Fuckin’ hell, we haven’t seen proper football since ages. We have three world cup winners in our squad, though Raya couldn’t get a start (remains a mystery to me) and Zubimendi played just about the minute you needed to finish a plate of tikka masala. Mikel Merino outdid Ronaldo in the world cup in about 1/5th of the minutes he played, but hey, we surely don’t want to be in a situation to give him a start.
Right, fuck those Spursy cunts, I am happy football is back and thr starting line up is out.
Raya starts in the goal – no wonder there. We have gone with a back 4 of White, Mosquera, Gabriel, and Calafiori – which makes sense considering Saliba and Timber are out. Mikel has finally come to senses and given Lewis Skelly a start in the midfield alongside Rice and Odegaard. We have got Saka, Havertz and Tzolis starting up front. Gyokeres wouldn’t like it to be replaced by a part timer but you can’t really do much if your manager prefers someone else.
That bench looks solid as well, Hincapie, Eze, Gyokeres, Madueke, Nwaneri, Merino, Zubimendi, Dowman and Kepa are players fit to start in any of the Premier League teams. Maybe not Kepa, but he is a Premier League winner so who knows.
Coventry – a club that’s back in the Premier League after 25 years would be hoping to put up a fight at least, and the first days always have some surprises, but I am sure it won’t be this game. I am very interested to see the front 3 combination, whether Havertz has improved him scoring ability and how he links up with Tzolis and Saka.
No Martinelli on the bench means it’s over for the Brazillian. I always liked him, and I have nothing but praise for the kid. He would certainly be in the list of what could have been, just below Wilshere, if things have gone a bit differently.
Right, that’s me done. My laptop finally gave up to the extent of no return, that’s why you don’t see a complete makeover of London Is Red before the season begins. I am still searching for a good one.
See you in the comments.
Marc—nuance is like a foreign language to that know-nothing twat…if you took all the context out of the equation, like you know who would, Brentford are playing as if they’re the 3-time defending CL champs so far
That’s what a proper team does – start a new season where they left the previous one.
Spursy cunts once thought they ruled the London because they played a CL finals. Bellends.
Hoopah,
I just saw your messages landing into the approvals, I have approved it and it shouldn’t happen now.
Arsenal top…Spurs bottom…after only 1 week. Priceless.
Last season Liverpool won their first 5 league games and were considered certainties for the title but by the end of November were sitting in 8th place.
Last season Aston Villa failed to win in their first 5 league games scoring one goal, and by January were within a few points of Arsenal at the top of the league.
Last season Tottenham were sitting 2nd in the league and ended up one point from relegation.
Yesterday we saw Tottenham and united well beaten by 2 strong , physical and organised sides away from home and the media and fans are writing them off after one game.
Arsenal resoundingly beat city and Coventry and the narrative is that Arsenal will walk the title but history tells us that early season form good or bad is rarely a marker to how the season will pan out.
In Arsenal’s favour we have a manager who is desperate for more success even at the expense of upsetting a few of the players who helped us win the league, Martinelli and Gyokeres and possibly zubimendi have 2 options , stay in the knowledge that they will be used sparingly or leave and go to a lesser club to get more game time.
We have seen before that Arteta can be ruthless so I’m not sure why some fans and pundits are surprised at how Arteta is so clinical when he believes a player or players are not good enough or has the wrong attitude.
Look at his treatment of Ozil, Martinez and Aubamayang, 3 elite players in their position who have had wonderful careers who were shown the door.
Pundits and media typically jump on the bandwagon when a team has a good or bad start and it is no different now, they never learn , similar to Marc and Vera with their strange anti Arteta stance as they are prepared to die on that hill when it is obvious to almost all that Arsenal are moving into a period of dominance thanks largely to the management of Arteta, Marc and Vera are a lost cause unfortunately for them as their hatred of our manager means they will never enjoy this period of success and will spend the next few years nit picking about things like Arteta’s treatment of martinelli or “shoe-horning “players into position or set pieces or diving or Havertz (what a superb strike v Coventry) or believing every transfer story in the news….yes they are definitely a lost cause.
