Liverpool has dropped 3 huge points at home to Crystal Palace. City are 2 points ahead having played an extra game than us. We win today and we go back to the top. We win today and we go three crucial points ahead of Liverpool with only 6 games to go. Every game is a cup final now for the boys and Mikel.
Team News
Strange decision to start Zinchenko ahead of Kiwior, because Kiwior has been doing better than Zinni and one bad game doesn’t mean we are going to hamper his confidence. If it’s purely for rotational purpose, I can live with it. Gabriel Jesus makes his way into the starting XI with Rice anchoring the midfield alone with Havertz playing the more forward role today. Trossard starts today ahead of Martinelli whom I think will come-in at some point to give Saka some rest.
Frankly, I had hated the concept of playing Havertz as CF but he has been doing better up top than he does in midfield. Gabriel Jesus does the dirty work but is not as clinical in front as you would expect your CF to be. Trossard gives me some hope though.
Liverpool is suffering the way we did last season. One loss and everything has gone bonkers for them. They were unbeaten at home from god knows when, and suddenly Atlanta wins 3-0 and they can’t even keep Crystal Palace to a draw. City, on the other hand, have gone full beast mode.
We need to win today. At any cost. First, because Pep is not going to drop any points now and the only way we win the league is by winning all our games. Second, I hate Aston Villa.
Right, a very short one today. See you during the game.
TP very good tonight. Back to his t-bagging best.
Kroenke
That’d be funny if I wasn’t scared.
Marc-maybe I should employ my reverse logic jinx each and every time out…first Tross, then both Havertz and White both record a brace…for contextual purposes, just think of what kind of odds you would get if you bet on either brace, let alone both happening in the same match
That Chelsea banner is spot on. At least there’s one CFC fan with sone brain cells.
imagine what Pool and City must be thinking considering the amount of silver-plattered affairs we’ve had this term…oh well, fuck them
TRVL
You’d be laughed at if you walked into a bookies and asked for odds on both!
this match is so laughable now that fucking Vieira is coming on. like some sort of milk carton reuniion tour
TRVL
If you’re looking for the missing I’d like to know where the fuck the talent, commitment and belief went against Villa in the second half the other week because a touch of it would see us with one hand on the PL trophy.
Marc-some will view this as a defining moment for Arteta’s Arsenal, whereas those without blinders will see our Villa and Bayern capitulations in the same vein…of course, there’s clearly positives to be found whenever you score a handful of goals, but it means little in the grand scheme if your aim is to be one of the best in Europe
Hi Killroy, Ambarish is at a 7 day wedding (Indian people do a knees up in style it seems) so told us he wasn’t posting this week. I’m sure he’ll be finding a way to tune in though.
Hope all is good with you mate.
KP-even without a lead-in article, this was one of the most enjoyable in-match posting gigs…as usual, you were on a roll…Cheers
AFC knew how to Partey last night – TP allowed Rice to play and the pair outshone Caicedo & Fernandez. Caicedo seems to be a fish out of water since leaving Brighton where he was a spoiler but playing with others who understood his game and vice versa.
The last two games AFC lost their flair – no Partey. Now we need to find his replacement.
Just a hunch (or blind faith?) that one of Everton or Brighton will get something out of their games against the Bindips or City respectively this week. Fingers crossed that it’s the south coasters. Too ambitious to expect them both to drop points.
Morning NORG
Agree about TP. He was terrific last night and it was reminiscent of his very best performances as a Gooner. Not sure about his contract position, but would he be worth another punt for one more season? Jorginho has largely looked good this year but TP is one level higher I think.
KP
Partey has injury problems and is probably older than his stated age. He is also a player that El B didnt want but at the time Arsteta was still a coach and was overruled by Edu. Another season would be good if they can not find somebody as good. I didnt see the game last night but kept up to date with the BBC website and of course LiR. Did ESR get any minutes?
Hi all
Just watched the game and thought WTF! Why save Partey for the Chavs who were dire off the ball but had their moments.
