A very happy new year to you and your family. Hope the year brings a trophy or two for us Arsenal fans. Also, I am at my hometown and the cold win is reminding me of those London days. I can’t get away from it, can I.
We are half way through the season with 45 points, sitting at the top in Premier League. Man City were closing up but Sunderland, led by the mighty Granit Xhaka, decided to help us a bit by restricting Pep’s side to a goalless draw.
Chelsea fans were pretty excited, claiming they would win this season with Enzo Maresca, but the club has sacked him already. Maresca’s most cherishing moment of the season would be a 1-1 draw against Arsenal with 10 men, lol. Liverpool are 12 points behind, so they aren’t catching up anytime soon and Aston Villa will do a ‘Emery’ eventually, probably already started with the 4-1 loss to us. Injuries aren’t helping them though.
So, yeah, the second half of the season is a race between Arsenal and Man City. With our involvements in Champions League, Carabao Cup and FA cup, and the injury list growing, Mikel has some tough days ahead but he has spent about a billion GBP to build up two 2 playing XIs with enough back ups / rotation options in each place. We have preferred players in the name of versatility and it will be tested.
We start the year with a game against Bournemouth today away from home. Last season, they beat us both home and away, denied us of 6 important points, started our downfall from the top spot. We shouldn’t forget that, and we I hope the players have some anger about it in them. 5-0 minimum can fix it.
In the team news, both Calafiori and Mosquera are still not available. Rice will be checked before the game. Gabriel is back, MLS can cover the LB position and we have Zubimendi doing the dirty work in midfield these days. We have 5 days before the next game against Liverpool, so we should be okay and can risk everyone available.
See you during the game.
TRVL
“McGinn is clearly out of form and I wouldn’t be surprised if his time at Villa was coming to an unceremonious end,”
2 goals and a man of the match performance today from McGinn is just another example of your poor judgement when it comes to analysing a player…
Though of course we know why you would be so disparaging of McGinn, possibly something to do with the Arsenal midfield (including the excellent Merino) making Mcginn look average, but that’s what happens when a player steps up in class, McGinn will not be the last opposition midfielder to succumb to the quality of the Arsenal midfield .
Ambarish
“We start the year with a game against Bournemouth today away from home. Last season, they beat us both home and away,”
We have done pretty well this season against teams that took points of us last season, we have overturned almost all our poor results from last season so hopefully we can do the same against Bournemouth today…
0-2 to the Arsenal.
Ambarish
Happy New Year.
Does your list of trophies include Arteta’s head on a spike?
Good to see Sir Declan starting. I suspected there was a whiff of bullshit about his ‘injury’ and that he needed no more than a rest. But you never know with a duplicitous wanker like stubborn.
Let’s hope that any goals we score today lead to more pressure rather than sitting off and letting them come at us.
Marc
Yep, it’s either Premier League (4 point lead), or Champions League (unbeaten so far) or the one you mentioned.
Wicksy
Exactly why I am very optimistic we might make it this year. We have been winning some ugly games and we have been able to hold on to the 1-0 scorelines, which we used to throw away earlier.
Bournemouth surely has lost their flair recently and we can capitalise. Saliba and Timber are back so that’s some relief.
And good to see Declan in the starting line up. We need him and everyone else.
KP
Madueke, Gyokeres and Martinelli up top – hoping to see some goal fests today?
West Ham losing 3 nil away to Wolves in injury time.
Their next match is Forest – lose that and they’ll be as good as down.
Look at that bench. All killer, no filler. Games twice a week, at least, for the next month or so, we’ll need it.
The benefits of our great recruitment.
Oops
And it looked Gabriel was dreaming of Rio carnaval
Gabriel makes amends
1-1
Rice has been brilliant, making things easier for us. We went 1-0 down, and are now 3-1 up. We don’t fold anymore do we.
Oops, shouldn’t have said that.
Bringing Saka, Jesus and Trossard off the bench is a flex.
That’s 3 points done. 18 more games to go and 18 more wins to have.
Aitcho
Jesus has surprised me so far coming from his injury. Was never a fan of him, but on the wings, he is tough bastard.
I swear some divs out there think Rice should play the same role he played at the Hammers. Short sighted to describe is current role as ‘shoehorning’.
Another game we’re we’ve improved on last season. Made a bit more nervy due to a worldy from their sub but in truth we wasted opportunities to really blow them away. On the numbers, they weren’t even close.
With a better bench Tets has upped his sub game. Can we give Gyokeres a pre assist to buff his stats a bit?
MB,
Jesus has always been a tough bastard, he wins so many balls you wouldn’t expect him to. While there’s a common theme of Gyokeres as a battering ram, tiring out defenders like a boxer holding on, I think Jesus uses his body so much better.
Fair to say, he’s probably a better wide than out and out 9 but I’m convinced that as the team has improved he can add to it as a forward option.
While it wasn’t direct, I hope Gabi’s goal is counted as a set piece goal. Good for the stats, misery for the haters.
Having lived a short while in Brazil in the 90s, and played a bit of football there, I can attest to the fact that Brazilian footballers have to be tough to make it. There are sooo many good players about.