Arsenal v Liverpool – FA Cup 3rd Round Matchday

Hi Ambarish,

I’m not so sure the lack of over lapping runs from Ben White is down to confidence I’d put my money on it being an instruction from Arteta.

Its something we don’t often see on either side of the pitch which is bordering on criminal when you look at the quality of our wide forward players and how the lack of support hampers them.

With regards to todays match – I’m not at all confident Arteta’s staring down the barrel of going from top of the PL table to out of all domestic competitions in 2 weeks if we don’t win today. Going negative against Liverpool is a sure fire way to lose against them and Klopp will know that a victory today will cause a huge drop in moral especially when we have a 2 week break with nothing to fill the sports pages.

If Arteta does play Kiwior on the left and has him play as an inverted FB then Arteta should be sacked during the match. Playing someone out of position is difficult enough for the player without adding a questionable very specialist dimension to it as well.

Hi Ambarish
Been in BKK for a few days and missed your counter to my post and enjoyed your thinking.

Honestly, our friend, I hate what I write at times but the truth hurts. I aid several time, Ambarish, I would dearly love us to win the PL or CL for fans, such as yourself, but under Arteta I just don’t see it happening. You can take me eating humble pie for a year, as carved in stone if I am wrong.

Would I reverse my thoughts if Josh sees sense and fires Arteta and his crew? Quite possibly, with new training regimes and decent tactics, any player could be turned around if they have the requisite skill sets and the bottle for as season long fight with good 100 minute game fitness.

We have a team of crocs.

Anyway in other news, in an excellent BKK Italian restaurant, it turned out the waiter was from Nepal and studying for his B.A. in Bangkok. He finishes at the end of the year and will be going back to Nepal.

Really nice guy who exchanged Line with me to meet up in Nepal next year. We talked Temple Balls as it really is part of their religion and source of income where the govt are facing a forceful call from the Nepalese People to legalize their most prized possession as a revenues stream that’s been handed down for centuries possibly a millennium? Maybe.

I’ll talk to him more over the year, but I think it may well turn out to be a fortuitous trip to Bangkok this weekend. Met 2 people who could be very interesting to interact with now my freedom is guaranteed.

KP
Poor Spud down & out in one sweeping statement. Hope you added enjoy the match. 🙂

I had my quintuple bypass in Holland where I was managing a Dutch music producer. Ended up being there a year, and would have been longer, but for my need to recuperate at a Greek friend’s resort for a few months after my bypass operation.

The oil & gas industry our company serves with obviously Shell BP a large player, there are numerous Dutch people employed in the industry – so much so, they have a saying that fits the Dutch really well:

Wouldn’t listen, wouldn’t know, wooden shoes.

One of our company founders was ex BP and Dutch, now deceased, was a very strange man full of NPD and the need of being a great man in everyone’s eyes and the most important man in the world.

Great country to work in where the partying is legendary. Younger Dutch generations are far more open to teach and learn. However, a country in need of fashion police more than any.

No idea about the game this evening? Oddly enough speaking of of the Dutch. Dutch Passion has opened a branch in BKK. https://dutchpassionbangkok.com

A cracking few days and my first trip to BKK for over 4 years because of my Covid isolation.

Back to the footie, what channel is our game on? HDPrime will have it to watch if not on local satellite.

Arteta needs to win something this season to bring his diving stock levels back up. Not what I want you understand, but the fan boys and fans in the stadium may well see it as one more season to be hopeful for. Before heading down to Bangkok

I remember Marc saying the going Emirates fans discontent is rumbling again. They got Wenger out, so if Arteta loses the Arsenal Faithful it would be tantamount to losing the dressing room, but so much louder.

I don’t think Arteta will be doing anything different to Ambarish’s game post. Whomever of his pets are fit, will be first names on the team sheet would be my best bet. I hope ESR gets a long overdue start, as I really rate him when he’s full of confidence, such as when he helped save Arteta 2 seasons ago.

I hope Arteta uses the game to blood a couple Hale Enders, such as Ethan Nwaneri, Raul Waters and others in this report:

https://arsenalyouth.wordpress.com.

