Arsenal vs Crystal Palace 23.04.2025 - KO 20:00 GMT

[HCZ_Reborn]

No, I haven't ever "dialled in a performance" because I work for myself so I'd be the victim of it. Have I been hesitant when faced with major tasks? Of course. Has that made me take twice the time to execute it? No. Maybe it'd take twice the time overall because I spent a lot of time planning. But the execution would be efficient thereafter. If I take somebody's money and deliver something substandard I have robbed them. Which would be disgusting, hateful and embarrassing - and terminal in terms of that relationship btw. I don't get the luxuries these players abuse.

What would happen if everybody "dialled it in"? Well, we saw it against Palace.

I don’t know what you offer, in terms of is it a product or is it a service. I’m not saying you’d ever produce substandard work but I can guarantee that there might be a variation of quality or it’s taken you longer than usual to complete because of external factors or the difficulty issue which we’ve both addressed.

But it’s all relative, unless something is mass assembled….with the best will in the world sometimes a piece of work will not be quite as good as another piece of work. Its all fine margins, I mean if a pilot or a surgeon has an off day people can die…and yet it happens.

[HCZ_Reborn]

As for my claim that we find it difficult to play defensive opposition, that’s not a claim that’s a fact.

A fact I think anyone who isn’t stubbornly trying to push a counter narrative would acknowledge

We struggle to open up most premier league teams and especially so since we’ve been playing without a striker

Since the Man City game we’ve averaged a goal a game, the Ipswich game against ten men was an outlier

Thus why I said it was silly to expect we could put five goals past them.

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

I don't buy it. It's pretty much become a meme that we could be the first side in PL history to finish 2nd 3 years in a row.
There's no prestige in that. It's almost embarrasing.
Of course you always want to finish as high as you can, but the CL clearly has to be the priority.

This definitely won't be the first side to do that as AW' s side already did that earlier.

Anyway I'm almost certain that we aren't going to make 2nd with this sort of attitude especially as all the other sides chasing CL spots have gotten their act together.

Currently I'm more worried for what this will do to us in the PSG game at home and the tie overall.

Lets see.

[Letters]

This is unbelievable! DEAD season?

I said "dead league campaign". Why did you change it to season? The season isn't dead because there aren't 4 games left, there are 6 - hopefully 7.
Three of those games could win us a trophy, the biggest one in club football, 4 can't. Which do you prioritise?
Now obviously you're going to say "all of them". But it's just human nature to have one eye on a CL semi-final when Top 5 is all but assured and the title is all but impossible.
If the title was still a possibility then sure, I'd agree that it's completely unacceptable to take your foot off the gas in the league because you are still in the CL.
As it is, I get it. They're not going to be straining every sinew and flying in to every challenge a week before a CL semi-final and risk getting an injury which will mean they'll miss it.
HCZ has given you multiple examples where this has happened previously and teams have gone on to win the trophy.
I've already pointed out we drew both league games before the Real ones. They stood up in the big games when it mattered. That's what winners do.
Will they finish the job? Head says no, but we can dream - the Real results make me think there's something about this lot which makes it a not impossible dream.

So why are Liverpool so far ahead? Why didn't they ease off and piss on the fans, stroll out the last few games and finish a point ahead?

Because they haven't won it yet. And I have heard they haven't actually been playing that well and have lucked out a few times in games where they could have dropped points.
You may remember last time Liverpool won it they won 26 out of 27 games. They weren't mathematically champions at that point but it was basically impossible for them not to win it. Why didn't they smash the PL points total record? Because they took their foot off the gas, they lost 3 and drew 2 of the last 11 games.

Losers do different things. They take easier paths. They do what's required to achieve minimums. It becomes a different habit.

Why don't people get this? In sport, in life in general?

You seem to think these guys are robots. They're not, they're humans. They're absolutely not losers - they've got to the very top of their profession.
If they finish the job in the CL no-one is going to remember a couple of admittedly annoying dropped points vs Palace.
If they don't finish the job then...well, we probably still won't remember it really. We will just remember this as a disappointing season where we drew too many games and didn't have enough up front to kill off games. That was the feeling before last night, I don't think it adds much to it.

