London Football Awards is Red

We are back were we ware all throughout the last seasons, finishing in front of goal.

it appears as if Sporting thinks we can be had in a penalty kick scenario, as they’re setting up deeper and playing on the counter…this is the type of affair when you wish we were far more clinical in front of goal

we were clearly on the same wavelength

Martinelli hasn’t done shit in this game except doing excellent dives for free kicks. Looks like if Adan is MOTM you know that means AFC goes out.

talk about a game when you couldn’t afford for your Keeper to allow a goal from the center stripe…Adan might be having his career best performance

it would suck shit to devote this much energy then shit the bed, so fingers-crossed we find a way to win from the dot

Same thoughts here, injured players 120 minutes and going out with a league game on Sunday.

neither team have a lot of penalty kicking experience on the pitch…the commentator said that Saka is 2 for 2 and that Sporting is 1 of 4, but the player who scored the 1 was taken off…i bet a lot are watching this through their fingers like an old horror movie viewing

I meant experience during this season thus far

eggs firmly in one basket now

There you go gents as predicted and my 1st born is safe. As already mentioned Martinelli is way off his best throughout the last few games.

Marts had been on a bit of a scoring run lately, but that will be a tough pill for him to swallow…I’m more worried about MA’s upcoming slection headaches, now that we don’t have any European fixtures ahead, as I’m sure the assurances he gave to our veteran TW additions were largely predicated on us going much deeper in this particular competition…of course, I’ve always placed a premium on our title pursuits, but this could lead to some questionable decisions on MA’s part moving forward

selection

I wouldn’t be too disheartened after tonight. They played out of their skins and we weren’t too shabby either. It was a really good game in my opinion and we came out of it on the wrong side. I think their coach got his tactics right and SCP excelled themselves. Sometimes you just have to take a setback like that.

One focus left – and that’s not finishing between 2nd and 4th.

Disregarding the result we are hurting going into Sunday’s game possibly without Saliba and Tomi, our starting 11 all played way too many minutes and their mental strength just got shot to pieces that is the crux of the matter.

LiR shouldn’t show the predictability and the meltdown that is displayed on LG. Like when AFC misses out on a player LG goes into mode he was shit and we didn’t wanted him anyhow. When dumped out of a competition local or European “glad we are out we can now focus on the more important tournaments”.

FFS winners win, we did not have the aura of a winner today, this was a two legged affair to forget, the two matches were an absolute cluster fuck. How on god’s green earth will we ever make it deep into the CL if we get dumped out of Europe in the round of 16?

On LG in the state of denial is in full bloom and delusional fantasy has taken over by dreaming of bringing players in the summer to AFC and then with that squad we will finally make it in Europe. The delusion is monumental. Until changes are made to the ones responsible to put down the starting XI and in game management, nothing will change in Europe for us.

If United win the EL and perhaps spank Sporting should they be drawn against each other there will be no end to ridicule and next season when ETH has players coming in there could be a repeat of what happened this season in the EL except it will be in the CL, AFC going out in the round of 16 and again no trophy.

To all those that say good riddance of the EL I have never subscribed to the notion that teams gunning for a title should somehow just ditch a trophy to preserve energy. It can actually help teams keep on that rhythm of playing every 3/4 days and, psychologically, can be big if they come through another tough test together as a group.

KP-I get what you’re saying, as it was definitely an enjoyable watch, notwithstanding the outcome, but it feels like we were outmanaged again, which is becoming an all too common refrain…it was clear that the Sporting manager took what he gleaned from the first match and game planned accordingly, whereas I’m not so sure the same could be said about MA…of course, it’s not Arteta’s fault that Ramsdale got caught with his pants down, but there’s no doubt that he was instructed to be his most sweeper-self, which is likely the main reason he was starting in place of Turner, and that was clearly a deciding factor…regardless, I would be lying if I said that I wouldn’t have switched Keepers after Turner’s piss-poor display in Portugal, so I can’t hold him to the carpet for that

now if it weren’t so bloody obvious I would suggest that Sporting has supplied our future opponents with a tactical blueprint whenever Jorginho and Xhaka are on the pitch, but if you need a blueprint to figure that shit out you’re likely in the wrong profession…in the end their plan only yielded them a goal from the center stripe, albeit they did control the play for the first 15 or so and then again for the large chunks of the second half, so it wouldn’t be too off base to suggest that this game came down to the fact that their Keeper stood on his head

now do I think the result might have been different if we put our best lineup on the pitch to start the game, maybe, but it’s a nuanced question, considering what transpired injury-wise and the very real possibility that their tactics might have looked vastly different if our lineup had more cutting edge…that said, the fact that he was willing to go against the Europa tactical grain and start Ramsdale, we might of been best served by having a more tried and tested squad out there, especially with a break upcoming…so maybe if you’re going to have both Jorginho and Xhaka in the midfield, maybe you don’t also have Vieira out there, for obvious pace-related reasons, and Nelson, who doesn’t require nearly the same defensive attention that a Saka demands, as that clearly emboldened them, tactically-speaking

in the end, I care considerably more about a bona fide title run, so let’s hope that this result, if nothing else, allows us to play our best 11 the rest of the way, even though I’m still worried that without European matches going forward MA will have some serious selection headaches, which could cost us some crucial points

