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.
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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
Aitcho – like the match report. I was a season ticket holder for 14years and many games were dull.
Tony – the super league is about 4 – 5 years away. The Saudi’s are going through the motions with their league even though they are throwing a small fortune at it. The real prize for them is the super league. Our Tim already has a place at the table.
Aitcho
I agree with Tony that your (and Marc’s) observations from within make for great reading. Thanks for putting it all down. Plus that picture you painted of internecine warfare among the 2 x Aitcho juniors to join the old fella at a game was priceless. Funnily enough, I don’t have the same problem deciding on who’s going to use my Haverfordwest County ST now that I’m a steward…
Hi Vieira
I take your point about Havertz. A massive understatement to describe him as an unconventional player. But…. This serious upswing in the team’s fortunes since Dubai DOES have a fair bit to do with him I reckon. A very difficult player and personality to buttonhole. I don’t think he’ll ever fully relate to fans. And don’t get me wrong – we could have done much better with the money. I don’t know about you but I loved Podolski on the rare occasions he played. A much more typical German attacker in my opinion.
And Marc – Very witty mid evening adjustment as Chelsea pulled two goals back! Cornflakes duly spat/dribbled all over the kitchen table.
Marc
As you’ll be able to tell from my mis-ordering of the goals, I didn’t watch last night’s thriller between the two English clubs of yesteryear.
Wow – it’s even a good feeling not to have to think of us as has-beens like those two any longer.
KP-I simply must reiterate the fact that I was a huge fan of Kai’s before he ever landed on British soil…unfortunately since that time my interest in him has considerably waned with each passing year…his now average at best pace, combined with his amateur hour footwork and finishing, have left us paying a veritable KIng’s ransom for the worst Striker in the PL, from a bang for your buck perspective…if that wasn’t bad enough, him being shoehorned up top means that our second highest earner, Jesus, and our 100,000+/week man, Eddie, are left watching from the sidelines…all total our per week Striker budget is an astronomical 645,000, which is a shockingly embarassing fact…this is likewise why I’m not convinced whatsoever that we will be breaking the bank on a readymade Striker come the summer
Vieira
If – and in this case it’s a pretty sizeable if – we win one of these two trophies this season, it’s questionable whether we’ll buy anyone, although a few might be sold. I think that’s an institurional weakness at Arsenal which the Hill-Woods will have passed down to the Kroenkes. Very shortsighted of course but in the Wengo years, we never looked like pulling off a repeat title at any stage.
I’m a little more sanguine about Kai but put that down to bias and a 20 year itch.
Going to confess, my guilty pleasures this season have been Chelsea and ManU games. Be nice.
I’ve been making conscious efforts to catch them for the high chance of supreme lol value. Even watched Carabao final, lolz
A real shame about 7am. I found him among the more measured bloggers and loved the fact he was an early adopter of using data. It had been clear for some time that he wasn’t really into it, he’d recently been putting out posts about random pursuits like disc golf and bread making regular basis. Pleasant reads but not sustainable for an Arsenal demographic.
TRVL – agree. Havertz is underwhelming. If you need an up front spoiler then move Rice further up the pitch and have a Partey type player as DM. El B obviously thought Havertz could play a role by his skillset is sadly lacking for a player in an advanced position.
Just off to see a fellow gooner friend of 48years. I wonder how long into the evening before Havertz comes into the conversation. I expect before our second bottle.
Norg, precisely that. It had been dull at the Ems for a long time. We’d generally win our home games, give or take the odd bump, and knew a bit like the Luton game in a wider view that it wasn’t going to change things. We were getting 4th and everyone was comfortable. Had Wenger not slipped into Europa, I suspect he’d still be with us, winning more than he lost, meeting minimum standards..
We still weren’t a bad team, just unambitious and that’s boring. The songs were dull, the vibes were dull. I know quite a few, like you, who gave theirs up.
Norg—it’s interesting that you referenced Rice in your previous post, as I’m fairly convinced that Rice was given some assurances regarding him playing further up the pitch…can you imagine a front 2 of Havertz and Rice? don’t laugh, as you just might see that absolutely ludicrous Striker/non-Striker combo pack coming to the Emirates in the not too distant future…only MA would shell out such exorbinant sums to both acquire a Striker who plays like a DM and deploy a world-class DM in more advanced spaces on a regular basis…god-willing I’m wrong
Worth a read….
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-13275775/Behind-tattoos-designer-clothes-rejection-SAMI-MOKBEL-uncovers-REAL-Ben-White-England.html
My personal take / preference on Rice would be to see him play in a double pivot with Partey similar to the Vieira / Petit midfield.
