Ipswich Town v The Arsenal, Sunday 20 April, 2pm

[Mac76]

3-0 Delap hatter

Kids and reserves please, plus Partey who's banned from the first leg of the semis.

[HCZ_Reborn]

I’m quite happy with us putting out reasonably strong team given that we don’t play PSG for ten days, and there is six days between our match against Palace and PSG.

So I think rest a few players for the Ipswich game….and play more of a stronger team against Palace



My pick would be for Sunday


Raya, Tierney, Kiwior, Saliba, White, Partey, Zinchenko, Odegaard, Trossard, Merino, Nwaneri


(Sorry but I don’t want to see Sterling ambling around in an Arsenal shirt ever again)

[Mac76]

Tierney at RB seems an odd choice, unless you've written the team in the wrong order - oh yes I see you have :lol:

Sterling assisted a goal in his last appearance, for me he plays, I'd rest Merino and have Trossard centrally, he's not much good there but given NBO, who would be ideal for this game, hasn't been given any minutes it's the best we can hope for

[HCZ_Reborn]

Actually can’t complain too much with that one, I did go left to right with that one rather than right to left. Lack of coffee is my excuse

That and I can’t really see how it matters in any substantive way as even you got there in the end :)

There’s assists and there’s assists, Sterling laid on a perfectly decent pass to Trossard because he was surrounded by Everton players so there wasn’t much else he could do, it paid off…personally I’d set the criteria a bit higher than doing one thing right, but I suppose we will just chalk it up as another thing we don’t agree on.

[Marc Overmars]

Time to stop dicking around in the league and get 2nd sorted.

Anything less than 6 points from one of the worst teams in the league and then a team with one eye on the cup semi final should be considered a huge failure.

[HCZ_Reborn]

Time to stop dicking around in the league and get 2nd sorted.

Anything less than 6 points from one of the worst teams in the league and then a team with one eye on the cup semi final should be considered a huge failure.

My sentiments precisely. Apart from anything else I simply don’t believe that doing what we can to secure 2nd will necessitate hampering our CL progress I reject the either/or equation.

[Mac76]

I wouldn't be surprised if he went strong to start with today, try to be 3-0 up at HT so he can then take players off

[HCZ_Reborn]

I think Partey will start, and unfortunately because of the rib injury to Jorginho I imagine Rice will as well (I only say unfortunately because actually I think he’s a player that deserves a rest)

Be interesting to see if Calafiori is back to appear on the bench. Reason being is that I think with Partey suspended and Jorginho injured for first leg, might be useful for him or Lewis-Skelly to play in a deep lying midfield role.

[HCZ_Reborn]

So at the risk of stating the obvious, the problem today will be the problem we’ve faced most of the season and certainly since February, where will the goals come from. Since Havertz’s training mishap in Dubai we’ve scored 8 in 8 league games, this in marked contrast to Europe where we’ve scored 14 in the last four.
I don’t think our football is for some reason better in the Champions League we are just more likely to face obdurate defences in the league, and that’s definitely true of Ipswich who if they were like how they were at the Emirates, getting more than one goal past them will be like passing a kidney stone, difficult and unpleasant. They have a shocking record at Portman Road though (think they’ve lost pretty much every league game there this year) so that helps us.

With that in mind it might be better to start with a stronger team, get the goals and then take them off. But we shall see in about twenty minutes what approach Arteta has taken.

[HCZ_Reborn]

Team to play Ipswich: Raya; White, Saliba, Kiwior, Zinchenko; Rice, Merino, Odegaard; Saka, Martinelli, Trossard

Arteta benches the one player he doesn’t need to bench :lol:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

I am alright with the tbf, seeing us squander momentum would be a shame.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Team to play Ipswich: Raya; White, Saliba, Kiwior, Zinchenko; Rice, Merino, Odegaard; Saka, Martinelli, Trossard

Arteta benches the one player he doesn’t need to bench :lol:

Ipswich: Palmer, Johnson, Greaves, Tuanzebe, O'Shea, Davis, Cajuste, Morsy, Enciso, Clarke, Hirst
Subs: Walton, Woolfenden, Chaplin, Taylor, Burgess, Delap, Luongo, Godfrey, Boniface

Arsenal: Subs: Neto, Tierney, Partey, Timber, Sterling, Butler-Oyedeji, Henry-Francis, Lewis-Skelly, Nwaneri

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Delap on the bench is a bit strange.

[HCZ_Reborn]

I am alright with the tbf, seeing us squander momentum would be a shame.

I don’t have big issue with it, I’d just maybe swap partey and rice around. Give Rice a bit of a break

[Mac76]

Arteta benches the one player he doesn’t need to bench :lol:

yeah that's really :doh:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Chris Sutton on co-commentary for Sky. :doh:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Needed a first time finish from Trossard.

[Mac76]

Trossard needed to take that first time

[McNamara That Ghost...]

TROSSARD!!!

[Mac76]

Leo!!

[Mac76]

Feels like we're being quicker to get the ball forward and into their box, good to see :good:

[Mac76]

Trossard :lol:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

MARTINELLI!!

