Here’s the simplest of statistics of the game against Southampton. We had a 60% possession. We went 1-0 up, thanks to a Xhaka boom. Our second half performance fell off the cliff, and our subs, brought in to make difference, was too late and too little.
We were not clinical enough in front of the goal. Our intensity in second half was poor and Southampton were clearly the better side in that second half.
We have seen this pattern earlier in Arteta’s reign. Remember Lacazette, not able to run after 60min? It was Jesus this time. Remember the anxiety you have had each time we scored, because we weren’t able to maintain the lead? Yes, I do.
Why?
We are over playing. We were fatigued, both physically and mentally. I am all for 70 games a season, but if it is affecting your performance, it’s not a good tactic innit? We are fighting on two fronts, but I don’t think it’s sustainable with a thin squad like we have. Curse Wenger as much as you want, but he did know how to use the Europa / FA Cup games to blood youngsters and not burn out your playing XI.
We do not have enough quality on the bench. An injury to ESR hasn’t helped, but there is a massive drop in performance when Eddie replaces Jesus/Martinelli and Vieira comes on for Odegaard. Sambi is no match for Partey and we don’t have a rotation option for Saka at all. However, Arteta’s 82nd minutes subs haven’t helped much in giving game times to any of the bench players.
When Eddie had a run of games in last season, he was prolific. Strikers feed on confidence (remember Lukaku?), giving them 10 min towards the end won’t help. Arteta needs to fix his rotational tactics, not because we don’t want to see the same playing XI for 70 games a season, but because when it’s not possible due to injuries or for any goddamn reason, the replacements are confident enough to keep up the team performance.
We need a Partey’s back-up. Sambi is not the answer, not with the game he shows these days. Do we need a Neves? Yes. An injury to Partey at any stage in the season would mean an end to it, how come we were so naïve to recognise that? Or did we recognise it but decided to ignore it? I don’t know.
Saka needs to be rested. Nelson was starting games under Emery, he can’t be so sh*t to not cover Martinelli when we are 2-0 up. We also had decided to keep Marquinhos, can he not cover Saka against Bodo/Glimt – because if he can’t, why the f*ck we didn’t loan him out to grow?
Before you decide to remind me that it was only the second game where we have dropped points, I must say we have seen these patterns earlier and it hadn’t ended well. Also, I have a very high expectation from a manager leading the best club in the world, who was appointed in December 2019, and haven’t made it to top 4 yet.
A season where Liverpool is sitting in 8th, every top 6 teams are dropping points except City; there is an opportunity to grab. Win the ones you are expected to, and mix it with a bit of hope and you never know. I’m a realist but it’s a two horse race till now and it always looks impossible until it’s done.
On a positive note, we are still top of the league, 2 points ahead of a team Pep built over years. Drink some hopium, and believe we will keep it like that till end of the season.
Herb and Tony
I enjoyed your stuff on the regional aspect of past winners. I think in the current context any connections that could have been drawn in the past are now well and truly down to just one factor, ie clubs that are backed by US venture capitalists and, arguably even worse, human rights denying, sports washing pariah states that, paradoxically have no interest in winning because their main obesession is media manipulatin as a way if guarding the status quo.
The monsters just keep becoming more monstrous. The 70s had Peter Swales and Ron Noades, moving onto Ken Bates and the two shysters that run West Ham followed by Abramovich, Hicks and Gillett before Kroenke and the Glazers got in on the act. Now it’s at state level of course with the war criminals and hoodlums that own Citeh and the barcodes.
Tony – you’ll remember that line from that Clash tune, ‘White man in Hammersmith Palais’ which said, ‘if Adolf Hitler flew in today, they’d send a limousine anyway’.
It’s ultimately a deeply grim immoral industry.
Good piece Ambarish. Let’s hope he picks a team that does just enough to win the group on Thursday.
Forest at home is another bit of good fortune. There is a chasm between the two teams despite our recent fa cup setbacks. However, the alarm bells will be ringing from N7 to Eastlands stadium if it’s anything other than a straightforward win.
