Inter Milan v The Arsenal, Weds 6 November 2024. 8pm

[Mac76]

3-0 Martinez hatter


Tricky one this team-wise, given the need to win at Chelsea at the weekend, but Newcastle HAS to have shown him that caution gets you nowhere

Bit torn on whether to have Martinelli or Trassard on the left but I've gone for the former as Leo can hopefully have an impact from the bench

Havertz HAS to be an out-and-out forward in this game

Rice is injured apparently and Odegaard may be back

Raya

White Saliba Gabriel Timber

Partey Jorginho

Saka Odegaard-or-Nwaneri Martinelli

Havertz

[Marc Overmars]

I expect this game to be a stinker.

[HCZ_Reborn]

Haven’t given this game a lot of thought, I remember watching the 5-1 game 20 years ago, with a load of uni mates. Still probably stands out as one of my favourite Arsenal games of all time. It’s often forgotten that we gave a first class defensive display when we were holding onto the 2-1 lead but then we countered with devastating skill.

We aren’t great at the moment, neither are they. Win would be great, but would take a draw. I think the only must win away fixture is Girona. I think as long as we win our remaining home games and get a draw tonight and at Sporting we are safely through (in my view)

[HCZ_Reborn]

3-0 Martinez hatter


Tricky one this team-wise, given the need to win at Chelsea at the weekend, but Newcastle HAS to have shown him that caution gets you nowhere

Bit torn on whether to have Martinelli or Trassard on the left but I've gone for the former as Leo can hopefully have an impact from the bench

Havertz HAS to be an out-and-out forward in this game

Rice is injured apparently and Odegaard may be back

Raya

White Saliba Gabriel Timber

Partey Jorginho

Saka Odegaard-or-Nwaneri Martinelli

Havertz

I’m not going to lie, I don’t think Rice is a big loss. He’s been a massive disappointment this season (though I should say I don’t blame him for that)

[IBK]

I’m not going to lie, I don’t think Rice is a big loss. He’s been a massive disappointment this season (though I should say I don’t blame him for that)

Partey/Jorginho in MF works for me. Nervous about this game as we need to arrest our slide but I'm not confident we will do.

[Mac76]

Partey/Jorginho in MF works for me.

Yes I think Jorg will be a cool head and especially at an away game in Italy will have very useful experience

[HCZ_Reborn]

Partey/Jorginho in MF works for me. Nervous about this game as we need to arrest our slide but I'm not confident we will do.

We need to score a goal, the lack of chances created against both Bournemouth and Newcastle was depressing

As much as I want us to arrest the slide, I hope we don’t panic and start Odegaard. Pointless, he won’t be match fit


But yes Jorginho at 6, and Partey at 8 would be sensible

[dazthegooner]

White starts and for some reason so does Trossard.

[HCZ_Reborn]

And even more inexplicably so does Merino

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Inter: Sommer; Pavard, De Vrij, Bisseck; Dumfries, Frttesi, Calhanoglu, Zielinski, Darmian; Taremi, L. Martinez
Subs: Gennaro, J. Martinez, Arnautovic, Thuram, Acerbi, Buchanan, Asllani, Mkhitaryan, Barella, Dimarco, Bastoni

Arsenal: Raya; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Timber; Merino, Partey; Saka, Trossard, Martinelli; Havertz
Subs: Neto, Setford, Odegaard, Jesus, Kiwior, Zinchenko, Jorginho, Sterling, Butler-Oyedeji, Lewis-Skelly, Nwaneri, Robinson

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Surprising Bastoni and Barella aren't starting.

[Mac76]

Raya would have got to that i think if on target

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Dumfried smashed the bar.

[Mac76]

Raya would have got to that i think if on target

and again

[Mac76]

dumb yellow for Gabriel

[Marc Overmars]

We’re getting pumped.

[IBK]

Many back passes from us...

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Well done Gabriel.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Saka shot, bit weak.

[Niall_Quinn]

Only available on Amazon Prime sub 1 + Greedy Amazon Prime sub 2? Is there a stream anywhere, that works?

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Is that not a pel?

