Brighton is a tough team to play against. They play high intensity, positive game and have Europe in mind. Having played 3 less games than Tottenham, who sits at the 6th position, Brighton could overtake them with a win. They are in a happy place but they know things can turn bad towards the end of the season, and won’t really be wishing to leave it to that. They will fight, and they will make things tough for us.
Today’s game comes with a relief for Arteta, both Solly March and Webster are ruled out of game and we are back in fine form. Saliba and Zinchenko are ruled out for the season, but Kiwior didn’t disappoint and Tierney is as good a player at LB. He might come up short in his midfield abilities, but I’m of the belief that a defender’s first priority is to defend well. Anything else is extra.
Having said that, I would really like him to excel in the three games left. Rumours about him leaving (or sold) is not a good news for me, I don’t know if we need to splash another 60m for a LB when we already have a lad covering it and doing well whenever given a chance. It would be like creating a problem and then fixing it.
For the rest of this season, we don’t have anything to win or lose now. I’m a generally optimistic person but everyone and their dog knows City are not going to drop points, and are not going to give away their 1 point lead with a game in hand. We feel the Liverpool’s frustration, in a short amount of time they have overtaken the title race. No doubt we have thrown it away ourselves by sharing points against the likes of West Ham and Liverpool after going 2-0 up, and against Southampton at home, but Pep is showing to us how hard it can be for any other team. Not only does he prepares his team tactically, he engrains in them a tough, winning mentality which allows them to perform at the top when needed the most.
It was nice till it lasted. It leaves us to the last three games, and I’m looking forward to finishing our season with 3 wins, and 90 points. It will keep the confidence high, make the incomings in the summer easier and gives us the confidence to pick ourselves up and retry again next season.
—
Back to the game, I’m expecting a a back 4 of White, Kiwior, Gabriel and Tierney. Jorginho would probably keep his place after a good game against Newcastle. Xhaka starts because he always do. We would see Saka, Odegaard and Martinelli behind Jesus, but I would personally like to see Eddie given a chance today. We are at home, we are playing Brighton and Eddie can do a job.
Trossard would like a game too, but unless we play in 2 competitions, I doubt we will see much of him. Mikel has his favorites and there is nothing wrong in that if it works. The only problem is, it don’t keep people happy. We need a strong bench, but good players don’t like to settle on the bench. A conundrum Mikel has to overcome, and we still have ESR and Eddie waiting, Balogun, Lokonga and Tavares returning, Saliba and Tomiyasu injured.
I would love to see a clean sheet. It felt sh*t to David De Gea winning the golden glove. I wouldn’t have mind if it was Ederson or Allison but lol.
Right, a short one today. Lets beat them seagulls and continue the quest of being the best out there. If you are saddened with missing out the trophy after being top of the table virtually the whole season, here’s some positive – we will be playing in Champions League next season, we will be fighting again for the trophy, Spu*s might not even make to Europa and London is red through and through.
#COYG
What’s happened to TP? He looks like a hybrid of the worst aspects of Ian Selley, David Hillier and Stephen Morrow.
And a third! What a mugging.
Marc
Feel for you mate to have to witness that live.
the fact that we allowed a team far below our present standings to boss the match on our home pitch speaks volumes about our midfield options…the only team who had similar possession numbers against us, for any substantial period of time, was City, so even MA thinks DeZerbi is his superior…just when I writing this the individual who should already be on a red card, if we had a manager with even a modicum of tactical nous, scores their 3rd goal, thus making this an absolute laugher
Arsenal supporters deserting a list cause em masse
present position in the standings
Bob
Any vegan sausage rolls or falafel left at your event in Clissold Park?
I’m wrting this…
Lads… I can feel it. We’re gonna re-sign Willian and win the CL next season. Over and out!
in like a man in a Lion’s costume and out like bleating lamb…to no one’s real surprise we were bested by a better manager…God Bless you Aitcho
I know I sound like an old record player talking up De Zerbi, but TRVL is right De Zerbi handed Arteta his tactical arse on a platter. I thought Pumpkin’s farts were a new low, but losing 3:0 to Brighton at the end of a season is just unacceptable where the fans showed that by leaving.