Fair result where Ode was the best I’ve seen and what I expected from him when LG were putting him down. At 16 it was to see he had no ceiling and he’ll get better to be Bergkampesque is my thinking and Madrid will be rueing their selling of Ode already.
KP
One of my favourite talk box or voice box renditions ever and should be player after each goal we score at the Emirates :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUioud7Qtsw
Frampton at his very best live on Frampton Comes Alive double album.
Joe Walsh’s Rocky Mountain Way runs close, as does Haitian Divorce we talked about earlier:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Fz-mHGXgzs
Steve Waller Manfred Mann’s genius guitarist also loved his voice box worth checking out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFPT3q8Is8g
Back to the game we won comfortably because Partey played I said we needed him in my pregame post and he shinned so much it left me thinking WTF! A common occurrence with El B well more like every day but who’s counting?
Great posts lads and good to see Kilroy input again. Thanks for a great read this afternoon here.
I doubt City can beat our goal difference and it will mean nothing if we drop points on St Totterings Day.
Here’s an interesting thought, with last nights starting line up does anyone think we’d the CL semi by now?
I do. No question Partey would have made the difference with Havertz up top and not defending other than corners and free kicks. Partey & Rice can keep the engine room running at full tilt when needed defending and attacking.
Partey has to play against Spuds, and, as I think Marc said we need a Partey replacement asap. TRVL any ideas? I expected a draw without Partey yesterday and I feel we can get the points at Spudland with another performance like last night. However, I doubt Ode will get the freedom he enjoyed against the Chavs. Angelos “Ange” Postecoglou is no mug and Spurs will want to ruin our title charge of maximising points from every game.
What annoys me most is the inconsistency with El B and the players who I feel sense his indecision where it shows in games. El B will always have trust issues with his players so hence the need for his pets.
I think El B missed his SS Oberfuhrer calling by 80 years. Certainly, acts like some football supremacist, but yet to win anything of note. Loved your Spanish slang KP.
Missed a great game’s chatter last night this place looked the fun place to be.
Easy day in BKK today and just ordered this: https://www.shopdownia.com/products/gold-collection-mattress-topper?variant=38094673543341 I have gym caused lower back nerve damage and Thai beds are generally hard or too firm. Most hotel toppers are cheap and too thin so I need at least two on hotel beds. I’m about to go on a road trip for a few weeks so taking a topper with me to be sure as there are few 5* hotels in the north and some that think they are and pretend but always fail.
No, not a one. Vieira for a few by contrast.
Frankly, it’s insane the way ESR has been neglected. Unfathomable.
Just in case you haven’t seen them, the highlights are well worth a watch. Despite being dismal, Chelsea could have scored 2 or 3 themselves.
I remember in the 70s and 80s when Chelsea were yo yo-ing between first and second divisions, we often drew games that we should have won. There was also that season of near invincibility (in the early 90s?) when we only lost one game to Chelsea at the bridge. Was Kerry Dixon on the score sheet for them? So although there have been moments when we’ve had some superiority over them, last night’s thumping went some way towards making amends after the utter embarrassment of Wengo’s 1000th game.
So it was pleasing, but not properly exciting unless the other two go on to slip up.
https://youtu.be/RIPznj9VQvA?si=JusLOD26OS9m6VGf
Yeah, Graham Stewart and K Dixon by the looks of it. Astonishing to think we could have also been invincible a decade earlier. I loved that 91 team. A lot like 89s but with some fine tuning. Super Swede – remember that goal at Anfield?
KP
The 91 season was fantastic. Not a lot in the press about the possibility of going unbeaten. The amount of goals conceded was unbelievable – 18 if my memory serves me well.
El B now has a problem – Rice is verbal and criticises. Emilio did the same and apparently ESR was non stop in his praise for Ozil.
A bit of a dilemma on Sunday. I will be in Granada with my wife. I am certain she will not want to take in the Granada vs Osasuna game which kicks off at the same time as the North London Derby. The bars are sure to have the local team on TV. LiR is the safety line.
