I have two choices – support Mikel’s every decision and dedicate my life in proving whatever he does is brilliant, or criticize him for the things which I feel could have been better. Second option comes with a caveat that I may be proven wrong in due course, but that would only mean Mikel achieving things and winning trophies at Arsenal. It would still make me happy, because I love the club.
First thing first, Mikel needs to stop gambling with our playing XI. Trossard in place of Martinelli can make sense, because there isn’t a drop in performance and it’s a like for like replacement but Thomas Partey at RB doesn’t make sense at all. Gabriel on bench, when he started 37 of our games last season is bonkers. What it will do is, when you realise your experiment is not working anymore, you integrate Gabriel back in the playing XI but he would be lacking the match fitness and the confidence. What it also does is, devoid us of the protection Partey offers in midfield, and his exceptional reading of the game.
With enough words, anyone can prove anything right like the Twitter space is doing. Give me all your explanations about why it’s a good move, and why 3 at the back while Partey moves to midfield is a masterstroke, but I am not buying because the 2 games we have played, haven’t looked like a game from a title challenger. Convincing wins boosts confidence.
Right, that’s me done. Back to the game.
Fulham at home, should be 3-points for us. They were sensational by their standards last season, and are looking to improve on that.
In team news, Tomiyasu is going to miss today’s game because of the red card he received for wasting 8 seconds and NOT pulling the shirt of a player. It wasn’t deemed a clear and obvious error and it couldn’t be over-turned because it wasn’t a straight red. I think it’s high time someone ‘clearly and obviously’ confirms what this means.
Zinchenko is back in the fold and might get his first start of the season. I don’t see any other changes, unless Mikel notices that we played our best football with a RB in White, Gabriel and Saliba partnering at CB and Thomas Partey in the midfield. He would have to upset his new buys because you can’t fit em all in your XI.
Gabriel Jesus is back too, but I don’t think we are going to rush him back in playing XI. We did that mistake last season, let’s not repeat it.
Paul Tierney is officiating today, and that’s a big concern. I saw Arsenal.com highlighting our track record of not winning a single game since 2021 (6-in total, losing 5 and drawing 1) when he has officiated for us. That’s quite a record when you consider that we won a lot of games last season. Let’s hope they don’t find a way to screw us up today. And someone at the club probably has directed the managers of the website to highlight these points. They did for Tomiyasu’s red card in the post match coverage and they are doing it for Paul. Good passive aggressive stance, but how much it will affect the guys who gave David Luiz a red card because a player sprinting with the ball touched Luiz knee by himself and trips over.
Right, my laptop has died and I’m writing this on my phone so please excuse me for any errors. I’m expecting a 3-0 win today with Martinelli scoring because it’s been long, and I always love a clean sheet.
Hope you are having a good weekend. See you during the games.
Lads
If you’re interested, here’s a glimpse of what life is like at the other end of the pro ranks in UK. Be good to know what you think. There must have been about 600 hundred fans there yesterday. Great last minute goal from that free kick.
Fuck – forgot the link
https://youtu.be/gaXGi3SIxck?si=aaA4Yn7MpxfY4yg7
Has anyone considered that Arteta’s actually got a plan?
Admittedly that plan could be to piss Partey off so much by playing him our of position he leaves.
https://youtube.com/shorts/iGMk7ElF4qM?si=TSkz9SeNC4TWUyNB
Lee Judges talking a lot of sense as usual on AFTV.
Marc
Arteta’s plan could be to usurp Pep at City once the latter gets bored of money and all those trophies. Arteta’s doing his bit to keep City at the top thanks to his hare-brained tactics.
Brutal reality by a commentator on Football 365:
https://www.football365.com/news/mailbox-onana-de-gea-clueless-ten-hag-arsenal-fraud-havertz-signing-arteta
.
Just a few excerpts:
Embarrassing Arsenal
I’d like someone, anyone, to please make sense of the absolute lunacy taking place at Arsenal FC?
.
What the hell was that Kai Havertz transfer about? It seriously needs to be investigated by the Serious Fraud Office because I can only presume Arsenal want to help Chelski recoup cash for their obvious FFP breaches.
.
Of course though, Arsenal’s legion of deluded excuse-makers will be out in force “a win is a win” and I look forward to new and creative methods of bullshit excuses that would make Giuliani and Trump giggle!
.
Brilliant stuff in that article.
Kroenke
I don’t doubt it – it will however do to his career what going back to Chelsea did for Fat Frank.
KP – Bill Nelson is a new one for me. I’ll take a more in-depth look, thanks. £75 smackers for a season ticket looks like a steal. Something I miss being here.
.
City made hard work of Sheffield and are missing KDB. Such a shame.
.
Killroy
Another nugget from Football 365 and 100% correct.
.
Some good links and posts going down this weekend.
.
Just need Newcastle to bloody Klopp’s nose with a win and Sunday will have been just fine as Keith Richards says in a Stones song.
Why the fuck is that not a 2nd yellow? It was far worse than Tomi’s last week.
Until ref’s learn that its not the occasional mistake that pisses off the fans its the complete lack of consistency.
” £75 smackers for a season ticket looks like a steal. Something I miss being here.”
I couldn’t make the match yesterday so sold my ticket on ticket exchange and got back £55 for it!
Newcastle in front and deservedly so. Can Dyke off.
.
Loving it!!!!!
