Stamford Bridge was partly empty due to the sanctions in place but there were still enough supporters in blue. In the 1/8th of stadium were ladies and gentlemen sitting in red and white to support a team which had lost three easy games earlier. When the game ended, you could only see red jerseys in a blue stadium. It was beautiful. Players celebrated with fans for a good 10 minutes, showing what it meant for them to win a London Derby.
We beat Chelsea 4-2 at their home. After leading twice and giving it away within minutes, we decided it was enough. Eddie was brilliant, who opened the scoring capitalising on a Chelsea’s mistake. They levelled back. It was a brilliant Smith Rowe’s goal to put us in the lead again, but that didn’t last long. We went into the second half having played better football and a 2-2 score line. In 57′ minute, Eddie came to rescue again. Poor pass from Azpilicueta landed to Eddie’s feat after bouncing off from like 13 players and he don’t miss that.
Out last goal was symbolic in a way. Saka was handled in Penalty area and referee didn’t think much to point to the spot in spite of Chelsea’s players reactions. Everyone was expecting Martinelli to take it (even Arteta) but Saka was not in a mood to give it away. He scored, sending Mendy the wrong way and went straight to away section to celebrate with fans. We could all see how much it meant after missing one in Euro for England. He was a proud of himself and rightly so. I was buzzing for him.
4 goals from hale enders when we needed it the most. Who would have thought Nketiah can deliver better than Laca. Elneny got his first start this season and he didn’t disappoint at all. He is limited but a no nonsense player who have got a Ferrari engine fitted in. Our back three was poor but then a win’s a win and I will keep the complaining for some other day.
That leads me to talk about out top 4 chances. We are still in the mix with 57 points, level with Spu*ds sitting in 4th on basis of goal difference. We have to play Man United and West Ham and a six pointer north london derby. 6 game and it might feel too much of an expectation but I believe we should win all of them. United are sh*t, West Ham are tired and well, you can’t lose against Spu*s. Our other three games are against Leeds, New Castle and Everton – all winnable.
On the other hand, Spurs still have to play Leicester and Liverpool. They have games against Brentford and Burnley, they will do a spursy and lose some points I’m sure. In any case, we can’t afford to lose any more matches!
There was an argument going on twitter earlier stating Champions League qualification meant nothing since we are still building team and have areas to strengthen. We have lost against Brighton, Crystal Palace and Southampton and we should rather fix everything first and then think of competing in champions league. Well it’s a sh*t argument! By that logic, playing in a league with Klopp and Pep’s team – probably two of the best teams in recent times, is waste?!
Champions League attract players. Talents all over the world wants to make it big at the grand stage. Not only we will struggle to bring world class talents who constantly look for CL games, keeping the ones we have will get difficult. Saka, Martinelli, ESR would most certainly be dreaming of playing against Barcelona and Bayern and making their legacy. And it has it’s monetary benefit. When you have some 50m extra cash, you can afford to over pay for players like Ben White and not feel the heat.
We are playing Man United tomorrow at Emirates. I won’t mind seeing the same starting XI and the intent with which we played against Chelsea. They are not going to sit back like a lower mid table club and that gives us the option of playing our game. We have been shit with low block but play comparatively well against teams who wants to compete in possession. It’s probably the worst United side in years and three points should be a guarantee from Mikel’s team. Win this, and you are one step closer.
To the Chelsea fan who somehow managed to land on an Arsenal blog, repeat after me…
LONDON IS RED
“You Either Die A Hero, Or You Live Long Enough To See Yourself Become The Villain”.
We all see things differently. I might find Martinelli a generational talent and you might see him as sh*t. We both can be wrong and right at the same time.
Le-grove has been a motivation for me to start this blog and I feel my writing is a bit inspired from there.
Internet is a cool place, there are always alternatives.
I will try keeping it as open as possible, probably like a ‘Wrighty’ version. Ian Wright don’t mind singing ‘We have got Mik Arteta’ after beating Chelsea and United.. but then Iam Wright also criticizes him on national television after a poor game.
Proud to have you all here. In thr world of left and right, we can sit in the middle. 🙏🏻
“Yeah it’s like giving Arteta credit for calling the Fire Brigade after setting something on fire.”
🤣
I’ve got a feeling Liverpool is going to fuck up today. Even a draw would do.
Will love to see it though even if I hate City
I don’t think I’ve watched Iwobi play for Everton once without thinking he’s got to be one of our best sales ever!
Liverpool now remind me of Fergies utd who reminded me of Liverpool in the 80’s. They always seem to get the dodgy decisions.
Lol.. that run from him made 3 mill of that transfer money worth it 🤣
I jinxed it for Everton. Pools are too good for them anyways.
I’m puzzled by the current vindictive condition of the Merseyside rivalry. There seems to be a genuine enmity between them these days, almost akin to us and Spurs. I have these memories of fans from both sides sharing the terraces even at the apogee of hooliganism in the 70s and 80. Plus you never really heard of trouble off the pitch (on it was a different matter) when the two played. Almunia – I guess you know lads who have been going over for a while. Any thoughts. 2-0. Kin ell. Reds fans shouting ‘going down’ with real passion. And I’m casually planning a return to Goodison next season – with Cardiff!