NORG
In that case, rest assured that you’ll get a bespoke – if rather biased – commentary from everyone on LiR.
I assume Ambarish’s wedding festivities will have come to an end by then but we might have to expect some Kingfisher or Cobra induced hangover!
https://youtu.be/EZx5OgKQNrA?si=J7Sd3C1Ihv6bJstG
Tony
Something different musically. I love this song – it captures the UK drinking and dope smoking cultures very accurately. I’m sure it’ll resonate, especially with you and Vieira.
A win on Sunday and I could be on a table stamping my feet in flamenco style.
Tony
I haven’t played Frampton’s Do you feel (like we do) for ages – fantastic live track. My son works for me and we both work from home. Before he got married and he still lived at home at 17.00 we would play music until we finished work. This was on my playlist and he soon added it to his – still one of his favourites.
above all else, I want Arsenal to reach the highest of heights…now it might not seem as such if one were to read my posts without the requisite context, but I would like nothing more than for us to emerge as the Real of the North…in order to do so, settling simply isn’t an option, even if it’s a first world kind of settling that included yearly top 4 finishes and European nights in April…we’ve seen that all before, which is why many of us did the unthinkable, by turning up our noses at our last truly great manager…so why should we hold Arteta to a lower standard than someone who gave us so much more
so when I watch us toy with undermanned and/or totally disinterested sides, I don’t ignore what my eyes have seen and jump to the wrong conclusions…instead I use those more mettle-testing moments in the season, against those sides we either aspire to be, like City or Bayern, or who have top 4 aspirations of their own, like Villa…these are always more telling…unfortunately when push comes to shove we don’t measure up…not because that’s beyond us, as we’ve had the required backing, it’s due to the multitude of wrong choices made by those in charge, both on and off the pitch
so if we find a way to pull this off, on the one hand, I’ll be fucking elated, as I will never look that gift horse in the mouth, whereas, on the other hand, that won’t change the fact that any such accomplishment will have far more to do with the failure of others than our emergence as a top 2-3 club in Europe…the very fact that every pro-Arteta thirsty fuck raced to heap praise on Havertz as soon as the final whistle sounded yesterday speaks volumes about this dog and pony show…team eye test out
absolutely spot on TRVL. Wenger could not get us to the tape first in 2015 when all the main contenders were failing. El B is Wenger Mk II. Man U, Chelsea are not busted – they will re-emerge. This season Liverpool & City are not at their best. We are a strong team but managerial inept. Managed well and we could be lifting the trophy before the end of the season but tired players before Christmas are the same tired players that get used week in and week out. Saka will need to have a leg removed before El B will let him have a rest.
We now have the advantage of points – Liverpool and City need to catch up. Pep is ruthless – Klopp wants to go out on a high. We may have missed our chance in December and again against Villa, who under Unai are joining the top table.
Everton giving Liverpool a match – hopefully they can do us a favour.
Norg
Why the fuck didn’t Arteta get Saka off for a rest once we were 3 or 4 nil up last night. The Spud’s will be a tough fixture on Sunday and we’ll need everyone at peak performance.
Its not as if Saka doesn’t look like he needs a rest and with the Euro’s coming up he won’t get a proper summer break either.
TRVL
“the very fact that every pro-Arteta thirsty fuck raced to heap praise on Havertz as soon as the final whistle sounded yesterday”
They’re the same idiots singing “sixty million down the drain Kai Havertz scores again” last season they were signing about Zinchenko being indestructible!
Cheers Norg—every once in a while I like to reiterate the fact that there’s no negative correlation between critiquing one’s club and one’s adoration levels for said club…in fact, you could quite easily argue the reverse…why else would you continually choose to swim upstream unless you believed wholeheartedly that the ends justified the means…unfortunately in this text-driven, headline-only reading, blunt instrument of a world, where nuance and context are typically undervalued or forgotten altogether, it’s easy for those within the slurping underbelly to cast dispersions against anyone who doesn’t subscribe to their particular, albeit contrived, world view…that’s why I never take this venue for granted…have a good one
Marc-the thought of a faceless mob spouting nonsense, in tune or otherwise, speaks to the conform or else mindset that has permeated club life since the words Arsene Knows Best were first uttered…what a bunch of fucking lemmings
Well that’s Liverpool out of it and Everton are going to be safe by the time we play them which does us a favour.
