You know … at different stages during the course of this season a fixture was labelled “the most important game of the season”, but that came and went as there was always the next one. Tonight though, for Arsenal: THIS IS IT. Some may even say the most important game of the Emirates era.
Good day one and all.
We are in Azerbaijan this evening and it is a London derby with Arsenal and Chelsea battling it out to be crowned 2018/19 Europa League Champions at Baku’s Olympic Stadium.
Leading up to this match most of the talking points focused on off-field issues like ticket allocation, too long a trek to Baku and Henrikh Mhkitaryan missing out due to political reasons, but for Unai Emery and Maurizio Sarri it’s about winning a continental trophy in their first season as head coaches of the respective football clubs. Sarri by no means had it easy at the Blues and for his side winning the cup will mean ending what has been a fickle season, on a high – having already secured qualification for next season’s Champions League (CL). However, for the Gunners, there’s a sense they’ve got a bit more riding on it than just a first European trophy in 25 years, certainly more than banter and/or online bragging rights for their faithful fans.
In recent years Arsenal has lost ground on our traditional top-six rivals, and with both Liverpool and Tottenham guaranteed a massive pay day there’s a real concern that we could fall behind even further if missing out on the CL riches for a third consecutive season. Just recently Vinai and Sanllehi gave an interview where they said the club are committed to stick by its self-sustaining model in the foreseeable future, so any extra revenue we can get is needed to enhance our plans this coming summer.
In a nutshell: for Arsenal this is about one step closer to the promised land. No pressure then.
Seemingly, when you want to win a Europa League Cup, having the competition’s most decorated coach in the dugout is nothing to scoff at. Emery won the title an unprecedented three times in a row during his time at Sevilla and tonight will see him, following a not spectacular yet steady initial league campaign, back in familiar surroundings and no doubt with his tail up. Arsenal’s path to the finals came via an unbeaten run through the group stages with five wins and a draw. First leg hiccups against both BATE and Rennes were followed up by five knockout wins with relative ease.
Chelsea had a similar path with the exact same record in their group fixtures, however, whereas we lost two of our knockout games, they drew two. Both against Eintracht Frankfurt in the semi-finals, a tie they ultimately won via a penalty shootout at Stamford Bridge.
Emery will be without Aaron Ramsey tonight but Danny Welbeck could see one final return on the substitutes’ bench. Players he will be looking at as match winners will be Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who both have been exceptional this season. Sarri has Loftus-Cheek, Rudiger, Hudson-Odoi and possibly Kante ruled out. We know Eden Hazard can win a game on his own and with him, possibly, heading off to a new and even more lucrative life outside of London, he will want to put on one last good show for the Blues.
This is a game that promises to be full of entertainment and goals between two sides that have fairly good records against each other, but the pressure may be on Arsenal.
Lose and the season would be defined as disappointing; win and we look to the future with renewed optimism.
@LaboGoon
Positively Arsenal 
Perfect Labo, just perfect.
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Nice one Labo.
Maybe Danny can do something special and leave on a real high? Just hope the defending is up to it, we have a real decent chance in this game
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Cracking stuff.
Feck knows how I’ll feel come kickoff but at moment feels like too much loaded onto one game : European trophy; CL qual; big impact on budget for next year; ramifications spreading out even further than that, including perceptions of team/season/manager, and where pressure level will be set for next season.
Sheesh. A lot for 90-120 mins of football to decide, against a good team, in a sport where luck can be so decisive.
Not sure there’s a precedent for it. Relatively new this winners go into CL thing and, although Utd did it couple years back, don’t think the impact on budget is very similar to ours.
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Afternoon everyone. What a great intro Labo, many thanks, for this and every intro all season.
Hope the lads are hungry for this one! Atmosphere feels pretty positively Arsenal at the moment, and as we know, thats always the most interesting…
COYG!
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Top comments guys. I’m feeling somewhat nervy but mostly amped up for this game. Think it’s the buzz coming from the camp as one get the feeling the players will leave it all out there tonight.
