Arsenal are in FA Cup action this afternoon, taking on Man Utd in the third round.
Here are the official line-ups.
Arsenal: Raya, Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly, Jorginho, Merino, Odegaard, Martinelli, Havertz, Jesus
Subs: Neto, Zinchenko, Tierney, Kiwior, Rice, Partey, Sterling, Trossard, Butler-Oyedeji
Man Utd: Bayindir, Mazraoui, De Ligt, Maguire, Martinez, Fernandes, Hojlund, Garnacho, Dalot, Ugarte, Mainoo
Subs: Onana, Malacia, Yoro, Amad, Casemiro, Collyer, Eriksen, Antony, Zirkzee
Stuff this twat outfit plse
You sound like a Tamworth fan…
Damn, this aged poorly.
Bad luck, we played well
Played absolute shite.
we didn’t play well at all and deserved to be beat. insipid performance all-round
The dynamic lightning fast midfield duo of Merino and Jorginho
You’re the same one who complained last week that why did we buy Merino if we don’t start him, right?
(perhaps it wasn’t but you all look the same to me)
Surprised Rice is on the bench, the way they struggle at corners and his delivery being as precise at it is.
Still a strong line up though. Happy with Trossard on the bench, dangerous sub to bring on.
They’re not using onana, so maybe not as weak from set pieces (today)
I am not that surprised since he struggled physically at the end of the Newcastle game and we play every three days.
Honestly with the way the season’s played out, I’ve got to the point where I just assume that every player bar Raya and our two main centre halves are ‘carrying something’, and am already mentally prepared for an odd looking line-up choice as a result. Another case of ‘just get the win any way necessary’ today
They’re so bad at set pieces, we don’t even need the best deliveries
No Calafiori on Bench, another one bites the dust🤮
I noticed that too. Hopefully just a niggle or “the bug”!
Looks like we’re playing for the nld then.
Why do you say that? Partey and Rice rotated/rested but that is still a very strong team.
No midfield dynamism and the more important players there rested for the running required against the basketball like behavior of the spuds.
I really don’t get Artetas insistence with sticking with Martinelli. If he thinks he can play him into form he’s had long enough. We have a natural winger in Sterling who should start given how we haven’t been creating much. Granted Sterling hasn’t been great but also he hasn’t really been given a chance and at least he runs at people and creates chances.
Sterling has been trash every time he’s been picked, and is just now returning from injury. What evidence is there he’d suddenly improve? Martinelli is miles ahead in both pace and tactical nous in our system, and he plays defense instead of flopping on the floor.
Martinelli is great player
He’s a good player
He’s alright
Sterling can run at people as a substitute, can’t he?
If you were a PL right back with your legs on fire while being turned inside out for the umpty-somthingth time, you’d know exactly why Arteta persists in playing Martinelli.
Where’s Calafiori?
muscle problem
that’s about the least specific injury description I could imagine other than “bodypart problem”
okay, in that case, ‘injured’
wasn’t a criticism, I assumed you got that description from elsewhere, possibly Arteta
Fit for one game, injured for three, and repeat
Injured. He’s an Arsenal left back. Gotta respect the tradition.
I don’t think we have enough left backs. We need more back ups in that position.
Happy to see Jesus as right wing.
In my opinion, he is our best solution there at the moment.
COYG
Agree 100%, especially with Nwaneri out too, but possibly even if Nwaneri were fit.
Watch fans blame Arteta for putting him on the wings when he scores a hattrick instead of 5 or 6 goals today
Well fuck me
I really want to be anything but negative here because I love him as a player and person, but that really does seem like the final nail in the coffin for him, maybe not as an Arsenal player in general, but as someone we could reasonably rely on as a contributing squad player.
Depends on the length of his injury but if we’re looking at a serious one I believe he will be gone by the summer.
Getting shades of Debuchy and Bellerin from Calafiori and MLS. By the time Calafiori is fully fit then MLS could be entrenched as the first choice left back.
Hey! It wasn’t Debuchy’s fault that some monumental cunt smashed him into the camera pit for no reason other than being a monumental cunt.
Kudos to Rob Holding for giving Arnautovic a personal introduction to the advertising hoardings, just when he thought we’d forgotten all about this.
Merino: I’m no David Silva but…
Arteta: Play with Jorghino it will make you appear fast
Merino: Yes boss.
I think it was pretty unanimous that Jorgy & Merino in our midfield didn’t give us much creativity, so why do it again?! Why does Arteta always do this. It didn’t work, so change it. Put Rice in.
Different opponents I guess. Probably different tactics too
No res for Raya….
