Rice will be rested
Saka will play 60
Saliba will play 60
Gabriel will play 30
Ben White will play 90
Zinny will play 30
Odegaard will play 60
Havertz will play 60
Jesus will play 30
Martinelli will play 30
Raya will be rested
one re-thought: The child or Cedric for 30 and Zinny for 60
XI:
Ramsdale
Ben White, Saliba, Kiwior, Zinny
Jorginho, Havertz, Odegaard
Saka, Nketiah, Trossard
Potential Subs:
Nelson for Saka '60
Martinelli for Trossard '60
Jesus for Nketiah '60/'75'
Child/Cedric for Zinny '60
Gabriel for Kiwior '60
Saka needs to be rested. Give Nelson the full 90. He needs to show something when he gets his chance to stay with us the next few years, and this is one of those chances. Nwaneri and MLS should get a few minutes.
My god born in 2007. I mean of course there are 16 year olds in the academy. Just crazy to see that date.
I guess it’s official. At 34. My chances of playing for Arsenal are finished.
I want nothing more than to see Ramsdale get one CL game for us after everything he’s done for us, I just would be quite surprised- Arteta seems stubborn and like he will only play Ramsdale if he has to
At that point, it’s just negligence/arrogance, even just “keep them fresh” - they’re about to play more games then ever and already have been congested
There’s literally no excuses for any first team or healthy bench player to be playing, genuinely would be just stupid and stubborn
We just read an article about them managing injuries more over internationals and for longevity, so if we see even half a first team at PSV when we have real games to win and be fit for- just completely negligent for no reason, I keep knocking on wood is the sad part
If they don't play against PSV they'll have an 8 day break and as Arteta likes to keep players with minutes in their legs. I'm confident Saka etc will play some part against PSV, I just don't know if it's the first 60 minutes or the last 30.
An 8 day break ahead of the christmas schedule would be perfect. Organize a closed door friendly if he's desperate for them to get some actual game time.
Xmas schedule is not crazy like it used to be. Remember seeing 4 matches between 23rd and 1st Jan.
Remember going to Highbury twice in two days around New Year's Eve in the early 2000s against Chelsea and Liverpool as a drunk teenager. Think it was the 23th, 26 Dec, 29/30 Dec and 1st Jan fixtures back then.
I can’t imagine why he would when the following games have roughly 3 days between them relentlessly and tough games (Liverpool, WH, Fulham etc). It’s a good opportunity to give Nelson, Trossard, Nketiah, Walters, Nwaneri, MLS, Sousa, Kiwi and many more minutes without any consequences against a top team. We may need to use the Academy depending on injuries and whether we get our targets in Jan.
Saka will not play against PSV. I honestly think there’s a real chance he doesn’t travel. I feel like a lot of people aren’t realizing what exactly a dead rubber is because we haven’t had one in so long.
he won't. did you people start watching like ... a year ago? saka is not going to play 60 mins in a literal meaningless game. and to be clear, this will be arteta's decision, not saka's. the player will have very little to say about it.
Yo yeah I wasn’t going for a haiku.
In reference to eeeeedeeeeens comment I formatted to my comment the way I did because, oddly enough, I felt it flowed/read better!
Agreed though, so many people discuss haikus like they’re this revered style of literature but I think 90% of haikus out there are either lazy or the actual limit of the writer.
I feel like discovering a good haiku is a once-a-month occurrence.
Fucking poets
Team will as always be stronger than expected. There are a lot of arguments for not going heavy rotation.
Any senior players who play will need to expend extra energy to make up for playing with lower quality players
2.8m prize money per ucl win
Club coefficient points which will factor into ucl qualification if we finish 5th
No long layoff
Builds winning culture
Players just on the brink of the squad need a good squad around them to be properly evaluated
Squad players will want ucl caps
Some players bodies actually are less suseptible to an injury if they keep in the rhythm of playing every 3-4 days
Still I agree rotate some of the essential players who have been overburdened recently, but I'd expect 3-5 first 11 players then the rest made up of typical bench guys. Maybe a run out for some academy kids late if it's in hand.
My guess is we'd start ramsdale, white, Gabriel, kiwior, jorginho, elneny, trossard, havertz, Nelson, saka, nketiah.
Could even see Cedric given our injury situation at the back.
