Man City vs Arsenal, Saturday @ 1945 with Pilav and a Baklava

BWoolley

FA Cup semi-final time. A team missing all its FA Cup heroes - Ramsey, Monreal, Cazorla, Mertesacker. I am honestly not holding out much hope on this one. I'd go with

----Martinez----
Mustafi---David Luiz---Holding
Cedric--Torreira--Ceballos--Tierney
--Pepe---Auba---Nelson

This assumes that AMN is on his way out and Saka needs a break.

Match Prediction: 3-1 Man City.

goon

Why would you leave Xhaka out? Tottenham aside, he's been one of our best and most consistent performers post break. Laca has also been very good in recent games, so he needs to start too.

I think Saka needs a break too, so I'd go with:

Emi

Mustafi - Luiz - Tierney

Bellerin - Ceballos - Xhaka - Nelson

Pepe - Laca - Auba

But I'd expect to see Tierney move back into the LW position with Holding/Kola coming in and Nelson on the bench.

2-0 Arsenal.

QuincyAbeyie

Goon's team with AMN in for Bellerin is my choice.

Qwiss

I'd take Goons team if you swap Nelson for Saka. No rest in the FA cup, its our only possible trophy.

Klaus

Eddie is still suspended for this right?

I'd go with:

Martinez

Holding - Luiz - Tierney

Maitland-Niles - Ceballos - Xhaka - Saka

Nelson - Lacazette - Aubameyang

Klaus

I considered Torreira, but you can't really use him in this formation.

Coombs

I know there are lots of reasons on his end for speaking like he did, but I have to say it's really nice hearing an opposition manager talk about our players, team, and coach like Guardiola just has. I don't love that he's defending us, bit condescending, but I do like that this is the way he feels he can motivate his own players (and obviously make himself look good doing it).

Clrnc

Cedric is cup tied by the way.

Klaus team looks very good, but we all know it will be Bellerin

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

Won't we need three CMs here?

Claudius

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert wrote:
Won't we need three CMs here?

No need. They’ll have 60% possession and territory. We’ll be pressed back 541

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

Claudius wrote:
Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert wrote:
Won't we need three CMs here?

No need. They’ll have 60% possession and territory. We’ll be pressed back 541

Let's José Pulis 'em up real good.

Clrnc

Really really hope we can turn up for once and do them again in the semis.

Gazza M

Park the air bus and hope to nick something

Sicario

Think Pepe needs to start and show us why we paid £72m for him.

HomeSteak

Our last 7 games vs City, we lost all 7. We scored 2, they scored 20.

It was: 1-3, 0-3, 0-3, 0-2, 1-3, 0-3 and 0-3. We are a sad little team.

Claudius

HomeSteak wrote:
Our last 7 games vs City, we lost all 7. We scored 2, they scored 20.

It was: 1-3, 0-3, 0-3, 0-2, 1-3, 0-3 and 0-3. We are a sad little team.

These records against the big teams are a real indictment on Wenger. Disgusting. I was gutted for Arteta that he was undone in big games Spurs and Chelsea despite hard work but we need to keep pushing. If he can escape this with under 2 goals, he will have established the beginnings of a better track record that we can build on next season.

KingslandBarge

Personally don't think it's too much of an indictment on Wenger.

12 encounters from 2012-13 to 2016-17
Arsenal: 4
City: 3
Draws: 5

Arsenal lost 3 times to City in Wenger’s final season. I think that season is a special case.

I'd venture to say many teams took a hit but Wenger actually did comparatively well except against Guardiola-managed Man City, where he did come disappointingly short.. Will have to look at some comparative stats for additional context and confirmation though.

Claudius

How can we absolve Wenger of blame when he gave us 8-2 and all these embarrassing losing streaks started under him. He is the architect of our enduring fragility.

Klaus

Everyone knew the 8-2 game was going to be a disaster to be fair. We all knew we were going to be hit badly. We went there with a bunch of kids and academy players who had never been included in the first team squad before because we had a ridiculous amount of injuries and had just sold off Cesc and Nasri.

Claudius

Klaus wrote:
Everyone knew the 8-2 game was going to be a disaster to be fair. We all knew we were going to be hit badly. We went there with a bunch of kids and academy players who had never been included in the first team squad before because we had a ridiculous amount of injuries and had just sold off Cesc and Nasri.

We all knew it would be a disaster. But as with so many other games over the years, it's just the margin that we get walloped by that is so humiliating. Why can't we be like every other mid table team and just take a 2-0 beating and go home. Why do we always have to be humiliated like part-timers?