It’s cliche to say the most important match is the next match but it happens to be true in this case. My gripes about the injuries goes away if we win on Sunday and then have two additional weeks to recover.
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We both hold different opinions on this one I’m afraid. I still think that squad was good enough to fight on both fronts. Having something to fall back on if we don’t win this PL as I said no one remembers if you came 2nd place, it’s all about trophies and if walk out without any silverware you can’t celebrate CL and 2nd place like they are trophies.
Just my opinion.
It has, but that kind of proves the point Im making. The very fact that we were involved in this competition makes our Premiership fixtures harder, and if we had progressed further and picked up more injuries, played more 120 minute matches during our run in, it would’ve have made even more of our league fixtures harder moving forward. I never want us to lose but I’d much rather we go all in for the league than get strained further by this competition. In an ideal world we win both, but that’s a lot to ask for with a thin squad.
Yeah, we weren’t winning this one. I’ve seen better football and belief from Roma in this competition and they’re fucking awful.
Put us against a Juve or Man Utd next and they’re knocking us out. Even other sides like Roma, Sevilla, Feyenoord and Leverkusen could do us because they simply want it more and it’s perhaps the only thing to fight left.
We can shit on our backup players for some of the awful performances in this competition but even some of our starters haven’t looked up for this either. Has Saka had a good game in this yet? Hin and White looked proper gassed last week and had Arteta fuming for not tracking, and it actually took them a while to do so.
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Only because we played 120 minutes. If this is a drab 0-1 or 1-2, it’s nbd.
I disagree because it’ll be the psychological angle that we have to fight not to take into the Palace game.
Feel literally zero disappointment with this result.
The lack of intensity and focus in both legs gives me the impression that the players hearts weren’t truly in this.
11 games left of this season for us now. No Thursday / Sunday bullshit either.
We couldn’t ask for a better opponent to bounce back against on Sunday either.
This opportunity to win the league might not come around again for a very long time. No distractions now. Let’s see this fucker through.
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Regardless of what happens, this will be a successful season because at the beginning we would’ve all wanted to see progression and at least a CL place at the end of it. That’s all but certain to happen now, and in addition to that we now find ourselves firmly in control of our destiny in the league with nothing else to distract us.
Like I said I never want us to lose, but I won’t pretend that I wasn’t dreading us going deep into this, tiring ourselves out further and possibly losing key players that affect our chances to get over the line in the league. I just think it’s the pragmatic way to look at it when we still have such a massive opportunity now to win it. This team is clearly laser focused on the league and I think if we don’t get over the line, we’re going to be damn close. It would suck not to end up with a trophy, but we’ve got a better chance of ending up with the biggest one we can win this season now.
Can I admit I tried to force up some nerves for the penalty shootout lol. I couldn’t do it tho
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I’m not gonna lie, I was really keen on us winning this. The lack of European success we have is something that doesn’t sit well with me and I think it has really kept us back on how the club is viewed.
Can boast our domestic glory all we want but all someone has to do is ask us to show our European glory and we look like mugs.
Weirdly, I kinda felt relieved after the penalties. Got out on penalties, saved us the toll and potential embarrassment of getting knocked out by cunts we hate like Juve and Man Utd.
Our schedule has been cleared up, we know what’s left. Palace win and a much needed break for the lads who’ll stay back.
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I mean if it’s a standard loss (whatever that looks like to you) I don’t think it’s hard to compartmentalize it. We’ve seen this iteration of the team go on runs this season and last season of good form.
The issue for me is more a physical fatigue that leads to mental fatigue. If you’re gassed at 65 minutes are you going to just dangle a leg out in the box? Are you making the right recovery run at the right angle?
Also, not for nothing but it looked like Zinchenko was feeling his hamstring in extra time too. 
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Yes it is 2nd fiddle to the league but it sucks to be out, disappointing to see us continue to flounder at building European pedigree.
Winning at Palace would be restoring balance but we shouldn’t be losing to Sporting over two legs.
Finally back home after a nightmare journey back from the Emirates tonight. Gutted and frustrated to be out of the EL. We didn’t play well over 90mins, but saying that I did still think we would progress this evening. Overall, Sporting played well, and we didn’t and although we had the better chances, we didn’t take them. Can’t have too many complaints when all is said and done.
I don’t get some of the negativity about the starting line up and Arteta. The team picked this evening should have been good enough to win the match. Yes we should have done better in Europe over the last 30 years, but we all need a reality check and realise that we are still a team in transition. The aim at the start of the season was to get back into the top 4. We look on course to do that and we could win the league which would be an unbelievable achievement.
I’ve heard some Arsenal fans saying that if we don’t go on to win the PL, the season would be a failure. Utter rubbish IMO. The fact we are even in the title race this season is amazing and we all need to enjoy the ride. We have 11 games, all Cup Finals, and we need to get behind the team.
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League cup 3rd round
FA cup 4th round
Europa League Rd 16
EPL season so far been absolutely amazing, really hope we go on to win it as I feel we deserve some reward for the way we’ve played this season.
Shame about the non EPL form though as it has been really poor. Trossard really should have buried that gift early in ET.
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Not too fussed about going out, but the manner in which it happened is very disappointing.
Onto the Premier League it is then.
Very disappointed tbh .
This isn’t going to do the confidence no good what so ever. A long evening of an under performing team,
Arteta is to blame solely for this . He underestimated Sporting in the first leg and now he is paying the price.
Are we ready for the Champions League ?
No way !
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That season, Man City crashed out of the Europa League but won the PL after years in the wilderness.
Omens?
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Let’s hope so Hills
We just can’t crack European games .
Disappointing here , very disappointed
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It’s more about the 50 yard goal he conceded for playing games off his line.
I don’t really care tbh. A European trophy would be nice, even though the EL is second or even third fiddle to the CL. If this makes us better prepared and more focused on winning the PL, then it’s all good. I want that trophy above any other.
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