Finally! No football for months and it was probably the most boring phase of this year. Football is back, Ladies and Gentlemen.
We are up against Nottingham Forest today at home and City has made it a must-win already. We can feel the pain of Klopp’s Liverpool for 3 years in row when they competed against Pep’s side. The only way to beat them is by outperforming them each week for 38 weeks in a row. There is no margin for errors and a slip (like ours, last season) could cost you the title race. We can’t have that slip, can we?
But, lets not complicate it today. We have a long season ahead to talk about the possibilities. Today, it’s time to re-stock your fridge and enjoy the afternoon. Today, we celebrate the start of a season for one of the best teams in the world who is on the rise.
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For the starting XI, I’m guessing Mikel will stick to the the players who started in Community Shield against City. All the players are fit and available for selection except Gabriel Jesus. A back 4 of White, Saliba, Gabriel and one of the Timber/Zinchenko, will be pairing with Rice and Partey in the midfield. Odegaard will captain the side, Saka and Martinelli keep their places on the wings and Kai Havertz will get a nod ahead of Nketiah. Arteta loves his new toys, and I would appreciate it if he plays Timber ahead of Zinchenko. There is no bias here, Zinchenko is injury prone and Timber against a Forest side is a good game to judge if he can make the LB his own.
Rice has shown some glimpse of his game against City and his pairing with Partey is gelling well. He can go forward, he can track back, is athletic and have good shots in him. He has got to justify the massive faith Mikel has shown in him by making him the costliest British transfer till date. Pressure, but he is in Premier League winning player of the season for Hammers in last few years and I’m sure he can handle that. How much he makes that position his own, remains to be seen.
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No game is easy in Premier League. Forest was one of the teams that beat us last season and hammered our chances of title win. They had a lots of incomings last season and they were in mix in the relegation battle throughout the season and still they did beat us. You can’t take them lightly and Cooper would have utilized the season break to make these players work together. A tough game, yes. Can we win it – yes. Should we try winning it big – absolutely.
It will be hard fought battle. Not only every game will matter, but also the no. of goals you score and the clean sheets you can manage. Lets win big today, lets start the season on a high and show to the rest of the world, it wasn’t a Leicester-esque season earlier.
Right, a short one today because the game here starts at 5 PM and only a couple hours left for me to reach to the restaurant that will play the game. Hope you have a good day. Enjoy the game, lets keep the worries for other 37 weeks.
Cheers!
And if you happen to go to Emirates, I would be grateful if you can click some pics of the new makeover stadium and Arsene Wenger’s statue for me.
Marc-ever since Wenger’s second term in office, the officiating conspiratorial nonsense has always been a go-to excuse whenever the infintely more logical explanation would put their managerial overlord at harm’s way…how times haven’t changed…MA, much like his predecessor, always has ample options at the ready in his excuse rolodex, so the last thing he needed was a built-in excuse, like an injury in the first fucking week…based on his unusual positional requirements right off the bat, MA could have been planning on using Timber at every position on the pitch, minus at Keeper, now that we have two number 1’s…regardless of our supposed “on paper” greatness, we’re still act like a messy amateur hour organization far too often
we still
TRVL
My comment was more around my amusement / horror (I can’t make my mind up) of the irony that the Pedro’s of the world are about to take on the very mantra that they complained about for years if not decades.
Whatever your individual feelings about Arteta’s ability as a coach / manager there’s one thing we all agree on on here – he’s a master of the excuse / lining up the bullshit to deflect from his failings.
Marc-definitely got your point, but I just couldn’t resist piling on…Cheers
TRVL
It’s difficult to not keep putting the boot in – Arteta on the other hand does make it so very easy.
On other football matters, during all the fuss over Saudi transfers I suggested that we’d see them set up a rival to the CL in due course.
Or maybe Mohammed will come to the mountain.
https://www.sportskeeda.com/football/rumor-saudi-fa-talks-uefa-allow-saudi-pro-league-clubs-champions-league-reports
I only hope we have a chance to win the Prem before it becomes as irrelevant as the Jupiler League
Aitcho
They tried to do with Chinese league. It will go away once they realise Neymar is the same brat that played for PSG.
I will only be happy if they do this with Indian Football. Bring in Neymar and I will say that’s gonna rival Premier League 🤣
now that it’s been determined that Timber will be out for an extended period, likely the entirety of the season, it will be interesting to see how things play out from an incoming and outgoing perspective…in light of the monies already spent, it would only make sense to assume that players will need to be sold before any further acquisitions are made…right now there are a whole host of players who’re already on the block, like Holding, Lokonga, Nuno, Pepe and Balo, some of whom have interested suitors, albeit none appear willing to pony up the kind of fees we’re requiring, whereas others appear almost unsellable…so either we lower our monetary expectations or we might need to ship some players that the manager has publicly stated weren’t going anywhere
besides the obvious concerns related the raising of funds, I’m far more disturbed about the fact that instead of shoring up other positional needs we might have to go back into the market for another backer…considering how little interest our periphery pieces are currently attracting, we will likely have to sell all the above players plus Tierney in order to properly replace Timber and likewise get another midfielder/forward of any import…knowing how we generally conduct our business in such a sloth-like fashion, it’s far more likely that we sell a piece or two on the cheap, loan out the rest, then try to look for bargain basement deals in the 11th hour…I guess only time will tell, but I must admit that I’m not that hopeful of our prospects in this regards
MB, now we’ve seen what’s possible I dont know why Indian football doesn’t have a proper bash at boosting it’s league. The amount of serious fans I met from India in Qatar last year and my conversations with them were a real eye opener in respect of how people from non ‘traditional’ footballing regions engage with and consume football. And the level of support there. I was also in India during 2010 WC where all the best hotels were hosting WC screenings. I had a blast, my most surreal memory was from a night out in Mumbai with LTJ Bukem, a name from my youth DJing and Ghana Uruguay on the big screen. The football took over Ince Ghana scored and it became a viewing with ‘intelligent’ drum and bass as a backing track. Qatar was also an eye opener as to how I think the Saudis are setting their stall out. A lot of fans with no team of their own to support latch on to other WC teams for whatever reason they see fit. Many base their support for teams including club teams on players they admire. Not my way but I can’t say it’s any more or less credible than me basing my support on an accident of geography. Saudi is scooping up the fanboy demographic.
