Relive every moment of every first team game since the beginning of the 2005/06 season. Our archive of matchday threads originally posted in the General Discussion Forum.
Give Delia and Davey S. a few drinks then plonk a microphone in their hands and wheel them both out into the centre circle at half time - should be fun .
As for the match result -
It's going to be difficult - Norwich are this seasons ' Darlings ' and are attacking teams at will with Pukki their main man . the reality for them however is , they've only beaten Newcastle thus far losing to Liverpool , Chelsea and Crawley [ in the Caribou Cup ] .
We conceded 5 on our opening day , drew with Brighton [ our bogey team ] and beat an attacking Watford side then went to Newport and won - we're looking more resilient while still looking frail in defence [ if that makes sense ] - if Pellegrini can solve that , which I think he will by the way then I can see another three points for West Ham .
Play Rice and Noble in front of the defence with Snodgrass or Fornals being busy helping out defence and attack [ Lanzini , Anderson and Haller ] .
I keep reading on here the manager wants to play an attacking style of game, well there really shouldn't be any game where it's better to prove it than against a newly promoted rival.
Of the new recruits I like the look of Haller, and I assume he's a certain starter, meaning in all probability one or both of Hernandez and Ajeti will be on the bench, especially so now Antonio is likely to be out until the New Year.Yes, you read that correctly.
In midfield, Noble simply must start, proving as he did once again last weekend that he has the best eye for a pass in our side, although Anderson, to be fair can run him pretty close in that regard, and he too will be on from the get go.
Rice will sit in front of the back 4, all by himself, with Lanzini and probably Fornals being the others to sit alongside Nobes and Anderson in a 4-1-4-1.
The back four is of course the clusterfuck, the epicentre of our issues, the masters of disasters, and little wonder, the combination of players used changes every single week, despite every defender being fit and available.Will it be Arthur or Aarron , Oggy or the general, will Diop play on the left or the right, has Zaba done enough to displace Fredericks ? Who knows, who could possibly guess, who can surf the Pellegrini wavelength and come to the same conclusion as him ? Will he see what the rest of us can , that Diop doesn't really like the rough stuff, and Pukki looks like he could be a handful on a nightout ? Can he see that Arthur struggles to comprehend basic positioning or that Zaba no longer has the energy to get back following a foray upfield ? Does he even vaguely grasp the importance of a settled defensive line , or does he meditate nightly, focussing on simply scoring one more than the opposition ?
Who knows, and consequently, I can't complete my line up because I simply cannot keep up with all of MP's thoughts on our backline.
All I can see is a high scoring game, possibly 3-3 or something like that, which will keep most happy, when in reality it would be two points dropped at home against a side likely to be in the bottom 4 come May, and the confidence of Rice and Diop slowly, but surely, disintegrating.
predicting a few goals in this encounter , im going for a 3-2 win , we rode our luck at times against watford and brighton and even newport , just hope we can improve as a team in this fixture as norwich is a team we should be looking to beat .
daytimedave wrote:predicting a few goals in this encounter , im going for a 3-2 win , we rode our luck at times against watford and brighton and even newport , just hope we can improve as a team in this fixture as norwich is a team we should be looking to beat .
The good thing about Norwich, from our point of view, is that they are not blood and guts merchants.
They like to play on the deck, but are not known for rough-house tactics.
They have a trio of Germans in the middle of the park, two who sit deep and one who is a bit more all-action, and then they rely on Guendia and Cantwell [who looks a great prospect] to get forward and support Pukki. However, none of these are particularly physical. They rely heavily on their young full backs to give them width.
In essence they play a very similar system to Liverpool, but with a target man
Mad to think that if we win this, we’ll be 7 points better off than this time last season. I don’t think we’ve played particularly well either, so exciting to think of the results we could get once we start playing well and clicking.
the pink palermo wrote:Rice will sit in front of the back 4, all by himself, with Lanzini and probably Fornals being the others to sit alongside Nobes and Anderson in a 4-1-4-1.
I think we're more likely to see Yarmonlenko starting than Fornals, unless we play him inside alongside Lanzini with Rice behind.
