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Win Premier League: Brighton & Hove Albion 2 - 4 Arsenal | Saturday 31st, December | KO: 17:30 GMT | Sky Sports


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Must win game.

Let's be honest, they're a far better side than West Ham. Tactically, they're one of the best team in league. They contract the space on pitch and force you to play on their terms and look to impose their game on you. But we're a much different team to the side that lost to them at the tail end of last season tbf.

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Prediction

Brighton 0-1 Arsenal
 

TheGreatWright8

Well-Known Member

Player:Jesus
Yes but I would not have subbed both fullbacks at the same time. Could have brought in Tierney for Zinchenko and Viera for Saka. But for my liking he's still not using his subs enough with so many games. But on the other he's winning all the games :lol:
Exactly the ball retention was missing big time when they went off.
 

Tomb Bombadil

Active Member
I don't like it but I can understand it. We have a squad which can cope with one competition and where we are now, you have to prioritise the PL. I don't think our fringe players are good enough to do anything in the EL. With another two windows and integration of loanees, we should be better this time next year but right now, squad wise, we are where we were this time last year but with better quality and balance.
You don't have to replace the whole team, but give some players a break. I would definitely do that. But that's a problem for the future. We don't have to play the knockout round, so the next EL games are in March.

Knockout round play-offs: February 16 and 23.
Round of 16: March 9 and 16, 2023
Quarter-finals: April 13 and 20, 2023
Semifinals: May 11 and 18, 2023
Final: May 31, 2023

So for the round of 16, rotate a little bit: Turner - Tierney, Gabriel, Holding, Tomy - Elneny, Xhaka, Ode - Martinelli, Nkethiah, Mudryk/Viera.

And then think about it again in the quarterfinals.
 

GunnerGetYah

Established Member
My takeaways from this game:

Midfield and attackers are all on top form. The extra training that Ødegaard did during the break is really showing. We definitely have a ruthless streak for finding goals when we need them.

Defence looks to have a WC hangover. Ironically Gabriel who was getting slated before WC seems to have benefited from extra training. Saliba and Tomi both went to the world cup and are not fully drilled and fit right now.

I'd be cautious about signing a wide player when we have players needing to sign contracts. I'd rather spend the money making sure that Saka, Martinelli and Saliba are tied down than 65 mill on a bench player.

If we could get a WC CF then obviously that would take us to another level, but there aren't many of those available. Most of our players can be talked about as World class for their age bracket, they are only going to get better.

I can see Arteta going for a long term Xhaka replacement if he can find one, a true box to box with lots of pace that also help us defend.
 

db10_therza

🎵 Edu getting rickrolled 🎵
Trusted ⭐

Country: Bangladesh

Player:Martinelli
Luckiest year I can ever remember watching Arsenal. Injuries have been pretty good, refs have been kind and we’ve really had the bounce of the ball. 2 ricochets and it fell at Saka’s feet for the first goal. Complete missed kick by Ødegaard that popped up and looped into the goal, gave us a two goal start yesterday. It feels like a Leicester year.

Yes and no - in that if you create attacking situations as often as we do then at some point it stops being luck and starts becoming expected based on probabilities. The whole point of our style of play is to create as many of these situations as possible.

We also tend to overanalyse movements that involve our goals for obvious reasons so we can miss this point. Mitoma wouldn’t have scored that goal yesterday if it didn’t get that delicate deflection off Holding for example…
 

db10_therza

🎵 Edu getting rickrolled 🎵
Trusted ⭐

Country: Bangladesh

Player:Martinelli
Yes and no - in that if you create attacking situations as often as we do then at some point it stops being luck and starts becoming expected based on probabilities. The whole point of our style of play is to create as many of these situations as possible.

We also tend to overanalyse movements that involve our goals for obvious reasons so we can miss this point. Mitoma wouldn’t have scored that goal yesterday if it didn’t get that delicate deflection off Holding for example…
should add though that I do think we’ve been “lucky” with fixtures and refs.
 

db10_therza

🎵 Edu getting rickrolled 🎵
Trusted ⭐

Country: Bangladesh

Player:Martinelli
Lucky with refs???

Did you watch Southampton away and yesterday????

Not to mention united away.

Over the course of the whole season I think we’ve had decent calls. Every fan base thinks they get crap calls which is obviously untrue. I don’t buy into the conspiracy nonsense at all.

Although by decent what I mean is better than previous years. You can’t tell me you think we have had worse calls this season than the last 2?
 

Uncle Good-Advice

Active Member
I wouldn't say that we were a lucky team lately or at least I don't think there was any extraordinary amount of luck involved. Sure we got some jammy wins (but so has every other team) although they were few and far between. Most of the time we were clearly better than our opponents and should have beaten many of them even more comfortably than we actually did. On points total we absolutely deserve to be where we currently are.
 

Makingtrax

Worships in the house of Wenger 🙏
Trusted ⭐

Country: England

Player:Saliba
Yes and no - in that if you create attacking situations as often as we do then at some point it stops being luck and starts becoming expected based on probabilities. The whole point of our style of play is to create as many of these situations as possible.

