• The Arsenal

  • ⚽ Oxford vs Arsenal | FA Cup 3rd round | Mon 9th | 8pm

looks like Smith Rowe has slotted advanced midfield for Viera (Marty still on), minimal tinker

Qwiss yeah, bit odd taking off two players likely to be on the bench next Sunday.

    Good win. Actually looking forward to playing City. Hopefully Bukayo is fine, looks ok.

    Nice finishes for the goals. Third looked close, might have been ruled offside if there was VAR. Doesn't seem right to have it at some games and not others. Surely either every game has it or every game doesn't so that all games in the competition are played with the same conditions.

    El Neny my MOTM, with Gabriel not far behind. Nketiah with some very poor hold up play to take the glamor of his two excellent goals.

    Stellar 2nd half from Viera but he was hiding in the first.

    3rd round cash out. Nice. I'd like to see Arteta to keep with some 2nd string players for the next tie.

      I agree but who is going to pay for VAR implementation at lower league level? What games are going to use it, and what games won't? That's the issue here.

      I suspect outside of the premiership it's unlikely to be used at all.

      Qwiss yeah fair. Among other several reasons like giving ourselves realistic chance of progression, probably a good rehearsal too.

        Quality shone through in the end. No need to over analyse this one. No injuries (Arteta saying Saka fine) and through to City away. 7,500 allocation for that one - can’t wait.

        Fringe watch:

        Vieira needs to learn how to be more influential and get himself involved more in the middle third. Maybe that’s partially down to others but he is definitely someone who seems to want the ball further up the field rather than influence play deeper like Ode. That’s where all the magic happens for him too.

        Sambi wasn’t bad on the ball but his lack of intensity is going to be his undoing here. Few times where he wasn’t anticipating the pass, not great on the press either. Doesn’t really bode well for him that he was the one player I thought needed changing.

        Holding is Holding. Not much to say really but he does frustrate me at times.

        Growing increasingly more confident in Turner and I love his quick throws.

        I don’t think it’s a great sign for Tierney that he’s being subbed off in this game so early. He’s definitely a bit of a square peg and I wouldn’t be averse to cashing in on him at this point.

          Hope we play the full first team against City.

          We have one game a week for the next five weeks. Injuries/suspensions notwithstanding we should be picking the same starting XI each game.

            I am Arsenal Till I Die We have one game a week for the next five weeks. Injuries/suspensions notwithstanding we should be picking the same starting XI each game.

            Agree apart from the Brentford game, City comes hot on the heels of that game so rotating there would probably be wise.

                Pepe LeFrits Good point. Probably would have ESR (hopefully Mudryk too) ramped up by then. And then there's already Vieira, Tomi, and Tierney to rotate with. Depends on how much Arteta trusts them.

                  Just finished watching this on replay. Not the first time Vieira has looked a bit insipid and then produced some very high quality. Lokonga, however … his days are numbered you'd have to say, barring some sort of contribution in the Europa League. At the moment he feels like Denilson without the big personality.

                  I don't think we'll ever get the best out of Tierney while we're using him part time. Type of player who needs to be captained and feel like the beating heart of things at a lesser club, and I'm starting to hope for that for him, he can't do what Zinchenko does and his intensity at what he's good at is less as a result.

                  Nketiah is in gun scoring form, he's like the anti-Christ, as it were.