[Mac76]

nice goal :good:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Davis sent off! Good, was an awful challenge on Saka.

[Mac76]

red card :haha:

[Marc Overmars]

Bloody awful challenge.

At least justice was served.

[HCZ_Reborn]

Ipswich on 4 red cards for the season (level with us if you don’t count the MLS one that was overturned)

[dazthegooner]

Inbreads shouting Same old Arsenal always cheating.

[KSE Comedy Club]

Add Ipswich to the list of embarrassing and scummy fans

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Saka getting booed. :haha:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

What a miss from Saka. :lol:

[Marc Overmars]

Saka :lol:

Just put it away mate.

[dazthegooner]

Will really piss thme off if he scores. (though he's trying hard not to)

[Mac76]

how did he miss? :lol:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Saka feeling charitable to get them back on side.

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

Saka is taking the piss......

[Mac76]

That fucking booing... I had nothing againsxt Ipswich before this game, now I hope the whole town gets wiped out by a cholera epidemic and then burnt to the ground :satan:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

0-2 HT

Should be a lot more.

We're back!

[Mac76]

0-2 HT

now he needs to sub Saka for Ethan before any serious damage is done

[HCZ_Reborn]

I thought the fact that they chanted off off off when Saka accidentally caught one of their players quite funny, but yeah they’ve no reason to be booing Saka, If your players aren’t good enough to stop him fairly without being dirty buggers then don’t complain to us about it

Oh well never mind, no harm done, game as good as over. Consider maybe bringing Saka off as a precaution, especially with some of his horrendous misses :lol:

[Mac76]

no change ffs Arteta

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Hope we hammer them.

[Mac76]

hope we're careful and don't risk any injuries

[Mac76]

Saka and Merino off, MLS and Ethan on :good:

Let's have Rice off as well soon pls

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Saka and Merino off for Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly.

[Mac76]

0-3 Leo :lol:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

TROSSARD!!!

[dazthegooner]

Looks like we're brining on Sterling and I ask the question WHY?????

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Martinelli off for Sterling, Rice off for Tierney.

[HCZ_Reborn]

Looks like we're brining on Sterling and I ask the question WHY?????

At 3-0 they could bring on Chris Kiwomya and I wouldn’t be fussed

[Mac76]

Looks like we're brining on Sterling and I ask the question WHY?????

to take the piss out of Ipswich :lol: would love him to score

[dazthegooner]

to take the piss out of Ipswich :lol: would love him to score

:lol: yeah that would be an embarrasement :o (if he can stay onside that is)

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Butler coming on! :faint:

[HCZ_Reborn]

Butler coming on! :faint:

That’s a shame. I found it hilarious how Arteta went out of his way to avoid bringing him on and how it drove Mac to distraction. Hope he scores tbh

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Butler-Oyedeji. :bow:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

NWANERI!!!

[Mac76]

Good shot from NBO, saved

[McNamara That Ghost...]

That'll go down as an OG with a double deflection.

[Mac76]

NWANERI!!!

about three deflections I think :lol:

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

Apparently the goal counts for him, which I think is the right decision as he was on target.

[dazthegooner]

Apparently the goal counts for him, which I think is the right decision as he was on target.

Yeah i think that's how it works if the shot was goalbound when struck it;s his goal

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Ipswich 0-4 Arsenal, FT.

Multiply that Ed Sheeran you cunt.

[Mac76]

Yeah i think that's how it works if the shot was goalbound when struck it;s his goal

yes ofc, that's the rule :good:

[dazthegooner]

Chris Suttons showing why he shouldn't be anywhere near a microphone saying "It's been a 4-0 mauling. The Leif Davis sending off had quite an impact.

"Nobody expected Arsenal to be this dominant."

[Marc Overmars]

Good win. Another 3 points on Weds and hopefully 2nd should be all but secured.

[Letters]

This has to be the worst bottom 3 in PL history.
Saw the second half today and Ipswich were just awful.

[HCZ_Reborn]

This has to be the worst bottom 3 in PL history.
Saw the second half today and Ipswich were just awful.

Or the worst bottom three since last season

[Letters]

Or the worst bottom three since last season

They were bad but not “all 3 relegated with 5 games to go” bad.

Edit: correction. Ipswich aren’t relegated yet. But clearly will be

[Letters]

Just had a look. The bottom 3 have 11 fewer points between them than they did with 5 games to go last season.
Another factor last year is Forest and Everton both had point deductions which put them in trouble.
This season the bottom 3 have been all but doomed for ages. Bit like the title. Still not mathematically over but realistically it was over before February was over.

[Niall_Quinn]

That cunt should have been jailed for that assault on Saka. And the farm boys that support Ipswich? Go dig spuds. Love what you are doing for the food supply, respect. But football? Not your thing tossers.

[KSE Comedy Club]

They were bad but not “all 3 relegated with 5 games to go” bad.

Edit: correction. Ipswich aren’t relegated yet. But clearly will be

Worst league season since Covid