Arsenal vs. Newcastle United: 18/05/25 @ 16:30 (Sky Sports)

[Kid Icarus]

3 minutes ago, Rich said:

Martinelli rejoined that session soon after, apparently.

Good tbh, he's been absolutely honkin' for ages so having Trossard in his best position would have improved them. 

[HayDen Traces]

Rice is their main man. He's such an athlete, without him I see us winning the mf battle. With him I think they edge it with big Joe missing.

[Ronaldo]

Rice is indeed a terrific player and I’d be almost confident of a win with him missing.

[Groundhog63]

Rice might be a terrific player but he's not averse to being a dirty ****

[STM]

They aren't motivated at all, not even against us. They only reason they got a draw at Anfield is because Liverpool went 2-0 up and got the slippers on.

 

Will they play for pride? I highly doubt it. Not unless we allow them to.

 

 

[HalloNUFC]

Lemme guess,

 

Villa & chekski would win their respective match on Friday followed by our defeat at Emirates.

 

Thus the euphoria of a chance to be 2nd will turn into an anxiety of missing UCL spot.

 

 

[PRL]

As with every game against the Sky 6, the coverage (at least that I’ve seen) is all about Arsenal getting second and having the squad back and how they could win the league next year. I hope this is being relayed to our lot in similar terms to the Manc game a couple of years back. If we actually do pull it out the bag and end up second then the narrative has to change. 
 

Conversely a tiny bit of me thinks that Eddie, if he could pick with no risk of missing out, might prefer us in 4th or 5th and another season a tiny bit more under the radar. 

[Mattoon]

Been checking the Arsenal forums to see how they're feeling, not entirely confident tbh. One thing that stands out across all the forums is a deep seated hatred for us and some misplaced feelings of injustice.

 

Win and they cement 2nd place, but looks like they aren't confident with their current injury woes, up front being the major issue.

[Likelylad]

1 hour ago, PRL said:

As with every game against the Sky 6, the coverage (at least that I’ve seen) is all about Arsenal getting second and having the squad back and how they could win the league next year. I hope this is being relayed to our lot in similar terms to the Manc game a couple of years back. If we actually do pull it out the bag and end up second then the narrative has to change. 
 

Conversely a tiny bit of me thinks that Eddie, if he could pick with no risk of missing out, might prefer us in 4th or 5th and another season a tiny bit more under the radar. 

I kinda enjoy not being the story.

We just go about our business and take care of it quietly. 

[Colos Short and Curlies]

It's the thick end of £10m difference finishing 5th and 2nd, a significant difference for us but not for Arsenal or indeed City.

 

Club motivation may well play a part on the next 2 hames

[Ketsbaia]

Lots of confidence in here!

[geordiekris]

Yeah I'm not confident at all. 
 

If this was at home or we weren't missing key players e.g. Joelinton, Trippier/Hall fair enough but I just don't see a win down there. 

[54]

With Botman potentially being injured, I would go back to the 4-3-3 and play this:

 

                  Pope

 

Krafth  Schar   Burn   Tino

 

     Miley  Tonali  Bruno

 

Barnes                        Gordon

                     Isak

[The Prophet]

5 hours ago, geordiekris said:

Yeah I'm not confident at all. 
 

If this was at home or we weren't missing key players e.g. Joelinton, Trippier/Hall fair enough but I just don't see a win down there. 

 

Is Trippier definitely out?

[Paully]

I’m sure footballers can’t play for a week after an injection and with Joelinton randomly having one last week, I wonder if he’ll start? Seems very odd for him to have one?

[mosstef]

31 minutes ago, 54 said:

With Botman potentially being injured, I would go back to the 4-3-3 and play this:

 

                  Pope

 

Krafth  Schar   Burn   Tino

 

     Miley  Tonali  Bruno

 

Barnes                        Gordon

                     Isak

 

I would just swap Krafth for Botman and still go 5-4-1 with Tino and Murph on the flanks. No reason to leave out Murphy with the form he's been showing.

[The Prophet]

This could be classic Howe mind games. We have no idea on the fitness of Trippier, Botman, Willock or Joelinton. The team could be anything really.

[Lush Vlad]

15 hours ago, Mattoon said:

Been checking the Arsenal forums to see how they're feeling, not entirely confident tbh. One thing that stands out across all the forums is a deep seated hatred for us and some misplaced feelings of injustice.

 

Win and they cement 2nd place, but looks like they aren't confident with their current injury woes, up front being the major issue.

 

Their fans have been like this with a lot of teams for a while.  Their players have become insufferable, too.  I wonder what the common denominator is?  Could it be they are reflecting the whiney, waxwork cunt in the dugout? 

[SUPERTOON]

2 hours ago, The Prophet said:

This could be classic Howe mind games. We have no idea on the fitness of Trippier, Botman, Willock or Joelinton. The team could be anything really.

Mind games how? He hasn’t said anything about their fitness since last weekend, when Tripps, Willock and Joelinton missed out with injury, and Botman came off with a knock?

[Superior Acuña]

Changing to their new home shirt. Rattled.

 

 

Edited 6 hours ago by Superior Acuña

[Ikon]

2 hours ago, The Prophet said:

This could be classic Howe mind games. We have no idea on the fitness of Trippier, Botman, Willock or Joelinton. The team could be anything really.

Could also be you wishing for what you would want. 

[BennyBlanco]

17 hours ago, PRL said:

If we actually do pull it out the bag and end up second then the narrative has to change. 

 

I’ve already seen the narrative in certain WhatsApp groups and on twitter. This is the worst season ever apparently. The quality of football has been poor and Liverpool romping it by 20 odd points is an indicator of that. 
 

Purely coincidental that this narrative coincides with Us, Villa and Forest rocking the boat and United and Spurs basically finishing bottom of the table. . . . 

[The Prophet]

9 minutes ago, Ikon said:

Could also be you wishing for what you would want. 

 

Obviously I'd prefer us to have more bodies available, but I think we'll give them a game regardless. 

[Kanj]

38 minutes ago, Ikon said:

Could also be you wishing for what you would want. 

 

Waiting for Arteta’s excuses if they get beaten in it. 

[HalloNUFC]

7 hours ago, 54 said:

With Botman potentially being injured, I would go back to the 4-3-3 and play this:

 

                  Pope

 

Krafth  Schar   Burn   Tino

 

     Miley  Tonali  Bruno

 

Barnes                        Gordon

                     Isak

What if we go with 3 in the back again but with lascelles instead of botman?