We are hosting Liverpool at Emirates today in the 3rd round of FA Cup. Fulham, Tottenham, Newcastle, Brighton and Chelsea are the notable ones that has qualified to the next round, and one of Liverpool or Arsenal will add to the list. I was not a big fan of FA cup under Arsene because we would win one most often than not and we always wanted the big trophies. However, looking at the trophy draught recently, and the fact that last couple of losses in Premier League has dented our chance of a Premier League title, I will love to win today and the competition.
In our run, today is going to be the toughest game. Liverpool is undoubtedly the best of the lot, and I have confidence that we can win against any other teams. Against Klopp, not so much. It would be interesting to see how much Arteta can motivate the players to play and win against a side who has recently drawn games against us at Anfield.
Team news
Left back is a problem, Zinchenko had a calf injury due to which he missed the game against Fulham. It remains to be seen if he is available. Tomiyasu – his back has gone to Japan to play in Asian cup. Kiwior will most likely start and I am even more worried about a Kiwior v Salah than Zinchenko v Salah. There is no other option, Kiwior can step up and show why he is valuable to the team or end up being one of those failed transfers of Mikel’s era.
I would expect us to field the strongest playing XI, considering our next game is on 20th January, 13 days later. Ben White at RB, Ramsdale in the goal, Saliba + Gabriel partnership in CB and Kiwior at LB. In the midfield, I am guessing Mikel will stick to Ode, Rice and Havertz but I would have loved to see ESR back in place of Ode. We have been too dependent on Odegaard and we have seen his lack of form sometimes can affect our play severely. We need someone to compete with him and ESR can do that job. Plus, we can leverage the chemistry between Emile and Saka at the right side, since Ben White has been not-so-confident these days in making overlapping runs with Saka.
We are poor up top with any of the Jesus / Nketiah and there can be an argument made about playing Trossard in the false 9 role surrounded by Saka and Martinelli on the either side.
Klopp already had stated that he is planning to go with his strongest team. It would be an exciting encounter today.
Expectations?
I expect us a win. It will bring back some of the confidence we have dropped recently and can keep us in the fold in the title chase in Premier League. Mikel is in his 4th full season and a trophy, even if it’s a FA Cup, will most certainly help his case. PL, CL, FA Cup – three things to fight for, and the easiest one is today. Focus on what’s ahead and get a win, we can beat the likes of Chelsea, Newcastle and Spuds later on.
Right, short one today. I hope the year 2024 has treated you well till now and a win today will make it even better. What line-up would you prefer and what’s your expected scoreline? Let me know in the comments.
And, see you during the game.
I must say Newcastle defence looks calm. Rodri with a ball and there is no panic at all, Howe doing some brilliant thing there.
Remains to be seen how much they can sustain that against City today.
NORG,
Good to have you here. Arteta is certainly a Yes man, we have seen that with Emi, Guendouzi, ESR. It’s a good policy if you manage to build a Yes Man team of high quality like Pep does, but the great guys have that entropy in them, always. Madrid with Kroos, Ronaldo, Benzema, Bale – a good manager can manage that as well. Ronaldinho? Zlatan? Neymar? Mbappe? Hell even Henry?
Isak is brilliant!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67899988
Thought I’d share this with you as a counterpoint to Arsenal’s more ‘first world’ troubles. I’ve never liked Reading FC much. Their current stadium – and Elm Park before it – is a soulless depressing, turgid hole and their fanbase is a joke. One stadium – just like Stoke’s – that I never need to visit again. But to see this protest catch on yesterday suggests a huge malaise, especially with the manager quietly sympathising with fans. I’d have been hugely fucked off as a Port Vale fan to have travelled to the game and see it called off after 16 minutes of play. One thing I will say about RFCs fans is that they’ve grasped the nettle and said they’re only just starting their campaign/protest against the owner.
I saw Haverfordwest lose 2-3 at home last night meaning a bottom 6 Cymru Premier finish and therefore needing another miracle to get into Europe after last season’s fun. It was fucking freezing!
Ambarish – I met two young lads from Kerala there who were running Haverfordwest’s Academy teams as part of their sports course at one of the Cardiff Universities. They were also getting their Fifa coaching qualifications. Both fans of Kerala (Strikers?) in the Indian Super League. Two really cool geezers who knew their football. So much so that they laughed politely when I told them about my love of AFC!
Salty Bae taking the piss out of Arteta…two absolute twats who don’t know how to prepare a season! Geddit? Marc – a typically piss poor culinary gag served up medium rare.
PL Football thinks it’s being really smart by reducing its output in the name of a winter break. They’d do better to end the meaningless international games and thus spreading the fixtures more evenly. 6 sleeps til a narrow win over Palace despite having 75 percent possession and 46,000 missed attempts on target.
Missed attempts on target? Oxymoron much? Nurse!
Hi KP,
Glad you met two more from India. Kerala is pretty famous for Football following, Kerala Blasters FC is their state team.
I have a very good friends around that place who supports Arsenal. Every win and I get texts. With a loss, I get texts of how to keep myself positive. Nice lad, we haven’t seen each other from more than 5 years now, and the only texts are for Arsenal.
Tried convincing him to come here, but he won’t
Martinez just made a very good one on one save – can’t see Raya pulling something similar off.
So Brighton have apparently signed some Brazillian wonder kid called Valentin Barco for £8 million.
What are the odds he’s sold for £80 odd million in a couple of years?
All whilst fuck wit and co are pissing money up the wall like its going out of fashion.
