Arsenal beat Portsmouth in the FA Cup on Monday evening so with most of the news centering around that, let’s look at the stories doing the rounds today.
Despite Arsenal disappointing many in the media by winning against a League One side, Reiss Nelson stole the headlines with his display. You can check out our player ratings from the game here as Arsenal’s youngsters impressed once again.
Thankfully, Lucas Torreira’s injury doesn’t seem to be as bad as first feared when he was stretchered off. He’s in a protective boot and the medics are obviously waiting for any swelling to subside before they are able to give a decent diagnosis.
As an aside, Arsenal finished yet another game with a player suffering what could be a serious injury while pundits excused it under the ‘winning the ball’ fallacy that exists in many people’s heads without actually being relevant to the laws of the game. If you can’t tackle without seriously injuring a player, then you are probably doing it wrong.
We also finished the game picking up yellows for things other sides don’t get booked for, namely ‘sarcasm while in an Arsenal shirt’ in this instance (thanks to @uncooladam for that), while the player who crippled Torreira didn’t even get spoken to.
Even the commentators don't understand why Arsenal players are getting booked for nothing and Portsmouth players aren't getting booked for anything.
— Daily Cannon (@DailyCannon) March 2, 2020
Oh dear.. #AFC pic.twitter.com/jdrBVENgLp
— Mark Mann-Bryans (@MarkyMBryans) March 2, 2020
https://twitter.com/talkingbawscom/status/1234576032973361153
Sokratis got the opener on Monday night and used that as an opportunity to send out what I guess is a ‘warning’ to the club – play me or I’m off. It’s not, he says, all about the money.
Pablo Mari, as you know, got his full debut and it seems we might have a player on our hands and that is perhaps what has the Greek defender worried:
https://twitter.com/afcDW/status/1234647177508642816
It really is quite simple, play well and you’ll play for Arsenal. Well, it should be that simple.
In other match news, the Premier League are apparently in discussions about holding Arsenal’s match against Manchester City next Wednesday which, once again, shows how little they care about match-going fans
https://twitter.com/Stillberto/status/1234828063084630018
Showing they do care about the fans, Arsenal have already been offering executive season tickets for £6,000 before we even know if we’ll be in Europe at all next season, never mind the Champions League.
Finally, Troy Deeney, who is apparently getting lots of love from Arsenal fans for helping end Liverpool’s unbeaten, run showed he’s not bothered by what Arsenal fans think of him by talking about what they think of him to say he’s not bothered what they think of him.
“Popular with Arsenal fans? That’s a first!” he said.
“I suppose it’s significant for people who care about things like that. Arsenal fans like me now? Oh, well – I’m going to go home and the kids are going to take over… that’s how much Arsenal fans bother me.”
Things like that, Troy? You mean winning a league title unbeaten? Or just winning the league? Or perhaps you mean just winning anything significant at all?
Do let us know. If you can be bothered, of course.