Bayern Munich v Arsenal. 17th April. 20:00. CL 1/4 Final 2nd Leg.

[Marc Overmars]

Team selection will be interesting. I’d have Martinelli start as I think we’ll need his pace on the transitions when Bayern inevitably have more of the ball. Should Jesus be rewarded with a start after his first leg impact? Which has probably been forgotten about now after his Villa stinker.

Either way I think we’re in for a tough night and I expect glorious failure. I think we’ll play relatively well but won’t have enough up front to get the job done, while their forwards will kill it off.

Hope I’m laughably wrong but…3-1.

[Letters]

We'll lose and lose well.

[Mac76]

I agree on Martinelli, I'd been leaning towards Trossard starting but maybe he'd be better coming on later on again - same with Jesus.

if we start with those two we've less to bring off the bench

I think your estimate of how the game will go is probably pretty accurate, I'd really like it if we could just keep it tight and if we lose it's only by the odd goal or even on pels

Of course if it does go to ET and pels that won't help when the weekend comes around

[Mac76]

anyway 3-0 K*** hatter

[HCZ_Reborn]

Beyond the point of caring to be honest

Villa was a must win and we lost. That in my view is unforgivable. No matter what the Arteta stans on Twitter say

[Letters]

Beyond the point of caring to be honest

Villa was a must win and we lost. That in my view is unforgivable. No matter what the Arteta stans on Twitter say

Unforgivable

I never understand fans who treat the club like a top restaurant who served their steak well done when they asked for medium rare.

[HCZ_Reborn]

Unforgivable

I never understand fans who treat the club like a top restaurant who served their steak well done when they asked for medium rare.

What a strange analogy

If a restaurant does your steak well done rather than medium rare you’d ask them to take it back


The fact is the league is done and it’s very unlikely we are going to win the champions league. If you think it’s odd that you’re not going to have the same level of engagement when there’s significantly less to play for, I don’t know what to tell you

Think about fans of mid table clubs, probably not going to make Europe and are under no threat of relegation. Do you think the same level of interest in results are there with rubber stamp games ?

[Letters]

What a strange analogy

If a restaurant does your steak well done rather than medium rare you’d ask them to take it back

Well sure. You're paying for a service. And in a restaurant there's no-one else trying to spoil your steak.
So if they don't get it right then particularly in a good restaurant you could say it's unacceptable.

But that isn't how football works. Football is competitive. We wanted to win on Sunday but so did Villa. And they're not some cloggers, outside the Top 3 they're the next best team. And yes, yes, City swept them aside but Spurs thumped them too. Football's like that. The overall point is Villa are a good side, it was never a nailed on win (although I was pretty confident before the game, admittedly). That's why I find it strange that people talk about things being "unacceptable" or imply they want to see the manager like some Karen in a restaurant or store.

Now saying that, if Villa had completely thumped us and we just hadn't turned up then I think that would be unacceptable, but that's not what happened. We dominated the first half, we had a few chances which on another day could have gone in and we'd be having a different conversation. That's the other thing about football, there are often very fine lines.

It's disappointing and I agree the league is done. As I noted elsewhere, we'd won 10 out of 11 - the 11th being a very creditable point at The Ethiad. Such is City's tenacity, that still didn't give us enough of a cushion that we could afford to get a single bad result. As we found last season, and Liverpool have found multiple times, City are relentless.
All that said - if we don't pick ourselves up and run to the line then I will find that unacceptable. I don't expect us to go through against Bayern, and I wouldn't regard that as a disaster, for all their domestic woes they're still a very good side who have loads of experience at this stage. But I do expect us to keep going in the league. City will win it, but let's make them win it this year. Don't just hand it to them like we did last season.