Bournemouth will be a win, ManU are just awful if we can’t beat them we don’t deserve fuck all so its looking like its down to the match vs the Spud’s and will City drop points.
You can see why Klopp’s decided to call it time – that Liverpool squad has some major players who are going to need replacing either this summer or next and rebuilding the core of a team is a huge job that gets harder each time you have to do it.
Tony–looks like my old buddy Arne Slot is in the catbird seat to replace Klopp at Pool…I guess we’ll see if Pool’s so enamoured with him that they’re willing to pay the massive compensation required…Cheers
Marc-when I spoke about Pool hitting the proverbial wall a few weeks back they were already struggling for goals and had just found themselves on the wrong side of an Atalanta dismantling at Anfield…now if everything was fucking peachy in the room they might of found a way to grind their way out of this slump, but the festering issues, which undoubtedly contributed to Klopp’s decision to leave, could no longer be masked by the resulting call to arms or their late-game heroics, that had finally run dry
fact remains they were ahead of schedule, as this was year one of a total midfield rebuild, so their involvement in this 3 horse race, especially at this late juncture, was most surprising…if you think about it, why would any of those young in-demand midfielders come to Pool unless they were convinced that Klopp was there for the long haul…surely they wouldn’t of come so willingly if this was a one-off gig with seemingly no succession plan in place…personally I think the issues first crept in when the club sided with Salah over Mane, then resurfaced again when the former demanded more investment by the club and some astronomical wages to boot last season…we might never know the real story
Marc
Bournemouth could be the hardest team to beat in our run in. Their manager has done well and they currently lie in 10th spot – quite an achievement with a small squad that at one time were possible candidates for relegation. One of the big boys will snap up their manager.
Marc, TRVL – at Stan’s first game at AFC he noticed the banners showing AKB and in A we trust etc. He turned to Josh and said ‘we need to make sure we keep this guy’.
Back from BKK early and going to settle into solitude for a couple of months with Room therapy.
Norg
Loved you and your son were able to enjoy such a music togetherness. Something I never had, but learnt to dodge the blows well. Another life.
I was lucky junior grew up attached to me and was my shadow. Being semi retired I was able to spend so much time with him and teach him more about his ADHD sadly passed on by me & Mrs T. He’s been through everything from different genres of video/picture editing and music choices to learning about my 40 years in the gym to cooking steaks (air fryers are best) and being my co-chair on my Room project for 2 years to completion.
He did translations for me for comprehension, but also he added his take on the nuances you wouldn’t know if you weren’t Thai. He kept the Thais honest where I didn’t lose money on such a project mostly because of outside western pressure. It started when he was 12 for context.
He also got to use his ears for the 33 hours of room tuning. He’s teaching me now about music where there is too much choice in one sense, but also a big a huge range of choices that never ceases to amaze as the tech advances in studios at crazy rates.
Sounds like we both have been lucky to enjoy such closeness where you are more fortunate to work together, which considering what you invent with what must be huge data driven hours as a part of the process. My basic thought process of a scientist/inventor and why I marvel at your work.
I am in the corridor of uncertainty at the moment with many things here but I had always hoped junior would enjoy studio work with me. Time will tell. He’s immersed in mathematical sciences at a university run top BKK school, at the moment that could only have come from his mother.
My brain is more eclectic in a creative way where for the data making parts I employed from outside knowing a network of really good people working for themselves having outgrown their corporate masters.
Mrs T & I made the perfect biracial power couple. KP you’d understand that more from your time at the BKK embassy.