KIllroy—I agree with your sentiments, but I think I would be far more concerned if we had laid an egg with our best and brightest on the pitch from the get-go…I certainly don’t like us going out this early, but we have seen in the more recent past, like with LC and Chelsea, how having no European fixtures could be incredibly beneficial when making a title run, especially when it was unexpected and/or ahead of schedule…let’s hope that 3 times a charm

Being out of the EL also has a financial implication these are the figures for last season and the assumption is we win the title and United finish 3rd and win the EL.

Arsenal $54.4 million

United $49 million + $9.73 million

For me it is the embarrassment first for going out that early and in the kind we did it. I agree that the title is the most important since it is almost 20 years since we last won it. However, great teams will ALWAYS compete successfully in several competitions as the history of the big six minus Spuds testify to that fact. Ever since Wenger went past his sell by date it seems AFC has lost that magic of winning trophies in the same season.

We can only be fortunate that Liverpool and Chelsea are very bad this season. However next season is a different story, Bellingham has to make a choice go to Real and get hardly any playing time or slot right away into Pool’s midfield. United & Chelsea are going hard for an elite striker and lord help us if the Qataris buy United.

This is the season for the title and could have been the season for additional trophies.

Morning all – Didn’t get to see the game; however, after reading your match posts I decided not to bother with the highlights this morning. Looks like Xhaka had one of his rare MOTM outings where he played to his best his best abilities in a ridiculous midfield. If you check his MOTM stats on FOTMOB you’ll find them not that impressive to win the award.

On that note the more pacy and mobile ESR should have played in place of Xhaka. Just think if he had license to run in a free role? It’s not like he’s own the red zone or even close to it.

How do you make that midfield selection after playing them last week? Just looking at the line ups and stats from FOTMOB, they tell an all too familiar Arteta poor selection story. Vieira is just getting up to speed and comes from Portugal, so is too familiar to the Sporting players. Faux Pas #1. The 2nd was playing Jorginho and Xhaka together with Vieira. Who was covering Xhaka’s final 3rd excursions? The marginally faster Jorginho?

Sounds like Lisbon flooded the midfield as so many team do to us. That said a 1:1 score line says the players did their best under the inept midfield tactical circumstances because, if we can draw, we should be beating them at home.

Seems none of our Impact subs were impactful.

Penalties are always a lottery, as our 3/5 showed. On another day all 5 takers would put their penalties away.

What last night’s result does mean is we can concentrate on winning the PL. No excuses. A home win against Paddy’s Palace and a much needed rest with the international break for as many of our players as possible.

Arteta should be talking to the international managers with his medical team. Saliba and

Our big bang of a statement to City last night became a damp squib because our manager was caught in two minds with his selection: particularly the midfield selection. That and Saliba on crutches last night leaving the ground and Tomi with yet another injury.

Time to bounce back and make our title statement, Sunday, and see if Arteta has what it takes to be a PL winning manager because he has an easier route with squad rotation with less games to be concerned with now than City.

All Arteta has to do is protect our 5 point lead. What could possibly go wrong? Will our bare bones squad be Arteta’s undoing as last season?

11 games will tell us all we need to know.

KP, that band sounded great at the ground with the raw music being a cool wind up to the game. Have you decided about Rotherham? More driving lessons for junior?

TRVL, the PMA I referred to was Positive Mental Attitude.

In the 70s America was all about the PMA with posters, such as Do It Now! Adorning workplace walls with similar positive messages. The UK was far behind in that respect at the time. Carnegie was a trail blazer with business and sales systems, such as AIDA with SMART- following, plus Phillip Kotler for marketing (still used in Unis today) with others during the next decade – all from America.

The Brits in their infinite stupidity, bless their myopic blinkered souls, used to poke fun at such desire using such silly slogans to increase production. At that time in good old Blighty the stiff upper British lip was quite-so, that employees would always do their absolute best and didn’t need micro management or so they thought.

