[Match Thread] Arsenal F.C. vs. AS Monaco

WAHEY! WE'RE GARGANTUAN

7 Emirates cups, you'll never sing that

cross intercepted by *checks notes SMITH ROWE

lol that's my number 10!

That's a SPICY MEATBALL

And then a SPICY CURRYWURST to follow it up

Arsene deserves to watch better football in the house he built

He'll have enough of that when we play our actual best XI on Sunday if he comes tbf

the Smith Rowe revival can't come soon enough

Ok day, he still has a bit left. Would still be a great super sub.

Partey showing why he's playing at 6 and not Rice lol

Rammers you beauty!!

RAMSDALE!

the most outrageous opinions on football twitter are boosted to the top, thanks to the paid blue tick

Gotta get on that Mastodon homie
Like what lol

Saka not being god himself or smth?
- like blaming Aaron for the goal

Smith Rowe needs his own song

Maybe we can pull out that Koscielny one but change it to need

Saka and Emile Smith Rowe is very catchy though

We're gonna win a meaningless friendly cup let's fucking go

@Astrealix first step to the world's first-ever quintuple. You saw it here first.
- p sure there's been a few already but let's go

Well at least the inevitable shoot-out will mean something now.

...well as much as something can mean in the emirates cup

IF YOU HATE TOTTENHAM STAND UP LMAOOOOO

Sounded like "for the Arsenal" to me, it is also 2:30 am so take that with a grain of salt

all bald men hate the Arsenal

lol I'm bald
- Why do you hate Arsenal
- *bald men professionally involved in football
As seen from Persona 5 every bald man is evil.
Lacazette
- Unless we don't count him as bald

God KT is so fun to watch

Imagine if three of Scotland's best players weren't literally all left backs
- Granted Hickey is not on the same level yet

I want my KT

Next time the ball goes dead I want KT on the pitch I don't care that I'm biased XD

WHAT A SAVE RAMSDALE

The one time Eddie is in prime position and no cutback, feels bad

WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT

ITS A FUCKING FRIENDLY

Down the middle, TWICE >>> TWICE

Rice is wider and deeper than our usual left 8, if I'm not mistaken. Interesting.

Yeah, it looks a bit weird but with Timber's cover it might work
- I'll wait for Billy or smth on that ngl, im no expert on tactics
- But yeah I think it's what we kinda expected with Xhaka rather than what he actually ended up doing last season where the LCM and LB are essentially the same role but interchangeable

Are we expecting someone to be in the box....? That's the second time I've seen a great cross go straight across with none of our players in sniffing distance.

He should have cut back, he had someone at the edge of box
odegod scores those
It's the kinda thing that happens with a system like this with so much depending on chemistry, you expect a guy to make the run and he expects the pass back and then it's too late lol.
- Oh for sure, I would have just expected a cutback rather than a cross straight across goal, I feel like we don't usually see that

PASS

Very close

Learning from the USWNT making the post our MOTM

7 subs lol, practically a new team

Martinelli, ESR and Rice look very good.

If Nketiah is trying to convince everyone that he can lead the line, this isn't it.

Vieira shoulda got a foul called there

I don't disagree that he got fouled. But he knows English referees, sulking isn't gonna help.
- Tbf the one call I remember him being involved him was stupidly in his favour lol
  
  He's also not actually played that many games in the PL, might not be familiar yet

Stream switched to English, the Arsenal TV feed. Rice is extremely creative there

Mine's still Spanish, link?
- Check DMs

COYG

Fabio's crosses could work well, only if we brought on Havertz or let Deccers move that far up the pitch

I'm surprised how comfortable he looks at RW for a guy who really feels like he wouldn't fit it in the PL lol
- Basically what the lad in the Breakdown's saying rn lol

Trossard, Havertz, Saka and Odegaard are gonna have a field day

Timber is on the left here? I thought it would be Tomi ngl

No chance of that being saved..

The biggest difference between Eddie and Jesus is the pressing. Eddie doesn't block the CBs passing lanes and they can play it out so easily.

Can't wait to see timewasting addressed and having Newcastle suffer for it.

