I’m finally done with the rituals that comes with having a kid in our culture. A month at my ancestral village, with AQI in double digits, fruits and veggies from the farm, empty roads and no honking, clear and visible night sky – things that are “normal” for them were something “awesome” for me. Made up my mind, 10 years and I will go back to where I was born.
But, before that, are we going to WIN? City are only 2 points behind us with 10 games to go. Last couple of months have looked familiar, we have seen it 3 times under Mikel and we dropped points to Wolves and Brentford. We did win NLD but hey, their ex-manager is calling them ‘spursy’ on podcasts these days and it’s hardly a contest in recent time.
Today’s a challenge. Anything but a win and City will be level on points. I don’t see us making it from there, Pep knows how to win things when it matters. And Chelsea are not going to make it easy for us. All we have to do is win our games, let them drop points before we do, and then we can think of winning the league this year.
Kai and Merino are out. Ben White is a doubt but hopefully we won’t miss him. I would personally go with the same playing XI we had against Tottenham. Calafiori in place of Hincapie can be OK, but lets not go back to Odegaard. Eze did well, and he needs couple of games in the #10 role to truely dominate games. He is our only players apart from Martinelli who got creativity outside of Mikel’s system and can do something on his own. The first goal against Spurs was a brilliant one and that short of ball wins you game.
Gyokeres has finally picked up. He scored 2 brilliant goals against Spurs and was moving better through out the game. Frankly I was disappointed so far with him, but he has got 10 games + CL + FA Cup + Carabao Cup games to prove me wrong.
Right, I will keep it short but I promise I will be more active. 3 very exciting months ahead for us, where we can win everything. Lets hope we do.
Spurs have taken 4 league points in their games with City this season.
Spuddies 3 – 1 down they really are in trouble. Their next two PL fixtures are Liverpool away followed by Forest at home.
Regardless of the perceived nature of the chatter emanating from the Brighton camp following Wednesday’s affair, which came across like sour grapes from a manager facing the very real possibility of being sacked come season’s end, it’s difficult to argue with the points being made…in many ways we’ve become the thing we’ve most despised…for years we acted as if we were above the very antics/tactics we now deploy…we flop, with excessively dramatic embellishments, we use every time wasting trick of the trade with the frequency of a relegation side trying to hold on to a 1-0 lead in the 56th minute and we rely too heavily on aspects of the game that are generally reserved for sides lacking the means to acquire top-end talent…we’re the living embodiment of the punchline if you can’t beat them join them, in that instead of raising the tactical bar, we’ve spent a fucking fortune simply to deploy the tactics of a middling side
little did I know that some 15+ years ago, when I first started to express my displeasure about the misplaced frugal tendencies of our then manager, that when that script finally flipped in our favour it would be so stylistically underwhelming…that said, this isn’t to suggest that we can’t win things, especially in this watered down environment, but there’s a part of me that would rather be great for greatness sake than be the best of a bang average lot…that’s not to say that I won’t be grateful for any major silverware that might come our way, but it certainly won’t have the same feel of the pre-Emirates era when the relentless pursuit of the beautiful game was priority number 1
in my opinion if we hadn’t allowed ourselves to be inexplicably tethered to another cult of personality vanity project we could have found ourselves joining a rather select group of teams, who both played the game the right way and won a boatload of trophies in the process…instead we’ve lowered the bar in the hopes of finagling silverware by any means simply to change the well-earned cock-up narrative of one man…well he had better hope to fucking God that we reap the rewards of his thin margins plan this season as it’s difficult for me to believe that what’s on offer presently is a sustainable plan moving forward…Cheers
While we’re mired in tension and dour attritional, albeit winning, football, you can alleviate this by thinking about Spurs. They’re utterly clueless with a completely unsuitable manager and, best of all, everyone associated with the club is now convinced they’re heading for the championship. Some terrific stories about the collective malaise and depression in N17 in the media today.
This is an equally magical moment in our season everyone. Enjoy every second of it.
TRVL
“but it certainly won’t have the same feel of the pre-Emirates era when the relentless pursuit of the beautiful game was priority number 1”
This is bullshit.
Let’s look at 1997/98 results, a double winning season in the “pre-emirates era”.
According to you our priority was ” a relentless pursuit of the beautiful game ” which shows your ignorance of the game, I can assure you that priority number 1 was to win the league.
Fortunately I have a good recollection of what actually happened that season.
We had a run of 6 premier league games from February 21 to the end of March where we scored 5 goals in 6 games with zero conceded
1-0 palace
0-0 west ham
1-0 Wimbledon
1-0 United
1-0 Sheffield Wed
1-0 Bolton
It doesn’t take a genius to work out that those games were probably lacking in beauty and were more than likely tough , physical and yes sometimes boring as the number 1 priority was to win the 3 points in pursuit of our first title in 7 years.
Earlier in that season in a 6 week period we lost to Blackburn, Derby, Sheffield wed and Liverpool, so I doubt that anyone would have considered the football on offer at the time “beautiful “.
So when you say that this season doesn’t have the feel of the pre-emirates era you are wrong because the feeling is very similar now compared to February/March back in 1998, in fact I would say that our away victory at Brighton on Wednesday was very similar to our 1-0 win at old Trafford on March 14th 1998 as both results gave the fans belief that this could be our year , watching the Arsenal fans at the end of both games celebrating were very similar.
Of course in 1998 we did then go on to demolish teams as we powered our way to the title culminating with a 4-0 win at home to Everton, let’s hope that this current side can emulate the 98 double side now that we have the momentum which as any educated fan should know is vital at this stage of the season.
Let’s not also forget that in 1999/2000/2001 we finished 2nd , the beautiful football came after but winning the league was always priority number 1 over playing beautiful football even for the invincibles.
Wicksy
If you’re trying to say Artetasnoozeball is as entertaining as Wenger’s football all I can say is don’t be a cunt.
Marc—couldn’t have said it better myself
Wicksy
The Bolton and Wimbledon games were hard as the opposition’s only intention was to injure the Arsenal players. The United game was a good entertaining game – all of the pundits had United to win but……..
The West Ham game, if my memory serves me well, was one those that the ball did every bar end up in the net.
That season the team were a joy to watch – now topless darts at Roehampton is more entertaining.
TRVL
But Art would have said it better than both of us!
Rumours that the Spud’s are considering sacking their new manager – haven’t bothered to learn his name.
What a fucking shambles.
Apparently they’re thinking about approaching De Zerbi 1) why would he want to manage in the Championship 2) even if they stay up the running of the club is at best amateurish why would you taint your CV by going there.
Marc
I couldnt resist emailing a friend of mine who is a Spurs supporter. He shells out a small fortune for his season tickets (he treats his son and grandson). His response was as expected – this will be the last season – his heart cant take it – the stress is worse than living in Tehran.
Norg
(he treats his son and grandson)
Many would say this is a form of child abuse.