The teams are out for tonight’s big North London Derby clash, where Arsenal are hoping to secure a win over Tottenham which will secure their place in the Champions League.
The two sides come into this with differing form, but with home advantage and with so much motivation for victory, it would be naive to expect anything from today’s matchup.
We were well aware that both Thomas Partey and Kieran Tierney were to miss out, with the pair still unlikely to feature again this season, but Ben White and Bukayo Saka were doubts for the selection according to the boss. With this in mind, we opted with the following predicted XI earlier on today:
Ramsdale
Tomiyasu Holding Gabriel Cedric
Odegaard Elneny Xhaka
Saka Nketiah Martinelli
As you can see below, we was spot on.
🚨 NLD TEAMNEWS!
🇯🇵 Tomiyasu at the back
💪 Elneny x Xhaka in midfield
🌶 Bukayo Saka starts! #TOTARS pic.twitter.com/daGofbP1Ps— Arsenal (@Arsenal) May 12, 2022
How do you expect the fixture to play out after seeing the Gunners starting XI?
Patrick
So ask fellow fans is 4th good enough? Bearing in mind the amount if money we spent and as we were not I Europe so had to play less games. I remember a lot people said if we were out of Europe we can mount a series title charge like Liverpool did under BR, now all of a sudden I see same fans who were after Wenger’s neck are saying 4th is big achievement and 5/6th is still acceptable
Bear in mind what money? We have the 5th most expensive squad and the 5th wage budget. We haven’t “spent”. Spurs are lower on both and also insanely lucky they’ve dragged it out this long, despite still probably finishing 5th
Please no injuries now….
Spoke to soon Sid. Let’s hope Gabriel’s not properly injured otherwise it’s White and Tomyashu at centre half and Tavares or Xhaka at left back against the Magpies.
Deliberate foul worse than Cedric for the pen, no card. Don’t think it was a card but it was more deliberate than holdings 1st yellow just asking for some kind of consistency. We don’t lose on play we lost on decisions that have repeatedly gone the other way this year if you look back. Annoys me especially considering how lucky spurs are too even be in touch now based on gameplay. Wolves win early season they got is the outright luckiest win of the entire season, soft pen that day too. They’ve played terrible compared to us all year, not debatable anyone that feels it is not go watch the 90min spurs games.
Simple question why do Arsenal fans think refs conspire against Arsenal football club, I mean we are not the biggest in EPL and not the most successful, hell we have not been even a top 4 club for some time. This is sign of weakness when you start blaming others for your demise instead of realising what you have been doing wrong.
Simple question have you watched the spurs games?
To answer you question for me personally the day after xhaka got sent off for not touching the city player. Believe it actually happened the same day, didn’t see it until after. Pogba missed the ball went into the Southampton players knee, ref missed, played on united scored, no var, united drew 1-1. Pogba assisted 2 in the next game, 4-2 or 4-1 Newcastle. That was the moment. It’s way over double figures for challenges worse than xhakas that have escaped red this season since (actively looked out for it) and that is not a debate. I accept tonight on 2nd unemotional viewing I’ll change my opinion on something, suspect the only one will be pen and even then there will multiple examples this year of similar ones not being given.
This game is over really
Miracle required otherwise
Try to restore a bit of pride and go again next time
Top 4 gone for another year sigh
The only good thing about getting into the champs league is the extra revenue as we would probably not get past the first knock out stage even if we by some miracle got out of the group stage. Maybe after the time away from Europe we’d be better off starting back slowly maybe at a lower level such as the Europa conference comp.
Oh no natural center back now. You can’t have one player per position
Is that now 7 goals we conceded more this season than last season? Also Ode once again wasting an opportunity..
Why has my comment about MA not running up and down the touchline like a maniac aka he’s given up as well disappeared?
It’s on a different post Ken!
Thanks Pat 🙄🙄
Suspect he felt like me, I’m assuming at his bequest we challenged the pgmol for explanations for the easily probable bias in decisions, number of weeks back. We never heard anything after the announcement in terms of conclusions. Otherwise once the games gone it’s gone. Win 2, middle finger to everyone else whether it’s refs or the extreme minority of our fans that want us to miss out because Arteta bad (he’s staying regardless which makes that position odder but its same fanbase that got annoyed with top 4 under Wenger so anything possible.)
