Well, we didn’t get the best output from that City game. 3 points would have put us in the driver seat. Lets consider this though, City were playing with some of the best players on the planet (KDB, Haaland etc) under the best manager in the world, at home, in a set up they have built over 10 fucking years, drilled down to every minute detail. A point against them is not the best thing, but it’s not bad either.
And, a draw didn’t mean we are out of the competition. Liverpool is ahead of us with a 2 point lead, there are 10 games to play and not everyone is going to win all their games. What’s most important for us is to win ours!
We are playing Luton today. Both City and Liverpool have easier fixtures as well, so the very least we can do is to take all 3 points and keep the pressure on them. How do we achieve that? We continue the form we had shown after the Dubai trip. Lutonions are a bunch of passionate guys and if you slip a bit, passion takes over the talent.
Team news
Line up is out and seems reasonable except Ramsdale’s inclusion.
If Ramsdale can’t make into the playing XI against Luton when Raya has played 3 days back, it’s too late for him now. Kiwior needed the rest, he is playing well and is most likely going to start ahead of Zinchenko in big games. Thomas is back, I love him. Good to see Smith Rowe getting a chance, but again I want to see him play in the Odegaard’s position, not as a #6.
Saka gets the much deserved rest, and Nelson gets his game time.
Short one today, days have been busier than usual. I really appreciate you guys sticking to the blog even when there’s hardly any update.
–
One last thing before I go, it was really sad to see 7amkickoff shutting down, Tim deciding it’s enough of negativity and hate – https://7amkickoff.com/index.php/2024/03/19/last-post/. I have had LiR inspirations from him and le-grove. It’s really sad to see him go away. I have 10,712 comments on this blog, and I have blocked about a hundred of Spuds fan (you know what I mean), and I have earned no more than 100$ in this time frame. For someone like 7amkickoff, it would be 100 times of hate from Areta-In, Arteta-Out brigades, I am sure, managing it alone can get rough and the money earned is not worth the hassle I can understand. But I will miss that blog!
See you during the match. I expect a 3-0 win for us.
#COYG
most changes from a previous lineup ever, yet somehow, someway our giraffe on skates is still starting up top…pumped that ESR, Nelson and Partey are getting starts, but this could make things rather interesting if the tactics haven’t been tweaked due to the differing personnel
So Arteta rotates heavily – he really goes from one extreme to another.
Get this right and he’ll be lauded for having fresh legs etc for Brighton – get it wrong and he might have blown the season.
We’re gonna find out in a couple of hours.
Havertz has the first touch that only Welbeck’s mother could love
this is the first start for Nelson in 4 years…just think of the gobs of money we’ve wasted during MA’s time on players who’ve barely seen the pitch…as such, this is a failure at both the managerial and recruitment levels
thankfully Luton has their fairshare of injury concerns, so we should win this one rather easily
Ambarish—I do agree with you in regards to Ramsdale’s selection omission…everyone knows full-well that Raya’s MA’s favourite, rightly or wrongly, but why not put Ramsdale in the shop window so that we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past, like with Leno, who left for a pittance of what we paid for him due to his year long benching
Coz we love destroying the market value of players TRVL. We have done it with Emi, Leno, Guendouzi, Maitland-Niles, and then some more…
We paid Auba to leave. We let go of Lacazette for free. We paid Pepe to leave…
Ok, sorry.. Smith Rowe needs to wait now…
Very nice the way ESR unloaded their midfielder.
thank goodness we’re finally on the board…even Havertz couldn’t fuck up that silver platter offering, as the defender gave up the only passing lane that mattered to the left-footed Ode
… And we’re sitting back…
certainly not a highlight reel goal, but I’ll gladly take the 2 tally cushion…should be smooth sailing from here
TRVL
Agreed. Luton are poorer than I thought they’d be, although we seem to be pretty fortunate timing-wise against clubs with injury crises this season. In my opinion we should continue to rotate in-game tonight in the second half ie players earmarked to start against Brighton should come off for some of those on the bench. Spread the load in other words.
“We paid Auba to leave.”
And then Chelsea paid Barca £10 million for him 6 odd months later.
Anyone in a real job who did that would be fired.
