jones wrote:

I knew I'd get that response about shepherd's pie All you lot are the same, if I said it wasn't Irish you'd say it was. I've asked three Irish blokes I know about it and every time I said it was/wasn't Irish they said the opposite.

No offence but black pudding sounds disgusting even if it wasn't pork. It's not even meat it's just blood isn't it.

Don’t eat meat anymore cos I eat like a hippy now but black pudding was top tier in my opinion. Lovely as part of breakfast where you could rub it in bean juice.

Don’t miss it much but than and fried chicken smothered in mayo are the ones I get cravings for now and then.

Anyway we're playing at home so it should be faux Irish pub food - shepherds pie and Kilkenny it is then....  ;D just winding you up QS

I agree about resting most of the first team. Give Eddie, Reiss, Willock, Kola, AMN, Cedric a run out. Central defence must be an issue though. What the hell is going on there?

Could play Cedric, Mustafi and Kola as a back three for comedy value I guess. Really Dundalk shouldn't get into our penalty area though.

I don't think we've got a hope in hell when it comes to the league this year, so I think this has to be about getting the squad to start hitting their groove in attack. If the reserves go out and get a dour 2-1 win against Dundalk all it does is pass the time.

I want Pepe and Nketiah to play and either Ceballos, Xhaka, or Partey. Gabriel in defense. I never want to see Kola play for Arsenal again, so I'd rather put AMN there if we can.

Also, blood pudding is the bee's knees.

Mustafi starting by default makes me not want to watch this.

And play Nelson FFS just look at his encouraging performance against Leicester. Sick of our attack.

Best we can hope for is someone really surprises us and makes a case for inclusion in the first eleven

ESR, Nelson, Willock

The Guardian had a pre-match article about Dundalk today: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/oct/29/dundalk-filippo-giovagnoli-arsenal-europa-league-people-were-not-respectful

Gutted I couldn’t be there - if there’s one place in Ireland I’d love to go to its Dundalk

Thomas in the midfield? Or no?

See him giving the opposition the eyes there. Xhaka could never.

Those eyes look more like he knows Mustafi is starting

Or he's just heard that as a collective we have as many league goals as Son Heung-Min.

Klaus wrote:

The Guardian had a pre-match article about Dundalk today: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/oct/29/dundalk-filippo-giovagnoli-arsenal-europa-league-people-were-not-respectful

The last time we faced such a great story like this, it was against Ostesunds at home and they outplayed us.

We need to try to make a statement. Been watching the Chelsea game from last night. They scored with real ease. We have one Europa League win in the bag against the toughest team in the group. Tonight, let's be willing to take the risk of leaving ourselves upon in the back to get some goals. Please

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

Those eyes look more like he knows Mustafi is starting

Balogun on the bench tonight apparently!

Would love to see Balogun on the bench but I'm not sure I believe the rumours. He hasn't been training with the first team leading up to this game. The only U23 player who has been involved according to reports is the goalkeeper Karl Hein. Did someone get injured at the last minute?

Wonder if Nelson will come on today, maybe even get 10 minutes if he's lucky.