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Hyperbole is off the scale already
Is it? All I’ve seen and heard is a lot of incredulity and slightly mystified disbelief as to where this team had been hiding for so long.
It’s nice to actually enjoy watching a match, particularly one you felt sure you’d lose. I’d almost forgotten what it felt like
City were poor today, the young defence and permanently crocked Ake couldn't handle the intensity, Doku had one of those days where his stop/start facing up of defenders just let united get back in their defensive shape, that challenge on him in the first half should have been red, but that wasn't why we lost. Rodri looked his old self for parts and showed his ring rustiness at other times, and I didn't think I would be saying this at the start of the year but we missed Nunes at right back.
"Tottenham Hotspur, it's happened again."
Pundit on Football Focus tipping Ipswich to win tje Championship.
We'll be lucky to make the play offs now!
How did Dalot stay on the pitch? Oh yeah - Man U.
I reckon if it’d been anything else other than a derby he’d have been off. The refereeing was good overall today though, he was consistent after that. Let the game go, which is exactly what you want from a nervy game, and that was a proper derby today with everything you expect from one
Can't quite believe Arsenal are likely going to win the league with this modern day Sam Allerdyce stuff. I suppose it's quite refreshing after 10 years of pass-it-sideways ticky-tacky stuff but jesus it's shit to watch.
They've failed to capitalise on a chance there, City will be sore losing bragging rights in the city, but haven't lost a lot of ground and of the two Arsenal's result feels like the worse one. A (proper) derby is always a banana skin.
Mind, Liverpool failing to beat Burnley with 73% possession, 22 shots and a missed penalty, or Spurs losing to West Ham at fortress THS are also shockers. If Arsenal miss this chance they'll be kicking themselves for years.
Well thank god City had Donnarumma or they could have shipped 6.
Fair play to Carrick for setting United up to take advantage of the high line.
As has been mentioned up the thread how do the United players drop a performance like that after being pretty bobbins for most of the season?
Didn’t see the game but looking at the line ups City didn’t have a lot of steel in midfield - Rodri only, the other five in midfield and attack very offensive, bar Bernardo Silva but he’s pretty lightweight defensively.
Glasner also maybe trying the Amorim outburst get the sack tactic today.
Unlike Amorim Glasner has a fair point
As has been mentioned up the thread how do the United players drop a performance like that after being pretty bobbins for most of the season?
Because they have a new messiah at the helm, who fed at the table of Ferguson’s last supper.
Or maybe … if you’re not such a salty ****. - they just played a formation they’re happy with as opposed to being forced to play one that doesn’t suit the players and doesn’t work?
Still above you perennial mid-tablers and not a penny of murderers money in sight.
In other news I see a boycott of the World Cup by euro allies of Denmark is being talked about? Could we yet be saved from a summer of jingoistic mediocrity?
I doubt it. There’s no actual supporters going to any of the games anyway. It’s the usual FIFA festival of corporate greed.
Neither Trump or Infantino will GAS about letting minor details like actual fans get in the way of their hideous sportswashing
Think they’re talking about the teams not going as well as the supporters. A World Cup without Europe is pointless.
I don’t think anyone would but be sad to see the end of the World Cup in its present format, run as it is purely for the benefit of a terminally corrupt and self-serving FIFA.
If Infantino’s embarrassing cosying up to Trump finally brought the whole thing down, that would be delicious. They thoroughly deserve each other
There’s some bizarre old results from Yesterday (not least United).
Arsenal failing to capitalise and put the whole thing to bed? Given their previous track record, does this mean them getting jittery/potentially bottling it again?
Another toothless Liverpool performance with huge amounts of pointless possession, but no end result, now seems to be the Slot way.
And Frank surely hasn’t got long left? Spurs seem stuck in the same doom loop as we’ve been in for so long. If West Ham are comfortably outplaying you, you really are in trouble
Missed our chance for a very big lead at the top there - Rice was cursing away to himself at the end - after a very flat performance from all concerned. It’s very reminiscent of last season when Liverpool would drop points but no one else could capitalise. No need to panic as the fixture list is relatively kind, with a bias to facing the top teams at the Emirates and away trips to teams in the lower half of the table.
after a very flat performance from all concerned
Just an observation from an outsider but I haven't seen an Arsenal performance which could be described as anything other than flat. It's like watching American football.
...Unlike the new barnstorming, world-beating, reborn Man Utd. I was watching Sky news earlier and whoever was presenting described their 'interplay' as 'being like Brazil'. The bar has been set.
Think they’re talking about the teams not going as well as the supporters. A World Cup without Europe is pointless.
Apparently Trumps new batshit visa rules means that several teams wouldn't be allowed in anyway. Which is brilliant.
