We are playing Nottingham Forest today at home. There are 2 very motivational reasons for the team to win this – first, because we lost to Liverpool and we need to get back to winning games; second – they have got an ex-spud as their new manager. It’s still too early to go through the table but we are sitting only behind Pool and Chelsea, both of them remain unbeaten so far. Things are going to get much tougher as the season progresses – with injuries (we already have 2 of our first XI unavailable), fatigue, playing twice a week, winter and Havertz coming back from injury.
We need to make sure we win the most of what’s in front and Forest looks to be there for the taking. Nuno was a tough nut, he would set up his team for counters and frustrate you through out your 90 min. With Ange and his philosophy that ended him with Spurs at 17th last season, we should win this pretty comfortably.
Team sheet is out and it looks like Mikel Arteta has gone mental and in a good way. He finally starts a team with just one DM. A strange but a brave move and it should be the way forward. That midfield should only one of the Rice or Zubimendi at any point of time and there should be 2 attacking midfielders feeding Gyokeres. If you have a defence of Saliba (when he is back) and Gabriel with Timber and Calafiori on either side, you need to be more aggressive.
Mosquera starts in the defence as Saliba hasn’t recovered from his injury from the Liverpool game. Odegaard is fit so he is back in the team and Merino forces Mikel to drop Declan Rice for the game.
Eze picks up his first start in Arsenal color. Martinelli sits on bench for the game, Rice too while Saka will not be available for some more time.
I am liking this set up. We look more attacking and Gyokeres will get more balls hopefully to convert. There is no point playing a poacher up top but no one behind him to feed the ball. Timber and Calafiori will do the overlapping to provide more space to Eze and Madueke and I am kinda surprised Mikel decided to go all attacking finally.
Cheers to David Raya for his 100th game in red and white. It was only yesterday that we were enjoying Ramsdale’s shenanigans but were frustrated with his mistakes. We improved on him, Raya has very little errors in him and he always look solid.
Mosquera gets his first Arsenal start. He is only 21 years old and you would think that in Saliba’s absence, White would be the first in the list but it’s not so. The kid managed to keep the veteran on the bench.
Right, that’s all of today. Sorry for being absent these days, busy schedule and some family time overall kept me away. See you during the game.
And before anyone gets their knickers in a twist.
Why did no other serious clubs want those above players for £50+ millions.
PSG?
Liverpool?
Barcelona?
Real Madrid?
Answers on a postcard.
Art Fraud
At least there seems to be a vibe building amongst both the fans and in the media that Arteta has to deliver something this season.
Like all things once the momentum swings its unstoppable.
Chelsea keeper sent off in under 5 minutes.
Weather conditions in Manchester horrible absolutely chucking it down.
Josh being quoted in the Athletic:
“At this moment, we would like to thank Tim for his continued dedication and commitment to Arsenal in a period of transformational change for the club. He has played a pivotal role and ensured we are in a great position to continue to deliver our strategy in our ambition to win major trophies.”
What a convoluted way to say “We got fuck all with no light at the end of the tunnel”
Several factors favour us today, (1) City played Napoli on Thursday, whereas we played on Tuesday, (2) the very real possibility that Rodri might not be available to put in a full 90, due to some obvious load managing, and (3) City has been beaten in 5 of their last 7 fixtures following a CL contest…problem is, I’m not convinced that even these obvious advantages will embolden our blunt instrument of a manager to field a midfield that will ask the right questions of their less gettable backline…so I imagine we’ll see the Simian 3 once again
we all know Pep’s kryptonite, at least in recent years, teams who counter with directness and pace, but that’s seems like a completely foreign concept under our current manager…so looks like the keys to this one will be locking down Haaland and hoping that things bounce our way when it comes to set pieces and the like…hardly a riveting proposition…maybe the fact that we’re playing at home we’ll factor in from a tactical perspective and we’ll front foot this one from the off…if so, there’s no reason we can’t take all 3
Killroy
Tim was taken on to ensure AFC sat at the top table if a European Super League managed to get going. A couple of other teams paid AFC for Tim to act for them.
He is a top lawyer – nothing for him to do at AFC. He wasn’t involved with contract negotiations etc other than asking a few questions.
I said a month ago that Liverpool signing isak wouldn’t be a big improvement (if any) for them and nothing I have seen since has made me change my mind.
Of course Isak is top drawer or very close but unfortunately so is Ekitike and that is the one area of the pitch that Liverpool are so much better than Arsenal and may be the deciding factor.
We have Gyokeres, Havertz and Jesus and unless there is something about Gyokeres game that I’ve missed then I’m afraid he is at least a level (maybe 2) below the Liverpool strikers, so the hope is that gyokeres striker instincts come into play and we provide him with the service that he requires to be a success and find the back of the net.
For me gyokeres is a poor man’s Haaland , clumsy on the ball out of the box but comes alive in the box without the explosive pace of Haaland so we really need to play to his strengths as unlike Haaland he will rarely destroy defences on his own.
A very strange performance from the referee yesterday in the Liverpool/Everton game in failing up to 4 times to allow Everton to take a quick free kick resulting in a yellow card for an Everton player, plus only 3 minutes time added on , which is the lowest this season in the league which was rather strange especially as the ref was delaying the take of free kicks with some taking up to a minute to take whilst he fannied about making sure the players were in position.
In the whole scheme of things it matters little but it may help ours and other chasing clubs to put pressure on the officials to not show the usual favouritism to Liverpool especially at Anfield.
It is quite telling of how a ref is influenced by the home crowd at Anfield when you consider that during covid Liverpool lost 6 league games on the bounce playing to an empty anfield stadium.
Wicksy
How much money has Arteta spent on our front line including that he inherited Saka and Martinelli (you can add Auba in if you really want to wind people up) and yet you say we don’t have enough going forward but will still make excuses for him?
Its almost as if you know the truth but don’t want to voice it. Its OK you can say it – repeat after me “Arteta is a cunt”.
So odds that we see a negative midfield of Rice, Zubi and Merino?
To put things into perspective failure to win today (assuming a draw) would see us only 3 points above ManU a club in crises after 6 matches.
Bringing Saliba back in for Mosquera makes sense in my opinion. Saliba and Gabriel have had the measure of the Norse twat robot in recent games. Tross in for Eze suggests he’s being rewarded for his contribution in Bilbao.
This moronic cunt actually came from Barcelona.
Does he not watch Flick, Slot or Enriques teams or set ups?
He deserves the sack for selecting that team alone.
Cunt.
And I told you he would destroy Eze within a few weeks, I didn’t expect it to be days
Ufraud
“This moronic cunt actually came from Barcelona.”
Are you Spanish?
Disappointing starting line up I must agree, maybe Arteta is on a wind up for the LiR residents…the shit that will come his way if the result is not favourable will probably be deserved…
Matchday post is live.