This biggest North London derby in decades is almost upon us and this is the team that Mikel Arteta has announced.
๐ด ๐ง๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ โช๏ธ
Unchanged from last time out.
Time to give our all, Gunners โ pic.twitter.com/8nUbOKdjYk
โ Arsenal (@Arsenal) April 28, 2024
We all know what is at stake at the Tottenham Stadium this afternoon. Arsenal must win; it is as simple as that. Anything less, and the Gunnersโ title hopes would suffer a massive blow, probably a terminal one.
Tottenham also has something to play for. Considering their upcoming games, they cannot afford to lose and ideally would want all three points if they want to qualify for next seasonโs Champions League.
The crowd will no doubt be very partisan, and that is something our players must be prepared for. The best way to quiet them down is to get an early goal, or at the very least, keep Spurs at bay for a significant period.
Arsenal is the better side, and all things being equal, would win. But derbies are tricky affairs, and as Everton vs. Liverpool showed earlier in the week, form and better players are not always enough.
That said, I would be very surprised if we did not leave N17 with all three points.
Come on you gunners.
Let’s do this boys.
COYG!!!
i think the right selection
i expect a bit more conservative approach away from home against a good opponent – like against Liverpool and Man C
Arsenal to be more about control than possession
feel confident we can do it
That’s about as good as it gets from fit & available players. And no surprises on the bench either.
ATA.
That lineup looks good enough to win. We need to play like we did against Chelsea
Very excited. I will be off to the pub in an hour’s time to watch
COYG!!!
Subs: Ramsdale, Jesus, Smith Rowe, Martinelli, Nketiah, Kiwior, Jorginho, Vieira, Zinchenko.
(not everyone has a Twitter account)
Pretty good line up
But I am nervous
I hope we win today
Win today, and we might actually do it. COYG!
I think the most toughest game so far this season because it’s too late in the season
Win today and we can challenge all the way
“Doing-it” belongs to Man City
Happy and confident
Same outfit, seems the game against the Blues was a dress rehearsal.
Martineli is the Trump card, expect this one to lit up like the 4th of July
I do hope we beat Tottenham
But hope Tottenham can somehow beat Man City when they face-off
Does that sound delusional ?
COYG !
Sound line up. Time to do the business LadzโฆCOYG
Pretty good line up
But I am nervous
I hope we win today
Come on Arsenal!!!
In these types of games you need characters like Viera, Xhaka
Roy Keane
I think Rice needs to sit deep alongside Partey otherwise Partey may get outnumbered in midfield
Already he has been robbed once
Tottenham has started pretty strongly
We are not able to keep possession
I hope we make our set pieces count today. Vicario struggles with set pieces. COYG.
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White has done pretty good job this season to block the Goal Keepers to command the box
Sloppy stuff unnecessarily putting pressure on the defence
Trossard is loosing too many balls
We have to hold onto this lead now – too sloppy atm
We need another one before HT
Tottenham coming close now
We are giving the ball away far too muchโฆ and now a goal against unless itโs offside ๐ค
It was coming
Tottenham was coming too close
We’re looking nervous. Giving the possession away far too easily. The goal was coming..
Very lucky. We have got to stop giving the ball away
We need to start playing and stop panicking.
We need Georgie on. Take Partey off. Great goal though from Saka.
Spuds always do this come back strong after a goal. We have dominate and pit them away..
Wow โฆ it looked dicey beforehand but cross field pass to Saka was a beauty- as was the finish.
Let’s freaking go
Why haven’t both spuds got a yellow card for diving?
I am liking the way we are not celebrating goals
We are taking that time to focus
I don’t wish to be negative but I’m thinking we will need 3 to win this
Totally agree at this point.
You got your wish and probably you will get a cherry on top.
I think Trossard needs to be replaced in the 2nd half by either Jesus or Martinelli
So far Trossard is very poor
Yes those lost balls are dangerous(he did recover n win one back) and while a top player doesn’t have the pace to profit from spurs high line.
We need as many we can score
One more goal and take the wind out of it
Awesome start
More goals please
I’m a bit greedy today lol
Are you greedy or you are not confident that 2-0 is enough to see it through?? ๐คฃ๐คฃ
With our great defence, I’m sure we won’t screw it up. I guess I enjoyed the 5 goals against Chelsea so much that i want to see more lol
Gooooooooal
Today I have realised we pretty strong height and physic for these set pieces
Havertz
Gabriel
Tomiyasu
White
Partey
Saliba
Another set piece goal. Let’s go.