[Mac76]

Only available on Amazon Prime sub 1 + Greedy Amazon Prime sub 2? Is there a stream anywhere, that works?

I'm really struggling, only seen about half the match so far though tbh don't feel i missed anything

[Niall_Quinn]

Is that not a pel?

I don't know. Amazon won't let me see it unless I pay them a second sub.

[Niall_Quinn]

I'm really struggling, only seen about half the match so far though tbh don't feel i missed anything

Yeah, those CL boys have swarms on the net, shutting down anything that even shows 5 second clips. The are very protective of the peoples game.

[Niall_Quinn]

Given the sheer volume of posts, I'm starting to think I might not be missing much.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Pel to Inter.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

1-0 Inter.

[IBK]

Ffs!

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

Given the sheer volume of posts, I'm starting to think I might not be missing much.

You aren't missing much.

Arteta has served up another borefest.

[HCZ_Reborn]

BBC five live claiming that would never have been given against us in the premier league :haha:

[Mac76]

From what I could see we were pretty much toilet all the way through, and now we seem to have forgotten how to score from corners along with our other problems

[McNamara That Ghost...]

He's not the only one but Trossard has been dross.

[Mac76]

The whole Trossard and Havertz front two thing isn't working, it reduces both their effectiveness, but ofc Arteta is persisting with it

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

Unlucky to be 1-0 down, but that doesn't take away from the fact that we've done absolutely nothing to deserve to be in the lead either.

Arteta doesn't learn. Trossard and Havertz gives us nothing, especially when they pair up from the start.

Jorginho should have been in this game, either for Trossard or Merino.

This team's manner of attacking the opposition is actually pretty annoying and thoroughly unimaginative. I mean the only thing they do is try and lob the ball, from any position, as if they had Shearer on the pitch. Did you guys see Timber lobbing the ball to Casper ( the friendly ghost ofc) and congratulating himself cause the keeper was stupid enough to make a meal of it !?

This repetitive crap is really really annoying.

[Marc Overmars]

Quite predictable so far.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Merino off, Jesus on.

[Mac76]

Jesus on for a bit of chaos, Merino subbed, at least it's a positive change

[McNamara That Ghost...]

How has Saliba not scored?

[Mac76]

I didn't see either but apparently we should def have had a pel in the first half and theirs was very soft

No change there then

[Letters]

Just seen the penalty :lol:
Another one of those "what's he supposed to do, chop his hands off?" ones.
The handball rule in football is such bullshit these days.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

What a save to deny Havertz.

[Marc Overmars]

Playing better now but a bit soft up front. As usual.

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

What a save to deny Havertz.

The best play of the match so far.

Finally someone showed some imagination.

[Mac76]

Mkhitaryan on :bow:

[dazthegooner]

Mkhitartan thought he died...

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Handball from Arteta. :lol:

[Letters]

Mkhitaryan on :bow:

Isn't that the dude who powers cells? :unsure:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Time for Odegaard.

[IBK]

For all our possession little threat.

[Marc Overmars]

I think we have played relatively well and would be good for a point however it’s hard to ignore how shit we are in the final third.

[IBK]

Aye. No penetration.

[Niall_Quinn]

We don't get a chance to play this lot at home now do we? What a stupid league (that's not a European super league)

[The Wengerbabies]

I have no idea whats going on with this format, what does this loss mean?

[Marc Overmars]

I have no idea whats going on with this format, what does this loss mean?

It means we won’t be finishing in the top 8, so will have to play an extra knockout game.

[The Wengerbabies]

It means we won’t be finishing in the top 8, so will have to play an extra knockout game.

Just a game or 2 legs?

[Mac76]

FT Ref 1 Arsenal 0

[Marc Overmars]

Just a game or 2 legs?

2 legs.

[Marc Overmars]

FT 1-0

That was peak Wenger.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

1-0 FT. Better than Newcastle, marginally.

Still nowhere enough though.

[Marc Overmars]

Chelsea will be grim.

[HCZ_Reborn]

As much as that was a ridiculous penalty, it is depressing to know that as soon as we go behind in a game away from home that’s the match. It’s not even tactical we simply don’t have the creative players or finishers to break teams down.

