Atlanta v Arsenal – Champions League begins.

the very fact we were on the back foot even after making a mess of subs speaks volumes of MA’s inability to craft a viable plan B…how the fuck is he the highest paid manager in world football???

Havertz gave away the most fouls of any player, winning just two of his 11 duels and creating zero chances in the final third…just saying

Great commentary guys I sadly watched the toothless display this ring at 7am my time.

Was it expected after the season’s start? Absolutely.

Rice is a CD and 6, but he’s not Rodri level, and never will be. He’s not a midfield player or forward in the same way he’s not a keeper.

He looks average at times, and no surprise RM are not courting him. I’ve made my White’s being below what we need now, before so, no need to rehash the reasons why.

We know what the TW answers were, so I think you guys covered the game in real time, so I’ve got nothing to add…..

Except it does not look good for us on Sunday on this season’s displays

This was a fitting prelude to the City game this Sunday which, like last season at the Shit-i-had stadium (see what I did there?) will be dour and attritional as Arteta parks his bus and tries from minute 1 to escape with a scoreless draw. I think we’re gonna lose unfortunately.

All this mediocre form is eerily reminiscent of last season.

I have a 5 word solution….Bunga Bunga in Abu Dhabi.

It worked like a charm last time.

Brilliant idea KP when no break until after Xmas? I thought there was no break this season.

KP
More internationals next month, and extra CL games this season. So, we’ll see more injuries this season from mental fatigue, as much as from soft tissue injuries. When you’re fatigued playing a heavy contact sport, at high tempo, you will make more mistakes especially uncharacteristic ones.

Like you I’m pessimistic about our chances at Shitty, and feel we’ll be lucky to scape with a point El B goes there to play for.

We have a brilliant defense that, like Raya’s new found aerial acrobatic abilities is keeping El B in a job. Let’s hope he keeps his new found form.

Unfortunately, bar the injured Ode, we have no midfield – only 4 DMs six if you add Timber and Calafiori.

Up top we have Saka. Marts is regressing this season. Trossard is the Swiss army knife, across the top, player who is can’t really develop his own stamp on the team always having to fit in.

Sterling looks lost, slow and basically why The Chavs wanted him gone.

Havertz is Havertz trying to please his master by covering 11km a game while others are around 6 to 9km. He’s being made to be a jack of all trades, rather than trying to nail the 9 shirt playing as an authentic and mobile 9, and leaving the defending to the midfield and excellent defense.

As for Jesus being captain? Then being subbed I thought was priceless. Why not Rice as captain leading from the back? Did Jesus need to feel the El B love? He’s been on the treatment table and it showed, as he was worse than he normally was. Did El B buckle to pressure as TRVL suggests?

Jorginho is not just past his sell by date, but his football expired 2 got 3 seasons ago as a starter, and last season as a game changing sub. He’s a defensive space filler when closing out a game at best today.

White, Jorginho, Marts, Partey are off the pace this season and Rice is just about keeping up, but is not as calm and assured as he was last season.

Going to need a night and day performance to remotely get anything from Sunday’s game.

Are you busy on the footy road the weekend?

Just off to Aberystwyth with one of the terrible twins who loves driving. L plates going on as I speak. A mere 140 mile round trip playing a team that county ought to beat despite having list their last three. Late autumn sunshine here so should be a nice evening . Hip flask staying at home for this one just in case I have to drive on the way back.

KP – you need to drum up the noise – the atmosphere last night was absolutely fantastic. Pity the game did not match it. You might see a better game tonight.

Havertz was awful, likewise Jesus and Martinelli needs to be coached by somebody else. Raya played well but everybody could see the penalty taker looked unsure – wrong body language. It woukd have been an ideal game for ESR – ooops no we sold him.

Tony & KP—great assessments by both of you, as per usual

it’s one thing to go full turtle against Pep’s City, even though I’m not a fan considering the time and investment, but to not have a plan in place to deal with the obvious, Saka being double-teamed, is simply inexcusable…Gasperini is clearly head and shoulders above our little make-a-wish manager, but he’s not on the pitch, so the fact that we were unwilling/unable to impose our will on this defensively vulnerable side, regardless of us missing 1 fucking player, strongly suggests that our MIT lacks the requisite spine and the ability to both identify and lure the talent required…as such, we appear to be in regression mode, where mindless sideways football, set pieces and clean sheets are all the rage…hardly a recipe for success in this day and age…at this rate, by mid-season I’ll have bitten off all my nails to the quick and forcibly removed every last strand of hair from my head

TRVL
I fear for you my friend. Hair transplants don’t come cheap I imagine.

