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Loss FA Cup 4th Round: Manchester City 1 - 0 Arsenal | Friday 27th, January | KO: 20:00 GMT | ITV

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Play the kids and bin this. Don't show our hand until we play them Feb 15th.

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Prediction

Man city 2-1 Arsenal
 
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Blood on the Tracks

AG's best friend, role model and mentor.
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Country: England

Player:Rice
We'll play pretty much our strongest 11. Maybe your Turner's and KT's coming in. That's about it.

I remember last year Arteta was putting out virtual first 11 sides against bvm teams in the early League Cup games.

No way he's not going very strong here with a week until our next fixture.
 

pigge

#Pigge #Equality

Player:Martinelli
We have to play him in the league because that's our main target. I wouldn't risk him in the FA Cup unless/until we're still in it and the league is lost.

It's a squad game and you should be rotating/resting players anyway. So it makes sense to rest our key players in the most dispensable competition ie the FA Cup.
I would agree if we at least had a semblance of a demanding fixtures until now.
We've had a long break(!!) from november until late december where 3 games around boxing day was intense, then since 3 januari we have played once a week. Absolutely no one should need resting. I can't believe people here think anyone in the squad need resting.
 

Riou

In The Winchester, Waiting For This To Blow Over

Country: Northern Ireland

Player:Gabriel
Our last few FA cups games, have ended in narrow wins for us...




...so it's only fair if City finally get a win here really, Haaland injury too please 👍
 

Gooner416

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Maybe post for different thread, but how much longer will we keep him until he’s sold?His form good enough to start prem between the sticks.
I’d say another season or two and then he’d make a move to secure more playing time for the WC on home soil.
 
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Gooner Zig

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On the other hand if we lose Partey for any length of time, regardless of the result, we lose the chance to win the Premier League. I know which I prefer.

I don't understand this reasoning. Partey could injure himself in training, it's not like playing or not playing him in the FA Cup guarantees injury/fitness for the guy. We have 8 days between games, we are playing away to our direct title rivals - there's no way Arteta doesn't go full strength or close to it. The opponents demand it.
 

TheGreatWright8

Well-Known Member

Player:Jesus
We need a "managed defeat".

I'm simply not interested in this FA cup tie. I'll be spending all game praying that we don't get an injury to a key player. We need our first XI fit & ready for the PL game against City so we can roast them.

We don't have the squad depth to fight on multiple fronts.

The funny thing is, if we really wanted to win the FA cup this year, we could do it confortably. All we really would need to concentrate on is getting past City because I would be confident we could steamroll the rest and lift the trophy. Probably the easiest year to win it actually (if we got past City).

But not worth going for it.
The likes of Liverpool & United still remain I wouldn't be underestimating those sides, then you have solid sides like Brighton they are no pushovers.
 

BergMan

Betrayed by Xhaka
If we win I’m happy. If we lose a narrow hard fought game I’m satisfied. I just don’t want to see us get battered. Also don’t want any injuries.
 

Dennis_Bergkamp_10

Established Member
No draw and no injuries. If we lose, it's only fair Haaland or De Bruyne get injured.

Also, given that Elneny isn't fit, I hope we don't play Partey. Sambi & Xhaka for me.
 

GunnerBP

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I think we'll play a very strong team. Winning the league would be incredible, and this might sound crazy, but Arteta is building a team that thinks bigger than just winning the league. He's building mentality monsters who fight to win everything.

Sacrificing the FA Cup so that we could focus on the league would completely go against his philosophy.

This team takes everything one day at a time with the goal of improving and winning every day. And they have this approach because this mindset helps you win everything by making sure that you don't get overwhelmed by all the things you're trying to do/win.

This team not only wants to win the league, but they also want to win the FA Cup and the Europa League. Clearly, it is way too early to start talking about a treble, but the mindset is to win everything.
 