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well I don’t like a lot of what Unai JoseLite Emery has been saying in the build up to this game, its everyone else’s fault for our shortfalls this season, the latest one is that Aaron Ramsey missing the final is his own fault for agreeing to play when selected for the second leg v Napoli when he needed a rest to avoid injury. What next, Mkhitaryan is at fault for being born in Armenia
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Labogoon
I’m considering trying to enjoy the excitement of it. Nature- mine- might get in the way though!
That’s the deal with football : more that’s on the line, more joy you feel if you win; and then the other half of that equation…
So what should that mean for the build-up to it for a game of this magnitude? Or when the whistle goes?
Is it a glass half-full or half-empty job? Is the potential buzz reliant on ‘believing’ the win will come, or just standing between the two outcomes, feeling them both and going ‘….bloody hell’?
Bloody hell. What a big game awaits us.
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I guess for me it’s just being usually amped up because I do believe we can beat anyone when we are zone in. A feeling of depression will maybe set in, say, when we concede the first goal. That’s when I start imagining some itch in my head, back of my neck that need scratching. Till then… jazz hands and positive vibes… jazz hands [smiley yellow blob]
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Very nice, Labo. Thanks. I’m still pissed off that this game is on a Wednesday. Even Friday would have been easier. But no, Wednesday it is, so here I am stuck at work trying to get something accomplished while I’m nervous as crap about this game. And half my office is gone to a conference this week, so I can’t even take off this afternoon to watch. I’ll have to listen via the app. That’s some kind of torture for a game this big. It’s so disappointing not to be able to watch. I’ll watch it later, I guess, if we win, but it won’t be the same. Oh well. Come on boys! Do this thing.
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Can’t wait to cancel my Bleacher Report Live subscription as soon as this game is over. What a joke their coverage has been in the States this season. Not one EL game on TV until this one. It’s ridiculous.
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Nice one Labo – I see few predicting a result either way, but I’d say we have a great chance.
I’m not convinced team spirit is all that, at Chelsea, with their lead talisman making his escape from the club in a few hours time. Mind you, our own morale has looked a tad shot on more than one occasion this season and our lack of consistency has been the biggest disappointment.
So, as Labo says, we can literally put most of this right in 90 minutes and Emery can effectively press the reset button for next season. Lose and this summer becomes a whole lot harder for everyone involved. Not least for the fans.
Meanwhile, on Saturday there is the prospect of attempting to stream Bein (or whatever it’s called), for the match of the decade with Wenger set to tear strips of Maureen in the studio. I wonder if they’ll end up having one of their touchline play fights? With any luck Arsene will end up waterboarding the Never Was Special One.
Enjoy (both) games everyone!
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I’m shitting it in Chicago. Feel like Ian Holm’s character in Chariots of Fire who doesn’t have the stomach to watch Abrams race. I know the boys can do this. At least publicly, they show confidence in the knowledge as well. I hope that turns to reality later because the alternative is awful.
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I won’t get to watch the game live, I hope we win so it will be worth watching afterwards
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Team for tonight is
Cech
Sokratis Koscielny Monreal
Maitland-Niles Xhaka Torreira Kolasinac
Ozil Lacazette Aubameyang
https://pbs.twimg.com/ad_img/1133786688965283841/iIjGcnAG?format=jpg&name=orig
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our subs tonight
Leno, Lichtsteiner, Mustafi, Jenkinson, Eleney, Guendouzi, Willock, Saka, Amaechi, Nketiah, Iwobi, Welbeck
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Chelsea XI to face Arsenal: Arrizbalaga; Azpilicueta, Luiz, Christensen, Emerson; Kante, Jorginho, Kovacic, Pedro, Giroud, Hazard.
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Nerves moving into a different gear now. Yelp
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Tonight game is massively important for the money men and the trophy going into our club history, However for those of us who have battled with spuds for over 50 years saturdays game is almost more important crazy as it to say it.
Having said that my heart will still flutter during the game and I’ll be gutted if we dont
win.
