I can imagine Ben White doing exactly what Haaland did lol so I can’t get too mad at it. That’s good banter.
Sky asked Opta how long the ball was in play in the second half…35 mins, the most of any half in the league this season 
And i don’t think City did anything egregiously offensive today. Got away with things (Haaland drilling Saliba in the back, Doku kicking it away, everyone always circling the ref) but that’s a gripe with Oliver not City.
That’s interesting, and I feel like there could be two different things going on.
The ball will be “in-play” more when one team is just passing it back and forth between CBs who can’t shoot outside the box.
It was a very passive game state for most of the game in that sense (i.e. the ball never going out of play).
That doesn’t mean Arsenal didn’t make the most of the times it was out of play 
The whole thing went to hell at the first whistle when Havertz took out Rodri and it wasn’t handled. Led to everything being off kilter and Oliver lost complete control of the game… Was a circus throughout from Arsenal’s goal on the restart, the second yellow, just seemed like the game was out of control. (But also felt like Arsenal wanted it that way to me.)
Blasting the ball half way across the field on a yellow is a dumb decision by Troussard either way though.
Either way, I’d have much rather lost the game and not had Rodri blow out his knee though. Phyrric draw.
City are the least likeable team in the fing world. They are the worst. Wankers all.
Yea I’d be quite annoyed by the restarted goal as well. But Ederson needs to be stronger on the second.
Just can’t stand when games are blown up like this over minor stuff. It’s every week. Want to watch some proper footy!
Yeah, I’m not here to defend Ederson on that one. Embarrassing to have Arsenal do the same thing twice and defend it so poorly both times.
Not really up on the rules of set pieces but sending three guys to set a moving screen on the keeper is definitely smart as hell if it is legal. And even if it isn’t legal, there’s like a 50% chance it isn’t called.
That was absolute CONCACAF straight out of the Panamanian playbook.
I hate Michael Oliver, completely lost control of that match. Happy to get a point, but I don’t know if this version of City has the depth for the annual post Xmas death march.
David Raya had 12 of these, and took full advantage each time. Each one took him 45.3 seconds on average to complete, meaning that in total Raya wasted over nine minutes of the game on goal-kicks alone.
I also love that Arteta sent the young kid warming up to tell Raya to slow down and he got caught and YC’d.
Considering he was one of the more outspoken players on the current schedule, wonder if this particularly injury becomes a catalyst for an eventual strike.
Maybe I’m naive, but I’m very skeptical that a strike would ever happen. There’s no players union and no collective bargaining currently.
Who the f wants to cheer for Ivan drago?
https://x.com/charles_watts/status/1838163669999309213?s=46&t=n0pUj667cv_3J7Wi5_-vLA
I don’t think Rocky VI would have hit the same if it was USA vs a bunch of Norwegians.
I look at it this way, it’s been a dull rivalry so far and it’s instantly spicy, looking forward to the Emirates return trip. It’s must see TV now.
Don’t see any crazy changes in Poch’s first USMNT roster:
With Richards, Reyna, Adams, LDLT all being injured, it means there were no real “tough choices”
Still would have liked to see McGuire or Tolkin get called up
I was so psyched about this generation of keepers. Thought Steffen was going to lock it down like Howard did.
Yeah no surprises besides that. Still can’t believe the best we can do as an entire nation at CB is a 36 year old mostly washed Tim Ream.
I’m not stressed about the fourth keeper spot
Well, you don’t have Zack Steffen PTSD then.
Good first match for Poch. Everyone looked organized, defense looked about as shaky as usual and Panama should’ve had a goal, but 2-0 first time out seems like a success.
If I noticed anything, you could see the beginning of some structure in place where with Gregg it looked like we were playing pick up ball half the time.
10:30 START time on Tuesday night vs Mexico is ridiculous. Pick the one night no other sports are going on this time of year and then make it so the game ends at 1:00 am. Very CONCACAFy.