Main thing I can say after the first half is players like ESR can’t be dropped into massive games with zero match time but having had a part in both goals its obvious he’s good enough to be used as sub / start far more often.
Yep, a good game to give game times to Nelson, Zinchenko and ESR. Since we are 2-0 up, it is not turning out to be a bad decision tonight.
Villa equalise!
KP—it reminds me of the first-half of last season when we had a whole mess of those father/son-like gifted affairs…it’s difficult to complain but it certainly can’t properly prepare us for those much tougher fixtures that will be coming down the pike in the coming weeks
we need to pot a third then get Ode, Havertz and likely Partey off the pitch…there’s no excuse for us not to see the likes of Vieira and Eddie for at least 30+ minutes
We need the third to change anything.. ESR is looking rusty to be frank.
Ambarish—I think MA’s making him stay on the pitch just long enough to reinjury himself so he doesn’t have to hear anymore ESR questions for the rest of the season lol…personally I’ve always been a fan of ESR but we had better sell him before his MV falls off the map…it’s clear that MA will never favour him and for some reason his lack of opportunities has made him even more susceptible to injuries
you could hear a fucking pin drop in the Emirates at times, which speaks to the level of play on the pitch by both teams
We really need someone with a car battery and a set of jump leads to connect the pair of them with Arteta’s scrotum and leave the power on until he promises to never ever play this fucking inverted fill back bollocks again.
dont get this whole Marts on the right gig, unless there’s more concerns about Saka than they’re letting on about…shit I would rather he put Eddie out there, Tross in the middle and Marts on the left, as you might as well cater to the only player who’s a regular starter
if teams are going to come to the Emirates with no bullets in the chamber, you had better put on a show for the home crowd…so far this has been rather dire
why not try some stretch passes or have a go from distance or see what it looks like when you commit more men into the box…if not now, when???
I can literally hear the players conversing with one another on the pitch…we’re fucking lucky the Luton from our last meeting didn’t show up in the second half
that was almost class-action lawsuit worthy
After the drama of Sunday, this was a perfunctory and prosaic display that did the job. Luton clearly show more fight in that poxy little ground of theirs than they do away from home. That Spurs really struggled against them for a while last time out is revealing.
One of the least remarkable games of the season. They’ll need to re-up their game on the south coast on Ssturday.
Nothing to see – an expected win – move on.
Morning all.
In rambling Arsenal mode.
Fell asleep around midnight, so have just watched the game where, knock me over with a feather, ESR got MOTM particularly for his part in both goals. What really pissed me off is Zinchenko’s lack of vision when playing out, because so many times in the 2nd half ESR was free in space out wide left as an 8: his best position, only for the myopic Ukrainian to keep passing to our right and into more waiting Luton traffic.
Willie and Gabs followed suit with pushing our attacks down the right, when in fact our 2 goals came from ESR picking the Luton’s players pocket centrally, and a deft cut back from a LW mazy run that ESR seems to do in slow motion.
What upset me most was the look on ESR’s face when being subbed. Not a happy chappy!
The game panned out as expected and our collective perceived 2-goal margin win happened with relative ease and no major scares. Tight in defense as Norg says we probably have the best center back pairing for now.
Let’s not forget El B wanted to sell big Gabs at the beginning of the season, and wanted to sell Saliba when he was probably told he couldn’t. El B did his best to stop the pairing happening is the irony here.
ESR & Partey filled in nicely for Jorginho & Rice combination/pivot.
Why was Rice brought on? Partey had an easy game strolling most of the time.
ESR, apart from being far better than Havertz at 8 and false 9, he would also be a better 9 than Jesus and really when you look at his overall ability, where he can play anywhere across the front and central midfield. He is deceptively quick, but not really in Martinelli’s gazelle GT Turbo class for instant 0-60 acceleration, but no slouch for a big guy because he reads the game so well and so is a step ahead of the game.
I don’t know about you guys, but Raya worries me far more than Ramsdale who suddenly El B says he wants to keep as his 2nd. Shades of Emi all over again.
If El B hadn’t rotated yesterday, which I would imagine he was deeply pissed he had to, he would have been crucified if we’d lost Saka & Rice; the rotation Hill was not one El B was going to die on.