As we saw yesterday, away games at the some of the more physical sides are never easy , united and Tottenham struggled with the physicality of the opposition, this is where Arteta has been very astute in his building of the squad, defending set pieces and teams who use the long ball are vital to win these games , Arteta has filled the team with many physical players who importantly are not afraid to attack the ball and put their head in where it hurts, plus he brought in a keeper who likes to dominate his box.
When you have players like calafiori, Ben white , saliba , Gabriel, rice and Havertz amongst others who are prepared to defend their box as if their life depends on it then you won’t go far wrong , yesterday Tottenham and united were timid in the box and they will need to address that.
It’s a different story at home as it is not so easy for the lesser teams to intimidate the opposition , Hull had a great start at home and Coventry had a poor start away , let’s see how Hull get on at Coventry without the crowd behind them .
Slagsy
So why did the cunt spend £40 million on that skinny cunt Vieira, and try and buy Mudryk for £70 million if he is so fuckin astute?
This cunt is many things, astute is not one of them, as we saw with Thomas Partey.
All this cunt has done since he has been here, is spend money on , mostly overpriced cack.
You give any cunt £1 billion plus, he will have a team at the top of the table after 6 fuckin years, especially if some of your rivals at the same time having to sell.
Fuck me, you are easily pleased
Be normal, accept he is a moronic cunt, and we can have a normal conversation.
“When you have players like calafiori, Ben white , saliba , Gabriel, rice and Havertz”
Calafiori and White are sick notes and Havertz is Bambi on ice.
You really are full of shit.
Shit on the Villa…fuck me.
If I was Emery, I’d get out of there before too long.
And Bournemouth beating those cheating northern slags.
Little Miss Pricksy—when it comes to metrics involving “big chance” conversion rates among high-volume strikers, Havertz sits on the lower end of the spectrum, which certainly ain’t great for someone who relies on off-ball space generation to get tap-ins…so nice try you “superb strike” cherry-picking fucktard
make sure you don’t forget that it was MA who paid Auba well above the number, even though he was well-aware that his preferred tactics didn’t feature someone with a more traditional Striker profile, and that he let Emi go because he wouldn’t provide sensible assurances, then proceeded to hand them out like fucking candy to a whole host of undeserving candidates…cee you next Tuesday
TRVL
You forgot to mention that after giving Auba a crazy new contract Arteta then paid him off to leave a few months later.
Arteta’s record on pissing money up the wall is staggering.
Enzo’s Arteta-like gutless routine won’t last long at City…starting the fucking defender Guehi in the midfield instead of Cherki is straight out of MA’s Shoehorning for Dummies guidebook
TRVL
I don’t get Maresca’s appointment for me it comes down to 1 of 3 possibilities:
1) They know they’re about to get battered on the 115 charges and didn’t want to have a manage quit on them.
2) No top manager would join them until the outcome of the charges is declared.
3) They actually think he’s good enough to take over a City team that needs a pretty serious rebuild.
It would be the first two for me.
Actually I never said I agreed with Arteta’s treatment of Ozil, Aubamayang and Martinez…
There have been over the years many aspects of Arteta’s management I’m not that keen on but the fact is it is time for martinelli to leave, his level peaked a couple of years ago and the last 2 seasons have been average though there have been some very good moments, I said from day one he is a head down merchant and nothing has changed.
Gyokeres is another who will only hold us back if we persevere with him, he’s lack of technique will always mean that he can’t do the basics like control pass or head the ball, his hold up play and anticipation in the box is poor , he spends too much time grappling with defenders instead of looking for space but thankfully it looks like Arteta has recognised his shortfalls and will only use him sparingly or possibly sell him.
Havertz is not a natural striker but I said before the season started that the player to watch would be Havertz and so far he has 2 goals in 2 games, he plays and moves with intelligence which of course Vera would find it impossible to recognise due to his limited understanding of the game.
