Well, we were on a happy run before a sh*t Everton decided to bring in Sean Dyche, who made them play like they have never played before, this season. We not only lost 3 important points in the title run, but also went into a bad run of games where we dropped points against Brentford and lost to City. Martinelli started dropping stinkers, can you believe it? So yeah, it’s time for the payback. Everton tried to derail our title run, lets make sure they remain in the relegation battle after today’s game.
Lets talk about Arsenal. Aston Villa was a thrilling encounter which kept us off our feet for the complete game. Going behind twice and then winning 4-2 against Emery’s side was sweet. Against Leicester, it was a boring 1-0 where we made sure we have the control of the game and the score line do not do justice. I am more of a ‘get me a boring 1-0 win’ than a thrilling encounter which can go either way. We need to control the game, we need to cut down the errors and our CF needs to bury the chances they get. We did the first two against Leicester, we didn’t bury the chances we should have though.
There are some positives, Partey is back in the mix, ESR is making to the bench, Trossard looks really mature and Martinelli scored in back to back games now. There are talks of Saka agreeing to a deal to extend after Martinelli. Fabrizio reported earlier that Saliba is happy with Arsenal and a contract extension will be agreed soon. So, we tie up three of our best players who are in their early 20s and have at least 10 good years in them. Brilliant!
Coming back to the game, Mikel tried a Trossard + Martinelli which we had asked for. It didn’t prove to be a miracle but it was the first game where they both played together. I think it was just a temporary arrangement, once Jesus is back it’s either Nketiah or him at CF. Bring in Balogun in the mix and we have two potential strikers and Jesus.
I have been complaining about rotation from Mikel the whole last season. However, I don’t want to see it now. We had nothing to lose last season, we needed to give game time to every players for their growth. Today, we are in a situation where a mistake can cost us the title. Lets play to our strength, make rotation only when it’s necessary. These 11 players have gelled in perfectly, and you can mix things up at 60th minute with Jorginho, ESR, Tomiyasu, Tierney on the bench.
If you ask me, I will say it’s a 4-0 win for us. Nketiah proves every one of us wrong today, with 2 to his name. Saka and Martinelli scores one each. I am happy this morning, so I am only wishing 4 goals for us. It could have been worse, after what they did to us and our title challenge.
Anyways, we are still at the top, and I can’t finish my article without the custom – it’s very lonely at the top and I am loving it 😉
I have had problems with the hosting, I had taken it up when I was in UK, and it took me some time to move it. If you see any slowness, or the website not working – please let me know through comments or shoot me an email. It will probably, hence the ask.
Hi Marc
Recovered from yesterday’s drama? That game provided me with a gamut of emotions in my living room. Christ knows how it must’ve been in the stadium.
I know there are plans afoot to relax the rules on 3pm Saturday PL kickoffs (and I get the point about lower league football) but one would have imagined the PL executives would have been a bit more forceful in increasing TV coverage. After all, they’re the ones holding all the financial trump cards. Maybe the solution is to do it and give the lower league teams a kickback from the proceeds? It’d be interesting to gauge how many fans would stop watching lower league footy if everyone could access PL Saturday games.
TRVL
Cheers mate I’ve got a Firestick but the app I used to use has gone pear shaped.
Liverpool are absolutely thumping ManU – it really is a strange season reminding me more and more of 15/16.
Spurs, Barcodes and Manure all dropping points is a further narrowing of the field.
Kroenke
I’m in 2 massively different emotions about yesterday. On one hand you’ve got the basic fact that (Liverpool just gone 4 nil up!) no one remembers the scrappy wins if you win the League on the other it was Bournemouth for fuck sake who could have had at least 2 more if it weren’t for 2 very good saves from Ramsdale.