When is Josh going to wake up and smell the coffee with A&E? Mugged off for another season with excuses and next season all be better.
Serious questions need to be asked of A&E. The sooner the better.
That’s a horrible way to go out,meek surrender. Still don’t hate city as much as utd but I wouldn’t be too upset if Real Madrid were to produce another smash n grab on Wednesday.
I’m not in the camp that thinks next year will see us improve further unfortunately. When the stars align and you still don’t succeed the Fates have a way of making you regret it. Time will tell but I just can’t find a reason for optimism. Give me a few weeks and I’ll have deluded myself again…….
Tony-as per usual, it’s my belief that until we recruit the kind of seminal players who have the cutting edge to overcome MA’s tactical stuntedness we will continue to wallow in this sort of late season mediocrity
Almunoasaynomore-like yourself, I remain firmly in the camp of disbelievers and I likewise don’t see greener pastures on our horizons until those in charge are willing to make the requisite upgrades in a couple key positions…the commentator today spoke of the fact that we would have gladly taken a top 4 spot at the start of the season, but that when we got a “taste” of greater things expectations changed somewhat…I would say this is a cop-out of Wengerian proportions, as it ignores just how long we occupied the top spot and just how wide the margin of error was in the second half of the season…it wasn’t like we find ourselves in the catbird seat by accident or due to an unusual conflunce of circumstances, in fact, we owned the top spot for the better part of the season and as such this sort of settling banter is insanely disingenuous
found ourselves
I think some spectators fail to understand that in a League without a playoff format the run-up to the title becomes, for all intent and purposes, the functional equivalent…so in our “playoffs” we’ve been a middling at best team, as we’ve secured 12 of a possible 24 points at the very time when it mattered most…our inability to perform when the stakes were highest was similarly seen when we left every Cup competition, so it shouldn’t have been surprising when our propensity to shrink in the moment was once again on full display when things ramped up at the start of April…personally, I think this is one of those scenarios when a particular manager can only take a team so far, due to their obvious limitations, then you simply move on before the inevitable drop-off occurs…it doesn’t mean that MA won’t go on to do great things elsewhere at some future date, although I’m not convinced of that notion, but for us to succeed we need to have a very honest managerial rethink before we let this individual make anymore recruitment/asset management decisions that could severely hinder our future aspirations
Just home from the match – today one team had nothing to play for the other played like it.
Morning all
Where does one start? Looking for a new manager would be the most prudent thing to do. Nearly 4 years in and still no identity – no style or tactical nous, that was our game yesterday: a chaotic staggered press giving the ball to Brighton 59% and allowing them to have 6 shots on target with our paltry 2 at home; fortress Emirates with the drawbridge down.
Yesterday was a game to forget if we could actually unsee it. We witnessed Areteta’s boring football because Arteta can’t select a team to win a game – just plays the same broken and tired starting 11.
As always I’m not going to berate players or talk ref conspiracies – that’s LG’s remain.
Let’s hope the fans streaming out of the Emirates make their voices count regarding Arteta and Edu in the future.
Morning Bob
You’ve posed a question that has many facets to the answer and recommending books without having read them is a bit hit and miss. Instead, I’ve sent you a google page for your son to do so research as to which writer teaches best with your lad.
There are varying types of sound engineers, those that are electronic engineers first and sound 2nd. My best electronic engineer was a PhD rocket scientist who got into rock and roll in the 70s. These guys are unreal and generally enjoy occupying the spectrum. These are usually pedants only happy talking electronics.
Clearly, I’m not that guy. My engineering is of the live version where you have to think on your feet and use the techie for broken things that need fixing on the fly. That was my world for 9 years working round the world. I’ve used parachutes to cut off domes and all sorts to get the sound right on the night, your son is favoring a far less chaotic type of sound engineering. Only the musos get chaotic at times with frustrations.
Most good engineers today are a mix of electronics and sound skills with very good ears. These guys like me are mostly affable to help new entrants into their sound world. It is with this in mind that I would suggest you take your lad round to the Church: https://thechurchstudios.com in Crouch End, and not far from you.
