It feels good to write a match day blog after ages.
We are taking on Man City today in the Community Shield at Wembley. Usually it happens between the winners of Premier League and FA cup but since City won both of them, the runner up in Premier League is going to play against the winners. And it sets up a perfect Sunday evening for us Arsenal supporters.
Less than a week left in Premier League opener, this game also allows Mikel to finally put together the best combination of players after experimenting throughout the pre-season. A team which he thinks would challenge for the title, while improving on the football we played last season. Whether he thinks the new signings have integrated well and would start ahead of the old heads, or if he wants them to slowly bring them into the mix while sticking to Partey in the middle is going to be seen today.
What makes this game more interesting is the fact that, the title will be fought between City and Arsenal this season. What a perfect way to begin the rivalry.
So, what’s my expectations? I would go back to the best playing XI I think should start the first premier league game in a week. Ramsdale with a back 4 of White, Saliba, Gabriel and Zinny would do. If Zinny is not available, any one of Kiwior/Timber/Tierney should do. I would stick to Partey in the middle, Kai partnering him and Odegaard starting ahead of ESR and Vieira. Saka and Martinelli on either side of the wings, and Nketiah taking up the CF position.
We have a strong bench in Tomiyasu, Rice, ESR, Vieira, Nelson, Trossard who can be called upon from the bench if the need be. Mikel should understand that any player can have a bad day, and persisting with them regardless does no good to the player in question and team’s performance. You have spend good money for a bench, use them wisely without daunting the confidence of your starters. There will be enough games to keep everyone sharp and involved.
I would love a competitive game from us today, a little bit of dog-fight against the team that bullied us last season whenever we played them. A win today would be perfect, wins us a trophy and boost the confidence of the team.
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Right, I will keep it short today. What’s your preferred line up for the game and expected score line? Don’t forget to let us know in the comments.
#COYG.
No idea what Arteta will go with – you could make an argument to go with a familiar line up from last season and then give some of the new players a run out in the second half, you can easily make an argument that players like Rice and Timber have been brought in as first choice and need as much playing time to adapt.
Score line – can’t see us winning unless Pep isn’t in the slightest bit interested, more likely he sees this as a chance to gain a psychological edge. Someone did put this through ChatGPT which predicted a 3 – 1 City win.
Hi Marc,
Hope all is well. Yes, could be anything today lol in terms of team selection, results.
I’m good Ambarish how’s life?
Looks like Arteta’s going to play with Harvetz as a false 9 – loved to be proved wrong but I don’t think its going to work question is if it isn’t how long will Arteta keep flogging a dead horse?
Can I just get in before kick off – the Charity Shield (or whatever its called) is not a trophy.
this match means infinitely more to MA than his former employers, as such he will likely overthink matters and possibly learn nothing as a result…if I had to hazard a guess, I can picture MA lying awake at night contemplating all manners of strategic maneuvers for just such a matchup, then when it came time to put up or shut up, he will invarably turn to something far more comfortable and underwhelming…this will likely come about as a result of two key variables; firstly, he’s a tactical lightweight, at this juncture anyways, and secondly, he will convince himself that he would be wise to save such “trickery” for a match that matters considerably more…of course, when that latter time comes he will find another reason why not to do it then too…hopefully I’m wrong and he grows a pair, but I’m certainly not holding my breath…in the end, just hoping for a good match
This cracking down on gamesmanship won’t make it to mid September.
same old, same old thus far…weak-ass press followed by a whole mess of chasing shadows
nothing like getting a yellow card for dissent from the technical area in the 18th minute of a match where we’ve largely been a passenger
finally something of consequence for the home side
City get away with murder without bookings – we get 3 for any infringement.
When you’ve got me showing sympathy for Arteta you know somethings fucked up.
I’m not sure who’s more nervous, Arteta or Ramsdale??
tbf Marc, we’ve got bookings for some obvious cynical fouls, whereas I would say that both Rodri and Ode should have been booked but escaped punishment…of course, the 3 yellows to none looked bad, from an optics standpoint, until Sanchez got City’s first
we need to make them pay for not having DeBruyne sitting ahead of Rodri
maybe it was a rope-a-dope plan all along where we sat back for the first 35 then squeezed them out in the last 10 before the half
now Havertz looks like all our up top options
half my kingdom for a clinical finisher and someone who can strike from distance
And Havertz did miss an easy one. Too early to say but a CF should have scored that.
TRVL
City are very good at making cynical fouls look innocent. They do it constantly to break up play ref’s need to be wiser to it.
I agree, that’s why I said Rodri should have been booked for the shirt tug…just think that early on we were chasing it and our frustrations led to some silly bookings
on a side note, I would like to see Ode come more centrally at times so that we had a more logical pivot man for distribution purposes
Give those two chances to Haaland and he converts 1 at least. Bumteta will be judged by that Haaland signing and if it goes like many of the Chelsea fans told me, “get used to have Kai Bergkamp miss a lot of chances” than both should be gone after the end of the season if not sooner.