Tom Mix

Well-Known Member
I don't understand this reasoning. Partey could injure himself in training, it's not like playing or not playing him in the FA Cup guarantees injury/fitness for the guy. We have 8 days between games, we are playing away to our direct title rivals - there's no way Arteta doesn't go full strength or close to it. The opponents demand it.
Well, fine. I will explain the reasoning again. We have certain assets - players - who we cannot replace and are therefore important to us in trying to achieve our goals, in this case to win the premier league. I would very much hope that in training we do not play recklessly so that our players can get injured, the same cannot be said for competitive games when we are up against our opponents.

So in a rewards/risk analysis to play a player with a track record of injuries in a game in a competition which is our third priority does not make sense. The most we can get is porgressing (maybe) to the next round of a competition which is 3rd in our ranking. The worst is an injury, possibly lengthy, which severly reduces our chances of winning our first priority - the Premier League.

I don't think I can put it any clearer than that. Some may disagree with this but I put it to you that any disagreement is not based on logic but on a gambler's instinc that we'll be all right if we play him.
 

UkrArsenal

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Country: Ukraine
Some players need to rest.
But you don't need to play completely with the second line-up.
Psychology is an important component, you can't just not care about the game with the main opponent in the season, even in the cup, which now seems not to be a priority.
 

Gooner Zig

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Well, fine. I will explain the reasoning again. We have certain assets - players - who we cannot replace and are therefore important to us in trying to achieve our goals, in this case to win the premier league. I would very much hope that in training we do not play recklessly so that our players can get injured, the same cannot be said for competitive games when we are up against our opponents.

So in a rewards/risk analysis to play a player with a track record of injuries in a game in a competition which is our third priority does not make sense. The most we can get is porgressing (maybe) to the next round of a competition which is 3rd in our ranking. The worst is an injury, possibly lengthy, which severly reduces our chances of winning our first priority - the Premier League.

I don't think I can put it any clearer than that. Some may disagree with this but I put it to you that any disagreement is not based on logic but on a gambler's instinc that we'll be all right if we play him.

I would agree with you if the opponent was anyone else other than Manchester City. There's a very specific context to this match which we cannot ignore; that City are our direct title rivals and any mental edge we can gain over them should be prioritized.
 

OSBK

Established Member
Going full pelt at the FA Cup with a paper thin squad is not the best idea. I would surprised if city played the strongest 11 with alot of key PL and CL fixtures coming up.

Use the squad and protect the gems
 

MA08

Active Member
Just like last year, when we lost champions league due to Partey’s injury? Sure Arteta is very tactically adept, but there’s no one in squad to replace partey. No Partey = no PL title. Also tell me when Partey’s injuries have only lasted a few games? And not months.
It is not just Partey who was injured. Against Newcastle, entire backline were half fit. ESR was half fit in that match. We lost because rest of the team fell apart. We beat Chelsea, Manchester United etc without Partey. The moment we had El Neny in the center we improved. These are facts. We did not lose out on CL due to Partey alone.
 

2Smokeyy

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A lot of guys on here are turning their nose up at the competition and failing to look at the opposition.

I hear that especially with the psychological advantage they’ll gain from beating us but I’m more concerned about the injuries we’ll pick up from this. I know it’s a bit early but I’ve placed all the eggs in the basket for winning the PL - if we win it I genuinely might cry as it’s been a really long wait since our last one.

It may sound a little stuck up but us winning the FA Cup on numerous occasions recently has probably contributed to my thinking behind this one.
 

Macho

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Strongest 11 pls, if we beat them we become favourites for the FA Cup and we have time between games.

I wouldn’t care if one or two were rested, but this gentleman here is speaking my language.

Best case scenario is Arsenal progress and there are zero injuries, I just don’t see the sense in assuming the worst will happen every time. It’s not some lower league side with part timers eager to leave a mark on guys.
 

2Smokeyy

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Anyone give a toss about this dead competition?

It used to feel completely different during the early to mid 00s. I can’t even remember when I stopped rating it that highly, it could have been after Portsmouth won it. Now every FA Cup gameweek feels like an international break.
 
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