You could do this 2 ways pop in and ask for advice or hire the studio for a day or 2 with engineer to take your son through everything used on the desk from auto tune, SMS and vox reverb. He’ll learn how to use compression to lift the backing tracks and vox leads and the rainbow of sound where the engineer paints sounds as colors. If it were junior, I’d pay for him to record there to get a mix or practical and theory. Studio interns often play instruments and fill in to help. The Stereophonics’ drummer was just that, a studio intern.
Tonality? We all have our own ways, as our ears are different as our brains are at interpreting frequencies. My ears are naturally set to live sound and now immersion sound. Sound Rooms are becoming more popular and the need for larger sound mixed stages are the future, as stereo is for the purists, which I never use these days. You often see 5:1 and 7:2 as mix downs, but for real immersive sound new larger frequency, separation mix downs for better clarity are needed with expanding codecs.
The tech you mentioned is part of a huge array of tools studios use. Many I’m going to have to learn about when building the studios, but I’ll have the world’s top calibrator testing tech with me and teaching me as well. France will also be a R&D center for audio.
I’m more interested in the production side of music these days. What I want to set up with our move to France is something completely new. We will only choose projects we want to work with because the studios don’t have to make money. It’s all secret squirrel, as to the business plan where I’m the only one who has the full dream laid out in my head.
There will also be a Record label to market our music.
Obviously, staffing is yet to be worked out, but we will take an intern and look for the right person – lad or girl budding engineer with oodles of talent and ideas.
This is where I’m going in it’s most basic.
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=watch+the+sound+with+mark+ronson&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
I’ve always liked practical more than theory, as it suits my ADHD better. A day or 2 in the Church will be the best experience your son could have if the engineer is cool; they normally are.
Without know the style of you lad’s songs it’s impossible to advise with tools to use in the general mixing. the final mixing is usually done at a 2nd studio often with different engineers and producers. I think Bridge over Troubled Water had the most final mixing hours or uses to at 146 hours.
8 songs using 8000 words is nothing, which you consider a dissertation should be 200+ pages.
My room uses Trinnov Altitude the top processor in the world and although it has hugely expensive sound codecs, I’ve manually calibrated to be pure sound using specialist mics and computer room readings. My calibrating friend still lives in Essex, but is mostly off around the world were his last 2 jobs was to calibrate Apple’s studios with Wisdom and the king of Jordan’s palaces all have wisdom rooms. It’s the sound for the very rich who want the best. Wisdom, Trinnov and Barco is the holy grail for the worlds top Elite Audio & Visual rooms that start at £200k from the ground up.
Engineers and producers use all kinds of trick in studios that tech can’t replicate, such as speak, sing and whisper to mix vocal tracks to add fullness to the lower registers and less sharpness in the alto ranges. Simple Minds in Holland’s Hilversum’s studios used a constant feedback buzz to record on its own to use to add to the lead git’s dirty sound from a separate channel.
Various books will be full of ideas past and present of the tricks of the trade. It will be books and talking to the Church engineer that will round your son’s experience to write and get cool ideas for the songs’ tracks from the backing tracks (bass & drums) onwards.
Seriously, Bob what a miss that was not letting me know your son was in the north of Thailand, as it where our home is. In certain circumstances I’ll be happy to organize a Gooner get together when my project is up and running, There will be 5* Gites as part for the complex. We can go in the studio and sing Gooner songs and banter round a huge fire pit rigged for sound as the whole complex will be.
What I’m proposing with my friends is something completely different and new. It’s in it’s discussion stages because the overall spend will be in excess of Euros 3m. Whether this is going to be a futuristic build or a refurbished Chateau is yet to be decided. I’m currently looking at desks for the studio control rooms and will mix old with new, such as the Alan Heath Advantis.
I hope this helps, Bob.
Rather than clog the blog with this topic, I’ll be happy for you to contact through Ambarish with an email for now. I’d also be happy to analyze your son’s music if sent by files. My room takes no prisoners when it comes to productions and musicianship.
You’ll find the real me at LIR because it’s a fun place to be with equally intelligent minded people. The more I keep away from LG the less triggered i become and it’s really getting boring there now. we might not have as much traffic here but it solid traffic with heart felt Gooner life.