That’s it from me hoping for a win because I’m a lifelong fan of almost 60 years. The sensible fan in me wants better after 4 years and where optically the process seems to be quickly unravelling in the PL.

It also looks like the TW is a non event if we only by a CB. A decent LB, and we might turn a corner left side defensively if he hits the ground running if he has to invert, then business as usual. Check out Zinchenko’s heat maps in the below link.

https://twitter.com/talkSPORT/status/1617528201990782976?lang=en

Enjoy the game, lads, I will try to be there, but Bangkok and Dutch Passion may well see off my valiant effort to be consigned to watch in the morning.

Good thoughts, Marc. I referred to your noticing fans losing faith with Arteta.

We’ve ben inverting for a couple of years now if memory serves perhaps 3? That game heat map of our Ukrainian Left Back is all in the area where he gets in the way most of the time. He almost never overlaps with Gabs who is left running into curl de sacs all Pepe and now Saka.

You’d think Arteta would get Sake and Gabs to switch during games and maybe Gabs as a False 9 or CF while Jesus slips over to the LW in Gab’s absence.

Wenger early years perfected that art of the front 3 and half the MF all interchanging at will instinctively know the right timing when their markers would be lost looking at each other after we scored.

Arteta has perfect nothing other than bottling run ins and cups comps. Europa is best not talked about and I’m not confident about much further CL progression either this season. We need to start a winning run after the break to boost our CL confidence. We are too easy to play against, too transparent, and clueless when Arteta’s tactics eventually fail or were just never effective from the off.

We score early and then become indifferent, lose a goal, and then become the counter attacking team because we are under so much attacking pressure where our CF needs too many chances to score along with Havertz.

Based on last season we have fallen off a very high cliff. We could well be in out run in bottle form right now. If that happens, we will be back to 8th come May.

As you say, Marc, this game is far bigger than it seems. Lose hard and then the break where Arteta can’t go back to putting out reignited fires, he’s put our in previous seasons. We don’t call Arteta the Ground Hog Day manager for nothing.

If you’re going tonight, Marc, I hope it’s not too painful. A win then a long night in the Tolly after because LPool wins they don’t come round often?

Well Kiwior starts at LB and if he can restrict Salah or get eaten today will decide his fate. He ain’t getting chances at CB in foreseeable future.

Ramsdale is back. Good.

Nelson in the left, Havertz upfront, Jorginho in midfield.

When we expected the least rotation, galaxy brain decides to fix everything at once.

The Liverpool team is piss weak. No excuses. It has to be a win. Draw is no good.

White kit?

White flag.

Ambarish-I’m pretty sure Salah in unavailable, as he’s already left for the African Nation’s Cup…as for this affair, I have relatively little interest…of course I will watch, after all we’re playing Pool, but I couldn’t give a flying fuck about the FA this year

Marc-agree wholeheartedly with your thoughts, especially when it comes to MA’s continued nonsensical inverted LB pursuits…as you’re well-aware I’ve railed against this practice for some time now, as it’s had a devastating impact on our forwards(as you’ve likewise stated)…much like when MA deployed a base 4-2-3-1, with Xhaka sitting deep, this system leans into our manager’s most gutless inklings, as it further encourages a whole heaping mess of sideways and backwards nonsense…at least the 4-2-3-1 allowed for some runs by Tierney at al up the left flanks, as Xhaka would simply provide cover

in regards to today’s lineup, it’s a classic MA wag the dog shit show…two DMs, under the guise that it will allow Rice to go forward more, which means functionally nothing as he’s about as good going forward as Jorginho is at defending our final third…then he’s punishing Marts for being constantly harassed by double-teams without any help whatsoever by his manager…talk about a sewer job…worst of all, he’s doing the exact thing I feared most by playing Havertz up top…this will be MA’s “like a new signing” play, so that his bestie still gets on the pitch and to justify why we didn’t properly redress our most pressing issue up top in the TW…what a fucking joke

