…chasing down the lead horse.
v Arsenal
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| Etihad Stadium |
Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:
Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 11/11.
A very fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 (occasional 3-6-1):
____________________Haaland____________________
__Doku______________________________Semenyo__
__________Silva(C)_______________Cherki__________
_____________________Rodri_____________________
O’Reilly___________________________________Nunes
___________Guehi_____________Khusanov_________
__________________Donnarumma__________________
Subs: Trafford, Ait-Nouri, Ake, Gonzalez, Kovacic, Foden, Reijnders, Savinho and Marmoush.
I’m going for Pep to pick the same-11 as last time…
Gigi in net.
A back-4, occasional 3, of Nico-O-, Marc, Abdukodir and Matheus.
Rodders, Bernardo and Rayan-C- in the middle in their various roles; Jeremy and Antoine on the flanks.
Erling up top.
James is reserve keeper; Rayan-A and Nathan are two defenders on the side. Nico-G-, Mateo, Phil and Tijjani make up four midfielders in ‘the 9’, while Savinho and Omar give us two wide / forward options from the bench.
Notable absences:
- Marcus Bettinelli – Not selected.
- Rico Lewis – Not selected.
- John Stones – On 10th April Pep said, of the England defender, that he was taking a step closer to returning to first team action; possible taking part in partial training [same day as that press conference]. There was no update on 17th April.
- Josko Gvardiol – On the 10th April also, our manager revealed that Josko was getting better, following a long injury lay-off with a fractured tibia, but would take longer to recover. No further updates since.
- Max Alleyne – Not selected.
- Ruben Dias – On 17th April we were informed that the Portuguese international was not quite ready to return to action just yet.
Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?
Yep.
Result?
Turning into the final straight, we certainly have now got our second (Third? Fourth?) wind and a good gallop on now. Three different competitions and three teams in the shape of Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea resulted in 3 wins, 9 goals scored and 0 conceded; all of which has put wind in our sails as we enter the crucial part of the season.
And it’s a part of the season which appears to be causing some jitters in the postcode area of N7; an area that sits in North London and has a large percentage of its population feeling nervous for more reasons than one.
But we mustn’t focus on how our rivals are feeling; we mustn’t get complacent and we must, instead, remain focused in order to continue the good things that we’re doing and practice improving the areas where we’re falling short.
The first half against Chelsea was a little sloppy – our passing was off and they were causing us a number of problems down our right side / their attacking left. They also had the ball in our net and if it wasn’t for VAR, some Assistant Referees, or “Linos” in old money, may have given that goal with Khusanov leaving a trailing leg that almost kept the attacking Chelsea player onside.
But it was rightly ruled out and we went on to produce a much, much better second half to outclass the home side. There’s still room for improvement in terms our in-match consistency because if we drop-off against today’s opponents like we all-too-often do in one half of games, we are likely to get punished.
“If we lose, yeah, it’s over”. Not my words but the words of our manager last Friday.
So what if we draw? Well, we would definitely need to win our game in hand against Crystal Palace, something we need to do even if we win later today, but I would say that sharing the points this afternoon still gives us a chance of winning the league, especially as Arsenal have Champions League games to contend with in addition to looking wobbly at the moment.
But we’ve got to win this after the way sprung into life in recent games to put even more pressure on today’s visitors – we mustn’t blow it now.
Does is help that, apparently, Bukayo Saka is out with an injury? I’d say so but I have heard at least one Arsenal fan say recently that he is no longer as effective as he used to be…in between quite a number of injury spells it has to be said. Then, just the other day, I heard another Arsenal supporter say that a lot of their stars have regressed over the last 3 or 4 seasons. I dunno...🤷♂️
If we perform for the majority of the game like we did in the second half of our last three matches then I believe that we can make it four wins in a row and that’s what I’m going for us to do. It’s a City win for me. 🤞
Goodbye to a legend
It’s official – Bernardo Silva will be leaving us in the summer.
All too often an unsung hero, in my opinion; the Portuguese midfield workhorse even came in for some flack last season from a section of Blues for his lack of creative contribution as the whole team went through its various struggles. I had him down as my personal Player of the Season when I did my usual end of season piece last June.
So versatile and such a quiet, just-get-on-with-it professional but with enough fire in his belly that you need to compete for 90+ minutes. At 32 in August but with a strong body that saw very few minutes in the treatment room, this fella could have done a good job for us for another season but I’m sure I’m not alone in wishing him well.
Thank you for everything, Bernardo.
Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result:
Prediction: Draw
Result: Drew
(Pre-match blog posting from that game)
Expected weather conditions during the game: After a lovely bright start to the day in the area, light cloud drifts in ahead of the match to perhaps obscure the sun slightly. Dry with temperatures around 11 or 12C. 🌥️️😎🧥🍵🥧🍺⚽
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| Solidarity |
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