It’s the Derby day and it couldn’t have been anymore important than this. We are sitting on 6th position, tied up on points with Chelsea and whoever wins today at Stamford Bridge goes to third position behind Liverpool and City, with only 2 points difference to the latter. Liverpool are on a brilliant run but they will have their bad moments at some point, all we can do is play our best, accumulate as much points as possible and hope for the best.
Right, so what has happened which is favoring us? Man City lost to Brighton even after scoring first – that’s 3 very important points lost for them. Forest, which sits above us just lost to Newcastle. Aston Villa lost. And not that it’s important to talk about other small clubs but Tottenham just lost at home to Ipswich Town. All we have to do is win and we are back in the mix.
Line up is out. Odegaard is back and we have our strongest playing XI on the pitch against Chelsea. Timber and White on either side with Gabriel and Saliba in the center, a midfield of Partey, Rice and Odegaard with Martinelli, Havertz and Saka up top. That’s our best line up, may be Calafiori in place of White but there isn’t much drop in quality.
We will have to see whether Odegaard picks up his form after being side-lined with injury for couple of months now. We need him at his best though.
The only thing that’s wrong about today is Michael Oliver. After gifting City 9 extra minutes and a win against 10-men Arsenal, he has been rewarded to referee a London Derby which features Arsenal. Stay prepared to see some silly decisions.
Chelsea have improved massively under Maresca. Mikel, after our Champions League loss, said in the press conference that we can go and win at Stamford Bridge if we play the way we played against Inter Milan. I think it’s foolish to commit such statement against a rival for a Derby and when you are a visiting side. It just puts some un-needed pressure on the players, managers and everyone around the club. UNLESS you walk the talk.
Most importantly, we need to fix our basics and get back to the attacking football. That 10-men game against City has dented our confidence and we need to get out of it. We have failed to score against Inter, against Bournemouth and Newcastle and that’s not a good thing. Frankly, I love Marti but he should force his way to the middle and start contributing in terms of goals and assists. It’s not like he hasn’t got chances.
Right, a short one today. Game’s in 15 odd minutes and hopefully we paint the bridge red today. See you during the game.
Cheers
Welcome Madhu and Sid.
Believe me, this is a far more open forum than LG ever was. Ambarish writes some good, knowledgeable stuff and we get to say whatever we like. Who thought discussing Arsenal could ever be like that?
Madhu – I hope you’re enjoying life in the west Midlands. I’m in neighbouring Wales. If actually going to Arsenal games is tricky to impossible (as it is for most of us these days) I’d be happy to offer advice about alternatives in your area. Anyway, I’m looking forward to hearing your views on here.
Sid – is that really you? We’ve had a good few entertaining exchanges on LG in the past not least talking about Nigeria where I once spent a brilliant 6 months. You have a truly original take on things and I greatly admired the way you used to offend certain stuffy fuckers with no sense of humour on LG. I’m feeling the returning fire of your legendary long stuff already.
duck your heads – watch out for the swinging longstuff.
Sid & Madhu
I echo what KP said.
Thanks everyone for the welcome. I feel the pods and blogs need not always toe the official line and be considered supportive only if they support the manager no matter what. Blogs and podcasts have to be bold, incisive and provocative for most part. Sure if everything is hunky dory then why not. We are a club far from it this season. We will be doing disservice to the club if we dont discuss the short comings and ask pertinent question. Lately as with all country regimes, these blogs and pods have become autocratic and call you names, traitors etc if we don’t toe the official line.
We all love our clubs and dedicate emotions, time and sometimes money to support them thick and through. I have spent a lot of money to watch Arsenal matches from India in 90s and 2000s and have been through the Wenger days. ‘What i cant stand is the slander of our players especially the academy kids like ESR and call then names. That was the last straw which made me leave Le Grove.
Hope to engage with you all on topics related to our beloved club.
Hi Madhu
ESR should have been playing a lot more before his sale – he mentioned ‘what injury’ when questioned by a journo after the club had posted he was not in the squad – perhaps the injury was an enormous splinter stuck in his arse.
Currently Fulham are 1 point behind Arsenal and ESR is constantly one of the top performing Fulham players and on several occasions – MOM.
Glad you have come over to the other side – Le Grove was good once but then Jeff stopped posting. Pedro’s tongue must be well and truly caked in shit by now.
Norg,
Yes i watch Fulham every week due to ESR and he is purring there with so sign of any injuries. The unbelievable thing was that Pedro slandered on his blog that ESR didn’t train well and that’s why MA wasn’t picking him. That was way out of line.