Regression is right a good word for our failing stars. Make-a-wish manager made me laugh I like rope a dope for El B, too.

Sunday bloody Sunday is coming to mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM4vblG6BVQ

KP
Cool enjoy the trip and probably better football than we witnessed last night……

Anyone buying the KDB injury? Pep’s pre game tactical nonsense.

Will Ode have been to Lourdes?

I don’t know if anyone’s even interested but as a bit of trivia it’ll be amusing to see what the guys who can’t get to matches make a guess at. I can’t make the PSG game so someone who’s a friend of a friend and an acquaintance of mine who is both a PSG and Arsenal supporter was interested in my ticket. I had no idea of the individual value of it so went onto ticket exchange to see what I’d get back if I sold it through the club (the club take a handling fee for selling it through the website). My seat is North Bank Upper Tier within the front 10 rows and off centre of the goal just inside the 18 yard box – its a good seat not a cheap one but there are more expensive seats in the ground that aren’t Club Level etc.

So how much do you think I’d get back from ticket exchange?

(A special clue for Kroenke – Starmer said he’d have it for free!)

Speaking about the potential absence of De Bruyne, Arteta added: “They have the option if he doesn’t play of Gundogan, Bernardo, Phil Foden, Kovacic. They’re all world-class players…those kinds of teams don’t rely on one individual which is extremely important for them.”

MA’s the gift that keeps on giving, especially if you believe him to be our weakest link…clearly he doesn’t consider us to be one of “those kind of teams” or how else would one explain what was on offer Thursday evening, even though only ONE of our regular starters was unavailable for selection…which begs the question, how is it possible, in light of the unprecedented investment, that we don’t have a single solitary world class replacement option should Ode miss any time…surely he can’t be oblivious to the implications of his own words…what a twat!

TRVL
KDB is Pep’s pre-game gamesmanship and KDB’s form is a bit patchy as he gets older. The brain wants what the body can no longer do as well which is making KDB a bit twitchy at times.

In the Online Mirror El B is front and center saying he wants to go for the win tomorrow, and is asking his players for better performances which is, essentially, a passive version of throwing them under the bus blaming player performances for our stale and boring football one sided attacking football.

I’d say El B needs a triple dose of introspection as to why we are playing so badly? Here’s what I see needs changing and why we are so poor and scarping by with wins.

1/ As you and I have repeatedly said we needed an Ode back up and an 8 – now we have no creative midfield, and thus poor, if any service to our forwards.

2/ Tactically we are always playing it safe with full emphasis on defense, and not attack where our 9 and 7 have to back track all the time for added defensive duties and now where they are needed for quick counters.

3/ Too many round pegs in square holes and shoe horning players; too many 6s and LBs.

4/ We need Timber at RB and Calafiori at LB or wingbacks (because our midfield is non existent) and play 3 at the back?

5/ No decent 9 wanted to play for El B, so leave Havertz up top to hold the ball up, and play as a real 9 would play. Sure, track back for attacking set pieces, but other than that, stay up top on the shoulder of the CB and drag him around.

6/ Even with Ode we are too predictable without a quality 8 AM. Without both we are bereft of ideas or the bench with experience – only Ethan Nwaneri who is a natural AM.

7/ Repeatedly poor tactical decisions from El B. Subs are as usual making no difference.

We are looking for a miracle to get any points from City and El B needs to come up with winning tactics to out think and play Pep and City.

I’m not holding my breath.

KP
0:3 to Haverfordwest was a great result and worthy of the 300 mile round trip imagine. Happy for you and your twin chaperone and designated driver………

Marc
Pockets first – fans second.

Looking at today’s games:

Chavs & Hammers early KO – a draw maybe. Chavs are much better without Sterling………. if Maudrake is on song again the ‘Irons’ won’t be blowing bubbles other than tearful expletives of where it all went wrong.

Villa should get 3 points against Wolves.

Fulham v Newcastle could be another draw. Two old boys facing up in Willock and ESR should be fun.

Will Slot drop more points this weekend? Bournemouth play good football under a young savvy manager in; Andoni Iraola. Won’t easy for Liverpool and probably the main game to watch. I think Pool will get their win, but not sure if Salah doesn’t drop his prima donna ego. Interesting choices ahead for Slot re Salah. Probably less so for TAA.

I see Spuds dropping more points to Brentford. Brentford win for me.

