Arsenal v Brighton. 14/05/23. 16:30

[Marc Overmars]

Zinchenko ruled out for the remainder of the season. Saliba too but we already suspected that.

Tricky one. Games at the Emirates this year have often been ping pong games and a team like Brighton are capable of exploiting that.

Let’s get to 90 points and hope for the best.

3-1.

[HCZ_Reborn]

Saliba and Zinchenko have been ruled out for the rest of the season

Zinchenko wasn’t even a tactical substitution he was taken off on Sunday due to injury

Arteta is off his rocker

[Mac76]

Saliba and Zinchenko have been ruled out for the rest of the season

Zinchenko wasn’t even a tactical substitution he was taken off on Sunday due to injury

Arteta is off his rocker

It was obvious Saliba was kaput weeks ago

As for Zinchenko :patrice:

And as for Arteta, yes agreed

[Mac76]

Anyway, 0-3 Welbz hatter

[HCZ_Reborn]

What has often been the story under Arteta not just this season but since he joined is that he will run one first XI into the ground and then he will reach the end of his cul de sac and change things up and we will get results again. How long this uptick last usually depends on who we are playing. The last time we played Brighton at home was the last time I went to the Emirates and it was apparent to me we were woefully unprepared in the team we put out (we played Smith Rowe and Lokonga in central midfield and Xhaka at left back). In the all or nothing documentary, he gave a querulous pre match team talk about Edison and handed out light bulbs (Edison was a thief who stole Tesla’s discovery) and then screamed at them because it was beyond him to think that two players deeply uncomfortable on the ball in such an area might struggle (actually felt sorry for Lokonga as he was trying his best…actually coming forward on the ball and trying to win the foul)
But Captain Black couldn’t see that it was his own fault that we lost that game instead balling out the players for not being able to do what it was abundantly clear they were incapable of doing.
This was the game that crystallised my belief at the time that Arteta should have been sacked at the end of last season. I did not see us finishing top four this season let alone the sustained title challenge we’ve managed. I’m still yet to be convinced that the players aren’t performing inspite of Arteta who still comes across to me as unlikeable, no where near as smart as he thinks he is, stubborn, uncharismatic and slow to change.

If my boss, told me to do something that I knew wouldn’t work and then laid into me after predictably it didn’t, I’d tell him to fuck off. Making mistakes is human, making mistakes and blaming others for it is what you do if you’re a cunt.

He was also blaming us the fans for not making enough noise….passive aggressive prick

Anyway I do think we should be able to put a side out that will help us win. Brighton have been a bit all over the place since the semi final of the fa cup in terms of consistency. Beat the living daylights out of Wolves and got revenge against United at home, but lost to Forest got pasted by Everton and have a few injuries to contend with (both Webster and March are out)

I can see Mitoma giving White a bit of a hard time and we need to watch Caicedo and Enciso. But I think we should be able to beat them even though it won’t be an easy game.

2-1 I reckon

[Mac76]

Ram
White
Kiwior
Gabriel
Tierney
Jorg
Odegaard
Xhaka
Nelson
Trossard
Martinelli

[HCZ_Reborn]

Ram
White
Kiwior
Gabriel
Tierney
Jorg
Odegaard
Xhaka
Nelson
Trossard
Martinelli


Ramsdale, Tierney, Gabriel, Kiwior, White, Jorginho, Partey (I know Xhaka has played ok the last two games but just can’t pick him) Odegaard, Martinelli, Jesus, Nelson/Trossard

[Mac76]

1Ramsdale
4White
15Kiwior
6Gabriel
3Tierney
8Ødegaard
20Jorginho
34Xhaka
7Saka
9Gabriel Jesus
11Martinelli

Substitutes

5Partey
10Smith Rowe
14Nketiah
16Holding
19Trossard
21Fábio Vieira
24Nelson
30Turner
97Walters

Predictably, hoping he'd start either Nelson or Trossard was completely pointleas

[HCZ_Reborn]

Pretty much as expected

[Marc Overmars]

Martinelli wipes out Mitoma. Lucky to escape a booking.

Love that he’s a nasty little fucker.

[Marc Overmars]

Why didn’t Odegaard shoot. :doh:

[Marc Overmars]

Now Caicedo escapes a booking for wiping out Martinelli.

This ref. :lol:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

That was brutal from Martinelli, could've been a red.

Caicedo got away with nothing also.

:lol:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Good save from Ramsdale.

[HCZ_Reborn]

Now Caicedo escapes a booking for wiping out Martinelli.

This ref. :lol:

Good refereeing in my opinion. Yes arguably should have been a yellow for both but you want to let the game flow

[Marc Overmars]

Martinelli can’t carry on.