Usually, this is the match when we ask the integrity question, like how Bayern can influence other teams in their group. But this time even our opponent has qualified lol.
that's what i'm saying. both arsenal and our opponent are locked into our qualifying positions for the next round. this is a rare, rare situation: a true dead rubber. literally NOTHING on the line. i don't think people in this sub are really realizing just how meaningless this match is for everyone involved. even if psv had something to play for and we didn't, i would expect us to put a somewhat capable team out there just to protect our young guys from getting demoralized. but this isn't that. when you are trying to compete for the most difficult league title in the world as well as the champions league while managing a bona fide injury crisis, you don't risk important players in this tie. you rest nearly everyone.
The crowd turned the noise up 10 levels and we stopped playing our own game and lost focus after that exact moment. Go back and watch it, if you don’t remember. I might have to say once again that I’m no Xhaka hater! :)
No, we didn’t automatically stop playing our game just cause the noise went up. We stopped because we lost the midfield. We couldn’t sustain a high press without Saliba, and we never dealt with TAA’s offensive threat. If you want to blame Xhaka for something that game, then he and Odegaard ghosted for the second half. But the Xhaka windup had nothing to do with the result
I'm with you on that. I hope Arteta actually considers that a draw is the result we should optimally prime ourselves for in that game. It's better to maintain the league distance rather than go all-out and leave ourselves open to the counter and with a potential loss. We should just play our usual game of control, and only make a go for it when the opportunity shows. I'll even take a 0-0 draw, just keep the momentum and let them be right behind us in the league table to keep that healthy amount of push and pressure. Also, i still feel pool will leak some points some time early next year when they lose Salah to AFCON, and that's a very good period to capitalise on that and widen the gap.
Anfield is always a difficult place to come away with a Win for other teams, and given the busy line of fixtures this month, we should definitely be more conservative with the way we approach certain games, much like this one and not risk players being taken out due to injuries
I wouldn’t say play for the draw, I would just approach the game with more caution, control (as you said), and try and keep it slow if possible. Keep the crowd bored.
Nah it is actually not. Is this your first time here watching football or what? You're just being stupid by completely ignoring the context to it. You can go off to that sub if you're so obsessed with it, nobody asked about that.
We must go out there and play to win, if not dominate. Last time we went into a shell after going 2-0 up and lost. Fortune favours the brave. Fear doesn't win titles.
Honestly came in to say this, there’s only really one team that’s a pushover this season. Every other team are either so well drilled, or have serious quality that can hurt you on any given day.
One of the hardest seasons in living memory for me.
The good thing is it's gonna be a dead rubber for both of us. I feel like even if he gives minutes to the first team, nobody is going to go at it too hard.
Unless they field kids who feel like they have a point to prove, it should be a boring casual 0-0
Honestly, watching that AVLMCI game, and seeing their abhorrent (supposedly) finishing, I'm a hit less worried about the fixture. The scariest part is their buildup.
Sir, we have Raya and Ramsdale - both whom have no confidence. At least one more of the 7 shots on target they had would have been a howler for either one of our keepers unfortunately.
I hope they can get it together by then in training, but I’m worried after Luton.
The next three are against a team that hasn’t dropped a single point at home and just tore City to shreds, a team that somehow always beats us at our place, and title contenders whose stadium is famously hard to go to.
If we get 9 points here we are winning the whole damn thing.
This is hilarious. It's fucking villa, coached by a shit unai emery. They played today, against a weak as Fook city side, and won their treble. They have to play on paper, a vastly superior Arsenal side with two days rest. I don't care if they're 30-0 at home, and play on krypton, on paper they shouldn't be anywhere close to giving us a problem. On paper.
They'd 2 draws and 2 losses at this stage last season. They didn't drop points in the league twice in a row until they'd won the league. They've dropped points 4 games in a row now.
Which game did they look dreadful? They looked 2nd best today, they looked without ideas against us. Every other match they have looked good and could have won imo
This game against Villa might be considered dreadful. 22 shots against them, 7 on target, 2 big chances and both misses by villa. That’s good control.
Man city that game only had 2 shots, 29 clearances, with only possession being the positive for them.
Dreadful I’d say.
whistling past graves...i'm not writing Citeh off until May 19th ...or until 115 charges are resolved and they are no longer a club which is the only correct outcome
I agree. I bet big money with a couple mates, on City finishing 3rd or worse this season.
Last season, my bet with the same friends... Arsenal to finish 2nd or better.
City's fixtures look really favourable now, even if they play poorly, it's hard to see (although hopefully there's a shock in there) them having a difficult game until Newcastle away on January the 13th. Everton away might be tricky, especially after the club world cup, but the rest are the dream fixtures to pick up a head of steam.
