FA Cup semi-final draw, 13/03/17 21:30 GMT.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

1: Chelsea
2. Manchester City
3. Tottenham Hotspur
4. Arsenal.

The semi-final ties will be played across the weekend of April 22-23, 2017.

Come on Arsenal. :bow:

Guess Spuds at Wembley would be the best out of the expectant teams given they're rancid at that stadium.

[AFC Leveller]

Id fancy our chances against Man ure, not so much the other teams. Spuds would be a decent game to watch since its at a neutral venue but City or Chelsea especially would be too much for this bunch.

[Marc Overmars]

Absolutely don't want United at this stage, Mourinho has Wenger on toast. He will be salivating at the prospect of denying him a trophy and probably ending his reign.

Spuds are probably the best bet for us given their flakiness.

It's going to be super tough though and I don't really have much hope of beating any of the top sides left.

Come on Millwall. :pray:

[selassie]

Absolutely don't want United at this stage, Mourinho has Wenger on toast. He will be salivating at the prospect of denying him a trophy and probably ending his reign.

Spuds are probably the best bet for us given their flakiness.

It's going to be super tough though and I don't really have much hope of beating any of the top sides left.

Come on Millwall. :pray:

Yep agreed, Spuds are our best bet and I don't particularly fancy facing them either.

I honestly don't think we'll make it past the semis.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Not long to go but probably a bit later than mentioned on the OP.

[Letters]

Excited to see who we'll be losing to :popcorn:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

It's time!

[Letters]

:popcorn:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Chelsea v Tottenham!

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Arsenal v Man City.

:popcorn:

[GP]

I'll take it

[Letters]

Hmm. Glad to have avoided Spurs with a side-dish of panic that it could be an Arsenal vs Spurs Final which would be unthinkable.
Obviously we'd lose to Chelsea in the Final anyway.

Our semi final should be quite good actually.

[Master Splinter]

Chelsea getting the easy home draw again. :rolleyes:

[Niall_Quinn]

Probably the best we could get. They'll play an open game at least, which gives us a prayer.

[Gooner23]

I'll take that.

[Globalgunner]

City it is. We have a chance

[Letters]

Wenger :bow:

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

that's three premier league fixtures that are going to need to be rescheduled

Southampton game from over two weeks ago still hasn't been given a date yet

[selassie]

I actually think they are the weakest of the 3 teams we could have faced and our record against them isn't that bad to be fair. Despite that I'd make them favourites for the tie.

We are capable of beating them but it really depends on which Arsenal turns up.

[Marc Overmars]

Should be an open game, City won't make it difficult for us in that sense.

Whether we can raise our game or not is the question.

[Ernesto]

I actually think they are the weakest of the 3 teams we could have faced and our record against them isn't that bad to be fair. Despite that I'd make them favourites for the tie.

We are capable of beating them but it really depends on which Arsenal turns up.

This

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

It doesn't make any difference, sides know they only need press us on the ball to win.

City have a leaky defence but if the December game is indicative we won't see enough of the ball to test it

[Özim]

I reckon Aguero will win it for them.

[selassie]

It doesn't make any difference, sides know they only need press us on the ball to win.

City have a leaky defence but if the December game is indicative we won't see enough of the ball to test it

I agree and I do think they will beat us. The thing is, as sad as this sounds I would much rather lose to them than the Spuds or Chelsea.

[Globalgunner]

Yes, and we can argue they have more money than us, which cant be said if the Spuds beat us.

Moral cup:trophy:

[Letters]

I agree and I do think they will beat us. The thing is, as sad as this sounds I would much rather lose to them than the Spuds or Chelsea.

Honestly, if Spurs beat Chelsea I'd almost hope we lose to City, the thought of Spurs winning the FA Cup is bad enough, doing so by beating us... :sick:

[GP]

Honestly, if Spurs beat Chelsea I'd almost hope we lose to City, the thought of Spurs winning the FA Cup is bad enough, doing so by beating us... :sick:

That would take pride of place on their website alongside Ipswich Hospitals Charity Cup 1972 (shared)

[Letters]

On the other hand...beating Spurs in the FA Cup Final would be a fitting way for Wenger to leave :cloud9:

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

On the other hand...beating Spurs in the FA Cup Final would be a fitting way for Wenger to leave :cloud9:

I think we all need to get to stage five - acceptance

He's going nowhere, if we finish below the top 4 if we fail to win the fa cup that contract will be signed.

