Man City Vs. Arsenal on Sun at 430PM: Page 5 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Man City Vs. Arsenal on Sun at 430PM

Gunner89

On Madueke:
"We have another session tomorrow. It didn’t look that bad after the game, I’m hoping he could be available."

On Saka
"Bukayo is out, that’s for sure. He’s just starting to do some stuff, but at the moment he’s not available."

On Ode/Calafiori/Timber
"We will try again. Some players are quite close. We will try tomorrow to push everybody."

Gurgen

If Bukayo is out, I have no hope.

FantasticMrFox

Gurgen he is out. Looks like they are trying to hide the fact that he is most likely out for the season

Tactics

Gurgen We'll be fine if we have Timber and Ode back. Timber is the key as I expect Ode to be be rusty due to his persistent injuries.

Fans often say White is the better attacking full back because his final ball is better but what they ignore is that Timber overall enables us attack better. He is far better at helping us progress the ball from the back, better at connecting defence to attack etc His ability to pick up the ball under pressure and surge forward is a nightmare for high pressing teams. City's and Bournemouth's tactics would have been less effective had Timber been on the pitch, thereby enabling us to launch attacks (which we struggled to do against both teams).

Players like Timber, Silva, Ode etc are like gold dust in the modern game (even though their effect on teams might not necessarily translate to direct assists/goals) because they enable you to build up/progress the ball better.Teams that can't build up well/progress the ball will lose control of games which has been our major issue over the last few matches.

tazmania

Fack

So a tired Martinelli on the right and a busted Leo on the left. To top it off, a Gyok who forgot how to shoot in the middle.

GG folks

Claudius

Saka saving himself for the World Cup.
If we can get Timber, Cala, Ode healthy for this, I will be much more hopeful

Sicario2

What did Saka do v City in the Carabo cup final?

The last two times we beat City we didn’t have Saka. This is not the Saka of 2021-2023.

We got enough players to hurt them. Saka is not a single point of failure anymore.

Have a word with yourself @Gurgen

Gurgen

I will man. What should I tell myself? Should I use the mirror or a camera phone?

Sicario2

Gurgen just have some faith for once man. In august I’m sure you would have signed up to us being in this position.

Gurgen

Sicario2 It's not August and no.

Sicario2

Based on the information. This is how I think we will line up v City:

Raya
Timber
Saliba
Gabriel
Calafioiri

Rice
Zubimendi
Eze

Madueke
Havertz
Trossard

Ode on the bench

Btw cast your minds back to 2024 when we went toe to toe with City and we were always counting on other teams to do us a favour namely Nottingham Forest (thanks Chris Wood) and Spurs (thank Heung-Min Son).

I remember recalling back then ‘if only we had an opportunity to play City instead of relying on others’.

Because if we lose on Sunday we will be relying on others ala 2024. Let’s rely on ourselves. No one is going to hand us this title but let’s go and grab it ourselves from our very rivals.

If we really are champions we leave the Eithad with a positive result and have destiny in our own hands. For once let’s be proactive instead of reactive.

Meatwad

Sicario2
uuhhhmmm we did have the opportunity in 2023 and 2024 to deal with city ourselves and failed. we were relying on others to do something because we couldn't, so i don't know what you're talking about.

Gunner89

Wouldn't want a fit madueke playing let alone a half fit one

can't defend, pass, shoot or score

But if you want 100 pointless dribbles he's your man

Qwiss

Gunner89 he's not even managing 100 pointless dribbles any more. Lucky if you get one or two per match.

tazmania that's all well and good but everyones eyes can see him coming on from the bench and being better than Madueke. Its not like people want him starting over Saka. FWIW I'd start Martinelli on the right and Trossard on the left.

Gurgen that's a decent line up in theory but you'd have to wonder about the actual fitness of some of them even if they do make the squad. They wont be 100% sharp.

Doc Front 3 of Havaartz, Martinelli and Jesus with Eze behind them would be my choice

if that's the front 3 I'm not watching. Jesus best every season for us he scored 11 goals. Gyokeres is on that now. That was also 4 years ago, since then in the 3 following seasons he's added another 9. That's 20 goals in 4 seasons.

tazmania

Why wouldn't Hincapie start? Did I miss anything?

tazmania

Btw anyone suggesting starting Dowman should get their eyes checked. He's not ready to start such a huge match. He would barely feature if we didn't have an injury crisis

Gunner89

Considering noni can't defend and do any attacking he can hardly be worse

Personally I don't think teta will risk max

But if starts a half fit noni or jesus on the wing or kai in midfield, say goodbye before the match starts

samthegooner

It's going to be Martinelli on the right, Havertz up top and Trossard on the left. Which is exactly the front line we had last year when we destroyed them 5-1. I feel like that trio can get the job done but they need to be on their games and frankly, we haven't seen them in form in the league in months.

We absolutely need Rice and Zubimendi to have their best performances of the season on Sunday. If Rice was truly just ill this week, then I am optimistic he can rise to the occasion but I have suspicions he's nursing a back injury that he reaggravated challenging for a header in the Bournemouth game - you could see him grab his back and then hobble around for the rest of the match. A compromised Rice would give me little to no hope.

Sicario2

Meatwad yes we should have dealt with them. But we played them a bit earlier than we are playing them now. Now we have a real chance of denting them without having to rely on others.

Meatwad

Sicario2
your memory is shot. In 2023 we played them Apr 26th (so a week later than now) and in 2024 we played them Mar 31st, 2 weeks earlier than this match up. In fact one of the reasons i'm so down on us and not willing to watch this play out again is because it's damn near a repeat of 2023. i'm getting PTSD. i hope they find the testicular fortitude to change the narrative.

Gunner89

Well the optimistic part of me thinks we aren't playing bob holding, who was there in 2023 and he in 2 months from thereon couldn't get on the palace bench, he was that shit

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