We should sign Brighton’s scouting team and DOF.
Sky pundits just spent 5 minutes saying how the Spuddies have got their first choice CB’s back today, how amazing they are etc – ManU score after 2 minutes.
Ambarish
Sorry, they did actually say the Kerala Blasters. I don’t know where I got ‘Strikers’ from… They were really cool people and were loving Wales although they politely avoided talking too much about the quality of football in County’s league, aka the Cymru (the Welsh word for Wales) Premier. They also looked super smart in their club tracksuits.
2 games today involving 3 of our competitors for the also-ran places behind MC and Liverpool. Points dropped by all of them. If only we can get back to winning…..
Marc – and it’s your money they’re pissing up against a wall!
after watching the City, Villa and Spurs matches this weekend a couple or 4 things come to mind:
(1) we’re incredibly fortunate that both the Spurs and Villa dropped some points today, as both outplayed their respective opponents…of course, we can’t rely on the kindness of others in order to secure a CL spot next year, but the saving grace might be the fact that the top 5 teams might qualify due to the upcoming CL changes…on a side note, United will continue to struggle so long as they continue to be incredibly selfish in the final third
(2) to Marc’s earlier point, the world’s best Keeper, Emi, made two saves, moments apart, that were better than any save Raya has made since his arrival…just imagine what might have been if we had him between the pipes and we could have used all the monies MA’s wasted on finding his replacement on someone of consequence up top
(3) when you watch City and Villa you can’t help but notice their respective weaknesses, from a defensive capacity, as they both can be had if you attack them directly with pace…unfortunately our simpleton of a manager loathes the very notion of playing with a sense of urgency, even when we sit deeper and play on the “counter”…Villa plays an incredibly high-line, which makes them vulnerable to the counter, and City had seemingly no answers for Isak on the break; of course, this became less problematic when Howe, who has some eerily similar gutless tendencies as our MIT, shut things down way too soon
(4) if Pep was always preparing to unleash the inverted/advanced role defender gig, why was he so quick to let Zinchenko go elsewhere…I’ll tell you why, he knew others would invariably mimic his tactics and he knew full-well that his former LB wasn’t near good enough to be deployed in this capacity as either the starter or as the primary backup …he played Arteta hook, line and sinker…this also applies to Jesus, as he knew they needed to be far more clinical in front of goal, if this new model was going to succeed, so he let him go to a PL competitor…notice how I didn’t say a close competitor
Cheers
*came to mind
Hi Vieira
Good stuff as ever.
On the GK question I clearly remember that away defeat at Brighton during COVID when that little bastard Maupay intentionally injured Bernie Leno. BL wasn’t our worst keeper but when Martinez came on (and performed brilliantly in the games that followed) he made a massive difference in terms of security and composure in our defence. A big unit with all the attributes needed to succeed in the PL. I’m not surprised he’s so highly rated even though his personality is truly terrible. It puzzles me how it took so long for him to make our first team although I gather he was distinctly ordinary while on loan at poorly Rotherham. His subsequent rejection by Tets and sale to a genuine competitor for a low fee remains mystifying. Another piece of evidence in a litany of misrule and Tetsian money/talent wasting.
I was watching him (EM) mincing around on the floor yesterday wasting time and thought how amusing it would have been to drop that big ugly trophy he won onto his genitals. Great keeper but fucking awful human being.
It’s almost as quiet on the transfer front as it is on this site…of course there’s all sorts of speculative nonsense out there, but it’s largely feathers on those sites/sources generally deemed more reputable…now this certainly doesn’t mean that nothing’s in the works, but the very fact that we’ve been inundated with updates on the oft-injured Partey, the featherweight Vieira and even our 1 game and done LB/RB Timber, makes me believe this might be a “like a new signing” sort of window
all I know is that our manager spent 200+ million last summer and we’ve notably regressed, which should be a sackable offence…furthermore I’m beyond sick about the fact that his most ardent apologists have continued to hang their provierbial hats on the whole “still learning” narrative…just how long must he be employed before that excuse becomes untenable
even if we somehow, someway find a way to rid ourselves of some of his more underwhelming signings and/or those who he clearly doesn’t favour, I’m not so sure any one player will do the trick, as the real problem is the toothless and guileless tactics, which clearly don’t properly incorporate a more traditional goalscoring Striker…this is likely why he’s targeted the Getafe Striker, besides the obvious financial benefits of shopping for half-measures, as he’s another supposed poacher extraordinaire-type with an incredibly spotty CV
TRVL
I think another post is required to revive interest. Most posters have drifted over from LG and reading between the lines a few more may jump ship and post the keyboard offerings on another site. A lot of posters on LG are anti Arteta and can see the he is unlikely to be the messiah that some propose.
Norg-there’s no doubting the fact that the lack of articles on LIR is a stumbling block from a traffic perspective, but I have a strong suspicion that the notion of luring disgruntled LG posters to the supposed “dark” side matters not to Ambarish, which certainly isn’t meant to be a slag against our LIR eidtor-in-chief…that said, it’s interesting to know that things are starting to turn in Pedro’s world, so thanks for the insight…I wouldn’t know as I haven’t been able to even access his blog for well over a year, as he’s gone to great lengths to block me from participating whatsoever…I can only hope that those who had to endure his hypocritical nonsense since MA’s arrival on the scene, considering his latter days Wenger out rants, don’t give him a pass when and/or if the tide turns on our present manager-in-training…Cheers
New post.