NeilS

I am disappointed our run has finally come to an end, but my gut feeling was it would be last night. We have beaten the better teams, so it’s Sod’s law the teams you expect to beat are the ones you slip up on. We were missing a few key players, and Wilder is a Wiley old fox as a manager, so I always thought it would be a tough match. I am pleased we managed to recover the point, as previously I am sure we would go on and lose that after being sucker punched so late in the game. So I am taking that as a positive going forward. i am not disappointed about missing out on going top of the PL last night You don’t win anything for being top at Christmas, the time to go top is after we beat Liverpool at home.

it was the Wolves away fixture if i recall correctly.

Good luck Filip. Hopefully he takes this opportunity tonight, as it could mean promotion to our full time number two going forward, or maybe a loan to a higher level club next season depending on what the club decide is best for his development and what is happening with Olsen.

I worded that badly, I didn't mean in a way they would be playing a cavalier and wide open style. I meant they would be less likely to be camped out on the edge of their own box for the whole game, like they were in the second half at Villa Park. I think they will want to be playing a bit further up the pitch thinking they have nothing to lose and everything to gain, especially if we rotate heavily. They may sniff an opportunity to claim a historic victory for themselves, let's not forget they have already put 4 goals past AZ at home.

That starting line up would not surprise me, we do need to rest a few before it is too late and fatigue and injuries kick in. Also, one small change to your line up that might shock a few is that I do think there is a small possiblitity we could see Fillip Marschall start in goal tonight if Olsen not available. I think he is next in line in terms of the young goalkeepers we have on the books. I don't see Emi starting tonight that is for sure. Chambers is my big concern as well, he did not look switched on or bothered last time in Warsaw so I am not sure if I trust him either. So I would probably go with Diego Carlos if he is fit enough to play twice in a few days, with the idea of resting him at the weekend. We still need to get a result, so I am hoping the players don't take it lightly and play well. We will see a different Mostar this time compared to our home match, I think they will want to play more open this time and gain a big scalp, so I hope we are ready and can utilise the space behind them and thwart that attempt.

Haha, there has been some major straw clutching going on with this game from the Arsenal fans online. It seems pretty clear to me from the written rules that the ref was spot on with his decision. To be fair, the two Arsenal fans I work with have seen face to face have all been fair about it and have said well done.

Also from the ESPN article linked above ESPN on VAR from the weekend - Just show the gooners this "If Eddie Nketiah had been the scorer the goal would count, as Havertz's accidental handball would be irrelevant -- but it was clearly scored by the latter." Nketiah didn't tuck it in, you can tell by how Havertz wheels away celebrating and Nketiah doesn't that it was Havertz who put the ball in the net.

ESPN on VAR from the weekend - Just show the gooners this VAR review: Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta simply repeated "clear and obvious" in his postmatch news conference, yet for this decision that doesn't come into it. Accidental attacking handball is an automatic offence if by the goal scorer, there's no subjective consideration for the referee or the VAR to take into account. It was a superb spot by Gillett. Yet at a time when officials get criticised for relying too much on the video official, Gillett was accused of "guessing" rather than getting the praise for an excellent on-field decision. Recent controversies have eroded trust, but there's plenty of other reasons to legitimately bash VAR and refereeing rather than on a correct call. and VAR review: There was much discussion comparing this incident to the VAR penalty awarded to Crystal Palace against Liverpool earlier on Saturday, but the challenges are very different -- the incident at Selhurst Park is discussed in detail further down. Luiz and Jesus go to win the ball at the same time, and while the Arsenal player gets to it first he goes to ground very easily, not commensurate to the way the Aston Villa player made minimal contact. This was a 50-50 situation, with one player getting to the ball slightly later. It would have been a huge surprise to have a VAR intervention. Even Dermot Gallagher calls it in our favour and he rarely calls things in our favour.

Wow, what a result! I can’t believe we beat the top 2 from last year back to back within a few days. I thought we might be knackered after Wednesday, and find it difficult. What an effort, and two clean sheets as well. UTV

I would previously have said to win a cup, but some have made valid arguments for top 4 and Champions League qualification. Hopefully if we can cement a place a the top table then our chances of winning a trophy will improve as we can bring in better players, nothing is guaranteed though, just look at Spurs.