We are set piece master
We scored 21 goals by set pieces
Thatโs incredible
We are set piece master
We scored 21 goals by set pieces
That’s incredible
Lets have 5-0 make up goal difference against Spud high line
Just the job Kai, just the job!
Iโm in a pub in Ludlow with a few downhearted spuds sitting behind me.
That said, weโve had some passing thatโs been dead average
@Sue P
Watch your back Sueโฆ๐
Theyโve gone very quiet NYG
What an amazing assist taking out the entire midfield by the big German
Dominant performance and spurs dnt look like they can get pass our defence. Only need to keep it cool and hit them in counters.
Not completely. If not for a slim offside and a goal post is might be a different game. We’ve looked nervous and given the ball away to easily at times. I will say though, we’ve got stronger as the half went on.
A bold fan predicted the six goal could be scored in an empty stadium
We are really playing like champions
I’m enjoying this so much. I’m still on my first gin and tonic. If we were not doing well, I’d be on my 3rd lol
There are mostly Forest fans at my pub. I live in Nottingham. Their waiting for the City match.
Well, I hope Forest do us a good turn today, Stephanie
Sorry “they’re waiting…”, not their
It doesnโt feel like a 3-0 lead at all but Iโm not complaining
Its because we are doing what’s been done to us soo many times before especially by spurs. Playing smart, leaving possession to them but nullifying them and being clinical. 29% possesion 4 shots 3 goals.
Ooh Odegaard- not one of your best
Oops. Ackshay I meant that as a stand alone comment
Lady luck smiled upon us in set-pieces and Saka’s finish was beautiful
Arsenal didn’t dare to play from the back because of Spuds’ high-press. Trossard tried to make high-risk moves and passes, but he got caught twice
Arteta’s decision to play very safely was correct in the first half
Today I have realised we pretty strong height and physic for these set pieces
Havertz
Gabriel
Tomiyasu
White
Partey
Saliba
It’s like the Invincibles era with Henry, Vieira, Pires, Toure, Campbell and Silva in set-pieces
70-30 possession but were leading 0-3.. not complaining, they can take the ball home.
Lets keep our cool and hit them on the counter, they have to attack like hell now. Keep it composed boys, they will start fouling us.
Yep – spuds are always dirty!
We have a cheat code on set pieces benny blanco is such a menace.
Spud high line and weak defence mean we should take advantage in the second half.
Wow,what a performance by Havertz,both offensively and defensively! Defensive headers,winning aerial duels upfront,linking play,superb assist and a goal.Immense.
Man City will probably wipe this Spurs team also
I said it during the Chelsea game that if the Spuds come at us with their tactless all-attack they might suffer a similar fate to Chelsea
But their defending is even worse than I knew
I loved that Kai’s long pass to assist Saka’s goal
When we are trashing Chelsea, Spurs and Man Utd next, the fact that they are bad teams should not get in the way of the fact that we are a very good team. The latter is more the reason.
We are as good as City and getting better.
…60 million down the drain, Kai Havertz scores again…
Good start Ladz. Now, letโs finish it off rightโฆCOYG
Spuds playing dirty – we have to cut out giving the ball away sloppily in our own half
Such a howler
My word
Why Raya, why?
What was Raya doing?????
I’ve said it many times. We need a world class keeper!
Too sloppy – we have to wake up. Exactly what we didn’t want given away so sloppily.
OMG! Spurs 0-3 Arsenal, with over 20 minutes of football still to be played. I guess I was wrong & we are having another Christmas in April after all.
Hope it’s not too early to start celebrating though.
Sh!te… spoke too soon.
Raya worse than ospina and that a hard act to follow
Donโt be surprised with Raya. He is extremely fortunate to have the best defense in the league in front of him. Were it otherwise he would have been a disaster.
That my friend, is so true..
A lot of truth in that in todayโs performance HH
Bad mistake by Raya.
However, I disagree with the suggestion that suggestion that he is anything like a โdisasterโ.
Itโs why I said he would have been. It seems we are downgrading on goalkeepers every season. You might be underestimating our defense which is currently the best and one of the best in recent memory.
There is life back into the derby
It’s mistakes like that can change a game. There goes the clean sheet..
What manager would sign raya given the chance to send him back to Brentford and thanks but no thanks arteta would,๐ค๐ค
This game doesn’t need anymore goals, it’s not good for the predictor table
The game has changed for the worst since Raya made the Howler. Spuds are on the up.