I'm seeing calls for the World Cup to be moved, but it needs cancelling, and for FIFA to finally learn the consequences of FAFO.
And if a few overpaid prima donnas want to have the summer off avoiding the risk of injuries under the pretext of taking a moral stance, I'm good with that.
Thanks to the commentator who said there hasn't been a Wolves-Newcastle goalless draw for over 100 years
+1 for cancellation of the World Cup. Trump will try to make sure the spotlight is on him and I get enough orange shitgibbon in my feeds without seeing him on the TV. I only found out earlier this week he kept the Club World Cup trophy and nicked one of the medals that should have gone to a Chelsea player.
Maybe I am being optimistic that the world will actually be in a fit state for football to matter come the Summer.
Just an observation from an outsider but I haven't seen an Arsenal performance which could be described as anything other than flat. It's like watching American football.
Fair comment. Arsenal, like most of the PL, has become so scrutinised, analysed, systemised and choreographed that the entertainment factor is being squeezed out of it. That, plus the fact that the athletic demands are so high that producing at the very best twice a week is simply not possible.
That’s why all us United fans loved yesterday so much. Yeah, we won and it was Citeh, which was even better, but more than anything we’re all just thinking’**** me! A proper ‘United’ performance! It’s been a long, long time’
So I’ve no idea how we’ll do against Arsenal next weekend, but can we just play like that again please?
Football gods at Villa Park smiled on Gooners there. As for next week’s game at the Emirates, what might have been a reasonably straightforward fixture now has the added factor of “the new management effect”; should be interesting.
Well if they play like that again they should get top four given Liverpool, Newcastle and Chelsea’s inconsistency and the fact they will play many more games between now and the end in the season. So yep, Carrick will get it full time in the summer and be sacked Autumn 2027.
It is funny how Utd are back now - forgetting of course the way Utd are currently set up is to smash & grab, when they are favourites & have more possession they will struggle as they won't know what to do with the ball.
Arsenal, like most of the PL, has become so scrutinised, analysed, systemised and choreographed that the entertainment factor is being squeezed out of it.
True. I'm on a toon forum where everyone is bemoaning the goalless draw with wolves and there's a consensus (aside from the 'sack Howe' idiots) that bottom half PL sides have figured out how to execute the low block and stop better sides scoring. That's why there are more goalless draws this season already than the whole of last season. Arsenal's solution to that is to focus on set pieces and brutalist tactics. Other teams like Newcastle are still figuring it out or using out-dated tactics which don't work. Another factor is the impact of Xg on teams taking pot-shots from outside the area. It not only deprives us of the spectacular but also results in fewer goals from deflections, rebounds and goal-mouth scrambles.
City's involved in some mad game in Norway.
They obviously can’t do it on a freezing (minus 9c!!!) night in the Arctic circle. Not sure many teams would be up for that assignment though.
The telling of the Arsenal set piece phenomenon is slightly different to generally portrayed. Like many teams we were struggling against low block defences and were spectacularly wasteful with corners but when were on a mid-Winter mini-break two years ago (where have they gone?) Rice was practising his corner kicks and Arteta happened to be observing and realised just how consistently accurate he was and from then on he became a designated corner taker, and it is from there that our conversion of corner kicks has mushroomed; I don’t think we’re targeting and actually getting any more corners than before, it’s just that we are getting vastly better outcomes. When you combine the corners aspect and the fact that Arteta like most modern-day managers has an obsession with trying to control of the game, the end result is simply a less exciting version of football. Writing this the day after we have beaten Inter (last year’s beaten finalists) when were definitely the fourth best team in the CL semis and the three other teams played much higher tempo football, it does beg the question of whether we’re going to be blown away by a blood and thunder controlled chaos game (and Man Utd on Sunday are as likely to try that as anyone after last weekend’s success) or if we’re going to succeed as the most experienced exponents of this new controlled squeeze approach.
Good summary/analysis Blackhat. Perhaps the frustration is how they can play - for example the games v Villa and Athletico Madrid - but I guess the majority of teams will adopt a ‘low block’ or park the bus.
Agree it’s about the delivery for the corners. Usually very flat corners so often they will get cleared at the front post but when not it causes chaos. They also float one deeper to be headed back, like for Jesus’ second goal last night. All their corners seem to be inswingers as well. Very hard to defend against.
City's involved in some mad game in Norway.
