Fucking we fucking play tonight. 8pm.

Big Willie

I'm excited to be heading down to this one. It's gonna be my first opportunity back since Bournemouth in Feb/March 2023. Hopefully I can keep my 100% win rate going. Let's go.

Don Pacifico

Don't think we're in a position to play Nwaneri in the CL yet (ie. We still need to get points on the board) although I understand why people want him to come in. Personally, I'd consider a line-up of:

Martinelli--Havertz--Sterling
Rice--Trossard--Merino

Open to some variation of that but would definitely like Havertz/Trossard to interchange.

Clrnc

Don Pacifico Stop it Mikel, just play Nwaneri

Don Pacifico

Clrnc yeah, yeah, yeah...

Pepe LeFrits

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert legendary match thread material here

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

Pepe LeFrits had to rush it in case someone stole my thread thunder.

Burnwinter

Pepe LeFrits Tony Montana tribute.

Seriously struggling to get interested in this.

USArsenal

The best way to get over a shitty loss is to convincingly win.. Hope the boys are up for it. We need the 3 points here. This 'should' be a home-banker.

Clrnc

No Nwaneri as expected but attacking enough I guess. Jesus in

Don Pacifico

Clrnc shame to not give Sterling another chance after being stitched up by Trossard but Jesus also needs games I guess.

Panda

Arsenal: Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori, Partey, Rice, Jesus, Martinelli, Trossard, Havertz. Subs: Neto, Setford, Kiwior, Zinchenko, Monlouis, Robinson, Lewis-Skelly, Jorginho, Merino, Nwaneri, Sterling, Butler-Oyedeji.

That's a bit more like it...Jesus captain lol

USArsenal

Raya, White, Gabriel, Saliba, Calafiori, Partey, Rice, Trossard, Martinelli, Havertz, Jesus.. should still be enough to dispatch of them. Apparently Zinny is back too (bench).. We can always bring in Nwaneri or Sterling if we're still looking for a goal.. And Jorginho/Merino and Kiwior if we are looking to shore things up if we're ahead.

Clrnc

USArsenal If we need to shore things up against Shakthar something is very wrong.

Should be minimally a 3 goal victory

USArsenal

Clrnc

Whilst I agree with this..... We just lost to Bournemouth, so im not putting anything past us right this second.. (and we have not looked entirely convincing in the CL thus far). Yes, we beat PSG, but we also had Timber and Saka playing..

Claudius

I like this team. Havertz and Trossard back as joint 10s. We should have the right combination of strength and intent.

MistaT

Need a sighting of the Jesus who over performs in the CL!!!

C’mon my man, show us you have a pulse.

goon

MistaT

In Jesus’ case you actually need him to show his pulse in under control. Man looks like he’s continuously on the verge of a heart attack.

Don Pacifico

Burnwinter know what you mean. Bournemouth has put me a real downer. Whether deserved or not, it already feels like we've got a bit of a mountain to climb in the league. Nothing written off but less than ideal, for sure.

On top of that, I do feel (so far) that the lack of a 'home and away ' dynamic in the new CL group stage detracts from how I feel about the games. Can't quite put my finger on it but I think it's the ambiguity of what a result against said team actually means.

goon

Burnwinter

Falling out of love with the season as a whole. Between the red cards, injuries and the feeling of inevitability that City will get away with is all compounding the loss.

Hopefully we see some good football and and a few goals tonight.

Burnwinter

Don Pacifico Spot on with both paragraphs. Meh.

Qwiss

Hope Jesus is on the right and not through the middle. Think he might be better equipped to do the Saka role than Sterling because he likes to hold onto the ball.

awooga83

This is one of those games where the new format has impacted it a bit. This should really be a good win where we show some attacking quality and score some goals. If we do all that or would be in line with my expectations for the game. So it's one of those that is a bit of a lose lose generally. If we win well like we should it's the minimum, if we struggle it's very bad.

Claudius

awooga83 the new format actually encourages you to win big if you're interested in top 8. there are a few teams already padding their goal differences. that final two rounds will be a madness

Don Pacifico

USArsenal you didn't think we were convincing versus PSG?