Morning all.
As expected, Mikel Arteta made a number of changes to the team yesterday afternoon. By the time Jorginho had to go off late in the game, the Spaniard had made all his substitutions so the last ten minutes was 10 v 11. We hung on for the draw.
The game itself was probably how most of us thought it would be, a kind of halfhearted affair with Wednesday in mind. Brentford were tight and disciplined in defence, tough to break down. Kieran Tierney, starting his first Premier League game for a long time, thought he’d scored but the automatic offside technology ruled him offside. I don’t think VAR would missed that call. Lol
Thomas Partey scored our only goal of the game.
Our midfielder, playing at right back yesterday afternoon, had to go off after picking up an injury which is a massive concern ahead of Wednesday night’s match against Real Madrid. Hopefully, his smile as he walked off would suggest he’s going to be fine.
Mikel Arteta:
On if Thomas will be ok for Wednesday…
I haven’t spoken to the doctors yet, so they will check in now and see how he is.
On Ben White’s fitness…
Again, we don’t know. He could not be in the condition to be in the squad today and be selected. We have a few days, but we’ll have to wait and see.
On Jorginho suffering a rib injury…
It looks it, I don’t exactly know, he had problems breathing. He said he could not carry on.
We know managers play mind games, after all, wasn’t Courtois supposed to be injured before our our first match against Real Madrid?
But back to yesterday, Nottingham Forest were beaten at home so our one point pushes us further ahead from them but as said before, it’s the clubs behind Forest who pose a threat to our second place, especially as we still have to play Newcastle and Liverpool. Ipswich, Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and Southampton.
Chelsea still have to play Liverpool, Nottingham Forest and Newcastle.
Newcastle have to play Chelsea, Arsenal and Aston Villa.
Man City have to play Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest.
Aston Villa – Man City, Newcastle and Chelsea.
The above fixtures/results will have an impact on the final league placements. Sounds stupid I know because every remaining fixture will but the above involve clubs who are battling each other for a place in Europe next season.
Catch up in the comments.
I thought I’d leave the quality of our goal to the comments section. Brilliant from Raya to the finish with a bit of Rice in between.
However, the defending, including the keeper was pretty poor for their goal..
Good morning Rico, there was a certain inevitability about yesterday’s result in view of the magnitude of our Wednesday fixture. Too many players selected out of their normal roles. Arteta’s haphazard approach to rotation was exacerbated by his equally haphazard substitutions with the inevitable chaotic defending when Brentford came calling in the seventy-fourth minute.
We must hope for better on Wednesday evening.
Morning Cicero, yesterday’s kind of game pretty much summed up the reason we’re not winning the league this season.
I know Arteta said Wednesday was not on the players mind but it sure looked like it to me.
Where has Odegaard’s game gone…
Rico, Odegaard, Saka and White were a trio that worked together in an instinctive manner, their break up due to long term injuries to all three shattered that understanding and they haven’t yet played together enough to rekindle the flame. All three need to quickly regain their form.
Cicero, agree but they’ve got to get over that surely. Nwaneri and Timber are equally as able to forge an understanding with each other.
I’m not sure that Arteta could have done much if anything different to what he did yesterday, he rotated just as everyone wanted to protect players for the Bernabeu and a heavily rotated team lacked its usual stability, no surprise there surely?
He could have thrown on the two youngsters who were on the bench and that would have probably got the fans invested, then again we might have lost?
Brentford could and possibly should have been down to 10 men in the 2nd half, we never seem to get those calls, how do you think it would have gone at Anfield if the recipient of that assault had been Salah?
Partey and White should be ok for Wednesday but I don’t think that Jorginho will make it I’m afraid…
Agree, the same challenge in Salah would have resulted in a red card I’m sure..
Arteta was livid, understandably so.
Chelsea drop two points at home..
Totts, well they lost again. 😜
I watched most of the Liverpool game,really flat end of season feel. I don’t remember Anfield so quiet,until West ham scored (fully deserved) It was like a switch went on,the noise level went up x100 and a Liverpool winner seemed inevitable.
Our game went pretty much as expected,a great goal,I just hope Partey is OK for Wednesday.
At least some of our rivals dropped points.
Interesting to see on the injury website I visit that the return date of Kai Havertz has fallen from July to May… 🤞
I think he’ll be fine Limey..
Is that a good thing Kev? 😜
The barcodes have thumped Utd 4-1…
New post up.