Trossard on.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Odegaard shot, not far off. Forgot to post this.

Martinelli off injured, Trossard on.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

That was shocking from Tierney.

[HCZ_Reborn]

Martinelli can’t carry on.

Trossard on.

Can’t feel too aggrieved after he wiped out Mitoma

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Trossard needed to place it not smash it.

[Marc Overmars]

Trossard shot deflects onto the bar

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Enciso can't do anything with it.

[Marc Overmars]

Don’t think we’ve done enough when we’ve won the ball back in dangerous areas.

[HCZ_Reborn]

I think we’ve given them too much control of the ball, and would bring on Partey to change that second half

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Saka puts it wide.

[Marc Overmars]

Odegaard drags it wide. Should hit the target from there at least.

[Marc Overmars]

HT 0-0

Openings are there but not enough quality shown yet

[McNamara That Ghost...]

0-0 HT.

[HCZ_Reborn]

1-0 Brighton Enciso

[Marc Overmars]

Us. :rose:

[HCZ_Reborn]

Not been enough protective cover to help White against Mitoma

[HCZ_Reborn]

Ok I’ve changed my mind about the referee, gone from letting the game flow to letting Brighton get away with murder. How has Caicedo not been booked?

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Xhaka and Jorginho off for Partey and Nelson.

Gilmour off, Welbeck on.

[HCZ_Reborn]

Xhaka and Jorginho off for Partey and Nelson.

Gilmour off, Welbeck on.

Assuming Nelson will play wide left and Trossard will play in the Xhaka role

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Just wide from Nelson.

[Marc Overmars]

Far too easy for visitors to play football at the Emirates.

Something that needs to change next season.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Odegaard and Jesus off for Smith Rowe and Nketiah.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

0-2 Undav. WTF.

[HCZ_Reborn]

2-0 Undav. You could tell nothing was going to go right for us today after that useless c**t scored

[HCZ_Reborn]

0-2 Undav. WTF.

It’s been coming. We have been awful second half. You can blame the referee to a degree who has allowed outrageous fouling to go unpunished. But we’ve lacked balls today. Yeah why are we persisting with Saka but can’t blame Arteta too much for the set up and substitutions. Players just been poor

[HCZ_Reborn]

We should be ashamed of ourselves. As I said City have been relentless but this is unacceptable….no one should be allowed to play us off the park like this and I’m beginning to think Arteta needs to be moved on if this is what we have to look forward to under him

[McNamara That Ghost...]

0-3 Estupinian. Holy hell.

[HCZ_Reborn]

3-0 Brighton. Fuck off Arteta. Autistic cunt. This is an absolute embarrassment.

[Mac76]

Miserable performance, just for once I left before the end after they got their 3rd.

I mean wtf Araenal, you just didn't turn up ffs

[Letters]

3-0 Brighton. Fuck off Arteta. Autistic cunt. This is an absolute embarrassment.

:lol:

Holy shit go and have a lie down

[HCZ_Reborn]

Miserable performance, just for once I left before the end after they got their 3rd.

I mean wtf Araenal, you just didn't turn up ffs

I was at this fixture last year when Mwepu made it 2-0 and I fucked off. Last season we had the excuse of the horrible team Arteta put out. This year we had no excuse, we had less control of the game second half than we did against City.

Doubtless I will calm down, but at the moment if one game could be a sackable offence this is it. I would honestly hope there are punch ups in the dressing room because someone has to show some passion

[HCZ_Reborn]

:lol:

Holy shit go and have a lie down

This is the angriest I’ve been since losing to Everton at Goodison park in February. Could be that the common denominator is that both were on weekends where I’ve been working. The joke is I’m seeing the reaction video you posted of Spurs fans and I think one is mentally ill. I don’t scream and shout for real when we lose, I just become visceral on places like this.

[Letters]

I’m a bit pissed off tbh, but I think the Everton result probably got in their heads. We needed City to slip today and they just don’t do that at the business end of the season. I think we all knew it had gone, I suspect the players knew it too. Doesn’t make it good enough, they should be professional and do their job, make City do theirs. Wouldn’t have made any real difference though which mitigates my irritation

[Mac76]

I’m a bit pissed off tbh, but I think the Everton result probably got in their heads. We needed City to slip today and they just don’t do that at the business end of the season. I think we all knew it had gone, I suspect the players knew it too. Doesn’t make it good enough, they should be professional and do their job, make City do theirs. Wouldn’t have made any real difference though which mitigates my irritation

Yes, we were talking about that in the pub afterwards and I do think the Neverton result had an effect, but as you say, not good enough