You and me both. I still get pissed off when I think about that away match

+5m for Eddie

If this wasn't a friendly, Saliba would be off

Vieira looks hungry, hope he gets a goal

we still can't defend set pieces

Did not realise how fucking tall Rice is tbh

Gabi, Gabi, my boy, what the fuck was that?

Can't fool him a third time down the middle

Can't get fooled again

Tim Lewis getting himself some Arsene facetime I see. Such a fanboy.

A-A-RON

Nicely done by Vieira there and Eddie should get a free kick haha

Granted, we've been doing some pulling too. Lol.

Looks like it's on Fox Deportes in the US, which I thought I got with my YTTV subscription but apparently I gotta pay extra for it.

So if anyone knows of a link where I could definitely totally legally watch, let me know!

check mod chat

What a turn from nketiah.. second one this game

no one blocking cut backs and crosses

Jesus issue isn't serious, says guy I don't know. Tier - what I wanna hear

Nice line up, saving the big guns for the Community Shield. Love some Timber and ESR minutes.

WHAT A FUCKING TOUCH

I foresee an ESR goal before halftime

Subscribe
- by ESR i meant Eddie Side-foot on the Right

Rice playing LCM, much higher up the pitch than in the utd friendly

These Spanish speaking commentators love Martinelli and Smith Rowe

As they should

Just realised I have no idea who's at Monaco

Same, at their peak they sold off too many quality players
How is Ben Yedder still there

Poor from Saliba that

Bit poor from Ramsdale not catching the ball ngl not that it mattered cuz offside

Raya is needed for competition

Wenger is watching this. Imagine how he's feeling watching Artetaball 🤩 🤩 🤩

What a ball..

Had no fucking clue Rice could even do that kinda run ngl

We're using our heads, what a sight to see

Oooo that was a nice interchange

nelli my lad

Tricksy tricksy

Saliba having a weirdly bad game

Rice and Martinelli looks so so nice. Fantastic combinations.

Did we forget how to defend set pieces?

Where you been all last year we've forgotten for ages lol
- OK fine. Did we forget how to attack set pieces?

Terrible foul from Partey

Good from Eddie there. Amazed that ball got to Vieira tbh with how many people were around him.

Martinelli OOOF. Having a quality game until that moment. He's gotta make up for it now.

Tbf for the set pieces thing, Gabriel has always been the best on those and he ain't on lol

So close

Ridiculous defending

We are FLYING into some tackles

I can see why we were interested in Fofana btw. Looks very good.

Francis Jeffers died and was reborn as Eddie Nketiah!

Smith Rowe needs to stop dragging players back with both hands, he's not strong enough and that'll get called at some point

That looked bad.
- Looked like academy football, and it's not the first time he's done it this game.

OUR FOX IN THE BOX

FUCKING FINALLY

vieira missed an easy thru ball opportunity

He's looked so isolated. Doesn't have the athleticism or speed to take on his man out wide and is not picking out the right overlapping runs.

Risky from saliba.. easy red

Eddddieeeeeeeeeee!!!! ❤️❤️❤️🔥🔥🔥🔥🤯🤯🤯🤯

What a ball from partey but still couldn't pull off the final pass

Declan riceeee!! 😫

Nketiah!

Minamino has already got our defense shaking, wtf

Monaco look good full credit to them

Probably same thing with the United game with Arteta telling the lads to fix what they screwed up haha

He looks decently pissed
- Could just be the adrenaline ofc

Also wow did we get lucky there

Need a goal from open play here. I won't be satisfied by a set piece goal.

Coming On: Martin Ødegaard, Leandro Trossard, Kieran Tierney, Gabriel, Kai Havertz, Jorginho, Benny Blanco

Coming Off: Gabriel Martinelli, ESR, Jurrien Timber, Declan Rice, Thomas Partey, Takehiro Tomiyasu

Thank you boss

Gabriel just got bodied

I accidentally fell asleep during the first half (been traveling a lot) how are we playing?

Decent enough. Have to say Monaco are playing quite well and we're not quite up to our usual standards but it's alright lol.
- only reason I say it's alright on the standards btw is cuz it's not our first team lol, we better play good here tho

These subs 😍

Havertz as False 9?

