I had to do my laundry in between the penalties, it was too tough. Great win.
That said, I am ready to move on from Zinchenko. He was a liability on the pitch, and almost threw it away at the end. Sign that Wendell kid who kept Saka quiet and rotate LB/RB with White, Timber, Tomi, Wendell.
Any preferences for quarter final match-up? Every team looks insanely difficult. The easiest would be PSV if they can overcome their deficit vs Dortmund.
I used to always hope to draw the weakest team but have kinda come round lately to the fact that, if we are to win we need to be able to beat the best and if we can't we don't deserve it. Plus, if the eventual winners knock us out early then great, we can focus on the league which is still my priority.
Bayern it is, with the added benefit of none of their fans at the emirates courtesy of a ban. Here’s hoping we blow them away in the first match day. Edit: hope Xhaka is in Teta’s air to get the scoop on how they’ve demolished them this season.
I suppose it was always going to be Bayern with the Kane angle and our history of playing them every season in the CL even if it has been a long time. Would be lovely to consign Kane to another trophyless season and overcome a lot of trauma against them but it feels unrealistic.
Saka has pulled out of England duty due to injury - hopefully it’s not serious. With Gabriel M X 2 withdrawing from Brazil we only have the following to really worry about:
Oleksandr Zinchenko | Ukraine Jakub Kiwior | Poland Aaron Ramsdale | England Declan Rice | England William Saliba | France Kai Havertz | Germany Leandro Trossard | Belgium David Raya | Spain Jorginho | Italy Martin Odegaard | Norway
So long as one of the keepers, Odegaard, Saliba, and Rice come back unscathed we should be OK.
Right lads. Game of the season so far on Monday. Perfect weekend for it with us having Monday off as well.
I would happily take a draw. Get out of Manchester honours even and i think we have done well. A win and i think we probably take a huge leap towards the title. Winning at the Etihad is incredibly tough for any team to do though, especially against this current City team.
Hopefully a cracking game. If you can't get up for these games what the fudge can you get up for? COYG.
The young lad and I are on a 17 hour Auckland - Dubai flight with Emirates when this game is on. I think they’ll carry it live according to their website…going to be challenging not losing the plot if we score/win with a plane full of sleeping folks around!
Tough watch that. Never really looked like anything else was going to be the outcome. While our defence was solid, I was disappointed in Rice. Thought he was 2nd to a lot of balls and looked tired. Probably due to his workload during the international break. But it’s not a loss and now we wait for others to slip up.
0-0 I'll take it, first time City have been scoreless at home in 75 games, we kept Haarland quiet the entire 90. We werent at our best on attack held on. 10 p;ounts from the home abd away games with City and Liverpool is huge! Still chaisng Liverpool and now topping them relies on others taking points off them.
Maybe I heard it wrong in the commentary, was sure it was discussed ashaving the best record home and away against the other two teams, and 10 points being mentioned. Upon checking it appears 8 is the correct value.
Would have taken the draw beforehand. Bit of a shame we couldn't threaten more but we've been getting humiliated up there for years so was important to finally come away with something.
Missed this one (thankfully, by sounds of it) but I'm happy with the point. 9 games is enough to reel in Liverpool if we can stay fit and consistent.
Watching the highlights I couldn't understand why Trossard didn't square for Martinelli. There's a chance it would have been smothered by the keeper but seemed better odds than going alone. Still, I can't complain. Proud of the team.
Missed this one (thankfully, by sounds of it) but I'm happy with the point. 9 games is enough to reel in Liverpool if we can stay fit and consistent.
Watching the highlights I couldn't understand why Trossard didn't square for Martinelli. There's a chance it would have been smothered by the keeper but seemed better odds than going alone. Still, I can't complain. Proud of the team.
Trossard to Martinelli wins us the game, defensively we'd done enough to keep them at nada, but that was the moment to win it.
Injury ravaged Villa doing nothing to help. Tonight was a rare free hit in the run in and I think Mikel nailed the rotation and subs. Here’s to putting Brighton to the sword away from home on Saturday.
Think Klopp leaving is giving Liverpool the psychological edge on this run in, hope we can balance it out by making the semis for the CL!
Good result today and some useful rotations. I watched the first half and then bits and pieces of the second. I hoped some of the guys like Nelson would take the opportunity more. He didn't do anything wrong and even though it was an OG he was the cause, but a lot of his touches were very conservative as if he was terrified of making a mistake. I rate the guy though, so hoping he and Nketiah get more runs.
This game felt a bit like what Southampton at home last season should have been. The team has matured from then and even with a rotated team we were able to put the game to bed early, and have a fairly quiet game with things never in doubt.
Regardless of what happens from here, its very impressive to back up last season like this and establish ourselves as a hopefully a consistent title contender, not a flash in the pan. The key piece of recruitment is to lock Arteta in for basically as long as he wants, in my opinion.
United arent great right now, but they could knick a draw, assuming we win we'd move ahead on GD with equal wins. Spurs would be my bet for breaking Liverpool's run
You're right, Utd are garbage these days but they'll be up for it, no doubt. With a bit of luck they beat Chelsea this morning without injuries or suspensions as they'll still have some belief that they can sneak into Europe next season.