I know you hate a Saturday afternoon match, it’s too early to fill your stomach with Guinness and a bad result means your whole weekend is ruined but think about the positives, a win today would put us above Aston Villa on goal difference and we match City’s point tally although they have played a game less.
The Eagles are tough nuts. They drew Man City at Etihad, almost won against Chelsea, and were leading against Liverpool till 75th minute when Jordan Ayew took a red card on himself to let Liverpool enjoy their title challenge. It’s not going to be an easy game for us; our Home form is not that great either having lost 2-0 to West Ham when we last played. We have an underdog team that tries to fight the big teams in a time when we are struggling to score having suffered some poor defeats and draws recently. It’s going to be anything but a boring game.
Team must be feeling fresh and rejuvenated. Boys had a wonderful 2 week break in Dubai and the sun would have done some good to their mind and body. Mikel Arteta was equally positive in his pre-match press conference :
We are recharged, full of energy and super motivated. The team is super motivated and we want to attack the second half of the season with a lot of ambitions and with the understanding that the team is capable of big things. They are convinced of that.
source : Arsenal.com
As a critic, I feel we don’t have enough to challenge either of City or Liverpool unless we bring in a CF who can score for fun and Mikel decides to be a bit flexible with his approach and in-game management. As a fan, we are still just 5 points short of the leader and the whole second half of the season is to be played. Anything can happen, we may pick up the form of our last season, some decisions might go in our favor which mostly hasn’t and we remain free of any injuries.
Team News
It’s the usual. Jesus and Zinchenko are still doubtful to play today, having missed the last game against Liverpool. Tomiyasu is away on his country duty in Asian cup. Both Vieira and Partey are not available yet.
Defensively, we have a problem at LB. Kiwior will start because we don’t have Tomiyasu. Midfield remains as is, Rice + Havertz. Up top, Eddie will get another chance to prove himself.
If I have to guess, Arteta is going to play Emile Smith Rowe today. There is just too much noise about him in the media, and Mikel knows how to not ruin his PR. It remains to be seen whether it will be a like to like replacement where Odegaard sits on the bench or if he decides to experiment on the LCM position and move Havertz up. Anyways, I want him get those minutes and I am pretty confident he will prove those Twitterati wrong who wants him sold in 30m.
A relief for Mikel is that Ayew is out for Afcon, Olise is out with hamstring injury, and Ward is out too. They are going to play without two of their best players and the captain.
Expectations?
I would love a big win. By now, it’s clear that Aston Villa has made everyone’s life tough by fighting for the Champions League spot. Goal difference would matter towards the end and we haven’t really been good in scoring big. There is a chance today, we play at home and against a team who, though loves to bully the big boys, have two of their best players out. Go and get a 4-0 win, shorten the goal difference with the leaders and keep a clean sheet.
Right, short one today because I have got a weekend off after ages. The more I try to limit my screen time, the more I fail. However, the limit won’t come on the cost of London is Red.
#COYG
KP
Some people love the confrontation – why else read something that could have been written promoting a dictator. I remember being banned for a short while following my remark that Pedro could get a job as a politicians spin doctor. It didnt go down to well.
KP-good thinking…Pedro likely won’t die on the Arteta Knows Best hill, but he will definitely take whatever measures necessary to curtail what he deems as negative commentaries being directed towards his managerial overlord, at least until it no longer serves him from a financial perspective…I know all about his vindictive self, as I can’t even view LG unless I go into full-bore VPN mode…on a side note, I do wonder if anyone was taking MA to task over his cringe-worthy Salt Bae video, which clearly didn’t sit well with some
as for more pressing concerns, we’re so far out of this transfer mix that instead of reading about any substantive links between us and any players of consequence, I’m being inundated with nothing burger articles about some potential outgoing periphery pieces, like Cedric, loan nonsense involving Nuno, Striker-related transfer speculation about the summer window and all sorts of seemingly “positive” reports about some short and long-term injured players…of course the first 3 points mean functionally nothing, as none of these issues will having any bearing on the business end of the season, but the latter point, regarding injury-related banter, suggests to me, once again, that this could be another “like a new signing” window at the Emirates…based on our collective experiences involving this old Wengerian trope, this could be another season defined by a litany of poor choices both on and off the field
New post.