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.
“there’s no way our absentee landlord or his wannabe Bond villian son has ever interfered in any such capacity,”
Made me smile, TRVL. The rest can’t be challenged and on the money
Ditto Marc, we are stymied.
Ambarish, ZZ? Now you’re talking. In fact anything without Arteta and Edu would be a good start mi amigo
That’s the problem, Marc. We tend to have good first halves and shit second 45s. Watching the 2nd half, we were still respectable until the first goal. I thought we might nick twitch an in off the red effort from 4 yards. Very little beats Allison even on a bad day.
TRVL’s fun fact wasn’t fun at all really. I mean WTAF? 24.8 shots per goal. Arteta wants to buy a defender? It’s buying White again when we needed an 8. Roy Orbison playing American cop; Ironside could do better FFS!
Seriously, how did we become so bad from last season? I said it would happen as many here did. Last season most top 6 teams were off their best games and we have ze mental strength to scrape impossible wins way above our real baseline. We had lady luck, rub of the green and beat the northern ref conspiracy.
Inadvertently, Marc, Arteta is blaming the players and their poor shooting ability.
He is asking them to be much better in belief. I mean the right tactical subs to change a game around 50 to 60 minutes would be a big help. A fully interchanging front 3 or 4 with false 9 and one touch football to beat low blocks would be different choices.
KP
Fully support what you’re saying.
I would never have known. Henry hid it well.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/index.html
I’ve always respected most of Midwestgun’s POVs where below he’s right on all areas. LG is slowly coming over to the dark side of the Arteta out sensible fans.
“Basically what you’re saying Pedro is the entire team has a case of the Kai Havertz. Moving around smoothly , doing football type things and producing absolutely nothing at the sharp end whilst looking like the shooting confidence of a cat scared of its own shadow. For me this all goes back to that decision last summer to replace Xhaka with Kai. It can only be described as a vanity project.
Arteta has to turn Kai’s career trajectory around like he did for Xhaka his last season with us… or it’s over for Mikel. So yes in the end it will come down to coaching… because he took that massive 65 mill risk… for what purpose I still do not know and it has let us short with no money to spend. Is he a 9? Nope… that much is clear…..left 8 ? not really… impact sub? perhaps… at best, but we could have gotten that for much less and bought a proper midfielder that isn’t a jack of all trades master of none.
But in the end that’s the main thing that has changed from last year’s season regards personnel along with Partey’s perma- injury.
And it most likely will be Arteta’s undoing. You push All in with a move like Havertz and it has to work or you are the weakest link………
Good Bye Champion’s League is becoming the only path to redemption. A Long shot at best.”
Good points across the board, as per usual…in regards to Marc’s “believes his own bullshit” commentary, I would simply say this, it’s clear that Arteta suffers from imposter syndrome, which makes perfect sense considering his precipitous rise through the ranks…as a general rule, I tend to excuse some of the nonsensical bravado/machismo that generally accompanies this sort of situation, at least in those early days, as it’s only natural that one might overcompensate for self-preservation purposes…the problem here is that his highly manufactured/contrived veil of infallibility never gave way, in fact, it actually grew expotentially because he could never truly establish himself as a footballing manager through the devising of a multi-faceted tactical plan…instead he’s blamed everyone and everything whenever his plan A has failed to yield the necessary results…he’s so fragile that if he were to ever change courses, from a tactical standpoint, he believes he would appear weak/flawed and his house of cards would immediately crumble…if he actually possessed the requisite amount of managerial juice these sorts of circumstances would be used as a motivating force, then he would dig in, do the work and emerge with a new plan in place…let’s face it, if he were elsewhere and/or under the same financial constraints as the vast majority of newbie managers, he would have been suitably axed some time ago, but the fact that he’s been afforded the luxury of putting band-aid after band-aid over each and every organizational boo-boo has enabled him to wrongly stay on far past his logical best before date…sound familiar?!?
Yesterday junior sent me Bolagun’s stats and probably like me you lost interest in him too.
4 goals and 3 assists in 14 games for Monaco put’s Eddie’s Sheffield hat trick an 4th goal elsewhere to shame that Pierre is frantically spinning at every opportunity.
Just think if we’d kept Bolagun instead of Eddie, as most here wanted?
Another player Arteta can add to there Emi mistake list where if we still had both players along with Willock, we’d be top with a few points to spare. We’d still be needing a LB, but with Willock, as 8 helping defensively, our porous left side would be fairly balanced with our right. Willock would have worked well with Martinelli.
Arteta had the players, but not the vision because he lacks the coaching skills to improve players, so has to buy ready made PL versions that other than Rice have flattered to deceive as Rice will eventually.
All foreign league imports have either been broken or fall off cliffs form wise or simply not improved to the level required.
Anyone disagree?
