Brighton BE H Sun 14th May KO 430pm

[SteveO 35]

Imagine Martin Keown lying down in his own 6 yard box to allow the opposition player a free goal. Fuck Cygan wouldn’t do it.

Another cowardly pussy shit defender to add to the multitude we’ve had down the years. As I already said ducked the ball from a corner on his debut in the Europa then pulled that shit today.

Fucking coward should never play again. Weka yellow spineless bastard

Its not just centre half though is it? Its the entire spine of the team and total lack of leadership that has been there for 15 years, maybe slightly longer. I've never seen an Arsenal team win a PL without natural leaders in the team - leaders, plural! We don't have any at all

Honestly, its embarrassing and I'm afraid the blame for that lies with the manager. The team wilts when it matters most.

City won today because they were able to whether the Goodison storm - Rodri (much as I hate the bastard) was an absolute beast. Walker was in there winning every last ditch tackle. Then their great attacking players take the game away from the opposition, but if it was just the Fodens and Grealishes without those big leaders, they'd still be absolutely spineless. We literally don't have a single player I'd want to rely on when the chips are down

You have to earn the right to play. We regularly don’t do that. And then we get picked off.

Indeed - and I'm afraid unless he does a George Graham and rids the club of the losers and also rans, talent alone will never be enough

One of the best football books I read years ago was Kenny Sansom's account of the 1987 season when we won the League Cup. Right from the start he said that GG got the squad together and said "you are good players - why haven't you won anything" and some of the players he kicked out in those early days were supposedly some of the bigger names and star players. That season a young Tony Adams played every single match. Charlie Nicholas scored the goals that won us our first trophy in 8 years but GG knew his attitude wasn't right and sure enough he was sold not long after. Viv Anderson, Kenny Sansom, Steve Williams, Graham Rix, Stewart Robson - supposedly amongst the better players in the team all flogged off. If you don't want it enough, off you go. The young team bottled it at the key stage of the season in the league.

Next year he brought in the likes of Winterburn, Smith, Marwood, Richardson and wasn't scared of blooding kids with the right attitude

If I look at Saka at the moment, GG would have him out of the team for 3 or 4 games. Here he is playing every game without a care in the world, despite being awful for weeks.

The biggest problem at our club is a loser's culture - Kroenke Inc will be delighted just to be back in the CL, so is the manager, so are the players

I can't see this crop going on and lifting major trophies. I see them playing great football for chunks of the season but always falling short when it matters most

In 1991 we lost our captain and most influential player. We had to blood Andy Linighan - a 90s equivalent of Holding. The difference then was that it was a defence full of leaders and winners - Dixon, Winterburn, Seaman, Bould. These days we lose a 21 year old in his first season of English football and Zinchenko, White and Gabriel turn to jelly. Were those players back then more talented than this lot? Probably not. However, they had the balls to go to any ground and dig out a result. 10 men, points deducted, captain in the nick - bring it on.

[BobbyPires7]

Imagine Martin Keown lying down in his own 6 yard box to allow the opposition player a free goal. Fuck Cygan wouldn’t do it.

Another cowardly pussy shit defender to add to the multitude we’ve had down the years. As I already said ducked the ball from a corner on his debut in the Europa then pulled that shit today.

Fucking coward should never play again. Weka yellow spineless bastard

Its not just centre half though is it? Its the entire spine of the team and total lack of leadership that has been there for 15 years, maybe slightly longer. I've never seen an Arsenal team win a PL without natural leaders in the team - leaders, plural! We don't have any at all

Honestly, its embarrassing and I'm afraid the blame for that lies with the manager. The team wilts when it matters most.

City won today because they were able to whether the Goodison storm - Rodri (much as I hate the bastard) was an absolute beast. Walker was in there winning every last ditch tackle. Then their great attacking players take the game away from the opposition, but if it was just the Fodens and Grealishes without those big leaders, they'd still be absolutely spineless. We literally don't have a single player I'd want to rely on when the chips are down

You have to earn the right to play. We regularly don’t do that. And then we get picked off.

Indeed - and I'm afraid unless he does a George Graham and rids the club of the losers and also rans, talent alone will never be enough

One of the best football books I read years ago was Kenny Sansom's account of the 1987 season when we won the League Cup. Right from the start he said that GG got the squad together and said "you are good players - why haven't you won anything" and some of the players he kicked out in those early days were supposedly some of the bigger names and star players. That season a young Tony Adams played every single match. Charlie Nicholas scored the goals that won us our first trophy in 8 years but GG knew his attitude wasn't right and sure enough he was sold not long after. Viv Anderson, Kenny Sansom, Steve Williams, Graham Rix, Stewart Robson - supposedly amongst the better players in the team all flogged off. If you don't want it enough, off you go. The young team bottled it at the key stage of the season in the league.

