This afternoon The Arsenal play the once great Nottingham Forest in the biggest domestic cup competition in the world. The fact that the mighty Arsenal have won this competition three times in just four years should not make us blase towards it. Think about the joy we all felt at the final whistle of those finals, then tell me that wasn’t one of your great memories of your supporting life. From the fight back against Hull, to the artistry against Villa and the defying of the odds against Chelsea. Great times, Truly great times, I want more.
Forest are currently sitting 14th in The Championship and should be no problem for a team sitting 6th in The Premier League, but it’s never going to be that simple, We simply wont be fielding anything like the Premier League team, due to our hectic schedule and quite extensive injury list, I suspect the team will be the weakest we have put out this season. However, there isn’t a player in our squad that isn’t a very good play and we should have enough if the attitude is right.
I honestly couldn’t even begin to predict the line up, so I wont bother . All I can say is I’m looking forward to it and expect us be win. I think it will be a very hard fought win all the same.
Enjoy your day my friends
Up The Arsenal
Positively Arsenal 
No review tomorrow. Least said the better?
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Stand to be corrected, but I believe in domestic competitions, that is now 6 pens against us, two four, mathematicians will note a balance of -4 so far.
That is quite staggering really, our defenders are not dirty. Either our defending is inept, ok there is room for improvement or there is something else going on. Remember we conceded ten penalties last season in the EPL, that is statistically rare,,though Hull recently conceded 12.
Any team who plays us knows they can use certain tactics and be rewarded.
But, FFS, surely our defending as a team can be made better than some of the recent performances, let’s not hand the PGMOL , (and others that want, and I suspect, will soon see our manager depart) …their wishes on a plate
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well I was wondering why over the Christmas fixtures we did not rotate more, and that performance today showed why. None of the back ups are playing at a level good enough for our first team, no matter how tired they are
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Not surprised AW refused to discuss it, he knows they were goading him. Hope he has evidence up his sleeve to bury these cunts
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Mandy: We are not fucking Hull.
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We’ve been a bit spoilt cup-wise recently and getting knocked out was always likely to happen sometime. If wonder-sub Neketiah hasn’t come off the bench to such effect in October we would no doubt have fielded a very different side today.
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Mertesaker summed it up perfectly
We spoke to our skipper after the game and this is what he said:
on summing up his emotions after the game…
It’s pretty easy. The manager made a lot of changes, gave a lot of trust to players who haven’t played a lot recently and I don’t think anybody justified their selection today. That sums it up I think.
on the team not being good enough…
It’s difficult. In the first half we played in the park a little bit. We were not precise, especially in the final third. We couldn’t create a lot of chances. In the second half there was a little bit more spirit from ourselves, but in the duels you could see that they out-battled us and that little momentum never really changed. When we scored to make it 3-2 and when he mis-kicked the penalty, obviously we expressed it to the ref but he didn’t listen. It’s difficult to take because for those players who played today, that was probably a last chance to show up and show the manager that they’re ready to play more games. It’s not the case anymore.
on the penalty…
Yes [it was a double contact]. It would’ve been a free-kick for us. You could clearly see it, that’s why we shouted to the referee. He didn’t have any explanation and that’s on him. They obviously spoke to each other, and nobody saw the incident. David saw it and all the players did too.
on trophies still to play for…
Yes but we wanted the FA Cup. This feels like we had to defend it, but you couldn’t see that we really wanted to defend it. This round is always the toughest. You face a Championship side away and you need to be ready but for the majority of the game, we were not.
Copyright 2018 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to http://www.arsenal.com as the source.
Read more at https://www.arsenal.com/news/nobody-justified-their-selection-today#qHTC9sFz6hOD7gck.99
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Clear corruption from Moss. Everyone saw it, he knew it, he ignored it. Cunt. How safe they must think they are.
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Marky they don’t think they are safe, they know they are safe
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https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DS9YgwUXcAAORv3.jpg:large
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Well yes that was difficult to dicuss as apart from very sporadic glimces there was no semblence of a Wenger team, that in itself was very worrying.