Palace at home to Manure is tough call where a Palace win is the hope for us. However, Manure have started to click all over the park. Various partnerships are forming and Zirkzee as TRVL says, is a very good signing for Ten Hag and exactly what we needed. A 9 and equally good false 9 with a high IQ footballing brain, who quickly brings others around him into the game. He’s going to be a very dangerous player for United.

It’s another litmus test for Manure in can they continue to improve their new found form this season?

We’ll find out in the late game.

Chavs 0:1 up with WH slop out the traps. Chelsea looking good for their lead.

WH were dire and Chelsea are improving. Jackson and Palmer are forming a good partnership.

Could be a thorn in our side when we play them.

Cucurella is a nasty Cnut. I hope Saka get protection.

Bournemouth picking Pool apart with Pool still sleeping.

Wake up call to Dlot’s boys.

Slot’s*

I would gladly take Nicolas Jackson over Havertz…he’s got energy to burn, goals in him, albeit he’s still got work to do with his finishing, and he’s on 65,000/wk…imagine him as a cover piece for a bona fide starter…based on Kai’s 280,000+/wk salary, we would have 215,000/wk left to put towards a true number 9…what a fucking joke show

Chelsea still have plenty of work to do, but they have bags of potential…if only we could muster a bit of that directness in attack…no wonder they paid Sterling to leave, as he would be a 3rd stringer at all 3 of their forward positions, which speaks to our mediocre depth

Tony—Slot’s ears must have been burning when you were suggesting that they give their heads a good shake

not to mention Nunez has potted two strikes that Havertz could only dream of scoring…I’m not sure he could have scored them if he was by himself on the training pitch

Good stuff TRVL. Everson and a couple of other B’mouth players are real speedsters. Fun to watch.

Salah quiet and not much going through him, so maybe the players having a quiet word on the pitch. Salah is over or under hitting his passes too regularly.

Smith Rowe scores again today with assist from Iwobi. Could be the winner.

that’s why he was shown the door…MA can’t be having those with a real eye for goal in his starting 11

clearly Pool haven’t solved their Salah issues, as how else could you explain him still being on the pitch with a 3 goal lead, considering how poor he’s been…of course he’s a top-notch player, when at his best, but that’s bound to cause some problems moving forward

Let’s hope Palace can keep Manure from improving on their current form trajectory….

Bad enough L’Pool making it look easy after an early scare.

Good morning from a very rainy rain season here. An interesting fact for me from yesterday’s games was that Newcastle had 61% of possession v Fulham but Fulham resisted 11 shots on target vs the Bar Codes 4. Fulham had 6 corners to the Beheader’s big fat zero.

At the heart of the Fulham action is ESR crafting a goal and no doubt gluing things together but at 88% pass completion rate with 22 successful passes in 84 minutes, there is much room for improvement that clearly El B don’t see or want to see.

Palace blunted Ten Hag’s possession based game with 67% and 6 shots on target while gaining 11 corners to Palaces 4 shots on target and 4 corners.

Manure dropping 2 points is the best stat for us, but sadly Spuds manage to beat Brentford making the win today even more important.

The league table is very close with Manure and Spuds just 3 points behind on 7 points; to lose today keeps us on 10 points at 5th where I think we’ll finish this season.

Conversely, a win today puts us top on 13 points looking down on Pool and Shitty. How long for is down to El B?

A draw has us swap places with the Chavs, in 4th, who even if a tad disjointed and over exuberant with their play, the are playing attractive football but still loose at the back.

You can never assume results this season, but if BHA at home beat Forest and we lose to Shitty, Brighton moves to 4th dropping us to 6th.

There are only 5 points difference between Manure at 11th and Liverpool at the top on 12 points. It’s looking like we could have a top 10 taking points off each other, which Marc, yours truly and TRVL and KP predicted and expected.

The league table points to our being correct.

So, how are we going to gat anything out of this game?

Over to you TRVL, I got no fcuking idea other than cashing in Karma chips and on a wing and a prayer to whatever your deity is?

For me it has to be 3 at the back and 2 wingbacks with Timber RB and Calafiori at LB.

Partey and Rice playing 6s and hope for fast counters from balls over the top, and through the channels if they are open at any point because City’s off the ball work is as good as their playing with the ball – leaving few spaces needing slide ruler passes from Ode – next time…

Then, there is the El B law of averages tactics that a win has to come some time……

In sum, El B will be parking his bus once again because if he doesn’t, he will face a Pep humiliation……. Same as Wenger did so many times by at least 3 goals each time………

What you got, TRVL, can you inspire us with a fragment of hope?