Arsenal vs Crystal Palace 23.04.2025 - KO 20:00 GMT

[HCZ_Reborn]

You do that by how you treat the game and apply yourself. I remember you not finding it acceptable in any way on us drawing to Everton.

I'm the same here with Palace being the much better side when really we're in no different a situation to them in relative terms.

I think we are talking at cross purposes

I completely get your frustration. I just not sure I agree with the idea that the players consciously chose to play the way they did. I think to have half an eye on a competition we can win is human nature and there’s not a team in the world that doesn’t do it. As I said to NQ you’ve only to look at what shite Liverpool and Chelsea were putting in, in the league prior to their respective champions league finals in 2005, and 2012 and 2021.

Is it acceptable? No I agree with you, I want us to finish 2nd. But ultimately a player will think “do I want to risk injury”. It’s frustrating as fuck…I think we needed to win tonight, I’m sick of draws. But I hate defeats even more, and tonight we should have lost

[Letters]

I disagree, finishing third or worse will feel like and really is, a massive regression in the league.

Absolutely want us to finish 2nd.

I want us to as well but there has already been regression.
Last season we pushed City all the way to the last day. We made them win it.
This year we didn’t even push Liverpool, they all but wrapped up the title before February was out.
The only thing that can rescue this season now is a CL win which my head says won’t happen which means this will be a very forgettable last season.
Next year is Arteta’s last chance to win a big trophy

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

I don’t think they’ve chosen to do it. From what I’ve seen this was no different to the game at Selhurst Park where our defending was also pretty iffy. The difference is we don’t have the attacking players that we did back in December. I think equally the expectation was that Palace wouldn’t give a shit about this game.

We never in a million years deserved to win this game, Saliba brain fart or no…we were lucky not to lose tbh.

There is definitely no argument about who deserved to win the game, obviously there was clearly only one team that gave a shit today and they rightly got something out of it.

However, I don't think we can blame not having a striker today for drawing a game that we led fortuitously TWICE.....and lets not forget we didn't even create enough clear cut chances that would feed anyone, FFS we probably created less than a quarter of the chances we created in our previous game.

Our attitude in this game stunk up the place once we took the lead, and once we analyse our season, we'll see the same pattern, a striker is not going to solve hubris related issues....

Also there was absolutely no need for such an attitude as we needed the win more than Palace did, as we need to win to ensure we even make it to the CL next year.

Again I'm repeating, there is no way we didn't need the win in this game more than Palace, and every efffing player out their knew it, or at least they were suppose to know that. If they didn't, then WTF do we have a manager for.

Honestly, like I said before, a part of me wonders if winning the CL this year wont be us signing our death warrant and sticking with this clown for longer than we need to.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

I think we are talking at cross purposes

I completely get your frustration. I just not sure I agree with the idea that the players consciously chose to play the way they did. I think to have half an eye on a competition we can win is human nature and there’s not a team in the world that doesn’t do it. As I said to NQ you’ve only to look at what shite Liverpool and Chelsea were putting in, in the league prior to their respective champions league finals in 2005, and 2012 and 2021.

Is it acceptable? No I agree with you, I want us to finish 2nd. But ultimately a player will think “do I want to risk injury”. It’s frustrating as fuck…I think we needed to win tonight, I’m sick of draws. But I hate defeats even more, and tonight we should have lost

I care about what works for us and I have never seen from us it ever work for us just deciding to turn the tap on and off when we perform and when we don't.

You say it's not a choice but how can that be when they play like that tonight and might, well hopefully do play differently against PSG.

It puts in a pin in momentum after two huge results and honestly I'll be amazed if we can get the required levels on Tuesday.

Players are fucking idiots for going in half-arsed.

[Niall_Quinn]

Honestly, have we got to April with people still thinking that we simply choose not to play better against mid table teams who allow us to dominate possession.

No we haven’t, I’m pretty sure you acknowledged yourself that we’d rather play Barcelona than Inter in the final because of how it would suit us better.

