

How?!

come on!! close it out, 2-1 against a team that has dominated the league with a shuffled lineup.

Hahahaha that is gold

Well if you look at the quality of the spurs and liverpool performances we deserved 3 points out of the two, just in opposite games hahahaha

bahahahahahahaha what the fudge was that!!! VVD is luiz in disguise! 

Just rewatched the goals. Yea two terrible errors from liverpool but how good was lacazette on both? He was working and moving and reacted so well, he actually wasnt favourite to win either of those balls. Gomez really shouldve cleaned up the first one, and laca came from nowhere to intercept the second. 

Was surprised to see an arsenal team expose premier-league-legend-best-defender-ever Virgil van Dijk twice.

At the Emirates this morning

Are you Luiz? Are you Luiz? Are you Luiz in disguise? Are you Luiz in disguise?

Mavropanos has signed a 12 month extension and gone on loan to Stuggart.

Mari, Luiz, Soares signed extensions already, while Saliba's locked in.

You'd expect Bellerin & Tierney to be safe.

Leaves us with Kolasinac, Mustafi, Sokratis, Chambers, Holding whose futures are still up in the air.

Really want to see us keep Chambers & Holding - I think they've both still got plenty of potential as ball playing CB's - especially Holding's capacity to absolutely mug off opposition attackers like Mane experienced yesterday.

We managed 7 points.

I'd given up after that Sp*rs result.

Very impressive given the circumstances.

We have finish with Villa Away (19th) and Watford Home (17th)

Sheffield have LeicesterAway (4th) LOST, Everton Home (11th), Southampton Away (12th)

Sp*rs have Leicester Home (4th) and Palace Away (14th)

Wolves have Palace Home (14th) and Chelsea Away (3rd)

We have arguably the easiest run in from here. Very real chance Sheffield, Sp*rs, and Wolves lose at least 1 game.

Goal difference could be crucial - lumping Villa could be very handy. 

thanks for that breakdown. I was just trying to work it out before jumping on here. Not quite in our own hands, but we need to finish these last two teams off and hope for other fixtures to go our way. I will be cheering on the Foxes next round and Wolves v Chelsea could be a great watch on the last day

Great feeling to beat one of our bogey teams who we never beat (first win over them since 2015), and always nice to beat Liverpool. Especially in circumstances where I genuinely feared something similar to the 8-2. Don't care in the slightest that really we were battered and it was daylight robbery as we've been on the other end of plenty of those sort of games over the years, including against them even in an FA Cup Final. I found the 2nd half unbearable to watch as just felt they were going to score every time they got near the box and surely we couldn't hold on to the end. Liverpool scoring in injury time against us is usually as sure as night follows day so think I "watched" those corners in the last seconds with my head in my hands expecting the worst. Loved some of the commitment in defence and players throwing their bodies in front of the ball which doesn't always happen with us these days. That scramble early in the 2nd half springs to mind. And if we're continuing with this 3 at the back formation I've been wanting Holding and Tierney in there since they are both actual defenders. Just made so much more sense to have Tierney at LCB and Saka at LWB.

I've posted about this before but having been a keeper myself, one thing I can't stand is when the keeper has the ball and we pass it around our own box to try and play it out and end up giving a chance away. Against a team like Liverpool with their press and with the pressure our defence was under, every time we just ended up with Salah or Mane getting the ball on the edge of our box. In a game like that you hoof the ball up the fudgeing pitch to relieve some pressure and put some on their defence. And what happened when we did that? Martinez kicked one long into touch deep in their half, much like a rugby clearance and from the resulting throw in their keeper gave it to our centre forward on the edge of the box and we scored ultimately the winner. You're always much safer with the opposition having a throw in in their own third than you are giving the ball back to their centre forward in your third. 

No substitute for momentum in sport so a result like this gives us much more cause for belief going into an FA Cup semi final where we similarly look to have no chance.

Also, that Martinez save at the end is up there with Lehmann vs Solskjaer at Old Trafford.

And also interested in the justification for Alexander-Arnold's foul on Saka not even being looked at given Nketiah's went to VAR for 10 minutes before being changed from yellow to red card.

Edit: That must have felt quite familiar to Oxlade-Chamberlain too, being subbed off after 60 ineffective minutes at the Emirates.

the tackle on Saka was pretty nasty and could have really messed him up.  I know there was no intent in it, but still worth a review. I was quite surprised nothing came of it

Given what happened with Nketiah I was absolutely fuming at that TAA tackle, it had far more intent than Nketiah's. TAA knew he wasn't getting that, it was a nasty foot.

Meant to add that it feels somewhat fitting to be us who ended their chances at those few records they were still going for while handing out one last defeat to take the season another step further away from an unbeaten one. Only wish it had been us to end the unbeaten run.

10mins to go. 2 up. I can’t even. 

THIS IS ARSENAL

Get the fudge in.

BY CRIKEY

Guardiola getting knocked out today means that in the period 2000 - 2020, 16 different Managers have won the FA cup. 15 dudes once each, Wenger 6 times. 

Fudgeing amazing. Can't believe we're in the final again. Would have made a fortune being on us to win both the last 2 games. At least we have something to look forward to at the end of this nightmare season but hopefully not another Baku.

Completely agreed. If we can get Europe through EPL and take the pressure of that would be ideal.

Speaking of, here’s hope Lecister and co do us a big favour today.

anyone get any idea what time the final will be on??

Or day? I'm competely lost with most of these fixtures post restart.

Time to be advised but 1st August UK .