Glorious night in the Bernabeu, a 5-1 aggregate win and we move on to the semi finals of the Champions League.
Back in domestic football, we have a Sunday and a Wednesday night game upcoming - and if things go our way it would all but guarantee top 5. With Chelsea and Villa playing a lot of teams above them (Chelsea have Newcastle, Liverpool and Forest, Villa have Newcastle, Man City) the reality is our Premier League campaign now is just about the £3.1m or so per place!
On Sunday afternoon we could relegate Ipswich Town (would need West Ham to beat Southampton and Wolves to beat Man Utd, neither far from unlikely). The Tractor Boys have had a miserable season, with wins over Spurs, Chelsea, Bournemouth and Wolves being the bright sparks. Only one (Chelsea) was at Portman Road, where they host us in the 2pm Sky offering. They have 4 draws on top of that, with Villa and Man Utd coming away with just a point.
The reverse game was a narrow 1-0 win for Arsenal over the Christmas period.
Then we host a Crystal Palace side that seemingly are very distracted by the FA Cup. Since the quarter final they have conceded 10 in the last two games, drawn with the awful Southampton but did get a "M23 derby" win over Brighton that saw them reduced to 9 men!
It will be interesting to see how Arteta rotates the team. We do have the benefit of a weekend off before the Tuesday night home tie with PSG so a bit of room for manoeuvre. Arteta should look to find a solution to the dilemma Thomas Parteys moment of madness and ill-discipline has caused us. It would also be good for Odegaard to try and play himself into form. He looks like he lacks confidence in the danger areas. Jurrien Timber seems one likely to get a rest somewhere, but I also think it would be good to give Saliba a game break so Ben White could be used at CB. With Saka playing himself back into fitness, a sub appearance on Sunday and a start vs Palace may be a wise course of action.
It would be great to go into the semi final on the back of 2 league wins and the 69 points that will be more than enough to finish top 5.
Back to the grind....
posted on 17/4/25
Wanto to bring back Saka into my FPL team but worried about minutes in this double game week.
I hope he starts both games. Merino maybe a better option?
posted on 17/4/25
Hard to call. Merino has become very important so he could also be rested for one of them. I would imagine Saka will get minutes in both - but one off the bench possibly.
posted on 17/4/25
Congrats on the great win
hehe
posted on 17/4/25
Maybe Califori is also back that would bring us options to change the defense. White also need games.
posted on 17/4/25
I whacked Saka in my team, you reckon he won't start both games? I assume starting and early sub
posted on 17/4/25
He might do, but he is still being eased back after injury. Could be seen as a good chance to get him a couple of 90 minutes under his belt.
posted on 17/4/25
Makes sense, ta
posted on 17/4/25
Put out a strong team, maybe chance only two players max. The competitiveness is needed vs PSG, who actually have nothing to play for in the league games. This would be the deciding factor.