no doubt Marc—I’ve spoke of the similarities on several occasions, which is why I was so distraught that we didn’t aim much higher during our most recent TW, as we wll know that was the year Wenger wrongly thought that Cech was all the reinforcements we needed…this Pool/United fixture, albeit unexpected, just might mean that this is now officially a 2 horse race, which I think helps us immensely…it’s likewise a not-so-gentle reminder to any supposed Pool fans that you don’t throw out a manager of Klopp’s ilk with the bath water
KP—“In that particular instance, it was not televised due to the fact it was a rearranged fixture, with the original date postponed following the death of Queen Elizabeth II back in September. It was not chosen to be shown on TV for the original date, and rearranged fixtures must stick to that same broadcasting schedule” I read this online yesterday
ten Hag will use this game-tape as a constant reminder to his players that you can never rest on your laurels, whereas MA would have found a way to blame the officiating…thankfully there might be too many points between us now to matter for this particular title race, but it will undoubtedly become an important teachable moment moving forward
What the fuck – I turned over at 6pm to watch Andrew Neil when it was 4 nil only just realised Liverpool put 7 past ManU.
That is a proper thumping – I can’t remember them having a result that bad before couple of time they conceded 6 to Southampton and there was the time City scored 6 but bloody hell.
Hi Marc
😀
It serves you right for watching that lying, climate change denying, brillo-headed wanker. Fucking terrible right wing cunt that guy.
But don’t worry, given the media’s enduring fondness for Liverpool, I’m sure there will repeats a-plenty in the coming days. ETH looked like a thinner, equally angry version of Dyche by the end.
Kroenke
Its strange I’ve always found him incredibly left wing!
Touche. 😉
Morning lads can’t let a day go by without some Manure and in particular Fernandes bashing. If only it had been us who had put United to the sword. Puts a big dent in Manure’s title aspirations which is more than preferable to our hold on the PL summit.
At 4:0 Junior & I got bored and turned in for the night. No way Manure was coming back from the ground & pound onslaught by the Bin Dippers. They were intent on inflicting a decades lasting (banter) defeat for us all to remind United, as they will have short memories to be sure. It was 1am and we’d had a long day.
All in all a good weekend. Arteta’s epiphany sending on the only striker we had: Reis who looking more the part saved our blushes with a right foot power driver from about 20 yards, from outside the box. Who’d have thought it and that Reis has a lethal right foot? Certainly, not Arteta through our striker shortage or before for that matter. Perhaps that was the first time Arteta realised Reis can shoot from outside the box better than Eddie and most?
Reis the imposter is no more in Arteta’s mind: Reis has come of Arsenal age. What will Arteta do now? No clue to what Arteta will do but we all know what he should do. The two sadly aren’t mutually exclusive.
Worrying? Not really as Arteta has tripped up this league table more than been the convincing tactical and squad management leader LG make him out to be. Can’t fault Arteta for setting an ‘all for one and one for all’ mentality.
Arteta lit the confidence fuse where its contagion of self belief internal pandemic eruptions are infecting clubs who we play with fear & negativity because they are going to have to poke the hornets nest at some point and the attacking waves will commence faster and with more intensity of each Ode, Jesus & Jorginho driven wave.
NB Xhaka hasn’t been named yet and won’t be. I mean why spoil a post?
I agree with other posters here and other blogs that Reis has woke up and smelt the coffee. Gone are his corn rows of over confidence, as if it was his right to be a big player for us when he really faltered to deceive. All talk and no walk!
Whoever gets the credit for getting this young talented man to clean up his act and concentrate on his gifts rather than his chip-on-the-shoulder ego. as ESR before him, Reis has come of footballing age and announced himself with a 3-point grabbing winner. I felt so happy for Reis after the game. So many years of hard work coming to fruition in one moment. His confidence will be sky high, so let’s hope Arteta adds that to our starters’ already never say die attitude.
Let’s NOT get out the tin foil and start furiously making hats regarding the handball shouts for penalties. Within 18 months LG will have run out of VAR people to monitor games such are their cries to sack any breathing official. AFC forever now has David Icke’s conspiracy theory king for 2023. It’s what you would expect from the unofficial QC for sorting out plastic fans.
On that note: junior tells me (not fact checked yet) that handball has to be from the elbow downwards and not the elbow to shoulder. If junior is correct, it would explain why no penalties were given.