Looks like Amorin has arrived with his back room staff at Manure and axed Van Nistleroy.
It wouldn’t surprise me if United’s new manager doesn’t get them up and running ala Slot style to be challenging for top four as Emery did with Villa. Our next home game against Manure on 5 December will be hard fought, as Amorin has time to instill his new methods.
Madhu
ESR has been a big miss this season and last. MA sees himself as the big time Charlie with everyone lauding his improvements, more like emperor’s new clothes syndrome, but his fall from grace will come soon enough. MA clearly forgot how ESR and Saka saved him his job, but ESR is letting his boots do the talking at Fulham with Reis and Iwobi all looking like they are enjoying their football.
Just think if we had Patino, ESR and Nwaneri to select this season instead of Trossard and Jesus?
Tony
You forgot Sterling another vanity project al la Willain from MA. Its criminal to have someone like sterling when you could have firmly integrated academy players like ESR, Reiss and Ethan. Ethan is being wasted this season, its much better to see him than a Jesus who is a disgrace.
Madhu
Totally agree Reis would be a better solution than Sterling and give Saka rotation breaks. Problem is they are slightly different players so don’t fit exactly into MA’s prices that has produced only capitulations…..
Iwobi would be a better 8 than Merino or Rice for that matter.
The nearly but not quite manager……. same as a player….
Tony
No wonder Chido left Arsenal for ManU. He knew that he had no pathway for First team with MA as manager. Unfortunately Per is not powerful enough to influence or mandate academy integration on MA. Why would any academy prospect with any decent chance of making it to first team would stick with Arsenal. Per needs to be more forceful with MA, otherwise the Arsenal Academy would be defunct.
Madhu
Chido isnt the only one to seek pastures new when they approach the age and skill set they have reached that enable them to be part of the first team set up. Unfortunately players like Sterling and Jesus are stinking the place out and they will always be selected in front of up and coming talent. At the end of this season I fully expect we will buy Sterling and give him a three year deal on an inflated salary. Perhaps El B is taking a back hander?
I would suspect that even MA has come to realize that the whole Sterling gig wasn’t such a brilliant piece of business, as some first suggested…at least it didn’t cost us a fortune, like so many of his previous transfer missteps…seems like MA’s willingness to incorporate RS’s eldest son into the mix was all part of his pitch, which, considering his public “apology” after RS was taken off following Saliba’s red card, likewise included some serious playing time assurances…at least this late window maneuver suggests that MA finally realized that we need to inject some directness into our attack, unfortunately this rather underwhelming option can no longer fit that bill…maybe instead of wasting so much time securing players with no other serious takers, we should have been finding a far more viable alternative…even though I have exceedingly little faith in MA’s decision-making process, I just can’t envision any set of circumstances that would see RS back at the Emirates next season…that said, with this dipshit in charge who the fuck knows
Good to see you Sid & Madhu. Been reading some of your comments on Le-Grieve but the spin on there is dizzying. One of the comments that I thought was funny was “Strong the force of delusion is on Le-Grove” but after searching for reactions, I found out it was deleted.
That whole blog turned into a Kool Aid camp. The day of reckoning will come as it says if it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck… If Arsenal’s manager talks delusional, acts delusional on the sideline, he is delusional. He most likely thinks he is God’s gift to football. To that I say, what historic club with with a pedigree would go for our MIT?
@Madhu, @Sid just in case you wonder,we have here a few appropriate acronyms and designations for Arteta. MIT = Manager In Training, El-B coined by Kroenkephobe meaning El Bastardo and the most telling coined by TRVL fucktard or fuckward.
We are now at 19 points after 11 games, Emery was at 17 points after 11 games, surely that was not the reason for him being canned. As far as recruitment is concerned, there must have been some heated exchanges between El-B and Edu. Here is my take:
Jesus & Zinchenko, he coached them at city and paid £80mill for the failures.
He bought Havertz to replace Xhaka but plays him as false 9 or CF.
He bought Rice as a number 6 and plays him as a number 8.
He bought Lokonga, Taveres and Viera and they went out on loan.
We spent hundreds of millions of pounds on players who were bought for a particular position but play now in a different one.
Finally a record spending on Rice, does he look this season like a 100m player? His dead ball kicks are nothing to write home about. If from the next 4 matches we don’t take 12 points the spin on Le-Grieve should be very entertaining.
Finally, with the injury crises in the back 4 that Real Madrid has, I would not be one bit surprised if Saliba will be a Real player in January because by that time our title dream surely will be over.
New post.