That’s because they’re playing against shit teams most weeks. As soon as they come up against decent opposition, they fail to win. Rangers and Leicester both got draws there recently as well.
I keep seeing people trying to paint their stadium like it’s a bloody cauldron.
It’s just Slavia Prague, lads. I know we fucked it up last week, but we should be beating them with our u21s let alone first team. We’ll be fine, you’ll all see.
If we ain’t, can I sue you for copyright?
They looked proper shite here btw. We played so poorly yet we created 4-5 clear cut chances.
We even gave them enough space to do something themselves and they didn’t know what to do with the ball.
Even their goal was a proper Arsenal fuck-up.
If we fail to qualify today is will be down to us being clowns.
Exactly I saw no difference between them and Sheffield United who also have no idea what they’re doing.
We should win this, but this team is capable of new lows at any moment, I have no idea which Arsenal will show up.
In some ways the fact that we have to score will probably help us, because if we had the lead going into this Arteta’s inherent conservatism would have kicked in and we wouldn’t have started playing unless we went behind. We should really just be going for two to kill them off, but it’s easier said than done.
Smith Rowe and Odegaard might be out in the most important game of our season
Isn’t Smith-Rowe back?
Said he was being assessed yesterday
That was Auba and Ode.
Saka and Smith-Rowe are good to go. Not sure if they’re 100% but Arteta is gonna risk them both at this stage.
Reckon they both start.
You mentioned ESR btw. Does he start?
I think the team that beat Sheffield logically starts here as well.
Maybe keep Martinelli or Pepe on the bench to make an impact sub?
Losing Ode and Tierney has a big impact on the ceiling that this team can hit from a chance creation perspective - our chance stats and final third displays show the disparity when they’re absent. Whole results have hinged on the attitude and contributions of these two.
So I expect it to be a slog at stages where we don’t test the keeper as much as we should - but there is a enough talent here to pull Slavia’s backline apart and the likes of Laca, Pepe, Saka and Martinelli will have to be the difference makers. The rest of the team can be an assortment of the rest but we’re going nowhere if all 4 stink it up.
They need to be sharp but Saka has allowance to be jaded.
When ESR or Martinelli are involved, they press and move in a way that is infectious and this spreads to the whole team, and the seniors for some reason, often raise their game in that respect when they are around. So would be great to see them both on the pitch.
Él empieza!
We should win this and if we can score early, I think we’ll win quite comfortably.
Arteta might have learned from the first game so if it was a bit of complacency, rather than them being better than us, we’ll be more convincing because having a Championship level side beat us over two legs would be unacceptable.
I’ll go 3-1 to us with Lacazette, Martinelli and Saka to score.
Cringe
ESR will start, I think. One of Pepe or Martinelli to miss, and Saka back out on the RW.
The other question is Cedric at LB like the first leg or Xhaka LB/LCB and Ceballos in midfield?
What would be interesting is ESR replacing Dani’s role from Sheffield and having all 5 of Saka, ESR, Laca, Martinelli, Pepe on the pitch. Don’t think it’ll happen from the start though.
I was thinking about that too.
Just saw arseblog confirm no Odegaard or Auba tonight
If we do go through, it will be excruciating viewing, won’t it?
