Checko

Yeah absolutely, such a shame he got injured when he did as he could have got a proper good run of games this year. He's still pretty inexperienced at this level though so I reckon could improve rapidly even over the next couple of months.

His mentality is great. Always wants the ball, looking to make things happen. He's someone who wants to be substituted on to take part in a penalty shootout. You need people like that in the team. The main criticism I'd have so far is he seems to want to take (for me) too many touches a lot of the time, always wants to dribble that extra 5/10 yards before making the pass. Hopefully he can speed up his play a little when required 'cause he has some good stuff in his game. That backheel pass to Barnes was absolute quality.

It's still the ref's decision I believe. The problem I think is that refs only get told to look at the monitor if VAR have deemed it to be a clear and obvious error/serious missed incident. So the fact that refs are being asked to look means that it's already been placed in their mind that the booth has analysed from many angles and thinks they need to overturn the decision. Difficult for them to actually then go against it. It would be interesting to hear them have discussions with the fourth official like you hear in Rugby where it seems to work well and the ref won't always go with the video official.

Bloody hell. First 25 minutes or so was an absolute full-on coeliac shitshow. It was worse than Bruno's kneeslide. Looked like Howe adjusted a bit - Murphy started playing as more of a second full back to counter the 2v1s on the left and it was a bit more even the end of the first half though we were still making a lot of sloppy errors. Better second half. I like the look of a Barnes Isak Gordon front three. Overall got away with it a bit today, though I don't remember them having too many clear cut chances. Points on the board with so many out is a good day. Did anyone else start hearing O Fortuna playing when Dummett was being readied?

We really need a couple of players who move the ball quickly. Everybody in midfield wants to take 3 or four touches everytime. No-one's moving to make themselves available. We're very ponderous on the ball.

This is an absolute shitshow defensively, matched only by the absolute shitshow on the ball.

Pope Trippier Lascelles Botman Targett Miley Tonali Big Jo Miggy Tino Wilson Pretty solid line-up. Wish some of them were fit.

Would rather play Isak in the middle behind the striker than shove him out wide. He likes to drift around and has an eye for a pass so I could see him doing well there. On the other hand a top class No 10 to play behind Isak would probably be my first choice.

Disappointing, should have won that. Second half we were quite poor though. They pushed higher up and as usual we struggled to get out a lot against a press, though we made some chances on the counter. Always felt like one of the old Ashley guard was going to gift them a soft goal though. Thought Burn was was solid at CB, no-one else really stood out apart from Isak. Barnes did some nice bits first half. Bruno a bit quiet for the most part. Longstaff was poor again unfortunately. Guy needs a break from the first team. Anderson lively but still takes too many touches all the time. Too many dilly dalliers in the team at times and not enough quicky quicky passy passy. Particularly under pressure. Thought Newcastle United Fan Lewis Hall did pretty well though. Which was nice. Hope he's starting a lot more. That very static back four with bruno deep and the other 2 CMs standing miles in front and wide from him way of playing out needs to be changed. Bruno never has anyone near him to link with.

First one I think was a pen. Soucek makes contract and doesn't even complain. Second one is no way in hell a penalty. 'Oh but he kicked Gordon'. Doesn't matter. Football's not a no contact game. For it to be a foul you'd have to say that Phillips was being careless, reckless or using excessive force. "Careless is when a player shows a lack of attention or consideration when making a challenge or acts without precaution. No disciplinary sanction is needed" [not worth bothering with the other two] No way would I say Phillips is being careless. He's just kicking the ball. Like footballers do. Because they're playing football. Gordon jumps in front of him from his blind side as he's kicking and just blocks him. If anything Gordon's fouled him by impeding him with contact. Seriously, you can't just block someone from kicking the ball and expect to get a free kick.

Also, I googled Cuthbert Ottaway because, well he's called Cuthbert Ottaway, and he was born in Kent [Dover], not East Sussex. Egregious.