I still love big Oli and i’m scared stiff he will score the winner tonight especially after the crap a large portion of the crowd gave him but I think hes still a gooner and he may miss the odd chance on purpose with a bit of luck.
We all know we can beat anyone on our day so hears to it being our day COYG.
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yep, Arsenal washing machine guts already.
COYG!
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COYG!
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Here we go. COYG!
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COYG !!!
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COYG!
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All a bit strange? Strange atmos (what atmos?). Seems more like a pre season game?
Hope we can exploit the left hand side, Chelsea are weak there.
COYG!
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Think there might be more atmosphere on the streets of n.london for this game then in that stadium?
COYYYYYG!
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Tight. Were definitely edging it til around 30; they were more dangerous team after that.
Fecking nervefest. Feels difficult to progress ball up pitch and Ozil not getting much chance to do what he’s good at.
Looks pretty likely we may, fittingly, live or die in those wide/wingbacky channels.
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Bugger. Got to go for it now.
COYG!!!!!
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COYG!!!!
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Well for all the horror and horrible stories around football the story of Koscielny and Giroud’s rise to the top of the European game from their beginnings together is a one of the good football stories. Higuain had to pick up a niggle and only by default did Sarri pick his best striker, had to be him the HFB
Emery’s poor form this week (primarily in front of the mike) didn’t bode well for me.
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Jeez. The agony. Seem to be over the worst of it, but that could be down to switching to spirits and that now kicking in.
They did a number on us. Clearly came out 2nd half to go for the throat; we struggled to cope, and just when it looked like we might weather it and take stock…Giroud
Gotta be honest, my warmth for Oli has disappeared just like that. The brilliant header and assist one thing; buying a pen when naive Ainsley took the bait? Good day and fuck you, sir.
Don’t even know what the hell we did wrong- couldn’t cope with Hazard but apart from that- exactly to concede the four goals but safe to say it was defensive side of game that killed us.
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And to top it all off an incredibly stupid professional pundit who tweeted…
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That was pathetic, the second half capitulation puts this team on a par with recent Watford, and Villa Cup final performances.
The last few years have seen a decline, increasing nativity and inability to defend as a team. Panic, individual mistakes, carelessness. Why do we defend so much worse than rivals? Mistakes haven’t been limited to on the pitch either, letting contracts run down or players leave for nothing, behind the scenes power struggles, less trust in youth, and selling Giroud to Chelsea, that worked well for us, didn’t it. Perhaps we are reaping what those who own the club sow.
I am not one for knee jerk reactions on managers, nor I suspect, in fact, I know is Stan, but the capitulation at the end of this season culminating in this shocking half of football should at the very least sound a few alarm bells on the coaching staff, should anyone at the club be inclined to listen that is. I suspect there is already a scapegoat lined up for our defending, a man who has been at Arsenal much longer than the Emery and co.
I am not sure how the club go forward, I suspect we will be saying good bye to a few of these players, a few, probably now, budget arrivals, a shiny new Tech director, hopefully. A little more trust in youth, Willock provided a bit of a contrast to one or two I could mention. But if we continue to defend like we have done for a while now, the rest seems pretty pointless.
Emery has to look at things. In fairness, he clearly wanted players in Jan, but for whatever reason, only got one who was a flop to say the least.
And, I suspect this week , and perhaps the summer could get worse. Is there anyone at the club who can learn and do something about these problems?
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One plus. 3 academy graduates on pitch. All did plenty of good stuff. Hopefully the pain can make them even more determined to help us in future.
Also have to hope this sliding doors moment- CL money or not- doesn’t hurt us too much. We’ll literally never have clue what the difference would have been, but must now cross everything we can still effect some of the change needed.
Truly bizarre that had we won there would not have felt so much need to make changes, while we would have had better financial + other power to do so; while instead it went as it did, and we now have less money to work with.
We knew in advance it was thus, though.
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And just to make things better, there will very soon be a new oiler on the block.
On another note, how we missed Ramsey and Bellerin today. Ozil needs a creative runner to help him, otherwise, he gets a bit peripheral
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Painful…not too deep though for some reason.
