Crystal Palace v Arsenal, 20:00 BST (04/04, Sky Sports Main Event).

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Rooney is in the studio for some reason.

Carragher there also.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Arsenal: Ramsdale, Cedric, White, Gabriel, Tavares, Partey, Xhaka, Saka, Odegaard, Smith Rowe, Lacazette.
Subs: Leno, Holding, Ogungbo, Swanson, Lokonga, Elneny, Martinelli, Flores, Nketiah.

Palace: Guaita, Clyne, Andersen, Guehi, Mitchell, Kouyate, Gallagher, Schlupp, Mateta, Zaha, Ayew.
Subs: Butland, Ward, Tomkins, Eze, McArthur, Edouard, Milivojevic, Benteke, Hughes

Tierney. :rose:

[dazthegooner]

Rooney is in the studio for some reason.

Carragher there also.

All we need is Harry Enfield in the studio to complete the set...

[McNamara That Ghost...]

That would be preferable.

[Marc Overmars]

Come on Vieira, you know what to do.

[Mac76]

3-0 Zaha hatter

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Tavares has to do better than that.

[Mac76]

not a very convincing start, some passes going astray

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Pretty crap so far.

[Marc Overmars]

1-0

Fuck

[McNamara That Ghost...]

1-0 Palace. :doh:

[Mac76]

ok now it's a terrible start

[Marc Overmars]

Haven’t got going at all. Palace all over us.

[Marc Overmars]

2-0

We’ve fucked it

[McNamara That Ghost...]

2-0 Ayew. Oh dear.

[Mac76]

ok this is a fucking nightmare :doh: :ilt:

[Mac76]

bottlers :ninja:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Lacazette, everything is bouncing off him.

[Marc Overmars]

Palace have played at a million miles an hour but we’ve shat the bed here. Awful touches and decision making from everyone.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Like that one.

[Marc Overmars]

Why is Lacazette pushing him over in the box FFS. He’s such a bum.

[Marc Overmars]

Zaha is ridiculous.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

:lol:

Dreadful.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Smith Rowe has to be off for Martinelli.

Been totally anonymous.

Obviously not the only one but Martinelli wouldn't come on for them.

[dazthegooner]

Partey having one of thise days.

[Mac76]

Partey's gone back to being as bad as when he first joined us

[Marc Overmars]

2-0 HT

Absolute shocker of a half. It’s been a long time since we’ve been reduced to a quivering wreck like that. Hard to see how we get back into this.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

2-0 HT.

That was possibly the worst half of the season.

[Mac76]

dreadful

[selassie]

Jesus christ, absolutely horrible. We got battered the first 25 mins or so.

[Gooner23]

Well there goes one of our games in hand!

[Globalgunner]

Hakuna Marteta. No worries?

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Hairdryer. :bow:

[Mac76]

Tavares hauled off, Xhaka at LB, what can go wrong?

Martinelli on

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Tavares hauled off again, Martinelli on.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Pelanty surely?

[Marc Overmars]

Do Palace players have a 99 strength cheat code activated or something? Can’t get bloody near them.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Partey booked. :lol:

[Marc Overmars]

Tame from ESR. Best chance we’ve had.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Weak from Smith Rowe.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Cedric off, Nketiah on. :lol:

[Marc Overmars]

Odegaard fluffs it, should have hit the target

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Odegaard. :doh:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Mateta off, McArthur on.

[Bumble]

do we have any other attacking players left

[Marc Overmars]

Penalty to Palace

Zaha eating us alive

[Mac76]

Pel

[Bumble]

sums up Odegaard performance

[McNamara That Ghost...]

No need to make that challenge. FFS.

[Marc Overmars]

3-0 :lol:

[Mac76]

3-0 ...

Top 4 :haha:

Us :pal:

[LDG]

Shocking all over the park tonight

[McNamara That Ghost...]

3-0. Ouch.

[Gooner23]

Disaster of a match, Partey injury the icing on the cake

[Globalgunner]

Fat lady about to belt out an Aria

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Partey went off injured, Lakonga on.

[Marc Overmars]

Lack of firepower will almost certainly cost us 4th.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Xhaka with a yellow. :faint:

[Gooner23]

Lack of firepower will almost certainly cost us 4th.

Agreed. Young players will make mistakes but we're playing with 10 men most of the time.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

How many times has Lacazette been offside?

[dazthegooner]

Think he reallt needs to br dropped

[Marc Overmars]

Wow, was that actually Eddie with a bit of technique? Good effort.

