I was certainly not gonna miss the last post of this year. Interestingly, the game starts at 11 PM for us Indian Gooners and a win today would mean we enter into the 2023 with a win, top of the table and with a hope that we might just make it this season. Bang!
Right, it goes without saying that Brighton is a very drilled team and visiting them is a tough task not just for us but for any team. We have only won once against them at their home in our last 5 encounters, losing twice and sharing points on the other two occasions. The other fact that goes against us is that we only have managed to win twice on New Year eve in the past, in ’88 and 2011 in our last 7 games. Can we break the curse? Of course we can, we are high in confidence, we are in form and we just beat the shit of West Ham.
A good run of games lets you not lose your confidence and allows you to strive irrespective of the bad moments. Against West Ham, Will Saliba gave away a penalty and we were 1-0 down. We managed to win that game at the end and no one remembers that mistake. We have seen how bad these scenarios gets, with Mustafi and Luiz in the past. The fans are behind the team, they have been singing and ignoring the odd mistakes and this instils a confidence in the players.
There’s not much changes to the availability except that Tomiyasu is back in contention. I doubt he will get into the starting XI though, with Ben White making that RB position his own. Zinchenko might start ahead of Tierney and that gives a better attacking set up on the left side.
Mikel, when asked about Brighton reiterated about how tough it is to visit them.
It is always a really difficult and tricky game. They have a lot of individual quality, a lot of composure on the ball. They are a team that are really aggressive and they will ask some big questions. We’ll need to be at a really high level to win the game.
source: Arsenal.com
So yeah, come on Mikel and team, give us something to cheer for next few days. Lets thrash them at their home, lets keep that 5 point lead from City and keep our TOP OF THE TABLE mood.
I would be back during the game, can’t miss today even if my other half will be furious.
And, thanks a lot to my readers. What started as a personal diary has somewhat become a place for few of us Gooners to meet. When I started I didn’t imaging it will go through to its second year with 100+ articles and 2k+ comments. As they say, onwards and upwards. For both AFC and LiR.
Hope you have a happy new year!
Why the fuck did we spend £35 million on an attacking midfielder in the summer if we won’t play him?
Marc, the even more pertinent question is why would we re-up the bang average Xhaka if we were planning on taking off the training wheels and allowing more players to play in advanced positions???
TRVL
Don’t get me started on Xhaka.
He’s never been good enough and never will.
Arteta’s touchline bullshit is shameful. Should have won that.
agreed KP, his Napoleanic complex was on full display tonight….what a pathetic way for a manager who wants to project a more cerebral persona to act, especially considering what was on offer today
I would say Newcastle were the better prepared team for this match. The usual way of getting goals, Martinelli down the left center it or shot on goal didn’t work. Saka triple teamed as soon as he had the ball. Eddie need to attend immediately the Sort Out Your Feet 101 course. AFC pressured Newcastle at the end but was missing the killer instinct.
What is it with the substitutions, looks like Tets doesn’t know he has 5 that he can make. Poor in game management. So what is left for the Arteta Fan Boys is blame the ref, that is just such an Arsenal looser mindset.
K’phobe
For my digital education. Rolmfho? Rolling Overfist 2 letters.
Am I glad I didn’t stay up until 5a.m. to have witnessed a bore draw I was lucky to have kept down to around 30 minutes highlights. Still, a point is better than nothing but dropping 2 points does have that ominous feel about it of more to be dropped unless we act quickly in the TW.
Currently, we’re an injury waiting to derail our excellent if not fragile at times march to the top. Defending the high ground is our directive for the remaining games where last night we struggled with bigger tests to come.
Will the Calvary come in time and will it even be good enough to have an immediate impact on the pitch?
Arteta is gambling again – another ESR mid season moment perhaps or a new shinny toy expected to do a Haarland in hitting the ground running further deflating Eddie and enraging LG’s Pierre no doubt.
He can’t stick so his only option is to twist and use the TW.
Will he bust this time?
Time will tell.
K’phobe we have much going on with the arrival of our 24 yo daughter and Pumpkin her cat. Her coder bf is no more, so fresh pastures await, as she’ll open her job search worldwide or to countries that accept cats and not eat them. Tough one that last bit. China’s out as they eat everything. She’ll work it out and then go and excel at her first job. She was well liked and respected when she did her intern at our company – many of our employees wanted her to stay.
She operates still on Uni time. That is a 24 hour clock as you well know. It’s difficult to know when I’m going to be reading or posting these days. Sooner or later we’ll be on at the same time. LG gets almost none of my time, as I find myself just scrolling through most of the posts and posters.
Almunia can we tempt you back out into the LIR free speech blog? Hope you’re well and happy New Year to you and yours with the best for 2023.
Hi Tony
It must be good to have all the family back under your roof. I hope your daughter succeeds in her next move. The main thing is it sounds like she has lots of options.
That thing about meat eating is commonly levelled at that part of the world isn’t it? The’if it has 4 legs and isn’t a table’ or ‘if it has 4 legs and it’s back is pointed towards the sun’. I’ve never been to China and its still not near the top of my list, but I can imagine the fun and intrigue eating out there in some of the more exotic locations. Do you and your wife ever go (back) there?