Next year he brought in the likes of Winterburn, Smith, Marwood, Richardson and wasn't scared of blooding kids with the right attitude

If I look at Saka at the moment, GG would have him out of the team for 3 or 4 games. Here he is playing every game without a care in the world, despite being awful for weeks.

The biggest problem at our club is a loser's culture - Kroenke Inc will be delighted just to be back in the CL, so is the manager, so are the players

I can't see this crop going on and lifting major trophies. I see them playing great football for chunks of the season but always falling short when it matters most

In 1991 we lost our captain and most influential player. We had to blood Andy Linighan - a 90s equivalent of Holding. The difference then was that it was a defence full of leaders and winners - Dixon, Winterburn, Seaman, Bould. These days we lose a 21 year old in his first season of English football and Zinchenko, White and Gabriel turn to jelly. Were those players back then more talented than this lot? Probably not. However, they had the balls to go to any ground and dig out a result. 10 men, points deducted, captain in the nick - bring it on.

I think we had a momentum and keeping it going was the only way we were going to get over the line. As soon as doubt has set in several players have shit the bed and it has gone through the squad like a contagion. Prime culprits are Partey and I would actually say Jesus has really hampered our play. The bloke gets rag dolled consistently and is not clinical in front of goal. Saliba has been a big miss as I actually think he’s a leader.

[SteveO 35]

Imagine Martin Keown lying down in his own 6 yard box to allow the opposition player a free goal. Fuck Cygan wouldn’t do it.

Another cowardly pussy shit defender to add to the multitude we’ve had down the years. As I already said ducked the ball from a corner on his debut in the Europa then pulled that shit today.

Fucking coward should never play again. Weka yellow spineless bastard

Its not just centre half though is it? Its the entire spine of the team and total lack of leadership that has been there for 15 years, maybe slightly longer. I've never seen an Arsenal team win a PL without natural leaders in the team - leaders, plural! We don't have any at all

Honestly, its embarrassing and I'm afraid the blame for that lies with the manager. The team wilts when it matters most.

City won today because they were able to whether the Goodison storm - Rodri (much as I hate the bastard) was an absolute beast. Walker was in there winning every last ditch tackle. Then their great attacking players take the game away from the opposition, but if it was just the Fodens and Grealishes without those big leaders, they'd still be absolutely spineless. We literally don't have a single player I'd want to rely on when the chips are down

You have to earn the right to play. We regularly don’t do that. And then we get picked off.

Indeed - and I'm afraid unless he does a George Graham and rids the club of the losers and also rans, talent alone will never be enough

One of the best football books I read years ago was Kenny Sansom's account of the 1987 season when we won the League Cup. Right from the start he said that GG got the squad together and said "you are good players - why haven't you won anything" and some of the players he kicked out in those early days were supposedly some of the bigger names and star players. That season a young Tony Adams played every single match. Charlie Nicholas scored the goals that won us our first trophy in 8 years but GG knew his attitude wasn't right and sure enough he was sold not long after. Viv Anderson, Kenny Sansom, Steve Williams, Graham Rix, Stewart Robson - supposedly amongst the better players in the team all flogged off. If you don't want it enough, off you go. The young team bottled it at the key stage of the season in the league.

Next year he brought in the likes of Winterburn, Smith, Marwood, Richardson and wasn't scared of blooding kids with the right attitude

If I look at Saka at the moment, GG would have him out of the team for 3 or 4 games. Here he is playing every game without a care in the world, despite being awful for weeks.

The biggest problem at our club is a loser's culture - Kroenke Inc will be delighted just to be back in the CL, so is the manager, so are the players

I can't see this crop going on and lifting major trophies. I see them playing great football for chunks of the season but always falling short when it matters most

In 1991 we lost our captain and most influential player. We had to blood Andy Linighan - a 90s equivalent of Holding. The difference then was that it was a defence full of leaders and winners - Dixon, Winterburn, Seaman, Bould. These days we lose a 21 year old in his first season of English football and Zinchenko, White and Gabriel turn to jelly. Were those players back then more talented than this lot? Probably not. However, they had the balls to go to any ground and dig out a result. 10 men, points deducted, captain in the nick - bring it on.

I think we had a momentum and keeping it going was the only way we were going to get over the line. As soon as doubt has set in several players have shit the bed and it has gone through the squad like a contagion. Prime culprits are Partey and I would actually say Jesus has really hampered our play. The bloke gets rag dolled consistently and is not clinical in front of goal. Saliba has been a big miss as I actually think he’s a leader.