Has this season lost its sanity completely? Events since day one have certainly conspired in achieving such chaotic madness to date. This weekend’s results has elevated the uncertainty and loss of prior seasons’ reality to a WTF is coming next?
Hopefully, us winning the league and keeping City in their rightful 2nd place below us.
I want to see Zinchenko in that ex Spuds face: Walker – a player I detest.
As Bruce Buffer orates: ” It’s Time”
12 games to go and we’re GUNNING for the Title!!!!!!!!
P.S. White kind of went off the boil for a few games and subbed at half time with his head not being right murmurs.
I don’t think I’ve seen White so happy and genuinely invested in our football as he was for the Bournemouth game. Something has changed in the lad and he seems to really be enjoying his football. I said to junior it looks like he’s falling in love with the game he previously disliked watching. A team spirit like ours will do that to White who has upped his game now as well.
K’phobe
Happy to help where I can and it’s no more than me buying you a couple of pints.
In the long run the https://privateiptvaccess.com will offer much more and from what I’m told good pics adds free because you pay per month. My new recorder is in customs so another week and I’m covered.
Good ISP speeds of 30mbps+ should be good for streaming. I read that the UK top speed averages 500mbps for the best package in the cities. Will be interesting to hear what you get in Wales.
I’m sure between us we can get you up and running and blood pressure lowered. 🙂 🙂 🙂
Have a good one.
Tony
Good stuff. I hate to potentially pour cold water but the BBC said Reiss’s contract runs out this summer and that the team and his agent are a long way from an agreement. From his point of view, that goal and his contribution after coming on will have boosted his value so another headache for the club. Its really weird how it seems (no proof of course) that players up their game at these points.
K’Phobe
The irony is we have 3 strikers injured and Reis was thrown on as our last ditch attempt that paid off. Reis has looked good on his other few cameo appearances. You’re right, of course, players come to life doing their best Lazarus impressions of life in the young bucks yet.
Ozil, Willard and Auba are probably our most blatant contract con artists. Although Willard all due respect did the honorable thing ripping up his contract.
Let’s be candid here Arteta did sell Willian on we’ll win the CL in 3 years coming up to 4 years ago and we’ll still in the EL cup.
In the end it’s all about money and survival for the likes of Xhaka and his ilk or level. Manages’ pets et al.
Some of the masters of the art have to be Chambers, Holding, Bellerin ++++.
I have resigned myself to Reis being sold because Arteta will want a new toy rather than coach a kid with serious potential: his goal was on his weaker right foot.
I have long since worried about Arteta’s decision making or the lack of it. We’ll win the league in spite of his continued rookie mistakes after 3+ years if he doesn’t completely screw the pooch like last season. This season we have cover – paper thin, I know.
Honestly, I’d give the EL cup to the bench and Hale Enders and try to fortify the slender lead we have, which could be gone in a blink of an eye.
As I’ve said so many times before: all eyes on Arteta 12 games & 36 points to pick up. Emery went on a 22 unbeaten game run. Shouldn’t be too difficult for Arteta, should it?
Hi everyone, sorry for the long hiatus, I’m finding it more and more difficult to get excited about the sanitised VAR controlled football we are now being served up, and that includes what’s going on at Arsenal.
It was strange watching Liverpool completely blow United away.
Historically Arsenal have never destroyed United the way Liverpool did yesterday, and that rankles with me. We have never had a team capable of avenging humiliating defeats against United or Liverpool, which is why Arsenal will always be a level below them.
Can any of us ever see Arsenal beating United 8-2, or 7-0?
City go to Bournemouth and score four before they got a late consolation goal, Arsenal at home against the same Championship-bound Cherries need a 97th minute winner. Then contrast that with what Liverpool did against United.
It definitely feels like 2015/16 with Arsenal playing the Leicester role.
It will be interesting to see if Arteta can maintain and push Arsenal on, especially with the amount of State owned money now being laundered in the PL.
And is Arteta serving his apprenticeship to take over from Pep?
