Match reaction: Fulham

[Bumble]

Meh

[Letters]

:gp:

[Letters]

I mean, it wasn't a good performance. So I'm not going to completely let them off the hook. But this is bullshit:

https://i.ibb.co/G02SstT/VAR.jpg

VAR should be there to fix glaring errors, not to look at stuff like this where you have to zoom in and see if there's a single pixel offside.

[Marc Overmars]

I guess the league doesn’t matter anymore but the worrying thing is that it hasn’t seemed to have mattered all season. Absolute shit and if we don’t win the EL this season has been a pathetic waste of time.

[Mac76]

I mean, it wasn't a good performance. So I'm not going to completely let them off the hook. But this is bullshit:

https://i.ibb.co/G02SstT/VAR.jpg

VAR should be there to fix glaring errors, not to look at stuff like this where you have to zoom in and see if there's a single pixel offside.

So it's basically Saka's fault for having that bloody pink thing on the end of his boot - these footballers, whatever next... :rolleyes:

[dazthegooner]

So that's what's needed retractable toes :blink:

[Letters]

I guess the league doesn’t matter anymore but the worrying thing is that it hasn’t seemed to have mattered all season. Absolute shit and if we don’t win the EL this season has been a pathetic waste of time.

One could argue that it doesn't really matter if we finish 9th, 10th or 11th (all of which are equally pathetic).
It's very Arsenaly though to have the chance to go 2 points behind Spurs and bollox it up.
Finishing above Spurs is a pathetic bench mark but unless we win the EL (spoiler: we won't), it's all we have.
VAR did shaft us in the first half but we still should have had enough. We only really turned it on in the last 15 minutes.
Got our reward in the end but had we come out of the blocks like that in the second half we'd probably have won.

[Mac76]

Parker having a good cry on MOTD

:haha:

[LDG]

I mean, it wasn't a good performance. So I'm not going to completely let them off the hook. But this is bullshit:

https://i.ibb.co/G02SstT/VAR.jpg

VAR should be there to fix glaring errors, not to look at stuff like this where you have to zoom in and see if there's a single pixel offside.

Offside was to stop players getting an advantage. Where in the fuck was there any advantage in that?

Secondly, clear and obvious appears to have gone out the window. Absolute bullshit.

[IBK]

I feel a bit pissed off about this match and the result. Mostly because of the manager's decisions. What does this team need more than anything else? - Consistency and momentum. It's no use putting in a couple of great performances only to revert to what seems like type in the following match.

I get that you have to try to manage your players' fitness, but what Arteta did today was to make a couple of key changes that disrupted us quite badly. Ceballos has had a couple of good games with Partey anchoring MF. Him with Elneny in MF was a wild hope rather than common sense IMO. Partey has missed a huge chunk of the season, and should have started, with Elneny coming on if we got in front. If not, then have Xhaka sitting deeper in MF - at least there would have been some forward passing ability against a team that was always going to sit deep - If he had to change things, Cedric could have played RB against a fairly anodyne Fulham attack. But making 4 changes to the back 5 against Slavia was unnecessary - particularly messing with a very solid looking CB partnership of Mari and Holding.

And if he was trying to preserve key players - and in doing so demonstrate that the league is low priority, why the fuck play Lacazette - one of our oldest players who has a history of running out of gas in games. Hindsight maybe, but if you are going to take the view that the league doesn't really matter why not try any of Martinelli; Nketiah or even Balogun up front instead, with Pepe on the left (where he has excelled); Saka on the right and ESR at No.10? His decision to play Laca has obviously blown up in his face.

IMO the manager was guilty either of totally underestimating a team playing for EPL survival; overestimating the abilities of his chosen MF players or chucking the league and putting all his eggs in one basket. I know that the Europa League is needed to save our season, and qualifying for Europe via the league was a very slim outside change, but IMO the last thing this team needs is to be shown that the league no longer matters - it needs to be kept on its toes. The result? - deflation of another changce to build momentum and feel good factor; increasing the already building Europe pressure and a possibly season totalling injury. F*ck the point - it was of no use to us.