Johnson is giving torrid time to Tomiyasu at the moment
Johnson is eating him alive
Not really though
What would Spurs fans say of Ben Davis then
Raya said nah nah no peaceful evening for fans.
Ffs
Here we go..
Mistakes could cost is this game..
It’s Penalty
Clear Penalty
We have created howler here
Now it’s gonna be an edgy game because the howler from Raya
Ffs we really hit the self destruction button.
Raya started all this mess.
Iโm decidedly anxious about this game. Itโs not been a great game or performance by Arsenal and we could well be in trouble if this carries on and now a penalty
Itโs been bitty and niggly and now Spurs are very much in a game and that should not have been allowed to happen
Tense climax to a game that was seemingly under control
How is that not a red but an awful 2nd half
Don’t bottle this plzzzzzxx
6 added minutes ๐
Come on boys we are still winning we just have to hold on for the remaining minutes.
@SueP I imagine the guys behind you have become noisy ๐
Very!
But like all spuds in a pub, they ended up as chips in a basket.
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Brilliant
Thr Gunners will hit back to hit Spurs with a derby match killer goal or goals. 1-4 or 1-5 before the end of the match. And as result compensate for the Raya’s howler,
Phew
Yesssssssssss
My nerves have been completely shredded by that game
I donโt think they will score. Probably we will.
I have no nails left, SueP.
I have never seen a player going into the corner to waste time hold longer than few seconds. Why do they keep doing it?
In my opinion keeping possession by passing around is more effective.
Opponents could snatch the ball and get a counter-attack
It just feels good to win at spuds.
Happy saint totteringhams day fellow gooners.
Why do we have to be the architects of tension, every time?????? We should’ve put them to bed comfortably in the second half. Far too many mistakes, e it seems when Odergaard is off, which he was today, the whole team is off.
Whoooo!! Now knees can stop shaking! How are people with blood pressure cope with football?
Had me sweating bulletsโฆGood one lads for pulling it off though.๐๐พ
Still shaking. Insane.
That’s how you do it at enemy’s territory. Let’s go!
Feels funny as I say this:
“Kai was my Man Of The Match”
Odegaard wasn’t in this at-all
He seemed to be managing himself and lost the ball at any slight instant
How has Martinelli become so bad
I don’t think Odegaard has had a rest since the start of the season?
People talk about other players needing a rest, but never him. Maybe he’s getting tired which would be a shame with 3 to play.
I’m not going to argue with the three points, it’s all that mattered, but, but isn’t Harvetz poor? So many of our attacking moves broke down because he was either too slow or didn’t have the skills to continue a move. Also I hate the idea of taking off a play maker and just putting on a body such as Kiwior and gambling by simply trying to hang on. It was a roll of the dice which worked this time. However wouldn’t Jorghino have been a better option? Still who cares, we won, thankfully.
what are you on about! kai and saka did alright! defensively and in attack as well. our midfield could not hold the ball. Odegard struggled in this match. but it all fine. we won!
I was screaming for Odegaard to be substituted since like 60 minutes
He was playing with the body-language of “Arteta Remove Me” but Arteta didn’t
Odegaard wasn’t in this game at-all
I kept wondering why Arteta didn’t bring Jorginho for him since since since
And who would you have put on to replace Odegaard? Jorghino is good at slowing to down the play but can’t make anything happen creatively. Viera would just disappear and ESR seems to be a persona non grata in Arteta’s eyes. I thought Partey and Rice were out muscled for the 50/50 balls. Whatever you guys see, I think we need someone who can bring a higher level of ball playing quality and footballing skills than Harvetz. He is our weak link in our forward line. Can he shoot, can he dribble, can he split a defensive line with a killer pass, ? Yes, from time to time but not consistently enough.
I suppose spuds were gifted both of their goals. We weren’t.
Which I guess shows we were tired. Hopefully a full weeks rest will restore the boys, Odergaard especially.
Wolves, Chelski and the Spuds, all in one week, thats not easy.
Three great points – for starters that was all that mattered!!!
Three nil up and cruising-that’s how far we’ve come this season versus last.
A wonderful team performance up and until the Raya “goal” and, because of that, we let them back into a game we controlled completely..
His mistake was a complete howler, but it happens in football.
Let’s not point fingers at anyone, just enjoy the result and look forward to Forest beating city.
COYG and mind the gap!!!