Slavia Prague v Arsenal - Quarter Final Europa League -Thur 15th April at 20.00 GMT - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Slavia Prague v Arsenal - Quarter Final Europa League -Thur 15th April at 20.00 GMT

Sicario

This Thur is essentially biggest game of our season (arguably biggest since Chelsea FA Cup final) and effectively do or die for Arteta.

Some injury concerns with which we probably wont find out until the day or day before including ESR, Saka and Odegaard.

Main questions from my side:

1) Who plays LB?
2) Who plays out of Laca and Auba?
3) Would you start Martintelli?
4) If yes to Q3 and Odergard/ESR are fit where do you play Saka?

Slavia Prague are an ordinary side. We must simply go out there and be aggressive and try to win the game. No stuck in the middle shit which is why it is a good in a way it finished 1-1 in the first tie because 1-0 we would have been passive aggressive.

Good thing is we are away, they have no fans so it wont be hostile and we have more time to score the away goal (e.g. if it goes to extra time). If we go 1-0 down we should not panic as it doesnt change anything for us as we still need to score. If we go 2-1 up, they have to score twice to beat us. Important to understand the dynamics of the game.

We must be ready, professional and show the killer instinct because trust me there are zero excuses if we go out on Thur and it would be one of the worst losses in our history imo. However, I am keeping positive because Slavia are not that good and our day we can beat anyone include Czech farmers.

COYG.

Don Pacifico

Minor point but why do we call other teams farmers now? Feels unnecessarily arrogant, particularly given our struggles.

Not a point on OP, just something I've noticed a lot recently.

speedy

Don Pacifico wrote:
Minor point but why do we call other teams farmers now? Feels unnecessarily arrogant, particularly given our struggles.

Not a point on OP, just something I've noticed a lot recently.

Insults are just how people reflect their own tender points. If someone is commenting on a fat ass (in a bad way) its because they're self concious about their own ass. And its the same thing when we realise some of our players are very average. The normal human defence mechanism is to play down the ability of other s and I'm pretty sure we've all been guilty of things ike that I know i have.

RowJimmy

Saka Auba Pepe
ESR Odegaard
Partey
Xhaka Gabriel Holding Chambers
Leno

Laca if Auba not fit
Martinelli if 1 of Saka ESR Odegaard not fit
Ceballos if 2 of above not fit

QuincyAbeyie

speedy wrote:
Don Pacifico wrote:
Minor point but why do we call other teams farmers now? Feels unnecessarily arrogant, particularly given our struggles.

Not a point on OP, just something I've noticed a lot recently.

If someone is commenting on a fat ass (in a bad way) its because they're self concious about their own ass. And its the same thing when we realise some of our players are very average.

Sounds like you're confusing what is true with what can be true for some. Fans of the best team in the world can call others garbage as well. You can analyze patterns as to why people do and say various things, but whatever conclusion you draw will in the best of times often be true, not something you can use as a certainty.

speedy

Quincy Abeyie wrote:
speedy wrote:
If someone is commenting on a fat ass (in a bad way) its because they're self concious about their own ass. And its the same thing when we realise some of our players are very average.

Sounds like you're confusing what is true with what can be true for some. Fans of the best team in the world can call others garbage as well. You can analyze patterns as to why people do and say various things, but whatever conclusion you draw will in the best of times often be true, not something you can use as a certainty.

Obviously agree, I wasn't posting it to be publushied in Lancet. Just a quick comment. He suggested it was more common recently I was just suggesting a potential explination.

Clrnc

The easy explanation that we are hearing this more often now because we are in the Europa league past 3 seasons where such teams are very common.

mdgoonah41

i guess we wont need to have that debate next season when we're not in any european competition....

Rohit

speedy wrote:
Don Pacifico wrote:
Minor point but why do we call other teams farmers now? Feels unnecessarily arrogant, particularly given our struggles.

Not a point on OP, just something I've noticed a lot recently.

Insults are just how people reflect their own tender points. If someone is commenting on a fat ass (in a bad way) its because they're self concious about their own ass. And its the same thing when we realise some of our players are very average. The normal human defence mechanism is to play down the ability of other s and I'm pretty sure we've all been guilty of things ike that I know i have.

You don't come across as lazy Speedy 😉

Don Pacifico

I personally think it's a disrespectful attitude. If we were such a good team, we'd have won the EL some time in the last 25 years. We were knocked out by Olympiakos last year too.

If we're calling the opposition farmers, then I don't think we can criticise the players for not taking these matches seriously.

QuincyAbeyie

Don Pacifico wrote:
I personally think it's a disrespectful attitude. If we were such a good team, we'd have won the EL some time in the last 25 years. We were knocked out by Olympiakos last year too.

If we're calling the opposition farmers, then I don't think we can criticise the players for not taking these matches seriously.

Why? We're not the ones playing. If we're saying to the Arsenal players "look, you've been so shit that you have lost the privilege to play in the CL. Playing against farmers is your level now and if you want to prove that it isn't you need to beat them" then we can't blame them for losing? Makes no sense to me.

Clrnc

😆

goon

I think it’s just a phrase popularised by social media.

goon

Anyway, 1-1 wasn’t actually the worst result, only way we go out on away goals is with a 0-0 which is surely unthinkable.

We need to go out there and try to get score early, really put the pressure on as if we’re 3-0 down. The worst thing we could possibly do here is to try to keep it tight.

mdgoonah41

if there is one thing we know about an arteta coached team, its that we're extremely unlikely to play on the front foot or take the game to slavia prague. i expect we'll sit back for the first 70 minutes and play the cagey, anemic football arteta loves, trying to catch them out. then, if we still need to chase a goal, he'll bring on an attacker in the last 15-20 mins.

Sicario

Don Pacifico wrote:
Minor point but why do we call other teams farmers now? Feels unnecessarily arrogant, particularly given our struggles.

Not a point on OP, just something I've noticed a lot recently.

Semantics, Prague are shit, call them whatever you want. We should have scored 4 goals in first leg.

They would be a mid-table Championship team.

Asterix

isn't one of those Eastern European teams literally from a tractor factory? Therefore using a lazy stereotype seems perfectly fine to describe any team east of Munich.

Claudius

Lol. That’s a big Iranian club.

speedy

mdgoonah41 wrote:
if there is one thing we know about an arteta coached team, its that we're extremely unlikely to play on the front foot or take the game to slavia prague. i expect we'll sit back for the first 70 minutes and play the cagey, anemic football arteta loves, trying to catch them out. then, if we still need to chase a goal, he'll bring on an attacker in the last 15-20 mins.

We didn't sit back in the first leg and we won't sit back here. We attacked enough to create a ton of great chances in the first leg and gave very little away in term of chances. Which is the ideal strategy for a cup game.
Do you really want a Wenger style overload the attack and let them pick us off? Personally I don't look at our sluggish back line and think I wanna consistently leave these guys 1v1 on the break.

QuincyAbeyie

It's a bit different playing Wenger style against Bayern and Slavia.