Lets move on.
We begin our Carabao Cup journey today against the Boltons. Bolton Wanderers is one of the oldest English club based in Greater Manchester and currently plays in League One, third level of English football. They have some very rich history but not so rich recently when the club went into administration before an ownership change. For us, it’s a game to rotate and rotate heavily, give game time to those who can’t make the current Premier League / Champions League squad, and to give chances to the kids.
I was expecting a lot of changes in the line up and that’s what has happened
Jack Porter, a 16 year old who signed the scholarship this summer for Arsenal is going to play in the nets. The reason being Neto is cup-tied for the tournament as he played for Bournemouth against West Ham before his loan move and can’t represent any other team. We have a lot of injuries – Tierney, Odegaard, Merino, Zinchenko, Tomiyasu. We saw Raya, Calafiori, Timber all struggling physically in the City game and and only Calafiori seems to have recovered and made into the playing XI.
Is it the time for kids to shine?
Well, the kids are getting their chances today. The line up is out and we have switched to a 3-4-3 formation. We have Porter in the nets, Nichols, Kiwior, Calafiori in the defence, Lewis-Skelly, Rice, Jorginho and Nwaneri in the midfield and Saka, Sterling, Jesus as the front 3.
We have switched to a 3-4-3 line up probably because we wanted to rest our defence line after 3 huge games and I think it’s a good thing. White had injury concern, we need Saliba and Gabriel for much bigger games and Timber was also struggling against City towards the end.
There’s not much today except that it would be exciting to see some of the kids getting their chances and to see who picks up the most of it. It’s also good to be back at Emirates and the game SOLD OUT against a League 2 team in first round of Carabao cup.
I would love some trophies this season, so lets go out and do the usual boys.
COYG and fuck the spuds (yeah, spurs has nothing to do with it but it had been long me shouting that).
Hi Hoopah
I hope you’re well mate.
This sounds a little bit like revisionism on behalf of the diminutive and heavily pregnant Willian. He was shit and utterly unmotivated. So many games where Arteta foolishly persisted with him and he consistently failed to deliver the goods. He can’t get out of it by simply blaming Arteta. Remember all that shit about how Mikel had talked him into a vision of winning the CL in three years?
Arteta managed him poorly too of course. One of a littany of failed and wrong-headed transfers.
If it were that easy, I’d blame Willian and Tets 40% and Bunga Bunga Edu the remaining 20%. An utter waste of time and money.
Hoopah—I so wish that he had gone into further detail about what exactly changed his mind, after all, he was still getting planty of opportunities within that supposed 3 month time frame…if I had to hazard a guess, it was likely the manner in which MA’s actions had drastically changed once things went sideways, when he tried to blame everything and everyone but himself…let’s remember that during that season he intentionally tried to turn the fans against Auba, like Wenger did with Sanchez, lied about Marts injury status, besmirched ESR’s contributions, even though he saved his ass, and attempted to gaslight the fanbase by pretending that even though he signed and played more senior players his intention all along was to pursue a more youth-oriented course…there’s no question that Willian’s time here was an unmitigated failure, but I blame MA/Edu far more for how how things panned out…thankfully things were being run so poorly that Willian was willing to leaving a lot of money on the table just to get the fuck out
KP
Edu wasn’t involved with the purchase – it was all about slimy Raul. At the time Edu spent most of his time holed up in Columbus. Edu was clearly a case of running with the fox (Raul) and chasing (Scheming) with the hounds (Kroenke’s). Raul had El B wrapped around his little finger – El B did what he was told unlike Emery who challenged Raul and his purchases.