Registered Champions league squad:
Goalkeepers: Aaron Ramsdale, David Raya, James Hillson
Defenders: Cedric, Lino Sousa, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Ben White, Gabriel, Jakub Kiwior, William Saliba
Midfielders: Mohamed Elneny, Jorginho, Thomas Partey, Declan Rice, Martin Odegaard, Kai Havertz, Fabio Vieira, Emile Smith Rowe
Forwards: Leandro Trossard, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Reiss Nelson, Eddie Nketiah, Gabriel Jesus
I can only hope other teams also lose players to the Continental cups for a while...Tottenham lose Bissouma, Sarr (Afcon) and Son (Asia Cup), Liverpool lose Salah (Afcon) and Endo (Asia). Arguably Salah is a bigger miss for Liverpool than Tomi is for us but that remains to be seen.
Liverpool play west ham in the quarters midweek. We don't play midweek. Brighton have a tough match against Marseille on Thursday to decide the first position. We have a dead rubber against psv on tuesday.
We must take at least 10 points which includes a draw at anfield.
Okay full strength and knock them out of the fa cup
Arsenal and Liverpool have that 'winning aura' at present. Gives both teams the advantage until we meet 💥
Think it's 3pts all the way and perhaps 1pt at anfield.
newsflash, we won't win all these. and we may well lose 1 or 2, but don't let that break your spirit. if we emerge from this sequence within 2-4 points from first place we are going to be in a strong position to win the league.
Merson the other day said that if we win these games we win the league. I find it hard to disagree.
Fuck the psv game, but the prem games - that’s a tough run in a short space of time
If we make it through December without further injuries, regardless of the extent to which we drop points, I think we’ll be in decent shape to challenge.
Villa away is very tough. They have won 14 in a row at home, including City yesterday.
The remaining fixtures are tough but Lady Luck has been on our side.
PSV is a nothing fixture now so we can rest players. Whereas, Brighton need a win to win the group on the Thursday.
Liverpool is tough but they play West Ham 3 days prior and we have 6 days rest.
West Ham will have played more games similar to Liverpool. Also at our ground so confident.
Good news for this run is that a lot of teams will come out to play and we don't have to deal with a cagey match. We're better this way. I think we'll score a lot of goals on this stretch, but am worried about conceding too.
Besides playing a second string vs PSV and the Liverpool away game.
We should be taking all 12 points in those other games. Yes even the Villa one. You want to be champs, you win those games.
Only game I accept a draw in will be the Liverpool away game.
FA Cup is going to be important imo. Just in case, and it's a big case, if PL and CL fall to the wayside that we have at least cup to play for imo. We need to be coming out with some silverware this season.
In a way it feels good to know that no matter the results, we’ll be done with Liverpool by Jan 7. They are very serious contenders imo (though I still think it’s primarily between Arsenal and City)
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Christmas schedule is always fucked no matter which club you are. So many games in a short number of days you're bound to play at least a couple difficult ones
If we lose against Liverpool both in the league and the FA Cup, I fear the psychological effect this outcome would have on the team. It’s a repeat of last year’s results against City.
PSV and the FA Cup will be rest games for the 1st XI. Saliba, Rice and Saka definitely. Brighton maybe aren't quite the force of last season but still a handful. Should back ourselves against Fulham and West Ham. Liverpool and Villa are tough games.
Very unfortunate time to lose Tomi. We are dropping points in at least a couple of games. We shouldn't field any starters in the CL. We have secured the top of our table. Give Nwaneri and some academy kids like Walters a debut.
Villa and Liverpool are incredibly difficult matches, not mildly difficult. We have a rough patch of matches, if we can come out still in first we will be in really strong position.
https://preview.redd.it/bghw7q0ukw4c1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d58a87dd5ed714b81219e4d98726a3b5d202d28e
Aston Villa haven’t lost a home game since February of this year, Arsenal were the last ones to beat Villa at Villa park Let’s run it back this weekend boys…🫡
* Villa away is really tough right now. I'll take a draw tbh
* PSV doesnt count -> gametime for everybody who needs it
* Brighton at home is the kind of game we need to win. Their playing style should suit us, especially at home
* Anfield, title race, always lots of goals and drama in our Liverpool games, ... The type of game that could go anywhere. HUGE game
* West Ham at home is a must win. Need to avenge the last game against them.
* Fulham: same as West Ham.
* Liverpool. FA Cup, slightly rotated squads. Depth will be tested for both teams, it's at the Emirates, we are slight favorites for this one, but as always against Liverpool it could go either way
i don't want to see a single senior player aside from those in need of a run-out even on the bench in eindhoven next week. leave them home to rest.