Van
Scouser’s imploding – TAA (who should have been sent off for a second yellow) fucked up and put a Newcastle player through one on one = Newcastle 1 up.
VVD then shown straight red for taking out Isaac who would’ve been through one on one.
Trent on a yellow will be next off
Tony
What did you make of the 2nd yellow that wasn’t given?
Marc
VVD told the ref to fuck off so maybe and extra week ban?
Tony
Wrong red shirt for that to happen.
How did he keep that out?
Hi Marc
I’ll lend you 20 quid (at a reasonably south American rate of interest…😊Ever the capitalist ) and added to your rebate yesterday, you can get a County season ticket. I hope you don’t mind driving though – we’re 250 miles from London.
Agree that Arnold should definitely be off too. The second offence was far worse than the first. A ref favouring the scousers – whatever next.
Tony
It was Xhaka-esque in terms of blatant swearing wasn’t it? I think he relayed the same rather blunt message to the 4th official.
That said, the ref probably should fuck off – he has no right officiating a PL game.
Carragher doing his nut about the VVD sending off – he doesn’t even try to be objective.
At least Neville makes an attempt.
KP & Marc
Agreed Trent should have been sent off for a 2nd yellow. VVD was last man of defense with no cover, so red was correct. Shame we don’t play them next week instead of Manure.
.
KP’s £75 is for the season, Marc. :)Let the ref stay KP he might send Jo Linton off next and then Trent. Then the game will be fun.
Tony
I realised that I was just demonstrating the point about how much a single ticket to Arsenal costs. I sit upper tier North Bank within the first 10 rows so its a good ticket but its hardly club level etc.
I’m not even sure if Fulham is a cat B or C match either.
Newcastle need a second goal – it only takes a Salah break and its one all.
OK it wasn’t Salah but you know what I meant!
A Pool win puts us 5th in the table which is about right for the tetts shit show.
Killroy
Behind Liverpool who look anything but convincing, the Spuddies who have sold their Captain and best player and West Ham who sold their Captain to us.
All of whom have also had a tougher start than us.
It wouldn’t be so bad if yesterday was an abomination and we’d looked decent in the first two matches.
“Mikel Arteta has insisted that his side were “10 times better” against Fulham this season than they were last…We should have scored five, six, seven”
oft-times on LIR we ponder how so many seemingly intelligent folk could so tightly hitch their proverbial wagons to our present MIT, and to that I would simply point to the above delusional quotes…his words certainly aren’t Trumpian in spirit, as they’re not intentionally menacing, but the fact that they are completely devoid of any logical factual basis, yet hit the mark for a considerable segment of the population, is incredibly disconcerting…sometimes I feel as if I’m Curtis LaForche, Michael Shannon’s character in Take Shelter, who has apocolyptic visions about a dire future yet those all around him refuse to heed his warnings…of course, I’m fortunate enough to have you lot along for the ride, so that I’m not left to stew endlessly in some sort of isolated despair…even so, it doesn’t change the fact that, more likely than not, my greatest fears will be realized…meanwhile, I’m left surrounded by a whole host of brainwashed sycophants who would rather drown themselves in an ocean of false bravado than have to come to terms with the not so rosy truth that the horse they’ve backed just might be flawed beyond repair
Tony-as to your question about a plausible acquisitional path to right this ship, I would simply say this, I’m not sure it exists so long as our manager remains the same…I say this not because I think MA’s a hack of the highest order, I say this becuase in order to get things right he would have to first admit to his mistakes, which we all know ain’t happening anytime soon
I get that he both wanted and needed to be more tactically diverse, but I question how he’s gone about that quest…instead of adopting a more inside/outside approach, he chose to shoehorn us into an invert-dependent side…tbf this “new” look isn’t that different from what we did just prior; in fact, it’s actually made us less effective going forward and easier to defend…now maybe things might have looked a tad different with Timber and Zinchenko on their proper sides, but I’m not convinced of that and we will never know, at least not this year
like yourself, I’m a big proponent of Mitoma, but he wouldn’t solve our current issues, as he plays in Marts position…so unless MA was willing to play either in the 8-hole, which I doubt would happen, it would mean that each would find themselves on the bench far more often than they deserved…right now our formation favours only two individuals, Havertz and Partey, each of whom have struggled mightily, albeit I really feel for the latter…if MA played both Partey and Rice at DM, then put White at RB and brought Gabs back into the starting fold, Havertz would need to be benched, as Ode and the front 3 of Saka, Marts and Jesus are starting, when healthy…by now, we know full-well that Havertz isn’t going to be benched, minus maybe once for purely symbolic reasons
all that said, we need to first acquire a LB/wingback, who can share time with Zinchenko and provide some much-needed width and protection for Marts…secondly, we need to acquire someone who’s a clinical finisher, with a propensity to shoot from distance…how it’s possible that we’ve spent a fucking fortune yet our most clinical shooter is largely an afterthought option, Vieira, which speaks volumes when one considers the delusional aforementioned quotes from our manager about scoring 6 or 7 yesterday…these two changes would allow us to threaten teams both from wider positions and directly, which has been our achilles heal since MA’s arrival on the scene…not exactly sure who these individuals might be, as many of the best options have already landed in new locations or likely aren’t going anywhere, especially this late in the window…Cheers
it might be regarded as sacrilege by some, but I would take a life-sized cardboard cutout of Klopp on our sidelines over our current managerial option