Don’t think we handled the humidity and artificial turf with enough guile. We went at them hard for the bulk of the 1st half but did not score and that came back to haunt us in the 2nd period.
Xhaka did his bit and was a tad unlucky not to hit the back of the net with that right footed screamer. Nacho & Sead underwhelmed repeatedly pointedly highlighting that change could be nigh on our left side.
A more rigid and mobile central midfield is clearly of high priority now. Time to return to Highbury Arsenal toughness in our shiny new throwback kit for 2019/20.
The boys gave it their all but it just wasn’t good enough on the night.
Thank you Petr Cech. Thank you Danny Welbeck. Thank you Aaron Ramsey. And thank you to whoever else is deemed surplus to requirements in our quest to regain our mojo as a formidable team.
Can’t blame UE for much in his first season of English football. A lot of work must now be put in over the next few weeks.
Tomorrow is another day.
COYG!!!
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“Can’t blame UE for much in his first season of English football” ??!!?? You must be fucking having a laugh.
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The fact is, we have become, for whatever reason, not good enough. The end of season has been nothing less than a capitulation. On top of last seasons at times painful efforts as well.
Emery deserves his share of the blame for the disaster this seasons end, and a failure to improve some incredibly awful defending, but others need looking at as well. both on and off the pitch at times. Really not sure where the club are heading, but the way things are going on in the premier league, I hope the powers that be get a grip very soon, if they can be bothered, that is.
I suspect one or two high profile players, if they can arrange it, and maybe an assistant manager will be the sacrificial lambs, for now. It is clear , whatever the spin, some of them do not get Emerys methods, whatever they are, and I suspect the feeling may be mutual. But with our reported budget, not quite sure what they do about it.
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I am sad, and disappointed, and angry. I can’t even speculate on what went wrong with any level of confidence because I was only able to listen, and not watch. I want to defend players, because that’s my nature, but I don’t have any visuals to base it on. Feels like if we had scored on that spell in the first half when we were on top, it would have been different. But we didn’t, and then it sounded like we barely troubled them. No Ramsey hurt to be sure, but could he have made the difference on his own? Who knows. He did seem to have the ability to drag the team up a gear if he was on it…I can’t really pinpoint another player that can do that. Laca maybe? Iwobi can sometimes. I don’t know.
My calendar says it’s not long until July, but I’ve a feeling I’ll be looking at a different team when I take my seat in the stands in Charlotte on July 20. I just hope a few of my favorite lads are still around.
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Fuck it. There’s always netflix
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alabamagooner
I’m not too sure what went on either, and I watched it.
We were better side first 30, without capitalising on some good positions out wide. They got better before end of first half and came close to scoring. Gave us a proper warning about danger they posed.
Second half they decided to go right at us from off. We looked rattled and struggled to get to grips with it. Had feeling we were close to surviving that first big push from them but then, bang, good cross, great header. Could be false impression but certainly feels like we concede very often when good teams launch one of those big pushes on us
As with some of the pain to follow, I couldn’t pinpoint where it went wrong, but i guess something must have as the guy had space to pick his pass close to goal and then it was just Kos to try deal with Giroud, who unfortunately showcased his brilliant heading ability.
Next goal involved Ainsley losing it from what may have been a foul, but not an absolutely clear one. Then in on us quite easily.
Third drove right at heart of us again. Oli clever play to draw a barge and take a fall. Pen
Auba lost ball in half for fourth. Again drove right at us. Brilliant cross Giroud, despatched by Hazard.
We lost shape right from first really, and they were always heavy favourites from there to hang on in defence and kill us on breaks. Definitely not a false impression that has been way for number of years now when behind in big games.
Chances and decent bits of play from us afterwards but game was dead as contest by then.
Really sad night it was. Huge uncertainty ahead. Feels like any number of players could depart.
Part of gloom for me was horrible feeling that even if, say, we go and reach Europa final again next year, a similar tale could unfold again!
That’s the gloom speaking, though. A positive is that these tougher times and nights surely make the good times feel better; and if we really do hit the good times again in future, I’m sure I’ll appreciate it a lot.