[Gooner23]

With such a small squad it was important to have some luck with injuries but Tierney and now Partey out is a huge blow.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

3-0 FT.

That was horrific.

[dazthegooner]

We weren't that good.

[Marc Overmars]

A real shocker of a night.

[selassie]

Let's just hope we get our shit together again because if we play like that for the rest of the season then we could end up 8th again. Tragic stuff out there today.

[Gooner23]

About as bad as it gets, thought we were past these disaster games. All of our best players had shockers (Saka aside) and the weak links in the team were badly exposed.

Have to respond at the weekend but the injuries are a real worry.

[Bumble]

Home to brighton and away to Southampton much nicer games before Chelsea ,United and West Ham.

[Marc Overmars]

That was a real throwback performance, reminded me of dying days of Wenger when we got this every other week. Very weak and lifeless, looked shaken right from the whistle and couldn’t deal with Palace’s energy.

Utterly hopeless and with such a bum up front we never stood a chance of getting back into it. If we don’t get 4th, and we probably won’t now, it’s because of the terrible options we’ve got up front.

[Letters]

Utterly hopeless and with such a bum up front we never stood a chance of getting back into it. If we don’t get 4th, and we probably won’t now, it’s because of the terrible options we’ve got up front.
I always thought Spurs had a better chance. They have Son and Kane up front and we...don't. It was a bit of a mystery to me that they were struggling to break teams down with that front line, but they seem to be getting it together now. We have a couple of winnable games before Chelsea, Spurs will slip up here and there so things could feel different in a week or two. Right now it feels like it's swinging back towards Spurs but there's a way to go yet,

[Bumble]

I always thought Spurs had a better chance. They have Son and Kane up front and we...don't. It was a bit of a mystery to me that they were struggling to break teams down with that front line, but they seem to be getting it together now. We have a couple of winnable games before Chelsea, Spurs will slip up here and there so things could feel different in a week or two. Right now it feels like it's swinging back towards Spurs but there's a way to go yet,

4th is still in our hands we have to win the next 2 games although we could easily lose away to Chelsea home to United away to West Ham. but Palace have lost the same as us. they are a decent side. they held City twice this season after all. so cant be that bad.

[Marc Overmars]

Goes without saying we have to win the next 2 to have any chance, my concern though is that we won’t be taking 9 points from Chelsea, United and West Ham, so I think by the end of the month we will be chasing.

Spurs don’t play at Anfield until after we’ve had these games so we really need them to have a shock result or 2. I think if we end the month in 4th we may well go on to do it but given how weak our attack is it’s hard to see this ending well.

I don’t think it should be underestimated how poor Lacazette currently is. A statue of a striker, shows no instinct or desire to move around the box and create danger. He never seems to show any greed and get some shots away like all strikers would. His entire game now is just based on laying off the ball, for me it’s always a red flag when a striker is spoken about for everything but actually scoring goals. Huge upgrade is needed this summer.

[IBK]

I always thought Spurs had a better chance. They have Son and Kane up front and we...don't. It was a bit of a mystery to me that they were struggling to break teams down with that front line, but they seem to be getting it together now. We have a couple of winnable games before Chelsea, Spurs will slip up here and there so things could feel different in a week or two. Right now it feels like it's swinging back towards Spurs but there's a way to go yet,

Excellent summary.

What I find interesting is that many of the Gooners I know had a bad feeling before last night...and this wasn't just nerves. As good as our results have been lately, there has been a bit of a 'knife edge' feel about some of our wins. Some dominant performances aside; we were a whisker away from dropping points against Wolves at home; allowed Watford back into the game for a nervy finish; conceded late against Brentford; scored a single, fairly fortunate goal against Villa...all 3 points taken and some good performances at times but we have not been emphatic against teams that we would be expected to win against. Now that teams have worked the Laca deep system out, we are vulnerable to opposition willing to take the game to us. And we do not have the squad to change things up...

Re our failure to strengthen the team/compensate for losing Aubameyang (and BTW I am not sure that the Aubameyang for us of this season would have made a huge difference to the games we have lost) seems to me indicative of a decision made that top 4 would be a bonus, not a serious goal for us this season. And with the injuries, this now looks more likely to pass.

[Mac76]

i think 4th place always flattered us, some of the wins weren't all down to us, think of how bad Villa were when we beat them and we only managed a 1-0

i think we'll end up 6th, Man Ure will rally and Spuds i hate to say it are nailed on 4th with their run-in

i think the best we can get from the NLD is a draw, we'll lose to Moan U and Chelsea though, not so worred about W ham they're not playing well atm.