The positive American way was better accepted and implemented during the 80s after the turmoil of the 70s 3-day working weeks to conserve electricity and coal reserves.

In the 90s, Britain had caught up with America including Horizontal management replacing the slower vastly ineffective Top Down with dogmatic leadership in ivory towers et al.

Looks like our Palace game has got more interesting with Vieira getting sacked today. Palace are now looking for his replacement, so thankfully, the chance of new manager bounce is unlikely even if a successor was found tomorrow.

Palace are on a 12 game loss run and now manager-less. Quite how this is going to affect Arteta’s game plans I have no idea?

All we have to do is be concerned about getting the 3 points and recuperating.

Caught between two schools of thought.
I understand your stance, KP, just the PL to focus all our energy on, and with City now playing Bayern over two legs, their run is going to be quite intense. Even if they get through that, they’ll probably have a two leg semi-final with Real.
It’s no secret City and Pep desperately want the CL, which could work in our favour.
On the flip-side it’s a stinger.
Because deep down, it confirms the underlying belief that Arsenal haven’t changed.
Yes it is Europe’s equivalent of the League Cup, but there is still prestige attached to winning these prizes, and Arsenal should be looking to make a statement, particularly with their piss poor record in Europe.
I don’t give Arteta any credit for his fortunate FA Cup win in 2019, it has become a fraudulent competition where PL clubs often play a full second XI. A lot of the shocks that used to provide a bit of ‘Cup’ romance and excitement have become diluted and played-down because of this very policy.
Having sacrificed the domestic Cups, it shouldn’t be beyond Arteta to do something special on the bigger European stage, and if there aren’t some soul searching questions about another abject European failure, then I don’t know if I’m supporting the right club and if I can justify my continued support.
It’s about time Arsenal came of age as a club, otherwise what’s the point of their existence!

Hi Herb
Good points. I may have sounded a bit like an apologist in that post (heaven forbid!). I think it was just an attempt to explain away the disappointment by being philosophical. I’ve also been on a high after seeing Cardiff get an equaliser against WBA on Wednesday!

You’re right of course – our best teams in the past would have challenged for and won both trophies.

I underestimated Sporting. More to the point, I underestimated their coach who prepared his team excellently.

It was palpable how much of a change TP and MO made when they came on last night. To that extent, it would have been better to start with a team resembling the one that beat Fulham, established more than a one goal lead, and then brought on the second stringers to close it out. But that’s hindsight. It all looked pretty controlled until Ramsdale let himself be Nayim’ed (I was in the parc des princes that night and went to bed last night suffering flashbacks… ).

Those fuckers that run Palace didn’t deserve PV. Calling him at 7am to tell him he’d been fired… Shoddy. An extra incentive for Arsenal to take Palace to town and for fans to sing themselves hoarse to the PV song on Sunday afternoon.

Someone creative in the club ought to be suggesting that we somehow co-opt PV into the coaching team for the final games of the season. No silly fucking hand rubbing bullshit before the game, just spelling out some home truths and what it feels like to lift the title wearing an Arsenal Jersey.

Tony
Palace are in a daze if their last few games are anything to go by. Their attacking stats are dire. Arsenal need to hit them like a train, press the beejesus out of them and establish the type of lead that will demoralise them. Fulham redux.

If CP try the kind of dirty tactics of previous years (I think however most of their thuggish players have left), respond with controlled aggression and get the ref onside.

One way in which we’re better than previous years is we seem able to put setbacks behind us more quickly. Remember during the Wenger years how we’d go on long losing runs because he and some players couldn’t stop reacting like babies? I think the psychology is better now.

I’m sure it’s only coincidence but firing PV on St Patrick’s day as well.

Almunia – if you’re reading. Slainte mhath my friend. ☘️

Does anyone know when the decision on City’s FFP charges is due?

Hi KP
I didn’t see that Blackpool result coming (QPR are a basket case, Ainsworth has a big job turning them around), but I was impressed to see your lads take a point, the stadium must have been rocking when that equaliser went in!
I think Wigan and Huddersfield drop, and Blackpool, Cardiff, Rotherham, QPR and Birmingham battle it out to avoid the last relegation spot. Cardiff have picked up a bit of decent form, so I think they’ll be ok. A worrying lack of goals, but a solid defence. A few 1-0 wins wouldn’t go amiss.
A total lack of class from Palace, I agree completely KP, PV should be offered a coaching role at Arsenal, I’m sure he has more affection from Arsenal fans than Arteta, and those who feel the need to brown nose Arteta have very short memories.
I wanted to be pragmatic about last night, but as you can see, the more I typed, the angrier I got. Of course there are pluses to going out, but big clubs who put winning above all else have no truck with ditching or sacrificing competitions, it’s why Liverpool kicked every ball last season, City are still deep in three competitions, even United still have a chance of three trophies (Lge, FA and Europa).
My personal opinion is you can only be a considered a genuinely big club if you’ve done it on the world stage, and in terms of international football, Arsenal have zero presence.
Just annoyed that we’ve been in Europe for thirty years and only have one defunct cup to show for it. We are not knocking the door and carry zero threat, absolutely no other European club fears us.
Not a good place to be.