Tight defences in the arctic circle is a hot topic at the moment
The telling of the Arsenal set piece phenomenon is slightly different to generally portrayed. Like many teams we were struggling against low block defences and were spectacularly wasteful with corners but when were on a mid-Winter mini-break two years ago (where have they gone?) Rice was practising his corner kicks and Arteta happened to be observing and realised just how consistently accurate he was and from then on he became a designated corner taker, and it is from there that our conversion of corner kicks has mushroomed; I don’t think we’re targeting and actually getting any more corners than before, it’s just that we are getting vastly better outcomes. When you combine the corners aspect and the fact that Arteta like most modern-day managers has an obsession with trying to control of the game, the end result is simply a less exciting version of football. Writing this the day after we have beaten Inter (last year’s beaten finalists) when were definitely the fourth best team in the CL semis and the three other teams played much higher tempo football, it does beg the question of whether we’re going to be blown away by a blood and thunder controlled chaos game (and Man Utd on Sunday are as likely to try that as anyone after last weekend’s success) or if we’re going to succeed as the most experienced exponents of this new controlled squeeze approach.
Is it generally portrayed as Arsenal being at the forefront of some of the more cynical positioning being undertaken by the attacking team?
I don’t think that today we’re worse than any other teams out there. A couple of years ago I think we probably transgressed more than most but the fact is our record on corners has been commented on so much we’re now living rent free in the heads of opposition defences with the result that goalies are being blocked every bit as much by their own defenders as our strikers, and the packing of the middle of the six yard box by defenders has opened up the possibilities of going near post or far post; our second goal yesterday saw an unopposed Trossard head to an unopposed Jesus to score, both below average height for top players these days.
Watching Arbroath v Morton on iPlayer and the wind is so bad the Morton goalie took a goal kick and the ball was blown out of the stadium via the roof on the stand. Morton are struggling to get out of their penalty box nevermind their own half.
That's given me flashbacks to a game I played as an 8 or 9 year old goalie, into a gale, against the best team in the league. In fairness I made about a hundred saves that day, was made Man of the Match and we still lost 18-2, but every goal kick we could barely get the ball to the edge of the box. It was the days where no-one could touch it until it left the box, but the opposition coach had about 8 of them lined up waiting for it to reach and then it was a lottery to see whether an 8 year old defender could do anything with receiving the ball under immense pressure, or if the wind diverted it to a forward, did they have enough capability to control it and then be clear on goal. The score suggests mainly no and yes to those questions.
In kids basketball often league rules say that once the score gets to say a 10 point gap, then the winning team has to play half court defence...they can't press the ball in their offensive half once a basket is scored or the ball is turned over, otherwise the other team is basically doing the same as above. Reading kids league in the 70's was a lot less forgiving, and the kids from the rough end of town in their green and white Ajax style shirts (Westwood Wanderers, it still hurts!) against the country boys of Rotherfield in our buttercup yellow weren't offering much in the way of forgiveness.
For a while the tactic was for our biggest defender to hoof it into the scrum on the edge so I had a chance to wait around the penalty spot and try and dive on a rebound, which was a laugh (I was always recklessly brave as a goalkeeper) In the end I think our coach told their coach to drop the tactic or he'd stop the game and take a 3-0 concession.
At the end Terry, Dad to one of our players, a giant (at the time) copper who'd played in goal for England Police came up to me, put an arm around my shoulders and sympathised with 'we've all had days like those' - I suspect he'd not had many though. His shout whenever a goal went in was always 'good try, hard cheese' which it took me ages to get my head around because in those days and in my house, cheese came in two types - waxy Edam and a pot of grated foot smelling parmesan to put on Spag Bol. I wasn't aware other cheese hard or otherwise existed until much later, but that dear reader is another story.
I did enjoy watching the Liverpool match in the pub with my scouse mate. 😃
Again they had loads of possession and did precious little with it. Sideways… sideways…. backwards.
Their defense is an absolute shambles. Fair play to Bournemouth though. Took all their chances
Yep, VVD at fault for the first two, too casual, maybe could have done better with the winner as well. And Salah, the wheels have well and truly come off, can’t recall seeing such a decline. Gomez injured again, Wirtz skipping about with no end product, Gakpo doing his cutting inside into traffic thing. Can’t recall a poorer title defence - well maybe since when they last won it.
Yep, Liverpool seem to be the kings of pointless passing, and when they do pass it's to the opposition.
Got mugged in the end.
How long before the fans turn on Slot, or the board. They didn't give him all that money to turn them into a boring afternoon out.
Slot seems to be trying to copy Pep's style, when that isn't even working for Pep anymore. It has happened before when a new manager takes over and the combination of what the team were doing before and what the new manager introduces brings short term success, but when the new patterns of play replace the old it starts to fall apart, although usually it is a manager freeing a defensively set-up team, and not so high up the table.
He's doing the on the pitch equivalent of what (I think) John Madejski said about football club ownership - how to make a small fortune as a football club owner? Start off with a large fortune.