KaKa

9 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

Vieira been found out ?

I think he's decent, but his downfall will be his affinity for grafters.

Continuing to start Jordan Ayew is a complete and utter disgrace.

4 minutes ago, GideonShandy said:

"Danielle Reyna, wife of former US captain Claudio, says she reported the incident to US Soccer on 11 December. She said it was "unfair" that "people were trashing" her son, 20, when Berhalter had done something "much worse" at a similar age."

 

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/64168700

That woman really held onto that thing for 31 years ... typical.

Why on Earth has the Gil kid not been getting games until recently? Looks decent.

9 hours ago, Menace said:

Parker is basically Pardew

Parker is nothing like Pardew man. My God

I really think this whole thing is being ridiculously overstated.

We are not an anti football team by any stretch of the imagination.

5 minutes ago, Ste said:

For me, Arteta cost his side a win with his touchline antics. Their heads completely went, couldn’t imagine playing for a manager that allows the occasion and not the game to become his sole focus. When they needed coaching and guidance, he was making himself the main character while Howe constantly gave feedback and made subtle changes. They’ll make it all about Newcastle managing the game and manufacturing their time to take the foot off the pedal, but Arteta badly let his team down. 

100%.

For all the complaints about time wasting they added to it by constantly surrounding the ref complaining about said time wasting.

They should have focused on taking free kicks quicker and focused more on playing at a higher tempo if they were going to get anything from the game. 

The excuse making and whining really doesn't bode well for them at all. Ironically, with all the fuss being made and seeing how much it rattled them, a bunch more teams are going to ramp up the antics against them now. They are so dumb.

I mean just imagine actually thinking we are just time wasting our way up the league man. The absolute lunacy

You'd think if that was all it took there'd be a bunch more teams up there using the same simple tactic. My God man

7 minutes ago, Rich said:

Must be gutting to be spending £350M+ a season on wages and still be behind little old us, like.

We took 5 mins off the clock man. That makes it impossible to beat us no matter how much is spent don't you know.

2 minutes ago, nemtizz said:

As much as I appreciate our shithousery it's exaggerated to fuck solely because we're not bowing down.  Every team at the top of their game uses this shit to their advantage, but they can't stand that we're not pushovers anymore.

 

 

 

Exactly. It's just being made a big deal about because we're getting results good enough to keep us in that top four.

Never mind all the other results we've got against teams in and around us and below us, where those type of antics are more likely to be done against us.

The whining and bitching is so painful to see from these entitled fans of the so called 'top 6' clubs man. Unbelievably pathetic stuff.

I never understand the complaining about the time wasting antics. Every single team does this now when it's to their advantage to do so. I never even get wound up when it's done against us. It's just to be expected as part of the game now.

At most what does it take off the clock if done extremely well, what 5 mins? If you can't figure out how to get a result within the other 85 mins then do better. 

4 minutes ago, Rich said:

"They’ve had 8 draws this season. They just suck the life out of every game they play and shithouse themselves up the league."

 

Muahahaha.

Who said this?!

Just now, Displayname said:

Yeah he should have said that we are desperate to replace some of our players. That would lift the team spirit and lower our transfer costs.

2 minutes ago, ExiledGeordie said:

North London derby next weekend ?Hopefully Spurs win that to see him properly self destruct 

Nah man, need them to batter Spurs. Don't need Spurs getting any type of results at the minute.

Besides, of all the top teams, Arsenal have been the least grotesque as far as how they've built their current team, and they have some really decent and likeable young players.

Yeah, they may fall about a lot more, but it's to be expected with the way they play. Couldn't care less. Every one is trying to find a way to win that suits them. We have now become a bit of a shitehousery outfit and I absolutely love it to be fair. No longer just a soft fearful team. 

9 hours ago, Froggy said:

Big games tonight. All going well we will be 1 point clear of you with a game in hand. 

Unlucky Frog face 

Really worrying sign Arteta's behaviour. Not sure he's going to be able to hold things together.

Way too emotional after that and it wasn't even a bad result for them. We are the best defensive team in the league for goodness sake.

Just really makes me appreciate Howe more and more. Such an even keel and cool head all the time. Far more confident of us holding on for a top four place.

Horrible game to have to bring him on. Arsenal's press and closing down are not suited to his holding onto the ball too long and lack of physicality in duels. Terrifying watching him out there when he came on.

1 minute ago, andycap said:

Shit myself when he went down with cramp and they broke. 

So glad for him we didn't concede in that moment. Would have been terrible for him.

Thought he was very good today and had some great moments running down the left. Also looks a lot stronger and fitter physically, which is serving him better defensively.

5 minutes ago, 80 said:

Agreed, but if he was a better player then it would have been, that's my point. Willock's legs were falling off well before he was subbed.

Yeah, we could do with other options out wide coming off the bench. Murphy was almost disastrous himself. Just gave the ball away and could have conceded a penalty.

This wasn't the game for him to come on any earlier man. Needed everyone completely switched on defensively.

Just now, sixx said:

Nick Pope is the best goalkeeper in history.

Absolutely love the guy. Makes so many clutch saves and is just so cool and composed back there. Also dominant coming for crosses. Was a sensational signing.

1 minute ago, Kid Icarus said:

Fucking hell that was hard  Best team we've played by an absolute mile in terms of stopping us from being able to play our own game.

 

Excellent result, not a great performance but I can't fault the effort in the circumstances 

 

Pope: 8.5

Trippier: 7.5

Schar: 7.5

Botman: 8

Burn: 8

Bruno: 7

Willock: 8.5

Longstaff: 6

Joelinton: 8

Wilson: 6

Almiron: 8

 

Wood: 6

Murphy: 6

Arsenal are absolutely flying at the minute.

Thought it was a top class defensive performance from us, and therefore I'd have to say it was a good performance on the whole.

Its a great point for both teams I think. Neither coming away without anything. 

The majority of teams around both of us have all lost recently.

Such an impressive battling result. We are such a strong team mentally and physically man. So so awesome.

Chris Wood just then man. Tragic 

4 minutes ago, Tiresias said:

 

There is something to that, and definitely clubs like Brentford and Brighton are able to compete better because of smart signings and being more on a level playing field sports science wise, but, and I am going to get flack for suggesting that, Klopp was kinda right there are ceilings for these clubs because they will always lose players to the rich clubs. (Still the fucking gall of Klopp pleading poverty so much, still fucking annoys me, but he's not wrong imo. 

 

I think the quality of the midtable probably is higher than ever. and I can see the odd title upset (which arsenal winning would arguably be, but also more extreme ways like Lecesiter, but, I can't see Man City, or a club similarly funded like us soon, not dominating 4 seasons out of 5 still for the foreseeable. 

So this is the thing that was a big headache before, but now with so much more scouting and recruitment capabilities for even the smaller clubs, these sales potentially make teams more dangerous, if they have their houses in order.

Lets look at Brighton as an example, who are a relatively smaller club with an excellent structure in place. They have just sold Cucurella this past summer for £60 million after buying him for just £15 million a year prior. They also ended up getting £20 million off Chelsea for their manager. That's almost a £100 million they have in place now to work with.

The new manager that has come in looks like he knows what he is doing and the left back that has come in to replace Cucurella, Pervis Estupinan, seems to have been a sound purchase for a comparatively much lower fee. There really doesn't seem to have been much of a drop off from where they were before, but now they have a ton more money in play to continue to build all areas of the club including the first team.