The great thing about that connection you have with your son is it only gets better as he becomes more knowledgeable. Must be a heartfelt thing to watch and see him grow with you. That’s seriously special as a father not many get to experience. Kudos to you.
KP has similar with junior too with football and many areas of life.
Great song KP. I hadn’t heard it so, had virgin ears where it resonated with me in my post drive wind down vape time.
TRVL
So, so right there was nothing left to add to your summation with Norg’s additional comments. Arne in the Pool top seat? Well, he has undergone a baptism by fire with Spuds and has proved to be football savvy, teflon coated. He’s knocking on Emery’s door with the 2 games in hand for 4th. It’s an interesting match up Emery and Arne, and so, it will give me even more pleasure helping our poor besmirched fist manager post Wenger, may he rest in peace. I mean no more interviews about well, him really.
Love to see Emery get 4th in his first full season. Villa are playing football deserved of a CL birth. Be funny if Emery went to Pool. Not inconceivable, but not probable. I think Emery is enjoying himself too much at Villa.
Marc
It’s looked like Pool have been slowly imploding which has made them wobbly and last night the score suggests they were wobbly again and taking a habit of it. I hope the Gooner brethren are sticking it to the spuds’s mates.
When watching them they seem out of sync. Elliott is not the right level for Pool for their aspirations. Their midfield should be fire, but it’s more rain leaky misfiring all over the pitch maybe of the uncertainty of what comes next in the summer.
That said if a new manager bounce gets players connecting and playing football instead of trying to be clever pundits in talking us down. TAA being chief motormouth. Something about our lack mentality: oh the irony. VVD is publicly complaint about fixture starting times trying to make the loss look in some way credible. He’s been making poor decision on the pitch but now off it, too. I think VVD maybe has Klopp daddy issues with him leaving. Rooney is giving VVD pelters for complaining which I always see and a beaten opponent when they complain. VVD move in the summer?
I can’t see City slipping up, unless this really is our 2015 2.0 season to smash and grab the PL trophy season.
I was thinking who does karma favour best: El B or Pep? Any ideas?
Bournemouth could be the hardest team to beat in our run in.
NORG
Lightening can strike twice in the same place. ⚡⚡⚡In Reiss I trust if we’re drawing in injury time.
That handsome little geezer’s goal will eventually become akin to a ‘where we you when Kennedy died?’ or ‘where were you when Micky T scored in 1989?’ type moments.
For my money, it’s this weekend’s game that presents the biggest risk. But if the boys aren’t fazed by their baying mob of neanderthals and our fans put in a stand reminiscent of 71 and 04, then another Chelsea type result could be on the cards. We need to get out there and boss them. If they do, I think we might see Manure cave in not least to keep alive the possibility of someone other than their even more corrupt neighbours winning another title. And Everton? Schmeverton! We always beat them at home in end of season games.
Tony – glad you enjoyed that Streets clip. Brilliant songwriting. You know me – anything packed with smart arsed, thought provoking lyrics and I’m sold!
I’m hoping tonight that Brighton’s big centre half (Dunk) will have seen how Saliba and Gabriel dealt with that Norwegian behemoth a few weeks ago and he adapts their policy of full on aggression.
two things of interest from today’s headlines: (1) I’m incredibly pleased that talk about signing a Striker, like the current flavour of the week Zirkzee, who I really like, has overtaken any nonsense surrounding the possibility of Havertz being like a new signing…(2) some within the punditry have gone so far as to suggest that Rice should be permanently deployed in a more advanced role moving forward…I don’t care what their handpicked analytical evidence suggests, you don’t pay the most money ever for a traditional DM only to convert him into an 8 or a 10…that said, there’s nothing wrong with having him do so against particular opponents or when we find ourselves behind, but to suggest a complete flipping of his positional script belies logic…there’s nothing wrong with acquiring players with positional versatility, but far too often our shoehorn-loving manager ignores the fact that the players in question arrived on our radar because they’ve excelled in their “preferred” or “best” position…very few players, after the age of 21 or 22, completely reinvent themselves in a relatively unfamiliar position…just saying