FA Cup Final Covid edition

Well done Arsenal!!!

Stay safe and enjoy the summer. See you all back in September.

 

****ing buzzing here

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What a performance from the lads yesterday -- we showed tremendous character and determination to get back into the game after a very unsteady opening 20 minutes. The drinks break came at the right time for us because after that, we were the better team for the majority of the game.

Superb performances by everyone. They all stepped up when they needed to, even the ones who we malign regularly. Proud of the boys.

I just want to give a shoutout to Mikel Arteta - this would never have been a feasible possibility before he was appointed. There were many people who understandably doubted him as a result of his lack of managerial experience. His selection was always going to go one of two ways. And although it's still extremely early, it's looking like a masterstroke. Less than 8 months into the job and he's secured a trophy already. Almost unfathomable back in December.

You can tell by his body language and the way he communicates with the players that he just exudes authority and respect. All of them seem attentive whenever he speaks to them, The fact players like Torreira and Sokratis, who have barely featured, gave him such huge embraces epitomises the shift in dressing room culture.

He's also learned from his mistakes. He's adapted the system to what suits the players and their skillset better in order to breed a functional team that can win games e.g. 3 at the back, wing backs pushing forward, defending from the front etc. I know we don't play high-octane, scintillating football, but we do the ugly stuff well now - and that's helped us massively. There's no room for passengers in Arteta's Arsenal.

Just want to remind people he took over an Arsenal team that had 2 wins, 7 draws and 6 losses beforehand. The players had downed tools. We looked completely void of ideas or motivation. There was no structure. No trust. A mass exodus looked on the cards. What a turnaround it's been.

If he's supported in the transfer market, I can only see an upward trajectory from here.

Well done to everyone involved at the club - 14 FA Cups. Extending the record.

 

By the way, had a quick glance at our friendly neighbour's forum 'The Fighting Cock' (why would you call it that? ).

Here are some more gems:

snowkarl: "literal 1 man team, so lucky, it is unbelievable"

Hotspurio: "This circus of a team is gonna win more cups than we did under Poch in 5 years. Really embarrassing"

Spurs_1987: "This ref is honestly looking like he's been given some money under the table by Kroncke."

1882: "I used to LOVE the FA Cup.... now I can't ****ing stand it!
When WE were winning it, we were labelled a 'Cup team', like it was a bad thing...
Now those ****s pretty much own it and they're being lauded as greats!
**** THEM AND THE **** STINK HEAP THEY RODE IN ON!"

Incomplete_usernam: "****ing ****s, another trophy for them whilst we sit here and win **** all, depressing."

DSanditon: "And despite finishing higher than them in the league for the last 4 years, Woolwich in that time have still managed to win as many trophies as we've won in the last 29 years. I'm not taking today's result well at all. Seriously pissed off."

tommyboyspurs: "even with their **** side they still win a cup. we are cursed we have to be"

Hotspurio (again): "5 wasted years how sad is it that we won nothing with one of our greatest teams ever. Poch will go down as one of the biggest bottlers of all time"

The meltdown is glorious

@PISKIE @gooner4ever - feel free to post these on the Prem board as you wish. In fact, I'd send you the damn link if you want to fish for more:

https://thefightingcock.co.uk/forum/threads/fa-cup-final-2020-thread.36865/page-22

 

Wow our neighbours ain’t coping - perhaps they need Prince William to give them a call about their mental health

 

I imagine guendozi is sitting at home gutted, missed out on a big chance to play in a cup final. Hopefully he comes back to pre season hat in hand ready to apologise.

 

Or he goes to Barca with that chip and £9m and we get Coutinho

 

Given he's bang average and we've done far better without him, I hope he doesn't.

 

I wouldn't say he's average, average players don't get called up to the French squad during a golden generation. I think he has some qualities needs to work on the sideways passing and be more adventurous.

If he is willing to sort out his attitude I would be happy to give him a 2nd chance if not I'm happy to sell

 

The more I think about spurs...

...the more I laugh

 

Guendouzi has got bags of natural talent. He's not the finished article by a long way, but the potential is there for a superb midfielder.

He is arrogant though, which is not a bad thing in itself, but he needs to learn some respect and channel that arrogance into performances.

 

Check out the FA cup thread on the prem board

https://www.not606.com/threads/fa-cup-final-thread.385407/page-25#post-14011087

 

When Sours last won the League title in 61 Preston North End were in the top flight ffs

 

I will say this:

when we were consistently getting top 4 I was massively jealous of the other clubs winning trophies

now that we’ve won trophies (4 in 6 years) I’m not necessarily jealous of other clubs getting top 4.

trophies > top 4 IMO.

 

I agree to an extent, and the memories feel more fulfilling when we know we've won trophies, but I don't want us to consistently finish outside the top 4 and win a domestic cup. If anything, we should be looking to do both i.e. finish in the top 4 and win a trophy. But getting Champions League football needs to be the priority - a season like this is unacceptable.

Rightly or wrongly, if we want to have a competitive side that can try to win the Premier League or Champions League - which is the level we aspire to be at - we need the revenue from finishing in the top-4. The only other way to do it is to win the Europa League, but our record in European finals is abysmal, so we can't rely on that.

Our league form has to get better.

As much as I enjoy winning the FA Cup, this club deserves to be competing with the best in Europe. So that has to be the priority for next season.

 

I think we can compete, I'm gonna be bold and say next season we are getting top four. Liverpool have given me hope that we don't need to blow cash like the others we just need to buy and sell at the right times and we can challenge we are still one of the biggest clubs in the world we can attract players still.

 

Are you crazy? Liverpool have spent shed loads and hide behind the 'net spend' argument based on selling Coutinho for £750m.

 

Exactly alot of the money they have spent is due to how they have sold. Hence why I mentioned buying and selling at the right time. They got 20 million for solanke when we let players like gnabry and donyell malen go for peanuts. Look at Liverpool net spend its better then ours. They are the model to follow

 

Meh. They relied on Coutinho. That's it. Solanke vs Gnabry? Picking and choosing to make your point.
Could just as easily argue the other way and say we sold Iwobi for £30m and Walcott for £20m.

£20m - £30m sales aren't too tricky. £140m sales are. And that's what made the difference to Liverpool. And they ain't doing it again without screwing over themselves. Only Salah and Mane would go for that and if they sold those they wouldn't improve on them.

All in all, they lucked out on the PSG Neymar transfer happening just as Klopp was peaking for them.

 

Hardly picking and choosing, I think Gnabry and malen is a fair comparison to solanke as none of them was guaranteed to be in the squad unlike Theo and Iwobi. We done well to get what we got for Theo, Iwobi was a fair price imo lots of experience for a relatively young player.

You can't deny that Liverpool have been better in the transfer market then us in the past few years

Arsenal net spend for the last 5 years £270.49m

Liverpool net spend last 5 years £107.58m

Let's pretend Liverpool let couhtnho go on a free, that would bring Liverpool's net spend to £247.5m. I'm sure we have a higher wage bill also

What ever way you want to dress it up mate Liverpool have built a far better squad then us with less money coming from the outside.

So you can think that the way back to the top is by throwing money at the situation, I think a smart transfer policy and abit of luck we can compete as Liverpool have. Don't be so negative mate it's possible that we can get back to challenging.