I hope you are all safe and well, it’s always a pleasure to read your entertaining comments.
Hi Herb
Very good to hear from you mate. It’s funny, I was thinking the same thing after yesterday’s 7-0. Why have we been on the receiving end of these scores against big teams while we seldom if ever inflict them on others? Is the club a soft touch? Too sporting to rub teams’ noses in the shit? Is it part of those mythical values we keep hearing about? I’d rule out the latter because we’re happy to do it against lesser clubs when the opportunities present themselves. I think the main issue is cautiousness and a feeling that we could somehow snatch defeat (or a 4-4 draw! ) from the Jaws of victory. It still feels like we owe all the major clubs a whipping or two.
I entirely take your point about VAR being a handbreak on emotions. It’s even worse if the fucking game isn’t being televised and you have to rely on a radio commentator to say what’s happening. Maddening.
I’m struggling to think of a game from our past where we went behind so early, then a second goal before coming back to win it.
Handbrake, although a broken finger might be preferable to watching some of those VAR decisions take forever.
Herb—long time no talk…hope all is well…I’ve spoken at considerable length about our inability to find our neck crushing boots against any opponent, let alone against one of the traditional “big” sides…now for the purposes of winning the chip, it’s not imperative, but to truly re-establish ourselves as a team of consequence it sure would look good on our organizational CV…that said, I’m quite pleased that at least we might have turned the proverbial corner when it comes to goal differential, as we haven’t been on the positive side of 30 since 2016-17…I don’t know if this totally jives from an “eye test” perspective or it’s more of a reflection of the offensive ineptitude currently plaguing the PL, but I’m pleased nonetheless…I just hope and pray that we evolve into the kind of team who puts up a 2 spot in the first 45 and comes out of the tunnel looking for 2 or 3 more, which seems a bridge too far under a manager who has a tendency to pull the offensive shute too early, too often…on a side note, let me know if you want any NBA playoff predictions…Cheers
Hi KP, hi to you too, TRVL, nice to see you both in good form.
Was it you, KP, who used the term ‘Paper Tigers’? It may have been you TRVL, anyway, it perfectly describes the Arsenal that I’ve been watching most of my life.
They’ll happily put their chests out and show off against a Middlesbrough or Everton back in our pomp, but against anyone with pedigree, we are overtaken by nervous fear, and it is a psychology that runs deep through the core of the club.
Arsenal are the third most successful club in English football, but it is a very distant third, and the clubs attitude tells us that they’re not that bothered about closing the gap to United and Liverpool.
For me, Arsenal really need a CL trophy as a matter of urgency if they want to be taken seriously in the football world.
Agreed HerbsArmy…of course, winning the title would be quite a feather in the cap of our supposed reinvention process, but, like yourself, I do believe that until we’re putting Europe’s most coveted trophy in our cabinet we’re just the “Chester” to the big boys “Spike”…not sure I can quite envision this happening with our present managerial team, but maybe they can build a viable foundation from which someone of Klopp or Pep’s ilk can come in and finish the job, as this happens on occasion throughout the sporting world…the fact that it’s taken so long to even get to this point, considering our international cachet, from a fandom perspective, our world-class facilities, our multi-multi-Billionaire owner and our former players in the rafters, is absolutely ludicrous
at one point I was convinced it was our absentee landlord, but the fact that he’s bankrolled our present managerial lightweight makes me think that Gazidis and RVP were right all along, which leads me to point the finger of blame squarely at our former legendary manager…let’s face it, Wenger’s egoistic pursuits, once Dein was ushered from the building, had little to do with adopting a “whatever it takes” approach to team building, as he cared infinitely more about being hailed as the greatest to ever patrol the sidelines…of course, in his mind, this wasn’t going to be achieved by plucking the best and brightest from here, there and everywhere, but by taking the footballing equivalent of the island of misfit toys to the promised land(bit of a stretch for dramatic purposes)…hopefully common sense will ultimately prevail and we will find a way to continue our once honourable pre-Emirates pursuits…Cheers