I think Trossard

j20 oh my days

He's our 3rd choice. Our quality is stupid.

Ramsdale's crucification coming up

Not a great ball from Havertz to Vieira ngl, bit too much spin on it, slowed things down

YEAH BOI

Apparently the Emirates sponsorship might be a record value 👀

Not high enough to justify it being the Emirates ngl. Tbf it's probably the least bad oil state but still
- I'm curious what the number is.

Greedy by Trossard

Good luck beating KT 1 on 1 haha

seeing that Trossard chance is a reminder of how ineffective we are at transitions

Raya out 😁😁😁😁😎😎😎

lol lets not get ahead of ourselves

GG

announce the treble fucksakes

we are The Arsenal, we don't rely on set pieces😤

Cuz we never get given them

THERES ONLY ONE ARSENE WENGER

About to give up on English searching lol

Is ESPN the one having issues lol

turns out yes, we have english!

Another one of those chemistry mistakes there, good idea from Rice

Bro the minutes weren't even up, ref pls

Wouldn't have made a difference but it's about the principle of it

I just clocked this while updating my google form for later: ESR is playing on the right CM. Haven't seen him do that IIRC.

Get in Eddie!

Your stream is like a min ahead of everyone else's lol

Kinda wanna see us play four four fucking two with Havertz up top just to see what it would be like lol

Good save

Decent enough try for ESR there given how that ball was

Would've preferred to not lose a corner of course but eh

Wonder what our penalty order will be. Obviously Jorginho first, but who's next

@Astrealix I think we'll see Vieira, Havertz, Nketiah, and Odegaard (not necessarily in that order).
- Nketiah's not on the pitch my man

Who blows the whistle there??

English men's refs, that's who...

Martinelli tryna learn tricks from Saka with that tight finish lol

Felt like volleyball that

Couldn't hear, who got subbed?

Oh Minamino. Did pool get a fee for him?

Love Tierney's long throw in balls

If we combined Zinchenko and Tierney we would have the best LB in the world
- Easily

What was that foul

Good fucking save

What was that smh

Ødegaard before Jorginho. Didn't expect that.

Works out so who cares
- Captain first can help to gee up the squad, hopefully it works :E

Maripan is never gonna give his team up or let it down

Stop dragging people back, it's literally always a foul XD

Trossard is taking up Havertz's space

We haven't seen the goal in a bit too long for my liking ngl, put Saka on

Tho tbf I don't mind Vieira and he's doing fine, just that Saka is Saka lol

That was basically not a foul tbh

Ngl was expecting a shot from Monaco outside the box there, too used to what our 6s do lol

That was an interesting tackle from rice lol

What was that card for?

Ben Yedder complaining

Saliba as RCM is wild

Monaco look more up for it than we do.

Fabio needs to stop hitting defenders with the ball /lh

Always wonder how much it hurts for the players if the ball hits them in the wall, you've got the force of a pro player essentially all going into to you.

Not off to a great start

No way Trossard saw Eddie there that was absolutely a one track mind lol

Marquinhos on for Eddie.

Didn't know he could play on the left ngl!

Eddie needs minutes, because based on his performance so far, he needs replacing

Declan rice looks right at home, if not as involved as Xhaka normal is (I think that's tactical)

Needs to hit that header for Monaco lol

Holy shit Eddie keeping that in

STREAM TURNED ENGLISH SUDDENLY?

Donde? Me want

Good ball steal (idk the fucking terminology for that tbh it was barely a tackle) from Vieira

Why is Timber there LMFAO

Martinelli looking up a bit more, not enough to grab a goal there though

Teasing ball from Eddie there

Rice as an 8 huh. Probably what we're gonna be doing Sunday, so makes sense.

Oo good spot to win a free kick Partey

Think the card on Saliba is fair tbh, especially given it's a friendly. Set the tone.

Ref's micced up. Should be using it to tell everyone why they're deciding what they are haha

You've watched too much womens world cup. That's to communicate to their bribers in the TV room.
- Honestly though why don't they just hook it up so the ref can explain some decisions
- Yeah I have XD

Vieira just isn't good enough I'm afraid