timeEd32

In the current version of European football you can't play a kid whose been at the club for 23 months in one case, but you can play senior players who have already played for another club in the same tournament in other cases.

More than anything that was enough to show me our mentality away from home has changed. We have problems consistently finishing chances, our midfield can get played through too easily, we can be suspect at the back especially because of Trippier, but there is a belief and confidence that didn't exist for much of the season.

US halftime analysis pointing out Trippier's role in both goals. We'll be so much better when Tino is back.

Is there a rule about being pushed offside?

Someone always seems to have one of the best games of their season / career when they play us

I must have blacked out all those reds in 08/09. Beginning to end has to be one of the most ridiculous and embarrassing seasons by any club.

We brushed aside Bilbao and especially Benfica like they didn’t even belong on a pitch with us and no one enjoyed it because it was at home, the format is less satisfying to some, and they were sandwiched between losses away to Brighton, West Ham, and Brentford.

Not having this fortunate playoff draw thing as a way to diminish our Champions League performance. There were five clubs in the league phase with a double digit negative goal difference and no chance of qualifying in the last week: Ajax, Frankfurt, Slavia Prague, Villarreal, and Kairat. - Arsenal played Kairat and Prague - Liverpool played Frankfurt - Tottenham played Frankfurt, Prague, and Villareal - Chelsea played Ajax - Man City played Villareal We didn’t play any of them. Chelsea also played Pafos, who got 7 of their 9 points from those bad teams, and Qarabag, who is now the worst team ever. Tottenham also played Copenhagen who were 31st, so they played half of their games against the bottom 6. We’ve earned our way to the last 16.

An 81% win% in 22 League Cup games is outrageous and still not appreciated nearly enough.

Feels just as likely that Spurs with a new manager bounce dent the title hopes of an increasingly nervous and shaky Arsenal. Although I may be underestimating just how shit Tottenham is.

I think there's only one game in his time here that Eddie didn't 100% try to win and that was the Liverpool league game before the cup final. Conceding games/cups is just not in his nature and I'm very happy to live with the consequences of that after living through Ashley / Pardew.

I think the free hit part is that we've never won there, they are in good form, we just played a couple days ago with a four hour time change, and they've been hanging out for the last fortnight only leaving their homes to host Fulham and Salford City.

I think so much of this is down to Trippier. We just desperately need Tino or Miley back. Botman being fit so we can rotate the CBs would also be nice, but less of the glaring problem.

I think what Dan deserves credit for is getting the deals done (though how much was Staveley is unclear).

I’m all in on this theory now and hopeful about his return.

IF we can beat them then all of a sudden we're looking at this assuming no upsets: 1 Fulham 2 Sunderland 3 Newcastle United 4 Leeds United 5 Arsenal 6 Liverpool 7 Chelsea 8 Brentford Still plenty to be done there, but you could start to dream.

The assists (and goals) are coming. I have zero doubt about that clicking for him, unlike Tino where I'm not sure he'll ever be good in the final third.

Unbeaten at home since February 8th.

I’m not sure we should downgrade the first half performance as much as we are. That was an absolute demolition that would honestly be notable against a League One side in the FA Cup. 5 goals with 16 shots and 10 “big chances.” An xGA of 0.00. Look around at the rest of this week’s results. Juventus goes to Turkey and loses 5-2. Inter goes down 3-1 to Bodo/Glimt, Atletico Madrid draws 3-3 at Brugge, and Monaco went 2-0 against PSG before losing with 10 men. Qarabag is not good and would likely get beaten by Bodo/Glimt and Brugge despite finishing the league phase on the same number of points, but I also don’t think every team left goes there and does what we did.

You could make a case that we did start to move in a different direction: - Thiaw: a CB comfortable on the ball and playing progressive passes - Ramsey: a CM with better technique than Joelinton or Longstaff while not totally sacrificing tackling ability or the pace of someone like Willock; does well at finding spaces - Wissa: meant to be an instant impact striker with the pace to lead a press (which we still want to do in either version of our team) - Woltemade: obviously a very different type of forward than we've had - Elanga: the outlier in terms of being something different Now you can argue that Ramsey is maybe underwhelming if that's the upgrade or that Woltemade is an awkward fit and clearly Wissa has fallen flat for various reasons, so maybe the execution failed which is ground we've covered ad nauseam. But there are signs of different components there.

I thought this was going to say "Happy Valentine's Day" and it was going to send me over the edge.

Not good, but for some reason I remain irrationally confident that he comes good.

I'm really hoping this is what's been happening. Very annoying if he did actually pick up a knock.

I could accept that if it wasn't a recurring pattern.

I'm just confused by his pace. Stats circulate that he'll have one of the fastest speeds in whatever competition. He's clearly fast. But it doesn't seem to matter who we're playing -- he rarely wins a foot race with the fullback. Multiple times I thought he'd beat Elvin Jafarquliyev and his 71 pace on FIFA to the ball and he just doesn't do it. I thought that more than anything we bought blistering pace and I'm genuinely confused at what I'm watching.