Arsenal will take on the defending champions, Manchester City in this semi-final of the FA Cup with Mikel Arteta looking to win his first trophy as a manager.
Arsenal is the most successful team in the competition, but they haven’t had much success in their recent games against City.
There is something to be happy about anyway, as the Gunners beat Liverpool in their last league game.
Arsenal hadn’t beaten Liverpool in the league under Jurgen Klopp before that game, and Arteta helped us break that sequence.
Having been on the coaching staff under Pep Guardiola before he struck out on his own late last year, Arteta will be looking to get into the head of his former boss to earn a win in this game.
Arsenal has already played Manchester City twice this season, with both games ending in 3-0 losses for us, but City will be playing a different and a more confident Arsenal team in this game, they would underrate us at their own peril.
Arteta shook things up in our last game against Liverpool to the surprise of most of us, I think he might have another trick planned for this game too.
I don’t expect City to make it easy for us, but we do stand a chance to end their run in domestic cups in this game.
Of course, they will dominate possession and the defence will have to be fully focussed and even though they have been clowns on occasions, they showed against Liverpool that they can stand up and be counted, so why not again today?
City has dominated teams before this season and still lost, Southampton and Tottenham are just two games that spring to mind. The Citizens are beatable and yes, Arsenal will need some luck today but this is neutral territory, with no fans and a cup game, so anything is possible.
Prediction: I think we will play a 2-2 draw and Arsenal then beat them on penalties.
Just one request Martin; would you still be predicting we make the final if you were not a Gooner? I think not somehow, so will disregard your fan biased prediction as a triumph of heart over head. I think we will put up a decent show but lose. That is why I am a professional punter. I never let fan bias influence me. By no sober non biased judgement could anyone predict other than a City win. Sad but that is realityand I prefer reality to false hope based only on being a Gooner.
Arsenal v Liverpool – Southampton v Man City, No further comment required.
Never let fan bias influence you Jon???
Your memory is beginning to let you down – what was the bet you made with me regarding Ozil and who won that bet???
£100 I believe was the wager and you lost!!!!!!
Anyway, it’s only the fa cup, something that wasn’t considered good enough (along with top four) when Wenger won it seven times, so let’s not get too excited – as someone said, it’s mediocre opponents in the fa cup.
Ken, Our Ozil bet had nothing to do with bias. I am talking about predicting wins when defeat is far more likely. I do not get all bets right, no one does but I am a pro bettor because I can put all fan bias aside when making result predictions. If you want a bet on tonights game you have an hour or so to strike it. I’ll take City toget through if you want to lose money on us. I don’t want us to lose ; I just believe we will. It is called dispassionate assessing of odds.
What I diskike so much with most fans of all clubs is that they seem unable to separate the likelihood of what WILL happen from what they WANT to hapen. THAT IS WHY I AM A REALIST.
With Ozil you should try realism sometimes and stop writing about what he once did many years ago and start noticing , really noticing, how little he contributes NOW. THAT would be realism but KEN, OLD CHUM, ITS BEYOND YOU.
Actually yes it is agreat day for me . Because once again I tell the truth and don’t delude myself as some do Every honest day is a good one and every self fooling day is a bad day I never self fool like you constantly do KEN. esp on Ozil and Wengers last decade.
After the result Jon, perhaps you might take a step back and stop deluding yourself with regards to our dross and mentally frail players?
The day is really turning out to be a bit of an embarresment, yet you still fall back on AW and MO to cover it.
Never mind Jon Wembley here we come once again, just like in AW’s last decade.
Martin. any one can cherry pick a minority of shocks, if their pride is hurt by reading the truth but only a realist and honest fan uses all the results and assesses the odds based on non cherry picking but on sober reality and taking ALL relevant facts into consideration. And contrary to your incorrect comment, further comment, putting you right, was required.
Man City losses this season in league 9, Arsenal losses this season in the league 9, some serious cherry-picking there.I also never knew that Southampton beating City and Arsenal beating Liverpool was incorrect, thank you for correcting me there.
Now that reply from Martin is realism Jon.
Not sure if you remember our last trophy win, when we were given no chance in either the semi or the final, with our dross, mentally frail players and no defence?
