Lush Vlad

The state of some of the replies in here I can only assume people think that sitting so deep and not countering was a choice? Or that we should have BROUGHT ON SUBS. Like Karius up top. Or Dummett left wing. Or Lascelles on and Schar centre mid I do think we could have done better for all of the goals. But you think they’re not saying the same about our two? Sometimes quality just shines through and we’ve been undone by the best club side in world football. Struggling to see where the problem is.

Absolute sickener that. Shame Trippier has been done yet again with switching off. As he was probably our best player up to that point. Hard to be too upset. They deserved the win and it would have been a lot worse if not for some great goalkeeping, defending and wayward finishing. We gave it a good go.

Understandable to think that. We had a couple of early chances and then looked miles off it. With them queuing up to score again. If they got a 2nd in that spell, which looked inevitable. Then they would have battered us. Momentum is massive in football. That Forest game for example, should be 2 up and then go in 1-1 and capitulate second half. Can understand why people are negative of late with some of our results and performances. I still think they will have too much for us. But barring us totally wilting this half. It’s nice to see us back to something like the team we saw for most of last year.

The midfield does look overmatched! But then most do against City. Got some pace in the front three at least and they are leaving space on the counter. A week between games and a front three that look full of running making all the difference. They could still run up a score. But the counter is there and we will keep getting chances at 2-1 or 2-2. It’s the hope that kills you.

9 yellows We’re struggling as it is of late with him in the team. Him missing for 2 games is going to be a nightmare. Can’t take his passion away. But he must realise he isn’t quick enough to be launching in like that all the while.

Three players and none of them fancied scoring Not going to get many better chances to score against City than that. Awful from Bruno and Almiron. Pass from Gordon was kind of to nobody in particular and all.

Willian has done him a favour by not going down like he’s had his legs blown off. That’s a red all day long.

Barely plays for Arsenal. Injury prone. Not the quickest or athletic. What a signing that would be.

On the other end of the scale and sticking with the ‘keepers are usually over-protected theme’. This was a foul on the keeper

Yeah, that Trafford is terrible and weak as piss. But Adebayo is a unit and that looks a clear foul, to me.

turf toe, aye.

Oooh. Don’t you know?…

I'm yet to see it with Anderson when he plays centre mid. But I always thought he looked really promising out wide. More importantly, Howe seems to like and trust him. So instead of our wingers burning out whilst Hall and Ritchie sit on the bench. Or playing the same CM's in 3 games across 6 days. Or rushing CM's back from injury. We would have had a genuine option for both these areas of the pitch.

To play devil's advocate. I think there are a few explainable reasons for the injuries. Joelinton has beefed up considerably and now plays in a very demanding role. He played through a number of injuries last season and always seems to be carrying knocks and niggles. I feel like he has been rushed back a couple of times this season. Willock barely played before joining us. He was never a regular at Arsenal and was usually coming off the bench or starting cup games, from memory. Also felt like he was rushed back this season and played too many games close together. Due to how light on numbers we were. Isak has certainly been injury prone since joining. But I think that is understandable looking at his frame and the role he is now playing in Howe's system. Again, he looked like he was unable to sprint for 5-6 games when he came back from injury. Before that, he was playing strapped up and seemed to only be playing because Wilson was injured. The recurring theme seems to be players coming back early from injuries. Then breaking down again with another injury or reaggravating the same injury. I kind of understand it as we have been so short of players at times this season. But hardly working out in the long run, as we are in a similar position months later. Howe didn't rotate much when he had the chance and the players we have on the bench are not up to standard. So no way they are getting on. Hopefully plenty of lessons learned.

A couple of months for Barnes when he's out on the grass running and booting balls about? I bloody hope not! All with a massive pinch of salt, of course. As our return dates invariably end up being pushed back. But it sounded to me like we might have some attacking options back sooner rather than later. 6 players for 3 positions. Imagine that! It's the midfield where we sound completely fucked.

Ah 100%. Always seems like you can tack on quite a few weeks/months to any potential return date.

Listened to Howe's injury update on Twitter. Murphy sounds like he is very close and Barnes not too far behind him. So maybe if we are lucky, Murphy will be back. Willock and Anderson sound more like March or even later.

Ok. *further derail our season. As in, those ‘winnable’ games will now be losses. As we will play the same tactics, with players that are ill-suited to the system. Resulting in us finishing bottom half. The injuries have fucked us, yes. But this seems like the cherry on the top of a shit flavoured cupcake.

Certainly an element of me being pissed off. So sorry for the hyperbole. But this could really derail our season. Our midfield 3 is slow as fuck and looks really flat and imbalanced without Big Joe. Can’t rely on Willock to be fit this season and Tonali getting banned has royally fucked us. There is no athleticism there. To make matters worse, I don’t think Longstaff has been at the levels of last season and Miley is understandably a bit tactically naive. He gets caught out miles out of position a lot of the time. Gets drawn to the ball and loses position, I think. Throw in Bruno starting deep, but also needing to drive us forward on the ball and press off of it. We end up with a 30-40 yard gap between our midfield and defence. Not that we are spoilt for choice with the options we have. But I feel like it would be suicidal carrying on with the same tactics with the current midfield 3.

They used to always be top quality up Newmarket races. Always good value and got the crowd going.

Bad enough that such a boring tie has been selected for TV. Then you see the kick off time! Just a massive fuck you to the fans. Good luck getting a train back after.

Primary school teacher His Twitter seems fairly balanced and fair

Fucking hell. Just seen it

Was expected, I suppose. I feel like they will walk through our midfield without him.