Jase

That's because Alcacer has been injured. And Sancho doesn't play as the False 9.

The 4-3-3 doesn't always work. Remember the basketball game at Valencia? We dominated much of the game today and didn't look like scoring until Arsenal remembered they were Arsenal. And it wasn't 4-3-3 all the way anyway. Kovacic came off in the 70th minute and we still dominated with Jorginho-Kante-Mount in a 4-2-3-1.

Lampard corrects his mistakes and early at that, gets criticized. Lampard doesn't correct his mistakes, gets criticized. 🤷‍♂️ Don't think anyone agreed with the starting XI at all but for argument's sake, let's say if it had worked, then what? I mean, nobody thought Lampard would have rolled out the back 3 last weekend at Spurs, which was questioned pre-game, and we steamrolled Spurs in the end. I guess the frustration here with Lampard is he has made a lot of questionable choices of late and today's just kinda compounded the doubts. If there had been less of that and he started the back 3 today but changed it as he did, then I'm sure the reaction would have been different here.

https://www.espn.co.uk/football/soccer-transfers/story/4022782/borussia-dortmund-beat-manchester-united-to-haaland-signing United reportedly didn't sign Haaland because they refused to agree a buyout clause and slice of future transfer fee (aka "didn't fancy him anyway"), which seems to suggest those two are in his Dortmund contract.

What does Haaland have to do with Sancho?

Despite his goal today, I still maintained what I said above. Thank god for Mustafi!

Sorted, noob.

Same! We seriously need a new LB at this rate, especially when we have wasted subs a few times this season because the LB - be it Alonso or Emerson - has been rubbish.

LOL The hate is real!

We didn't win because of him? I get that there are doubts over Lampard and he has made mistakes but at the very least, he changed things way earlier than anyone had expected by ditching the back 3 in the first half and making sure we could wrestle control of the game back from Arsenal. Remember Mourinho last weekend? Waited till HT to change his system and by the time he did, it was too late. He even had the balls to bring Lamptey on when he could have easily just put someone else as the makeshift RB. He got things wrong at the start but he got them right by the end. Also, let's not suddenly try to change the narrative that today wasn't a big game (or against a big team). It was Arsenal and Arsenal in their first home game under Arteta - several people thought this was gonna end up like the Everton game again and our recent poor form meant we had to get a result today, which we managed to achieve it in the end. Not saying all our problems have gone away because of today's win, mind you but the fact that some people can't even credit Lampard, especially when he corrects his own mistakes, is bizarre.

Well, where to even begin with that win? Bantered our way to victory over Arsenal, which I think on a whole is a perfect summary of this rivalry over the past decade (plus 5-6 years before that). Not sure if we deserved the win but perhaps we deserved that bit of luck that we haven't had this season. The performance up until Jorginho came on was horrendous - mind boggling Lampard chose to play the back 3 again when we did it at Spurs in a specific context - unlike Spurs last weekend, Arteta and Arsenal were ready for that system. That said, apart from their goal, they very rarely threatened us defensively. Credit to Lampard for changing things way earlier than expected - compared to Mourinho sticking with his starting system until it was too late last weekend for example. However, while we did dominate pretty much the entire game after Jorginho came on, we still created next to nothing and had to rely on Leno's big blunder and Mustafi being Mustafi to turn things around. Quality reinforcements, if possible, are much needed in January!

Same. Can't fault his effort but it feels like he's trying to be too much like Costa/Drogba of late, focusing more on the physical side rather than what he's actually good at.

THANK FUCK FOR MUSTAFI!

Still got plenty of time for us to fuck this up!

WHAT JUST HAPPENED!?

We can't even pass the bloody ball, so no change is going to rectify that. Change something, gets criticized. Don't change something, gets criticized. At least Lampard is trying make something happen here since nothing is happening on the pitch!

Says enough about the lack of options tbh. I don't want Barkley or CHO coming on Do we even have a choice at this point? We look fucking clueless and are making Arsenal look half decent, despite barely threatening us at all! Anyway, CHO is coming on...

Haaland to Dortmund confirmed...

Kovacic was suspended on Thursday. Picked up his 5th yellow of the season at Spurs.