₦airaland Forum

KingAlabi:
Villarreal please do the Lord's work

You are scared of playing Arsenal in the finals. Fear of failure.
#FOF

kodded:
but we have seen man united win matches with those 'soft' penalties all the time

Man Utd were even called out from their dressing room after the final whistle to take a penalty and win a game.

Roland17:
I absolutely disagree..Which Wenger? The one that wants to walk the ball to the net or another one?

Wenger prefers to walk the ball. So a Partey throwing shots like he is sending them to the moon won't cut it with him.

Roland17:
Partey na baller joooor

A coach like Wenger won't play him because he is wasteful with his shots.

Jodera:
confirmed: Auba is unavailable.
We'll see who Arteta uses today

Just start praying for Nketiah. I also believe Balogun will get a shot.

Roland17:
What exactly are we playing for in the EPL? Definitely not pride because these guys “no get shame”..

I want to see Balogun, Azeez, Nelson, Nketiah start these games.. Our only shot to Europe is via Europa..

It will be a practice session for Villarreal.

dlollyboi1:
The biscuit hasn't changed

Thanks so much for responding. Today's lice match wasn't seen. Mine was scrambled. Why do you think it's so? Thanks again.

Latest Biscuits for idman. The one I have says scrambled eggs.

SodO9:
Since 92 this club have been pushing for super League by David dein

The top clubs feel embarrassed playing lower clubs. Man City were embarrassed by losing to 10man Leeds United at home despite dominating the match.

Jodera:
lol... My confident was 80% na.
I knew we'll beat Slavia but then I don't want to be over confident before it comes back to haunt me

But now you are over confident?

Roland17:
Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of money to go around for everyone but a team like Arsenal will still struggle to compete for the best players against the big dogs.. Greed has already taken over football and the ESL is just making it more obvious that it is now strictly business.

Teams may as well scrap their academies because there would be absolutely no time to groom anyone as results have to be instant.. As for fans, you may be pushing it by being overconfident that they would have fans.. here is the thing, the allure of a UCL matchup between Bayern v Chelsea or PSG v City is because it happens only once or twice a season at most, so it keeps it interesting.

Fans would get bored I promise you watching big teams play week in weekout.

When clubs were shouting financial fair play, where was UEFA? The league is not balanced and big clubs need bigger challenges to fit their appetites.

Jodera:
Please let's don't overhype that win oo. Granted it's a good win, but it's not the first time we're doing such a thing.

Olympiakos have never lost at home wen we beat them (3-0, giroud hattrick) cos we were under pressure to qualify just like in Slavia. Arsenal always have a way of mauling this small teams when under intense pressure. Even if those team(s) haven't lost at home since 1880, dem must collect am for arsenal hand. Please Arteta did nothing new there.

Were this confident before the match?

mostob:
Exactly...
Bro... how una take see our match against Villarreal. Emery himself carries the big fear factor

Yes. Emery is a master on H/A matches. But Arteta has the pedigree of breaking people's record. Do you know Slavia had not lost at home this season? We beat them 4-0

mostob:
Spot on.... I admire the tactics he deployed too. Arteta is a good tactician, it is just that he sometimes fumble with the team selection and management.

He knows how to work with what is available to him. This team is so unbalanced.

Arteta's tactics against Slavia was the bomb. Few may notice how he managed the absence of a natural overlapping fullback by giving Xhaka a role where he can play both midfield and FB at the same time without need to overlapping. Cushioning that with an extra winger who actually does the pseudo-overlapping. This is not even the big point. The ability to instill that tactical discipline on the players within short notice is more commendable.

Kudos to a brilliant mind.

Roland17:
I hope Balogun's contracts signals an immediate plan to integrate him into the first team especially in the EPL. I will like to see some of these young guns in the EPL as the season winds down. Honestly, I don't think we can get to top 4-6 in the EPL because that would mean a near perfect run to end the season with other teams virtually losing 70-90% of their games. Worsestill, the teams ahead of us have been more consistent in getting important results than we can boast of. It's the Europa route now or burst and I am glad Arteta understand the urgency with some of his recent words but I also know say..him sabi talk..na another thing for pitch.

As a matter of fact for me, the remaining fixtures should be used to strengthen our youth core by allowing them play. This will also mean preparation for next season and the season after that as most of the older guys run out their contracts. We want to see the attacking combination of Nketiah, Martinelli, Saka, Balogun, Pepe (forget his price tag), ESR and Odegaard (if we are serious to keep him).

Roland17:
Some of here embarked on dry fasting and prayers begging God to open Arteta’s eyes to start seeing the talent in the kid.. It took injuries and COVID-19 related protocols for him to finally start using the kid. Baba was choosing to play without a number 10 instead of playing ESR..

We are doing the same thing with Balogun now.. Our God no go shame us ontop Arteta’s stubbornness!

His programme notes last night said he was hoping the older guys with create the moments. Good thing was that he ended up using the younger ones. Perhaps he is losing faith in them. Which may explain why Balogun got a new contract and Azeez listed on the bench. The only older guys he trusts now are Laca and Xhaka.