Imagine your only leader being a bloke loaned out for 3 years and who likely will be gone at the end of next season.

Need to think who signed him?

Arteta hasn't signed a single player with leadership qualities - not one.

[rodders999]

Saka cliff edged the last 2/3 games of last season, he’s cliff edged the last 2/3 months of this one.

How the fuck he’s starting every single game is insanity, we’re playing with 10 every game.

Martinelli was a huge loss today, him and Odegaard have been our main attacking/goal threat for weeks now. When he went off we were left with the hapless Saka on one wing and Trossard who was awful on the other.

With Odegaard also having a poor game that was us fucked.

Nelson came on and showed more desire and was more of a threat in 20 minutes than Saka has in 2 months.

He’s young and an absolutely exceptional talent but there’s no getting away from the fact that he’s tanked at the back end of 2 seasons now. Whether it’s something physical because we’ve overplayed him or something mental that he just can’t cope with the pressure at the business end of things we need to find out and fast.

If he’s scoring and assisting for fun again in the early part of next season there will be a niggling doubt in people’s minds if come late March/early April he’ll go AWOL again.

[BobbyPires7]

Saka cliff edged the last 2/3 games of last season, he’s cliff edged the last 2/3 months of this one.

How the fuck he’s starting every single game is insanity, we’re playing with 10 every game.

Martinelli was a huge lose today, him and Odegaard have been our main attacking/goal threat for weeks now. When he went off we were left with the hapless Saka on one wing and Trossard who was awful on the other.

With Odegaard also having a poor game that was us fucked.

Nelson came on and showed more desire and was more of a threat in 20 minutes than Saka has in 2 months.

He’s young and an absolutely exceptional talent but there’s not getting away from the fact that he’s tanked at the back end of 2 seasons now. Whether it’s something physical because we’ve overplayed him or something mental that he just can’t cope with the pressure at the business end of things we need to find out and fast.

If he’s scoring and assisting for fun again in the early part of next season there will be a niggling doubt in people’s minds if come late March/early April he’ll go AWOL again.

Saka has been dross for many weeks as you say. Martinelli has the right attitude. He never gives up. Saka has been marked out of every game for weeks.

[xisstential]

So this now means City have to lose twice and draw once, for us to sneak home, it's not over yet ...........

[SteveO 35]

So this now means City have to lose twice and draw once, for us to sneak home, it's not over yet ...........

If in some parallel universe that did happen.......

we'd manage to make Wolves look like Cruyff's Holland or Pele's Brazil on the final day !

[OneBardGooner]

This just Fucking HURTS.

[xisstential]

And it finally caught up to Ramsdale today, making saves but pushing to ball into really dangerous areas. There is no denying his shot stopping abilities but he has many flaws, positional play at set pieces, flapping at crosses, playing the ball out from his feet and the above, which accounted for their third goal.

[BobbyPires7]

This just Fucking HURTS.

When you prepare yourself for something it doesn’t hurt as much when it happens. I was preparing for this weeks ago and getting abused on here in the process. Sadly I was well ahead of the curve. Everyone is in the same camp now. Let’s hope we recruit properly and get some leaders on board.

[rodders999]

Sad to see what’s become of ESR this season. Came on today and didn’t have a kick. Looks unfit and overweight to me, Christ knows how.

[BobbyPires7]

Sad to see what’s become of ESR this season. Came on today and didn’t have a kick. Looks unfit and overweight to me, Christ knows how.

Pointed out by myself and a few others and told we were off the mark. Glad some people are catching up.

[rodders999]

Sad to see what’s become of ESR this season. Came on today and didn’t have a kick. Looks unfit and overweight to me, Christ knows how.

Pointed out by myself and a few others and told we were off the mark. Glad some people are catching up.

He’s come on a few times lately and been anonymous each time. You’d think he’d be full of energy coming on with a point to prove, demanding the ball and grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck looking to make things happen.

But he comes on and ambles about, doesn’t go looking for the ball and just drifts. A shadow of the player he was last season. Arteta’s made a few veiled comments about attitude and desire and looking at size of him you’d have to think either the injuries have nobbled him or he’s just not putting in the required work to be at peak fitness.

He looks way off being in prime shape that’s for sure.

[TeeCee]

I think ESR is one of those players who wants to eat and drink what he wants, train a little and then play, I don't think his mind is right at all and as someone else said, Arteta has intimated as much recently. He has lots of talent but like many before him, if you don't have the right mentality you'll be a waster all of your career. A move may do him some good, he looks finished at Arsenal. Shame.

[SteveO 35]

Most people on here said we needed 5 players minimum if we made the CL

Given that the consensus view is that ESR and Balogun will be off as a minimum, will that be enough?