Neymar has always been an overrated brat in my view but when you go on holiday and look at the moody shirts on offer, 2 of the biggest brands, playerwise, are plying their trade in Saudi. All of a sudden, I’ve seen Al Nasr shirts worn by people, mostly youngsters in three of the countries I’ve visited this year as well as at home. Nobody wore Guanghzo Evergrande the same way because China was throwing silly money at no marks. But look at how Galazy shirt sales took off after Beckham or even Inter Miami now Messi is there. Shirt sales are a thing, the profile from signing a big name is a thing.
For no rational reason I’d like to dismiss this whoe PiF league as a flash in the pan but I’m less confident that PIF league and Saudi interference won’t become a legit part of the football landscape and disrupt the model I’m used to.
Right now, some of those PIF teams could give group stages of Champs league a good go. It’s bound tobbecome more credible than Superlig or Prva Liga who both have automatic slots in the group stages. It might already be that. The Prem was part of the reason these leagues can’t compete now anyway And probably more importantly Saudi teams could bring in more TV revenues with their fancy name brand players. Despite being CL players, the Ox and Olayinka aren’t bigger draws than Neymar or Ronaldo. Uefa would relish the chance to broadcast Al Nasr or Al Hilal rather than Crzevna Zvezda or Besiktas. China’s mistake may have been not going hard and not engaging with rhe wider football world, Saudi is grabbing headlines on a daily basis buying players still not quite at retirement level. Laporte, Mane, Never, Neymar could all still do a job at Prem level.
The whole thing is mad and it’s possible that it may all blow over but as the age profile of PiF league falls by the day, the caliber of player rises and they’re suggesting barmpot ideas, to me and my old man sensibilities that is, like Saudis playing in the Champs League I think either we’ll have to go back to considering a Super League again or roll with crazy ideas coming from Saudi. The fans will come 2nd to revenue considerations in all of this.
There’s no practical reason why Saudi teams can’t play in the CL if Uefa say it’s fine. For the usual fee of course. Other teams from Asia do already.
Aitcho-based on your last two posts, I’m honoured and somewhat humbled that you not only read my lengthy posts in this regards, some time ago, but likewise learned quite a bit in doing so…I feel that I might owe you an apology for totally underestimating your capacity to embrace the wisdom of your elders…have a good one
Aitcho
Unfortunately it’s the cricket ruining other sports here. Govt has other burning issues to deal with in a developing nation, and BCCI is a private franchise that runs the Indian cricket. They are not going to invest the billions they make in any other sports be it football, hockey or badminton.
Some of the female badminton players like Saina Nehwal have come out of Pulela Gopichand’s academy. An ex player who was one of the best in the world in his prime. Now, to run his academy, he has even sold his land at some point, taken loans and what not. Such is the case.
We have got a Croatian manager for national team, Igor Stomach, who is very aggressive and vocal. I don’t care about the football he plays at this point, but him bi*ching about the football pitches, training grounds, lack of infrastructure is what we need as an eye opener.
Things are improving but too slow to result in anything significant in next 10odd years.
Saudis are atleast trying. If they play in Champions League, they will grow massively. Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar still have got a lot of pull and people from a neutral nation mostly base their support based on players.
Why do you think Indian subcontinent has huge Man Utd followers? Because of the era of Beckham, Rooney, Ronaldo.
TRVL
With David Raya’s loan + buy deal, we have made it clear to the world that we are going to stick to FFP and won’t do a Chelsea in any way. It severely limits our incoming now. I think Romano confirmed in a podcast that we are back in the market for Timber’s replacement but where does the money coming from? We still have to pay Brentford for Raya.
Forest are interested in Tavares. That’s 10odd million. Tierney will leave, another 25m. Balogun will fetch some good money so that’s another 40m. I don’t see anyone else fetching any decent money apart from these lot.
75m, 25 goes to Brentford. 50m will get us a Timber’s replacement. I still feel we are stacked up in defense, Tomi is back, Kiwior looks sharp, Zinchenko will start most of the game when fit.
It would be interesting to see what Arteta does now.
TRVL, I genuinely have no idea what you’re on about. Your posts generally tell me no more than you think it’s all Arteta’s fault whatever ‘it’ is on that given day and have become eminently skimmable. But thanks for your interest in my comments all the same.
I didn’t underestimate your capacity for repetition. Tell us again how you used to wrestle bears
Aitcho-I was actually extending an olive branch….you might have noticed if you could ever get over yourself long enough…living rent free in your head is still a rather enjoyable proposition though…take care little guy