Would be a shame to drop Fornals as I thought he impressed against Newport, particularly after his goal went in.
Pretty much what I’d go for but I’d play Fornals instead of Wilshere. Despite playing the full game midweek I think Fornals will be more than ready to start, the goal will give him a massive boost too.
BondsoBob wrote:I just can't see us losing this one. 2-0 to us. And onwards on an unbeaten run since the City mauling.
On reflection we seem incapable of keeping a clean sheet (Newport aside). So I'll recalculate and say 2-1 to us. That will be good enough and keep the momentum going
HammerAl wrote:Mad to think that if we win this, we’ll be 7 points better off than this time last season. I don’t think we’ve played particularly well either, so exciting to think of the results we could get once we start playing well and clicking.
Crouchend_Hammer wrote:
The good thing about Norwich, from our point of view, is that they are not blood and guts merchants.
They like to play on the deck, but are not known for rough-house tactics.
If you were to design a team that we could potentially hammer, it would probably be them, especially in their current confident mood. That's not a reflection on their quality by any means, as they look a very good, well-managed side.
But as you say, some of their characteristics and physicality are more in line with the top half sides, but without the same level of quality spread across the XI. If you look at how we went last season against teams who aren't overly physical in the approach and like to play on the front foot, we beat Arsenal, Man United, Everton away, didn't lose to Leicester in either fixture even though we were down to 10 for most of one of the games, Fulham both times. Huddersfield at home was perhaps the only anomaly despite the fact we eventually won.
It was those losses to Brighton, Burnley, even the loss to Cardiff ffs where you know precisely what's coming ahead of time before it's duly delivered.
With our defence we could lose by multiples against absolutely anyone right now, but I'd expect a similar type of game to Watford last week – plenty of shots on goal for both teams, no chance whatsoever of a clean sheet for either, eventually 3 points.
HammerAl wrote:Mad to think that if we win this, we’ll be 7 points better off than this time last season. I don’t think we’ve played particularly well either, so exciting to think of the results we could get once we start playing well and clicking.
It depends what way you look at it; if we do win and get 7 on the board then that's a much better August than in recent memory.
But if we account for the teams played we'll essentially be 1 point ahead of where we were against the same opponents last season if we sub Norwich out for another promoted side.
Judging by Pellegrini’s press conference today, I can see Wilshere playing, but in a freer more attacking role, with Anderson and Lanzini either side of him. I’d be ok with that, but I’d go with Yarmo just because he provides us with something a bit different and I think without him or Antonio we are a little lightweight.
Honestly no idea who the two centre backs will be. Can see all of the three possible combinations of Diop, Balbuena and Ogbonna having arguments in their favour.
artlin wrote:They have someone called Byram in defence.
He won't be starting, went off with an injury against Crawley the other night. Their regular RB Aarons came on and looked very good, can see why he's been sought after by the big teams.
dodger wrote:Judging by Pellegrini’s press conference today, I can see Wilshere playing.
Yes for some reason I sensed this too if Pellers does make any changes. Otherwise it'll be an unchanged team.
I think even if Antonio was fit he still would've went with the same team as I personally think Pellers prefers to go with players better with possession. Such as Yarmo or Wilshere. And likes the impact Antonio can have off the bench.
The only thing as I mentioned in my selected team that'll cost Wilshere a place is the fact he played the other night. So the question will be can he play 2 games in 5 days?
I expect it'll be an unchanged team and the only changes on the bench will be Hernandez will come in for Antonio.
Last edited by funky chicken on Thu Aug 29, 2019 1:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
HammerAl wrote:Mad to think that if we win this, we’ll be 7 points better off than this time last season. I don’t think we’ve played particularly well either, so exciting to think of the results we could get once we start playing well and clicking.
I saw a ranking before the season kicked off assessing who had the easiest and hardest opening set of fixtures (I think it was opening 5 games). We were considered to be number #1 i.e. the easiest. Co-incidentally, Norwich were #20 from memory.
Worth bearing in mind if we beat Norwich and Villa in the next two games. Keep the champagne on ice until Christmas.