don't forget the defence, which is just as - if not more - important
if White's back we could maybe play him at RB and Tommy at LB with Gabriel and Holding in the middle
or maybe a back five with Saka at LB and Tommy back at RB and White, Holding and Gabs at CB
i really don't want both Cedric and Xhaka on the pitch agsinst spuds, there's too much that coud go wrong - you just know spuds will be all over Xhaka from the first minute
The game will probably just hinge on how well we deal with Kane. If we let him drop in and start doing his thing we could struggle. I hope Ben White is back because he’s decent at shutting that sort of stuff down. They will also put Son on Cedric/Tavares, so we’ll need a lot of tracking back there to help out.
If we win it would probably be the best result of Arteta’s tenure so far. Given the circumstances this is difficultly level 10/10.
We won't win, we're not at that level where we can go to teams like this and beat them. We did beat Chelsea of course but they've been wobbling a bit, have the FA Cup Final to consider and were fairly well clear of us (although they aren't now of course). Point is best we can hope for I reckon, I think we're capable of getting that.
I have decided that I do hope we win though.
Come on, boys
(Very important comma, that)
Sounds like White and Saka could be out.
All that kicking had to catch up with Saka some time
Not good timing though
Who we pick in defence will likely dictate who we pick further forward, so I’m with you - I think this will be the biggest decision we make.
Ideally I’d want to keep Tomi on Son on the right, but as there’s no other available LB option I trust for this one I’d probably go Tomi, Gabriel, Holding, White across the back with Mo camped in front of them.
That pretty much means no fullbacks bombing forward though - not a problem on the right, as Ødegaard tends to drift into that right half-space allowing Saka to stay wide, but on the left it might mean sticking with Martinelli who is more likely to stay wide?
Which brings me to my big gamble of the night… do we stick with Xhaka as a 6-8, or do we chuck Smith Rowe in as a left-sided Ødegaard?
I’m really tempted to go with Smith Rowe, and make the game plan really simple: Tomi, Gabriel, Holding, White, Mo - you guys stay back; Smith Rowe, Ødegaard, Martinelli, Eddie, Saka - you guys run riot and blitz them on the counter. Remember, we don’t need to do shit in this game - we don’t even need a draw - so we can completely dictate this one.