They’re playing that crap goalkeeper from the Sp*rs game in the Carabao, for the love of god please shoot shoot shoot whenever there’s a chance!
I’m annoyed that we take too long at restart especially Timber
Jesus going off on a stretcher; e we’ll not see him before Easter 🐣
That would be best case scenario… I don’t even want to imagine the worst case.
Jesus likely done for the season, so now we are going to have to buy, regardless of what arteta has said about january.
Bit early for such a drastic prediction but it’s hard not to fear the worst given his history…. If he’s out for a length of time then we’re down to four players for three positions….
Well this put pressure on the owners more than on Mikel
Without a sporting director it leads me to believe mikel is doing that as well.
There is a sporting director, just not a permanent one. Mikel has more than enough to do elsewhere to be doing that job too.
We are getting good at bring crap !
How many times to we pass through the lines to a good position and then stop, turn around and pass back until the opposition reset.
Hard to remember the last time we were this boring to watch.
Yes. The only comment from the first half is, why do we have to wear a backup kit?
It’s part of an initiative to tackle the root causes of youth violence called No More Red, we’ve worn it in the FA cup for the last few seasons.
Yeah and obviously it’s been working wonders, nobody’s got stabbed in London for at least 4 hours
It’s a great initiative that the club supports, there’s really no need for that
Arsenal wearing a white football kit will have zero impact on knife crime.
Thanks for the expert prognosis, but I’d rather my club at least try to do something, even if it doesn’t seem like much, than do nothing at all. And if even one kid exposed to this campaign (of which the kit is just a part) is swayed out of stabbing someone it will have been worth it.
😆 Why stop at knife crime?What colour kit should Arsenal wear for each of burglary crime, drug use and theft?
You might want to stop and think about why a club initiative to bring attention to youth violence is exercising you so much.
Erm, because it’s a waste of time. Football clubs should stick to football.
Why should they ‘just stick to football’? All big clubs do an awful lot in the local community, they may not be solving problems single handedly but that’s hardly the point.
Does make us play like sp*rs though.
Failing to utterly butcher a ten man Manchester B feels very sp*rsy.
Yes, definitely more spuds than Real Madrid!
support winning fucking games of football
Newcastle in midweek?
Another drudgery. No invention. No passion. Slow as a snail in the build up and the final third. Another key injury. Hope it’s nothing serious. Luckily Man U is showing us too much respect. I expect that to change in the 2nd half. I’d take 1-0 in a heartbeat right now.
Merino=denilson
Is that a compliment?
Depends how.much enjoyment you get from a solid pass percentage that goes sideways and backwards
I meant to say not good enough to be compared to Denilson
Ohhhh I get ya 😂 good point
Cannot believe how many chances we have missed.
I can believe very well, not usual
*unusual
Have to find a way to win this just to shut up the irritating, boorish, United supporting twat in the pub I’m watching the game at. Fuck me is he insufferable.
I must be missing something. Walcott has said Syerling has been outstanding?!
He’s playing well
Maybe, outstanding when measured against past-his-prime-chelsea-reject standards?
Havertz=Sanogo
And Ealing if you ask no that’s not a compliment 😂
Boring FC is back
And 5min set piece FC
God, this is boring. What have we become?
Backpass FC?
Set pieces, delayed restarts, useless possession, slow in transition
I’ll always be grateful to Arteta for making us competitive again. But if you were ever in doubt of who his biggest influence was between Pep, Wenger and David Moyes, you’ve got your answer now.
FFS what the hell is this nonsense. Can’t hit a barn door! Have to go into the market now with Jesus out.
And what is up with Odegaard.
Every one of these players is looking out of sorts, or maybe they have just peaked and this is the reality, hope not
Seeing as we can’t hit a god damn barn door, penalties does not look good
A team that clearly spends a lot of time practicing how to always pick the safest option.
One of which is getting out of cups early
Is “Lose Yourself” really the best song choice before a penalty shootout?
They couldn’t find a song called “useless cowards”
Let’s start blaming the ref
I don’t fuc$ing want to hear about XG
Guess you’ll have to, there just too many fans of xG these days, unfortunately not enough in our attack
Bour artata dehors
I have no words.
I just hope they are ashamed.
What a display. It’s like we are pinning hope that one of the crosses managed to be met and then rinse and repeat
I have no idea how we manage to make this shitty gk looks like prime Neuer.
This guy conceded 4 against spr*rs less then a month ago for fuck’s sake
I miss Bendtner
Hey, the window’s still open.
we could buy prime zidane and we’d still be shit with arteta at the helm
when’s mustafi back?
Arteta is a genius.