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

[Letters]

I thought it was Lenny Kravitz

I was thinking Rocky but he was possibly quoting the former so either is acceptable.

Anyway, no it’s not technically over. But there for me had to be a sign that we would be able to step in and take advantage of any Liverpool slip up. There have been some slip ups, we’ve taken advantage only then to give up that advantage in the next game.

Agreed. We should be closer, and if Liverpool beat Everton then I think that gives us too much to do. But I'm hopeful. It's a derby. Everton have just picked up a bit of form.

My hope is that after Dubai and maybe with Saka coming back we can go on a run and put some real pressure on.
Head says that isn't going to happen but you never know in football. I continue to think your reaction to us not winning the title is a bit extreme but given the level of investment I agree questions need to be asked. Especially given the lack of a striker was such an obvious problem which wasn't addressed last summer or in January - interesting to see Arteta express some disappointment about that too, maybe putting a bit of pressure on the club to do more.

[HCZ_Reborn]

In regards to playing out from the back, the theory is at least is that if you just launch it long each time especially if your players are back in your own half of the pitch that you are simply giving the ball back to the opposition and inviting more pressure on your goal. In our case the problem is neither Rice or Partey are especially good at dealing with the high press, and whilst he’s been pretty unimpressive at Chelsea this is why I wanted us to sign Caicedo as a player who could play through the press (unfortunately from what I’ve seen at Chelsea, he’s also content to give the ball away under no pressure whatsoever….swings and roundabouts I guess )

[IBK]

I don't think we were spent, not all the players anyway. I think the players were too inflexible in dealing with a brighter than expected Newcastle. Against city we saw Partey snapping into challenges and distributing the ball upfield. Against Newcastle he was marking empty space in the middle and had reverted to ball retention instead of distribution. Havertz played with his back to goal. Martinelli was receiving the ball in coverage rather than having it played into space in front of him. Yes you could say that's because Newcastle had a more energetic midfield than city, but I don't think it was that, I think we were less aggressive than in the city match, which may have come across as looking tired.

It was bad tactics. We knew Newcastle could play on the break and we didn't really have anything in the locker to counter that. We should have been taking advantage of them playing on the break, encouraging them to do it so we could get the ball back when they were at thir most vulnerable. Trouble is our defence didn't have the best of nights because I don't think they ere supported as energetically by the midfield.

It was interesting, all I could find last night was a stream with no sound so I watched the game in silence. No opinions from the commentators, just what I saw happening on the pitch. Rice, our MOTM on Sunday, and particularly Partey looked like they were refs rather than players, almost as if they were delibertly trying not to get in the way. Partey was often 30 yards off the play. As if we were fearful of what Newcastle could do. Bad tactics.

I dunno - maybe physically that's true, but teams can also be mentally/emotionally drained, and I think that Sunday's high, combined with the pressure of having to reverse a 2 goal lead in the tie played its part. By all accounts we lacked the vibrance that we showed in our game against Citeh and as MO says, Newcastle, in front of their fans wanted it more.

Anyhow, f*ck Newcastle. I hope Liverpool beat them in the final, and that they fail to get CL next season. Maybe if they do we can take Isaak of their hands.

[IBK]

I have no idea why people are conceding that this early.

<KeggyKeegle>We're still fighting for this title, and he's got to go to Everton and get something, and... and... I'll tell you, honestly, I will love it if we beat them, love it!</KeggyKeegle>

If they beat Everton next week then yeah, I think it's over. But even if Everton draw...if gives us a bit of a chance. They didn't win their other game in hand.
As Oscar Wilde once said, "it ain't over till it's over".

For the record, if I was a betting man I'd definitely be putting my money on Liverpool. I just don't accept it's a done deal.

I don't think it's a 'scientific' conclusion - more the eye test of what we have seen this season, and our deficiencies/lack of personnel and rotation options up front. Plus Liverpool's momentum. I agree that Liverpool aren't the Citeh of the previous 2 seasons, but every time we think they will drop points, either we do also or they find a way to win. We have rarely done the latter this season when up against it - and our experience thus far suggests that this trend is more likely than not to continue.

