Arsenal vs Crystal Palace 23.04.2025 - KO 20:00 GMT

[Niall_Quinn]

You can’t have a team with no strikers and expect to beat anyone 5-1. I’m sorry but that’s silly. You and I both know that we don’t have prolific attacking players currently. You can maybe duff up an Ipswich side resigned to relegation and even then you need a man advantage to do so.

But we can beat City and Madrid 5-1 with no striker, apparently. We do have SOME attacking players. Third highest scorers in the league, one behind City. Scored same amount of goals as PSG in Euros so far - only one fewer than Dortmund and Munich who each played 2 games more. Effectively tied second most attacking team in the tournament.

Are you CERTAIN we don't have an attacking threat? The stats, and indeed reality, seem to say the exact opposite.

But I'm sure you are right. Entirely unrealistic for us to come a way with a win at home against Palace, give our lack of firepower.

[HCZ_Reborn]

I said there's a big difference between Partey standing around with his mates looking on, compared to how he played in Europe. So you say, well, that's understandable because he didn't want to scream around the pitch today at 100% risking injury. Meaning there's nothing in-between? But we both know you're doing this on purpose to try to eek out some point on the back of the most extreme interpretation of what I said.

No one but no one needs to find an extreme interpretation of anything you say

Apart from anything else. I’m not even sure it’s possible at times

[Niall_Quinn]

I’m not changing the subject I’m just stating that your posts are structured in a way that make them impossible to take in. You said something about putting more crosses in as if somehow we a) have a traditional centre forward to get on the end of them that b) most premier league defences wouldn’t gobble them up all day. If you’re arguing that we should put in more crosses fine, but it’s not the base metal into gold solution, it’s just alternating one form of struggling to break teams down with another.

Then you went on your usual uncontrolled rant which I think could be summed up as if you don’t see things the way I do, you’ve been brainwashed into believing Pep ball is the way forward.

You can go direct or route one if you’ve got a player that can hold up the ball under pressure or a big lump. We don’t….so yeah sure we can do that but ultimately it’s no bigger guarantee of success than what we are doing at the moment.

Do you think it’s just a coincidence that after 24 games we had scored 49 goals, and ten games later where for all of them we’ve been without a recognised striker and for many of them with Trossard and a teenager as our only competent attacking players we managed 63 goals (14 goals in ten games, and 4 of those came against an Ipswich side that’s given up)

It would make far more sense to me to criticise the lack of concentration that led to us conceding two goals. It’s a more realistic appraisal anyhow

So many diversions, all relying on the main issue being missed. We OPTED to play well below the levels we are capable of today. It was obviously a conscious decision. Certainly, as a result of choosing to do that, we dropped points. But that doesn't dismiss the choice to settle for a lower level of commitment to a game the club obviously deemed unimportant. That's been my complaint from the start - it's entirely unacceptable and highly disrespectful to the fans. If you disagree and find it acceptable for us to play like that, fine. But spare all the other BS about us not having the capacity to get the result today.

[Niall_Quinn]

No one but no one needs to find an extreme interpretation of anything you say

Apart from anything else. I’m not even sure it’s possible at times

No answer there again.

[HCZ_Reborn]

But we can beat City and Madrid 5-1 with no striker, apparently. We do have SOME attacking players. Third highest scorers in the league, one behind City. Scored same amount of goals as PSG in Euros so far - only one fewer than Dortmund and Munich who each played 2 games more. Effectively tied second most attacking team in the tournament.

Are you CERTAIN we don't have an attacking threat? The stats, and indeed reality, seem to say the exact opposite.

But I'm sure you are right. Entirely unrealistic for us to come a way with a win at home against Palace, give our lack of firepower.

I’m not Letters, I’m not getting into circular arguments with you forever

Nor am I going to do what you do and accuse you of wilfully misunderstanding. But do you think Real Madrid decided to create fuck all against us at home? Or do you think because we know how devastating they can be in attack if given the chance to launch a quick break we gave up possession to them which in turn allowed us to exploit space when we won the ball.

We aren’t having to break teams like Real Madrid down , the space is already there.

[HCZ_Reborn]

So many diversions, all relying on the main issue being missed. We OPTED to play well below the levels we are capable of today. It was obviously a conscious decision. Certainly, as a result of choosing to do that, we dropped points. But that doesn't dismiss the choice to settle for a lower level of commitment to a game the club obviously deemed unimportant. That's been my complaint from the start - it's entirely unacceptable and highly disrespectful to the fans. If you disagree and find it acceptable for us to play like that, fine. But spare all the other BS about us not having the capacity to get the result today.

I’m sorry, aren’t you the person who a few messages back lectured me on making an either or binary argument with nothing in between.

Where have I said the result is acceptable ?

I disagree that we have consciously chosen to play the way we did. For me it’s a mixture of a) human nature where no matter how much you might have been told not to think about the semi final and how you might miss it if you think twice about putting in x tackle or running x amount of kilometres and it might make you hesitant in your reactions and b) playing against a team that like many premier league teams plays to our weakness…not having a consistent attack or even attacking focal point to help break down obdurate teams.