Tony – All the best people are banned by ParanoidPedro. The guy is a clown.
I would hate to see Jesus, Martinelli, Saka, Ode, Partey anywhere near the starting XI.
Give 90min to Nwaneri. If can get a sub appearance in a Premier League game, I’m sure he can start against PSV in a game that don’t matter now.
Anyone else remember the days when under Wenger we’d draw someone like Everton away in the League Cup – be threatened with punishments if we put out a weakened team, put the kids out anyway and then go and beat a near to full strength opposition?
Anyone think we’ll ever see Arteta manage that?
Marc
Yes, I do. I think it’s the shift from free flowing football to a control based one which Pep has introduced. You need technicians playing out every move you have thought as it is.
A little bit of freedom goes a long way. I hate to say it but I prefer the Klopp brand of football for precisely the same reason.
Ambarish
Agree – as good as they are I never find City entertaining. It’s like watching a relentless machine, very efficient but no imagination. When I was a kid a read a short story called The Ruum – I think of it every time I watch City.
Liverpool are more Thrash Metal, certainly better to watch but their technical level is no where near either City or Wenger’s teams. It’d be nice to see a little of the artist re introduced into PL football – there’s certainly enough talent playing in it.
Hi Marc
I just wiki’ed that Porges story about the Ruum. I’m partial to some 20th century sci-fi (esp Dick and JG Ballard) and the story seems typically bonkers. Writers took some powerful drugs back then! I might try and order it.
Never mind Guardiola – a robotic device capturing and storing dumb animals and rendering them motionless sounds just like Tets’s transfer policy and his lack of attention to rotating players.
You can find anything if you look hard enough.
Ambarish
Interesting to read your thoughts about Thursday’s team. He’s so inflexible and risk averse you just know he won’t waver from his current half and half policy.
I’ll take a punt here. When the line-up is announced, I’ll bet it irks you in some way. I think he just enjoys the stubbornness too much. He’s never going to be a crowd pleaser.
Morning all. Read in the DM this we have a £50m war chest and Mikel wants a midfielder and a winger.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11354865/Arsenal-Artetas-Premier-League-title-challenge-50m-transfer-war-chest-January.html
I’m assuming these incoming players will be starters and not more too inexperienced bench sitters who’re generally off the pace when they finally get a chance to come one or start, such as Vieira at S’hampton last Sunday.
Let’s see how it pans out.
Marc
I loved Wenger’s first decade and the football we played. I don’t think we’ll see it under Arteta, but pretty sure Paddy would invent a new version if he were at the reigns. It was a refreshing change to GG’s 1:0 to the Arsenal although I enjoyed GG’s meager adventurous football for the trophies it brought us. Both brilliant periods for us.
K’phobe you’re right about ultra boy wonder at LG. Bob takes his shots from behind the fence safe from recourse after not even reading my posts, as they’d been taken down by Nigel sorry Pedro. Same person. Just utterly pathetic and cowardly not to address me.
I had fun rattling a few cages. I was hoping it might attract traffic this way.
Vaguely remember the Clash and the song you mentioned. Also, remember way back when someone threw a tinny (was in Aussi I think) at him on stage so, Joe being Joe, took off his guitar as some punks jumped on the stage, and went at them swinging. I also have vague recollection of one of the punk bassists lived in the Shaolin Temple for 3 years. That could have been Strummer, as the story I heard from another tour manager Strummer gave good account of himself with and without the Bass.
How true I have no idea, but the story fits the Clash’s Punk MO.
Anyway, my fav Clash track is this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfK-WX2pa8c
Working with Stiff acts I was on the cusp of punk: Wreckless Eric, Lou Lewis Reformer, Jona Lewie et al. However, my tastes were more psychedelic deep into Floyd, Genesis, Zep and so many more. My pop was Roxy Music, Steely Dan with quality musos. Spirit early 70s and Maze. All of this led my journey into the Tech world of recreating sound perfectly.