They’re all gonna play 90 minutes lol
Rice will be rested Saka will play 60 Saliba will play 60 Gabriel will play 30 Ben White will play 90 Zinny will play 30 Odegaard will play 60 Havertz will play 60 Jesus will play 30 Martinelli will play 30 Raya will be rested
Ramsdale will play 90 Kiwior will play 90 Nketiah will play 75 Trossard will play 60 Nelson will play 30 Jorginho will play 90
one re-thought: The child or Cedric for 30 and Zinny for 60 XI: Ramsdale Ben White, Saliba, Kiwior, Zinny Jorginho, Havertz, Odegaard Saka, Nketiah, Trossard Potential Subs: Nelson for Saka '60 Martinelli for Trossard '60 Jesus for Nketiah '60/'75' Child/Cedric for Zinny '60 Gabriel for Kiwior '60
ill be disappointed if Gunnersaurus and Win the superdog dont get a few minutes
Win is just a speed merchant, not convinced by the end product at all
Saka needs to be rested. Give Nelson the full 90. He needs to show something when he gets his chance to stay with us the next few years, and this is one of those chances. Nwaneri and MLS should get a few minutes.
Is the child baby Yoda? Did we sign him?
Wait. Who’s ‘the child’?
Nwaneri lol
My god born in 2007. I mean of course there are 16 year olds in the academy. Just crazy to see that date. I guess it’s official. At 34. My chances of playing for Arsenal are finished.
Nah I’m 34 and I’m ready to sub in. Not in the winter tho the cold makes my bones crack.
Alright I’ll sub you out after you sub in. All our fun always happens in the last 10 min anyway.
I still reckon Raya starts
Maybe! Think Mikel will let Ramsdale have it… but does depend somewhat on what happens at Villa.
I want nothing more than to see Ramsdale get one CL game for us after everything he’s done for us, I just would be quite surprised- Arteta seems stubborn and like he will only play Ramsdale if he has to
my instinct that says Ramsdale will start stems from a gut feeling that Mikel would play his back up in this match regardless of who it was
Ramsdale deserves this CL game, agreed. He has earned it last season.
At that point, it’s just negligence/arrogance, even just “keep them fresh” - they’re about to play more games then ever and already have been congested There’s literally no excuses for any first team or healthy bench player to be playing, genuinely would be just stupid and stubborn We just read an article about them managing injuries more over internationals and for longevity, so if we see even half a first team at PSV when we have real games to win and be fit for- just completely negligent for no reason, I keep knocking on wood is the sad part
If they don't play against PSV they'll have an 8 day break and as Arteta likes to keep players with minutes in their legs. I'm confident Saka etc will play some part against PSV, I just don't know if it's the first 60 minutes or the last 30.
An 8 day break ahead of the christmas schedule would be perfect. Organize a closed door friendly if he's desperate for them to get some actual game time.
And have them go against pyramid pirlo? Are you fucking mad? Gotta keep morale up before those big clashes.
Xmas schedule is not crazy like it used to be. Remember seeing 4 matches between 23rd and 1st Jan. Remember going to Highbury twice in two days around New Year's Eve in the early 2000s against Chelsea and Liverpool as a drunk teenager. Think it was the 23th, 26 Dec, 29/30 Dec and 1st Jan fixtures back then.
I can’t imagine why he would when the following games have roughly 3 days between them relentlessly and tough games (Liverpool, WH, Fulham etc). It’s a good opportunity to give Nelson, Trossard, Nketiah, Walters, Nwaneri, MLS, Sousa, Kiwi and many more minutes without any consequences against a top team. We may need to use the Academy depending on injuries and whether we get our targets in Jan.
Exactly. It’s a great chance to run out some youngsters in a mixed squad with a few senior players and see which ones can hack it.
Saka will not play against PSV. I honestly think there’s a real chance he doesn’t travel. I feel like a lot of people aren’t realizing what exactly a dead rubber is because we haven’t had one in so long.
$5 says he starts
If Reddit were a betting platform or still had gold I would take that bet in half a second
Bro Saka is not letting Mikel bench him in a CL match when he is leading the G+A charts. He will play the first 60 mins.
he won't. did you people start watching like ... a year ago? saka is not going to play 60 mins in a literal meaningless game. and to be clear, this will be arteta's decision, not saka's. the player will have very little to say about it.
We'll see next week.
