Woke up buzzing for matchday, straight to my laptop hoping to catch the West Ham vs Arsenal lineups. Always do this before kickoff, lets me think about tactical battles. Grabbed coffee first though, priorities.
Checked Arsenal’s official twitter first. Nothing there except hype videos. Same for West Ham’s feed. Typical. Jumped over to BBC Sport – saw the lineup needed a damn BBC account. Should’ve made one earlier. Panicked a bit, match starting soon!
My dodgy workaround:
- Ran to local newsagent, bought a physical newspaper
- Flipped madly to the sports section, pages rustling everywhere
- Found tiny squad lists crammed next to betting ads
- Squinted at microscopic font, almost spilled coffee on it
Finally got it. Arsenal lined up like this:
- Ramsdale (Thank god, needed him after last week)
- White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko
- Partey deep, Odegaard right there with him
- Saka, Jesus, Martinelli up front
West Ham looked like:
- Fabianski (Old Arsenal man, interesting)
- Coufal, Zouma, Aguerd, Emerson
- Rice (Obviously), Soucek, Paqueta
- Bowen, Antonio, Benrahma
Half-Time Thoughts
Saw Rice bossing midfield like I feared. Odegaard barely touched ball first 30 mins. Zinchenko kept pushing too high, Bowen burned him twice. Told my mate in the pub “Mikel got this wrong today.” Should’ve started Tomiyasu for stability.
Second half changes showed Arteta knew it too. Trossard on for Jesus around 60′, Smith Rowe later. Too little, too late. Bowen and Antonio murdered us on counters. Finished 3-1. Painful.
Biggest takeaway? Overcomplicating lineup news messed me up. Paid £1.50 for a paper mostly used for mopping coffee now. Gonna register that damn BBC account later. Pain in the arse, this.
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