Saints vs Arsenal - 2000 April 4th

[trousers]

2 hours ago, saintwbu said:

Real shame to have no Matsuki and particularly no Downes for this - Bragg and Jander midfield feels right for me.

I reckon we'll see 3 of Bragg, Jander, Charles and Romeu in midfield for this one. 

[Football Special]

10 minutes ago, trousers said:

 

Injured, my arse

Good use of a comma.

They are panicking about playing us aren't they. Is there any rule if you drop out of internationals you can't then play next club game? 

[Fabrice29]

11 hours ago, trousers said:

I reckon we'll see 3 of Bragg, Jander, Charles and Romeu in midfield for this one. 

If Oriol Romeu comes in from the wilderness to start against the best team in the country something’s gone very wrong. 

[Graffito]

1 hour ago, Fabrice29 said:

If Oriol Romeu comes in from the wilderness to start against the best team in the country something’s gone very wrong. 

Do you think they’ll play their first team?

[Lighthouse]

31 minutes ago, Graffito said:

Do you think they’ll play their first team?

I don't care if Arsenal send out their seven week old embroynic clones of Thierry Henry, Romeu should not be starting this match.

[John B]

1 hour ago, Graffito said:

Do you think they’ll play their first team?

I should imagine that they will want to win after their failure at Wembley

[Saint86]

2 hours ago, Graffito said:

Do you think they’ll play their first team?

No. I don't care how many players they skive off of international duty, they can't afford to go full strength vs us - they have:

07/04 - Sporting away 3 days later,

11/04 - Bompey home (lunchtime kick off)

(that's a lot of travel).

15/04 - Sporting home

19/04 - Man City away.

We're the easiest game right at the start of a tough run for them, and a lot of their players will be away on international duty and getting back late. They'll try to rotate vs us (like they did against Mansfield) and if we go for it (big if) they'll be there for the taking. We'll need to start strong and take our chances before the likes of Eze etc come on.

Been having day dreams of them trying to load the box for corners - Trying to put 5 players around Peretz and hoof it in like Stoke or Wimbledon, but with Larin casually standing tall to boss them all whilst we leave all the speedy small players up field (like we did vs Coventry), and then just destroying them on the counter. Teach that Lego headed billion pound Pulis wannabe a few things.

I know its a gamble that could backfire, but i want us to absolutely go for this one and to humble them. Could be a pivotal nail in the quad bottle coffin.

Edited Tuesday at 10:58 by Saint86

[SaintsRoyalty]

Tickets for Arsenal fans: £25

Tickets for Saints fans: £35

I know some will say well away fans have to travel but that’s just not acceptable in my opinion. 

[Graffito]

1 hour ago, Lighthouse said:

I don't care if Arsenal send out their seven week old embroynic clones of Thierry Henry, Romeu should not be starting this match.

Erm…I didn’t say Romeu should be starting this match, on account of the fact that I think Romeu should not be starting this match. 
 

I think it’s interesting to speculate on what kind of team Arsenal put out since they, like Saints, have other priorities. There’s a fair chance it won’t be the best team in the world, as suggested, but a mix and match and stronger than what they fielded against Mansfield. They have a deep squad so unless Saints put out the strongest team available we’re unlikely to go through.

[RedWillie]

6 minutes ago, SaintsRoyalty said:

Tickets for Arsenal fans: £25

Tickets for Saints fans: £35

I know some will say well away fans have to travel but that’s just not acceptable in my opinion. 

ST and Members are £25, well mine was anyway 

[oldsarum]

40 minutes ago, SaintsRoyalty said:

Tickets for Arsenal fans: £25

Tickets for Saints fans: £35

I know some will say well away fans have to travel but that’s just not acceptable in my opinion. 

They were £25 for season ticket holders and members up until yesterday, but £35 now they are on general sale 

nb Arsenals tickets would have been sold to season ticket holders or members 

[Ted Bates Statue]

21 minutes ago, oldsarum said:

They were £25 for season ticket holders and members up until yesterday, but £35 now they are on general sale 

That's a shame, I was thinking of buying a couple of memberships and then at least clawing back some discount

[EssEffCee]

2 hours ago, SaintsRoyalty said:

Tickets for Arsenal fans: £25

Tickets for Saints fans: £35

I know some will say well away fans have to travel but that’s just not acceptable in my opinion. 

£35 is only for non season ticket holders and members, for those the price is £25 so we have to charge them the same.

[LiberalCommunist]

The more I think about this game, the more I consider it a unwelcome distraction. I know that will rub some up the wrong way, but its how I feel. This amazing run has us on the edge of something special. Once we land in the play offs, I fancy us to win it. We need not fear anyone. 

Play the fringe. Prepare for Wrexham. Enjoy the occasion. This is the most important international break we have had in 20 years. Lets not let the cup spoil it. 