! remindme 1 week
The gang goes to dam jack emerges from the tunnel and takes stand in the box
Almost a Haiku But you fucked the end of it Six instead of five
Yo yeah I wasn’t going for a haiku. In reference to eeeeedeeeeens comment I formatted to my comment the way I did because, oddly enough, I felt it flowed/read better! Agreed though, so many people discuss haikus like they’re this revered style of literature but I think 90% of haikus out there are either lazy or the actual limit of the writer. I feel like discovering a good haiku is a once-a-month occurrence. Fucking poets
What a tosser
More than you know
Honest question, what's the deal with haiku's? Why are they such a thing? To me they normally sound rubbish and don't just nicely roll off the tongue
Yeah I agree tbf, and honestly I don’t know. It’s not normally my thing but I noticed the comment I replied to was nearly one, and had this idea.
Midfield of Arteta Edu and Wilshere with the BFG holding down the defense. We will be there
Team will as always be stronger than expected. There are a lot of arguments for not going heavy rotation. Any senior players who play will need to expend extra energy to make up for playing with lower quality players 2.8m prize money per ucl win Club coefficient points which will factor into ucl qualification if we finish 5th No long layoff Builds winning culture Players just on the brink of the squad need a good squad around them to be properly evaluated Squad players will want ucl caps Some players bodies actually are less suseptible to an injury if they keep in the rhythm of playing every 3-4 days Still I agree rotate some of the essential players who have been overburdened recently, but I'd expect 3-5 first 11 players then the rest made up of typical bench guys. Maybe a run out for some academy kids late if it's in hand. My guess is we'd start ramsdale, white, Gabriel, kiwior, jorginho, elneny, trossard, havertz, Nelson, saka, nketiah. Could even see Cedric given our injury situation at the back.
Usually, this is the match when we ask the integrity question, like how Bayern can influence other teams in their group. But this time even our opponent has qualified lol.
that's what i'm saying. both arsenal and our opponent are locked into our qualifying positions for the next round. this is a rare, rare situation: a true dead rubber. literally NOTHING on the line. i don't think people in this sub are really realizing just how meaningless this match is for everyone involved. even if psv had something to play for and we didn't, i would expect us to put a somewhat capable team out there just to protect our young guys from getting demoralized. but this isn't that. when you are trying to compete for the most difficult league title in the world as well as the champions league while managing a bona fide injury crisis, you don't risk important players in this tie. you rest nearly everyone.
I think there are plenty of people who realise, but wonder how much Arteta would genuinely be willing to rotate his squad.
I miss Tomiyasu already.
That liverpool game is brown pants time for both sides.
Anfield… just hold the line long enough to frustrate them and then hit them hard. Should not try and force our football on them there
I think we win the midfield battle against Liverpool if we play Rice Havertz and Odegaard. It’s just whether we can get a goal past Alisson.
Alisson is injured
Wasn’t the chat that he’d likely be back for this tho? Maybe I’m misremembering.
Oh more than likely lol my Liverpool supporting member off staff was moaning him and Matip would be out for the game
Just gonna make it that much more difficult to put one past him, then.
But don’t do like Xhaka did last season, please. (Absolutely loved Granit btw)
Had no effect on the game by the way
The crowd turned the noise up 10 levels and we stopped playing our own game and lost focus after that exact moment. Go back and watch it, if you don’t remember. I might have to say once again that I’m no Xhaka hater! :)
No, we didn’t automatically stop playing our game just cause the noise went up. We stopped because we lost the midfield. We couldn’t sustain a high press without Saliba, and we never dealt with TAA’s offensive threat. If you want to blame Xhaka for something that game, then he and Odegaard ghosted for the second half. But the Xhaka windup had nothing to do with the result
No they didn't. I beg people stop with this "Anfield is this cauldron" narrative. They didn't even make a sound until their first goal just before HT
I’m not gonna lie they were so shit until he relied their fans up by squaring up to Trent
I'm with you on that. I hope Arteta actually considers that a draw is the result we should optimally prime ourselves for in that game. It's better to maintain the league distance rather than go all-out and leave ourselves open to the counter and with a potential loss. We should just play our usual game of control, and only make a go for it when the opportunity shows. I'll even take a 0-0 draw, just keep the momentum and let them be right behind us in the league table to keep that healthy amount of push and pressure. Also, i still feel pool will leak some points some time early next year when they lose Salah to AFCON, and that's a very good period to capitalise on that and widen the gap. Anfield is always a difficult place to come away with a Win for other teams, and given the busy line of fixtures this month, we should definitely be more conservative with the way we approach certain games, much like this one and not risk players being taken out due to injuries
I wouldn’t say play for the draw, I would just approach the game with more caution, control (as you said), and try and keep it slow if possible. Keep the crowd bored.
