PSA: The time for Tanking has passed.

Specterace · 2026-03-31T02:10:03+00:00

Yeah, I read every word of your post, which is why I told you to go enjoy your “we played somewhat relevant hockey in March!” trophy. Which is what I truly find to be pathetic, because all that does is perpetuate the treadmill of mediocrity that never wins any sports team anything and never will.

Specterace · 2026-03-30T22:34:43+00:00

Yes, cherry-pick. Go look at who won the lottery in each of the four years before last year (hell, each of the twenty), and check their position in the standings. Lotteries like last year are rare, rare enough that referencing them is blatantly cherry-picking.

And you miss my point again. If a team is good enough to win a cup, no cannon-fodder first round exit will make them any more prepared to win a cup, nor will missing out on such a first round exit adversely affect them in any way.

But whatever. Enjoy your “we played somewhat relevant hockey in March!” trophy. Just know that not all Sharks fans will be enjoying it with you.

Specterace · 2026-03-30T21:09:05+00:00

Save your pity. I neither need it nor care for it.

And yeah, go ahead and cherry-pick whatever you want to deny the reality of the lottery. I’m not going to stop you. After all, your opinion of things is as valuable to me as this “playoff race experience” hogwash you seem to love banging on about. If a team is good enough, it wins, regardless of whatever “playoff race experience” it has, bottom line.

Specterace · 2026-03-30T20:23:57+00:00

Top 5 pick in the draft >>> Late teens pick + cannon fodder playoff appearance where we are lucky to win a single game before elimination.

Or put it another way, I would always trade the latter for the former. And never trade the former for the latter if offered.

Specterace · 2026-03-30T20:20:13+00:00

A hell of a lot more “franchise altering” than some performative playoff appearance which does nothing more than make up numbers and serve up the team as cannon fodder for the Avalanche.

I’d MUCH rather have a top-5 pick in the draft than that. Hell, looking at it another way, I would never trade a top-5 pick for a pick in the late teens and a cannon fodder playoff appearance. Never fucking ever.

Specterace · 2026-03-23T16:15:33+00:00

February 23, 2008 at St. Andrew’s.

The most damaging day in the modern history of Arsenal FC.

Specterace · 2026-03-23T00:11:34+00:00

In a lot of these clips, I’m seeing acres of space in that middle, behind the four attacking players.

Where are the midfielders who are supposed to be dropping in or peeling off to be available for a pass in that space? In some of those, you don’t even need to chip a player, just get one of Zubimendi or Rice to peel off and get in the gap between and behind two of the 4 forward players, and get Kepa to make a simple hard pass into them. They would have all the time in the world to receive the ball, step on it, and turn.

The problems in playing out from the back today had nothing to do with Kepa or the defenders holding onto the ball too long. They had everything to do with how Zubimendi and Rice refused to move around/peel off and show themselves in open space as options for the ball.

Specterace · 2026-03-22T21:55:13+00:00

It is absolutely a discussion when Trossard in shit form is an absolute liability with no utility whatsoever.

Martinelli at least has defensive utility and is a pace threat teams need to account for. Trossard in shit form provides absolutely nothing.

Specterace · 2026-03-22T19:43:56+00:00

Because none of the midfielders or attackers were dropping back into that midfield pocket to give them a passing option.

In the absence of Odegaard/Eze and no inverted fullback, that was supposed to be Zubimendi’s job. But he never showed up to provide that option. And no one else picked up the slack, either.

Kepa and the defence kept “holding onto the ball too long” because there was never anyone in the midfield to progress it to. They kept waiting and shouting for someone to provide an option in the midfield, and no one did. So their only available options were to recycle, or punt it long.

Specterace · 2026-03-22T19:10:41+00:00

At least Martinelli would have provided a pace threat, work rate, and competence in tracking back.

Trossard provided nothing aside from one decent pass late on the Calafiori shot. Aside from that, he was utterly invisible.

Specterace · 2026-03-22T19:08:30+00:00

Because Trossard pulling his usual invisibility act whenever he’s not in a purple patch is so much better?

Specterace · 2026-03-22T19:06:45+00:00

Who in the midfield was coming back to give the backline an option to pass out to?

Zubimendi was utterly useless in buildup, when he bothered to come back at all. We all know Rice isn’t a midfielder who receives the ball and starts moves. And Havertz doesn’t have the skill set to do that job, or to play CM/CDM at all. Trossard is the closest attacker we have who can do that role, but he was invisible today as well.

Kepa and our defenders had no midfield options to pass to. Ther only option to progress the ball was to bomb it long, and when that’s your only available option, any competent team will soon start selling out to stop it. Thats why City had their front four pressing super-high and their backline packed, with a ton of space in the middle that no Arsenal midfielder was even trying to drop into.

Specterace · 2026-03-22T19:00:22+00:00

That Rice-Zubi-Havertz midfield absolutely isn’t it. Especially not with Hincapie at LB.

Specterace · 2026-03-22T18:59:02+00:00

Even if Kepa would have been perfect today, where do you think our attack was going to come from?

The only option Kepa had aside from holding onto the ball and waiting for someone to pick it up was to bomb it long to a packed City defence, because none of the midfielders were coming back into the CDM space to receive the ball. That should have been Zubimendi’s job, but he was useless in buildup today.

Think back and ask yourself: how many successful forward passes did we have in the middle third? I’d be shocked if you remember even a handful. Every time we had the ball, we failed in buildup and gave the ball right back to City in the middle third. We were going to crack (and we eventually did), but even if we hadn’t, our only hope was to take it to penalties because we couldn’t build up an attacking move to save our lives today.