I’m still of the mind that we play the bench & kids in Holland and if everyone has recovered for Forest then put out our best 11 to start. 5 subs are enough to change things around with plans B & C.
Too much to ask for? Who knows with Mikel?
Another refugee from LG! Good to see you all here!
Tony
I remember seeing the Clash at the Music Machine in Camden – they were filming over 3 nights – great times to be in London! One of my bests nights out was News Year’s eve 1977 – the Ramones at the Rainbow – what a night that was! I remember seeing Roxy at the Rainbow a few years earlier – they are responsible for my ventures into the music world! Funny I was watching a documentary about them last night!
Back to football… I am very concerned when I see signs of fatigue in young players so early in the season. Something is not right. I know we don’t have the squad for effective rotation but when you see other teams (ie Southampton) running for 90 minutes you do start to wonder!
Welcome Aussi Gooner, Camden back in the 60s, 70s and 80s was where it was at for music industry people on down time from tours etc and or people wanting to see what’s new one the northern circuit as it was known to bands looking for gigs. Pierre by his own admission was a frequenter of Dingwalls on the lock. The Angel in Islington was also a steppingstone to the industry. Big John looked after the bands keeping the place ticking over in the 70s. The Greyhound in Fulham was another venue the A&R people looked for future stars. Do you mind me asking what areas of the industry you ventured into?
On the football front I was very curious why the Leeds players who had been on full throttle all game still went up a gear around the 80th minute where we slowed through sheer fatigue where the players had given their all, left to running on fumes to dealing with backs to the walls defending.
We seem to have had this problem dating back to Emery days.
Are we sacrificing engines for technical ability? Extremely wild guess I know, but both Southampton and Leeds had Duracell batteries with ours from Tesco own label.
When fine margins create the winners and losers, losing one’s edge through fatigue then scraping for points unfortunately becomes the plan B. It’s admirable that Mikel have broken the Start to a Season record and a great feeling to be top of the table: however, at 25% of the games played we look like we’ve played 30+ games fatigue wise.
One thing you can bet on with Mikel is he won’t learn by his mistakes; is it because he sees the mistakes as others by deflecting all the time?
Whatever it is it’s very worrying and needs dealing with or we’ll be back to 5th before we know it like last season. Then which of his and Edu’s buys will they sell at a loss because they never had the chance to increase their value with us.
Tony
In the 70’s and 80’s I played in groups in all the places you mentioned. The Greyhound in Fulham Palace Road was a particular favorite of mine. Also the Two Brewers in Clapham, the Marquee, the Vortex, 100 club, the Rock Garden, Music Machine, The Venue etc etc. All places that couldn’t exist today! Great memories – I even played at the Hippodrome when it was owned by Peter Stringfellow! I gave up playing and went into recording with my own 8 track studio, still got the gear in the shed shipped over from the UK! I now have a little Yamaha box which can do 100 times more!!!
I am dreading the inevitable injuries over the next couple of months. It is plain for all to see that we do not have adequate cover – this has been the case for years in some positions. I see Pierre is doing his best on LG to convince people that Eddie is better than Jesus! I hope that the WC works in our favour and has a negative effect on other teams in terms of injuries.
Tony,
DailyMail are not be trusted, but it makes sense. We were in market for a winger and tried to sign Luiz from Villa.
If you consider 1-1 replacement of our playing XI, our defence is sorted but there is a drop in performance when one of Partey, Saka, and Jesus are not available. I’m not mentioning Odegaard hoping ESR will be back soon from injury.
Eddie may/may not turn out to be as effective as Jesus but I doubt it’s Mikel’s preference considering he do not depends on the CF for goals. Martinelli, Saka, Ode are equally contributing.
That leaves us with a need of Midfielder and a right winger. Get a decent Saka replacement I’m fine with it but Parteys one should be a top class one.
Neves, if we may.