Both could / can defend and both were / are decent going forward,
Of course Partey’s only got a year left on his contract and with his injury record I can’t see us offering an extension so we’ll need a striker and CM in the summer so we can fully expect 3 full backs to be signed.
Marc-I certainly wasn’t suggesting that Rice should never venture into advanced positions, as lord knows we need to commit more men into the box at times, but how insane would it be to pay TOP dollar for one of the best DMs in world football then not play him there…of course, while with the Hammers, he and Soucek sort of took turns going forward, with the latter doing so far more often for obvious reasons…at the end of his last season, when goals were difficult to come by and the club was holding out hope that he might stay on, they acquiesced and allowed him to wander forward significantly more, but the results of this experiment were at best mixed…simply put, it’s fucking baffling how many times we’ve paid top dollar and beyond for players then deploy them out of position
deployed
regarding our matchup tomorrow against BHA, this could be another rather timely affair for us, as our opponents haven’t scored more than a goal in any match since their 5-0 dismantling of SU on February 18th…during that dry spell their record is a rather underwhelming 1-2-2, for a total of 5 points of a potential 15…so maybe this won’t be quite as difficult as I was thinking at first blush…that said, you should never underestimate DeZerbi, as he’s outmanaged MA on more than one occasion, but he might not have the horses required if we can field our “best” 11, which is still in question…it will be interesting to see what Arteta will do with anyone carrying any nagging injuries considering that our first leg CL match against Bayern is on Tuesday…time for MA to show his cards
Marc
When we bought Rice I always wanted such a double pivot from them as Rice has done with Jorginho especially as our games wore on and we retreated to defend-for-our-lives tactics.
TRVL
BHA rarely flatter to deceive and are about where they normally are chasing a Europe place with a small pack.
What concerns me is that BHA away has always been a difficult trip; first with Wenger,KP Robert and now De Zerbi as canny as they come, but not really needing to be with El B because our football identity and tactics are with Led Zep’s: The Song Remains the Sam. Best Earls Court 1975 Stairway to Heaven version imho. KP, Robert Plant has always been heavily into Welsh folklore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly6ZhQVnVow (famed solo is different – enjoy)
I digress as usual.
But our tactics are the worst kept secret of the PL – just very difficult to defend when we are at our best and, especially when Ode is on song where his flicks and cool laser defense splitting passes find their men.
De Zerbi will keep Rice occupied and look to stifle our midfield that will render our front three less than effective with lack of creative supply. No doubt BHA’s players will have been told to unsettle Havertz, which isn’t very difficult, as Havertz loves him a dive. Problem he’s shit at it like most of his minutes on the field.
Same trumpet, sorry, but after Luton’s MOTM performance, ESR should start and Nelson/Trossard also if Saka is doubtful or being saved for the CL. Martinelli at 9 anyone?
If we can find our mazy rhythm of past free scoring games, we’ll enjoy taking all 3 points from what will inevitably be a very neutral inspiring, lively game as De Zerbi raises BHA’s game: so forget the deer-in-the-headlights play from previous teams; home and away.
This will be a tough game, but my gut tells me we’ll take a 1:3 win away with us if Bayern isn’t in our collective minds too much; particularly El B’s.
Some cool tunes from a favourite of mine as a song writer, producer and singer…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5UZd02c1FM
See you at the game lads…………
What concerns me is that BHA away has always been a difficult trip; first with Wenger, and now with El B because De Zerbi is as canny as they come*
The other biggest talking point this weekend is the United v Pool game tomorrow where we really could do with United helping us out and beating their joint most hated rivals with City.
Speaking about City Palace will have to be at their best to keep the score respectable so no reason to suggest they can take any points unless there is divine intervention, 100% rub of the green and luck of the gods.
Pep will see our taking a point in his home yard as a loss not a point gained. It will not happen again against Palace – not on Pep’s shift. So, it wouldn’t surprise me to see City win by a 3+ goal margin.
Liverpool against United away is a game to savor I hope!
This is a game where Gooners globally will be tempted to sell their souls to their devils for United to take the three points, because that could well give us one genuine hand on the PL trophy with 7 games to go looking down on our title pretenders.
Just a small matter of taking three points from Brighton, and then sit back and with trepidation to enjoy Manure take the points from a very wobbly Liverpool of late with the late winners being their recent form.
I feel Ten Hag will want a reaction from the recent Chav’s loss.
Palace upsetting the form to go one ahead.
Palace showing no rear and are pressing City into turnovers. Exactly what we needed to do And didn’t or did without conviction.