Are you fucking serious?
Why the fuck did we spend £60 million on Gyokeres if he doesn’t have the skill set that Arteta’s looking for?
Its just another example of Arteta’s pin the tail on the donkey approach to signings where he just has to spend money for the sake of it.
“Gyokeres is another who will only hold us back if we persevere with him, he’s lack of technique will always mean that he ”
So why buy the useless fat cunt in the first place , you soppy slag?
As I said yesterday, give any cunt a billion and 6 years , he will have a half decent squad and be near the top of the fuckin table.
Would they not , Slagsy?
Especially as most of your rivals cant spend, because of some rules nobody knows what they are.
Martinelli has his negatives but also has many positives, mainly his pace , work rate and calmness in one on one situations with the keeper…
Almost all of Martinelli’s best moments for Arsenal have been within the width of the penalty area in the final third of the pitch, it sort of reminds me of Theo Walcott under wenger who never trusted Walcott to be the striker and we have seen the same with Arteta/martinelli.
Walcott had a spell as striker under Wenger and from memory was quite successful , he played up front v Villa in the fa cup final (Giroud on the bench)in what I would consider to be our most complete performance in a cup final in my lifetime, unfortunately Wenger never really trusted Walcott up top.
Martinelli under Emery played mainly through the middle when he arrived and scored a number of goals but Arteta saw him as a winger and though he had possibly one stand out season for me it was his lack of deception in his dribbling which made him too easy to mark.
I’m not sure if Martinelli has actually left yet but there is an obvious solution to our striker and wide left “problem “ if we don’t sign Alvarez or a cover for Tzolis, and that is to use Martinelli as cover for both those positions.
There is another side to the story and that is Martinelli only as a year left on his contract so 50 million would be a decent return , it looks like we don’t want to offer Martinelli a new contract, he is on big money which makes him harder to sell and it looks like Arteta is looking for an upgrade which we may have already found with Tzolis though it is early days yet but the signs are that he has a good football brain, a good work ethic makes good decisions and knows how to back up a defender into the box to create chances for himself and team mates.
I’m sure Martinelli would be more than happy to stay and fight for his place but as we know with Arteta he can be ruthless when he loses faith in a player and that looks like the case with Martinelli.
The thing is , fans can’t applaud Arteta’s treatment of Ozil, Martinez , ESR and Aubamayang and then complain when he is ruthless with Martinelli.
Yes Arteta may ultimately be successful but I was never comfortable with his treatment of Ozil who was basically ostracised for questioning the cut in players salary during Covid and asking for reassurance that staff jobs were secure during that time, in fact a number of staff did lose their jobs.
Martinez was always a better keeper than Leno.
Smith Rowe and Saka’s partnership worked superbly when he first came into the side and probably save Arteta his job but the signing of Odegaard put paid to that, smith rowe even played and scored for England at that time but lack of trust from the manager and injuries meant he would rarely be given a chance to shine.
I also thought the Aubamayang situation could have been handled differently, look who we have now up top, Gyokeres who is not fit to tie Aubamayang’s boot laces, we have never really replaced Aubamayang who was an elite striker who we gave away for nothing…
Yes it looks like all may have worked out good for Arteta but as I said , let’s not be too shocked about Arteta’s ruthlessness towards Martinelli, it is par for the course as far as I’m concerned , Alex Ferguson was criticised by Roy Kean for being equally ruthless.
Marc
“ Why the fuck did we spend £60 million on Gyokeres if he doesn’t have the skill set that Arteta’s looking for?”
I put it down to lack of quality strikers available, though I may be wrong but didn’t Vera say that Gyokeres was a Berta signing..
We will get our money back on Gyokeres as he will do a decent job for a mid table club like Tottenham/ Chelsea/Palace/Forest , it’s obvious that his lack of technique will be a negative for him at top level …..which we are