RealGM

Shaazzam wrote:Sportsnet IIRC
But the point remains

Maybe, I honestly did not pay much attention, just was excited that game is on TV! I wish they would show PL games regularly... streaming them is a pain.

Finally real football returns this weekend. The massive match is clearly City vs. Arsenal at the Etihad on Sunday, huge title race implications and potentially a chance for Liverpool to reseize the initiative, should they get business done against Brighton at Anfield.

Spurs play Luton at home, they seriously need to bounce back after that awful loss at Fulham a couple weeks ago.

Stones and Walker ruled out ! two players very key to how they are so tactically versatile. Fortunately for them they have some capable deputies in Gvardiol , Ake , Akanji , and Rico.

It's going to be insanely tough but it's time for the guys to have a coming to age party. 10 games left man now or never. Must not lose at worst but man what can a win do...

thats an unbelievably bad decision to award a pen and give a second yellow against Burnley there LOL

MaliBrah wrote:thats an unbelievably bad decision to award a pen and give a second yellow against Burnley there LOL

Chelsea still almost lost against 10 men, too. Palmer is such a nice player though, wish he didn't play for them. Goes to show that if you keep throwing **** at a wall, something will stick. Not sure why City sold him.

Looked like Arsenal wanted to play for the draw. They were physical in their tackles.

City players were whining for bookings. If they got their way, Arsenal would have been down to 9 or even 8.

The match was a bIt of an anticlimax, to be honest

Advantage Liverpool again

By the way, did anyone catch the Brentford vs. United game yesterday? What a slopfest that was. Toney spurned so many chances, United should have lost about 6-0 but they somehow managed to scrape a draw, almost a win if it wasn't for that late equaliser.

Baphomet wrote:By the way, did anyone catch the Brentford vs. United game yesterday? What a slopfest that was. Toney spurned so many chances, United should have lost about 6-0 but they somehow managed to scrape a draw, almost a win if it wasn't for that late equaliser.

United almost got the worst win i've ever seen , only to throw it away aha

wco81 wrote:Looked like Arsenal wanted to play for the draw. They were physical in their tackles.

City players were whining for bookings. If they got their way, Arsenal would have been down to 9 or even 8.

What I said to my City friends "tactical fouling aint fun when the rabbit got the gun!!!"

Baphomet wrote:The match was a bIt of an anticlimax, to be honest

Advantage Liverpool again

We were pretty poor in possession today and played a little too defensive. We don't have the explosive outlet you need to play like that and still be a serious threat without Martinelli. Not losing isn't a bad result but yea the edge is with Liverpool now.

I think we've been the best team in the league this season but that stretch in the winter has killed us. Need some help now and to navigate tricky Brighton(A) , Spurs(A) , and United(A).

One thing this game and big games this season has showed me though is our defensive solidity will go a long way in being one of the best in Europe. Need our attack to catch up now and probably need some more explosive versatility there especially for the big games.

One of the analysts said that the UCL ties may strain City and Arsenal in their PL match lineups.

But Pool could just decide not to prioritize their Europa games, save their best lineups for PL games.

wco81 wrote:One of the analysts said that the UCL ties may strain City and Arsenal in their PL match lineups.

But Pool could just decide not to prioritize their Europa games, save their best lineups for PL games.

It's not so much prioritizing but rather the opponent:

- Manchester City vs. Real Madrid
- Arsenal vs. Bayern Munich
- Liverpool vs. Atalanta

Baseline81 wrote:

wco81 wrote:One of the analysts said that the UCL ties may strain City and Arsenal in their PL match lineups.

But Pool could just decide not to prioritize their Europa games, save their best lineups for PL games.

It's not so much prioritizing but rather the opponent:

- Manchester City vs. Real Madrid
- Arsenal vs. Bayern Munich
- Liverpool vs. Atalanta

yeah we will have intense and mentally draining games against Bayern and Madrid as opposed to Liverpools against Atalanta.

Hope the Thursday to Sunday turnaround hurts liverpool though .