I watched the team chelski put out against norwich and it was full of top names proving even with top players you dont always get the result you want in the F.A. cup however the games were very different. Until the last ten minutes it didn’t really look like we wanted to have a go. Patience is a vertue in football but if you dont move the ball quickly and accurately the other team will not weaken and oppunaties will not arrive.
We have been average and certainley worse in the first half than this before and always come out quicker in the second half. I think we did step it up for a while although we had lots of possesion we never really controlled the midfield and Danny was left on his own and far to isolated.
Alex Iwobi, who was the link didn’t impose himself on the game leaving us to wonder why Arsene put so much respondsability on a player clearly out of form. The promblem is Arsene always trusts his players and this will pay off in the end for Alex however it didnt pay off in this game and it may be another manager that reeps the reward.
Our crossing throughout the match was terrible, floating when it should of been drilled, drilled when it should of been pulled back and extra touches taken when it had to be first time.
At one point in the second half both teams had 10 attemps on goal but our single shot on target was Pers goal, I believe forrest had seven. This highlights the lack of effectiveness of our team going forward, I say our team because we attack as a team and defend as a team and this was a disjointed performance.
Once again there were officiating errors and I would normally not say this but in the context of this single game they were not important as our errors were more glaring.
I would also say that as we looked stale we needed bigger changes and earlier, I can’t see it was because Arsene was is the stand I just think he got it wrong. Maybe he was talking to too many people up there.
Clutching at straws Chuba and Eddie should have scored, we coud have had a pen and their last one shouldn’t have been given and then dissallowed but that would of been cruel on forrest and sometimes is importaant to lose as hard as is to accept.
Theo again looked lost and you wonder just how Arsene can keep him when the performance against the spuds, when he got injured, seems a million miles away. I have always liked him but he is struggling massively and I cannot argue for his place in the squad.
I think our talented youngsters are so close to some of the older players in the squad we could let go players and not need to directly replace them because of the talent behind them. Its abit like new teeth pushing out the ones we no longer require.
One perverse positive we can take out of the game is the youngsters played better than the experienced players (including the young experienced players). We all know the Holding and Iwobi will play 100 times better than their mild error strewn efforts they put on for us against forrest.
Of course being as the F.A. cup achievements we have racked up over the last few years dont count the wobs will see nothing wrong in going out this early.
Later in the season it will definetly help our fixture list and give the first team more rest even though its not the way we have liked to get it.
Lets assume this is our stoke in 71, christmas at home to blackburn and in fact in most succesful teams seasons there has been a game that has changed the make up of the year, that could just of been ours.
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well a_o_b, that is the big concern, once again, as so often this season, we look a million miles away from playing Wengerball, where has it gone, where is the speed of passing, where is the will to attack, to create, to get goals. where is the fight. As for the defending, we used to get way better than this with what would be considered poorer players like Djourou, Senderous, Hoyte, just like we used to get Wenger ball with Denilson, Bendtner, Vela, etc etc.
we see glimpses of it, just like we sometimes see real quality defending from the team, but far too much of what we seen today.
why are so few squad players stepping up to the mark. AMN and Jack are the only two to really step up this season, and we already knew Jack had it in him, fitness was the biggest concern, probably still is.
reports suggest Arsenal have offered Welbeck a new contract with a big pay rise, I would ask why, I can see a reason for a new contract, but I haven’t seen him do enough to warrant a pay rise, let alone a big one.
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Disappointed, but this was always a risky fixture given all the current circumstances inside and outside the club. Not much more to say other than if some of us supporters are finding it hard to stay motivated and positive, imagine how the players and management must be feeling?
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I would not be surprised if AW felt obliged to play this team one last time, although he must have realised that it is likely it would come unstuck, eventually.
They have played, is it, 10 times and have been getting progressively worse.
There was no Giroud or Wilshire, which is likely to have made an even greater difference, so this team was most likely to fail, as it did. Referee’s failings do not change this.
Wednesday’s game, was clearly, very much in AW’s thoughts, and he chose this game as the one he was prepared to sacrifice, because he felt that the first team could not play in both, if he was to get the best out of them
I suspect that Coquelin is in line to play on Wednesday, which is why he was not even on the beach today, especially is Xhaka is injured.