These guys are using crude tactics to get a cheap decision against us. That's what they did to Rangers.

Roland17:
He looks well rested

His combination with Saka is

Saka's combination with ESR is something else.

Roland17:
My God no go shame me on top Pepe matter

2-0

Update 3-0

They are passing the ball about their defence to pull our players out? How foolish.

Smith-Rowe's movement is just sweet

Spy360:
Slavia are very good on the counter, so the trick is to take a nice and slow. If we can get an early goal, good. If not, we wait till the last 15mins and throw everything at them.

We need two goals to take the advantage which is quite posible- they will have to score three which is less probable.

Nice formation. Very potent.

Jodera:
Any thought guys?

The same formation he used against Sheffield. Xhaka's ability to play different roles will be key. Ceballos will switch intermittently from CM to AM. Pepe from SS to RW, same as Saka. They key here is Xhaka.

Xhaka in defense means we are defending. Xhaka in midfield means we are attacking.

Slavia are very good on the counter, so the trick is to take a nice and slow. If we can get an early goal, good. If not, we wait till the last 15mins and throw everything at them.

We need two goals to take the advantage which is quite posible- they will have to score three which is less probable.

Today's game will decide whether our season ends or continue.

Ibime:
Fabregas was always dominated against teams of big or equal calibre. Maybe you are talking about small teams which will naturally occur anyway. That's why he was chased from Barca.

We once did an exercise trawling through if Xavis team ever had less possession than opposition team over 5 years and we only found one instance against Madrid with Sneijder in opposition. That is what we call dominating, not bully Crystal Palace one week and be run ragged by Spurs or Everton the next week.

Remember we are not arguing who is better between him and Xavi. But check Juventus Vs Arsenal UCL 2006, 17yo Fab dominated that game.

Unlimited22:
LMAO you don cause another argument.

You're telling ibime that iniesta was out of this world?

That's like telling Raumdeuter that Terry is the greatest defender to ever exist.

Not everyone can rate players accurately.

timbros:
All of you analysing Chelsea vs Real Madrid semi final should remember that the tie is NOT won yet.

No Ramos, Cavajal, Vasquez, Varane for Madrid tonight. Their defence is a makeshift one. If Liverpool turn up tonight, they can put 3 or 4 past Madrid.

Liverpool have this European comeback spirit (remember vs Milan 2005, vs Dortmund 2016, vs Barcelona 2019) so anything can still happen.

I want to meet Real Madrid sha..... But the tie is NOT won yet.

Liverpool Vs Chelsea
Home and Away would be epic.

Ibime:
All he has is vision. Vision alone does not make a midfielder.

Fabregas was never able to control the midfield, there's the key difference between him and Xavi or Xabi Alonso. Don't confuse having eye for pass with midfield control. They are two separate specialties.

You can be deficient defensively if you can control the ball against most opponents which Xavi and Alonso could do. Fabregas can't do that. All he has is the assist.

That's why he was chased from Barca, and even a B level controller like Jorginho chased him from Chelsea.

He was not able to play AM in the modern game. That could have saved him, but a midfielder lacking controlling or defensive abilities sitting in the midfield two becomes a target for opposition managers. Most managers targeted him right from the Spurs game in Jan 2014, and that's why he became a liability and bench fodder right from the age of 27.

These are facts. You can romanticize all you want about his assists, but we are not here to worship one player but to see our team win consistently and no manager agreed they can win consistently with Fabregas in midfield since the age of 27. Even Matic was better for team consistency in the eyes of the manager and any knowledgeable football fan, and till date some Timbuktu niggas in Monaco are better for them to win consistently than worshipping Fabregas assists at the expense of midfield functionality and team success.

It would be wrong to compare Fab with Xavi or Iniesta, those two were out of this world. But to say Fab couldn't dominate a midfield is also criminally wrong.

From an Arsenal fan.

BlueRayDick:
Well, I was talking from the defensive poing of view when I was talking about Xhaka's performance in that makeshift LB position.His defensive strength that is mostly missing when he plays in the middle shone no just in this last game but also in the other matches I've seen him play that position. As for the attack side of his game, I think everyone knows Xhaka has never been a great attacker so I wasn't expecting him to be making those Tierney attacking runs.

I maintain that Ceballos plays well upfront and not in the CM position in which he's tasked with holding possession, recovering the ball and covering as much space as possible in the middle of the park. Recall that was how he helped us win against sheffield in our run to winning the FA cup last season. If dem Odegard, Smith-Rowe are not available upfront there's nothing bad in giving Ceballos a trial too

I am with you on Ceballos. Just that we cannot be spending time and resources upgrading a player that does not belong to us.

As for Xhaka he wasn't playing LB. He drifts there but his starting position was CM in a 3-5-2 formation. That formation was very fluid, unpredictable and attacking. This made it difficult for Sheffield to deal with despite our below par performance to win with a high margin.