MaliBrah wrote:thats an unbelievably bad decision to award a pen and give a second yellow against Burnley there LOL

That was absolutely horrendous decision and was wrapped to see Burnley salvage a point after that.

wco81 wrote:One of the analysts said that the UCL ties may strain City and Arsenal in their PL match lineups.

But Pool could just decide not to prioritize their Europa games, save their best lineups for PL games.

I hope that's right. We (Villa ) have Man City Wednesday and are light on ourselves and have Conference to follow too.

Would be amazing (and a bonus) to get something out of the visit to Etihad.

Is Emery serious with this line up? I get Watkins is hurt , McGinn is suspended and Cash is hurt I think ? But what the heck is this white flag lineup. This should’ve been one of City’s harder games left and he cowards out. Classic Emery.

Villa goal Okok my Bad Unai….

MaliBrah wrote:Is Emery serious with this line up? I get Watkins is hurt , McGinn is suspended and Cash is hurt I think ? But what the heck is this white flag lineup. This should’ve been one of City’s harder games left and he cowards out. Classic Emery.

Can’t call him a coward when we’ve had a whole starting 11 worth of players out by kick-off.

Emi Martinez, Cash, Mings, Pau Torres (needed rest and has a knock likely despite being on the bench), Moreno (needed rest), McGinn, Kamara, Buendia, Ramsey, Bailey(needing rest) and Watkins. That team alone would probably compete for a top 10/top 8 spot in the PL. It was always going to be difficult for us, but Emery has never used our injuries as an excuse. I think it’s why our injury problems never really get brought up as to why we lose some of these games. I get it that other teams have injuries but having to roll with your 3rd and 4th, sometimes 5th choice CBs and still compete well is something a lot of teams wouldn’t be able to do. I mean we had to sub on Chambers yesterday for Iroegbunam who had made his first ever start for us, Chambers is barely a PL level player these days.

We are still playing catch up to the traditional 'big 6' clubs in the PL in terms of squad depth and revenue wise. So when we have injuries our starting 11 can go from looking dangerous to just looking no different to a mid table side. Regardless our season has been amazing in my opinion, I don’t think anyone would have had us down as being in the top 4 down the final stretch of the season whilst being in the KO stages of Europe

LDNMagic90 wrote:

MaliBrah wrote:Is Emery serious with this line up? I get Watkins is hurt , McGinn is suspended and Cash is hurt I think ? But what the heck is this white flag lineup. This should’ve been one of City’s harder games left and he cowards out. Classic Emery.

Can’t call him a coward when we’ve had a whole starting 11 worth of players out by kick-off.

Emi Martinez, Cash, Mings, Pau Torres (needed rest and has a knock likely despite being on the bench), Moreno (needed rest), McGinn, Kamara, Buendia, Ramsey, Bailey(needing rest) and Watkins. That team alone would probably compete for a top 10/top 8 spot in the PL. It was always going to be difficult for us, but Emery has never used our injuries as an excuse. I think it’s why our injury problems never really get brought up as to why we lose some of these games. I get it that other teams have injuries but having to roll with your 3rd and 4th, sometimes 5th choice CBs and still compete well is something a lot of teams wouldn’t be able to do. I mean we had to sub on Chambers yesterday for Iroegbunam who had made his first ever start for us, Chambers is barely a PL level player these days.

We are still playing catch up to the traditional 'big 6' clubs in the PL in terms of squad depth and revenue wise. So when we have injuries our starting 11 can go from looking dangerous to just looking no different to a mid table side. Regardless our season has been amazing in my opinion, I don’t think anyone would have had us down as being in the top 4 down the final stretch of the season whilst being in the KO stages of Europe

Exactly! We simply do not have the depth of the Big 6 and Emery has looked at the upcoming schedule and planned for it. He only "rested" Torres, Tielemans, Bailey and Moreno (Digne sometimes starts over him anyway), but all of those players needed the time off.

If he was truly just giving the game away, Dougie Luiz, Diaby and Konsa would have been rested too