Gallowgate Toon

I'm not sure why but this one still rankles even though it shouldn't due to obvious context. We definitely changed our tactics to reduce the press and sit more mid but it somehow felt like the most open we've been all season. I think we all could've easily guessed the last 30 would be rough going but I feel senior players could've calmed things down to help get us a foothold in the game in the first 45/hour. Lots of rushed & over-ambitious passes leading to counters. I think Miggy going off will have contributed to a dropping of heads too, like.

Don't feel like Willock's game is in tight areas. He can do it in patches but it feels he's a true force at transitions.

It seems weird that City let Palmer go, like.

Thought he'd tone it down a bit considering he's on primetime every fucking week, but no.

Drury. Urgh. What a pen though.

City are so much more entertaining like this.

Howe is a streak king. Plenty of football to play yet.

Loved how he stood up to the fan. A shame that he had an absolute stinker. Seemed like his touch wasn't there, often rushing passes forward, and he was overcommitting defensively. Strange few performances from him but he'll be back to it soon.

Was interested to see how he did statistically yesterday. - 4 tackles - Won 5 of his 6 ' ground duels' - Dribbled past once (always find the way they mark this dubious) A lot more touches and passes than Tino had too but that's likely cause we were flagging physically a lot more second half. It was really some of his off the ball work that'll have seen him hooked. Felt like we lost more possession control when he went off though, he was involved in some good build up moves in the first.

I thought his knee was hampering him but he had it taped up against West Ham and was class, started brightly against Dortmund too. Looked back to his old self. Might've been something else.

I don't think the knee thing is that fair. Players play through that type of stuff all the time, and he was still very effective while not being at his explosive best.

Tbf, we still missed Bruno. He's an incredibly effective passer through lines, maintains tempo very well, and does fantastic defensive work.

Thought he looked really good, like.

We didn't look any better when he went off Thought he again showed real promise on the ball but naive defensively.

Because they've not been at the races at all in the game. Fair enough, some will rightfully tire after 60 minutes or so, but a few have either been invisible or very poor for the entire match. Not tracking runs, lazy legs in.

Lazy.

Say what you want about injuries, I think there have been some canny lazy performance from a few.

Need Longstaff and Willock to step it up and help us get a proper foothold.

I don't work in ticketing but I've sat in on meetings that have involved ticketing discussions including commercial people at clubs and not one of them has really given a fuck about it outside of hospitality expansion. Quite a few clubs have Directors of Ticketing/equivalent for this reason who look at issues both commercially and operationally. The commercial teams are all about, probably rightly by how they're paid, sponsorship & partnership opportunities at scale and selling LED minutes. Our board are smart and they'll see the net result. A small-ish buffer to the bottom line isn't worth it if they've got to expand supporter services due to disgruntled fans and handling reputational damage. I think it's definitely possible that he got info from former colleagues because the NUFC team is still canny light from what I can tell, I just don't think the ballot thing would've happened directly under him at Arsenal. To my knowledge, ticketing systems are usually worked on in-season for preparation for the next, so I think this work would've happened during 22/23. Random allocations is probably a feature ticketing providers are actively upselling - e.g. I believe Leeds had ballots and random seating last season (perhaps for only certain category fixtures) but not sure if they continued it. I expect next summer will see big changes if pressure keeps up but it'll be small updates in the interim.

Balloting isn't uncommon and Ticketmaster is Arsenal's ticketing provider, not SeatGeek. My view is that it's a wider strategic decision across multiple people at clubs, potentially triggered by ticketing tech offering new systems. Not driven by one all-powerful individual. I seriously doubt Silverstone or Eales spend much time on ticketing at all, tbh - I imagine a bigger problem is that they're not across it enough and delegate to others who are poor at managing the operational impacts of decisions. The NUFC commercial team are back-and-forth to SA a lot.

Arsenal's Director of Ticketing was there the entire time that Silverstone was bar a few months, we don't use the same ticketing technologies, Silverstone's replacement started in late 2021 and he was likely doing fuck all for the last few months of his tenure. Also, balloting in some form is common across 'big clubs'. Arsenal have a fairly massive business & tech team with suppliers at their beck-and-call - their commercial strategy won't be on the whim of one man, especially one who left a long time ago.

Silverstone left Arsenal in January 2022

I'd have had no complaints with it being a sending off but there's one angle of it that doesn't look as bad/shows how glancing it is. Still could've easily been a red for intent alone, imo.

Got a strange feeling that Wilson will be fine for this. Sneaking suspicion that a certain A Isak will be on the bench too but only in case of emergency. Pope Tripps Jam Schar Tino Sean Jo Joe Miggy Wilson Gordon If no Wilson, Hall comes into mid as one of Gordon/Jo takes the CF mantle.

I'd consider resting him on the weekend, like. Feel like Tino & Hall is a good enough combo to be competitive against Bournemouth.