So no, I’m sorry to say you asserting something is obvious is just an assertion

[Niall_Quinn]

I’m not Letters, I’m not getting into circular arguments with you forever

Nor am I going to do what you do and accuse you of wilfully misunderstanding. But do you think Real Madrid decided to create fuck all against us at home? Or do you think because we know how devastating they can be in attack if given the chance to launch a quick break we gave up possession to them which in turn allowed us to exploit space when we won the ball.

We aren’t having to break teams like Real Madrid down , the space is already there.

Yeah, I already knew what the problem is with you. You figure yourself some sort of football expert, having to painfully explain the insider's knowledge to us plebs in the cheap seats. And when the plebs say, wait, that's not what I saw on the pitch - and you contradicted yourself several times anyway, Mr Expert - you chuck out an attempted put-down so you can take a breather from digging ever deeper holes.

Now you want to compare the Madrid games to today as if Palace pulled off some masterclass that rendered the team who beat Madrid incapable. Once again missing the fact we played way, way below our level - obviously by design. And the tiresomeness of it all, having to explain to me the intricacies of something I wasn't even talking about. I said, we were shit today because we didn't give a fuck. Seems to be what most fans are saying. Some say unacceptable, others say understandable. You say, no, no, there's far more to it - and then you get your whiteboard out. Patiently tutoring us on how it's "silly" to expect a decent performance against Palace at home. Okay, if that's what you want to do. Maybe in your deep, tactical musings there's an answer to why we decided to exert ZERO pressure - you;d think that would be the last thing we'd do against a team apparently so hard to break down (except when we did).

[Niall_Quinn]

I’m sorry, aren’t you the person who a few messages back lectured me on making an either or binary argument with nothing in between.

Where have I said the result is acceptable ?

I disagree that we have consciously chosen to play the way we did. For me it’s a mixture of a) human nature where no matter how much you might have been told not to think about the semi final and how you might miss it if you think twice about putting in x tackle or running x amount of kilometres and it might make you hesitant in your reactions and b) playing against a team that like many premier league teams plays to our weakness…not having a consistent attack or even attacking focal point to help break down obdurate teams.

So no, I’m sorry to say you asserting something is obvious is just an assertion

Didn't say you said you find it acceptable. I said, "if". Then you go on to speculate that we didn't put in the required effort today because it's human nature, supported by another claim that breaking down defences is our weakness, despite the stats I gave you.

[HCZ_Reborn]

Yeah, I already knew what the problem is with you. You figure yourself some sort of football expert, having to painfully explain the insider's knowledge to us plebs in the cheap seats. And when the plebs say, wait, that's not what I saw on the pitch - and you contradicted yourself several times anyway, Mr Expert - you chuck out an attempted put-down so you can take a breather from digging ever deeper holes.

Now you want to compare the Madrid games to today as if Palace pulled off some masterclass that rendered the team who beat Madrid incapable. Once again missing the fact we played way, way below our level - obviously by design. And the tiresomeness of it all, having to explain to me the intricacies of something I wasn't even talking about. I said, we were shit today because we didn't give a fuck. Seems to be what most fans are saying. Some say unacceptable, others say understandable. You say, no, no, there's far more to it - and then you get your whiteboard out. Patiently tutoring us on how it's "silly" to expect a decent performance against Palace at home. Okay, if that's what you want to do. Maybe in your deep, tactical musings there's an answer to why we decided to exert ZERO pressure - you;d think that would be the last thing we'd do against a team apparently so hard to break down (except when we did).

No I said it’s silly to expect us to score 5 goals against them

Given that in the previous nine league games we’ve scored 12 goals (a third of those coming against Ipswich) scored more than one goal against only one team that wasn’t in the bottom three (Fulham). It’s reasonable to think that we are struggling to score goals.

I’m not saying we couldn’t play better than we did, and as even you acknowledge I’m not saying the result is acceptable

I’m saying that a team that struggles to break teams down when they cede possession might just might in the back of their mind be that little more hesitant, and I’m saying that’s more of an unconscious reaction than some conscious decision to play within ourselves. The players we have available to us and the style of play we have is more amenable to playing teams that will try and dominate possession and prioritise scoring against us over preventing us from scoring.

That’s a weakness on Arteta’s part both in terms of personnel and tactically but realistically it’s not getting addressed this side of the end of the season.


I don’t think you’re too stupid to realise this, I think you’re too stubborn to acknowledge it.

[HCZ_Reborn]

I don’t know where you pull this thing that I think I’m some kind of genius when it comes to footballing knowledge

I’m applying Occam’s Razor. No more no less. I’ve consistently said for months that in the league we had to recalibrate our expectations in terms of results and in the amount of goals we score.

I’m annoyed tonight because we contrived to drop points despite scoring two goals which was largely due to concentration issues at the back, not because we didn’t blow palace away they aren’t Ipswich and they weren’t down to ten men.


We don’t have the players in attack or midfield to make teams that cough up the majority of possession to us part like the Red Sea.


I don’t think I’m seeing anything that anyone else can’t see for themselves. As i pointed out to the other guy, when you already state you’d rather play Barcelona than Inter in the final (when Barcelona have the better players) you know what this team is about