He put Xhaka in and in that paragraph he said: "Thank goodness Arsenal are having to play three games a week including European football matches. Fortunately the Saints played the Gunners at the right time. A fresh Arsenal would have destroyed Southampton." Hey Garth, we had 5 key players out and we played midweek as well you utter bellend.
Now let me think, what were the many contributions he brought to the game that sit alongside people like, say, Pele, Banks, Moore, Greaves, Paine, the Charlton brothers, etc? Struggling on this, I'm afraid. Ah well that probably explains his problem in assessing things concerned with football.
He scored a good goal and that is all that counts. But not for Armstrong it seems. So he scored a goal and plays for a top 6 (or wannabe top 6) side
So Awoniyi seemed to have got in solely for scoring a poachers strike that was the winner against the club that cast him away as a youngster. It’s a good story but did he do much else in the game ?
Exactly, and only a few of us are left that actually saw him play football so most on here don't even know who the heck he is. Which reminds me. My 32 year old daughter a year or so ago was watching MOTD with me (we must of won and she was over from the US so two truly rare occurrences) and I said that Gary Linekar is looking a bit older now but still looks like he could play a good game as he was a poacher not a runner. She said "oh did he play football then? I thought he was just a TV presenter".....
Crooks was actually a reasonable spokesman for his fellow players when he was chair of the Professional Footballers Association in the last couple of years of his playing career.
You can bet the likes of Tony Adams and Martin Keown would have enjoyed Lyanco's performance. Was a dick move by him at the end though trying to headbutt Nketiah. Can't have a liability like that in the team, no matter how funny he can be.
We deffo got away with some decisions, but I think Arsenal didn’t help themselves when they started to feign injuries and waste time from 20 minutes onwards instead of try to kill us off. Probably created a “boy who cried wolf” situation with the ref, although that doesn’t excuse VAR missing some of the more obvious errors. This doesn’t take away from the fact I’m delighted with the second half intensity and performance, the character shown etc. In fact, the reactions from Arsenal supporting mates and those online has made it even sweeter. They really are a peculiar bunch.
Even worse if you read his twatish comments about poor old Arsenal having to play 3 games in a week! He is a total bellend.
Arsenal fans are making a huge deal of this. The only point they have is that DCC was all over Jesus a couple of times. Not exactly game changing stuff. Saka clearly dived and the incident where Lyanco appeared to lash out at Jesus was due to the clear elbow in the face from Jesus which Arsenal fans conveniently forget to mention. Ref's have been told to let the game flow more and bigger sides are not getting away with quite as much diving and rolling around as they used to.
Agreed. No excuse for an attempted headbutt though. That's the only thing where I think Arsenal have grounds for complaint. Although that happened so late on even if Lyanco was sent off I don't think it would have made any difference to the score. Lyanco will probably avoid a 3 match ban (which he deserves) as the referee dealt with it at the time.
Far from conveniently forgetting to mention (which some do and deliberately clip out of the videos) but there are others who just deny it happening. Ones who admit to only watching clips and not the game. They seem to legit think he is such a psycho that he would lose it and lash out unprovoked. He shouldn’t have lost it of course but still
Probably should have done. By law, an attempt to strike is as much violent conduct as striking an opponent.
"Southampton are the most direct team in the league and probably one of the least equipped to pass out from the back. Hasenhuttl even said it himself just over a week ago: “As soon as we start building up play, the mistake growth rate goes up.” Jacob Tanswell, The Athletic I suppose the Athletic have the stats to back that up, giving us Burnley's erstwhile crown. Its interesting the article mentions our goal on Sunday, as "Southampton put together their most sweeping attacking move since the 3-2 win away to Tottenham Hotspur in February." A game where we out passed and "possessioned" Spurs - I should imagine our stats regarding our directness have have grown since the subsequent tactical shift in the intervening months of pressing a lot less. I think Lavia's return will help with our ability to pass more cohesively out from the back.
Direct football isn't always the long ball stuff Burnley used to play. It just means attacks are formed quickly and with fewer passes. The Madrid team of Bale, Benzema and Ronaldo were extremely direct for example. As soon as they'd win the ball they'd look to attack on the counter. Not that I'd put us in that category, just that Ralph hasn't got us playing hoof ball - although we did at times against Bournemouth in fairness.