https://www.fotmob.com/players/982677/folarin-balogun
there’s been some chatter regarding us actually bidding 22M for Borja Mayoral, the 26 year old Getafe Striker…now some will try to focus on the supposed positives, considering his scoring output this particular season(12 goals) and the fact that he’s a former Real academy player, but one must be careful not to fall for this sort of classic apologust nonsense
tbf he’s a bang average undersized Striker, at just under 6 feet and 155 lbs soaking wet, which could definitely be problematic in the presently-constructed PL…just ask another of MA’s underwhelming recruits, Vieira, who’s spent much of his time on the pitch looking like a proverbial deer in the headlights…furthermore, he’s been described by some in the media as a “Trossard-like signing”, which for me is a serious red flag, unless you’re a fan of settling for someone who doesn’t properly redress your most pressing concerns and who’s never going to move the needle when it matters most…not to mention, like Tross, he might be a stumbling block stop-gap option who could stymie future moves of much greater import
finally, the Pedro’s of the world might be quick to unearth some old-timey quotes about this particular player, like those who called him an “unapologetic scavenger” or when Zidane stated that he “scores everytime he has a shot”, but don’t be swayed by these attempts to deceive…the former scares me, as some said likewise about Eddie, whereas the latter was offered up quite some time ago by his former manager who had no problem whatsoever pushing him out the door; not to mention, his lackluster production, since that time, suggests this was undoubtedly the right decision
now I get why MA might be interested, much in the same vein as he was all gaga for Havertz once it was suggested that Real were pursuing him, (which btw was total bunk) as he’s much cheaper than the “real” options and he appears to be a better fit for MA’s pass into the net/garbage goal offensive tactics, but there’s no way we should be leaning into this particular failed narrative any further…so no matter what you hear, don’t believe the hype train that’s heading your way
Tony
Emi’s ego was too big for Arteta to manage – he had to go. ESR loved Ozil who taught him a lot.
“Zidane stated that he “scores everytime he has a shot””
If there was a striker who scored every 5 shots he’d be worth over £100 million to any team who can create a few chances.
I always take anything about transfers as clickbait unless the rumours really have something to them. If there’s anything to this its a desperate throw of the dice with not much to spend.
Marc—this one has legs, as the actual bid was reported on our team page on the Sky website, not in some sort of newsnow rumour mill clusterfuck…I just don’t want us to go down the MA coin toss road again, as we’ve got far too many of his half-measure options currently rostered…we need a readymade Striker, not this lightwieght, Zirkzee from Bologna, who some moron called better than Haaland, or even an underperforming Vlahovic, unless we get an extremely sweet deal in the process
lightweight
TRVL
So we’re looking at a desperate throw of the dice with Arteta attempting to save the season or more likely his job.
Marc-so desperate that these other teams with players of interest will likely jack-up the price and we’ll end up with a disgruntled Eddie and a useless Havertz being relied upon, then MA will purchase another half-assed LB and/or CB
Good points TRVL & Marc. Arteta in desperation we should call this part of the process or the main stage.
Norg
Good to see you in these parts. I see it differently but we can agree to differ as LIR is different with its debating. From what I remember Emi had been with the club around 10 years at that stage and had been given a run because of Leno’s injury that also fueled the Gwendouzi spat in looking out for Leno and going after Malpauy(?).
Emo saved Arteta’s bacon as did ESR. Emi was also very instrumental in Arteta winning his only trophy.
Sorry, Norg, but had I been Emi in the best form of his life and giving out back 4 the confidence they needed from assured handling and commanding the box better than any of his replacements, which he’s now doing under Emery very successfully.
Emi was right at the time to claim the number one keeping spot; 10 years learning his trade and under Arteta he had every right. This has now been proven even more with Arteta’s diabolical keeper handling. Promising at contract tie and flipping the bird at the contract when Arteta has a brain fart signing a midget with few or questionable more favorable skills than our very likable Ramsdale.
Look who Arteta bought after Emi, Norg. It’s been a comedy of errors where Emi has proved at Ville he was right to go and Arteta is simply a narcissist in full bloom who has backed himself into a corner of repeated mistakes and averageness.
In all fairness to what our club needs, Norg, it’s been proven over again that selling Emi for a pittance, mind, was a huge mistake by Arteta that he has yet after 4 years to rectify along with an 8, 9, LB and Partey replacement.
Now, from from what Marc and TRVL says, we are after another midget to play the required and coveted ‘Drogba’ outmuscling with skill and screamers from left and right peg very much needed role as our 9.
Arteta is likely to buy a 9 the size of and with mobility of R2D2!!!!!!!!!! Because Arteta seems to like his 9s vertically challenged, under 6 feet lightweights who spend most of their time trying to con refs through their lack of being anything more than a 6/10 on their best offerings.
That’s my 10 pence worth for what it’s worth with our current malaise of Artete’s offerings.
Emi was a huge loss for us.
Manic Stage*
Tony
I agree totally about Emi – a far superior keeper to what we have now. He is a joker and wound up Arteta. ESR also wound up Arteta by declaring his admiration of Ozil (who was a lazy sod at the end). Arteta will only accept yes men – probably the only thing he learnt from Wenger.
Norg
There is no question Emi is a dick of epic proportions; just happens he’s a world class keeper who Arteta needed the requisite man management skills…………
I wasn’t aware of the ESR, Ozil smoke blowing, I could see Arteta not taking that well, but a good manager like Klopp would have laughed it off citing footballing reasons.
The issue isn’t Arteta having an issue with Martinez – good managers will decide that some players just carry too much baggage or can cause issues round the squad.
The issue is two fold – firstly if you don’t like the player fine but you have to have a better solution lined up, we’re now 3 1/2 years and what £50 million (we won’t get Raya for less than £25 million) spent and still don’t have a better option in goal.
Secondly don’t destroy the value of the player when getting rid of them. £20 million for a young keeper who goes on to win the world cup shortly after is moronic and takes the piss out of the paying fan. If it were a one off you could put it down to needs must but we have a list of players who’s values have been eviscerated by Arteta’s actions – Guendozi, Torreira even Auba can be added to the list off the top of my head.
Newcastle missing out on 2 big chances in first 5 minutes? Gonna cost them big.
A good game to judge how important a ball-playing Keeper is, since Ederson is out injured now.
Marc,
Either the owners are fools, or they don’t give a F about the money lost. There is no other explanation of what’s happening in terms of transfer IN and OUT.
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!