KP
Arteta is the gift that keeps on giving and here are just some examples:
Guen to Marseilles for a pittance
Saliba a generational CB to strengthen some other top European club instead of AFC.
Eddie’s agent can now negotiate a better contract and his commission increases.
Mavro to Stuttgart for a pittance
Bellerin to Betis so that he can have the Coppa Del Rey trophy when we needed a RB badly
The final gift will be we keeping Everton up in the EPL on May22nd hopefully by that time we will have CL games next season.
PS – Many thanks for mentioning me in your post to Tony. It’d be great if he spent some time on here. He’s a good egg.
Almost forgot why did it take almost 6 months before finding out how good of a pairing Elneny can be in midfield? After 2 games one MOM performance. As some journo put it, it took Arsenal to be in chaos mode before producing results as now everything was of the table regarding starting players and formation.
Almost looks like Arteta tried the spaghetti approach throw them at the wall and see what shit sticks, it is called the process or generational manager approach.
Killroy
Hiya mate. Hope you’ve recovered from yesterday’s roller-coaster ride!
If we’re talking about a litany of Artetarseups during his apparent job-for-life with us, I assume your accurate list is only part one and that there are about 30 volumes still to come!
Kronke
Yeah I was there yesterday – to be honest I’m so disillusioned with Arsenal under Arteta I’ve stopped caring if we win or lose.
Which is the reason I hate him so much.
In the US the game was on at 7:30am on top of that Comcrap the company that has the EPL rights splits the games over 3 platforms, streaming, regular TV channel and cable. The AFC game was on cable and I couldn’t be arsed to get up that early and find a pirate link.
So got up at 10 and watched the 17 minutes highlights on the streaming service which made my weekend especially as the Sp*ds drew 0-0.
Much of my viewing habit is tied to what is available on streaming without a price tag that reeks of supporting someone’s obscene lifestyle.
Therefore Serie A, Bundesliga, La Liga, Cup games, UCL, UEL and a large portion of the EPL games are available for a reasonable subscription price, just not all the EPL games as the fuckers over at Comcast who is in the cable business hang on to a dying business model akin to the whale oil lamp business.
Kroenke
With regards to Pedro – he’s become the guy in a group of friends who thinks putting others down makes him look better in front of some girls. It doesn’t it makes you look a prick.
That’s why the constant attacked on Emery and anyone else who might be a threat to Arteta. Vieira will be another.
Here’s some others.
Never getting a tune out of Torreira.
Auba… The entire thing!
Offering Shkodran an extension
Not selling Ainsley for good money.
Willian… Say no more (copyright has been paid to Almunia)
Not selling GX
Sulking and/or talking utter doublethink bollocks at press conferences.
A tactical ‘disasterclass’ against his predecessor
Long goalless periods/games when we’ll never score
Almost never recovering from going a goal down (how UnArsenal is that?)
Arm-waving like a loon and confusing everyone
And finally… That really irritating and deeply unsporting thing he does when he picks up the ball on the touchline and drops it on the floor instead of rolling it or throwing it to an opposing player
Fair to say, he’s not my favourite character in the club’s history. And breathe….
Marc
Keep the faith mate. Barcelona is a deeply flawed and stupid club who might just be willing to poach the basque bantamweight and reunite him with Auba!
My fear is that the Kroenkes can’t be bothered to take AFC to the next level as long as they don’t bleed money. It shows by the sports franchises that they own with the exception of the LA Rams where there 1st love is.
The occasional European tournament and the occasional cup final suits them. But to build a team that competes with City and Pool regularly for the title as it was in the past between United and Arsenal is not what they care for as long as they stay relevant which is show by their interest in the ESL.
As a result we may be stuck with Arteta until he commits the unforgivable sin to THEM whatever that is.
Losing money?
Arteta’s already cost us a shit load of cash.
Not selling AMN when we had an offer of £18 odd million on the table, not selling Laca or Nketiah last summer, missing out on European football for the first time in decades, signing off Auba’s new contract and then letting him leave on a free (we can only hope we’re not contributing to his wages), Willian the list goes on and on.
The Kroenke’s pattern so far has been to sack a manager once it becomes clear they will miss out on CL for a second consecutive season.
Arteta must have something on one of them.
Don’t know about the losing money part, he is losing millions atm because of the stadium that was financed and the lawsuit he lost plus Arsenal is also not showing any profit. Since the family wealth is in the billions, wife is a Walmart heiress, I don’t think money rates as an unforgivable one, perhaps a combination of loss of prominence, losing the fan base, half empty stadiums, bad media exposure and loss of sponsorship might just push it over the line to get rid of Arteta.
Some improvements in typography to make it easier to read comments on Mobile Phones… and a new post!