The Football Thread.

rze99 · February 2023

Jeez.

De Bruyne….. brilliant.

menamestom · February 2023

axisus said:

I don't think they will even make top 4 next season ...

Not sure I agree with that. They have the youngest squad in the Premier League and will only get better.

Lestratcaster · February 2023

Two silly mistakes punished. Not enough game-changers from the bench to affect the game. This might be where we start to falter and fade away.

RaymondLin · February 2023

Fine margins at the top, 2 mistakes and got punished.

it does make the league more interesting though! But Arsenal’s fate is still in their hands, just need to regroup and I think Man City will stumble too.

Lestratcaster · February 2023

I think we still have a game in hand if I'm correct. But we had a good opportunity to strengthen top spot tonight and didn't take it. How costly that might be by the end of the season I don't know.

menamestom · February 2023

Lestratcaster said:

I think we still have a game in hand if I'm correct. But we had a good opportunity to strengthen top spot tonight and didn't take it. How costly that might be by the end of the season I don't know.

City were always going to play well against a team who like possession and push up.
They struggle more against organised teams who sit back and counter attack. Haaland can be cut out of games and they end up playing with 10 men.

I don’t think tonight is a season changer. Arsenal just need to make the game in hand count and not need to win at the Ethiad because City will still drop points and are not exactly in imperious form.

A long way to go, Arsenal need to keep mentally tough and not take the defeat too much to heart.

Lestratcaster · February 2023

Plus we'll have Gabriel Jesus back next month. We didn't manage a shot on target from open play tonight so we need him back, as well as Nketiah has done.

menamestom · February 2023

I can’t help thinking Man United would be in a title race also now if it wasn’t for the points dropped against Leeds and Palace, or if we could have held on against Arsenal.
But then any team could say similar, about dropped points.

5 points behind 1st and 2nd is not impossible, but I think we will never truly enter the race this season.

guitars4you · February 2023

Arsenal v Man City - I think the other factor is that it looks like that the whole team has to play well for Arsenal to win the big games - For that slick touch, we've seen so many times this year, they all need to be on their game - Last night a couple of players were not quite there, for one reason or another - But Man City can pull a win out the bag, even if a few players are off the boil - To a neutral, but was still hoping Arsenal would win, it was a good game to watch

It was a bit like that over the 2 matches with Man U v Leeds last week - On Sunday at ER, , Sancho, Carthorse and Bruno offered nothing/little - But the team hung in when/where required and produced two key moments that mattered

TeleMaster · February 2023

So the penalty for the keeper challenge, penalty or not? He completely clattered him even though the ball left his foot, so probably was deemed unsafe, so it seemed like a penalty to me.

Any thoughts?

RaymondLin · February 2023

The opposing player did not touch the ball, took out the attacker.

Penalty.

I used the word opposing player because it shouldn't matter if it's the keeper or a defender.

CHRISB50 · February 2023

I thought we played well in the first half.

2nd half we lost the midfield and couldn’t cope with their press, trying to play out from the back.

Arsenal fans are extremely brittle. It’s been all love and hugs on social media until the last 3 games. Now people are piling in on various players and Arteta. Why I can’t stand most Arsenal fans. Especially the Arsenal TV lot and pricks like Troopz.

It’s frustrating. But we’re still way ahead of where I thought we’d be.

Surely there is more to be gained by actually getting behind your team, than slagging them off.

RaymondLin · February 2023

All I'd like is for my teams to be challenging for titles and be competitive.

They are trying on the field and is one of the best team in the league and have a young side. Most fans and teams wished they are in Arsenal's position.

Football fans are weird, so fickle.

axisus · February 2023

menamestom said:

axisus said:

I don't think they will even make top 4 next season ...

Not sure I agree with that. They have the youngest squad in the Premier League and will only get better.

I have nothing against Arsenal, and I would prefer them to do well over all the other 'top' teams (other than Man U), but I just have a feeling that it is a 'running on adrenaline' season. Happy to be proved wrong, but we can convene in a year and see how things are going ....

axisus · February 2023

Sad to say, but personally I think that's it for the Arsenal challenge. Their (8 point?) lead has frittered away, and I think they will drop more points than City over the rest of the season.

RaymondLin · February 2023

I heard the commentator said that United doesn't have to play City or Arsenal anymore, and of course City and Arsenal still need to play at the City Ground again.

That's another 3pts Man United can catch up on, regardless who wins or draw there.

It's going to be a close-er one this season.

mrkb · February 2023

TeleMaster said:

So the penalty for the keeper challenge, penalty or not? He completely clattered him even though the ball left his foot, so probably was deemed unsafe, so it seemed like a penalty to me.

Any thoughts?