Brighton can be a bit of a bogey team and Saints are quite handy again, so i think we'll be fighting to be 6th tbh

[IBK]

i think 4th place always flattered us, some of the wins weren't all down to us, think of how bad Villa were when we beat them and we only managed a 1-0

i think we'll end up 6th, Man Ure will rally and Spuds i hate to say it are nailed on 4th with their run-in

i think the best we can get from the NLD is a draw, we'll lose to Moan U and Chelsea though, not so worred about W ham they're not playing well atm.

Brighton can be a bit of a bogey team and Saints are quite handy again, so i think we'll be fighting to be 6th tbh

Yeah - can't really argue with that prediction, although I do struggle to think objectively after a disappointment like last night. I think for me its the injuries to Tierney and Partey that have really dampened my optimism. Arguably they are in the positions where we could least afford this. Without these it would be easier to say 'look at the Chelsea result on the weekend but noone really thinks that they will nosedive'. On the other hand our 'fab 4' cannot be this shit again - can they??

[Marc Overmars]

If Tierney is done for the season that is a killer. Tavares isn’t ready and his confidence is probably in the gutter after being hooked again.

I don’t believe we will fall apart like Arsenal teams of the past, the disappointment lies more in knowing that we have a great opportunity this season but there’s an acceptance that we probably don’t have enough in the squad to finish the job. I’m sure the club knew this too and that’s why they prioritised getting rid of what we didn’t need now, so in the summer we can pad out the squad again with the right players of Arteta’s choosing. Goes without saying that we absolutely need to find 2 strikers who can play effectively in this system. The last striker we signed was Auba and that was 4 years ago, it’s definitely the one area of the team that has gone completely stale.

[IBK]

If Tierney is done for the season that is a killer. Tavares isn’t ready and his confidence is probably in the gutter after being hooked again.

I don’t believe we will fall apart like Arsenal teams of the past, the disappointment lies more in knowing that we have a great opportunity this season but there’s an acceptance that we probably don’t have enough in the squad to finish the job. I’m sure the club knew this too and that’s why they prioritised getting rid of what we didn’t need now, so in the summer we can pad out the squad again with the right players of Arteta’s choosing. Goes without saying that we absolutely need to find 2 strikers who can play effectively in this system. The last striker we signed was Auba and that was 4 years ago, it’s definitely the one area of the team that has gone completely stale.

Spot on IMO with your assessment of how the club saw the squad. I honestly think that the priority was more to avoid going down the Willian route (short term signing to try to get top 4 rather than a more sustained and planned approach), over trying to sieze an unexpected opportunity for 4th. If we fall short there will be disappointment - and the real issue is that Spurs may well improve (particularly if they get 4th this time); and Manure surely can't be this inconsistent again? But I have to agree broadly with the building round young players approach that has seen us make such progress. Even if lack of CL football will affect our ability to sign certain players, as long as we don't completely implode for the rest of the season, Arteta has shown that we are an in demand destination for top young talent.

[Mac76]

If Tierney is done for the season that is a killer. Tavares isn’t ready and his confidence is probably in the gutter after being hooked again.


Tavares will be totally shot after that, it's like Arteta made him the scapegoat for an overall bad performance but in the process undermined our main replacement for Tierney.

i still think Arteta's got a lot more to learn about man management

[Marc Overmars]

Confirmed that Tierney’s season is over.

FFS

[Letters]

FFS
:gp:

Top 4 :rose:

[Mac76]

is Kola still on our books?

[Bumble]

we are still in the box seat. United havent been consistent at all this season. We are level on points with spurs but with a game in hand. we do have a gentlish run in with leeds, newcastle and everton 3of the last 4 games. spurs can be all spursy. if we are within 3 points at start of May i do fancy our chances. {edit just looked at spurs fixtures... apart from Liverpool its fairly gentle}

[Mac76]

Spuds nailed on for fourth unless someone breaks Son and K***'s legs very soon, sadly the premier league teams only get away with outright thuggery when they're playing against us

[selassie]

4th is still in our hands we have to win the next 2 games although we could easily lose away to Chelsea home to United away to West Ham. but Palace have lost the same as us. they are a decent side. they held City twice this season after all. so cant be that bad.

I think Spurs are favourites now. We are going to need to pull out some real top class performances and results to achieve 4th given our run in. Our injury situation doesn't look good either, Tierney out for the season, Tomi no closer to coming back and presumably Partey out for a while.

We can still make 4th but the odds are definitely mounting up now. Saturday is a massive game and absolute must win, we need a strong performance too. I think anything other than a win will confirm the beginning of the collapse.