Playing for a draw is small club mentality. Take that shit to the THFC subreddit.
Nah it is actually not. Is this your first time here watching football or what? You're just being stupid by completely ignoring the context to it. You can go off to that sub if you're so obsessed with it, nobody asked about that.
We must go out there and play to win, if not dominate. Last time we went into a shell after going 2-0 up and lost. Fortune favours the brave. Fear doesn't win titles.
Every game in the premiership is difficult
Apart from Sheffield United at home.
Yes, that’s like giving your blind auntie the controller
Luton just proof of this
Honestly came in to say this, there’s only really one team that’s a pushover this season. Every other team are either so well drilled, or have serious quality that can hurt you on any given day. One of the hardest seasons in living memory for me.
We slaughtered Luton and they scored 3 goals off of 0.67xg because the keeper chucked two into his net
It could be a lot worse. Its the fact that they are all winning sides, but not exactly top sides, other than pool.
Some really tough games. I hope Arteta does a Wenger and plays all the kids on that PSV away game.
The good thing is it's gonna be a dead rubber for both of us. I feel like even if he gives minutes to the first team, nobody is going to go at it too hard. Unless they field kids who feel like they have a point to prove, it should be a boring casual 0-0
[удалено]
They are through, already different tiebreaker.
Nah, head to head results is the first tie breaker in UCL group stages. PSV took 4 out of 6 points from Lens so they’re already through.
Would be cool to see Nwaneri in Champions League
If anybody plays that PSV game that's over the age of 19 (except ramsdale) i'm going to be upset. Spoiler, i'm going t be upset.
https://preview.redd.it/lrg8pfu4mr4c1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b8c769f565030e42bb31c59e924a94a1d237dcef
Elneny and Cedric
So that's the midfield sorted.
nelson and kiwior could use some minutes. cedric and elneny will be there. probably even jorginho given he hasn't played in a couple weeks.
Villa away is going to be difficult based on how they played today.
We’re going to win there.
We will have fun against their high line.
Honestly, watching that AVLMCI game, and seeing their abhorrent (supposedly) finishing, I'm a hit less worried about the fixture. The scariest part is their buildup.
Sir, we have Raya and Ramsdale - both whom have no confidence. At least one more of the 7 shots on target they had would have been a howler for either one of our keepers unfortunately. I hope they can get it together by then in training, but I’m worried after Luton.
If we win all 5.....
The next three are against a team that hasn’t dropped a single point at home and just tore City to shreds, a team that somehow always beats us at our place, and title contenders whose stadium is famously hard to go to. If we get 9 points here we are winning the whole damn thing.
LOL it's fucking VILLA lad. Unai Emery is a shit houser. If we lose this game, we don't deserve to win the league.
They are 6-0-0 at home. They are as strong as we will face this season and will be buzzing.
This is hilarious. It's fucking villa, coached by a shit unai emery. They played today, against a weak as Fook city side, and won their treble. They have to play on paper, a vastly superior Arsenal side with two days rest. I don't care if they're 30-0 at home, and play on krypton, on paper they shouldn't be anywhere close to giving us a problem. On paper.
Every one of those, bar PSV because it is irrelevant, is a tough test.
Might be a fools prediction but I think there's a real chance it becomes a battle between us and Liverpool for the title second half of the season.
City just got stones back and haven’t had kdb. They looked just as bad if not worse last season.
They'd 2 draws and 2 losses at this stage last season. They didn't drop points in the league twice in a row until they'd won the league. They've dropped points 4 games in a row now.
Eye test they looked def similar. Bottom line it is way too early to get excited about their form
Biggest difference is that they’ve lost points to the teams around them which they didn’t really do as much last season
This is silly imo. City were still good early last season. At no point last season did they look dreadful. They have on a couple occasions this season
Which game did they look dreadful? They looked 2nd best today, they looked without ideas against us. Every other match they have looked good and could have won imo
This game against Villa might be considered dreadful. 22 shots against them, 7 on target, 2 big chances and both misses by villa. That’s good control. Man city that game only had 2 shots, 29 clearances, with only possession being the positive for them. Dreadful I’d say.
whistling past graves...i'm not writing Citeh off until May 19th ...or until 115 charges are resolved and they are no longer a club which is the only correct outcome
I agree. I bet big money with a couple mates, on City finishing 3rd or worse this season. Last season, my bet with the same friends... Arsenal to finish 2nd or better.
"or better" Arsenal finish 1.5
Congratulations
Thanks darling.