[trousers]

57 minutes ago, LiberalCommunist said:

The more I think about this game, the more I consider it a unwelcome distraction. I know that will rub some up the wrong way, but its how I feel. This amazing run has us on the edge of something special. Once we land in the play offs, I fancy us to win it. We need not fear anyone. 

Play the fringe. Prepare for Wrexham. Enjoy the occasion. This is the most important international break we have had in 20 years. Lets not let the cup spoil it. 

Yeah, I know it's a hanging offence to some on here, but I do think we'll end up looking back on it as a distraction. 

That said, if we get to the semi finals I'll be in full blown hypocrisy mode at the front of the ticket queue!

 

[saintant]

I think we should go on the strong side for this game. The players will have had a fortnight of not being on the pitch together competitively so inevitably some ring rust will have developed as always after an international break. Use this game to bed the players back in so they are up to speed ready to face Wrexham who will already have played away to West Brom on the Friday. We can't afford to risk resting most of the team against Arsenal and then finding they are not at the races when we face Wrexham. It's a tricky one but Tonda normally gets things right. Would love to beat Arsenal but the Wrexham game is more important in the grand scheme of things.

[EssEffCee]

1 hour ago, LiberalCommunist said:

The more I think about this game, the more I consider it a unwelcome distraction. I know that will rub some up the wrong way, but its how I feel. This amazing run has us on the edge of something special. Once we land in the play offs, I fancy us to win it. We need not fear anyone. 

Play the fringe. Prepare for Wrexham. Enjoy the occasion. This is the most important international break we have had in 20 years. Lets not let the cup spoil it. 

Each to their own but I'm not sure I'd class making the play offs as 'something special'. 

Beating the best side in the country to put us one result from the FA Cup final on the other hand would be much closer to that description.

[Osvaldorama]

Let’s fucking go for it. 
 

Not had too much to cheer this season, (until the last few weeks). Who knows, they may take it easy and underestimate us. 

[RedArmy]

4 hours ago, LiberalCommunist said:

The more I think about this game, the more I consider it a unwelcome distraction. 

And they say the FA cup has lost its magic… 

 

Fucking hell, we’re 2 wins away from only our third FA cup final in 50 years. 
 

I couldn’t give a shit about the playoffs until this Arsenal game is over. 
 

 

[Lighthouse]

5 hours ago, LiberalCommunist said:

The more I think about this game, the more I consider it a unwelcome distraction. I know that will rub some up the wrong way, but its how I feel. This amazing run has us on the edge of something special. Once we land in the play offs, I fancy us to win it. We need not fear anyone. 

Play the fringe. Prepare for Wrexham. Enjoy the occasion. This is the most important international break we have had in 20 years. Lets not let the cup spoil it. 

How can you ‘enjoy the occasion’ paying £25/£35 to watch Championship reserves against Arsenal? They’ll just get thumped, it’s basically what Puel did and we lost 0-5.

[Charlie Wayman]

On 24/03/2026 at 07:28, Fabrice29 said:

If Oriol Romeu comes in from the wilderness to start against the best team in the country something’s gone very wrong. 

Spoil sport! Is there no romance in your soul?

[Pamplemousse]

If we don't make the play-offs it'll be because of our dreadful start, nothing to do with the FA Cup.

There are loads of Prem teams who would take our position, let alone other Championship teams so we have to go for it.

[Saint86]

15 hours ago, LiberalCommunist said:

The more I think about this game, the more I consider it a unwelcome distraction. I know that will rub some up the wrong way, but its how I feel. This amazing run has us on the edge of something special. Once we land in the play offs, I fancy us to win it. We need not fear anyone. 

Play the fringe. Prepare for Wrexham. Enjoy the occasion. This is the most important international break we have had in 20 years. Lets not let the cup spoil it. 

It is what it is. But sadly we cannot "play the fringe"... if we send a side out to get battered it will damage momentum and dressing room morale.

IMO, we need to go for it and give a good account of ourselves against the best side in the country - and hope we avoid extra time or injuries.

[TheAlehouseBrawlers]

57 minutes ago, Saint86 said:

It is what it is. But sadly we cannot "play the fringe"... if we send a side out to get battered it will damage momentum and dressing room morale.

IMO, we need to go for it and give a good account of ourselves against the best side in the country - and hope we avoid extra time or injuries.

Nutshell.

[Noodles34]

14 hours ago, EssEffCee said:

Each to their own but I'm not sure I'd class making the play offs as 'something special'. 

Beating the best side in the country to put us one result from the FA Cup final on the other hand would be much closer to that description.

all day long Rich..

[Midfield_General]

I do wonder sometimes why some people bother with football. 