Don’t get me wrong I think we need not just strikers but better attacking midfielders to combat this, but it’s not a mindset issue. It’s a we don’t have the attacking players to break teams down unless they give us space issue

In the closing minutes Martinelli decides to take his man on down the line, gets the cross in, Saka forces a brilliant save. That's how it has ALWAYS been done against teams that park the bus. There's no mystery, you get it wide, get the cross in, take 2 or 3 for the 20 chances. You don't need to be a coach or a tactics maestro to figure it out.

Barcelona fucked up football by convincing people their bullshit patterball was some sort of art form rather than the boredom exemplified. Barca-shitty-lona, the most gifted and utterly boring team to play the game in living memory. Wenger saw it and immediately fell in love so we got fucked up too, transformed from the actual artform of Bergkamp, Henry, Pires, Vieira and co - into the Fabregas, Hleb, Ozil snoozefest. Every season because slumbertime interrupted maybe 10-20 times over the whole course by tose rare moments where the impossible intricacy somehow resulted in a goal. van Persie broke the tedium by reverting to proper football, then fucked off when he realised we weren't a serious football club but more of a vanity project.

Unfortunately Arteta buys into every last ounce of Pep's bullshit. And you saw Pep's bullshit completely exposed once his dancing and prancing primadonna mercenaries got a bit too old and started picking up the injuries.

It's all hype - these "great" managers that have led the European game into the stagnation we have now, where two teams can literally stare across the pitch at each other and tap it left, right, left, right. Yeah, you can bore the opposition to death with retention stats and yards covered sideways, and effectively park the bus yourself (which is Pep's dirty little secret in his "beautiful" game) and sure, if you spend a billion on the squad it even works. But it's not football. That shit we saw tonight is not football, it's something else and there's no excuse for it.

[Niall_Quinn]

Why do you care about that?
Obviously I’d rather we finished 2nd than didn’t, but the 2nd Place Trophy doesn’t exist any more than the Top 4 one does.

What? So let's get 5th then! That qualifies us for the big money next year, and we can do even less. Maybe not even turn up? Just have the league award the points in our absence? If there's no difference between 2nd and 3rd (which implies there's no difference in winning and losing) then let's call it a day now. And if it looks like we're going to drop out of the top 5, get the boys together and stick them on a caoch to the match - eek out the draws we need to win that 5th spot on goal difference. Fans might not like it - but fuck them.

[HCZ_Reborn]

There is definitely no argument about who deserved to win the game, obviously there was clearly only one team that gave a shit today and they rightly got something out of it.

However, I don't think we can blame not having a striker today for drawing a game that we led fortuitously TWICE.....and lets not forget we didn't even create enough clear cut chances that would feed anyone, FFS we probably created less than a quarter of the chances we created in our previous game.

Our attitude in this game stunk up the place once we took the lead, and once we analyse our season, we'll see the same pattern, a striker is not going to solve hubris related issues....

Also there was absolutely no need for such an attitude as we needed the win more than Palace did, as we need to win to ensure we even make it to the CL next year.

Again I'm repeating, there is no way we didn't need the win in this game more than Palace, and every efffing player out their knew it, or at least they were suppose to know that. If they didn't, then WTF do we have a manager for.

Honestly, like I said before, a part of me wonders if winning the CL this year wont be us signing our death warrant and sticking with this clown for longer than we need to.

I’m honestly confused, what is it you’re angry with that we didn’t defend out the lead properly or that we weren’t better going forward.

I think we were poor because Palace made us poor, we struggled to break them down and we struggled to deal with their aggression going forward. Do I think in the back of our minds that certain players might have been more reserved because they are thinking about the European cup, yeah because that’s human nature are you going to risk everything if you think you could get injured by getting into 50/50s. Of course you can argue that Palace didn’t have that mindset but I’d say they are just playing the same way they’ve played all season…they are a high intensity team…we aren’t.

I’m frustrated with tonight, but I don’t think there was any conscious desire to play the way we did. And given take away Ipswich we’ve scored an average of a goal a game since losing Havertz, probably not the worst decision in the world to soak up pressure and try and hold onto what you’ve got.

