Once the Europa League final is over with and hopefully Arsenal have lifted the trophy there will be a lot in hindsight that was obvious before the game and for me, there is one huge reason why I believe Arsenal will win on Wednesday evening in Baku.
The one big reason is simple, Arsenal will want it more.
You see, for Chelsea, they have basically done what they needed to do, sure they will be happy with a trophy and no doubt will be determined to beat us but there is no way that they are approaching this game with the same mindset they we are.
They are in next seasons Champions League already, winning the Europa League is like icing on the cake for them but for us, it is the whole cake.
A loss for Chelsea will be disappointing but at the end of the day it will be just another loss, for us it is everything, we will not just lose the final and the chance of our first piece of European silverware in over two decades but we will be out of next seasons Champions League.
I am not saying for one minute that the Chelsea players will not be up for it, of course they will, but they simply do not have the same motivation or incentive that the Arsenal players do and that does matter.
So, I am saying it now and after the game I will be proven to have been spot on and that is we will win and the biggest reason will be that we wanted it more.
It will not be the only reason but trust me on this, it will be the biggest.
Yes, they’re already in next season’s CL.. but they also have the small (?) matter of Hazard leaving.. he’ll want to finish off with a trophy!
We can talk about who’s won more, who’s favourite, how many times Hazard has dribbled his way past the whole team & scored ? blah blah blah, but that is all in the past.. It’s tomorrow that counts..No room for error (Xhaka, Mustafi – you got that?)
This game is mahoosive!!! Come on Arsenal, make us proud COYG ?
. . . and no room for wrestling opponents to the ground – Sokratis, you got that!?
Haha!! I quite like a bit of wrestling (not when it results in a PK of course!!)
I saw worrying signs lately that he’s been secretly teaching Xhaka his techniques! 🙂
Oh God help us ??
We have Iwobi and they don’t… Advantage Arsenal!
2 goals
Mark my words.
Never seen a player score two goals sat on the bench ?
Iwobi isn’t going to sit on the bench, he’s starting.
Iwobi and Welbz come off bench in second half, Iwobi miscues his shot across the box and it deflects off Welbz arse into the net. Goal for Welbz, assist for Iwobi.
?? I can just see that happening!!
Hilarious comments you guys! But if ‘Iwobi-san’ is brought on I hope he’s already sharpened his Katana (Japanese sword), donned a kimono and done a ritual before the match. This will no doubt enable him to ”fulfill his destiny by channeling his inner Bergkamp in Baku”. So we’ve nothing to worry about have we? 🙂
(Disclaimer – all humour courtesy of one of gotnoidea’s incessant blatherings.)
Can a player score 2 from the bench ?
I just can’t see us losing this game, coz we have every reason to go for it.
even history is with UE he won 3/3 finals, we pass through the hardest route possible.
#COYG
we have Emery the Europa specialist…99% to win
plus deadly duo of Auba and Laca
if our defence is the key to victory
I worry about this game. But who doesn’t? Chelsea has a team of winners and knows what it takes to win a trophy. They also have a better squad. Sure, they have downed tools when they didn’t like the manager (Like Mourinho and others before), but in big games they have the edge.
In addition, Emery might not play his best team and formation. He has shown some awkward team selections in the past. He mich start Petr C which would show he doesn’t start his best players.
In addition, which Arsenal will show up? They one who show up on most way games? Or the one who show up at home? I fear, with our weak mentality, that the away team might show up with all subsequent consequences (away/ big game failure Ozil, away brain fart Mustafi/Xhaka, away isolated striker with no service.
To me, this is the biggest game we have played in the last 10 years. If we have any hope of becoming a top 4 team we need CL football and money and players that brings. For me, as unfair as this sounds, if Emery wins he will get another season or half season of patience from me, if we lose I will have my doubts on whether he brought enough in his first season given our catastrophic collapse in the PL at the end of the season.
If we lose with Cech in goal and he has an unconvincing game and we have trouble playing out of the back, I hope the manager gets fired.
I know this sounds dramatic but this is sports and at the end of the day results make up for a lot, and if there is no real improvement on the pitch (we conceded the same amount of goals as under Wenger, we scored roughly the same amount of goals, we showed the same mental weakness on the road and when it counted in the run in), then the only thing that can buy a manager time is results.
Assuming you are not going to select any of ‘away/ big game failure Ozil, or away brain fart Mustafi/Xhaka’ could you please give us your starting line up. Thank you. I look forward to your selections.
That’s a good question, I wouldn’t mind hearing his ideas either. Prob Sokratis and Koscielny, that would mean Kolasinac at left back, or else a long out of form Monreal, or a youngster making the back three instead. Xhaka and Torriera, both made top five this season, but anyway, I presume it will be Guendouzi or Niles or both. Ozil, no Mkhit, so either Iwobi or a rusty Danny prob might be the thinking. Or there could be more youngsters in mind. I foresee problems with a lot of that, one big one is a team that hasn’t often played as an eleven, it counts. I’ve also seen the players who are possibly coming in having made their own mistakes on occasion, from a lot less game-time.
There is not one defender we can pick that hasn’t had some patchy form, Monreal most of all for me, has been as patchy as any. Guendouzi had a very good season, but it nosedived a wee bit after Christmas. Similar with Torriera but you’d prob have to play him. Forward players, the only singling out I would do is of Aubameyang and Lacazette. That said, you cannot make it to a final with only two players being thanked. The team has played well in this comp, the team, they worked well and played well, keep doing what you were doing lads.
