Jaqen

Great finsih.

He won't move but he'd probably be the perfect Gundogan replacement for them.

Been quite entertaining giving both teams are shite.

Get in

Shocking from Shelvey, so dumb.

He maybe aired on the side of caution a bit but it thought he looked quite good in possession yesterday. He picks it up and releases it and gets on the move again all really quickly. Too many of our players are slow or sloppy in possession. Think he's shown enough positive signs in his limited time so far. Want to see him, Isak and ASM get a run together now. That could potentially be a quite fluid and fast front 3.

His forms dropped but he should really have at least a few assists to his name since the WC where he's put them on a plate for someone to miss a sitter. Feel for him a bit as he's having to deal with Longstaff and an out of form Almiron on that right side and there's too much reliance on him from an attacking point of view. He's constantly given the ball in tricky situations and theres not a lot of movement around him.

We've scored 3 goals since the start of the year and are still 5th with a possibility of being 4th if we win our games in hand. It's not as doom and gloom as some are making out. We aren't going to be palying City or Liverpool a man down most weeks. We've had 12 months of top 4 form and are creating enough chances to be winning most games still. The fact we've had such a bad run and are still in such a strong position says alot about our rivals as well. There's more chance we regain some form than continue missing sitters every week. Might not be enough for 4th but I'd very very surprised if we drop to 9th like some are claiming.

Basically what happened at Leicester with Rodgers, they tailed off and finished 5th twice in a row and it was viewed as a failure by their fans. Despite it being a big achievement and huge step up from the midtable finishes they were used to in the previous years.

I want him starting too but he is a different type of threat to Wilson. He's done some great individual work in his cameos but I don't think we've really looked like scoring more with him instead of Wilson. If he's pulling defenders out wide or drifting into channels you need one of the midfield three bursting into the box and the wide players making much better runs. It's not really a criticism of Isak just more that we'll have to adapt to him and work on things on the training ground to get the best out of him and the team with him in it. I'm sure we will going forward and I think the cup was a distraction in that sense. I'd be very surprised if he doesn't start changing things up now.

I hate the logic that Wilson missed the chance, Isak would have buried it that some people use. Not accusing you of using it, mind. Murphy flashed two brilliant balls across the box when Isak was on and he was nowhere near them. Infact nobody was. Isak clearly has a lot of ability and will turn into a great player for us but he's a totally different player to Wilson. In this system though he's prone to dropping too deep or drifting wide and not being in the right position for balls into the box at times. His style seems to fit a more fluid system where forwards interchange. Right now he looks great on the ball but then we often have nobody at all in the box. I don't think it's as simple as just hoying Isak into that front three instead of Wilson and everything will be much better. We will need to make adjustments elsewhere too.

Arsenal behind already

Murphy/Gordon, Isak and ASM next week from the start.

Murphy has put some cracking balls in here to be fair.

Game over.

Our whole season since the WC has felt like one of those scripted FIFA games where you just can't score no matter what you do. Players just glitching out when you get a chance

Just as he gets carded

Wilson ffs

Got to score there man.

Pretty sure he came out and said he'd have saved them from relegation if he played those extra games as well. Which didn't help

Aye the too nice thing is absolute bollocks. He keeps his emotions in check and is very careful what he says in the press. Behind closed doors we don't know how he acts really. The stories you hear from Longstaff etc aren't being too nice it's great man management and realising what an individual needs to feel wanted and perform. Fergie came across as an aggressive hothead and was notorious for his hairdryer treatment but from all the players stories there was plenty of players he had who never once got that and got nothing but love from him as he knew that's what they needed. A manger like Keane screaming and giving everyone a bollocking doesn't work. You need to find the right balance as a manager and the fact that's he's managed to completely change the squad morale and have everyone on side and fighting for him shows he's doing something right.

Individually he's great as a 6 or an 8 but it's clearly a problem for the team that our most creative midfielder and only one with any real quality on the ball is our deepest. He can influence things much more in the final third playing as an 8. I think some are forgetting how good he was there last season and that was with Shelvey anchoring. Imagine if we had a Casemiro/Rodri/Partey type in there suddenly our midfield looks so much more balanced.

Was a tough call for Eddie with it being a final. I'm sure Isak will play a lot more going forward now. He started Bournemouth away and played like Shola wearing Berens shoes. He was awful. Clearly massively talented but the front three are on completely different wavelengths regardless of who starts in the middle. I'd be tempted to try Gordon out left and Maxi behind Isak. We need something different. Swapping out one striker for another alone won't do a whole lot imo.

It's pointless arguing between each other, man. This is going to be the worst side we have for a very long time. We are only going to get better and better and trophies will come with that. We have our club back, we are competitive and ambitious now. The fans were amazing and did us all proud over the whole weekend. Forum members have travelled from all corners of the world to be together, be it at Wembley or at the meetup in town. We've had people sorting each other tickets out, even some giving theirs away to others. It's been amazing. This is what football and the forum is all about. Bring on the next one!

We barely threatened them to be fair. They never once looked nervous at the back. They managed the game really well given they'd be knacked from their Barca effort. They had enough to change the game and bring pace off the bench if they needed it. We may have looked the better team to some but that was by design, they wanted to us to go at them and dominate the possession as they sat back and waited for counter opportunities.