He can't bear to go.

[Letters]

I think he'll stay but one can dream...

[selassie]

Honestly, if Spurs beat Chelsea I'd almost hope we lose to City, the thought of Spurs winning the FA Cup is bad enough, doing so by beating us... :sick:

Aye...I don't think it could get any worse than losing to them in the Cup Final, it would be unbearable.....couple that with us finishing below them and dare I say out of the top 4 and I think Wenger would be really walking the tight rope.

I actually have a feeling they will beat Chelsea...

[Globalgunner]

Aye...I don't think it could get any worse than losing to them in the Cup Final, it would be unbearable.....couple that with us finishing below them and dare I say out of the top 4 and I think Wenger would be really walking the tight rope.

I actually have a feeling they will beat Chelsea...

Its at Wembley so in essence they are at home, but they are lousy at Wembley. In reality if they can beat Chelsea they will deserve it. Methinks Conte will do the double in his first season. Ouch!

[IBK]

Its at Wembley so in essence they are at home, but they are lousy at Wembley. In reality if they can beat Chelsea they will deserve it. Methinks Conte will do the double in his first season. Ouch!

Ouch indeed - shows what can be achieved through astute manager recruitment!

[Gooner23]

Watching Chelsea last night, albeit against 10 men, they are so organised defensively and rock solid in midfield. A million miles away from our shambles.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Watching Chelsea last night, albeit against 10 men, they are so organised defensively and rock solid in midfield. A million miles away from our shambles.

That team that went out last night cost over 200million pound, so you'd hope so.

[Özim]

The basis for all top teams is being organised and efficient defensively, you start there and then work on improving your offensive abiity. Offensively we're not too bad, if a little one dimensional and don't like to shoot outside the 5 yard area, but defensively, well where do I start, we're awful and have been for a long time, no organisation, players in defence who don't know how to defend, don't play as a unit and no real leadership for the back line.

You can't win anything with a defence like that and there's no chance of beating superior teams when it matters.

[Özim]

That team that went out last night cost over 200million pound, so you'd hope so.

It's not all about money, the Bayern team apparently costs less than us and are far superior. Building a solid defensive team is more about tactics, making the right signings and drilling players to be organised and play as one unit.

As for the midfield, again tactics and having the right blend of players is important.

Besides is 200 million that much, we spent 90 odd million on 3 players in the summer, on that basis if we average the same spend over other positions our net spend would be 330 million.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

It's not all about money, the Bayern team apparently costs less than us and are far superior. Building a solid defensive team is more about tactics, making the right signings and drilling players to be organised and play as one unit.

As for the midfield, again tactics and having the right blend of players is important.

Besides is 200 million that much, we spent 90 odd million on 3 players in the summer, on that basis if we average the same spend over other positions our net spend would be 330 million.

We spent 90 million during an inflated transfer market, unless you are telling me Xhaka and Mustafi would have cost a combined 70 million had we tried to sign them in 2014.

I keep seeing this Bayern team cheaper than ours, and even if the team on the night was cheaper i bet you their overall squad is much more expensive.

Martinez, Hummels, Neur, Vidal, Douglas Costa, Robben, Ribery, Alcantara, Lewandowski, Renato, Boateng

I make these players to have been about 250 million in transfer fees.

That plus they can attract pretty much any player they want in Germany because of their long standing reputation (nickname of FC Hollywood)

But of course it's totally about mental strength, money has no factor and Bayern don't make more commercially than us despite having far cheaper tickets

Do I also have to go through the tedious ritual of having to clarify that this doesn't absolve Wenger and that i want a better manager to make us tougher mentally and to take us forward, but that ultimately clubs that are bigger historically than us as well as clubs that can spend more than us will dominate both domestically and in europe.

[Power n Glory]

It's not all about money, the Bayern team apparently costs less than us and are far superior. Building a solid defensive team is more about tactics, making the right signings and drilling players to be organised and play as one unit.

As for the midfield, again tactics and having the right blend of players is important.

Besides is 200 million that much, we spent 90 odd million on 3 players in the summer, on that basis if we average the same spend over other positions our net spend would be 330 million.

We didn't look all that bad on defence when Merts and Sagna were in the team. It was more solid than our attack and now it looks like it's the reverse. No slight on their replacements, but this is the problem we'll always get under Wenger. Because he takes too long to address weak areas like our attack, by the time he's managed to work out our best attacking combo, we've lose key players in defence because of old age or having to sell. It keeps happening.

