Tomo

My stance has been the same for quite some time. The standard of officiating all over Europe is hopeless. Until something is done we will benefit from it and get screwed over from it. However shit the ref was today doesn't change the fact that we should have put this sorry excuse of an Arsenal side to bed and failing that, not given them a way back in with peak Allardyce route one.

Azpi should have got sent off but didn't when he gave away the pen, we roughed up United all through the semi and didn't get a card. Stop with these conspiracy's it makes us sound like Scousers.

Should have killed this in the first 15 minutes, only ourselves to blame.

There's a difference between bailing an average team out as a shot stopper and being a keeper who is trained in being quiet for most of the game and does what he needs to do with minimum fuss when called on. Cudicini was a better version of Leno yet we needed to replace him when it was becoming clear he was struggling with the step up. Leno is the type that will let in that one shot to turn a dominant 1-0 into a 1-1, modern day Arsenal is the right team for him.

I was against the Rice and Chilwell deals initially so I've been doing a bit of soul searching in recent weeks with the links to both just not going away. I'm starting to come round to the idea of Rice given his leadership qualities, recent improvement and obvious passion for the club but Chilwell? Still don't want under any circumstances.

Or maybe it was because we played well which didn't allow them to build any attacking momentum? This exact same Watford team created about 5 clear chances against Arsenal the other day.

Actually that is exactly what Fergie use to do and that's what set him apart from the rest. No sentiment if it compromised the success of the side, he buggered up once with Stam but the rest of his ruthless decisions were spot on. I don't buy this "using players as objects" narrative, players do what's best for them and clubs do what's best for them, the most "loyal" is always the one who needs the other more, if we weren't matching their ambition back in the early to mid 00's Terry and Lampard would have eventually moved on and the rest of the old guard would have never darkened our door. This notion that we have to let players stagnate and turn to shit but keep playing them out of gratitude is bs, it's the other side of fans expecting unwavering loyalty to players and for them to reject any chance of career progression to "prove" their love for the club. Wilkins loved us despite jumping at the chance to join United and we can love a player we make surplus to requirements.

Actually I was an advocate of listening to offers for a lot of our players after the double season, they were getting on but the ending of the season hiked their values up and we could have basically rebuilt for the next generation with the money we got for some of them. Ofcourse given Munich happened I'm glad we didn't go down that route but you can't plan for an off chance of something like that happening. Ash, Malouda, Anelka, Essien, Alex all never hit the same heights again post 2010, all could have commanded at that time around £100m between them that summer, that could have got us 3/4 excellent young players and speed up a rebuilding process that instead took years. Infact I'd argue we're still to this day playing catch up from letting the old guard stagnate with no contingency plan.

They won't.

Oh god, so we're in for the usual "what does he do" nonsense by social media experts whenever he doesn't score or assist.

According to The Athletic we came close to signing Danny Rose for £55m in 2017, three years later he's about to sign for Newcastle for £5m.

Im starting to wonder if he's just taking the piss and playing a character at this point, things like that and his inflation of Drogba's goal tally under him is just too obvious!

I personally believe Sarri has gone to Juve to prepare them for Pep, so he does the awkward transitioning style bit while Pep then goes in with a team fully ready to play the way he wants. What really intregues/worries me is City first post Pep season, while long term his effect seems to wear off the immediate aftermath of Pep's tactical approach still being fresh in the mind but the sheer intensity he demands of his players not wearing a mental burden seems to create a perfect storm, Barca actually got more points under Tito than at any point under Pep (although lost badly in CL). As you mention AC Milan I've actually for a while felt they may be Klopp's next destination, they seem more in line with Klopp's MO of taking over a fallen giants project.

He was already long declined by the time Pep got there. The rot started for him in City's second title winning season. He was genuinely world class under Mancini.

The most worrying thing about these graphs is that City's poor season (in terms of results) looks like very much a one off.

Very harsh on Hart, he was excellent in his prime.

I wonder who we were actually set to get if we could have brought last summer. Pepe and N Dombele would have been likely, the former looked nailed on.

What I loved the most about him is that he didn't come here to wind down. After winning everything at his boyhood club (and the national team) while being involved with the greatest club side of all time you would imagine a lot of players in his position wouldn't have the same hunger to make it work at a new club, especially when his first season involved an all time collapse around him. Not a bit of it with him though, he still played like he had everything to prove.

That's always been a bit or a cop out argument in regards to keep or sack a manager in my opinion. Not so much with Sarri but when it got to the end with Mou and Conte here (examples from rivals would be Emery, Pochettino, Rodgers, Dalglish, Mou again at United) there would be many a manager that would have done better than the crap they were serving up, especially in the short term.

Maybe to a point but atleast we were probing and controlling the game. At The Bridge they done literally nothing and scored with their only ventures forward.

I'm partly worried because we have a habit of throwing away games we dominate and Arsenal have a habit of getting results when they've been outplayed. But another part of me thinks surely after what happened at Stamford Bridge they've used up all their luck against us for quite some time. I wasn't too nervous about today odds were in our favour but this one I'm overthinking a bit, can't bear to lose another final to them.

They have actually shut oppo down like that more times than our goal against collum suggests, just often their work was ruined by the first clean strike (in today's case would have been Jota's early in the second half) going in. That's why I'm not as desperate for immediate upgrades for CB as most, attackers taking their chances and a goalie who does even the basics right will make a huge difference.

If we get Rice in I think Zouma should be partnering him until a further upgrade is brought.

We effectively have a four goal lead (in terms of the CL place) should be giving Mount and Puli some rest for Saturday now.

Just play peak Sarri ball now, cautious possession.