As TRVL summed up a per-functionary performance from us against a strong, hard working Luton home side, but also missing 12 regulars. When you look at that little nugget, we could ask ourselves what if Luton had had the missing 12 for selection?
How would we have lined up? Rotation?
Havertz proved yet again whey he should never have been bought. An assist for Ode as his crowning game glory with his so many pathetic moments culminating in him getting booked for a dive far from being Oscar worthy.
Tears of a Havertz clown comes to mind.
My continued view of Havertz? He is an embarrassment to our club being the highest player we didn’t need!!! He will be the reason we sell ESR: a proven player at youth level who was unlucky with injuries and having a myopic manager.
Sell, Zinchenko, Nkethia, Jesus and pay Havertz to leave would be my outgoings.
Buy a the Ajax LB. Buy a class striker, but not Toney, as although he would be a big improvement on Havertz and Jesus, he is not CL trophy winning level for us and a huge distance from Henry’s level.
I know Henry was a one off, but a 75% Henryesque player would still be 25% better than a current 100% Toney.
Ambarish thanks for your thoughts and news on another good blog’s demise.
To be honest, I only read LG until Pedro sold out to his corporate master, and became a ‘plonker’ that far exceeded ‘Rodney’s master class in acting in Only Fools & Horses. A good friend back in those days was a good friend to the stars and recreational mates with John Sullivan; legendary writer and very interesting character I was told.
The last I heard of my very good friend from my music industry days, was 20 years ago, he was sitting on his lawnmower with a skunk pipe in one hand and glass of wine in the other and knees on the steering wheel when it all went pear shaped and ended up in the river/canal at the side of his pretty French property replete with a small ‘pont’. Bing was his name who was one of the most laid back, but charismatic characters I’ve ever met in my life to date.
Sorry, I digress.
I think we police ourselves well here considering how outspoken we all can be. Non are shrinking violets and yet we can disagree intelligently or for merriment with some banter to enjoy amongst the ranks.
Hopefully more will join in particularly as KP said recently our Indian gooner brothers.
Until El B wins the PL or CL he is just another manager wanna be. El B may well end up like ‘no cups Potchetinho’ – getting close but always overthinking our near misses.
My mantra has always been for the last 2 seasons we have the squad to win the PL, but a clinical striker missing to win the CL. I don’t like El B as a human being or as manager it’s that simple.
As a coach he has overall improved us greatly in defense, but it has taken nearly 5 years, and we have won one paltry FA covid cup. It took 4+ years to sort out our midfield and we still have no world class striker.
5 years to get into the CL and an average Bayern next will be interesting over 2 legs.
8 PL games to go with Brighton away as our Saturday early evening game.
Clearly with that timeline we had to rotate last night. Personally, I’d give Nelson & ESR a start, as he they should be even sharper than last night and ready for BHA. Ditto Partey, but starting with Rice.
De Zerbi’s Brighton will always give you a hard game home and away where you have to beat them. No parking buses, but they play honest and intelligent football win or lose, and why I’m thankful the press are saying De Zerbi has ruled himself out for the Pool job. Click bait it may be, but one can be hopeful.
I think De Zerbi will wait for a continental giant while enjoying his time at a really well run club with probably the best algorithm led recruitment team, and brilliant much loved, club owner to work with who shares the dream.
Brighton will have to be beaten well because they won’t lie down and capitulate. De Zerbi has a unique knack of raising levels to match and contain even City and Pool away. They sneak wins they have no right winning other than for collective and incredible match industry at full tilt until the fat lady sings her last breath.
Brighton are still fighting for a Euro birth to add to their coffers and attract players they are going to make exceptional future profits from.
It will be a tough test on our title aspirations where we already need Pool to drop 2 points to hand us back the rightful lead our squad deserves.
This season for me has the old feel of the seasons from the 80s & 90s of trying to topple United or Liverpool where we were the poor relative player wise, but not financially.
8 cup finals left if we exclude the CL games. We have the squad, but an erratic manager prone to making repetitive and selection mistakes, plays not to lose, and doesn’t fully believe in his squad even when a new starter gets MOTM.
We just have to win 8 games and see what the others do. It’s that simple.