Newcastle we were poor, tonight shaky first five minutes or so but other than that we controlled the game

I like Havertz but he’s never been and never will be prolific and without him we have what.

Utterly insane the way we’ve neglected the forward line

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

It means we won’t be finishing in the top 8, so will have to play an extra knockout game.

Am I missing something? I am not sure you can draw that conclusion yet, we've got quite a few more rounds to go.

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

Chelsea will be grim.

100% agree with this.

Though Odegaard being back should hopefully make our "suffering" a bit more enjoyable.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

1-0 FT. Better than Newcastle, marginally.

Still nowhere enough though.

[Marc Overmars]

Am I missing something? I am not sure you can draw that conclusion yet, we've got quite a few more rounds to go.

Our next game is at Sporting and I think that’s another fixture we’re highly unlikely to win. The games after that are more than winnable but we’ll see.

In all honesty we won’t be winning fuck all this season anyway based of what we’ve seen so far. So extra tie or not, it doesn’t matter.

[Niall_Quinn]

It means we won’t be finishing in the top 8, so will have to play an extra knockout game.

Top 8? Please NO! Not the top-8-title again? Is Wenger behind this?

Good, the sooner we are out of this the better. They've destroyed this competition, it's unrecognisable and doesn't serve any purpose anymore. It used to be the European Cup for the champions throughout Europe. Then they bastardised it and misnamed it the "Champions" League. And now they have fucked it totally. All because they are the greediest bastards in sport.

[Letters]

Top 8? Please NO! Not the top-8-title again? Is Wenger behind this?

Good, the sooner we are out of this the better. They've destroyed this competition, it's unrecognisable and doesn't serve any purpose anymore. It used to be the European Cup for the champions throughout Europe. Then they bastardised it and misnamed it the "Champions" League. And now they have fucked it totally. All because they are the greediest bastards in sport.
:gp:

The expansion of the “Champions” League created this whole Top 4 nonsense in the first place, and has been a massive part of pushing the thumb down even harder on the side of the scales of the top clubs in each of the big leagues.

[Mac76]

The only thing I'd say in Uefa's defence is thet they are faced by the threat of the Super-League which (I think) we're all agreed would be even worse, so that's why they introduced this new League format - I don't like it either though.

In general there's too much football full stop, the Nations League has been bad news because by making international friendlies competitive, it's put more pressure on national managers to always play their best players and so players like Rice and Saka are being flogged at national as well as dometic level

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

I'm going to differ on this.

I think the new format encourages teams to play for wins and is far more exciting than analysing just 3 teams to death.

For the neutral, and even for revenue for most clubs, the tweak they've made seems better.

Still early days though.

[HCZ_Reborn]

I'm going to differ on this.

I think the new format encourages teams to play for wins and is far more exciting than analysing just 3 teams to death.

For the neutral, and even for revenue for most clubs, the tweak they've made seems better.

Still early days though.

I actually definitely prefer this new format and this comes from someone who has hated every change made in the champions league. I think rather than play some Eastern European team twice in a row, you are guaranteed to play one of the big sides….and your UEFA coefficient isn’t a protection from this.

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

So I've just checked and noticed we've got Sporting, Monaco and Zagreb left.

TBH when I look at the draw we got, I definitely wouldn't have been excited to have faced Inter twice or Shaktah. PSG, cool. Sporting, cool. Maybe a Monaco...... but what I am getting at is that this format does seem a bit more exciting...though I'm sure a killjoy like our coach would have preferred only 3 teams to suffocate to death.

[Mac76]

So I've just checked and noticed we've got Sporting, Monaco and Zagreb left.

TBH when I look at the draw we got, I definitely wouldn't have been excited to have faced Inter twice or Shaktah. PSG, cool. Sporting, cool. Maybe a Monaco...... but what I am getting at is that this format does seem a bit more exciting...though I'm sure a killjoy like our coach would have preferred only 3 teams to suffocate to death.

I get that, it's mainly been the increase in the number of games that's been my issue, that said if Arteta was using those games to give other players more minutes it wouldn't be such a problem