The FA Cup is the only major honour we've ever won. It was fifty years ago, before many supporters were even born, but that date is still burned into the soul of most Saints fans. Half a century later, we're still bringing out a special shirt to remember that one thing we did. 

We won that as a second tier side who no-one gave a prayer to against a much stronger team with much deeper resources. But somehow we did it, and it's the biggest thing that has ever happened to the club. 

Now we're in touching distance of having another go at that, and some people would basically rather not bother trying, because of some small imagined advantage it might give us in a league game a few days later which, while important, won't even decide this season on it's own. 

As a football fan and a supporter of a team that has won almost nothing in 140 years, if you can't get excited about having a crack at one of the best sides in the world, in your own stadium, to go within one game of a major cup final, honestly, what's the point? 

[Totton Saint]

6 minutes ago, Midfield_General said:

I do wonder sometimes why some people bother with football. 

The FA Cup is the only major honour we've ever won. It was fifty years ago, before many supporters were even born, but that date is still burned into the soul of most Saints fans. Half a century later, we're still bringing out a special shirt to remember that one thing we did. 

We won that as a second tier side who no-one gave a prayer to against a much stronger team with much deeper resources. But somehow we did it, and it's the biggest thing that has ever happened to the club. 

Now we're in touching distance of having another go at that, and some people would basically rather not bother trying, because of some small imagined advantage it might give us in a league game a few days later which, while important, won't even decide this season on it's own. 

As a football fan and a supporter of a team that has won almost nothing in 140 years, if you can't get excited about having a crack at one of the best sides in the world, in your own stadium, to go within one game of a major cup final, honestly, what's the point? 

Well said.

As an aside I saw the '76 final on TV.

Edited yesterday at 12:36 by Totton Saint
punctuation

[sad saints fan]

13 hours ago, RedArmy said:

And they say the FA cup has lost its magic… 

 

Fucking hell, we’re 2 wins away from only our third FA cup final in 50 years. 
 

I couldn’t give a shit about the playoffs until this Arsenal game is over. 
 

 

Completely agree . Much rather stay in the cup and not make the play offs.

In fact if it wasn't financially important I would rather stay where we are . 

[sad saints fan]

17 minutes ago, Totton Saint said:

Well said.

As an aside I saw the '76 final on TV.

I was 18 years old and went to the final with my Dad. 50 years on and I still remember almost everything about the day .

[Saint86]

55 minutes ago, Midfield_General said:

I do wonder sometimes why some people bother with football. 

The FA Cup is the only major honour we've ever won. It was fifty years ago, before many supporters were even born, but that date is still burned into the soul of most Saints fans. Half a century later, we're still bringing out a special shirt to remember that one thing we did. 

We won that as a second tier side who no-one gave a prayer to against a much stronger team with much deeper resources. But somehow we did it, and it's the biggest thing that has ever happened to the club. 

Now we're in touching distance of having another go at that, and some people would basically rather not bother trying, because of some small imagined advantage it might give us in a league game a few days later which, while important, won't even decide this season on it's own. 

As a football fan and a supporter of a team that has won almost nothing in 140 years, if you can't get excited about having a crack at one of the best sides in the world, in your own stadium, to go within one game of a major cup final, honestly, what's the point? 

Nutshell #2

[Midfield_General]

18 hours ago, LiberalCommunist said:

Lets not let the cup spoil it. 

Yeah, I'd hate to spoil a league game for sixth in the Championship with a waste of time like the FA Cup 😉

 

 

Edited 23 hours ago by Midfield_General

[saintstowin]

The Fulham win showed that going 'strong' is the best plan against a better team. Firstly for obvious tactical reasons - the old fashioned concept of having the best chance of winning.

Plus after this break (with some but not all playing competitive football) I'd much rather they get back to playing for Saints as soon as possible and not wait for the Wrexham game. 

Playing a game before the league restarts will help rather than hinder match fitness.

I can't see a downside apart from the random chance of an injury which can happen at any time. And we're missing a couple in midfield for the cup game who can come back in.

And I totally agree about the cup and its importance. 

I believe in this case we can achieve success in both if we play well with our best players.

[Totton Saint]

2 hours ago, sad saints fan said:

I was 18 years old and went to the final with my Dad. 50 years on and I still remember almost everything about the day .

Do you remember the team selection?

[Noodles34]

I remember one din saying before we scored the winner at Fulham ' Rather lose than go to extra time' ... I mean who thinks like that? 

[suewhistle]

Drat, got to 10 and forgot Nick Holmes, thought he was later; my apologies to him!

I want the opportunity to wear a Veteran of 76 t-shirt. I haven't got one, but you get the drift..

