I slate him a lot but he’s outcoached Arteta today and without Caicedo bone headed decision we would of won that.

Got his tactics spot on today. On top till the red card and more than held our own in the second half bar one overload at back post. Good subs too.

Credit where it’s due again Maresca, well managed today and were the far better team with 10 or 11 men.

Might get stick on here for this, but Maresca is the man. He's going to take us to where we belong, constantly learning from his previous mistakes.

3 hours ago, GarnachoCheese said:

This is 100% a good thing, particularly given our total lack of pre-season. I know that we all want to see the hard Brexit, chest-beating, hamstring-snapping wasted effort that British people mistake for passion, but Maresca deserves credit for us being in third despite this being the case. Particularly impressive considering how many minutes we must have played with 10 men.

Got most things right during the game, didn't sh*t the bed at the red card so at least hes learnt from his mistakes. Thought Palmer could have came on with 15 to go to massively boost the crowd.

How the f**k are we only 3 points ahead of that dog sh*t Liverpool team ??

Great effort from the players and managers today.

BUT how the f**k are we only in front of Liverpool by just 3 points ? And on the same points as Villa?

AND only in front of Brighton by just 2 points ? It's so tight , we've got to win at Leeds , and keep getting results to try and put some distance between us and the others

Have to give him credit today. We were the better team throughout the 90 minutes. Without the red card, we beat them today.

1 hour ago, dansubrosa said:

I don’t get the Garnacho substitution. Surely it would have been better to use Gittens, who has crazy pace which can be used to exploit Arsenal’s high line when they’re pushing for a goal. Garnacho doesn’t really offer anything.

Whilst it didn't pan out, I would have actually had more faith in Garnacho or even Neto coming in clutch in injury time to win the game over a player like Gittens tbh

21 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

How the f**k are we only 3 points ahead of that dog sh*t Liverpool team ??

Dropping silly points to the likes of Sunderland, Brighton, Brentford, United and even today against Arsenal. That happening once or twice is acceptable, but it's not something we're learning from. We do things in games that puts us at a major disadvantage, the main one being red cards, the second problem is not killing games off.

We have been good in the big games (bar Bayern) this season and for parts of last season.

It's the "small teams" who defend deep against us, we struggle against. Time to show against Leeds that we have made a step forward in that department as well...

1 hour ago, ParkCFC said:

Might get stick on here for this, but Maresca is the man. He's going to take us to where we belong, constantly learning from his previous mistakes.

He’s notoriously good at not learning from his mistakes, one game doesn’t change what we’ve seen over the last year and a half.

2 minutes ago, GarnachoCheese said:

He’s notoriously good at not learning from his mistakes, one game doesn’t change what we’ve seen over the last year and a half.

Exactly, which is why most of the fanbase said they were more concerned about the Burnley game than they were the Barcelona and Arsenal game. I feel the same about the Leeds game. I was pretty relaxed going into the game against Arsenal, less so when all of those results from other teams came in, but those Leeds and Bournemouth away games concern me much more.

A real test now for the midfield rotation with Caicedo and Lavia out.

Enzo played the full 90' in the last three matches, all in the span of 8 days. Reece also with a lot of minutes. Can see either Chalobah or Acheampong getting minutes in midfield next to Andrey Santos in the next matches.

42 minutes ago, petre ispirescu said:

A real test now for the midfield rotation with Caicedo and Lavia out.

Enzo played the full 90' in the last three matches, all in the span of 8 days. Reece also with a lot of minutes. Can see either Chalobah or Acheampong getting minutes in midfield next to Andrey Santos in the next matches.

Incoming @Sconnie Blue I-told-you-so about clubs failing to stock midfield options

Maresca right again today. It's important that the club embraces and retains its aura of being the team to beat in big games. That's been part of our culture since pre-Roman, really.

A draw today unfortunately probably cost us a shot at the title. This was Arsenal's hardest fixture left.

Two big games in a row he’s got it absolutely right.

Now for the real test of getting results against teams we SHOULD in Leeds, Bournemouth & Everton.

I think he’s doing a fairly solid job. Pretty clear progression from my point of view. Big games now coming up to show he’s able to beat the teams he should be beating and keep us in the running.

While we've undeniably done well in the recent games against Barcelona and Arsenal, it is still the case that we have only won one game out of seven against the sides currently in the top half of the PL table (won 1 drawn 3 lost 3, goals for 8, goals against 11)) , whereas we have a 100% record against the sides in the bottom half (won 6, goals for 15, goals against 1)

So it is the performances against the better sides that is in most need of improvement if we are going to kick on to the next level.

1 hour ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Incoming @Sconnie Blue I-told-you-so about clubs failing to stock midfield options

Maresca right again today. It's important that the club embraces and retains its aura of being the team to beat in big games. That's been part of our culture since pre-Roman, really.

A draw today unfortunately probably cost us a shot at the title. This was Arsenal's hardest fixture left.

This and also I feel that this season Maresca brought back the good old sh*thousery in the big matches. Lots of kicking and hitting and a more physical game.

Let's see how things develop next month in the PL. Anything can happen. Although I feel that we are better equiped for a good run in the UCL.

6 hours ago, GarnachoCheese said:

Looked everywhere for these stats and they've only been recently published. People often praise Fernandez because he usually ranks as our highest distance-covered, but rather than pointing to some insane work-rate, in context it shows just how little the team run compared to the rest of the league. Fernandez still runs less than other midfielders in the league. I think our results against tougher defences really show that.

1 hour ago, Sexyfootball said:

While we've undeniably done well in the recent games against Barcelona and Arsenal, it is still the case that we have only won one game out of seven against the sides currently in the top half of the PL table (won 1 drawn 3 lost 3, goals for 8, goals against 11)) , whereas we have a 100% record against the sides in the bottom half (won 6, goals for 15, goals against 1)

So it is the performances against the better sides that is in most need of improvement if we are going to kick on to the next level.

I don't think it's the performances per sere, it's the results. That's where the extra 5% effort and character comes in.

3 hours ago, petre ispirescu said:

A real test now for the midfield rotation with Caicedo and Lavia out.

Enzo played the full 90' in the last three matches, all in the span of 8 days. Reece also with a lot of minutes. Can see either Chalobah or Acheampong getting minutes in midfield next to Andrey Santos in the next matches.

We still have Bounanoutte, and Palmer is back.

Acheampong could see matches at RB with Gusto/James getting games in midfield.

Credit to him. he managed this week brilliantly and coached 3 wins. Unfortunate that Moi had a moment of madness and Joao Pedro let him down today.

5 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

We still have Bounanoutte, and Palmer is back.

Acheampong could see matches at RB with Gusto/James getting games in midfield.

Think he was saying that James needs a rest now and won't feature against Leeds

12 hours ago, GarnachoCheese said:

He’s notoriously good at not learning from his mistakes, one game doesn’t change what we’ve seen over the last year and a half.

How many games change what we've seen? Barcelona, Arsenal, Liverpool, PSG... All are great games against "top" sides where we came out on top or near enough...

Starting to sound like a broken record.