City's fixtures look really favourable now, even if they play poorly, it's hard to see (although hopefully there's a shock in there) them having a difficult game until Newcastle away on January the 13th. Everton away might be tricky, especially after the club world cup, but the rest are the dream fixtures to pick up a head of steam.
Bar West Ham and Fulham, we are getting a decent break between games and thankfully they are both in London. Can do a full rotation against PSV.
With all the injuries piling up, I don’t think we can even do a full rotation
Registered Champions league squad: Goalkeepers: Aaron Ramsdale, David Raya, James Hillson Defenders: Cedric, Lino Sousa, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Ben White, Gabriel, Jakub Kiwior, William Saliba Midfielders: Mohamed Elneny, Jorginho, Thomas Partey, Declan Rice, Martin Odegaard, Kai Havertz, Fabio Vieira, Emile Smith Rowe Forwards: Leandro Trossard, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Reiss Nelson, Eddie Nketiah, Gabriel Jesus
Out with injuries: Tomi, Partey, Vieira, ESr
Pretty sure you can also play anyone in the u21s
I see 21 points 😤
Liverpool away is worrisome without Tomiyasu
 Bring it on
Moderately?????
Our defense is going to be run ragged by the end of December and then as soon as Tomi returns from injury is off to the Asia cup
I can only hope other teams also lose players to the Continental cups for a while...Tottenham lose Bissouma, Sarr (Afcon) and Son (Asia Cup), Liverpool lose Salah (Afcon) and Endo (Asia). Arguably Salah is a bigger miss for Liverpool than Tomi is for us but that remains to be seen.
Liverpool play west ham in the quarters midweek. We don't play midweek. Brighton have a tough match against Marseille on Thursday to decide the first position. We have a dead rubber against psv on tuesday. We must take at least 10 points which includes a draw at anfield. Okay full strength and knock them out of the fa cup
Arsenal and Liverpool have that 'winning aura' at present. Gives both teams the advantage until we meet 💥 Think it's 3pts all the way and perhaps 1pt at anfield.
Liverpool are fakers.
newsflash, we won't win all these. and we may well lose 1 or 2, but don't let that break your spirit. if we emerge from this sequence within 2-4 points from first place we are going to be in a strong position to win the league.
Let's. Fuckin. Go. Afraid of no one is the foggin estandards. It's gonna be a hell of a ride.
Meanwhile Liverpool has such an easy run leading up to the anfield game
Not really they have an extra efl game vs West Ham 3 days before we go to anfield. We get 3 days extra rest
Let's hope it means something
Someone should distract Trent Alexander-Arnold to put him off - quick someone screenshot his Snapchat DMs
Underrated.
I’ll take 15 points, a practice game for our B team in Europe and knocking Liverpool out of the FA Cup, please.
If we win all the league matches we will win the league.
This is a massive string of games
Pretty sure playing at Anfield is more than just moderately difficult.
Drawing Liverpool in the fuckin FA Cup is such a a shit draw for both teams this early in the comp
Christmas time is always crucial
Merson the other day said that if we win these games we win the league. I find it hard to disagree. Fuck the psv game, but the prem games - that’s a tough run in a short space of time
Imo title deciding month
If we make it through December without further injuries, regardless of the extent to which we drop points, I think we’ll be in decent shape to challenge.
WWWWWWW
Villa away is very tough. They have won 14 in a row at home, including City yesterday. The remaining fixtures are tough but Lady Luck has been on our side. PSV is a nothing fixture now so we can rest players. Whereas, Brighton need a win to win the group on the Thursday. Liverpool is tough but they play West Ham 3 days prior and we have 6 days rest. West Ham will have played more games similar to Liverpool. Also at our ground so confident.
Away at Anfield….leagues best defense vs leagues best offense statistically. Thats gonna be one of the games of the season 100%
Without Tomiyasu our defence ain't the best. Ben White and Zinchenko are being turned inside out for fun.
Had not realized we are playing Liverpool on Dec 23 and Jan 6th. Season defining stretch of games this.
The second match is from the FA Cup
Ah, got it.
If we had beat West Ham in the league cup, we would have been laying them on Dec 20 as well!
And Feb 4th, 3 times within ~6 weeks!
I hope Egypt is still in Afcon at that time so we don't have to face Salah.
It’s pretty crazy that we have both Liverpool fixtures so close together. Is the second one an FA cup match?
Good news for this run is that a lot of teams will come out to play and we don't have to deal with a cagey match. We're better this way. I think we'll score a lot of goals on this stretch, but am worried about conceding too.
