Morning all.
Hero of the night for Renée Slegers team was goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar who stopped everything which came her way until the dying moments of the game. By then it was too late for Chelsea to draw level. Arsenal had the ball in the back of the net before then when Stina Blackstenius headed home a Smilla Holmberg cross but the latter was millimetres offside. Beth Mead hit a fine strike which caught the post.
Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor was livid during and after the game and to be fair, she had every right to be. Katie McCabe got away with pulling Alyssa Thompson’s hair as she looked to race away from our player. McCabe should have seen red but instead the referee, who was really poor, showed booked Bompastor before sending her off shortly after.
Lotte Wubben-Moy, who was solid in defence said after the game:
Are we away from home? It didn’t sound like that. The only difference was that it’s a blue stadium. Our fans were so good tonight. I think they out-sung the Chelsea fans tenfold, even though they were probably outnumbered by them. Our fans are incredible and it’s such a strength of ours.
This game required a lot of focus and concentration, but that’s what we’re made for. These nights are special. The history that this club has in the competition is definitely something that plays to our advantage. To be honest, when you’ve got those fans screaming behind you, the intensity and the focus is made somewhat easier.
Arsenal are through to the semi-final where they will play either Wolfsburg or OL Lyonnes.
With the international fixtures over with for the rest of the season, we now know which Arsenal players will be at the World Cup. Assuming they will be fit and selected of course.
Brazil: Gabriel, Gabriel Martinelli
Ecuador: Piero Hincapie
England: Myles Lewis-Skelly, Bukayo Saka, Noni Madueke, Declan Rice, Eberechi Eze, Ben White
Spain: Martin Zubimendi, Mikel Merino, David Raya
Germany: Kai Havertz
Norway: Martin Odegaard
Belgium: Leandro Trossard
France: William Saliba
Netherlands: Jurrien Timber
Sweden: Viktor Gyokeres
Brazil kick things off with a fixture against Morocco on June 13th and the tournament ends with the final on the 19th July.
Domestic weekend sees the women take on Brighton in the FA Cup and the men take on Southampton. A victory over both south coast clubs would be perfect.
Today and tomorrow we should get to see a few training photos on the clubs official website so we’ll have a bit of a clue as to who is fit. Then of course we’ll hear from Mikel Arteta who will hopefully give us nothing but positive news.
Catch up in the comments.
I saw some brief highlights of the girls game at Stamford Bridge and the Arsenal goalkeeper put in probably the best performance I’ve personally seen in a women’s game, strong hands and very athletic. I wonder if the women occasionally do sessions with their male goalkeeping counterparts?
Chelsea as a club are such entitled types across the board. The goal we had disallowed was well constructed and the header was on point, very unlucky there.
Morning Gooners, morning Rico
Morning Kev, she was outstanding..
Thought Slegers managed the two legs really well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycujUPJhRUs
Gotta say that Myles Lewis Skelly looked very good in those highlights, Arteta really needs to use him a lot more during the run-in, he’s fresh and still in with an outside chance of a World Cup place if he has a strong finish to the season so he’ll be well up for it.
I think if Arsenal do actually decide to cash in on Myles that we’ll really regret it, massively, over the next 10 years.
Agree on both accounts re MLS. He needs to play on Saturday in midfield imo. See what he’s made of..
Another bonus going forward is Myles and Ethan have come through the ranks together, they know each others game.
I’d like to see him playing against Sporting as well Rico, because he plays at a very good level in Europe
We agree again Kev, especially in the second leg should things be going to plan.
G’day Rico, Kev.
Busy today and all sorts of probs with my e mail accnt. Sorted now. Had the joy of paying 100 odd quid to fix the tyre pressure warning system on the car after hitting a whopping great pot hole concealed by rain water.
The match last night was spoiled by some absolutely idiotic refereeing. Both James and Bronze should have been sent off I don’t think either were even booked.
Bompaster got a well deserved red card for her furious ranting at the Ref.
Evening Cicero, James rode luck in both games. The referee/officials in both were dire. I hope for the sake of the women’s game in Europe, there is better out there.
Potholes, don’t get me started… Sorry to hear you had an awful experience.
Potholes? Ours are so big you can see them from the moon…
Blessed Easter Rico and all on HH.
It’s a small step for man,
and a giant leap for mankind
Has anyone noticed that the major confectionery companies no longer have anything about Easter on their Easter eggs!
