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The 2025-2026 Football Thread

Bodhitree said:
To be fair, intentional fouling has been part of the game for many years, and the game used to be far dirtier than it is now. Referees have improved and the rules have been sharpened and the video referee added, and it has all helped.

As someone who doesn’t interact much with the fanbases or the official club channels online, the game seems to have gotten fairer and less dirty.
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True, but things could be better.

I have long disliked cynical fouls, - especially the sort of foul that leads to serious injury for the victim; Manchester United in the days of Eric Cantona and Roy Keane (two very gifted footballers, but individuals who sometimes indulged their more vicious side which was all too often explained away as "competitiveness" and forgiven far too readily by their fans) come to mind, as do other clubs.

And then there is cynical diving in the hope of winning a penalty; yes, it is part of the game, but, personally, I cannot abide it; and that also includes when my team are the culprits.
 
Scepticalscribe said:
I have long disliked cynical fouls, - especially the sort of foul that leads to serious injury for the victim
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Mickey Van De Ven’s leg-fracturing tackle on Aleksander Isak comes to mind. Defenders should never go so far as to risk another players’ injury, and perhaps he should have had a straight red card for serious foul play, instead of going unpunished as actually happened.
 
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Ugly match at the Bridge, fantastic result. UCL clearly in sight for next season.

Thankfully Mainoo played. What a revival he's had under Michael Carrick.
 
Congrats to Man Utd, their win is also good for Liverpool as it means there’s a chance ‘pool will extend their lead in 5th place, if they manage to beat Everton today.
 
Momentum firmly with City now. Arsenal needed a draw minimum.

I don't see anyone else giving City a tough time in the run-in

But i do see several teams causing Arsenal issues, especially considering they've only won 1 in 6 i think.

And as i alluded to, if they come up empty handed i don't think it'll be easy to overcome that psychological fallout

I don't think Arteta will lose his job either, from what i'm reading the ownership already have a contract ready

The only hope for the Arsenal faithful is that now that they've been successfully hunted down, maybe they'll relax and find their feet again. Plus things seem to be improving on the injury front.
 
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Two points I'd like to make, and then I will be quiet...

1. Let be clear here, City were better than us, and we were lucky to not get battered based on some of the errors we made. Period.
2. If I was Arteta, and we, Arsenal, end up with no trophy at the end of the season, I'd walk away, and give someone else a go.

PS: I was very happy to see that we tried; we seriously tried...
 
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circatee said:
Two points I'd like to make, and then I will be quiet...

1. Let be clear here, City were better than us, and we were lucky to not get battered based on some of the errors we made. Period.
2. If I was Arteta, and we, Arsenal, end up with no trophy at the end of the season, I'd walk away, and give someone else a go.

PS: I was very happy to see that we tried; we seriously tried...
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Performance was definitely there. Three big chances as well. We need to fix our attack.
 
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This will be a great season for North London if Arse fail to win the EPL and Spurs get relegated. If I had to chose one of those two then Spurs going down would be the best.
 
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It’s not over until it’s over.


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Arsenal did create chances, from what I saw in the highlights. It could easily have been 2-2 or even 2-3, but when people in the team aren’t finishing well it seems to be contagious and suddenly everyone starts missing. Liverpool suffered from that as well this year.

Kai Havertz… I don’t know if you want to have a man like him leading the attack. He is mobile and has decent positioning, but he doesn’t have that killer instinct. With a forward like him you’re always going to be relying on goals from the midfield and getting a lot of chances. Maybe Arteta would have been better off bringing on Gyokeres for the last twenty minutes.

At times City were the better team, and they made those periods count, Haaland was in the right place at a crucial moment. And so you could say they deserved their win.
 
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Corefile said:
This will be a great season for North London if Arse fail to win the EPL and Spurs get relegated. If I had to chose one of those two then Spurs going down would be the best.
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No.

For me, winning the Premier League takes priority over everything else.

While I cannot deny a small smirk at the situation Spurs find themselves in (which is entirely of their own making), I do 't take pleasure from their misfortunes.

In any case, winning the title is - for me - the sole remaining aim of the season. We haven't the proverbial snowballs chance in hell of winning the Champions League, or even, to be candid, making it past the semi-final stage (for the second consecutive year).
 
circatee said:
Two points I'd like to make, and then I will be quiet...

1. Let be clear here, City were better than us, and we were lucky to not get battered based on some of the errors we made. Period.
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Indeed, and all too depressingly true.agreed,
circatee said:
2. If I was Arteta, and we, Arsenal, end up with no trophy at the end of the season, I'd walk away, and give someone else a go.
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I am not sure that Arteta - who seems to be both rigid and controlling, and who also seems to be incapable of learning from his mistakes - is actually capable of winning a trophy.
circatee said:
PS: I was very happy to see that we tried; we seriously tried...
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Well, yes.

There is that.
Sal09 said:
Performance was definitely there. Three big chances as well. We need to fix our attack.
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"We need to fix our attack" has been diagnosed as a chronic Arsenal problem for at least the past three seasons, and steps have not been taken to address that, or to remedy this deficiency.

This is not - not remotely - not in any way, a new problem.
 
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It would be interesting to see if we had Haaland, and Arteta was still managing, if Haaland would still be the killer striker that he is... 😳

Make no mistake about it, he made that goal yesterday. Sheer grit and desire to get to the ball...
 
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Scepticalscribe said:
"We need to fix our attack" has been diagnosed as a chronic Arsenal problem for at least the past three seasons, and steps have not been taken to address that, or to remedy this deficiency.

This is not - not remotely - not in any way, a new problem.
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I’m not sure there is a good answer. A new striker often takes a year to get used to the club and the league, as Gyokeres has demonstrated. But an attack often revolves around much more than one player - at it’s best the Arsenal attack is fluent, bringing in midfielders who can finish as well as be mobile in the box. A modern striker like Haaland can do both, play as a lone target man as well as scoring from within the box. Ultimately I think Gyokeres will prove to be a decent buy, because he has the physicality to do that job.

On it being potentially a terrible year for both halves of North London: everyone likes being on the winning team, and coming in second without a trophy for a fourth year would be awful, yet I think second is still pretty good. And it’s not over yet.

Spurs being relegated would be a real domper for their year. I sympathise because it was my stepfather’s and his fathers team.
 
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Really hoping for a win tonight. It will put some daylight between us and Spurs and keep us close to Forrest.

But hard to know how it will go down. Another nervous watch rather than an enjoyable one!
 
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