Jorginho in the middle and Havertz up top did wonders for Chelsea LOL

it will be interesting to see if there are any “real” tactical challenges for today’s affair…just not sure a team who’s manager focuses so heavily on one particular brand of football has the capacity to make any substantive changes, especially in a one-off scenario

I don’t have a personal axe to grind with Jorginho, as he’s clearly a vocal “leader” on the pitch, which could be beneficial considering our more reserved starting 11, except if he’s simply MA’s on-field minion…regardless, the more I see him and Tross, the more it reminds me of what I said at the time of their respective hirings, they didn’t fit the script…they could be a major reason why we won’t make a seminal move this window, when it’s needed most

We’ve started well and Nelson looks fresh.

Note to Arteta – this is why you rotate players so they don’t burn out by Christmas you fuckwit.

Ramsdale made a better stretch pass than anything Raya’s had on offer since arriving at the Emirates…unfortunately, Nelson pulled an Arsenal in front of goal

I know its early but Kiwior isn’t inverting and surprise we look more assured and comfortable at the back.

so the new tactics were 3 minutes of something a little different then a return to the usual negative drivel…if we can’t find a way to be aggressive and take it to a team missing their two most influential pieces, we’re in deep fucking shit moving forward

Havertz makes me yearn for the days when the clinical Striker Welbeck wore the kit

“Havertz makes me yearn for the days when the clinical Striker Welbeck wore the kit”

Funny!

White lucky to not get booked there.

We really need to convert one of these chances are its going to bite us in the arse.

is it really fair to call anything by Havertz a “real” chance…based on this performance Bendtner deserves a raise

If it weren’t for his bad back, MA would replace Havertz with Kallstrom

Missed the first half, where the highlights looked few and far between, but we’re at home, so we need to turn it on in the 2nd half.

TRVL
Not surprisingly I’m on board with what you said. If you’re ESR you have to be breaking up inside never gettin g a start.

Saliba is sublime

Brilliant free kick

Why didn’t Saka get his head on that one

For a side whose wheels have been coming off, we’re looking good for a win here

Tony

We could have scored 4 or 5 in the first half – the worry is that will come back to bite us in the arse.

That said its be more of the more positive performances I’ve seen this season.

Once again Arteta’s inability to make in match changes costs us.

Eddie should have been on at least 15 minutes ago.

Agree Marc, finally really enjoying a game from us. More of this and I’ll be far more positive.

We do this though against Pool and then they score and we fall apart.

Let’s see how much we want this?

Can’t fault our game either.

before we heap too much praise on this particular performance let’s keep in mind that Pool are missing their entire spine….they actually have MacAllister in the DM role, who generally plays an advanced role and who likewise is returning from a long absence so he’s well off the pace of the PL…MA was clearly aware of this situation, which is why he tried to sneak Havertz into what should have been a rather fortuitous opportunity…unfortunately, Havertz has played like a grown man with a 10 year old boy’s foot…Klopp was playing a very conservative brand of football, in the hopes of getting some luck on the counter, which just happened, as he knows we’re struggling for goals…the only saving grace is the fact that MA’s sneaky Havertz’s plan has backfired, as he’s looking like an unmitigated bust, so he can’t be the reason why we don’t spend in this window

Can see a draw coming

What the fuck is ESR supposed to do with less than 3 minutes of normal time left?

TRVL

We were better in the first half because we were more direct – second half we’ve reverted to same old.

Marc-I guarantee you that the modicum of directness we displayed was simply a reflection of that fact that both Endo and VVD weren’t on the pitch…trust me I want nothing more than to have us play in a more direct fashion, but why would anyone put Havertz, of all people, if that was your tactical intent…you would think that crosses from wider positions would make infintely more sense

6 on target and 7 off target but LPool are a level above and it shows in the key moments in a game.

LPool had 4 on target and 9 off target.

Game of 2 halves from what you said about the first half

*anyone play Havertz

Absolutely fucking demoralising. Arteta’s team, Arteta’s coaching, Arteta’s game management and tactics. Get rid.