Not happy Easter or just Easter egg, nothing…
Cadburys have something about Easter on one of their eggs, but they’re chocolate is awful now, I don’t buy it anymore.
Terry’s chocolate used to be really nice but they got taken over and their chocolate is now pants!
Happy Easter to you too Stuart.
Buy a bar of Green & Blacks, much nicer Kev.
Chocolate, now your talking. Cadbury Bournville Old Jamaica Dark Chocolate. Delicious.
Lindt dark chocolate is 😋
It’s not what’s on the outside of the egg, Kev. It’s what’s not in the inside. It’s empty, like the tomb.
Whittakers dark wins the day down here.
No Stuart what it is about is marginalising a Christian festival and chucking it onto the rubbish heap of progressive culture just so the Confectionery companies can ensure they sell their crap chocolate to non-Christians…
It’s Lyons in the semi-finals for Arsenal Women, the beat Wolfsburg 4 – 1.
Barca through they beat Real Madrid 12 – 2 on aggregate.
I get it, Kev. And most of those Chocolate companies were started by Quakers: Cadbury, Rowntree’s and Fry’s. I guess the Boards of those firms no longer honour the beliefs of their founding fathers. “You cannot serve both God and Mammon”.
The original message behind the hollow eggs was that they represented the empty tomb.
Could be a repeat of last season: Lyon in the semis and Barca in the final.
It’s been years since I bought an Easter Egg, absolute waste of money but I get the sentiment. Like Kev, I think it’s poor taste to remove Easter from the now “chocolate eggs”.
When we were kids, having an Easter egg was all part of learning the meaning of Easter.
Morning guys.
Evening Rico. Eggs and bunnies were symbolic of fertility and used in religious rites in pre Christian times. Ancient festivals became Christianised as the faith spread through the world. The death and resurrection of Jesus was laid over the old celebration of Spring overcoming Winter. Even the word, “Easter” is traced by some scholars (using the Venerable Bede as a source) back to an Anglo Saxon goddess named, Eostre.
“Behold, He makes all things new”.
Hi Stuart, the history and meaning of Easter is lost on so many these days.
Good morning all and a happy Easter to everyone.
My daughter-in-law makes her own Easter eggs, just has her German mother still does, she “blows” a hen’s egg and then decorates the shell. No doubt her mother will be selling decorated eggs at the Easter market in her small home town near Munster.
Happy Easter to you too Cicero.
That’s brilliant, love stories like yours.
Happy Easter everyone,
More shenanigans at Chelsea,Enzo Fernandez dropped for the next 2 games for his recent comments,will miss the Port Vale game and also the Man City game. Chelsea fans I know would happily lose that one to hurt Arsenal. What a joke of a club.
My wife and I still set up a garden easter egg hunt for our grandkids – a tradition which comes from … Germany, or so I think, Cicero (does it?).
Anyway, “traditional” or not, a very Happy Easter to you all!
Can’t wait for tomorrow’s ko – I thought this break would never end. Please don’t turn me into an anathema on such a Holy Day, guys, but …
I’d pick Kepa, btw!!
just testing that it’s up and running
It is Potter.
Incredible that Chelsea fans would rather City win the league than us. Mind you, both are manipulating their finances so perhaps that explains it.
Yet another win for Jack’s Luton. That’s an excellent run they’re on – only Lincoln’s is better. The Hatters still have an outside chance of making it to the playoffs.
Luton in the Championship, with Jack at the helm, could be the perfect loan destination for our very best youngsters – Salmon surely, Harriman Annous maybe ….
Happy Easter Gooners, happy Easter Rico, love the history Stu, I always enjoyed the harvest festival when I was at school. Yes LG, my son always has an Easter egg hunt in his garden for the grandkids, it’s not anything I did when mine were young so kudos to him.
Agree Rico, I got the grandkids an egg each, with Easter on them but as you get older they’re not really relevant – but the nippers like them.
Great to see Luton win again, Jacks on a 5 game unbeaten run with 4 wins, they’re chasing down your boys at the Mad stadt, only 4 points now…
Yes LG, that would be simply amazing if Luton went up and we could then set them up, kinda unofficially, as a nursery club.
I’m all for the kids having them Kevin, even if it’s just to get a bit of peace and quiet whilst they are on an Easter egg hunt. 😜
Steady on, those the Mad Stad are my local team. They conceded an equaliser in the 96th minute.
Yes Rico, anything other than a tablet to keep them occupied.
Millwall are the dark horses.
I think Milwall will go up Kev, Lord help us…
New post up.