The Arsenal v Aston Villa, Sunday 14 April, 4.30pm

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Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn

The smartest approach would be to try and win the game 1st half and then manage it second half. I don’t think we can fuck around by starting Nelson etc on Sunday…plus we’ve had a five day gap between games, so as long as a lot of our players aren’t playing the full 90 minutes should be fine for Munich on Wednesday

City will rest players today I imagine, but that’s because a) they’ve got greater squad depth and b) they are playing Luton

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Well ok, I admit I probably wouldn't start Nelson when it came to it but I think someone like ESR can do a job against Villa, that's I'm really saying, Arteta stuck rigidly to the same 11 last season and a) we became too predictable and b) I think some players did get a bit fatigued which cost us IMO

I'm pretty sure at least some of you were making exactly those same points this time last season and we didn't even have European football to contend with that time

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Originally Posted by Mac76

Well ok, I admit I probably wouldn't start Nelson when it came to it but I think someone like ESR can do a job against Villa, that's I'm really saying, Arteta stuck rigidly to the same 11 last season and a) we became too predictable and b) I think some players did get a bit fatigued which cost us IMO

I'm pretty sure at least some of you were making exactly those same points this time last season and we didn't even have European football to contend with that time

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I freely admit I have called on Arteta to rotate his squad, and actually to a degree when you consider we haven’t had a settled First XI in the last four games he kind of has

But I’m also mindful of the fact that despite my belief to the contrary that City did not rest players against Luton (why the fuck do they get to play on Saturday and us on Sunday by the way) and I’m a bit wary of a team that is battling for top four. Villa have one of the best records at the Emirates winning four of fifteen matches they’ve played here. This is not some relegation battling team or a team with nothing else to play for.
It’s a team that like us is balancing league and European commitments.
Good Ebening can spring a surprise for definite, just like Tuchel did

As to why Man City play on Saturday and us on Sunday, it might have fallen this anyway but

Villa played on Thursday.

So why can't we play at 2 rather than 4:30? Give us a little more time to recover.

This may be misguided and could age like milk but I’m actually feeling quite confident about this game. It’s a definite banana skin but I’m starting to trust this lot to navigate those.

COYG!

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Originally Posted by WMUG

So why can't we play at 2 rather than 4:30? Give us a little more time to recover.

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You’re not suggesting the TV schedules should be disrupted, surely? :unsure:

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Originally Posted by Letters

This may be misguided and could age like milk but I’m actually feeling quite confident about this game. It’s a definite banana skin but I’m starting to trust this lot to navigate those.

COYG!

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I take the same view, we should be confident of beating anyone outside Citeh and Liverpool tbh and we've four points off both of those this season

The only games I'm really concerned about are Moan U amd Spuds away, because of those fixtures' unpredictability, we absolutely have to play our best game with our best players

I don’t feel confident about this game at all

I’m expecting a fuck up because this is the time for it

Then again felt same way against Brighton. The only game I was confident about was Bayern :haha: me

We’re overdue a balls up so I’m a little bit nervous. Too much PTSD associated with this part of the season.

Feel it could be like the Brentford game which was fairly even and we had to dig in to get the winner.

I think we'll win well tbf