Now you’re going believe us...we might finish 4th but unfortunately probably somewhere between 5th and 8th.

Cheer yourselves up and focus on COVID or Brexit. Time to get drunk I think.

5 minutes ago, Zeta said:

Damn, this guy knows what he's talking about.

It’s why you start the prediction league isn’t it, to laugh at us mere mortals 

A lot of random assholes on here tonight with next to no content.

I'm disappointed in the lack of good arguments on here.

sh*t performance on the pitch

A decent amount of free beer and good dinner was probably the only plusses tonight I think for me at least everything evened out quite well

Just now, dansubrosa said:

Hudson Odoi has to be ahead of Werner now surely?

Yup, CHO better start against Villa ahead of Werner.

Abysmal performance all around, from coach to the players. No idea what the issue is at the moment, but even when we lost or drew this season we actually played pretty well and showed promise. Today it was just a dead performance. Only late in the 2nd half did they bother to actually start playing. 

2 minutes ago, Malta Blue said:

A lot of random assholes on here tonight with next to no content.

Nobody got involved at all in the great Shed End breakfast debate! How am I meant to put a breakfast together if nobody votes? Awful fans. 

A lot of people were saying that we only had to turn up to beat Arsenal in their current poor run of form, but the truth is that our form has hardly been any better.

Im not going to lay into them too much but the most frustrating thing for me in the last few games is that we keep going long to Abraham, Why?

His hold up play is poor and we have two fantastic full backs to build through.

My other concern is that we dont have any bottle, especially when the chips are down, given our current crop of players maybe someone like Declan Rice would'nt be a bad option, something i was previously against.

On a positive note, thought Callum done well when he came on, i wish i could mention something else.

Pressure is on Frank's managerial credentials like never before after last seasons free hit.

It's worrying that Pulisic, Mount and Thiago all played full 90 and are by far our best players of late and are unlikely to feature against Villa due to the short turnaround. 

This would mean Werner will be on the wing again with CHO, hoping the players coming in will be able to provide some impetus. 

When I saw that Arsenal line-up I had mixed feelings. Yes, missing a lot of first 11 players but first 11 players who have got them in a sh*t position, so hungry youngsters coming in with something to prove could cause us more problems and so it proved. Have always rated Martinelli - he looks one of the best players in their squad. That said, we should have had too much for them and should have won but yet again we left a lot to be desired. Arsenal looked today how we looked at times last season - against Wolves for example. Fresh, young players enjoying their football and going out there and playing well. Now we suddenly look a very tired team, lacking ideas and too easy to play against.

Lamps will have to ring the changes or he may not be around too much longer.

Surely the time has come now for Lampard to start playing Werner in the middle? We quite clearly need to change sometime and Werner in the middle could be the answer. It’d also stop us trying 500 crosses and long balls.

3 minutes ago, Imran_CFC said:

t's worrying that Pulisic, Mount and Thiago all played full 90 and are by far our best players of late and are unlikely to feature against Villa due to the short turnaround. 

Good point. And James and Chilwell just back from injury with 95 minutes in their legs as well. Unlikely that they will play on Monday one would assume.

I think one of the biggest problems is that we have a hugely unbalanced squad, we have 4 wide players out of which 3 prefer playing on the left and Ziyech unfortunately is injured. In addition the quality drop from our first choice full backs to 2nd choice is huge therefore James and Chilwell even when not 100% are still risked. 

I think this talk of us having the strongest squad in the league is hugely misleading. 

I think some form under Sarri showed us that the club no longer hire and quickly fire now. Frank will, for obvious reasons, get more patience from the board, but after a game like today (and form recently) he surely must be thinking he isn't safe. Not many know the club better than Frank.

It would be easier to accept if it was a scrappy 1-0 loss, but that was a tonking that could have easily been more. And that from an out-of-form side.

On paper we don't look too bad, on the pitch, we've looked terrible.

Villa will go into the next game with confidence against us, and rightly so.

3 minutes ago, Imran_CFC said:

I think one of the biggest problems is that we have a hugely unbalanced squad, we have 4 wide players out of which 3 prefer playing on the left and Ziyech unfortunately is injured. In addition the quality drop from our first choice full backs to 2nd choice is huge therefore James and Chilwell even when not 100% are still risked. 

I think this talk of us having the strongest squad in the league is hugely misleading. 

We are also very weak through the middle. I've always maintained that we should have prioritized a defensive midfielder instead of Havertz but people didn't want to hear it.  We should be doing better regardless, as this Arsenal team is horrible.  Really disappointing result even though a lot of us expected dropped points

8 minutes ago, Nibs said:

When I saw that Arsenal line-up I had mixed feelings. Yes, missing a lot of first 11 players but first 11 players who have got them in a sh*t position, so hungry youngsters coming in with something to prove could cause us more problems and so it proved. Have always rated Martinelli - he looks one of the best players in their squad. That said, we should have had too much for them and should have won but yet again we left a lot to be desired. Arsenal looked today how we looked at times last season - against Wolves for example. Fresh, young players enjoying their football and going out there and playing well. Now we suddenly look a very tired team, lacking ideas and too easy to play against.