Good striker - Piss poor defence
Good Midfield -Piss poor strikers
Good Defence - Piss poor midfield and attack.

And around it goes.

[Özim]

We spent 90 million during an inflated transfer market, unless you are telling me Xhaka and Mustafi would have cost a combined 70 million had we tried to sign them in 2014.

I keep seeing this Bayern team cheaper than ours, and even if the team on the night was cheaper i bet you their overall squad is much more expensive.

Martinez, Hummels, Neur, Vidal, Douglas Costa, Robben, Ribery, Alcantara, Lewandowski, Renato, Boateng

I make these players to have been about 250 million in transfer fees.

That plus they can attract pretty much any player they want in Germany because of their long standing reputation (nickname of FC Hollywood)

But of course it's totally about mental strength, money has no factor and Bayern don't make more commercially than us despite having far cheaper tickets

Do I also have to go through the tedious ritual of having to clarify that this doesn't absolve Wenger and that i want a better manager to make us tougher mentally and to take us forward, but that ultimately clubs that are bigger historically than us as well as clubs that can spend more than us will dominate both domestically and in europe.

We spent 90 million because we don't do our homework and wait until the end of the transfer window, so we overpend one players that aren't worth that much, Mustafi being a prime example (Xhaka we massively overpaid for when Kante who was proven in the PL could have been bought for less).

Maybe they can attract any player in Germany, but we should be able to as well, Bayern go for their targets and don't mess about, they don't give anyone else a chance to sneak in and sign them, whereas we sit around for months and that's the issue, otherwise we could have signed some of the players they signed.

Bayern make more money because they're more successful and success pays which is something our club doesn't understand, if you want to make more money and grow then coming 3rd/4th every season doesn't cut it.

Bayern are there on merit, they don't mess about and sign the players they want with minimal fuss without haggling over a few pennies here and there, they also strive for success and their record suggest they do well, winning regularly and performing admirably in Europe, as I said success pays, we'll never make us much because we really aren't successful and losers don't generally reap the rewards.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Success does pay, but it's also a vicious circle immediate success has to be paid for unless you're a club already with the reputation of a Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Barcleona

Or is it just my imagination that no clubs over than those with rich benefactors are breaking into the European elite?

Atletico and Dortmund are the outliers that prove the rule and even then they are not really eating at the same trough

Bayern attract the best because they are the historically biggest club in Germany,

We did massively overpay for Xhaka because we are in a market where because of tv money, clubs outside of england are going to hold english clubs to ransom over their players.

You can correctly decry Wenger for his terrible approach in the transfer market and to football at Arsenal in general, but essentially we were lied to by Gazidis more than just because of Wenger but because that elite we were promised is not possible without one of the billionaires putting the money in (even if just as an investment)

[dostoy]

Arsenal would lose heavily to any of the clubs left in this so the draw does not matter.

If Wenger stays, Arsenal should and would be a laughing stock in world football, a small club with a losers mentality and a very tight and deluded manager.

He has got to go, it would the biggest 'trophy' Arsenal has won since 2004 if he left.

[Power n Glory]

Success does pay, but it's also a vicious circle immediate success has to be paid for unless you're a club already with the reputation of a Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Barcleona

Or is it just my imagination that no clubs over than those with rich benefactors are breaking into the European elite?

Atletico and Dortmund are the outliers that prove the rule and even then they are not really eating at the same trough

Bayern attract the best because they are the historically biggest club in Germany,

We did massively overpay for Xhaka because we are in a market where because of tv money, clubs outside of england are going to hold english clubs to ransom over their players.

You can correctly decry Wenger for his terrible approach in the transfer market and to football at Arsenal in general, but essentially we were lied to by Gazidis more than just because of Wenger but because that elite we were promised is not possible without one of the billionaires putting the money in (even if just as an investment)

;) really?

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

So the major domestic and European trophies haven't by and large been won by the either the historically biggest or the richest clubs?

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Also why is it that the Premier League are still to reschedule our match with Southampton, let alone the one against Leicester

We weren't playing in Europe this weekend, neither are Southampton....what would have been wrong with putting it on tonight or tomorrow rather than late April

[Static]

Also why is it that the Premier League are still to reschedule our match with Southampton, let alone the one against Leicester

We weren't playing in Europe this weekend, neither are Southampton....what would have been wrong with putting it on tonight or tomorrow rather than late April

Maybe they're hoping van Dijk will be back by then.