[Letters]

This definitely won't be the first side to do that as AW' s side already did that earlier.

Oh! So we did. 1999-2001. I heard something about it being some "record" we could break. My bad.

[Mac76]

Nuff said

https://www.le-grove.co.uk/p/it-doesnt-fcking-matter

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

Nuff said

https://www.le-grove.co.uk/p/it-doesnt-fcking-matter

I can't believe I bothered to read this trash.

I got back to my senses and had to stop once he started making excuses for Odegaard....imagine saying he's suffering for being the only creative outlet in the team this season, like this is any different from the past 2 seasons where I must have missed Zidane and Pirlo offering him support!

[HCZ_Reborn]

Well it’s kind of true in a roundabout way in the sense that clearly he hasn’t been able to rediscover his form since coming back from injury, he is playing things too safe (which is a sign of lacking confidence) but because we’ve had to play Nwaneri on the right in Saka’s absence that he’s had to play in games when it might have been better to drop him for a few games and let him come back fresh

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

Well it’s kind of true in a roundabout way in the sense that clearly he hasn’t been able to rediscover his form since coming back from injury, he is playing things too safe (which is a sign of lacking confidence) but because we’ve had to play Nwaneri on the right in Saka’s absence that he’s had to play in games when it might have been better to drop him for a few games and let him come back fresh

I really don't know what his problem is and I'm tired of guessing.

At first I thought if Saka got back into the team he'd play better. Only for Saka to get back and our captain starts acting like a baby looking for his mummy by seeking Saka out constantly even when he's clearly marked out.

Then the Madrid game happens. I mean he's playing against the team that apparently "prematurely" gave up on his potential. I expected at least a few sparks from him, especially in the first leg.....only for me to watch him hiding under Saka's skirt for most of the game till Rice stepped up obviously.

So after that I went further and thought, maybe White is the missing piece of the puzzle. Again, only for all three of them to start against Ipswich (I think it was) and still no improvement or decisiveness in his play.

I'm not interested in making excuses for him any longer. On his day he's unplayable and clearly one of the most talented players I've ever seen. But in general he is easily one of the wimpiest and that particular attribute seems to be sticking out more and more.

[Letters]

The title of the article is "it doesn't fucking matter". So focusing on that part...I pretty much agree. Unless we do somehow contrive to finish outside the Top 5, it honestly doesn't matter that much. Discounting that possibility, as it seems vanishingly unlikely to me. What are we going to remember about this season?

I see two possibilities.
First, we win the CL - I mean, if that happens who will give an utter fuck that we dropped points against Palace?
Frustrations will linger about the poor league season, but a CL win would surely trump that and buy Arteta a lot of good will.
Being of a certain vintage, I remember 92/93 quite well. It was boring boring Arsenal at its boring boring Arsenalest. And we were so poor in the league that we flirted with relegation. We only finished 7 points above the drop-zone. But what are my main memories from that season? The revenge against Spurs in the semi-final, the finals, Adams dropping Morrow after the league cup win , Linighan winning the FA Cup - our first since '79, remember, which I was too young to remember.

Second, and let's face it, the more likely scenario - we don't win the CL. Obviously then we will be left with the disappointment of a poor league season. But even then a couple of dropped points against Palace doesn't add much to that. The bigger sting will be losing to PSG or losing the final ( ).

TL;DR - the late brainfart last night was frustrating. But it goes in to a large folder of frustrations this season. 18 points dropped from winning positions is dire. Going out of the title race before February was over is dire. Only a CL win can save this season and I have no issue with the players having one eye on that game when they're thinking about whether to go in to tackles. In that 92/93 season we lost both league games before the cup finals, we drew the one before the semi-final. It had no bearing on those cup games and neither did the draws in the league this season ahead of both Real games.