Nice to hear your thoughts B.O.T. I’m fairly happy with the article line up myself as it’s about the best we can muster at the moment but I can never decide between the much maligned Mustafi and our Greek wrestler Sokratis. I’m probably one of the few who slightly prefer Mustafi (shock/horror!) as he’s picked up less cards than Sok and I’ve seen him throw himself in the way of quite a few goal-bound shots which have saved us many times, as well making some excellent clearing headers. He can also go in with tough tackles, including out on the wing when called for – maybe he can show AMN and Bellerin how it’s done – and he occasionally scores from corners.
His main problem seems to me is that he sometimes misjudges the flight of the ball when it’s heading towards our area – not good I agree! As he’s usually good with his head I hope he’s been working on that aspect of his game.
As for Sokratis we know he is so poor at defending that he often resorts to grabbing people and even wrestling them to the ground and I’m worried about penalties. Apart from that aspect of his game I’ll never forget the moment Firmino, not the world’s best dribbler by any means, went past him as though he was a stone statue. This does not bode well for when he is confronted by such as Hazard, Willian, Pedro etc. I do not want to start the game with a penalty against us plus a sending off in the first 10 minutes.
Sadly, I don’t see us winning this one. Its no surprise cos i been following this arsenal since 2006 and if theres one thing i kniw abou this arsenal is that they always having a way of msssing things up when ever the odds are on them to win. We only ever play well when we are seen as under dogs.
I hope am wrong tho buh its simething ive gotten used to
Arsenal ARE underdogs, according to the bookies!
Is he talking about the odds from the bookies or the odds only him saw in his head. He said that in the other post and you let him know the odds favour Chelsea against us & even before we played quarterfinals and he still repeated that again. All I know is in the last couple of years with weaken stricken force and defence and weaker DM than we have today, we played Chelsea twice in final and CS and we beat them. Does that mean we are going to win tomorrow, I don’t know but I want us to win and that it is what I have been praying for in this holy month of Ramadan.
Hope for the best but brace yourself for the worst and the collateral damage could be less…. Thank you, have a nice day
Hope we start these players
Cech, Koscielny, Sokratis, Monreal, Niles, Kolsanic, Xhaka, Torreira, Ozil, Aubameyang and Lacazette
FG I’m confused (easily done I know) because although that’s not a bad line up you have there I’ve seen so many of your previous articles dissing Ozil they led me to believe you were a fully paid up member of the Ozil boo boys club and didn’t want him in the squad, let alone the starting line up
Am I mistaking you for someone else?
Lol…same way we had more incentive to beat Leicester amd Palace who were playing for nothing right? How well did that turn out!
?? it’s going to be tense, QD.. from the moment the line ups come out……
Biggest game of the season, @Sue! All of Emery’s sins wil be forgiven if he gets us back into the champions league!!! Only a day to go..
They will indeed!! ?
QD do you care to suggest a line up? If so I’ll look forward to seeing it. After what you’ve written about him in the past I trust it won’t contain Ozil? You know who I mean – the guy who needs a billion players round him to play well. Yes, that Ozil.
We will go all out to win this game because we have LACA&AUBA
OT: the money from the CL vs the “pittance” earned from the EL is exaggerated when it comes to English clubs:
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/may/27/arsenal-failure-champions-league-europa-league
“And the Europa League itself is a handy consolation prize; by making it to the semi‑final last season, when they lost to AtlĂ©tico Madrid, Arsenal earned €38m (ÂŁ34m) directly from Uefa.
The system is weighted towards English clubs by the “market pool” element, which pays more according to how much Uefa was paid for a country’s TV rights. Arsenal made €29m from the market pool, more than double the next highest earning club, Marseille, who were paid €11.7m, €23m altogether, despite reaching the final.”
So the huge difference in our possible budgets based on qualifying for the CL is bogus – just an excuse not to spend.
We have enough to spend a 100 – 120 mill. with or without the CL. The only difference is we have to settle for young talents like Torreira, but guess what? So do many CL teams like Tottenham…
I am not worried of Chelsea coz they ve just three fit midfielders in Jorginho,Barkley and Kovacic. Arsenal players are higly motivated coz they want champions league and what more? they want to win it for Mhiki.Go for it gunners.
All the talk of Chelsea not being up for it as they are already in CL is totally misplaced logic. It’s a European trophy for feck sake, worth a few million in prize money and the chance to beat a rival.
Dec I’m a bit worried that with the pressure build up we’ll be too tense, stiff and scared of making a mistake while Hazard and Co are more relaxed and so play better. Guess that, along with everyone else, I’ll just have to hope for the best.
What’s with all the Iwobi avatars when F all of you even like the guy. It’s not because of Ozil in any way is it, an Iwobi fan didn’t go too far did he, or are you pre-preparing your scapegoat for just in case. Ozil and Iwobi?, a German and a Nigerian, hmm, just kidding, I don’t think it’s about that.
And your point, in plain unambiguous English is WHAT exactly?
If you can’t see the point when one question is made, then having four possible answers that I am unsure on, well then why are you asking questions yourself.
Still no actual reply though, just another impossible to understand post. Do you actually HAVE a point OR are you merely saying you don’t know which. To be unsure is fine and I often share that state as do we all, I would suggest, about various Arsenal and life matters. But if so, there is nothing to be ashamed about, so why not just say so clearly and unambiguously. Though YOU seem to think your original post was easy to understand , it clearly wasn’t and ALL I asked for is clarification. I intended no criticism of your view; how could I criticise , since it is unclear what your view, if any, even is?
The game is going to be tensed but I think it is going to be won by an unsung hero. But to be honest Chelsea is better on paper cos they have Hazard. But I want to listen to the Champions League theme before our mates next season
Anyone who mistakenly agrees with the articles spurious suggestion that Chelsea will be LESS up for it than us , is indulging in self foolery. That consistent fan self foolery by fans of all top clubs is my most implacable foe.
I have seen it guys, if Arsenal wins….Spurs are winning too. And if Arsenal loses, Liverpool are winning.