I simply must say that I completely disagree with what you’ve suggested Norg—Willian officially signed around the 14th of August and Raul was out the door on the 20th…there might have been some coincidental agent-type links to Raul, but with MA about to get the keys to the kingdom and Edu speaking endlessly of his “closeness” to the player in question, there’s no way that Pepe signing lame duck fuck was directing our recruitment room…all 3 parties spoke on multiple occasions about the impetus behind this move and not a one mentioned that car salesman-like fuck…let’s face it, MA used this to falsely prove that he could attract talent, plus it certainly didn’t hurt that he was on a free
interestingly enough a few days ago a “writer” for the Independent wrote an article entitled “Mikel Arteta’s true inspiration isn’t Guardiola or Wenger—it’s David Moyes”…in more recent times, I’ve spoken about MA’s more defensive inklings this season, but, unlike this particular author, I wasn’t trying to put a positive spin on his negative footballing pursuits…maybe this individual forgot that Moyes didn’t win jackshit at Everton and was even worse when he was given the reigns at United…talk about shining up a turd
there’s no way that this Pepe signing…
Great comments KP & TRVL – onward to the LCFC game and Vardy’s nastiness. Hope the cnut sees red like his misses did in Wagathagate. That was comedy gold. The Have I Got News For You at that time was hilarious……..
See you all at the game to morrow…….. Just about to drive 375km to BKK and beat the 100s of speed cameras we have here now.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2024/09/26/ethan-nwaneri-arsenal-talent-academy-martin-odegaard/
Really heartwarming story about Ethan Nwaneri. He sounds like another all round good kid in the making. A lot of what he did against Bolton was very Odegaard-esque. The photo of him signing with Jack W is charming
I watched Saka on Wednesday night. He was constantly talking and encouraging the (even) younger kids. Someone in the club is doing a brilliant job of ensuring that these young players are grounded and properly human. Much the way that Rocastle and Thomas were carefully mentored back in the day
Top result for the Women’s team last night in the CL putting us into the group stages.
KP—I think we’re incredibly fortunate that those who rose to the top of the academy ladder, like Saka and ESR, were highly personable and level-headed individuals, as they clearly set the tone for those coming after them
today’s match-up should be fairly straight-forward so long as we don’t let Vardy have a day, which shouldn’t be a tough ask nowadays…we should be looking to run it up a bit against this average at best side
Managed to get BKK done in 30hours so back home for the game tonight. Has to be 3 points so no point thinking about line ups or tactics. We are a good level above LCFC and I fancy Ethan to have a field day if he plays.
KP
Good stuff on Ethan. Ode & Ethan at 7 & 8 I think our creative input would be very high in the PL’s table.
TRVL
Agreed LCFC are pretty much a one man team at the sharp end. Saliba and Gabs can handle the ferret faced, nasty arsehole.
Looking forward to game time…..
If your our and about to local grounds hope it’s a fun day out.
Leicester are pure piss this season and Vardy fancies himself as a spoiling pantomime villain (oh no he doesn’t – oh yes he does!) rather than a serious player. I doubt he’ll even start.
We just need to get right on top of them from minute 1, press the fuck out of them when we don’t have the ball, establish a lead, score another 2, and let them chase for the rest of the game.
Arsenal 4-0 winners at a canter.
Hi Tony
Driving in Thailand these days sounds arguably as hazardous as when I was there. The traffic jams in BKK eventually became a disincentive to travel too far. Those speed traps sound like a money making scheme rather than an attempt to improve road safety. I doubt I’d recognise it now after 25 years. You must have balls of steel venturing out on the roads.
Worst place I ever visited for road safety was Tehran.
County beat Cardiff Met University by a goal last night. Couldn’t get there because of a cold (that feels akin to COVID). Back in the top three which is fantastic.
Martinez banned for ‘offensive behaviour’ – https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/c756r1609dno
Our erstwhile goalkeeper is at it again. What must go on in his phallocentric mind to equate trophies with his genitalia. Some serious short dick energy going on in his mind. Fucking weirdo.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/sep/28/jens-lehmann-fined-for-damaging-neighbours-garage-with-chainsaw
And while on the subject of eccentric goalkeepers, this is definitely one of the good guys. I loved Jens.
KP,
I have a few images by myself and one of the Twitter connections shared some last year. I am planning to put them all on the website under creative common license in a gallery pretty soon. It would be great if you can send some which do not have any sort of identifications of you and your family to bloggingwithmb@gmail.com. Internet can be a weird place sometime.
—
New post.