[ChristopheVAFC]

Friends, I’m delighted to let you know that I’ll be at Saint Mary’s for this match! 😍😍

Can’t wait to be there! 🔴⚪

[EssEffCee]

I genuinely believe that in the very unlikely event that we reach both the FA Cup and play off finals we'd have some dinlos saying we should rest people in the cup final for the 'more important' play off final.

Proper weird.

Edited 18 hours ago by EssEffCee

[vectraman]

19 hours ago, RedArmy said:

And they say the FA cup has lost its magic… 

 

Fucking hell, we’re 2 wins away from only our third FA cup final in 50 years. 
 

I couldn’t give a shit about the playoffs until this Arsenal game is over. 
 

 

Need to take FA out of the second sentence!! Either that or I don’t remember the other two 😉

Edited 18 hours ago by vectraman

[stknowle]

1 hour ago, Noodles34 said:

I remember one din saying before we scored the winner at Fulham ' Rather lose than go to extra time' ... I mean who thinks like that? 

One Din

[sad saints fan]

3 hours ago, Totton Saint said:

Do you remember the team selection?

Yes And the substitute. Had a chat to Ian Turner and Paul Gilchrist in level 1 before the Leicester cup game.

[RedArmy]

1 hour ago, vectraman said:

Need to take FA out of the second sentence!! Either that or I don’t remember the other two 😉

Eh? 76, 03 and 26 (hypothetically). 

[Football Special]

1 hour ago, ChristopheVAFC said:

Friends, I’m delighted to let you know that I’ll be at Saint Mary’s for this match! 😍😍

Can’t wait to be there! 🔴⚪

Have you been before? Need any advice? You might get lucky and see some of the Sports Republic legends in the Directors box, expect they'll all be there 

[ChristopheVAFC]

2 hours ago, Football Special said:

Have you been before? Need any advice? You might get lucky and see some of the Sports Republic legends in the Directors box, expect they'll all be there 

Yes, this is my second visit!

I know the city a bit as I stayed for three days last time.

I hope I’ll get the chance to have a photo with some of you!

I’m already lucky to be able to attend such a great football match!

 

 

 

[swedish dave]

On 23/03/2026 at 21:20, Football Special said:

Good use of a comma.

They are panicking about playing us aren't they. Is there any rule if you drop out of internationals you can't then play next club game? 

With the number of class players Arsenal have they ought to be good enough to beat us (on paper)

but this is the FA Cup and anything can (and often does) happen at this stage. 

[Sheaf Saint]

We owe them one for the 2003 final (was that really 23 years ago!? 😳)

So a somewhat flukey 1-0 win, with a goal coming about from a lucky rebound followed by them having a goal disallowed for a marginal offside then being denied a late equaliser by a "how the fuck did he keep that out!" point blank save from Peretz, would do just nicely.

We can dream, can't we?

[Saint Garrett]

9 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

We owe them one for the 2003 final (was that really 23 years ago!? 😳)

So a somewhat flukey 1-0 win, with a goal coming about from a lucky rebound followed by them having a goal disallowed for a marginal offside then being denied a late equaliser by a "how the fuck did he keep that out!" point blank save from Peretz, would do just nicely.

We can dream, can't we?

We were however pretty awful in that game, and Claus should have been sent off early on...what a day though...!

[Cabrone]

Play to win, full strength team please. They won't fancy a trip down here. If we go out we go out with our heads held high and if we win then it's on to the semi.

[Football Special]

5 minutes ago, Cabrone said:

Play to win, full strength team please. They won't fancy a trip down here. If we go out we go out with our heads held high and if we win then it's on to the semi.

It has to be. As a fanbase we're realistic, if Arsenal turn up and play as they have this season they'll more than likely beat us. But we take hope from games like their draw at Wolves and Mansfield gave them a good game in the last round, magic of the Cup and all that. 

Very few tickets remain for this game, expect it will sell out by end of the week. 

[S-Clarke]

I don't think there's any situation where we won't go strong, we cannot think of going weak or resting players - even against their second string. If you step off it and go with a weaker side, lose heavily, it just crashes out any momentum.

I agree with others views that this ''play the kids in the cup, focus on the league'' is such a defeatist approach in my eyes. It's not just us, I've seen Newcastle and Villa fans suggesting going weaker in the European comps (when they were in them) to concentrate on the league, so they could qualify for Europe next season. Make that make sense.

As fans we've been indulged by the finances of football, it's not for us to worry about - we're the fans, all we can judge success on is winning silverware - surely? Modern fan bases seem more bothered about achieving a 'Positive net spend' or a '15th' place finish so we get £2m extra, rather than actually going all out for a bit of silverware.

Quarter finals don't come around too often, European runs don't come around too often (for clubs like us), so let's just grab the chance. 

[RedArmy]

I just hope Downes comments about some of the players struggling to get themselves up for the West Brom game after the high of playing Fulham don’t influence the team selection. 
 

We have to go full strength.