It also looks like Walcott’s confidence is completely shot and it seems to me now that, although I like him as a player, he is not likely to be the 15-20 goal player any more, especially if he does not get any league starts.
I suspect he is on his way out of the door.
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a_o_b, on theo, it is looking like his time here is up, he has not started a BPL game this season, and in fact has only been on as sub 5 times, let that sink in, 5 sub appearances in 22 BPL games,
he got dropped last season, from being a first choice starter, for most of the season, and our second top scorer, think he was captain in the last game he started, (either palace or west brom) we got thumped and he said the other team “wanted it more” (much like Per said today), and that was it from Theo, he is so far from first choice it actually would not matter if we sold him, and did not buy a replacement. That is one of our problems squad wise, so many of them are in the same boat, they are getting so little game time for the first team, they would not be missed if they left.
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passenal the thing is the players can remedy it, we really can’t. that performance today from them does not suggest that many of them have the desire to remedy it though, sadly
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That is actually shocking
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Well, what is the beyond hopeless Mike Riley going to do about it, as it is Arsenal on the end of it, I can make a very educated guess.
Just hope such controversy doesn’t do Utd out of a couple of points Mike, Fergie is still there
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Very poor today. But the media and critics don’t rate the FA Cup since we started winning it anyway, so don’t understand those people moaning , shouldn’t matter to them
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will be interesting to see what our starting 11 and subs will be in the CC v Chelsea on Wednesday, who out of today’s squad will be in the 18, it seems few if any of the injured players will be available, and rumor has it that city have bid for Alexis, if true, even if not accepted, will it impinge on his selection.
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There’s no safe place when we lose like that. Not even here. Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater if we can help it. I still remember after that league cup loss at Bradford. The whole world wanted Ramsey sold in the January window.
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That said, I would have played Alexis today just to cup-tie him, in case he goes this month.
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so its Atkinson for the cup semi on wednesday, pgmol really pulling out all the stops now.
by the way today’s ref Jon Moss is the 4th official.
the VAR is Neil Swarbrick and his assistant is Mick McDonough (new name to me)
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alabama, those that wanted Ramsey sold after the Bradford game, wanted him sold before it, wanted him sold after his first cup final winner, still wanted him sold after his last cup final winner, and still want him sold, dare I say that an awful lot of them are massive Wilshere fans, and for some odd reason that means they have to hate Ramsey.
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on VAR being used in the CC semi final, what are the odds we get a dodgy penalty decision, or even a 50/50 one, and the VAR ruling it out.
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Come on Ed, us get a dodgy 50/50, more likely rule out a legit one the ref waved on. Then hold up a dodgy oppo one not long after. Ditto offsides.
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It’ll just be used to legitimise their dodgy decisions. Bit like dodgy accountants
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Forest “deserved” the win BUT we did not deserve the officiating…(re: Man City (A))
What else is new?
Why were there no 1st teamers on the bench?
Because of the holiday schedule of games.
Because we have Chelski (A) on wed..1st leg Carabao.
Because we’re selling Alexis and…and…??
Why has Theo looked like a deer in headlights most of the season?
Because he needs consistent 1st team starts to maintain his composure/confidence.
He’s never at his best any other way.
After 12 years though, AW can’t be blamed for losing patience with TW’s lo-grade mojo…re: Kieran Gibbs.
Where do we go from here..(again)?
To Stamford Bridge with everything we’ve got.
What if we lose by 3 or more c/o another penalty?
Wenger out! Wenger out! Wenger out!
Kroenke out! Kroenke out! Kroenke out!
Gazidis out! Gazidis out! Gazidis out!
Alexis out! Cech out! Ramsey out! Theo out! Chambers out!
Re-sign Ozil ! Re-sign Jack! Sign Lemar! Sign Goretzka! Sign N’zonzi!
Sign Coulibaly, Bailey, Malcolm, Draxler!
…same old same old
We are the ARSENAL.
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New post up and its a new day boys and girls
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