We beat both City and then Chelsea (then Chelsea again in the community shield) to become the record holders under…Arsene Wenger, the man you said you wanted back.
Not a very good day for you so far, is it Jon?
Martin, I notice you totally ignored my comment and took no notice – quelle surprise! – of the pertinent comments I made about using ALL the available evidence and not cherry picking You merely continued cherry picking with the same defeated and false argument as before. And you need not thank me for correcting you , as I do it gladly.
I answered but as usual, you ignored it. I will not bother with you again on this subject as it is a waste of my valuable time.
With this mentality I guess as a punter you have lost more!! Even against all odds their is a chance. It’s the semis of the magical FA and we are in with a shout
Going on the latest comments made by Pep about MA and the work he has been doing at Arsenal (all very positive and it sounded genuine)the last thing man City and Pep are going to do is underestimate us, that’s why it is going to be a very tough game for us,still I’m hoping for a win!COYG
Talented folarin balogun leaving arsenal soon on a free when his contact expires, remember Serge gnarbry, ishmeal benaccer, donyell mallen and Jeff Adelaide. The coach parades nketiah , willock, Nelson and saka as if they are the best talents in football, non of them are remotely close to wishere or cesc at 18 yrs. Now we are about losing a guy compared to aubameyang and Henry. We have 2 other talented youngsters in creative english midfielder Matt Smith and Trae coyle a winger. Both Haven’t been given any chance. You think nketiah and willock are good, wait until you see balogun and Smith play. Am not happy at all.
I choose saka over Wilshere anyday…but I’m with you about balogun. I hope arteta can hold on him and give him oportunities. Eddi Is not the answer to me.
Willock has a Lot of promise to me, i like him a lot
If we try to force errors in this game as well we could win or maybe lose,its 50 50 because every city player has that ball playing ability.But that shouldnt be our plan,i think we need to show atleast a bit of our quality.That liverpool game,yeah we won but the performance apart from a few players was not good.We rarely passed the halfway line when we had the ball.Counter attacking was not good either.No creativity or fluidity…
I want us to win but i want a good game too…
And obviously MA needs time and players too….😔
COYG
In reality Arsenal to lose 4-nil.
I won’t watch to spare myself some pain.
Let us forget our biases and be objective. Why should any sensible person swear that Man city will automatically win the game when we just beat Liverpool on Wednesday? Those who say we lost to Man City 3-0 under what circumstances? Were we even on the pitch? What happened to Mari in that encounter? How did Luiz perform? Let us never always jump to denigrate our team. It is unacceptable to do that. Let us be optimistic because our team has the capacity to beat Man city. They are not invincibles!
It’s the customary 3-0 drubbing. No point giving ourselves false hope. I have a good movie to watch anyway.
The matchplay darts is on!! 🙂
You are funny QD. let us be optimistic. I feel if we invest heavily on the midfield, we can close the gap to Liverpool and Money City.. For instance, Bringing in Isco, Thomas Partey and Nabil Fekir in the summer. Those 3 players will improve us tremendously
Yeah i agree fat head kola or brainless luiz mistake to give man city lead 3-0
Man City are better than us in every position with the possible exception of Auba. They are also in great form. I predict a reasonably comfortable win for them, but then again I thought Liverpool would win comfortably too. As always we have a sporting chance.
As nobody gives us a hope I’m going for an Arsenal win.. just to be different
C’mon Arsenal
I am with you SueP, one of the deluded ones apparently
Excues me, but I am the Deluded one. Good game tonight and I am real proud of the team. They are now showing up and giving their all!
You are indeed correct, my apologies Mr deluded one.
Martin I am so glad to be wrong on the result. HUGE CONGRATS ON BEING A BETTER JUDGE THAN ME. Perhaps now even Mogunna will cease calling MA a novice coach and perhaps now MA will be universally respected and admired by ALL Gooners as he thoroughly deserves to be.
Very noble of you Jon for accepting your mistake and apologising. Let us now move in unison and support our team.
Didn’t expect it either. I will watch his predictions carefully going forward just to see if he has that insight or it was just luck.