Good morning Ambarish I understand your lack of trust of the DM and press in general. I’ve done work with the UK Dallies in the past, so well aware of their not letting the truth spoil a story narrative. It’s just a business, but its moral compass follows the story and money no matter what to print the best angle of a story to sell papers. Paparazzi being the worst example.
The DM this morning are running a couple of stories as to why we’re fading too quickly:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11358175/REVEALED-Small-squad-limited-rotation-bruising-schedule-explain-Arsenals-second-half-struggles.html
Also, how Mikel has told Jesus he has to be ready to play 70 games this season when previously his best tally was 22:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11358751/Gabriel-Jesus-ready-play-70-games-season-baby-daughter-secret-recovery.html
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/10/26/18/63877911-0-image-a-18_1666805382938.jpg
Looking at this table and considering the pace and physicality of the PL, those minutes are illogical at best. Then add the training and recoveries and the player is going to generally feel fatigued in body and mind, especially after a fuel injected first 15 to 20 minutes of a game. I mentioned several weeks ago we are running on empty trying to go through the motions drilled into the players but being 2nd to the ball or slow off the ball to shut down space for counters.
In the early stages we’d put in a decent 2nd half with letting the opponent have a purple patch late in the game. Now, 2nd half looks like we have lost the plan and plot and are chasing the ball instead of keeping possession.
If Mikel expects 70 games from Jesus without injury or burn out, Mikel is seriously deluded. Edu, too if he backs such nonsense. Until we see the outcome of the WC we won’t know if Mikel continues with the folly of the last few games.
Ambarish, whether we have £50m or not isn’t really the narrative here, it’s the fact that Mikel still wants a winger and MF for £50m. At £25m a pop they will be unlikely to be starters, so will be extra bench warmers while our best players are being hamstrung by Mikel by playing in the deepest red there is on the player burn-out scale.
How much would Neves cost?
Buy Neves or similar quality and bring back Patino and Bolagun for January. Use Marquinhos and the whole bench, but that’s not Mikel. He gambles on his invincible luck. To him the WC is hindrance but time to work on those not involved.
The above said, Mikel will not change his belief in football, godlike immortality and will continue on playing his bedraggled best 11 until they drop and then blame the fitness coaches.
I always view the press stories as no smoke without fire and look deeper. I get things wrong like the rest of us but I am sadly not wrong about the above. It’s there for all to see.
Mikel lives in his past with football and has this incredulous notion that he can play Pep’s champagne football on brown ale budgets. It’s not called Pep lite for nothing where, as a drink it would have short lasting bubbles and then be flat – just like our current football under Mikel.
Now’s the time Mikel needs to be generational isn’t it?
Morning Aussi Gooner your music pedigree is excellent as the Venue and Music Machine were large gigs to play normally after a record deal to show the band off. A few games ago I was talking to K’phobe about Line source speakers vs Point source. Worth delving into next time you look at speakers. Wisdom are the best, but there are brands for different budgets that are very decent to say the least.
Also, MadVr is a must for TVs and projectors alike. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EAYgrJHaew
it really is amazing kit and will only get better.
On the football front I hope we play our bench in Holland no matter the result and leave Martinelli, Jesus, Saka and Partey back in London. It’s time Mikel broke his myopic view of his players.
Forest will turn up feathers preened after their Liverpool result.
Will we have a plan B? Or will it be be the same formula as of all season. Flat out from the traps, get ahead and then be gassed for the rest of the game. Deja vu or Groundhog Day both will fit.
Quite a few different media outlets reported on the 50 mill that Arteta can spend including the Mirror, footballtoday, teamtalk and football.london so it may just be true. Hopefully it will happen as we badly need Partey & Saka cover to get us through the business end of the season.
Killroy-TM isn’t Marquinhos cover for Saka? Saka plays best with ESR next to him they have a telepathic type of connection. Hoping ESR is going to put his injury demons behind him as we miss him at his best.
Partey has always needed cover from last season ti now.
