I think that's pretty good to be honest. There are very few "easy" games in the PL so you can't avoid tricky looking away games but we probably go into seven of our first nine as favorites, on paper.
Good opportunity to get off to a winning start against Burnley.
Final game of a crazy season is upon us.
We've had some big wins, great goals, some terrible performances, another injury crisis, some shocking PL form...and after it all, a glorious night in Bilbao to end the trophy drought.
Result doesn't matter today. It's all about the celebrations. COYS 🤍
WE ONLY FUCKING DID IT!!!
Unreal. Been bouncing off the walls since that final whistle. Shit game but who cares - well done Ange, well done to every single player, the staff, the fans, everyone. The trophy drought is over! 🏆
COME ON YOU FUCKING SPURS!!!
Not much creativity in the midfield but we knew that was going to be the case - gone for legs so the distribution from Porro and Romero will be key.
Big call to have Son on the bench. Some good attacking options to bring on, though. We can do it
COYS - please bring it home! 🙏🏻
In just twelve hours time we'll either be celebrating our first major trophy in 17 long years or we'll have that familiar feeling of crushing disappointment having fallen just short once more.
Please let this time be different 🙏🏻😖
COYS
Think they've done OK so far. Moore has struggled to get into the game a bit. Spence a bit sloppy and Son needs to tighten up the end product but otherwise we've done better than I'd expected.
Does feel a like a Villa goal will come at some stage but they haven't battered us (so far).
😳
Good luck out there, lads! And congratulations on your win in advance, Aston Villa.
Very pleased for Bergvall who has come on quicker than probably anyone expected & his ceiling is huge but I feel like there's quite a bit of recency bias / trajectory appreciation to that voting!
In terms of overall contribution I think Maddison, Kulu and even Porro can all feel a bit hard done by.
No issues with the rotation today but I don't think anyone can rotate that heavily and expect much in the PL - they tried but it was a very disjointed performance that Palace punished us for.
Won't be losing any sleep over it. Just hope Kulu is OK.
Anyway, I'm off to watch the Clasico!
Don't mind that line-up at all. If anything I'm surprised Porro and Bentancur are starting but I guess they'll come off midway through the second half.
Good to see Gray starting in midfield again. Hoping for no injuries and Kulu to rediscover some form. COYS.
excellent. Richarlison worked really hard as well.
Fully deserved the win and now a huge chance to rescue our season and end our trophy drought.
I'm nervous already...
COYS.
WE'RE OFF TO BILBAO!! ✈️🎉⚽️
Thought that was such a professional performance from us. Bodo always score at home and pre-match they were confident of causing us problems but we kept them quiet all game.
Thought they all played well but Bissouma, Bentancur, Porro, Udogie and Solanke were all
No surprises in that line-up i don't think, given Richarlison started last week?
Will be a tough game where they're going to put us under pressure so hopefully we're at it from the first whistle.
Huge match. COYS.
Forgettable game that suited the final score - fairly disjointed stuff from both sides really.
Rested players while avoiding defeat or any further injuries so I'll take that, personally.
On to the main event on Thursday. Fingers crossed Maddison & Solanke are OK 🤞🏻🤞🏻
Don't dislike the line-up - resting key players other than where they potentially need more minutes. It's a team that's capable of winning but a full strength West Ham go into it as favorites at home.
Hopefully we can pull out a result but priority is no further injuries. COYS.
Arsenal risking finishing 'third in a two horse race' this season...
can't win or shouldn't want to win. We could rotate and still possibly get a result.
But I don't think people can both call for heavy rotation AND be shocked / have a meltdown if we lose. Just isn't reasonable.
I think people are over thinking the culture stuff, personally. Everybody recognises the context is pretty unique so I don't think what happens now is going to mean the players and fans will struggle to rediscover the importance of PL results when next season starts.
Saying that, I'm not saying we
rotate heavily away from home home in the PL and still expect a win, so I don't think we can have it both ways by calling for the reserves and still having a meltdown if we then get beaten...
I'd love to see us rotate and still beat West Ham, but Thursday remains the priority by a long way.
Seems like the majority are comfortable with the idea of fairly heavy rotation against West Ham tomorrow? Feels pragmatic given the injuries to Bergvall, Maddison & Solanke. We can't afford any more starters going down.
Think expectations will need to be set accordingly, though...you can't really
Well we're in the driving seat after what was - for the most part - a good semi final performance.
Shame their only shot on target deflected into the goal (especially given all our deflected shots went wide) and hopefully the Solanke and Maddison injuries aren't too bad. On to Norway. COYS.
I was worried about the starting line-up and whether it'd offer enough creativity but it worked - I thought that was a good, controlled first half. Great to have a two goal lead - need to keep going and try to extend that second half before I'd be confident going over to Norway. COYS.
Not a huge fan of that line up to be honest...real shame about Bergvall but to also not have any of Odobert, Tel or Kulu starting...i don't like it, tbh.
Still, hopefully it works and if not we have a strong bench. COYS.
(hopefully three) games - a good win tonight and a major cup final is in touching distance.
Think we need to forget everything else for now and lets book ourselves a place in Bilbao. COYS.
Looking forward to tonight's game. Bodo haven't got to this stage through luck so even though they're missing a few we'll need to turn up...saying that, this is a great opportunity for us and anything other than a win tonight i do think is unacceptable. Our season has come down to these two
🤞🏻
Yeah it has the potential to be a bad one I think. Hopefully it doesn't pan out that way.
I don't think ours are on the beach, though. Think they're just aware that the Europa is the important one for us now.
I think it's only hypocritical if Ange doesn't care and he's telling players and fans not to worry about it - which, to be fair, I dont think he's doing. They've not downed tools in league games and he still seems gutted when we don't win.
Yep massively overperforming against both xG and xGa. Sometimes that's sustainable but not normally - as you say they lack players typically associated with xG over performance (maybe some of them become that).
I think they could be in for a big drop off next session.
It'll naturally spark another pointless meltdown / Ange debate among our fanbase with people quoting numbers of losses this season but it's a waste of energy at this point - our season boils down to the Europa League; everything else will come after that is resolved...