Happy to help, Bob, even to critique your son’s work if he’s so inclined. I’ll put my professor’s hat on as I’ve guest lectured at Unis here. Bet that makes you smile. 25 years in international management is what I offered, similar to Harvard in bringing in actual real time experience.
Hope to see you round these parts more often and I wish your son luck with his future career in music. When France is up and running I’ll check in with your son’s progress and extend an invite to the studios if he’s still forging a career in music.
By the time I was 24 I had been awarded 2 gold and one silver discs for my work with a very famous international band I took form zero record sales to 4 million in their first year. Music has been my first love ever since, closely followed by the Arsenal.
France is 2 to 4 years away but there is so much to plan for and finding the right land and or buildings to begin with in the right location.
Bob
Desks I’m researching before talking to engineers for their experience in America and Europe.
https://www.allen-heath.com/avantis/
https://vintageking.com/wunder-audio-wunderbar-console-60-channel
*replacement Stereophonic’s drummer was an intern at the studio where they recored and filled in playing theorem parts and then went on tour to become part of the band.*
the drum*
Just got up Tony. Knew you’d come through. Will read again and respond. Football obviously disappointing. Our ability to pass through the lines was seriously lacking, we couldn’t pass through the press whereas they could. Our midfield, as for all the games where we’ ve struggled recently, was simply not good enough. White and Trossard had their worst games against their old team. Finally a moan about the ref, you could understand why this was the 17th time he’d reffed Brighton and they’d never lost- Martinelli being fouled out by the otherwise excellent Caceido and the Brighton man not even booked was arguably pivotal ( especially as Trossard was surpringly so ineffective).
Time to get the flip flops on!
Bob
As a final thought if you do go the studio hire route, they will have a good list of session guys who could play on your son’s songs. I’ve no idea what sessions go for these days but more musicians are out of work than working, so I’m sure there will be some grateful musos for the work. It would be a great education for your son as he discusses his arrangements with the experienced musicians offering their interpretations. They will also have the right range of their instruments, such as Gibson or Fenders keyboard bass or bass git? The range of keys out there these days is crazy.
Does your son want Roland drums Schiller has used successfully with Gary Wallis from Pink Floyd. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc6C_a1uUy8
Backing singers for harmonies?
Artists like Schiller and Yello are bringing out their albums in Blu-Ray 5:1+ immersive productions.
A few £thousand and you could do your lad proud and help greatly to his future. Not just Uni transcripts, but the start of his music connections and direction. You will have contributed to that immensely.
It’s how I would help Junior if in your shoes, as we believe education is everything to build a life on, so whatever the costs, it’s worthwhile. More so for me at my age as I’ll be 70+ when I get to France.
Bob
Pleasure. It’s tough world to make it in – my path was dogged persistence that eventually paid off.
Yesterday was a sad day of our football and us fans. One can only hope for next season to be one without capitulation.
Bob
The Martinelli wipe out of Mitoma a few minutes earlier wrong prompted the Caicedo clean out on Martinelli in retaliation. Neither player was booked when both should have been.
I saw Pedro slip that ref Brighton fact in the guise of Conetta. Sow the seeds of doubt to the fan boys. 🙂 Anything to get the we love Arteta narrative going and the nasty northern refs’ conspiracies. AFC Forever MIA yesterday must spend a fortune on tin Foil.
Brighton are a seriously good side with an excellent identity that wins games and could well see them in the CL in De Zerbi’s first full season. Tony Bloom has admitted he has the holy grail of algorithms that cost him more than a £1m to put together and is what is used for his conveyor belt of South American rough diamonds. Unlike Edu and his agents.
Junior and I have watched most of Brighton’s games because of the attractive football they play with excellent players we’d love to buy. In fact Brighton has been serious shit on by PGMOL who had to publicly apologizes to BHA.
Sorry, Bob. I just can’t take LG seriously any more now Rich is the sage of the blog. Bet it’ll be all change to Pedro’s new managerial love affair or hate after Arteta. I’m expecting Rich to get a Talk Sport call up with his takes these days. Just Wow!