True ESR is out and we miss him. Watched Mudryk in the game against Celtic and he was decent and Arsenal are interested in him. You know Arteta doesn’t trust very young players and he should have brought in Marquinhos as a sub but Mikel as you know is stubborn and uses different criteria for selecting the playing squad.
I want to see a repeat of penalties in the Premier League … I think they create a big damage. I would like to see if this type of decision made with a top team in an important game.
This quote is fucking priceless. It’s comes from Comrade Conte after the Spuds latest underwhelming draw at home. By saying he would like to see this happen with a top team in an important game, he’s admitting that Spurs are neither a top team nor that they play important games. Hilarious and something we’ve all known for years. Poor little cockerel jockeys. He’s also neglecting to mention the number of dodgy penalties they get in the first place because of diving. I think his days there are numbered…
Tony
You are spot on about the Saka – ESR telepathy. But that was last year when ESR HAD to be brought in. Been noticing lately that the Saka telepathy has shifted to Odegard with whom he now 1-2s. Instructions obviously. SoESR now has to run through, with communication with Tomi and some extent Martineli.
Nice to be back. Can’t figure the Wall unless the Empire’s deep pockets. That shit is pronounced over here
Match is on. Looks more interesting than first leg
Fireworks behind the stadium.
Wtf are they celebrating at 25 minutes?
PSV scores amids a tangle of players.
VAR to the rescue
0-0
Hi Hoopah
You been away somewhere mate?
The second disallowed goal showed up some serious weakness in our back 4. But that said, the fact that our line worked well and provoked 2 valid offside calls is quite positive. Our passing remains awry – nothing near the box looks precise enough and the finishing is still sub par.
If we get out of this without losing, it’ll do. If so, the next competitive EL game won’t be til 2023.
Party coming on. Vieira is lightweight
Meanwhile
PSV score 1-0
Ramsdale looked rattled after 1sr goal.
The 2nd was coming and came
3rd one saved by offside by a whisker.
Arteta being found in Europe. Lucky PSV players very young and without maturity to check the line
Now Arteta substitured in his first 11 in toto, except Odegard who was withdrawn earlier. Now onward none of the other players are ever going to get a sniff, except 2-4 minutes
Nistleroy gives an affectionate peck to Arteta who really looks lost today
Final score 2-0
Dismal.
Didn’t see the game and have only just caught the scoreline.
Basically ShitforBrains managed to rotate 3 players (Holding, Sami and Nketiah) and got spanked.
When are the fanbase going to see what a complete and utter waste of space he is?
PSV had 3 disallowed goals we had 15 shots on goal but only 3 on target not very good. Bet you the not so dynamic duo will go for attackers again in the January transfer window and not address our midfield problem. Meanwhile there are teams in the EPL that will gain ground on us and top 4 is by no means sure with the present squad and management. Man Utd., Chelsea and Newcastle will go from strength to strength with the Villa wildcard with Good Ebening at the helm.
Killroy
PSV had 3 goals ruled out? Fuck me what a disaster.
What people need to realise is the shit results and shit performances (even if they scrape something) are Arteta’s true level – anything else is freak results.
I would say “Fuck knows what the excuses will be when we miss out on top 4 again” but it turns out we’re the only team who have players at the world cup or who get injuries.
Thought that Saka and Saliba are the only players going to the WC. There was hope that the WC would help with the recuperation and resting of our players and we would be raring to go with our pursuit of top 4. If we miss out on CL this season, there will be a small revolution among the supporters because it would be 7 years since we last were there. Never mind the money the not so dynamic duo spent to get back to the CL competition. Pitiful.
Just watched the highlights: https://ourmatch.me/27-10-2022-psv-eindhoven-vs-arsenal/ and just nodded knowingly as I witnessed the absolute shambles of a group of players who have only really trained together and it showed.
The selection was a neither nor type mixed bag of starters and non starters who were schooled by Van Nistleroy of all people and Keown nowhere in sight.
