One of the big stories in the Premier League today was probably received pretty well by a lot of Arsenal fans, because with Manchester United coming to play us at the Emirates stadium at the weekend, a three match ban for their main striker and top scorer Romelu Lukaku would on the face of it weaken United and increase the chances of an Arsenal win.
I thought the ban looked to be a sure thing after seeing the incident which clearly shows the Belgian international forward lashing out at the Brighton defender Gaetan Bong just before Ashley Ypung´s very fortunate deflected winner. Sky Sports, however, are reporting that the three man panel could not agree although we have no official word from the EPL on that decision.
To be honest, I was already thinking that Lukaku missing the game against the Gunners might not be a good thing and the reason for that is the fact it would probably mean Jose Mourinho was even more likely to roll up to north London with a big red bus.
Arsenal need to win to close the gap on the teams above us and a Mourinho bus parking job would not help, whereas with Lukaku he may well make it a more open game as they need a win themselves with Man City having a sizable gap that will probably get bigger if United drop points,
So although it would be a bit of a travesty and a big let off for United if Lukaku receives no punishment, it may actually be good news for Arsenal.
Bob.
Dunno about that. I think Lukaku would be a massive danger. Having said that, Zlatan also has the ability and physical presence to cause our defence major problems.
It should be an interesting game. I hope we can continue our recent good form and get a win.
If the ref did not see it ok but the video show it and three man panel didnt see it no punishment given I speak of lukaku it sends a wrong message of the game pushing the ref away that is a red card they got away with it
Even with Lukaku, Utd have been parking the bus against top teams, especially away from home, so it doesn’t really matter from a tactics perspective.
We should worry about ourselves, “f” Lukaku.
We should focus on regaining the form we spanked spuds with.
If we can find that form, who cares if Lukaku plays. We grabbed game by the throat against spuds, and squeezed. Need to do same against utd; that should be emphasis, not Lukaku playing or not.
Jose is Jose. If he decides to bring a coach to the emirates he will. But I’m sure that he will realize that he needs to get points as well to close the gap plus gain momentum ahead of next weekend’s show down at old trafford. So I think he will park it but not for the whole 90 min and if we capitalize on that and keep defendind as we did against spuds,we will win.
so united play anti-football and park the bus; are they not essentially the same thing? with or without lukaku arsenal should play gun’s all blazing