I was hoping for us to secure a two goal cushion to secure top spot and we were so close to achieving that. I can understand the team not going gung ho for it though in the second half, as we will take the win and control of the group. If we had conceded then Legia would be in top spot. I remember a home match against Helsingborgs in the 90's that was 0-0 after a 1-1 away draw, the crowd got agitated and the team pushed forward, Helsingborg hit us on the breakway and we were out. Even without throwing everything at it we were so close with Bailey's lobbed shot near the end, and he deserved better luck with the shot after great control of Olsen's long pass. Olsen played ok in the end and didn't make any mistakes that I recall, just the one heart in mouth moment when he passed across the 6 yard box with the Legia forward in cross proximity, but otherwise he looked reasonable assured with the ball at his feet. He didn't have to make too many saves though. Kamara looked a bit sloppy with his passing, obviously one really bad pass led to their goal, but there was another simple pass out to Cash that he skewed out of play which stopped a promising attack. Kamara did make up for his sloppiness with some good tracking back, and did clean up a worrying Legia attack at one point. Cash I thought played quite well down the right hand side, and was linking up play with some nice passes and interplay. Moreno looked a bit rusty to start with, but seemed to get better as the game wore on. I am pleased he got a goal, and it was a great finish. It looked like Duran was flattened as the ball went over him, I doubt the referee would have given a penalty, so it was important finish from Moreno. Good to have him back. I am sure he will continue to be eased back into the action over the next few weeks. Dougie was our best midfielder last night, I was saying to my Dad that when he gets the ball in a tight spot I am confident that 99 times out of 100 he will come out on top with the ball. Great cross from him for Moreno to volley in. Lenglet was mostly solid at the back, though did have a couple of worrying moments. Moreno saved his blushes in the second half after he was dispossesed. Diaby took his goal well, and was unlucky not to grab a second after a great save by the Legia goalkeeper. All in all, I think we deserved the win. We were a bit sluggish, but created the better opportunities overall. With regards the troubles outside the ground, I was totally oblivious to it all at first, other than the heavy police prescence around VP and Witton Road being blocked off. We left from my house at 5pm, and what normally takes us an hour to travel took 1 & 3/4 hours. We still made it with plenty of time, but with the queues to get in we only got in at about 7:25pm so had about 30 minutes to get something to eat and a beer. We saw the Queues in the Trinity and thought better of it, as by the time we would have been served we probably wouldn't have had time to eat and drink before the match started. So we opted for a beer from the speed pouring counter in the upper trinity. It was only when we took our seats and looked around that i noticed the empty away section. I assumed at first that traffic had delayed the fans buses from the airport, but a guy next to us showed us his phone of what was happening outside. You would think that with their fans previous record at Leicester amongst others, that UEFA would throw them out of the competition with immediate effect. I expect that nothing will happen as per usual.

Agreed. I watched it again on MOTD2 on BBC Iplayer and it is just a clumsy tackle which was slightly mistimed, the type you see fairly regularly due to the fast pace of the game these days. Unfortunately for Bentancur and Spurs he has been injured by the tackle, but I am pretty sure that Cash would not have gone out intentionally to knobble him. A yellow card was the correct decision in my opinion, it was just very unlucky for Bentancur and hopefully he makes a speedy recovery.

Yeah I have just read that same article. What a mess the ruling bodies have made of the game. You would think the sensible thing would be the same rule throughout the various governing bodies. It still seems like a dumb and unfair decision though as the player has no intention to handball and it is purely bad luck. Luckily I don't really care about Newcastle United, but I would be livid if this was given against us.

That is an awful decision, that should never have been given as a penalty. Unless the rules have changed in the last week or two, a deflection off your own body onto your arm is not handball. This guy is supposed to be one of the top referees in Europe!

Yessssss, get in. A great result away from home. UTV

There were 9 minutes of highlights? I don't think I will be tuning in to them.

The problem created by Southgate is that with Kane playing all of the time, no other forward has had an opportunity to play any significant amount of time in the team. Therefore when they finally get an opportunity the player coming in is unsure of his role, or what his team mates are going to do, and has no opportunity to build up their confidence within the team. When Ollie did get a start against the Aussies, the whole team had been changed so no good came of that match for Ollie as it would be unlikely that he would play for England with that same team again. We see it at Villa too, particularly in the Mostar match this season, many players rotated leads to a disjointed performance, bring on the three regular players at half time and the players looked far more threatening to the Mostar defence.

Most people I speak to think he is useless and should go, but you do occasionally hear a few supportive voices. The question I would like to ask those people who still support Southgate as England Manager is would they be happy for him to manage the team they support when he leaves the England role? I reckon a fair few would then change their tack then.

I hope so.

No goal!

Bit more respectability to the score line now, but talk about papering over the cracks.

Whoop we scored a goal.

I am partly gutted for Ezri and Ollie that they haven’t been given a chance, but also partly relieved they have had a rest and not associated with this £uc@in@ awful performance.

Agree, they have timed it right to receive their penalty. Last season and they would have been doomed, but this season the other teams are partcularly poor and Everton are picking up enough results under Dyche as well, so I think they will still be fine this season.

Uefa Website regarding play off round in Europa Conference League "The UEFA Europa Conference League knockout round play-offs involves 16 teams: the eight runners-up from the Europa Conference League group stage and the eight third-placed teams from the UEFA Europa League group stage. The winners of the eight play-off ties advance to March's Europa Conference League round of 16, where they join the eight group winners." Ok to quote myself, it looks like winning the group will save us two additional matches against the third placed teams from the Europa League. So winning by two clear goals against Legia Warsaw would effectively save us three matches later on as we then have the option to rotate heavily against Mostar. Therefore I think to aid us in the race for the top four spots and Champions League qualification it would make sense to go with a strong line up against Legia Warsaw, as we then have no further european matches until March.