Lush Vlad

3 times already this season we have came back from behind to get a point or all 3. I might be wrong. But I used to think it was a minor issue under Howe? Either way, it’s still positive. Seeing as we have barely played well all season.

Still not seen anything other than the goals and some penalty shouts. The one on Joelinton looked stonewall, to me. Chuffed with the result. Sounds like we played some great stuff and more than worthy of a point. The stats kind of bear that out. 40% v them and with similar goal attempts. Unheard of.

Sort of as expected with Isak out. Although I’m half surprised Trippier starts over Tino. Glad Hall is starting.

Don’t ask me who. As I don’t play FIFA or FM like all the experts. But could we have not signed a right forward type who could also do a job up top better than Barnes or Gordon and has actually played a meaningful amount of minutes there? We desperately needed a right winger and can’t rely on Wilson to stay fit or Isak to play anywhere near 100%. It’s been the case since the start of last season and we’ve still not properly addressed it. Wilson has been a great player for us. But his legacy has been soured the last two seasons. As he has gone become a perma-crock.

No idea if resting him until after the international break would help. As it is only 3 weeks. But if it helps him get back to something like his form, then I think I'd go for that. Can't have yet another season of him playing through injuries every week and looking miles off the pace. Who would have predicted this situation again.... What with Wilson and his balsa wood legs. Now also the back of a 50 year old bricky by the sounds of it. Time for Osula to get some minutes Gordon up top then.

I know what you mean. But it seems like decent Adidas and Nike stuff is priced like that these days. Throw in the fact it is linked to a football team and they'll just mark it up even more. Back when I were a lad. £30-50 got you a decent tracksuit top and the lowers would be like 30-40 at most. The high end Nike and Adidas ones now are like £90-110 for the zip up and £80-100 for the lowers. Dressing like a charva should not cost this much This is worse than Freddo inflation.

Hoodie and the tee, for me. I was going to go for the trackies and all, possibly even the track top. But I'm 35 and already own far more tracksuits than I should. Perhaps I should start dressing my age...... I'm thinking velour tracksuits, like Paulie Walnuts.

Defo not drill. That stuff is utter shite, IMO. Often uses synth, 80s sort of beats for his music. He has done some much heavier and more typical rap beats and songs back in the day. The Number 23 mixtape is also incredible. Guessing it’s a nod to Shola and not Michael Jordan It will never get released because of copyright. But his Commercial 2 mixtape is his best stuff ever, I think. Outrageous flow and some hilarious lyrics (I’m in the sticks like Pat Jennings, my personal favourite) over 3-4 tracks from the Drive soundtrack. It’s on Youtube. Can get the tape cassette for about 400 quid online, if not

Longstaff I am not really a fan of. But would understand it up to a point. Homegrown player and would be poor to let him go for free. Schar still looks more than capable of doing a job still. Burn would be decent depth and is part of the leadership group. If they are for the right sort of numbers and they actually become rotation and back up players. I don’t see a big issue. The squad does need to get better and younger, however.

Poor old Barnes. Never going to get a regular start at left wing

Not enough emojis for a Hope exclusive. ⚔️ - CLASH 🥊 - INFIGHTING 💣 - EXPLOSIVE

Well yeah. Exactly. Said as much on another post about Howe and his HT subs. Worded this badly, perhaps. It’s not either or.

Arguably his greatest asset for us, has been how good he is as a sweeper keeper. Meaning we can push higher up the pitch. But we haven't played with such a high line since the 4th place season and he also doesn't seem quite as confident/suicidal with flying off his line these days, anyway.

Yep. The aggression and intensity has totally disappeared from our game for the most part. Players getting bounced, not paying attention, looking lazy and a bit uninterested. It was mentioned last season as something that had dropped off. But I think there were mitigating factors a lot of the time and there were still games where we really went for it. Even if we did gas and could only do it for a half or so due to the inability to rotate and rest players. I'm hoping it isn't a case of people putting 2 and 2 together with the Bunce appointment and our shift to an urecognisable side. But it is certainly odd how weak and passive we have looked and the sudden shift to whatever it is we are trying to do now.

Nah. It was his left. Ball came back in, he saved it after his fuck up and Burn blasted it in for some reason Agree with this. What sort of money would we be getting for him off the back of that injury? Who were we going to replace him with when we were already struggling with PSR and that Marmaduke fella was being touted for about £30-40m? Get Trafford in and hope he suddenly gets better at such a young age, but for quite a large fee? Would it even make sense at the numbers quoted at that point to change keepers for a bit of a loss or for no gain PSR-wise? Obviously we could have got yet another keeper in. As we didn't spend fuck all but I doubt that was expected by many.

On here? Not a chance, IMO. Even quite a few of his big critics on here wouldn't be that trigger happy at such an early stage, I don't think. The Howe v Mitchell thread sort of suggests as much.

