Newcastle v Arsenal. League Cup Semi Final Second Leg. 5th Feb. 20:00

I wish we could get a couple of goals just to say we turned up and made a game of it.

Not the slightest glimmer of that happening though.

A non-event, but still damaging to the club.

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Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn

So like Arsenal of old. Brilliant result on Sunday that has the club buzzing, then the owners shit on everyone from a great height on the Monday, and on the Wednesday we completely fail to turn up. Like a rollercoaster that plunges into a sewer.

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There's no way I'm beating up the team after the January we had, nine games, a small squad, arsehole refs, injuries etc etc

It's just a result of everything that's been thrown at us and we've just started doing uncharacteristically dumb stuff

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Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn

I can’t help treating it with antipathy, maybe if it was a worthwhile competition and not a mixture between a way of blooding youngsters and unnecessary fixture congestion

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Completely the wrong way to think about it. Winners would be thinking, beat this lot then get hold of Liverpool in the final and beat them too, make a statement, put pressure on them.

But I don't think you win a lot of prize money in this one, do you? So hardly worth it.

There's never a reason to treat a match with antipathy because it takes the edge off and always come back to haunt you.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mac76

There's no way I'm beating up the team after the January we had, nine games, a small squad, arsehole refs, injuries etc etc

It's just a result of everything that's been thrown at us and we've just started doing uncharacteristically dumb stuff

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Talking more about the club than the team. It has a clinical way of obliterating hope.

The players haven’t really given a shit across the 2 legs so I don’t anticipate any knock on effects here. The damage was already done 3 weeks ago, tonight was always a long shot.

Get them off to Dubai to regroup and hopefully conjure up whatever they did this time last year.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mac76

There's no way I'm beating up the team after the January we had, nine games, a small squad, arsehole refs, injuries etc etc

It's just a result of everything that's been thrown at us and we've just started doing uncharacteristically dumb stuff

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Hmmm

I actually agree with this. I think there was enough interest in this game to make it worth risking the first team. And I do think it needs to be addressed how easy it is for them to shit us up. And I don’t just mean the thuggery, they’d be beating us without that…which makes it doubly unnecessary.

Best to just chalk it up as one of those things and move on.

Calafiori and Jorginho on
Partey and Timber off

At least we have an extra man now.

pel by Burn, not given naturally

These excuses are what have delivered up 2 decades of failure. Momentum is important. We needed to go away from here at least thinking, okay we gave it a go. But this has been a stroll to defeat, first team or not. Nothing good can be said about that or come from it.

Liverpool had better beat Spuds tomorrow for sure