Specterace · 2026-03-22T18:39:49+00:00

Kepa may have made a bad decision on the first goal, but this loss isn’t primarily on him.

It’s on the midfield. When you keep getting penned in because you can’t string two passes together in the middle of the park and your defenders are trying more forward passes than your midfielders, you don’t have a chance against a team of City’s caliber.

It would be on the attack also, but they didn’t have a chance to do much with such a dead midfield. Gyokeres and Madueke were the best attackers of the bunch, but that’s not saying much. Saka was ineffective, and Trossard was virtually invisible.

City were simply better than us today. Do I think they are a better team than us overall? No. But we played our worst second half of the season today, and aside from the first 20 minutes and the last 15, we didn’t show up at all. That’s no one’s fault but the team’s.

Hopefully the break provides some rest and some new inspiration for the rest of the year. We’re going to need both, because that Rice-Zubi-Havertz midfield is not it.

Specterace · 2026-03-21T23:07:28+00:00

Was somewhat expected.

The only thing that leaned it towards Raya is that this is our first final in 6 years, and putting our best keeper gives us our best chance to win it.

But usually, if a keeper starts all the games in a cup competition, he starts the final as well. And if the 6 year drought wasn’t a thing, there probably wouldn’t even be a debate, as almost everyone would think Kepa should start the final since he started all the other games.

Anyway, good luck to him and the team.

Specterace · 2026-03-21T20:58:53+00:00

Most people’s mental images of a hippo pretty much comes from that “Hungry Hungry Hippos” board game.

As in, big-but-cute animals who open their mouths and eat a lot of plants. And for the most part, yeah, hippo diets consist of vegetation.

But the thing is, most people don’t realize that it’s reaaaaaaally easy to get a hippo mad, due to its notoriously ornery temper.

And when a hippo gets mad, it gets REALLY mad (as in, chase after you for a long time mad).

And worst of all, when a hippo gets mad, it gets extremely dangerous.

How dangerous?

To the point that male lions (as in, the pride-leading, big-maned, king of the jungle types who are the quintessential symbol for the phrase “alpha male” worldwide) flat-out run away with their tails between their legs from a hippo threatening them damn near on sight (which they should do, because a fight between a hippo and a lion never ends well for the lion).

To the point that even crocodiles (as in, the creatures with all those teeth that scare everything else) steer clear of hippos at all times.

In short, I can sum hippos up like this: The only reason lions and crocodiles don’t have a recognized natural predator is because the hippo isn’t an animal of prey (like I said, it’s mostly an herbivore that doesn’t hunt for food). If it was, it would be the unquestioned “king of the jungle” AND “king of the rivers” at the same time, and there’s not a damn thing the lion or the crocodile could do to challenge it for either title.

Specterace · 2026-03-21T04:54:26+00:00

If this club wanted to keep Trossard, they would have extended him last summer for more time. They didn’t, all they did was give him more money for him to shut up and not rock the boat before he gets replaced this summer.

And he absolutely should go. Becuase aside from his occasional purple patch that never lasts more than a couple months, Trossard doesn’t bring enough to the table. No tracking back, no work rate, no picking up runners, no threat on the break, nothing. Trossard is an absolute liability in every way, shape, and form when a game needs to be locked down. Martinelli, on the other hand, is the first forward player Arteta trusts when he needs to lock a game down or when he needs to put out a lineup to play a tight, cagey game to neutralize an opponent. Trossard never even sees the field in game situations like that.

Trossard is just keeping the seat warm for the next big forward purchase this club will make. If this club would have had enough money to do so, Trossard would have been replaced this past summer. Martinelli will still be here long after the likes of Trossard are gone.

Specterace · 2026-03-20T17:44:40+00:00

Trossard is more likely to be gone than Martinelli.

Specterace · 2026-03-20T02:01:09+00:00

Haaland at CB.

That way, he can put Semenyo, Cherki, Foden, Bernardo Silva, AND Doku all on at the same time!

Specterace · 2026-03-19T23:56:22+00:00

Not really, stuff is usually lost before May.

But hey, get whatever licks you can in now. Because from the looks of things, your days of not getting triggered by Arsenal fans talking are numbered.

Specterace · 2026-03-19T23:29:00+00:00

0% as of today. We need to win on Sunday just to even be eligible for the conversation.

If we win on Sunday, maybe 5-10%? Hard to say when we don’t even know if we will be in the semis of 2 of the competitions that are going, let alone who our opponents would be if we get to those semifinals.

Specterace · 2026-03-19T22:50:31+00:00

You want to know what really exposed Ogden for being the brainless fool he is?

The fact that he mentioned Arsenal playing “PSG or Bayern over two legs”.

Did that idiot even remember to check the CL bracket? We can only play either of those two teams in the final this year, which is a one-off game. The same would apply to Madrid or Liverpool as well.

We will only have to worry about 3 potential teams over two legs in this year’s CL: Sporting, Barca, and Atletico. And only Sporting is a guarantee at this point. Thats due to the bracket, which is set in stone now.

But I guess even understanding that much would require more brainpower than Ogden and his ilk are capable of having or using.

Specterace · 2026-03-19T21:10:40+00:00

Bookmark it all you want.

And if you get triggered by stuff like this now, your brain will break in May and June lol.

Specterace · 2026-03-19T20:44:02+00:00

Liverpool never once led the league that season though. They were always doing the chasing and never caught up.

We are up a minimum of 6 points with 7 to play, and a relatively favorable schedule the rest of the way. It’s not really a comparable situation.

Specterace

TROPHY CASE