Here is another reason why we needed to stay in the EL and try to win it and it has to do with in what pot will we be when the next CL draw takes place. Pot 1 will be the CL & EL winners as well as the winners of the top six divisions in Europe. Pots two, three and four are then determined by clubs’ UEFA coefficients.

If we win the league we are in pot 1 if we don’t win the league we are in pot 3 or 4 because our club coefficient is 23 since we were out of Europe. United’s coefficient is 7 even the Spuds are at 21. So it was essential that we stayed in the EL to improve or guarantee that we will not end up in pot 3 or 4 and now play in the group stages champions or the elite clubs of Europe. Just an additional pressure to win the league or we are fucked in next season’s CL to get out of the group stages.

Cheers Tony—when I think of Carnegie, Andrew comes to mind first and foremost, with Dale being a very distant second, rightly or wrongly, so I was struggling to make some logical connections between our earlier chats and the acronym PMA…now the fact that I had recently recommended Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon, which has some deep Filipino ties, combined with my knowledge of Andrew’s disdain for all things imperialism/colonialism related, which included him trying to dissuade the US gov’t from both acquiring and/or militarizing the Philipines, clearly led me to draw the wrong conclusion

as for Dale Carnegie, who’s work has received an almost equivalent amount of reverence and ridicule on this side of the Atlantic, I’ve always kept a relatively “safe” distance, likely due to the fact that his most ardent followers have always given off an institutionalized/cultish “love child” vibe…in the main, I’m a big proponent of anything commonsensical in nature, like the notion of never wasting one’s time on people whom you dislike, always counting your blessings and/or turning lemons into lemonade, even when I continuously fail to heed such seemingly logical advice, so I certainly would never intentionally slag his purportedly well-intentioned endeavours…unfortunately, by the time I entered the equation his teachings had become fodder for those who were either holier than thou or Mad Men types, who eagerly twisted his efforts for their own nefarious purposes

interesting enough I was unknowingly inundated with many of his “positive thinking habits” as my father was a straight-laced marketing bigwig during the very time period in question…he graduated with a MBA at a time when companies were desperately trying to fill their ranks with anybody they felt could properly harness the financial windfall associated with successful branding…in fact, I remember him telling me how on the eve of his graduation they sat in a massive amphitheatre where companies, many of whom would become household names shortly thereafter, would aggressively vie for their services…ironically many of the same “positive” techniques he was exposed to within the upper crust were the same one’s being peddled, some 20 years later, by door-to-door marketing weasels in their early morning “motivational circles”…having witnessed my fair share of these ritualistic circle jerk-like spectacles, I can’t even imagine the stuffed shirts of his ilk and era surviving any such encounter without having a gun to their respective heads or experiencing a coronary midway through the process…take care

Morning all
KP, I, too, was disgusted with the way PV was fired. Classless and indeed senseless.

Had Palace backed Paddy better they wouldn’t be in their current situation, so Palace just deflecting their poor financing of a squad primarily good enough to get 40+ points a season on Paddy. Connor Gallagher has been a huge loss for PV and Palace, as you’ll find his influences on Palace’s play and being in and around the goals last season made the difference.

Essentially, Gallagher needed replacing like for like. Lakonga wasn’t that player although from games we’ve watched Lakonga seems to be improving.

Looks like Woy H is being lined up as a safer relegation avoidance than PV. Palace grabbing at straws. Hope you enjoy the Cardiff game if you and junior make the trip.

TRVL, sorry I should have used the words. I forget how old I am sometimes, but not as often as I’d like. 🙂

I read “How to win friends and influence Other”s as a teen that and Sun Tzu. I had a friend and mentor in his early 30s who horrifically died of heart attack in front of me when I was 19. His GF gave me his books, so I had something of him and they have served me well. My orphan and adopted childhood was an unhappy and poor one with a father only interested in himself and garden, so I found my own role model who happened to ride Harleys.