Reading the Bournemouth fan's views. This bit really stuck out as something that is starting to become noticeable: "but in his latter days he did show a bit of an unwillingness to change style and personel which held us a back a bit." I feel like he is reluctant to play Gordon and Barnes from the off. I think it is a bit of a failure on his part so far, as they are both too good to be sat on the bench and they offer some of our only attacking threat during a game. Especially when the other wide options are pretty poor or it would mean someone out of position from CM playing out wide. So not much different to rotating them right and left and both having spells in their less preferred position. The blind loyalty to Burn at LB last season and then also at CB this season. Where despite some very good performances so far, he has also struggled and made some howlers. I'm really surprised he doesn't at least try Kelly there. Burn has to drop off because of his lack of mobility and speed and the gap between the midfield and back 4 is just as bad as a lot of last season, because of this. Longstaff has also been seemingly undroppable for large spells and when the trio of Tino, him and Murphy form our right hand side. The football is non-existent. The team just appears a bit rigid and with plan A only at this stage. I mean in regards to formation and approach, or lack thereof, from the off. The double and triple subs at HT could be seen as positive or a negative, depending which way you want to look at it. Massively contradicting myself on a lot of the above now But I mentioned similar a couple of times the other day. We don't seem set on our full backs, we now have 5 centre midfielders available who have all been first team regulars for spells during Howe's time here. The right wing slot has certainly not been locked down by anyone. Regular changes to a side under Howe, especially unforced ones to the back 4, seem fairly rare in my head when we only have one game per week? So maybe he is tinkering to get results. But it is actually having a detrimental effect? It might be blind faith. But the fact we haven't settled on a consistent lineup or got any sort of rhythm yet. Makes me think we will start to do better as the season progresses and certain players actually play themselves into a bit of form. It's just a shame that the next 5 games look so tricky.

I don’t see how it is that small of a sample size from my POV. I have been to the Emirates probably 10-15 times over the years. Work and socialise with plenty of them. My Dad and some more of my family support them. I live about a 50 minute train from the ground. There has been a noticeable shift in their behaviour. The way they went on after our 0-0 there the other season. You’d think we’d invented shithousing and time wasting. Never heard anything like it post-match. People say Liverpool fans are entitled and have a victim mentality (not relating to THAT by the way). But this lot are miles clear in that regard, currently. I know all fans are fickle, hypocritical, blinkered and only seem to focus on the injustices against them from refs. But there are levels to it. It’s a shame that Arteta has made them such an unlikeable team and fanbase. As I’d rather someone else other than City keep winning it. Just not Chelsea or Man U, mind. If the ends justify the means and they win the league. Then what will they care. I just find it mildly amusing that they’re now like Mourinho’s Chelsea. Masters of the dark arts, blame everyone but themselves, incredibly boring to watch a lot of weeks, 4 centre backs, heavily reliant on set pieces (jealous of that BTW). When they were always the moral arbiters of how football should be played under Wenger for so many years of my life and would often act like that sort of stuff was beneath them

It certainly is. But isn’t Howe renowned for being meticulous? Very analytical and data driven with his coaching set up based on all the previous interviews and comments. There is no way they are not aware of the issues. I think based on his body of work here so far. I would have confidence in him figuring out what is going wrong (quite a lot ATM) and turning it round. It’s not ideal getting it so wrong to start with. But the personnel changes and subs at HT the last two games show he is looking to tweak things early and not just let it continue. It feels like he has made more changes to the starting XI than usual over the first 5 games and all. Which could be perceived as a good or a bad thing. But again, looks like he is trying to adjust and get us performing better. Whereas at times in the past. He could be stubborn with the subs and persisting with the same or very similar starting lineup every game. I think we have played well in patches. Start and the end of the Wolves and Bournemouth games. Early on against Spurs. Only seen extended highlights from Saturday. But the second half looked ok. After one of our worst first halves in months/years. I suppose the main issue is. How do we start playing with some consistency and not playing like shit for an hour of the game or more? Hopefully he can figure that out sooner rather than later. As this 5 game stretch and then quite a few games after that. Do not look easy.

I have a fair few Arsenal fans in the family and some good mates who support them. Said a few times on here. They’ve been a bit like a second team for me over the years. But Arteta’s carry on has certainly changed the way their fanbase are. All fans are guilty of the woe is me shit. Or thinking the refs against them. All the borderline conspiracy stuff and usual biased viewpoints. But the ‘them and us’ mentality they seem to have imagined out of nowhere is so strange. They seem to blame everyone else for all their issues and mirror the way their whingebag manager carries on in the media and the dugout/halfway up the touchline. They also have a very strange and worryingly horny online fanbase for their own players. They can’t get enough of fawning over Ben White FFS I thought we were bad with the Cabaye and Schar stuff.

The Originals stuff looks top class. Will buy the genuine article I think and not look around for DH Gate specials.

Yeah. Can’t disagree. I was more meaning the tactics we have used against City previously have had a bit of success, at times. We’ll have to sit deep a lot of the time due to their dominance on the ball. It’s just whether we look to press high when the opportunity presents itself. As we have been brave with that against them under Howe in a few games. Also, the direct approach that created two goals and a couple of chances in this fixture last season. Before we ran out of steam and conceded our customary late goal. It would just be nice to see some sort of performance and something to build on.

Might finally be playing a team where our tactics actually match up quite well. Playing direct over the top on the break got a fair bit of joy against them last season. The problem is. We haven't looked like ourselves and the goals we have conceded have been very weak. There has been due to so many mistakes, individually and collectively. We'll get an absolute hammering if the defending across the pitch is the same or similar to the last 5 games.

Almost feel sorry for Arsenal. Played a blinder with 11 and again with 10. But then it’s Arteta, so I can’t be too arsed. It is effective and they are brilliant at it. But fuck me. I find them dull as fuck to watch with a lead. Did the same thing against Spurs with 11 once a goal up. So drilled that they just give up on attacking, shut everything down defensively and then shithouse their way to the win. Would obviously love it if we were good enough to start doing similar again! But it is grim to watch as a neutral.

In to out and then a swim move. Looks like an elite pass rusher.