Lush Vlad

Went bananas for Isak’s goal. Even though I thought he looked off. I’ve been far more reserved since VAR has come in. Didn’t celebrate Murphy’s. Almost felt sweeter

Almost picture perfect. Another goal on the break so that I have some fingernails left would be lovely. They’ve had one great chance, another decent one and their flurry of corners. We’ve been solid otherwise.

Plus Burn v Martinelli is far from ideal I think Trippier and Hall will tuck into midfield at times in possession. But Hall won’t be playing there in a 4-3-3 I wouldn’t have thought.

I reckon they’ll start Martinelli and Nwaneri.

True. They didn’t need to be their usual Stoke’like self against City though. Mainly due to big mistakes from City and some good fortune. But they barely relied on set pieces at all. I’d rather we stuck with our same system and think we’d manage the game from open play much better that way. We’ll find out what the team is in 27 minutes. I should probably just wait until then to comment

Yeah. Trippier and Hall would be coming into midfield a bit I would have thought. But I’m guessing they will have been drilling this and Howe must have liked what he saw. Whilst I don’t like the look of it on paper and I think it sends out the wrong message psychologically. This isn’t like the Pardew and Bruce days of just changing formation on a whim and almost week to week. If we were to go with 5 at the back. You’d like to think it has been drilled extensively over the season at different times in training.

Not read anything about the game at all today. But that would be a bit odd. Seeing as we haven’t done it much under Eddie since his first season. In Howe we trust. Even if it is 5-5-0

Punters are certainly keen on the Goonbags chances. Was 11/2 Arsenal to qualify and around 1/7 or 1/8 for NUFC. Now trading around 2/7 and 3/1.

Had a quick chat with Mick Quinn on Sunday. As he drinks in my local. He is adamant that Saturday was just the players having one eye on this game. Whether meaning to or not. I mean, they’re professional athletes and we’re gunning for Europe. So I doubt that, myself. I also know Quinny can be a wafflebag. But as an ex-pro he would know better than most.

The fact I will have died of a heart attack before the winning penalty has gone in

I’m in a team meeting all day. My boss and one other in said meeting are Arsenal fans. Unbearable. Get me out of here and back home for the game.

Don’t forget the Oxo cube garnish.

It’s not like you to worry and expect the worst?!

Which should then leave massive gaps. Bassey did the same at times on Saturday. We need to be utilising that a lot better and finding ways to get other players involved to exploit the space. The same way teams do to us at times when they draw Schar and Burn out. Against Bournemouth. The service to him and ability to even get out of our own half was pathetic. A lot of it was contested, hard to control balls or long balls to him. Both their CB’s were dominant. So I’m not ready to just chalk it up to CB’s following him = him struggling. He is good enough to draw fouls, play cute passes round the corner, beat his man etc.

Hopefully he is back to that again. Seemed like the plan against Bournemouth and Fulham was to leave our front 3 high. Isak in particular was isolated and uninvolved in both. When he has licence to roam about and drop a bit deeper. We look so much better as a team. He is too good to leave up there feeding off scraps.

The Wor Flags displays are brilliant and should help get it going from the off and then continue during the game. Everyone sings along and it sounds even louder with the idiot DJ having the volume turned up to 11. Then the whistle goes and everyone sits down in silence. As if people are blaming the players or the lack of a flag display for the shit atmosphere

Imagine Pope in that God awful, pass it around at the back for ages system that Parker plays There wouldn’t be as many 0-0’s for the fans to complain about

What was it Baldwards asked when he was trying to go away from the standard line of questioning? Didn’t he basically just tell Eddie he was boring Not a lot of tricky questions or insight in the press conferences.

The 7-3 at their place was not fun

Is the 3-4-2-1 in vogue? West Ham appeared to be playing with that formation last night. Forest started with it (sort of more a 1-2 up top, I guess) at the weekend with great success. They often switch to something similar late in the game. Wolves play it. Palace usually set up with it, I think? Man U allegedly play that formation. Southampton under Juric, maybe? Seemed to be set up like it against us and Man U, anyway. Probably just not been paying attention. But it feels like more teams are playing with this formation this season.

Agree with this. The fans usually up it for the big teams, as do the players. The two might be linked and reciprocated between those on the pitch and those in the stands.

Not dismissing it at all. It is purely IMO, you seem to be worrying about something that I'm not particularly worried about. So I don't see where you're coming from at all and so that is what it seems like to me. It seems like we've gone a long way round to get there. But basically, you think the defence needs a total rebuild in the next season or two. Getting rid of Kelly for a tidy profit actually helps with this by the sounds of it. So I don't see the other side of the coin here in relation to that player. I don't see the positives in keeping him, if you want or think we need a big rebuild in the very short term. Anyway, I'll duck out. Because we're both repeating ourselves and I've bored myself with it all.

The 6-1 against Spurs. When Kane scored and got it back to 5-1, they started having a few attacks and should have got another from memory. You could even sense the restlessness then

Yep. Southampton semi was the same and I certainly felt a bit like it myself. When in reality, they needed two goals just to get it to extra time! Against Fulham. The minute the second half kicked off and they went on an early promising attack. You could feel it in the atmosphere and it kept getting worse the longer it went on. It just felt like a matter of time before they scored. Then the fans found their voice for a bit after their goal, we made some changes and actually responded quite well and should have gone 2-1 up. But it's a shame we waited until that point. I think the years of false dawns and not winning anything has done a number on our fanbase.

I'm not even sure what point you're making now? You think it was the right decision to get rid of Kelly? But we also should have kept him because the defence needs a rebuild? This despite him not featuring much or looking like he was close to getting a run of games? I think you're massively over-thinking this massive rebuild and seemingly more worried than me about it. As it's hardly something that has crept up on us and it can be addressed each summer for the next 2-3 seasons. Dubravka has been off for a while, Trippier the same. So we must be planning for that? We keep getting linked with a replacement for Dubs or Pope, we were close to signing a RCB last summer and I think Schar and Burn have a couple of seasons left if they're going to be playing less and they're happy to take more of rotation type role here. Krafth as cover for Tino is far from ideal, but not a disaster. But I do agree a right back is becoming a priority. Again, I don't follow the PSR stuff. But some big earners will be off the books soon and we keep hearing that this summer there will be a lot more money to spend. Just a starting quality RCB and RW makes us massively stronger, even if we are losing quite a few squad filler players. As they're just not contributing and it would mean the likes of Schar and Murphy become viable back ups and not there just to make the numbers up. Which is what it felt like with Almiron and Kelly.