Funny you should mention Door to Door as that is my all time favourite movie for motivating others. Macy was just brilliant: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0274468/ Used it a lot in my corporate management days to stimulate a PMA in a different way. Like you, I wanted more weight behind the positivity being posted everywhere. Meaningless words if there is no reality from which to draw experience for the future or turn a negative mind round.

You have to admire Corporate America with its ruthlessness and complete disregard for any human nature nuances outside of their guidelines of: You’re only as good as your last victory.

However, in Arteta’s case KSE have been incredibly patient with Mikel and Edu, so unlike corporate billionaires of the past.

A large American hedge fund company CEO and his management minions are who we work with, so I always get to meet them talk and then leave them with my wife to deal with because women make the best negotiators, especially ones with spectrum mixes as our family has.

She is a force to reckon with and can make the biggest titled and anal corporate leaders squirm or feel comfortable or uncomfortable while keeping a perfect poise of humility and cleaning up at their global awards each year for S E Asia. She’s tough to negotiate with as she has no visible or audible tells and is limited with words unless it suits her agenda.

We tell Junior and our daughter as well as our employees come to us with solutions for problems first, not just problems that need solving. Thais are not good at thinking outside the box at times certainly less so than westerners.

Killroy-TM, what you say makes a lot of sense, but there was no way we could function well enough to be in a PL dog fight and the EL Cup. We don’t have the player resources and we’re going to have to be lucky with key injuries because of Arteta’s gambles with squad management.

Marc, I read somewhere a while ago that the alleged City financial irregularities would be dealt with at the end of this year. Click bait or true I have no idea.

Herb, also agree that big clubs win the biggest trophies, but such big clubs have infinite resources and debts that few worry about, such as Barca and Real Madrid. It shouldn’t just be City under the microscope.

Have a great weekend lads whatever you’re up to. 🙂

Tony
My anger is with the Everton Reject for repeating the mistake he made in the previous Jan TW when he got rid of players without getting cover for them and it costs us CL this season. He didn’t learn and we all knew that the squad was thin. He got players in that were not at our level or injury prone. This was not rocket science it was open to see for everyone. So he needed to address that and plan to go deep if not winning the EL to improve our coefficient and give us hope getting out of the CL group stages.

Since he didn’t do that if we finish 2nd one of these teams we will have to compete against in the group stages.
Napoli, Bayern, Real, Barcelona, PSG, Benfica.
Add to that those with a higher coefficient teams like Porto, Roma, Ajax, Inter, Dortmund, Atletico and we easily could struggle to get out of the group stages. If we would have gone deep into this season’s EL our coefficient would have improved but the chief bottler couldn’t see that far and most likely said fuck it I don’t have the squad. I fear that the possible ridicule and embarrassment is huge because of MA’s track record

Killroy-TM
Me, too, I worry about Arteta’s track record, more so with top players not wanting to play for Arteta. The history has been written where a PL crown this year would certainly garner him a higher respect. Mind you as we are relating this season to 2016, if we were to win, will Arteta go the way of the Tinker Man?

Another question that needs answering is why did he repeat the same mistake? Was it KSE not spending more than £600m+ a hindrance or was it Arteta making the decision on our title challenge season?

What would Di Zerbi do with £600M+? Brighton probably plays the best attractive football after us when we’re in irrepressible form as at Fulham.

To not win would the blame be leveled equally at the club owners, Arteta& Edu?

Even if Arteta fortuitously wins the league (similar to the FA win), it will be next season where he will be scrutinized. What we do in the CL, and the kind of defense of the title we maintain will be interesting from Arteta. Of course we’ll get he’s a CL rookie, give him a few tries.

A way to go yet, so guard your triggers for your health’s sake 🙂 , such as running out of gas for the last 20 minutes as before.

How long before we’re running on fumes because the bench isn’t good enough? Why hasn’t Bolagun been brought back?

Finally, can we win with injuries any injuries to the starting 11? Tomorrow we will find out.

Tony,

I thought the ruling was due much sooner – certainly before the end of the season purely because it affects who could be in the CL etc.

They can’t let City off it’ll be a green license to Newcastle and PSG to do whatever they like. If they give them a smallish points deduction say 4 points it’ll turn the PL into a handicap run competition – overspend by £100 million you get a 2 point deduction £200 million is 4 points but the £200 million of players will pick you up an extra 6 points so its a net win.

The rumours are that this has been pushed behind the scenes by Arsenal, Spud’s, Livepool, ManU and Chelsea etc.

Marc
Nothing would surprise me with the FA and other authorities. It’s got to stop and if we are clean of FFP then those who have bent the rules need to face the consequences.

I can’t see it going away and the press should keep it up front and center. We can only hope they face charges and are convicted.