Remove keeper and penalty terminology from that situation and assess that. ie if one player knocked over another player just after he'd kicked the ball in any other area of the pitch would it be a foul? I think yes it would.

TTony · February 2023

axisus said:

I have nothing against Arsenal, and I would prefer them to do well over all the other 'top' teams (other than Man U), but I just have a feeling that it is a 'running on adrenaline' season.

Confidence is a big thing that affects performance, both individually and for the team/squad as a whole.

Arsenal have been playing well, confidence has been building, that helps them play better, confidence builds further.

A younger team will find it harder to recover from setbacks - they've not got the "been there, done it" experience. So, once the confidence starts to fall away, the results will quickly suffer. And it only takes 1 or 2 players to start to lose the confidence and that can spread to the whole team.

ManC players have the experience, know that they can win, know that they have change-a-game individuals. They've lost a few games, but bounced back quickly.

Can Arsenal now recover confidence and form?

thecolourbox · February 2023

CHRISB50 said:

I thought we played well in the first half.

2nd half we lost the midfield and couldn’t cope with their press, trying to play out from the back.

Arsenal fans are extremely brittle. It’s been all love and hugs on social media until the last 3 games. Now people are piling in on various players and Arteta. Why I can’t stand most Arsenal fans. Especially the Arsenal TV lot and pricks like Troopz.

It’s frustrating. But we’re still way ahead of where I thought we’d be.

Surely there is more to be gained by actually getting behind your team, than slagging them off.

That's not specific to Arsenal fans, same at West Brom and I'm sure at most other clubs.

We are having a wobble at the moment, some very poor results against teams we really should be beating. But even when we were on our good run, we weren't playing that well we just tightened up the defence, sacked off the clown in goal, and the opposition in the championship is generally quite poor so if you're tight at the back you can generally win a lot of games 1 or 2 nill. Now our better keeper is injured the defence is wobbling because of the praying mantis in the goal behind them and there we go, we are losing points again and the fans are getting back to what they were with Bruce and Ishmael as managers.

There were nearly two different fights in my normally quite corner of the Hawthorns last night against a very average Blackburn side that we could not beat, it was the only shouting there was all night. Very entitled set of fans

Rocker · February 2023

Saw the end of the Chelsea game on TV last night. One Chelsea player took a few free kicks close to the opposition goals. I don’t know his name but he was so inaccurate with his efforts that I thought that if he was trying to kick the ball into the stand, he would miss. I thought that Chelsea were a decent team with capable players in their squad. I was wrong again.

guitars4you · February 2023

TeleMaster said:

So the penalty for the keeper challenge, penalty or not? He completely clattered him even though the ball left his foot, so probably was deemed unsafe, so it seemed like a penalty to me.

Any thoughts?

I think you are right in that it was a penalty and as you know, keepers often get away with such issues - But in the 2nd half Arsenal had a player brought down in the box, think it was Trossard and Walker - Almost identical situation and no penalty given, so I now wonder what is and what isn't a penalty - Appears to be a lot of opinion in such situations - In many ways, the simple question is 'would it be given as a foul/free kick outside the box' - If the answer is yes, then it should be a foul as well inside the box, ie penalty - The rule book doesn't have a different level for such offences - Yet we all appear to create such differentials, be it fans, players, refs, var, managers, commentators, pundits etc etc

guitars4you · February 2023

Great game to watch - both sides going for it - Man U v Barca - Sancho and Carthorse still both a waste of space - Should be a cracking 2nd leg next Thurs

TeleMaster · February 2023

Yea was a good game!

CHRISB50 · February 2023

Well that was stressful. Well done Arsenal.

mrkb · February 2023

CHRISB50 said:

Well that was stressful. Well done Arsenal.

The goal off the back of "time wasting Martinez" head in injury time was sent from heaven! Loved it!

Lestratcaster · February 2023

Wow what a comeback. 2-1 down at HT I thought we would be lucky to get a draw but the spirit is still there. Was important to bounce back after 3 games without winning.

guitars4you · February 2023

mrkb said:

CHRISB50 said:

Well that was stressful. Well done Arsenal.

The goal off the back of "time wasting Martinez" head in injury time was sent from heaven! Loved it!

Yes well done to you Gunner fans - Grafted well and show'd character - all 5 goals were good goals as well in some form or another

Lestratcaster · February 2023

I think the additions of Jorginho and Zinchenko could be key. They're proven winners and have that mentality that we were lacking last year and seasons before. Both scored today (Maybe not Jorginho as it came off Martinez's head) and you need those types of players to lead the younger ones a bit.

mikeyrob73 · February 2023

Well that was a terrible watch , but 3 points is 3 points

living down here a lot mates are Leeds fans so it’s nice to rip the piss out of them for a bit

Lestratcaster · February 2023

Nice one Forest!

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