[Niall_Quinn]

Sometimes the other team just wants it more. This was everything to Newcastle. A club that hasn’t won anything for 70 years. They’d take finishing 17th and winning this if offered.

I don’t buy the fatigue side of things, we simply did not want this enough.

If you allow that into your game in the first place surely it gives room for doubt in how much we want the title? It's safer to want everything, always and then you know you're up for it when the biggest challenges arrive. Doesn't mean you'll win every game, always, because you assume your opponent wants it just as much as you and will do what it takes to get it. But to go out there allowing they might want it MORE than you - that's a dangerous attitude.

[Niall_Quinn]

I suppose it will be funny if Liverpool shuffle out of the cup tonight without giving it much thought. I don't think they will though - I think they'll smash the spuds to keep their momentum going. And the spuds, they need this, their manager MUST have it or else. Very similar to our own game. Let's see what Liverpool's attitude is like tonight. If they go out there and get the business done then the title run-in will be between a team that has momentum, advantage and attitude against a team that is inconsistent, disadvantaged (sometimes in more ways than just points) and will only turn up when they fancy it.

If I was a betting man...

[Marc Overmars]

If you allow that into your game in the first place surely it gives room for doubt in how much we want the title? It's safer to want everything, always and then you know you're up for it when the biggest challenges arrive. Doesn't mean you'll win every game, always, because you assume your opponent wants it just as much as you and will do what it takes to get it. But to go out there allowing they might want it MORE than you - that's a dangerous attitude.

Oh I agree with you. I bemoaned the fact we’ve not won this since 93 while the other top clubs have multiple times, on top of winning the big prizes too. Nothing in the past 20 years has enabled us to be as sneery as we are about this competition.

Anyway this team are not winners. The great pretenders unless something miraculously changes.

[Mac76]

Honestly, we don't care about the League Cup. We the fans or we the players. Sure, they want to win games, they're obviously very competitive guys. But they're not going to go out there giving it everything like they did on Sunday. Sometimes you have to pick your battles.

I still don't buy that the players didn't want to try for a Wembley final when they were only one game away, but once Newcastle had scored there was only going to be so long that everyone gave their all, that said I think players wre still trying to some extent but the legs just got tired

Also, and this isn't intended to be snobbish and/or an insult, but there are fans and fans - the people that would go to the final and have a good day out would care, but admittedly only once it became a real possibility

For me i feel down mainly because to the outside world we lost 4-0 to Newcasltle over two matches and that doesn't look good.

Where I do agree with the LC doubters is that it isn't worth risking good players' fitness over, at the beginning I said we should just play kids and reserves in this throughout, and then it's win-win really

btw I saw an argument somewwhere that it should just be for clubs outside the European places and I think there's good logic to that

[Mac76]

I dunno - maybe physically that's true, but teams can also be mentally/emotionally drained, and I think that Sunday's high, combined with the pressure of having to reverse a 2 goal lead in the tie played its part. By all accounts we lacked the vibrance that we showed in our game against Citeh and as MO says, Newcastle, in front of their fans wanted it more.

Anyhow, f*ck Newcastle. I hope Liverpool beat them in the final, and that they fail to get CL next season. Maybe if they do we can take Isaak of their hands.

agree with all of this, and on Isak, yes if he's not got european football or at least CL, and we open a big chequebook, there's a chance we could get him

[IBK]

I still don't buy that the players didn't want to try for a Wembley final when they were only one game away, but once Newcastle had scored there was only going to be so long that everyone gave their all, that said I think players wre still trying to some extent but the legs just got tired

Also, and this isn't intended to be snobbish and/or an insult, but there are fans and fans - the people that would go to the final and have a good day out would care, but admittedly only once it became a real possibility

For me i feel down mainly because to the outside world we lost 4-0 to Newcasltle over two matches and that doesn't look good.

Where I do agree with the LC doubters is that it isn't worth risking good players' fitness over, at the beginning I said we should just play kids and reserves in this throughout, and then it's win-win really

btw I saw an argument somewwhere that it should just be for clubs outside the European places and I think there's good logic to that

I see the argument for playing reserves in the LC, but the reality is that a club with intentions to win things does not 'throw' games, particularly a Semi Final - LC or not.