The Rolling Football Thread: Season 2025/26 - thread 3

[DuncinToffee]

Previous thread

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/sports/5429011-the-rolling-football-thread-season-202526-thread-2?page=40&reply=150096583

I felt for Crystal Palace as that looked a weak red card to me.

As an Arsenal fan I would prefer to see you stay up as rather partial to a north London derby!

I am fuming, I have him in my FPL

I haven't watched it back yet because we went out for tea on our way home and just got in. I thought it was a red in the ground but wasn't sure it was a penalty as thought the pulling happened outside the box.

I'll have to have a watch.

Well, we certainly didn't deserve to win that.

I think we have forgotten how to play.

Nerves were definitely an issue but on balance I thought we did deserve to win that. My nerves are shredded.

We couldn't even keep that ball in the last few minutes against 10.

Why do they think it is a good idea to do long kicks up the pitch when we just need to keep the ball for a few minutes?

It is just basic game management.

Phew! That was closer than I wanted.

Anyway, happy St Totteringham's Day to all who celebrate!

I think they keep trying to score/attack whereas they should be looking to close the game out and run down the clock by going to the corner etc.

I agree-

It was nervy and scrappy but I think we deserved the win.
To be fair they didn't actually score.

Reminds me of the nervy finishes in the Invincible season-and I may need a defibrillator...

Me too with regards to the defibrillator.

We had tickets to go to the game today but were not able to make it, and to be honest I am not sure I could have stayed calm if I had of been there.

DH and DS there- I assume there will be celebrating after...

I say let's take the points and move on!

It was a big big 3 points and if they hadn't won the press and social media would have been relentless.

So let's enjoy it!! 🤗

Well, by trying to score/attack, all they did was allowed Chelsea to score/attack.

Raya keeps doing long kicks when we just need to keep the ball at the end of games and only seems to pass out from the back when we need to score which is perverse.

After Chelsea went down to 10 they had 65% of the possession!.

I agree but we did win so I’ll take the 3 points and hope my BP comes down before the next game.

Quite often happens that teams that gone down to 10 men seem to play better and can quite often win.

Yes, and Chelsea have had a lot of practice season, I think they said it was their 8th or 9th red card.

Funny, I seem to remember the meedja going on about it endlessly when Arsenal had a few red cards...

My team (Huddersfield) won two games in a row down to 10 men not too long ago.

I joke that we should play with 10 men every week. We are shit otherwise! 😂

Very glad to see the return of Solly March today after being out for 10months with what I think is the 3rd serious injury of his career. Poor guy.

🎶What a difference a day makes...🎶

We completed 7 passes in the last 11 minutes.

Tells you why every Arsenal fan's BP went through the roof.

Remember the years of beautiful tiki-taka football when we won nothing?

They loved to watch us but we were soft and weak and easy to bully-so we were told.
So we toughened up and adapted our style to the modern game.
I'd rather win ugly than lose pretty.

Yes, a win is a win, but it could so easily have been a draw or even a loss. Completing only 7 passes in the last 11 minutes shows that we can't control the game at the end. I'm not sure why not as during the first half we had a lot of possession and were passing the ball around too much when we needed to score. But as soon as we didn't need to score at the end of the game, we kept losing possession.

This thread is always a bit nicer after an Arsenal win