leffe186

Think you had a post invasion.

Forgot to change my team

Ouch. I have Kane with 7pts. The entire rest of my team currently has a total of 5pts. Only hope is if Salah doesn’t play at all as captain.

My fantasy team is hilarious this week. Made even better with Ben White coming off the bench.

That’s what’s so weird though, and one reason the Arsenal fans are quite so pissed off. They put themselves in this position.

Bottom line, only two or three teams truly underachieved this year - Man U and Everton for sure. Everyone else did roughly as expected, with you guys being the asterisk due to the takeover and new manager (and us to an extent). After everything the top six is currently still the “top six”. If Arsenal get 4th they’ll definitely have over-achieved.

This is it. I hate the “bottled it” trope in general, but the reason it’s being trotted out here is nothing to do with pre-season expectations and everything to do with the last few weeks. The funny thing is that the benefit of hindsight makes their performance look worse. Perhaps expectations should have been higher. They spent oodles of cash, didn’t have to worry about Europe at all and their manager had a couple of years to bed in. Of the seven teams that finished above them last year, Man U imploded from the top down, Leicester and West Ham were clearly held back by playing in Europe and Spurs sacked their manager in October. If they don’t make the CL it’s clearly a missed opportunity. Look at the BBC predictions: https://www.givemesport.com/1737506-man-city-man-utd-liverpool-chelsea-who-will-make-the-premier-league-top-four-in-2122 Not a single pundit predicted Spurs or Arsenal in the top 4 - out of 20. Then look at those fan videos from last night. It’s not just the media calling them “bottlers”.

Look at his eyes. All seems a bit concerning.

I agree with all this. Only read this thread this morning - just found out about the nominations. Genuinely surprised that Conte wasn’t nominated, particularly given the discussions in here.

Absolutely this. But again, they have spent an absolute shit-ton of money and have only had the League Cup to worry about. They even got our game postponed despite having just one (one!!) player test positive for COVID. The whole thing doesn’t make any sense.

It’s easy to say with hindsight, and I’ve only seen a few highlights really, but Arsenal have seemed…broken…for a while now. A couple of injuries to the wrong people and they seem incapable of switching gears or taking different approaches. We all knew (I presume) that with Wilson back, close to your best side, a guaranteed rocking atmosphere and the final home game with no pressure that Newcastle would come out of the traps flying but if Arsenal had any confidence or swagger left they’d soak it up and look to hit on the break with pace. They’ve not looked convincing for weeks now and even the wins against Chelsea and Man U were achieved against depleted and lacklustre teams (IIRC). I thought you’d be the better side but was primarily concerned that you’d shoot yourselves in the foot. Saka is very dangerous but Nketiah is still a bit raw to rely on from the bits I’ve seen. What does Laca actually do? Sounds like you managed to sustain the pressure for most of the game which is really impressive. It’s becoming a cliche but the Arsenal fans who were so proud of how young their team is have seen the downside that can bring. Strangely I’m still not convinced that Spurs will get top 4 as weird things happen on the final day. Just takes one red card and the Partridge is among the pigeons. It’s just pretty clear that two clubs are far ahead of the rest, I’d argue that us and Chelsea are the next two, and then it’s a handful of underperformers. West Ham and Leicester (and I guess Man U) have obviously suffered from playing in Europe. It’s just amusing that Arsenal might miss out on top four despite spending a fucking fortune and not having to worry about Europe…or even the FA Cup. Next year will be fascinating (for you guys and those still enraptured by football ).

Really honestly thought your game was gonna go like that, just didn’t want to say it out loud. Chuffed for you and Arsenal TV

Add 12-15 starters and you’ll be better than the Arse? Have a bit more faith.

Our first black player was in 1909.

I’m a monster, couldn’t get the phrase “freedom of the titty” out of my head.

That’s just it though, at least Everton getting relegated has meaning.

Just grabbed 10 mins for lunch and put the game on. Quite a 10 minutes.

Yeah me too tbh.

Can’t decide if I want Everton to still be shitting it on the last day or to be safe and relaxed.

I’m really trying man, you’re not helping!

“A bit unlucky”

A month? And in summer? You’d need at least a decade off.

Completely forgot about this yet again, so now there’s every chance I’ll be playing Sam Greenwood up front.

I mean yeah, he’s only a bargain if he does well and he’s not if he doesn’t. That’s not the scintillating analysis we’re looking for though. Right now it seems like a bargain. Fair enough if you think it’s not going to work out.

It’s all relative though. On the one hand, Brummie is telling us he’s clearly a class above everyone they have. On the other hand, who are the other players that have been moving for a comparable fee? By either metric it’s a bargain.