PL: Arsenal v Tottenham | Sunday, March 14 | KO: 16:30 UTC | Sky Sports

[Scottish_Gooner.]

Never afraid of playing Sp**s looool. But we seriously can't afford to make stupid mistakes again because we will be punished. Know already they are going to press high so we need to be prepared for it. If we don't self destruct, we win.

 

[A_G]

You might bad mouth Mourinho, but at least he has the trophies to back up his antics. Pardew was just vile and an embarrassment...headbutting a player as manager...

This story from West Ham's old club photographer has always stuck with me:

Let me tell you a story. In fact, it’s called the ‘King story’ among those who were present and who believe it’s a perfect example of Pardew’s arrogance. We were staying at a hotel in the North East ahead of a game at Sunderland during Alan’s first season in charge and were about to have our Friday evening meal…I sat down with Pardew…and fitness coach Tony Strudwick, who now works for Manchester United and has done very well for himself. We ordered our meals and suddenly Pardew asked us all what were were having. I think Eddie said he’d gone for the chicken, while I’d chosen the steak.

‘Pards then turned to Struds, who revealed whatever it was he’d asked for. ‘That sounds good,’ said Pards. ‘Tell you what; if yours is better than mine when it turns up, I’m having that. That was one of the things he’d always say: I’m having that. ‘See that bloke’s haircut. I’m having that.’ He said it all the time. Anyway, I wasn’t ‘having that’ at all. So I said ‘Well, you’re certainly not having my dinner. You’ll get a fork in the back of your hand!’ Pardew sort of laughed, before turning back to Struds and saying, ‘Yeah, if yours is better than mine, I’m having that.’

‘Our meals eventually arrived and Pards looked at Tony and said, ‘Yeah, I was right, yours definitely looks much better than mine; I’m having that.’ And he went to swap the plates over. ‘You can’t do that!’ I said. ‘What do you mean?’ he asked. ‘You can’t just take somebody’s else’s dinner,’ I said in disbelief. And he replied, without any hint of a joke, ‘When you’re the King, you can do anything.’

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

He looked up alright here:

Wenger would have battered that goof if it got properly physical.

Mourinho is the definition of all talk no action. Such a coward.

 

[Iceman10]

you can bet willian, luiz laca, xhaka all start. generally big game players. Rest of the line up selects itself irrespective of the reverse EL fixture coming up.

@Finesse, you stated in the Arteta thread confidence in Pepe getting a start for this one, but I do wonder if because Arteta will recognise this NLD as important he will stick with his safe place of players he seems to trust more, as boxerrumble does here.

We will see. Maybe more rotation will come with a reasonably safe lead against Olympiakos, but that would also mean three matches (Burnley, Olympiakos first leg, and NLD) where there wasn’t much rotation which is not just a problem for players needing minutes to avoid rust but also increased risk with quite a few players starting three matches in a week.

 

[GoonerJeeves]

Wenger would have battered that goof if it got properly physical.

Mourinho is the definition of all talk no action. Such a coward.

Well without playing on national stereotypies I guess in Alsace you get French passion with German method and application. Perhaps that was played out in Arsène's football too.

 

[Riou]

They put some "Masters" highlights on Sky Sports Youtube, between these 2 sides...need to bring that back, was great to watch...

 

[bingobob]

NLD but I wonder how competitive both teams will want to be. Main route to the CL is the Europa League. Sp**s may have an outside shot at top 4 we don't. I think both settle for the draw without ever saying it.

 

[Mo Britain]

Not sure what got into Arsène, but he was on a mission there. I think he could almost have struck Mourinho. He said himself "I lost control" - and it sure looks like it. Mourinho simply looks terrified, and I guess it was not alright. However, it is a bit like that this one....RvN was a cheating ****, and they let him know it...I felt exactly the same on both occasions.

Arsène was like Gary Cooper in "High Noon" or one of those films where the strong silent type eventually is forced to fight. Moronho was scared.

 

[GoonerJeeves]

That clock scene in High Noon is one of those great moments in film. Cooper is deserted by everyone, we await the train....and the clock is ticking, it is simply fantastic cinematography. To be honest it is perhaps a scene more reminiscent of Arsène's sacking. The train is coming, he is alone, we know it is inevitable....

 

[GoonerJay24]

To be fair Parker was a better player than Arteta in my opinion.

While i don't think Arteta's good enough to get us where we want to go, I do think he has the tools to eventually be a decent manager. If he can get it right on sunday that will give the team some confidence in the last 10 games.

He really wasn't. Although I dislike Arteta as a manager, he was a great Midfielder for us. Very underrated player by Arsenal fans and the English media back then.

 

[avenellroad]

They have been talking about a power shift since their League Cup win in 2008, tbf...I don't take them seriously in that regard.

Power shift and they’ve got **** all to show for it other than Sp**s ing things up like they usually do. Mentally fragile ****s.
We are ****, but make no mistake we are a far greater club in every sense than these jumped up no mark ****s.

Will be funny as **** when Kane realises he’s pissed his career away playing for that shower.

 

[Riou]

Though he was better at Everton, there was a good few years here were Arteta was quality as our deepest midfielder...had a decent bit of grit about him too as a player.

 

[BobP]

This story from West Ham's old club photographer has always stuck with me:

Elite mentality.

To be fair Parker was a better player than Arteta in my opinion.

Nah, Parker was a chav plodder. Arteta at Everton was arguably the best midfielder playing for a club outside of the top 4

 

[Red London]

Leno
Chambers Holding Gabriel Tierney
Partey Xhaka
Saka ESR Pepe
Lacazette

This isn't rotation from me, it's just picking players who will be up for the fight, people like Chambers, Holding and ESR will know what this game is about. I would argue that Lacazette should play up front over Aubameyang, I just think he would suit this game much better. Its not like Mourinho's Tottenham is going to leave a lot of gaps in behind. A lot of the football will happen in front of them and therefore Auba would be quite useless unless you give him chances to score.

 

[Kav]

Arteta at everton was good, Arteta at Arsenal was ... :confused:

To be honest i was focusing on Parker when he was at Fulham during 2013-16 he was too good for them, not sure why no one came in for him.

During 2010 to 2015 period there were two players i wished we had in midfield and they were Yaya Toure and Andrea Pirlo if Wenger had gone after either instead of Arteta I think we would have won a title.

Elite mentality.



Nah, Parker was a chav plodder. Arteta at Everton was arguably the best midfielder playing for a club outside of the top 4

As I said above. I was speaking about a specific time frame. Parker at Fulham And Arteta with us. It is fine if you disagree.

 

[Red London]

Arteta at Everton was arguably the best midfielder playing for a club outside of the top 4

Yeah and he was an underrated player at Arsenal, people always seem to forget about his first 2-3 seasons at the club which were a success. He was really tactically aware, he played that deep lying playmaker position much better than Xhaka for me.

He retired at Arsenal at like 33-34, was always gonna eventually tail off and look off the pace in his last couple years.

 

[EmeryCouldnt]

He looked up alright here:

Mourinho looked genuinely distraught here. Like he has so much respect Wenger and couldn't believe he was pushing him away.

 

[dashsnow17]

oh dear, just seen the league table, 3 points off 9th and 3 points above 11th. Starting to look like we're making 10th our own.

 

[Makingtrax]

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

Arteta as a player was a really shrewd signing from Wenger.

No frills but he was the glue that held our side together for his first 3 or so years. Very tactically aware, high footballing intelligence made up for whatever physical attributes he lacked. For that spell he was consistently a top 3 performer for us.

I'd go as far to say he'd quite easily displace Xhaka in our starting 11.

Last year or two injuries really killed him though.