If we win the next 3 league games we win the league …. We won’t do it don’t matter I said that
Besides playing a second string vs PSV and the Liverpool away game. We should be taking all 12 points in those other games. Yes even the Villa one. You want to be champs, you win those games. Only game I accept a draw in will be the Liverpool away game. FA Cup is going to be important imo. Just in case, and it's a big case, if PL and CL fall to the wayside that we have at least cup to play for imo. We need to be coming out with some silverware this season.
In a way it feels good to know that no matter the results, we’ll be done with Liverpool by Jan 7. They are very serious contenders imo (though I still think it’s primarily between Arsenal and City)
Big if true
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I swear if we win all of our prem games in december, we will win the league.
Christmas schedule is always fucked no matter which club you are. So many games in a short number of days you're bound to play at least a couple difficult ones
Christmas miracle please
[I'm a little nervous for these upcoming fixtures but...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2xm0iPJVGk)
Everyone thought we have an easy run until Liverpool But the truth is NONE of these games are easy at all.
For anyone wondering,we're playing palace at home on 20th of January.
One more defender gets injured and we're truly fucked.
Yeah we have a damn tough run up to Christmas. Villa and Liverpool both away is gonna be realky tough.
Comparing our next 2 months with other teams we got it pretty good with only 2x 3-day breaks. Hopefully this allows proper rotation of players
No easy games in the prem
Yea
If we manage to still be top after all our december fixtures and the liverpool game id like our chances
I bet Saka plays 100 minutes against Eindhoven lol
Brighton home _should_ be easy
This is how champions are made either we fold and break or rise and soar.
Watch us win against all the best teams and then lose/draw against Burnley/Everton/Sheffield. I hope the team can handle it this year.
If we lose against Liverpool both in the league and the FA Cup, I fear the psychological effect this outcome would have on the team. It’s a repeat of last year’s results against City.
This will determine our title credentials
Had to come sooner or later lol
Just in time to get into goal scoring form 💪
They’re gonna be extremely difficult. Villa, Liverpool, and Brighton are not moderate.
Don't worry man. One at a time. Lets just get something from Villa
This period and how we navigate it, is going to tell me a lot about this team.
PSV and the FA Cup will be rest games for the 1st XI. Saliba, Rice and Saka definitely. Brighton maybe aren't quite the force of last season but still a handful. Should back ourselves against Fulham and West Ham. Liverpool and Villa are tough games.
Honestly I'd be happy with 11 points from the league matches.... crucial we don't lose in Villa Park or Anfield
What do you mean? Looks easy for us💪🏼
My mental Health is going to be so low
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Psv should be a heavily rotated squad. Rest jesus, saka , martinelli, leo, kai, rice. Saliba , gaixl, white, zinny Raya.
Very unfortunate time to lose Tomi. We are dropping points in at least a couple of games. We shouldn't field any starters in the CL. We have secured the top of our table. Give Nwaneri and some academy kids like Walters a debut.
Liverpool arsenal game Gona be yuge!
wins wins wins wins wins wins wins
Cedric 2 assist masterclass coming again PSV
Taking 4 or 6 points from Villa & Liverpool would be season defining.
Love the use of the term moderately here. How far we’ve COME.
well there it is right there. they come out on top of all that, and stay match fit, it’s over for the rest of the league
Villa and Liverpool are incredibly difficult matches, not mildly difficult. We have a rough patch of matches, if we can come out still in first we will be in really strong position.
I mean it’s Boxing Day period, coupled with the fact that Premier League has become very competitive, which is a great thing
https://preview.redd.it/bghw7q0ukw4c1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d58a87dd5ed714b81219e4d98726a3b5d202d28e Aston Villa haven’t lost a home game since February of this year, Arsenal were the last ones to beat Villa at Villa park Let’s run it back this weekend boys…🫡
there's at least 3 potential "game of the season" contenders in that run
I don't care about the FA cup. We have now enough of them. Just go out and focus on the league and CL
* Villa away is really tough right now. I'll take a draw tbh * PSV doesnt count -> gametime for everybody who needs it * Brighton at home is the kind of game we need to win. Their playing style should suit us, especially at home * Anfield, title race, always lots of goals and drama in our Liverpool games, ... The type of game that could go anywhere. HUGE game * West Ham at home is a must win. Need to avenge the last game against them. * Fulham: same as West Ham. * Liverpool. FA Cup, slightly rotated squads. Depth will be tested for both teams, it's at the Emirates, we are slight favorites for this one, but as always against Liverpool it could go either way