We also tend to overanalyse movements that involve our goals for obvious reasons so we can miss this point. Mitoma wouldn’t have scored that goal yesterday if it didn’t get that delicate deflection off Holding for example…
Sure that’s part of it. The more attempts you have, the more chances of deflections and stuff. But I don’t recall it being like that in the past though for Arteta, Unai or Wenger. Do you remember that game against United in Dec 2017. Our xG was through the roof, 75% procession, 12 corners, 33 shots on goal, 16 on target, ridiculous double save by DeGea, scrambles off the goal line, their box was like a pin ball machine and all the deflections went wide. They had one corner and 4 shots and won.

Now you just have the feeling that everything’s going our way. Even when they peppered us yesterday in the latter stages of the match I wasn’t worried. I knew their 3rd goal would be offside and they wouldn’t get another. :lol: Wouldn’t have felt like that last year.
 

CaseUteinberger

Established Member

Country: Sweden
Watched the highlights for the game about the 11th time. Always nice to watch highlights from wins when we score 4 nice and well worked goals. The two goals we conceded were really on Tomi and Saliba. Worst was the 2nd and Saliba passing the goalscorer with his left knee. Ramsdale also didn't look great on that one either. But good that the defensive mistakes come in two wins for us.

What really stands out is how Saka, Martinelli and Ødegaard have grown over the last couple of seasons. They are maturing into real stars. The interplay is just great. We mustn't forget that our team is young, our manager a relative novice and our owner put his son in to oversee the work. Hopefully things on all ends can only improve over this and the next couple of seasons.
 

DanDare

Emoji Merchant and Believer-In-Chief
Trusted ⭐

Player:Saliba
Do people still believe this?
They only have 5 less points than City over 35 games in 2022 and have an outrageously good defensive record this season - 11 conceded in 17 with 9 clean sheets.

This game will be a huge huge test.
Yeah I do. There's a narrative that they're rich now and should challenge for everything but they haven't actually materially changed their team much from when they were way worse. Credit to Howe for what he's done. But I think they've relied on players like Almironhaving the form of his life but it's not really in keeping with his PL career so far. Just like I don't think Sp**s coming back from games they concede via Hjoiberg goals is sustainable long term either.

This is not to say Newcastle are rubbish but that I think they're basically doing a Leicester right now with worse players and will fall off a bit. Also think it'll be a hard game for us which we could lose but above still stands for me
 

rockofcashel

Active Member
City's next 6 games

Chelsea (a)
United (a)
Sp**s (h)
Wolves (h)
Sp**s (a)
Villa (h)

If they get 18/18 from those 6 games.. well fair play to them, that's a serious achievement

Arsenal's next 5

Newcastle (h)
Sp**s (a)
United (h)
Everton (a)
Brentford (h)

We have to win all our home games.. we just have to

Then a win or two draws away to Spuds/Everton

Would mean we'd take on City, at home, at worst.. level on points

We all know predicting the future is a mugs game.. but given those runs of games.. and for some reason, City have an extra game thrown in before they play Arsenal.. along with an extra league cup game at Chelsea..

And there's every chance Arsenal could still have a 5-7 point gap.. possibly even more, before City arrive at the Emirates
 

Mrs Bergkamp

Double Dusted
Dusted 🔻
You don't have to replace the whole team, but give some players a break. I would definitely do that. But that's a problem for the future. We don't have to play the knockout round, so the next EL games are in March.

Knockout round play-offs: February 16 and 23.
Round of 16: March 9 and 16, 2023
Quarter-finals: April 13 and 20, 2023
Semifinals: May 11 and 18, 2023
Final: May 31, 2023

So for the round of 16, rotate a little bit: Turner - Tierney, Gabriel, Holding, Tomy - Elneny, Xhaka, Ode - Martinelli, Nkethiah, Mudryk/Viera.

And then think about it again in the quarterfinals.
I don't mind that but I hope Turner can get some U23 gametine if that's possible. The problem is the number of minutes Elneny, Holding and Vieira along with Marquinhos and ESR will get over the next three months. Not a lot imo especially if we exit the FA Cup and so the issue of playing cold subs remains. A core of maybe 4 players need the odd 20 minutes every PL match.
 

Nunowoolmez

Established Member
City's next 6 games

Chelsea (a)
United (a)
Sp**s (h)
Wolves (h)
Sp**s (a)
Villa (h)

If they get 18/18 from those 6 games.. well fair play to them, that's a serious achievement

Arsenal's next 5

Newcastle (h)
Sp**s (a)
United (h)
Everton (a)
Brentford (h)

We have to win all our home games.. we just have to

Then a win or two draws away to Spuds/Everton

Would mean we'd take on City, at home, at worst.. level on points

We all know predicting the future is a mugs game.. but given those runs of games.. and for some reason, City have an extra game thrown in before they play Arsenal.. along with an extra league cup game at Chelsea..

And there's every chance Arsenal could still have a 5-7 point gap.. possibly even more, before City arrive at the Emirates

Tell me you're getting ahead of yourself without saying you're getting ahead of yourself 😉

I can only take it game by game right now.
 

rockofcashel

Active Member
Tell me you're getting ahead of yourself without saying you're getting ahead of yourself 😉

I can only take it game by game right now.
Can't help it..

Can't fecking help it.. this is like living in some kind of alternate Leicester universe 😄😄

I've convinced myself that by the time we play City.. they'll beat us with a last minute goal the way Welbeck beat Leicester that year.. and everyone will say that's it, we're crumbling

Then we'll kick on again and win it

😅😅😅
 

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