Match Day Thread Crystal Palace vs Arsenal - Matchday Thread

Yeah bad news that.

Hopefully the scan tomorrow reveals not too bad damage

Last thing he needs is a cruciate gone, which will rule him out for months.

 

1-0. Mateta. Rubbish defending from White and Tavares. Had an awful feeling about this game and based on the way we’ve started, it’s not hard to see why.

 

2-0. This is an absolute bottle job. We’ve been lethargic and tentative all game. Palace eating us alive here.

 

What the actual **** is wrong with Gabriel today?!

 

Woeful

Simply haven’t been in it whatsoever

 

2-0. HT.

That's the worst half of football I've seen us play since the start of the season. With so much on the line, there is absolutely no excuses to be playing this badly.

Palace have totally outbattled and outplayed us.

This is the concern I've had for most of the season though - any time we get an injury or two to a first-team player, their deputies usually aren't good enough to just slot in and play like normal. I'm confident that Tierney would have done better for both of those goals.

Also, WTF was Gabriel doing rushing in like that for the 2nd goal? Awful decision.

Nuno Tavares currently isn't a Premier League calibre fullback. He is incapable of defending and cannot remain positionally disciplined.

We're going to need a heroic effort in the second half to turn this around. Shambolic stuff.

 

The worrying thing is I have seen us play like this before this season. In the game against Brentford, against Everton and in the FA cup against Forest.

We seem to throw in one of these abject performances now and again, and this one has come just at the wrong time

 

The gap in quality between our first team and fringe players is striking. We've essentially gambled on our first-team being fit for the remainder of the season, which is huge ask when you see the injury records of the likes of Tierney and Tomiyasu.

 

Tavares hooked at HT

The right decision, but that’s his Arsenal career basically torched

 

As **** as we’ve been, we’ve just missed two golden chances in the last few minutes. ESR and Odegaard both should have scored. There’s no excuse to miss those chances in those situations.

 

And now it’s game over

Partey injured in the build up too

 

And just like that, Odegaard concedes a penalty. Stupid tackle. Not the first time he’s done that this season.

3-0.

Disgraceful performance.

Now Partey’s been taken off because he’s injured.

Season could be absolutely over.

 

There's a long way to go still and I doubt you'll play this badly in your remaining fixtures, but I watched those chances and instinctively thought 'Kane or Son bury those'. You've done very well since/despite selling Aubameyang, but the lack of a true goalscorer is evident, especially in moments like this.

 

Kane and Son's quality, as well as the inclusions of Kulusevski and Bentancur, mixed with your kinder fixture list, are why I think you will pip us to 4th. The injuries we've now got in defence and centre mid have come at the worst possible time. I don't see us gaining enough points for the run in to get 4th, if they're out for a lengthy period.

 

Our squad is paper thin. Suppose that was always going to be the case whilst we ship out deadwood and try to build a new team. We've got a good first XI, but our squad cannot cope with any injuries.

Our tough run in just got a whole lot tougher.

 

Ours is pretty similar, although the additions of Kulu and Bentancur have helped enormously.

We still have certain key positions where an injury or suspension can cause major issues though. Any or all of Kane, Dier, Davies and Reguilon out tends to cause a significant drop in quality as we don't really have like for like replacements. I was actually amazed at how well your boy Doherty coped at LWB against Newcastle, and it reflects on the progress individual players are making under Conte.

 

We might come up a bit short this season as a result of our lack of depth in the squad. Been impressed with your two Jan signings, they've defo added a bit of dynamism to your team and Kulu seems to link up well with Kane too.

We're just at that point in our rebuild where we've had years of average players on huge wages at the club and trying to move them on to free up wages to add the right players that will compliment our existing team. The project is on track imo, but we're defo short atm. As last night demonstrated, both of our full backs out and Palace tore us to shreds will that ball inbetween the full back and the CB, on both sides !

 

Speaking of injuries, looks like the worst case scenario has come true.



Advantage Spurs now, IMO.

 

****

Any news on Partey ?