Despite the loss, it’s still not the end of the world. I wouldn’t blame the manager too much regarding the team selection. Sometimes you just need to be a realist and avoid unnecessary blame games. The ref was clearly an idiot and wanted to see us lose or get someone sent off.
Holding clearly was at fault for the second yellow and cost the team. Regarding the 3 games we lost in a row, I blame the manager for his controversial decision at Palace but aside that we have to blame injuries and lack of quality back up players to step in.
The club has done well extending Arteta’s contract. The club needs to use the transfer windows wisely to improve the squad depth, not just in term of quantity but quality.
You can’t blame the manager for the injuries to key players (Tierney and Partey). We wouldn’t be in this situation were it not for the injuries. We were unlucky with injuries to key players at critical points during the season, which forced the gaffer to make some tactical changes. Without key players like White, Partey and Tierney, you wouldn’t expect the team to win easily at Tottenham’s turf given their recent upturn in form with Conte’s appointment.
The solution is simple regardless of whether we finish third or fourth. We need to do all within our means to attract quality players during the next transfer window. The board will need to throw their weights behind Arteta to make this happen.
If we don’t make Champions League, I’m afraid we have to spend big to get our key transfers. With better quality in every position, the results will come. Just like City, the team will win games for fun. If we fail to strengthen the gap will continue to widen and the little progress we made during this season would be futile, as our rivals are strengthening.
Even Guordiola won’t win anything or compete with this squad. Arteta whether you like him or not has learnt really quickly on the job and will only get better and win big trophies. Hopefully, it is at Arsenal. Pep won’t win anything with this squad without serious financial backing. Every modern manager needs it. You can’t win without quality players and squad depth. COYG!
Yes Pep wont win anything because he is not a kind of manager who likes to go to poor clubs and make them compete. You have to look at managers like Mou and Klopp for that kind of expectation. Also, well this is a point others have raised as well although it is a little weak IMO but maybe there was a sliver of hope for preventing injuries if we rotated properly and kept our backups match fit. Well like you wont blame MA entirely for the loss but as Davi said some accountability has to be held.
Even though it hasn’t ended well I agree with your summary
Damn Cedric and Holding.
Irrespective of how poor the refereeing actually has been all season Holding & Soares just proves that we would more than likely struggle in the champions league. This game is gone but the champions league isn’t. Us and Newcastle have lost our last game. We need to beat them
What Holding and Cedric has done tonight is enough to sell them both to any highest biddder. Absolute clowns. And why is Mikel going to attack Spurs, when they are the ones who need to chase the game?
Exactly, we should have parked the bus and caught them on the break. A draw would have been enough.
The ref cost us the game tonight…is VAR still being used in Prem???
Wow that was bad….
People, stop blaming the ref, instead blame our ill disciplined hot headed players and also calm down, we are STILL 4th.
Arteta has done what novice coaches do. Like Brenden Rogers bottled the PL for Liverpool, Arteta is going to bottle this. Its was silly to play when all we needed was a draw. I am tired of this team.😔
Trouble is, it was for the top four, not the PL!!!!!!
Like everyone feel awful.
Right! Now game is just over and we need to look forward to our next vital two games and get over this woeful setback quickly. We fans will suffer of course but what matters is that our players regroup mentally and physically in time for Newcastle.
Perspective is important and we remain one crucial point ahead. It is quite probably that before we play Everton they will be safe and thus not so fired up as we might think right now.
So IMO the Newcastle game will decide whether we make CL or only EL.
Assuming all those who finished the game are fit to play if needed, we just need GABRIEL to make the game and also White. GABRIEL MUST BE DOUBTFUL THOUGH!
IF both fit, then Holding will be no loss, frankly. I have been saying for ages, he is overhyped by some GOONERS and is just a very moderate , clumsy and very slow CB.
NOT ONE WHO SHOULD REMAIN NEXT SEASON AND I hope he does not. Hard to believe the absent Saliba is not WAY BETTER than him.
But, if we can regain our mental and physical energy in less than four days, we SHOULD still win at Newcastle. I do not see Spuds dropping any points from now on, so we need to win both games. But I PREDICT WE WILL DO SO.
Love your optimism Jon. Let’s hope you’re proved right, sadly I have my doubts.
Dudes, anyone who watched arsenal struggling to win agianst Leeds with 2 goal advantage and one man down would figure out what would happen today. This team is not strong as many people believe. I don’t expect Arsenal to win the remaining 2 games. Mark my words