I’ve digested that barcodes draw now. We should have won (which is much better than thinking we got away with a draw). The barcodes have finally learnt the art of grinding out draws after decades of failure. It was a hard watch. I much preferred their delusions of grandeur stage when they’d attack anyone, home or away. Eddie H certainly ain’t the reincarnation of Keegan is he. I think they’ll struggle when they try to walk and chew gum at the same time. We were a bit too lax when fighting for second balls. At least it showed that Gab M and Zinchenko can join the growing group of our star players.
as the Newcastle affair confirmed, we need to add someone who can both create their own chances at times and score from distance….I don’t mind whatsoever that we’ve found a way to spread the goals around a bit, like a bit of a poor man’s Pool, but considering that neither Saka nor Marts are as prolific as Salah/Mane, we simply must bring in someone who could win us even 2 or 3 games above expected…I had hoped that Vieira might have been this individual, or maybe a combination of him and a healthy ESR, but that certainly hasn’t materialized, for whatever reasons…regardless, we simply can’t afford to look this gift horse in the month, especially considering what transpired following our Cechian summer, so it’s big boy pants time for our management team and our absentee landlord…fingers-crossed that the most recent comments from MA have some substantive value and weren’t just lip service fodder like what was being spewed this time last year…we must take full advantage of this rather anomalous set of circumstances, as any sort of viable title run could set us up for the foreseeable future
TRVL
To all intents and purposes, there is now a welcome gap in onfield activities until the NLD. Time for Bunga-Bunga Edu to get the chequebook out. I’m looking forward to the Oxford game and feel justified in not being stressed that we’ll win with a flourish and see some old but familiar faces.
This Mudryk thing is tedious. If the selling club is pissing about, we give them an ultimatum and start making enquiries for positions we really need such as CM and CF (in that order). The entire Danilo thing appears to have quietened (maybe he’s one for the summer)? It’d be interesting to see Tets’s diplomatic skills tested by signing Milinkovic. Imagine him explaining to GX that the Serbian was replacing him for the NLD.
KP—it just infuriates me that Xhaka continually plays every minute of every GD game even though he provides exceedingly little from a goal-scoring capacity; not to mention, we all know that he’s bang average as a defender….we’ve been waiting for the better part of 3 years for MA to take the handbrakes off and commit more players in the final third, so the fact that he hasn’t developed and/or acquired a better midfielding option is shockingly poor and could come back to haunt us in the coming months…maybe things would be different if ESR was “healthy” and/or if Vieira had shown something more on the training pitch, but I highly doubt it, as it’s glaringly clear that MA is only comfortable when both Ode and Xhaka are on the pitch
I’m a huge proponent of deploying your “best” 11 on a regular basis, but only if they truly represent your best available options…of course, we would never know if that’s the case as no one ever sees enough playing time to even properly assess the situation, even when ESR was available for selection…furthermore, we’ve spent considerably little of our substantial available funds properly addressing our midfield deficiencies, which seems so counter-intuitive considering whom he worked under while at City…just another reason why I associate his particular managerial stylings with those of the much less effective latter days Wenger than the midfield-centric tactical nous of his former boss, Pep
TRVL
Arteta loves Xhaka – if Xhaka left tomorrow he’d get a clone of him. The only reason he isn’t Captain is because a section of the fans would go apeshit.
No doubt Marc…even after all the axe-worthy baggage on his resume, including flipping the bird and his thirsty Roman campaign, no matter who wears the band, Xhaka is still the functional captain of this squad…all you have to do is watch the pre-match huddle to understand what’s really going on….for me, it’s time to cut the cord and make a decisive move for our collective future…unfortunately it takes a lot of balls to make such a maneuver from a position of perceived strength, instead of waiting until a sense of desperation sets in, positionally-speaking of course….let’s face it, this club has suffered from a complete lack of proactivity ever since Dein was ushered out the door
Hey kids… Its FA cup weekend. I normally go hither and thither to watch games but cannot be arsed this year.
I always organise a thing where my 3 kids and I take turns to draw out our favourites for the FA up, the winner getting a whole quid from each of the losers. So a little bit more tactical than a sweepstake. We organised a draw and I got to go first. Here’s who I picked in descending order.
First draw – City call me disloyal but Pep’s got to win something when we pick up the PL right?
Second – Despite all being gooners, none of my kids chose Arsenal (unbelievable!) so I also got the Gooners. My kids’ first picks were Chelsea, Manure and Liverpool…arseholes!
Third – I went for Fulham
Fourth – continuing my love-in with West London. Brentford.
Fifth – and after scraping the barrel. Wolves.
Interestingly, neither Bournemouth nor Everton were picked. Sunderland (!) and Burnley got in instead.
So, it’s Arsenal and City… Dream tickets. I’ve already planned what I’m going to do with that three quid!
In a parallel universe, I wonder if there’s an intelligent and funny Irish geezer on a Manure blog called…
Degeasaynomore
What happened to De Gea? He’s soooooo unpredictable these days. He makes Almunia look like Lev Yashin.
Neal Maupay is such a prick. Just think about it, if he didn’t exist we’d possibly still have Matteo Gunnerdouzi in our squad.
TRVL
Dein had to go – he was negotiating the sale of other peoples shareholdings.
Our fuck up was not replacing him – Dein was a deal closer, so many people think its easy you slap the cash on the table and its deal done but that’s not how it works. Closing the deal is the hardest part of sales and its the same thing when you’re closing a deal to buy a player.
Unfortunately I’m not sure Edu could close a door let alone a tight deal.
Fat Frank’s got to be on his last legs.
I’ve got to say I’d love to see Everton go down – I hate Fat Frank and Jordan Pickford is the worst keeper to be so highly rated I can remember.
Marc—I don’t doubt that there were legit reasons for Dein’s dismissal…that said, it doesn’t change the fact that a culture of mediocrity emerged following his exodus…far too often, those who pray at the temple of Wenger are too quick to discount the pertinent role Dein played in the organizational equation….of course, I was a huge fan of the early days Arsene, but when he was left to his own devices the dropoff was significant…I agree with your “closing” sentiments, as not everyone has the juice to get deals over the line, and I likewise concur with your concerns about Edu’s abilities, in that regards, unless you considering paying over the number a boardroom skillset….Cheers