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.
Arteta’s half time team talks are certainly doing the trick recently, we were poor in the first half and one had then impression that the Bournemouth manager had our game sussed as their was a distinct look of panic on some of our players faces.
I said to my son at half time that I didn’t think Bournemouth could play with such intensity 2nd half and that is how it transpired as we took control of the game without creating too many chances .
We were clinical with our finishing today as we were against villa in the week, we had gone through a period of having 25+ shots on goal and still having to rely on set pieces or own goals to get us over the line.
We can now going into the Liverpool game full of confidence as we are now putting away our chances, after that we have 4 away games where I would expect heavy rotation, 3 cup ties v Portsmouth, Chelsea and inter , plus forest away in the league before we face united at home.
The only real concern is gyokeres form but thankfully we have havertz to come in to rotate with jesus as I’d expect gyokeres game time to be drastically reduced.
The good thing for Gyokeres, is that quite a few of the upcoming games will be right up his street
I don’t see any issue playing him v Pompey, Khairat and even v Chelsea in the Carabao.
It’s taken a while to get used to, but this spending money lark means we can rotate with purpose.
Like Villa,.Bournemouth came with a plan and a clever press, we we’re still on top 1st half but it was close. 2nd half we just overpowered them and by the last 20 they were blown open.
We can’t score 4 every game but I don’t mind going back to clean sheets and set piece fc.
There was this really lazy narrative that in not playing Rice in the same role he played for West Ham under Moyes, Arteta was ‘shoe-horning’ or must have given ‘assurances’. The likes of Squeaky Vera mostly and his sidekick Jackanory Tony.
That seems to demonstrate limited thinking on the part of both Moyes and the narrators.
Thankfully we have a manager who recognises the range of his abilities. Playing him as a straight 6 would be such a waste
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cz0pmxr98xko
Pricksy—you’re such a cherry-picking fuckwad…do your research before you flap your gums…yesterday’s match was the first time McGinn has received an 8+ rating this season…in fact, his average rating this season is the lowest of his career, even with today’s one-off performance helping to prop-up that number…this is why you and Achoo are two peas in a pod fucktards…just like with his Rice take, who was left completely unmarked on both his silver plattered tallies today(it was like deja vu from Xhaka’s last season), which isn’t to suggest that Rice shouldn’t be applauded for his poise he displayed during both those moments…btw he has 4 goals in 19 PL matches, two of which were yesterday(by my calculations that’s 2 in 18)…what a recency bias shit show by my two favourite halfwits…imagine being insulted by the fact that I refer to Rice as the second best DM in world football(maybe even number 1 with Rodri struggling to return to his pre-injury form), but he’s nowhere near that level as an attacking midfielder
as for the match, it was a bit of a mixed bag, but a good result nonetheless…it would be nice to see a little more direct tactical setup when you’ve got Noni, VG & Marts up top, especially against a side who will provide you with more opportunities to counter with pace because of their willingness to commit more players in attack…otherwise it was an enjoyable watch for the most part and a crucial 3 points in light of City and Villa dropping points over the past 7 days…in my estimation that was a potential banana skin, regardless of their recent poor form, so kudos to everyone for securing 12 of 12 during the holiday schedule
btw prior to yesterday’s match Rice ranked 268th in the PL for Xg per shot
Liverpool go 2-1 up in the 92nd minute and you think that’s all over then and then Fulham score an absolute screamer in the 96th.
Rent-boy-tastic…
Stop squeaking Vera, another great weekend.
Rivals are doing our work for us, what a bunch of bottle jobs
Rice as 2nd best DM in the world? Based on his exploits at West Ham?
Behave Squeaky Vera
City dropping points to Chelsea is a great news for us. 6 point lead with 18 games to go.
Ambarish
With Arteta’s record I wouldn’t get too excited. We lose to Liverpool on Thursday and City beat Brighton and it’s 3 points. And we still have to go to City.
It’s a slim margin with so many points still on the table – there’ll be plenty of twists and turns before the season is over.
This is how I see it ….I could be wrong but it looks like the stars are aligning finally in our favour and jan/Feb could well see us with as much as a 10 point gap at the top.
We play Liverpool on Thursday , who will be without isak and salah plus a possibility of Ekitike not being available due to a slight hamstring strain apparently.
As for city , they are facing a very tough schedule with a squad that may not be deep enough as today they lost defenders guardiol and Dias to injury , they may not be down to the bare bones yet but their schedule is tough including away games at Newcastle, united , Tottenham and Liverpool , add that to 2 champions league ties that they can’t afford to take lightly as they need to qualify by finishing in the top 8.
City have lost the fear factor, they will find it hard to play at 100% intensity every match for fear of adding to their injuries, plus they have a couple away at the afcon. Brighton at home on Wednesday may prove to be harder than many think.
Arsenal in comparison have the squad to handle the heavy schedule , we have a number of players who have hardly played so fatigue will not be a problem , we just need to keep solid at the back as we are back to being clinical in front of goal and keep exerting the pressure on city who are now feeling the pressure due to our consistent run of form..
Villa played well yesterday so shouldn’t be written off .
Souless, joyless football. A repetitive manager on and off the pitch. He brought high cost, no point football. Won’t be missed.
This comment from a Man U supporter – sounds like somebody we know closer to home.
Norg
Odd’s that both Chelsea and ManU win a PL before Arteta ever does?
Marc
He should achieve it this year – if he doesnt he never will. He has one serious challenger and he hasnt quite got his rebuild quite ready. Villa are close but do not have squad depth. If Emery was playing on an equal footing he would be several points ahead of us by now.
Norg
I think the stories circulating that if Arteta doesn’t do it this year he’ll be gone. Problem is if he does do it we’ll be stuck with him forever.
If he does pull it off (I still think he’ll do an Arteta and bottle it) I’m really not sure I’ll renew my season ticket – the football’s shit and this idea he’s a top coach is bullshit.
Arsenal drop all-white kit after four years of the anti-knife crime campaign – The Athletic https://share.google/u8t3pcf1ZFuce7zWp
Good news. No dodgy all white kit for this year’s FAC.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/man-utd-next-manager-arteta-36500784
Like killing 1 bird with two stones ,
Likely the second will get the bird deservedly into a cook pot
City are all over the place.
That relentless metronomic forward creep they used to play with seems to have completely disappeared and they don’t look half the team from a couple of seasons ago.
Brighton restricting Man City for a draw means we have a brilliant chance to improve the gap. A win against Liverpool and we would be 8 points ahead of our rivals. In face, Brighton has made sure we can afford a draw / loss though i would hate to drop points at home against that Arne cunt.
Marc
Good for us, as no other teams looks to be catching up except City and Villa.