Oliver Adams

Dowman’s yes, I was in the Clock End, lovely view

I politely suggest you watch the goal again and consider the presence of mind, spatial awareness and composure aged 16 to nod it past the first defender and then skip past the second at pace.

Best of luck for the rest of the season Evertonians

Might be wrong for the whole stadium, but for me there wasn’t a countdown in the concourse that I saw, so we were caught off guard that the 2nd half had started (having not gone early before the end of the 1st half… punishing pace of beer consumption)

Wow, what a 5 hours in the title race. Thank you West Ham 🔨, thank you agent Mavropanos for your service, thank you Arsenal, thank you Max Dowman.

Get the fuck in, we’re by far the greatest team the world has ever seen #COYG 💪🏻🔴⚪️ #quadson

He literally beat two players and ran 70 yards 😂 it’s better than the Rooney goal

How bitter does your world view have to be to not see Dowman changed the game decisively? Football fans are so strange

I think the 2 best chances to score in the game were denied to Arsenal by some absolutely bizarre refereeing re: Madueke and Havertz both going through on goal and being fouled, the 2nd a stonewall penalty. But anyway, like I say Everton defended well but only one team playing for 90% of the game

😂 you’re joking right? Arsenal dominated apart from maybe a period of 10 minutes either side of half time

Everton were resolute, defended well but it felt like Arsenal were going to score, and so they did, twice. Maybe the story should be ‘Everton undone by prodigious 16 year old talent, wow.’

Have a strong feeling tonight will be an ‘I was there’ moment for Dowman’s first goal. Unbelievable player and talent

Best thing about the euphoria is Arsenal deserved it, played with so much intent & fluidity. Fun to watch, 100% focussed and not winning would have felt an injustice #COYG 💪🏻🔴⚪️

Encouraged by the line up, pumped for the game, hopeful we get it done, always supporting 100%.

Let’s make the gap 10 points. #COYG 💪🏻🔴⚪️

What about both 😮? A lot has been said/written about it already but the double pivot of Rice and Zubimendi seems to be resulting in lots of players standing at the corners of the 18 yard box and very little central threat at the moment.

I’m not sure we’ll change this year now but food for thought

QED, have a lovely day. Try not to denounce other people’s opinions, it’ll help you in the long run

I’m not sure you know what that means

You’re very antagonistic when discussing points of view about football. Just an observation

This has really descended, it seems quite strange to seemingly argue that having better players won’t make us better at football. I’m fairly sure swapping Gyokeres for Mbappe would be a net positive 😂

I think we’re now being unproductive rather than having a useful discussion so will leave it there

That’s really irrelevant mate, any number of confounding factors contribute to team losses and form when I’m talking about individual player ability.

I’m not trying to beat Arsenal over the head - I’m discussing how we can be better which is surely the aim/dream of every fan?

I’d say it’s that different abilities are prioritised in the PL even for attackers (strength, athleticism, defensive awareness). There’s more than one way to play and it’s not ‘wrong’ but I feel the PL needle has swung too far in that direction. Anyway time will tell, let’s revisit next week

I’m not going to claim expertise for all PL teams, as I say 90% of games I watch are Arsenal. That said, from what I saw last night I feel there is an over emphasis on physical gifts/structure in the PL. You put Vitinha, Dembele, Kvaratskhelia and Vini in the Arsenal team and it’s a different game.

My counter to your valid point about athleticism is that this is where technical ability shines; rather than matching physically across the pitch the alternate approach is to out football the opponent or at least have the ability to do both. My feeling is that we and other PL teams lack in this area

You’re mistaking me for a journalist with an agenda. I’m an Arsenal fan/ST holder giving my opinion and it’s not limited to Arsenal. I see a wider problem with style of play in the PL where physicality and structure trumps technical ability and think that might have been exposed last night

I don’t have a ‘narrative’ myself, I’m just an Arsenal fan. My eyes tell me that there is something less stylistically appealing than it used to be about how football is played in the prem, mainly in our games as that’s 90% of the games I watch

Is that not in someways proving my point? There is 1 example from 90 minutes of football where we were effective in moving the ball swiftly and it created a good chance.

City could have played for 3 days and not scored yesterday, plodding build up then Vini et al just blitzed through.

If I’m being truly honest I think we lack technical quality across the board. Saka is the exception and he dropped a clanger today, Noni can dribble but his end product is extremely variable. For me I looked at Vini & Kvaratskhelia tonight and just say wow, that’s the level I want.

True but even Calafiori is not some sort of goal machine fullback. I find our structure in attack lacking in intricacy, speed of thought, pass, movement and shot. I can’t work out if we’re out of form or genuinely lack technical ability/pace in general.

Anyway, just back them now I guess, quads on!

Oh absolutely, don’t understand it at all! Timber being the spare man in attack and ending up in dangerous positions in the box is just not working. I love him as a defender but he’s so far off it in an attacking sense. Would be far better to have him hold width and put Saka/Noni in those areas

I don’t think they do have 11 men behind the ball - they tend to leave one up top 1v1 and we end up with one CB high and wide and a fullback in the box. It just strikes me that you might as well commit more numbers to attacking at pace rather than plodding forward with the same outcome in defence?

I’d really like to see more central midfield runs and more tempo in our build up. We end up hugely committed in attack but do so in stepwise building blocks which catches no-one by surprise but leaves the same exposure at the back. It’s baffling to me but I’m not a world class football manager tbf

Listen, I’m an Arsenal fan and I want us to win everything possible this season

However, I am pleased that the stodgy ‘Premier League way’ of playing has been really tested in the UCL last 16 so far and hope it prompts change in player/style priorities for PL teams going forward, Arsenal included

Got away with that, draw away in Europe isn’t a bad result but Arsenal living on a knife edge recently; normally precedes a bad loss

Can’t understand why we play in this zero tempo static way so much and dislike Timber as the overload inside, he’s not got the end product. Need some 🔥 #COYG 🔴⚪️

All I can say to Wrexham fans is - if you make it to the prem next season welcome to the nightmarish hellscape that is VAR. Never celebrate goals and wait for the dreaded VAR review screen to decide your fate

You gave Chelski All Stars a hell of a game, deserved to win, they’re the worst.