I don’t think anyone would say that, certainly when it’s needed, this team of ours lacks spirit and it was that determination which saw us claw a game back from 3-1 down to earn a share of the points away from home last Bank Holiday weekend; a crazy end to the game after we dominated the first half.
However, as we’ve seen all too often both last season as well as this, at one end of the pitch mistakes cost us dearly while at the other, especially in a good first half for us, we were hitting shots high, wide, across goal or straight at the keeper and both of those cost us 3 points in the end.
Advantage Arsenal.
 |
| 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(VC)_________________
__Doku______________________________Semenyo__
__________Silva(C)_______________Cherki__________
____________________Gonzalez___________________
O’Reilly___________________________________Nunes
___________Guehi_____________Khusanov_________
__________________Donnarumma__________________
Subs: Trafford, Ait-Nouri, Ake, Stones, Kovacic, Foden, Reijnders, Savinho and Marmoush.
Gigi in goal.
A back-4, occasional 3, of Nico-O-, Marc, Abdukodir and Matheus.
Nico-G- should keep his defensive midfield starting place for now at least.
In this unchanged 11 that I’m suggesting, ahead of the Spaniard is likely to consist of Jeremy, Bernardo, Rayan-C- and Antoine.
Erling up front.
James is reserve keeper; Rayan-A-, Nathan and John make up three defenders on the side. Mateo, Phil, Tijjani are a trio of midfielders in ‘the 9’, while Savinho and Omar continue to provide wide / forward options for us on the bench.
Notable absences:
- Marcus Bettinelli – Not selected.
- Rico Lewis – Not selected.
- Josko Gvardiol – Update on 8th May was that Josko was training and feeling good. 👍 It’s been a long recovery journey for the 24-year-old Croatian.
- Max Alleyne – Not selected.
- Ruben Dias – On the same day, the boss also suggested that Ruben was close to a return.
- Rodri – During the same pre-match press conference, Pep said that they would further assess Rodders later that afternoon and he could, therefore, make the bench this evening (5:30pm KO BST).
Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?
Yep.
Result?
I said in my last piece that two games in particular, of our remaining fixtures, concerned me. We’ve played one and after throwing away a 0-1 away lead to trail 3-1, we somehow managed to salvage a draw. The other ‘danger game’ for me is Bournemouth away.
All that being said, this is a real tough one too today, I don’t think any Blue would disagree. I will likely speak more about The Bees in one of my regular close season postings but to put it mildly, they’ve shocked many this season, myself included. As I say, more on that in June / July.
For now, they’re a really hard team to beat and their strong showing in the Premier League sees them currenting sitting in the Europa Conference League place (7th); just 1 point from a Europa League spot and just 7 points from a Champions League position before weekend games commence.
Following FIVE successive league draws, they were apparently undeserved of their 2-1 away defeat to Manyoo but went on to rectify that with an impressive 3-0 home win against relegation threatened West Ham.
Not wishing to focus on one player simply because of their tremendous team spirit and work ethic; Igor Thiago is not only their top goalscorer but is second only to Erling Haaland in the league with just 3-less goals than the Norwegian.
As for us, I do believe that we’ll shake off last Monday’s weird second half period wobble but we’ve got to be far more clinical when we get the ball in the final third…PLUS be as sharp as a pin in readiness for Brentford’s inevitable counter attacks. In short, we need to outwork the workhorse side whilst adding some craft and class when it’s needed most.
This isn’t a game for shrinking violets and when I look at some of the players on our bench and the lack of form they’ve been in this season, I’m largely looking at the starting 11 to get most of the job done today. Prove me wrong Phil, Tijjani, Savinho and Omar.
Hard game indeed but I’m going for us to prevail. It’s a home win for me – anything less would be a disaster in terms of keeping our title hopes alive.
Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result:
Prediction: Win
Result: Won
(Pre-match blog posting from that game)
Expected weather conditions during the game: Sunshine and showers and possibly some heavy, thundery downpours is the story. Bit of a north easterly breeze too and a temperature of around 12C. Pitch should be nicely watered by nature throughout the day, just as Pep likes it. 🌦️🌂🥧🍺⚽
CHAMPIONS!
City team celebrating after watching Brighton vs Arsenal
Congratulations to our women’s team who won the WSL with one game to go. We won the league over an Arsenal side who had 3 games in hand towards the end of the season but only managed to draw the first one; meaning that we won the league last Wednesday night without even kicking a ball.
P21 (of 22), W17, D1, L3. F58, A18.
 |
| Solidarity |
No comments:
Post a Comment