Lamps will have to ring the changes or he may not be around too much longer.

I think he is certainly on borrowed time. I don't suspect Abramovich is ready to pull the plug now but I doubt he is far away. 

Up to Lampard to learn from mistakes. If he keeps playing Werner as a winger then he clearly isn't learning and will deserve the sack. As you know I'm not Odoi's biggest fan but he is at least a winger and should be playing there when Ziyech isn't available. 

Tammy is a strange one. Sometimes has the first touch of a rapist and legs like pinocchio with his strings cut however he is at least getting a few goals. 

That said I would like to see Werner play through the middle on Monday and Tammy benched. But harsh but that's what Werner was bought for and we need to put him where he is best. 

Today was one of those games where you want to locked it up in the closet and throw away the key.

Hoping for better days ahead.

 

 

26 minutes ago, Malta Blue said:

A lot of random assholes on here tonight with next to no content.

I'm disappointed in the lack of good arguments on here.

sh*t performance on the pitch

A decent amount of free beer and good dinner was probably the only plusses tonight I think for me at least everything evened out quite well

Bring your rants on fella

       Pulisic - Giroud - Odoi

     Mount - Kovacic - Havertz

Emerson - Rudiger - Zouma - Azpi

 

We go again

 

Edited December 26, 20205 yr by JoeyN

Three straight defeats on Boxing Day.  Not such a great day for our lackluster lot. 

Even the post match press conference irritates me.  They asked Frank for his assessment on a poor performance.  Not good enough was the repeated answer.  What next.  Must do better.

Geez.  I'd make the players walk home after that.  No doubt their Rolls Royce and drivers won't be too far away with their blankets and warm bottles.

Edited December 26, 20205 yr by PhilH930

Like the Everton and Wolves games, what is so depressing about today is the inevitability of it all. We keep losing to teams in sh*t form. 
There is a soft underbelly in this squad that has seeped in over the years. Players there that are a shadow of the ones who went before them. I’ve already pointed out Lampard’s failing on his own thread so don’t people reading this to think I believe he is immune from criticism. 
but a lot of tonight wasn’t about tactics, just like the other two away defeats. It was about a shocking attitude, not wanting to do the basics, winning the 50-50s. 
the moment they actually tried to play with any impetus, they looked like scoring and could have nicked a point (silva and Jorginho both should have scored). 
I hope they’re feeling ashamed of themselves 

3 defeats out of last 4 games with Villa & Man City being our next 2 matches.

Not good, not good at all.

46 minutes ago, Munkworth said:

Nobody got involved at all in the great Shed End breakfast debate! How am I meant to put a breakfast together if nobody votes? Awful fans. 

It's almost as if we are the only ones on here that care

23 minutes ago, Ballack & Blu said:

Bring your rants on fella

No rants from me today, too many people on here ranting already 

I think Frank is running out of time and with Villa just two days away that is ominous.

• Arsenal were at us from the start and we struggled to build from that pressure.
• They seemed to have done their homework on us from the start, I noticed how early on Kante was muscled off the ball by Smith-Rowe and Kante didn't like it and lost a bit of composure with passes also gong astray. In the first he also gave away freekicks in dangerous areas and one lead to an Arsenal goal.
• James was clumsy to give away the penalty it looked like he clipped Tierney's foot accidentally.
•  Werner was poor with most of his play with heavy touches, misreading the play and wrong decisions,
• Tammy looked liked a pole vaulter being asked to play football for the first time and could not hold the ball and did very few decent lay-offs.
• One bright spark was Pulisic. having the brief dribble threatening to break through their defense.
• Mostly we were going down the wings with our wide backs crossing to the centre with Tammy unable to convert, it was predictable and they defended it reasonably easily.
• We got a fair few corners and yet unlike recent matches we could not convert, Silva in particular.
• Pulisic and Mount looked our best chance of creating something yet could not make it work.
• CHO the 2nd half sub finally put a cross over that Tammy could convert.
• Kante was better in the 2nd.
• Jorginho's penalties are predictable now and bringing him and Havertz on seemed strange. I only noticed Havertz in one sequence of play. 
• Surprised to see Kovacic come off as he was our other player apart from Pulisic that has dribbling ability to go through the middle.

Arsenal were not great they worked hard, penalty, freekick and a mish*t cross yet worked enough to nullify our play get a big victory at our expense.

 

5 minutes ago, Malta Blue said:

It's almost as if we are the only ones on here that care

It’s disgusting isn’t it. Almost as disgusting as your choices of breakfast item...