Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal

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Sunday 28th April 2pm
Premier League
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium​

Udogie joins the out-for-the-season injured list.
Richarlison and Porro have been seen in training, so they may be available.
Neither side has any suspensions.

Lineups for each side's last league game:

Spurs: Vicario; Porro, Romero, van de Ven, Udogie; Bissouma, Bentancur; Johnson, Maddison, Werner; Son.
Subs: Austin, Emerson, Dragusin, Davies, Hojbjerg, Sarr, Lo Celso, Kulusevski, Gil.
League form: WLWDWL.

Arsenal: Raya; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Tomiyasu; Partey, Rice; Odegaard; Saka, Havertz, Trossard.
Subs: Ramsdale, Kiwior, Zinchenko, Jorginho, Smith-Rowe, Vieira, Martinelli, Jesus, Nketiah.
League form: DWWLWW.

Ref: Michael Oliver. Just **** off. VAR: Jarred Gillett (AUS). And you, too. What a joke.

TV: Sky Sports.

How would you like to line up for this one and how do you think we actually will line up?

 

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We're 5th, Newcastle are 6th and this^ is our ref!

 

Saw that announcement yesterday

 

They are gonna batter us IMHO.
Oliver will do nothing about white and saliba kicking lumps outta Son and Maddison, while rewarding every saka and havertz dive with a free kick.
Romero will go full on gazza (the 1991 cup final gazza) and will be off before ht. Werner will cause grown men to sob with a variety of impressive misses and Richarlison will be caught offside more often than defoe. Oh and well lose at least 2 players to injury and concede yet another penalty against them.

 

The game against vermin FC is not on sunday.

 

While they say form goes out the window on derby day, and to an extent history bears this out, I have to say I haven't been this nervous about the NLD in a long time. Last year I genuinely couldn't care less as I'd emotionally detached myself from most of the team by that point.

This year we are up against an Arsenal side with an excellent balance across the pitch who have really gelled superbly at all levels.

As long as we avoid humiliation and play with fight and pride, I don't mind what the result ends up being, as long as we (at executive level) look at the project that's been going on down the road since the time we sacked Poch, and learn some important lessons from it.

First and foremost: Show unequivocal trust and confidence in the manager. Make it overwhelmingly clear that the players are in no position to oust him from the dugout. Reinforce this by strengthening his hand in the transfer market, sending out a clear message: if you down tools or aren't good enough, we will replace you, not the manager.

 

I mean I’ve predicted a loss because I’ve largely hated how bad we’ve played since November/ December and any half well drilled and coached team looks capable of smashing us easily (which Arsenal certainly are) but on the other hand all I can say is that form better go out the window on Sunday because if there isn’t enough motivation for the manager and players to get a result for this particular NLD with what’s at stake for the opposition this season then there never will be.

 

The worst possible ref for this game. Oliver. We will be kicked off the park.

 

Looking forward to the Mousers who were clucking about "revenge" earlier in the season (and everything that implies) being our bestest friends all of a sudden

 

Some of you blaming the ref 4 days before the game has even started

 

Not blaming, just expressing severe worry.

Oliver and Gillet is the equivalent of boarding a plane only for the head stewardess to get on the tannoy just before take off to announce the the pilot is blind and the co pilot deaf.

Doesn't mean a crash is inevitable, but you'd be soiling your trousers the entire flight.

 

When was the last time Spurs lost a game due to the ref?

 

I’ve consigned myself to the sad fact that theyre going to win the league. We’re effectively the last hope of stopping them but you just know they’ll beat us but we’ll then beat City and never hear the end of it!

 

It's not even that in this case, for me. Both of them are ****, but that's a side issue.
There's been an ongoing issue all week about the VAR official for Everton vs Forest.
Forest feel that he was inappropriate, due to his support for Luton.

Given that's the case, why select Oliver for our game?
He's a Newcastle supporter and they're chasing us directly.
Why invite unnecessary speculation about any possible decisions?
There's a horde of available refs without any appearance of conflict.
It's just stupid.

 

I think it just shows that they don't take the allegations seriously and of course a good helping of arrogance.

 

The FA certainly haven't helped because they've somehow evolved from their fool idea of their refs being infallible in spite a wealth of evidence to the contrary in domestic, European and international football - but at this point they surely have to be trolling

 

It's always good to get our excuses in early!
#RefConspiracy
Yes, it's a NLD and that tends to even things up on the day, but we have to expect them to beat us comfortably. They are a bloody good side playing entertaining, confident football. They are also arguably 2 years ahead of us in development terms.
I'd bite your hand off for a draw - in fact, a defeat with a decent performance playing the best way we can would do me tbh.
4th is now practically beyond us though, even if not statistically and maybe that release of pressure may have a positive effect on the lads. I bloody hope so, otherwise Sunday afternoon is going to be painful.

 

No-one can ever know because the first refereeing mistake causes everything that follows to be different to what it would have been without that mistake. That might lead to either side winning.
Best that mistakes are minimised and especially that any possible bias is eliminated

 

Yes but some are accusing refs of being corrupt and being biased towards the opponents four days before the game.

 

If you start saying refs can’t ref certain games because of who they support and where their team is in the table etc then you're into dangerous territory.