Kieran Tierney's been shafted there

Is it just me who doesn't care about the Enagland badge thing? Just like I don't care we have black and green stripes on our second team kit badge. Or black and yellow stripes on our third team kit badge?

What a fucking season.

Would love it if at some point this year we could do something about that vast, cavernous expanse in front of our back line. With 4 CBs playing maybe now's the time to stick Schar in DM!

Plus the little git's always smiling as well. It's like he's revelling in his one-footedness and how much it annoys people.

Looking back at the .com transfer history, fuck me but we brought in some dross under Robson as well. It was nearly two years before we bought anyone good Bolded are what I'd say were good signings, Bolded and a star very good to great signings. Obviously a bit distant now and you'll have different memories, but: Kevin Gallacher Helder Gavilan Bassedas Cordone Cort - Maybe would have been better if not for injuries O Bernard [Free] Lua Lua Acuna Wayne Quinn Andrew O'Brien - Don't remember being especially good, but could be said to be value at £2million and 100plus appearences Bellamy* Robert* Distin [1 year loan] - Wish we'd made this permanent Jenas Viana - Shame this one Bramble Woodgate* - Darren Ambrose Bowyer [free] Milner* N'Zogbia* Kluivert Butt Carr Obviously Milner didn't do quite as much for us but he was still a great buy. A few other passable signings, but the Bellamy/Robert window aside, we weren't exactly killing it in the market.

Yay, we won at football!

Yeah he does come across to me as someone who lacks a bit in self-belief, which probably makes him a nicer person but a less effective fotbaler. He does have the most pornstar name in the premier league though, and those are the sort of intangibles you can't coach.

Good news is looks like we could maybe hold our own in the Championship

Just thought I'd mention fair play to Gordon for still chasing everything at 4-1 down in the 91st minute.

It's worth remembering the first 2 1/2 seasons Arteta was with Arsenal they finished 8th, 8th and 5th. And he would have started from a much higher point than Eddie. This year has been ridiculous in terms of fixtures and injuries. It's about as hard a season as we could get & the squad still needs significant upgrading. That said, there are some issues that have been coming up over and over again all year: We can't pass out of a press & our strikers are isolated & can't hold up direct balls, so there's not an easy counter to the press. No pressure on the ball and a flat midfield 3 while opponents drift around wherever they want in the space between our midfield and defence has been costing us all year and hasn't been addressed. I like Howe and hopefully he turns things around. Lots of times managers/teams have a bad year and bounce back the next year. We do just need to start actually playing better though. It's not just the lack of crazy pressing due to injuries: the way the team's set up just hasn't performed well for much of the season, and when it hasn't there's been no plan B. That's the biggest concern to me. I still want him as manager next year - we had a good year and a half of perfoming well above expectations. It'll be interesting to see how we do the rest of the season and how he copes with the underperforming. Sometimes things go well, sometimes they don't. It's how you deal with the difficult times that tell you the most.

I'd rather we took off one of longstaff or miley, moved gordon to a no 10 ish role and put barnes on the left. Go more 4231. Or maybe Burn on for one of them and do more of a 3-4-3 with Trips and Tino as Wingbacks. Our striker needs some support. We need some more pace in central midfield. This isn't just a today issue, this is really an all season issue - our 4-3-3 set up's just not working against pressure. With no Big Joe to kick it long to we have no way of moving the ball up the field.

I think last year we were doing better than expected and a lot of teams sat back more and let us be the team on the front foot. This year a lot more teams are challenging us for the intiative and to be honest we haven't coped well when they've done so. That said, we couldn't lay a glove on Arsenal last year either.

This is just dreadful. As with basically every team this year, if we get pressed in our own half we can't pass out of it and our striker won't win anything played direct, and even if he does has no support, so we have no out. Defensively, not really pressuring them, midfield is kind of sitting in a line and 3 or four of their guys are pottering about in the gap in front of our defence waiting for a pass.