I got binned from LG for relating facts rather than listen to Pedro and his Arteta apologists fictional garbage of the generational one. Arteta was clueless once again where the score could and should have been at least 5:0 had PSV taken their chances including Ramsdale’s many saves.
There’s really not much else to say re last nights match other than another tired performance and probably the worst in-game management from Arteta thus far.
The question is how does a tired squad bounce back against a tails-up Forest? Normally, the answer would be the coaches and manager but our squad is basically spent or untried properly in the PL.
What a manager! Arteta take a bow, son, you’ve managed to trim the squad with loans and sales and then you run the main starters into the red. Mikel gambles; it’s all he does. He gambled last season and lost CL.
He’s gambling again that we can reach the WC and recharge. The fact is we’re knackered and have 2 tough games to play where we could easily drop 6 points on our current showing from yesterday and our last 2 PL games.
It feels like Leonardo di Caprio in Titanic at there bow of the ship screaming ‘top of the world’ and then some time later sinking after hitting there iceberg.
We’re the Titanic on collision course with dropping points and missing out on CL again though the remaining 75% of the season and cups.
KSE really has to wake up and smell the coffee and take their rose tinted Arteta glasses off and quickly and see Arteta for what he really is: a myopic rookie who doesn’t learn from his mistakes.
As always, all eyes on the rookie again for the next 2 games with the feeling there is always hope for the future without Arteta.
Here’s what the DM says and it’s hard to disagree:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11363473/Fans-slam-Arsenal-Europa-League-loss-PSV.html
There = the*
Through the remaining*
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/breaking-arsenals-pablo-mari-stabbed-28347230
Get well soon Pablo
Preach Tony…not only did I get summarily binned from LG, after a rather brief stay, little Positive Pete has gone to considerable lengths to prevent me from even going on his Arteta-fluffing site…it’s clear that this current regime, including it’s “payola” cohorts, have no time or patience for commonsensical and/or highly nuanced discussions about club-related matters…these sort of “blackballing” campaigns rarely end well, as modern history can attest, so they will almost assuredly get their “just desserts” in the end…from a locker room perspective, one can only hope that our one-and-a-half trick pony of a manager has at least one person in the room who has his ear and who can still speak the truth without fear of reprisals, otherwise we might have peaked in September and we could be witnessing the mind-numbing reemergence of our more familiar sideways, wide-side dependent football…it’s been about 5 matches on the trot of this overtly stifling brand of football, so unless our next couple matches look and feel decidely different, I fear that there will be a significant regression in our results moving forward…of course, I hope I’m wrong, but our glaring lack of meaningful depth up top, especially with ESR sidelined indefinitely, and our continued tactical naivete, certainly doesn’t fill me with confidence…Cheers to one and all
Amen K’Phobe. Perfectly put.
Hi Tony
Changing tack a little…
I’ve got a potential local project for you, your MC and all your other mates. Just been reading about Pata Zoo (on the 7th floor of a shopping centre! Fucking Insane!) in BKK
and their refusal to relocate an aging and potentially dying gorilla. Here’s the article.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/28/thailand-shopping-mall-gorilla-fight-to-release-bua-noi
The solution? Swap the poor animal for Arteta! It won’t blow a hole in Stan-k’s budgets either. She could come to the UK and roam around London Colney showing the lads how to transition to a high energy vegan/fruit diet. Give her a marker pen and she’d do a far better job of picking and rotating the team and I’d bet a rejuvenated powerful and aggressive primate could give a more effective team talk that just shouting, ‘jdp… Get it op the focking peeetch’.
Benefits for Arteta too of course with this swap deal. Presumably he’d be closer to shops selling black polo necks and beauty products. He’d also have the chance to sit in a sparsely furnished un stimulating but piss-stinking enclosure where he could quietly learn the errors of his ways. Maybe Pedro could be his cagemate…. Aaaah!
In truth of course I hope Bua Noi gets some peace.