Arsenal (H) - Sun 31st Mar, 16:30 | PL | Pre-Match Thread

[Rammy Blue]

with some back in training revised from other day

Eddie
Akanji
Dias
Ake
Gvadiol
Rodri
Kovacic
Berny
Kev
Foden
Haaland

or

Eddie
Akanji
Dias
Ake
Gvadiol
Rodri
Berny
Foden
Kev
Grealish
Haaland

Grealish won’t start. It’s Kova or Doku that’s the only quandary Pep has.

 

[Middedon]

Our squad is arguably slightly weaker but our best team isn’t.

I’m glad you said this because I feel like I’m missing something. Stones will be a miss obvi, but otherwise with Gundo for Foden this is essentially our best team from last year.

I keep seeing people in other social media wishing we had Laporte for this game. How long are we going to moan about the players we lost…who probably wouldn’t have played this fixture last year anyway!

 

[MadchesterCity]

Whichever of the 3 out of Walker, Stones and Akanji that can be patched up best will play at right back.

I’m not against seeing Gomes or Rico Lewis playing over a player who is struggling with injury

 

[the talisman]

Hope Pep calls out the waistcoat wanker tomorrow in his presser.
Its on Southgate if we lose the game.
Utter twat.

You’d think the Stones would be involved in the decision to play him twice in a week. His place is secure, he’s England’s best centre half by a margin so why wouldn’t he push to only play 1 game?
No one on here was surprised when he broke down, he must have known the risk.

 

[Ric]

Grealish won’t start. It’s Kova or Doku that’s the only quandary Pep has.

Not even sure it’s that much of a quandary tbh. Surely has to be Kovacic imo.

 

[richards30]

Ederson
Akanji
Dias
Gvardiol
Ake
Rodri
De Bruyne
Kovacic
Bernardo Silva
Foden
Haaland

 

[MadchesterCity]

actually gvardiol made city’s only shot on target in that game, with captain hair flick clinging to him like a baby panda. rice managed to clear it off the line unfortunately.

Maybe this is the time for our Croatian lads to shine.

 

[MadchesterCity]

You failed to answer a single one of my questions.

Cheers that you're 100% for City - I am too (in spite of what you may believe). But I'm a realist. Our squad this year isn't nearly as good as it was last season - and Liverpool and Arsenal are better (and in the case of Liverpool... significantly better).

Yet to be proven, wait to end of season before making those statements

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Cheers - disagree though. I'd much rather have last years squad over this.

Gundo is better than our replacement mids.
Mahrez is better than Doku.

I agree with you about Foden - other pluses to our squad are the performances of our youth players: Lewis and Bobb are up-and-coming stars.

I'm hopeful that we'll win one of the following trophies: league title, champion's league, fa cup. I think we have a great shot at the fa cup - I think it's iffy that we'll win either of the other two trophies.

As long as we win one of the premier league or champions league I’ll consider the season to be a success.

 

[ysmsa]

Our squad is arguably slightly weaker but our best team isn’t. Gundo is a miss but to incorporate him we have to play Foden wide. Foden is playing the best football of his career in that Gundo position so I would argue that injury-free we are as good as last season and maybe even better. Mahrez was only a bit part player by the end.

The big miss for tomorrow will be stones because only he can do that job: a tactical innovation that will forever be known as the “John Stones position”.

I also believe we won’t win all three this year but it will be down to injuries and fixture congestion and not quality. Last year everything aligned, we could ease up in the title race, we got an easy semi final, and all these things affect freshness and injuries. This season feel like the opposite, especially when you throw in the extra games.

Want to Like but I refuse.

Still believe it's 3 until it isn't.

We haven't been troubled in CL or FA Cup yet and our points total in PL could and probably should be 6 / 8 points better than it is.

Still think Dips and Arse have monumental collapses in them, they aren't all that!