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
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!