Offical match day thread

Yessss.

That was stressful.

 

well how about that. I was wrong. Credit where it’s due.

 

We never do things the easy way.

Delighted that we're through. But lots of things we need to work on. Arteta didn't help himself with the team selection, tactics or substitutions, but thankfully, our star boy and our best striker rescued us from what would have been a disastrous evening.

The thing that annoys/worries me is Benfica barely created anything over both legs, but they scored 3 goals from a penalty, a world-class free-kick and an amateur mistake from Ceballos.

I just didn't feel like we were aggressive enough when pressing, not enough rotational movement between the front 4 and we weren't progressing the ball fast enough. Arteta needs to fix this ahead of whoever we play in the last 16.

Anyway, good result, but we'll need to perform significantly better than that if we want to go far in this tournament.

 

Was tearing my hair out when he brought Willian on for Smith Rowe, but to be fair Willian did okay.

****ing tense game that. But so chuffed that we're through. Tierney is a die hard and he gave everything tonight, well rewarded for his energy and commitment to get us back in the game. And great to see that Auba is popping up with important goals just when we need them.

 

walk in the park

 

Oh Dear......... we do like doing things the hard way!! No matter what manager and players we have!!

 

Yep seems that way.

I'm ****ing well pleased that we're through to the next round. I know it wasn't perfect, but it gives this team a winning mentality going into another knockout game.

 

crazy that this was 9 years ago...time flies

 

So, we have Olympiacos again in the Last 16 of the Europa League. FFS.
We just can't escape these caaaants.

 

Oh well another trip back to Athens... becoming our 2nd home ground! I think if we can keep Tierney/Partey fit and Auba in scoring form we will win this over the 2 legs! Olympiakos are doing well in there league and are scoring goals and also not conceding many.

 

It looks like Arteta might be right about Saliba. He's not ready yet.

He made another big error last night that lead to a goal.

He's very talented and had 2 MOTM displays in what 8 games for Nice? but he's also a bit too casual which leads to mistakes.

But then David Luiz still plays like that and he's 34.

 

Looking at todays team it's clear Arteta is prioritising the Europa League at this point.

Team to play Leicester: Leno, Soares, Mari, Luiz, Tierney, Elneny, Xhaka, Willian, Smith Rowe, Pepe, Lacazette

Subs: Ryan, Bellerin, Saka, Ceballos, Odegaard, Aubameyang, Holding, Partey, Martinelli

...Its also clear he doesnt like Martinelli.

 

Agreed! I understand we have to rest Saka/Auba/Odegaard but I don't think we stand a chance with the starting line up, defensively Im okay with it but AMF no.....

 

Yeah Mari is probably a good change but Willian and Pepe i'm not sure about at all.

 

****s sake. In the lead up to that goal Willian and Pepe both get pushed off the ball.

Then our whole defence backoff.

 

So Var changes an obvious penalty ! We don’t ever seem to get any decisions go our way FFs

 

Why do we always need 3x times more time in our oppponents box to score a goal?

We've played the better stuff, had more possession, particularly in dangerous areas.. but yet to score.

I can see Leceister scoring anytime they get a decent chance.

 

With that line-up, it was pretty obvious Arteta was ready to throw this game. He is gambling everything on the Europa game!

 

Yesss

 

Very good header by Luiz and no more than we have deserved