Pedro’s narratives are not for me nor his fan boys’.
Arteta has said we collapsed yesterday. Really? We’ve taken 9 points from the last 21 available I’d say the collapse started against Liverpool and has pretty much continued since. Chelsea are so poor I’d expect our under 12’s to beat them, Newcastle was a good result but the truth is in the cold light of day it was a fluke.
Yesterday was only the second or third time I’ve ever left before the final whistle and I don’t know how else so demonstrate my sheer disgust at the performance. Fans are already making the excuses of “we would have taken 2nd at the start of the season” but that’s bullshit – once you’re in a dominant position anything but winning it is a massive failure.
Marc
I thought of you during the game and how I wouldn’t want to be there witnessing, as you rightly say the continued collapse. Whatever Arteta did before the Liverpool game has had long ranging consequences and will continue to the end of the season. The lads have given their all only to be let down, misused and their physicality/bodies downright abused by Arteta.
The identity came and went when cuckoo brain tried to be too clever and instead of improving our play, he turned it into frenetic chaos, devoid of ideas and getting in each other’s way. Xhaka and Jorginho should never have seen daylight at the Emirates yesterday. The game was always going to be too quick for them. In fact Xhaka should have been benched before the Liverpool game. The goals and assists created a false sense of an improved player. The rest of the time he was anonymous or in the way of working partnerships in defense as well as up front.
From Liverpool onwards a 3 at the back sans Saliba and a mobile 5 midfield with 2 up top would have acquitted us far more points than the same predictability from Arteta, as has now been proven and we’ll never know if a very mobile 3-5-2 could have worked?
The burning question I’d like to ask Josh & Stan is when we all realised there was a possible Leicester revised winning season, why didn’t we heavily invest in the January window? All we got was lip service and excuses. we should have been buying before the world cup or in the summer for January.
All the triumphant fanfare heralded at the beginning of the season claiming deals of the century with Jesus and Zinchenko; bit part winners in the City machine. Less milage we were told so better conditioned athletes. More like 2 crocks and one that cries a lot probably because he can’t defend. He was brought in to play 2nd fiddle to KT and LMF. Ended up a bit of both leaving gaping holes for counters, especially with Saliba out.
For all Arteta’s supposed tactical nous when we got 2 up at Anfield we looked confused and lost our mettle with one touchline dust up. Pep only made one main change in keeping Haarland in his own half, which created their first goal the first time it was used. What did Arteta do? Nothing.
Forward 4 weeks of us being branded weak mentally and easy to take points from. Martinelli’s shoulder charge on Mitoma sure showed we had out mettle back.
To be fair I thought it was dangerous play and a possible red and only a little less physical than Caicedo who also should have seen red, but wouldn’t had, had the ref sent Martinelli off for the Mitoma’s NFL line backer like hit.
If Arteta can’t win the league from such an assailable position, then what’s the point of him having a 3rd try after bottling the last 2 seasons.
Here’s how the Transfer Groundhog Day works – we were only supposed to need a couple of players to compete a recurring statement made each summer TW by the club. Reality is we need 6 or more and have done since Arteta’s arrival, which Arteta aded more clutter.
Another £500m should do it. Forget Hale Enders that’s fairy tale football our youths enjoy at other clubs.
I’ll finish on this. If I were an elite player and A&E came talking to my agent. I’d be a hard pass. Leopards don’t change their spots and Arteta’s optics are very poor right now.
Will the RM dream slip from Arteta’s slimed grasp – oh please god I hope not. They are meant for each other.
Ambarish, would you mind emailing me Tony’s e-mail – he suggested it. Don’t want to clog the site up with non Arsenal stuff! Thanks
Hi Bob
I’ve asked Ambarish to send you my Gooner email.
We can go into more detail, which will help me offer more detail to your son’s project. Songwriting is all about telling songs and you son can tell the story of each song if he works with a cool group of musicians. Changing arrangements and keys affects the mixing integrity to where they both find their harmony or sweet spot as we like to call it.
Rather than see it as a tricky project hopefully, your son will have his first real taste of making his music into fully track layered songs.
Really, happy for the lad, Bob.
stories*
Cheers Tony