Well, it isn’t exactly the title decider yet, because there are games left and City can go on to lose some of them. But it does feel like one. Arsenal competing against Manchester City, with 5 point lead having played a game more. Beat City and we will most likely win it after 20 years. Lose against them, and we would have to involve Gods.
Premier League is ruthless! I was drafting article two weeks back about how going to Etihad with 11 point lead would be immense and even if we drop points against them, the league would still be ours to lose. Since then, we shared points with Liverpool, West Ham and Southampton. We have 6 more games left, some of them are tough – Chelsea (H), Newcastle (A), Brighton (H), Forest (A), Wolves (H). Only the last 2 can be termed easy ones, but then Southampton was bottom of the table and scored 3 past us at Emirates. Our run of games is surely tougher than City.
And this makes our game against City this Wednesday, a must WIN.
We have some problem going on, in our defence. Saliba is out injured, and we are leaking goals. Twitter wants Thomas Partey as an inverted RB and Ben White moved to CB. I’m not sure how useful that would be, when your midfield is gone and Ben White, who haven’t played at CB this season will suddenly have to face Haaland. In my opinion, Holding is what we have, and should start at CB. He wins headers, he is good defensively and his lack of pace needs to be covered up. How? I don’t know. Probably the same way Xhaka’s has been done whole season; it’s for the manager to think.
I doubt we will change anything. Arteta will stick to his playing XI. Tierney won’t be playing at RB, no it’s not going to happen. And rightly so. To fix one position, you are not going to ruin 3 more. Best way would be to give extra classes to Rob and hope he sees Diego Costa in Haaland.
One change I would like to see, is Trossard starting. He has been brilliant for us since January and he needs to be there in our most important game of this season. He can replace Vieira, can’t do any worse right? Though Xhaka would be back and everyone and their grandmother can guess who will start.
We need the best of Partey. The one where he was playing a single pivot, distributing beautiful passes to the front 3 and delivering a constant 8.5/10.
Lastly, we need Jesus. We spent 45million on a CF to score goals against big team, in games when it matters. Use your City departure as a motivation. Jesus wanted to have more game time as a CF, which was primary reason he left City. He needs to deliver when he is getting chances because I have seen Eddie doing equally well. If it’s only about the linkup play and dropping deep to support midfield, what changed between you and Lacazette? CF needs to score goals. Someone had to say it.
We have progressed this season. Even if you are Arteta hater, you will acknowledge that some of our games has been magnificent to watch. Our football has improved and the players have grown from 19 year boys to 22 year old men. Even if we don’t make it at the end, these players will have our support. Those songs in the away ends won’t die irrespective of the outcome.
We needed a fight to begin with, we have seen our lot fighting and winning. It’s a battle reduced to Master v Apprentice.
Right, that’s all I have for the City game. It’s not the size of the dog in a fight but the fight in a dog…
If you are feeling low thinking about our dropped points and about the rest of the season, here’s a news – Spu*s have appointed an interim manager in place of the sacked interim manager who was appointed after their manager Conte was let go.
A Rodri red card would be perfect (a redri?) but an early bath for any of their cheating wankers would be fine. Who’s the bastard with the whistle tonight?
KP & TRVL
The anticipation is numbing especially at 12:50 hours this morning. Looks like Xhaka has made a timely recovery from his illness to be the invisible man again tonight. We’ll know soon how Arteta is going to handle Saliba’s absence.
Looks like no change then:
Manchester City XI: Ederson; Akanji, Dias, Laporte; Stones, Rodri; Mahrez, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Grealish; Haaland.
Arsenal XI: Ramsdale; White, Holding, Gabriel, Zinchenko; Xhaka, Partey; Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli; Jesus.
Tony beat me to it.
Xhaka is back, for the first time in my life I’m happy seeing him because I don’t have to see Vieira in the line up.
Decent line-up. Everything depends on how we take care of De bruyne and Haaland.
KP
Michael Oliver is the match referee with David Coote in charge of VAR. Could be worse.