[Niall_Quinn]

I’m honestly confused, what is it you’re angry with that we didn’t defend out the lead properly or that we weren’t better going forward.

I think we were poor because Palace made us poor, we struggled to break them down and we struggled to deal with their aggression going forward. Do I think in the back of our minds that certain players might have been more reserved because they are thinking about the European cup, yeah because that’s human nature are you going to risk everything if you think you could get injured by getting into 50/50s. Of course you can argue that Palace didn’t have that mindset but I’d say they are just playing the same way they’ve played all season…they are a high intensity team…we aren’t.

I’m frustrated with tonight, but I don’t think there was any conscious desire to play the way we did. And given take away Ipswich we’ve scored an average of a goal a game since losing Havertz, probably not the worst decision in the world to soak up pressure and try and hold onto what you’ve got.

So you can't see the difference in Partey's play tonight and how he played in the 2 Euro ties? You think he was maybe tired tonight so literally had to stand still on the spot with the ball at his feet while everyone else stood around looking at him? Then backpass, sideways, sideways, backpass, back to that utter fuckhead Raya? You can't see the difference? Genuinely?

[HCZ_Reborn]

In the closing minutes Martinelli decides to take his man on down the line, gets the cross in, Saka forces a brilliant save. That's how it has ALWAYS been done against teams that park the bus. There's no mystery, you get it wide, get the cross in, take 2 or 3 for the 20 chances. You don't need to be a coach or a tactics maestro to figure it out.

Barcelona fucked up football by convincing people their bullshit patterball was some sort of art form rather than the boredom exemplified. Barca-shitty-lona, the most gifted and utterly boring team to play the game in living memory. Wenger saw it and immediately fell in love so we got fucked up too, transformed from the actual artform of Bergkamp, Henry, Pires, Vieira and co - into the Fabregas, Hleb, Ozil snoozefest. Every season because slumbertime interrupted maybe 10-20 times over the whole course by tose rare moments where the impossible intricacy somehow resulted in a goal. van Persie broke the tedium by reverting to proper football, then fucked off when he realised we weren't a serious football club but more of a vanity project.

Unfortunately Arteta buys into every last ounce of Pep's bullshit. And you saw Pep's bullshit completely exposed once his dancing and prancing primadonna mercenaries got a bit too old and started picking up the injuries.

It's all hype - these "great" managers that have led the European game into the stagnation we have now, where two teams can literally stare across the pitch at each other and tap it left, right, left, right. Yeah, you can bore the opposition to death with retention stats and yards covered sideways, and effectively park the bus yourself (which is Pep's dirty little secret in his "beautiful" game) and sure, if you spend a billion on the squad it even works. But it's not football. That shit we saw tonight is not football, it's something else and there's no excuse for it.

You’ve heard the term verbal diarrhoea. You have verbal constipation. Just reading what you’ve written makes my eyes feel like they need fibre to allow the words to pass into my brain.

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

Honestly, have we got to April with people still thinking that we simply choose not to play better against mid table teams who allow us to dominate possession.

No we haven’t, I’m pretty sure you acknowledged yourself that we’d rather play Barcelona than Inter in the final because of how it would suit us better.

Don’t get me wrong I think we need not just strikers but better attacking midfielders to combat this, but it’s not a mindset issue. It’s a we don’t have the attacking players to break teams down unless they give us space issue

I'm going to disagree with you on this one HCZ...we could have easily brushed of a side that has shifted 10 goals in their last 2 away games if we gave a shit and played to actually out score them at home.

Let me simplify what I'm saying , we lost this game because we scored early and instantly Arteta was satisfied thinking he'd strangle the game out and win.

If they'd scored first or things didn't pan out the way Arteta imagined (0-0 @60 mins), he would have approached the game differently earlier and we would have won this.

What happened today is part of the pattern which has meant we keep dropping points to teams everyone expects us to beat as we take our eye off of scoring goal after goal, but try to suffocate play when there is absolutely no need to, especially to a side that shipped 10 goals in their last 2 games and has a semifinal on Saturday.

I'm sorry my responses are coming late but I'm to upset to type and now have a banging headache after what I just witnessed.