Arsenal V Mou's Hoes, 26 April KO 1600

[Niall_Quinn]

Considering we need to beat these vermin to sustain a challenge for the title anything less than a win is totally unacceptable. If we win it does not mean we've turned a corner, it means we are still in the hunt. If we then go on to put pressure on them and push them to the line and if we leave the mancs lot in the dust then that will mean we've progressed. Otherwise there's nothing new to see here apart from the excellent players Wenger has signed, and I give him full credit for that. These are the players that have, to a degree, overcome out managerial handicap and stand on the verge of mounting a serious challenge. Wenger will do his best to fuck it up but if these players can motivate themselves (which they should be able to do) and use their talent to compensate for his lack of tactical awareness and ambition then we could still have a good outcome this season.

[Marc Overmars]

If we win this I'd say 2nd place is ours. We'd then be able to lose at Old Trafford and still finish above the Mancs if we win our other matches because we have an extra game in hand.

Huge ask though, I honestly don't see anything other than a typical Mourinho hatchet job. They're not going to slip up so close to the finish line now, especially against the team closest to them.

[Niall_Quinn]

If we win this I'd say 2nd place is ours. We'd then be able to lose at Old Trafford and still finish above the Mancs if we win our other matches because we have an extra game in hand.

Huge ask though, I honestly don't see anything other than a typical Mourinho hatchet job. They're not going to slip up so close to the finish line now, especially against the team closest to them.

Which is why we need to take away their ability to dictate the game with their negative bullshit. We have so much pace available to us. They have creaky old codgers at the back we can exploit. We have to get their defence turned. If we play tippy tappy in front of Matic they'll lap that up all day long and a loss is guaranteed. But hit them constantly with pace and we can blow their bus to pieces. Forward passing, attacking on both flanks simultaneously, none of this sideways shit, using Ozil's and Santi's passing ability to find the runners, tracking back relentlessly when we lose it. High tempo for 98 minutes (which is what we'll need to play if we are winning on 90). Doesn't mean we have to go gung-ho, which some fans and commentators imagine is the only alternative to being negative.

If we had a different manager I'd be quite confident of beating them. We have better players. But it will be slow, sideways, tippy tappy shit and intricate eye of the needle bullshit. Wenger will pick the least suitable tactics.

[Letters]

Considering we need to beat these vermin to sustain a challenge for the title.

[Letters]

If we had a different manager I'd be quite confident of beating them.

What's weird is that all the other teams in the top 4 do have different managers and they're not beating them.
Wenger, of course, has his flaws. But the next guy will just have different, possibly more serious flaws.

Of course at some point Wenger won't be our manager any more and we should be preparing for that now, but the next guy will just be better in some areas and worse in others.

[Niall_Quinn]

You're confusing the outcome with the challenge. There's nothing more empowering than a tough or even impossible challenge. You push yourself to the limit and if you fail it's not for want of expending every last effort. But you never fail when you approach things this way because you develop the winner mentality and the character of a winner in the process. Then you try again, armed with this sharper mentality and character. Nobody ever started out by winning. There's a process to winning.

On the other hand, the moment you say you can't win then you will do everything to make that true. It's the safe and comfortable option that Wenger has been taking for a decade. 4th is a trophy, can't compete with the money,.

Same thing with results. Yes you might win but if you learn nothing in the process you won't be able to win when it really counts and when the challenge is at its most extreme. This is why stating we are through to a final and the performance doesn't matter is a loser's mentality. Ultimately at least.

[Niall_Quinn]

What's weird is that all the other teams in the top 4 do have different managers and they're not beating them.
Wenger, of course, has his flaws. But the next guy will just have different, possibly more serious flaws.

Of course at some point Wenger won't be our manager any more and we should be preparing for that now, but the next guy will just be better in some areas and worse in others.

If he's a good tactician, a strong motivator but absolute shit at collecting Tesco vouchers then I'll settle for that.

[Letters]

I wouldn't swap Wenger for any other PL manager. Would you?
Mourinho is probably better but I would NEVER want him to be our manager.
There may be a few managers better than Wenger in Europe, but not many

[Niall_Quinn]

I wouldn't swap Wenger for any other PL manager. Would you?
Mourinho is probably better but I would NEVER want him to be our manager.
There may be a few managers better than Wenger in Europe, but not many

Probably not. van Gaal is a massive fraud who has vandalised Utd to convert them to a Fellaini style pub outfit. Pellegrini has been exposed. Maureen is despicable beyond redemption. Rodgers is tactically as random as Wenger.

Simeone is who I'd go after. He seems to have that unhinged desire to win but without resorting to the shabby anti-football methods of Maureen.

Then again, nobody knew who Wenger was when he arrived. Maybe we need somebody in the boardroom to develop a set of balls more than we need anything else.

[The Emirates Gallactico]

We all know what's going to happen ..... the chavs with their expensively assembled squad will come there and put ten men behind the ball and hope to steal one of the counter or a set piece. Death by suffocation as Alan Davies puts it. We've got a week to prepare and to devise strategies to counter it so we can't have any excuses for it

Mind you, if I were Wenger I'd try and bring out the mind games this week in the press. Make a few snarky comments about them "parking the bus", "playing like a relegation team" etc etc ............. hopefully the cunts in the media will run with it (given their love-in for Mou it seems doubtful) and perhaps, just perhaps Mou may get fazed by it so that he may set them up to be a tad more expansive ....... something we could then subsequently exploit. I mean, the title's all but won so what would he have to lose?