Ambarish
Should be Trossard for Xhaka or ESR
Tony
Yes, but I’ve given up now.
Anyways, we are going to fight and fight hard, it’s the title on the line and we are playing against ‘what’s wrong with the football world’.
Kroenke
We’ve all seen you trying to balance opening the front door whilst concealing your copy of the DT like a kid with a porno mag!
Now the anticipation or realisation more like of what is about to play out before our eyes is disturbing to say the least. Honestly, with that line up how differently are we going to play? What surprises has superfly Arteta got in stall for his old master?
My guess is a whole load of none. So, we’re back to praying and I’m a fcuking atheist. Me praying will be as useful as tits on a bull. So Junior is talking to old Red down stairs to see what deals he’s got cooking in Manchester.
This feels like when Wenger was holding on with grim determination and we played City twice both times we lost 3 something. Why? Because Wenger was predictable.
With this line up so is Arteta.
In the words immortalized by Greavesie “It’s a funny old game”.
We know we don’t have much of a chance but there’s always hope until there is none. The under dog will always have its day and we can hope today is our day. All Junior and I want is a mountain of controlled fight from us in whatever way Arteta has drilled the team.
After that, it’s a free for all end to end gung ho football by taking the game into their own hands.
Let’s start
And so it goes
Loose defence
why in god’s name would Holding engage with Haaland so high up the pitch considering the ball played into him…he’s too emotional of a player who has a glaring lack of self-awareness…as soon as I say it Holding goes all bull in the china shop again
Tony-I agree with your earlier sentiments about MA constantly running back the same old shit and hoping for better results…if it wasn’t goood enough for the lesser lights and Pool, why the fuck would it do the job against a far better side…Pep has no problem allowing us to get the bulk of the possession beacuse he knows exactly what’s on tap
we should be a legit 3 goals down by now…maybe their wastefulness will come back to haunt in the end, but that feels like a considerable long shot
nothing like being a willing passenger in possibly our most important fixture to date…Xhaka’s presence on the pitch means we can’t press high and we can’t contain them on the counter, as Partey is left in no man’s land time and time again…you can’t lineup with only 1 DM with the petrified Holding on the backline, which is why I felt we needed to deviate from our increaingly vanilla tactics…right now the only tactical adjustment is that Marts is shifting into the middle of the pitch at times to man mark Rodri, which means that even if we turn them over we have no width on that side of the pitch to counter…we look like we’re a regulation team that came to the Etihad in the hopes of not getting embarassed or somehow, someway eking out a tie
increasingly
TRVL
Arteta’s a one trick pony. What we’ve just endured because it was no pleasure to witness was the exact definition of madness perfectly demonstrated by Arteta’s selection and tactics as a serial bottler or choker take your pick.
What will Pep say at half time? Keep the score down to 4 lads for poor Mikel.
if someone was watching this match and they were unfamiliar with the standings, there’s no way they would think that we’re battling for the crown…in fact they might think this is a replay of City’s weekend FA fixture against a scared and overmatched championship side
based on our usual shot to goal metrics, we only need about 20 unanswered shots to tie this match at 2
I can’t imagine that MA can walk out of that tunnel without substitutions at the ready, as that was capitulation at it’s finest
of course, I’m watching them return and not a switch to be had
TRVL
Said the same to junior. It’s madness.
old man Xhaka strikes again…pathetic attempt with his preferred foot on one end then a cheap giveaway on the other, which led ot a chance and a subsequent corner…Pep must just lick his lips when he knows Xhaka is required to be a box-to-box player, as no other manager would ever make life so easy for an opposing manager
Xhaka killed Martinelli’s game and so nullified our left attack.
people would be calling for any previous manager’s head if this was what was on offer in such a self-proclaimed battle for the title…what’s the point of subbing like-for-likes…in fact, Trossard provides little width and Jorginho is just a more diminutive version of the card thirsty loser who just left the pitch
masters against pupils here thus far
two decade wait to get back to the top of the table and this is what our tactical lightweight conjured up…if this keeps up we’ll have secured 3 points from a possible12 in the last 4 fixtures