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Also positive is that Hazard very likely off. Hard to imagine it not hurting them a great deal unless they sign two excellent players.
Top dribblers bit of a nightmare for us and he is certainly among the best.
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when your attacking plan is the overlapping fullback you can’t afford for that fullback to mess up this sort of attacking situation
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On a positive note Joe Willock looks like he has gone up a notch….I was quite impressed with him…
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I suspect you have hit one of our most fundamental problems Eduardo, a lack of proper wide men, and a second half of the season over reliance on full backs who aren’t really wingers, and don’t seem to be really defenders either for all their valiant efforts, fullbacks who aren’t always great at putting crosses in, and who often get caught out of position, very often, both at once.
This, and maybe an imbalance in central MF at times, due not so much to the players there, but the numbers in other positions, make this side more susceptible to counter attacks than virtually any top side I have ever seen. Not just Chelsea, leicestereverton watford palace Brighton wolves all caused us major problems on the counter. Not having an inspirational box to box like Ramsey doesn’t help either, nor leaving off a battering ram like Danny and instead bringing on Guendouzi when you need goals.
This team is one of the worst for heads dropping when going behind, though to their credit, they try to attack in that event, just not in the most disciplined way.
I would imagine proper wide attackers in the team next year, where that leaves some of the senior players is anyone’s guess.
I personally believe Emery needs, and will get another year, but for those who don’t, he is reportedly on a shortlist should Barca dispose of Valverde!
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Mandy that Barca shortlist is said to be headed by Roberto Martinez, so it seems they downgraded when replacing Raul.
Mandy is there any evidence, any at all, that Emery wants to play with wingers, I’ve asked this on here, i’ve asked it on twitter too, and so far no one has come up with any evidence that he does. Even when Iwobi is in the team, and playing out wide, the plan still seems to be for him to stand up the defender and play it to the overlapping fullback.
If we wanted to play wingers would it not have made more sense to play AMN as a winger on the right, instead of an overlapping fullback. Or should Saka or Amaechi not have been given game time, or have kept Nelson and given him game time.
You see, for me, everything suggests that Emery’s game plan is overlapping fullbacks to provide the width, not wingers. Take last night, if he wanted an actual winger why leave Iwobi out of the starting 11.
Look at our moves in January, I know restricted by loan to buy moves, but they only 2 transfer attempts confirmed was our signing of Denis Suarez, and a move for Nkunku from PSG, stupidly many convinced themselves that this meant Emery wanted wingers, neither of those two are wingers, neither of them as close to being a winger as Iwobi is, Suarez is Mkhitaryan light, and I think we only went for him cos Mkhitaryan had that injury problem at that time. Nkunku prefers to play as a box to box, much like AMN would also prefer to play there.
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I suggested a few weeks ago, and still think it is what we should do, dump Emery and bring in the Ajax head coach Eric ten Hag, with maybe Dennis Bergkamp in the set up too. Get in ten Hag before some other big club snaps him up. His team plays the sort of attacking football that we were promised when Emery was appointed, his team also brings through the youth, also something promised when Emery came in.
if we look at the things we were told this time last year about what to expect from an Emery team, why he was appointed, then apart from a handful of games, almost none of it has been delivered upon. Is that reason enough to get rid, maybe, well that is if the PR was genuine, and not just PR.
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CD14
@c_d_14
1h1 hour ago
Fair play if you’ve enjoyed this season, wouldn’t want to take that away from anyone, but this has definitely been the least enjoyable season I’ve watched since becoming a fan. It’s the worst football I’ve watched with a coach and team I couldn’t give two fucks about.
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Joachim Low won the World Cup playing Ozil wide left. Must be lots and lots of reasons why Low went with that set up and didn’t play Ozil behind a two of Muller and the other striker.
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whoever or what ever outfield positions Arsenal sign players for this summer, those players need to have real speed, this team lacks speed in defense, midfield and attack. It is its biggest weakness, causes so many of our problems.
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