A quick post before the game.
City beat Crystal Palace earlier today after going down 1-0 and giving us the false hope; bringing them to the second spot in the league table. We win today and we get back on top while Liverpool has to play Manchester United tomorrow at Old Trafford. There is hope we might end up top after this week’s result but for that to happen, we must beat Brighton.
Team news is out, Martinelli sits on bench while Jesus takes the LW position. I think it’s more of a precaution after his injury and we have games coming in thick and fast. Jorginho gets back into the starting XI, Partey on bench which will allow Declan Rice in a more advance position. Saka makes it which makes me happy because Nelson did fuck all and we need the BS7 fit and playing every game of this season. Baffling to see Zinchenko ahead of Kiwior because that lad has done nothing wrong and is better defensively but we are winning good, so I won’t doubt Mikel’s decision (for now).
As I said on twitter, the only thing we can do in this three-way title race is that, we win our games. City and Liverpool have easier fixtures than us, but two of the three teams will lose ‘more’ important points at some point. It’s premier league, the best league in the world and there are upsets. We just need to make sure we are not part of those upsets.
Right, game has begun. Lets hope make it an easy fixture.
De Zerbi is going to challenge Mikel in his own game.
Ambarish-I might agree if he had suffered a serious pull or muscle strain injury, but supposedly he had a cut on his foot…hardly requires such precautionary measures…he’s undoubtedly in the doghouse
Saka should have scored that one.
TRVL,
Could be, but I see it more as a rotation. We saw what Nelson brings at wings, and losing any of the Saka or Martinelli can cause us problems in both PL and CL.
Jesus can’t score from a header can he? That should have been a goal again
we saw Marts coming on late recently and he certainly wasn’t carrying an injury that would have prevented him from starting…Saka has a nagging injury, so it would have made farmore sense that Jesus and Marts played, especially with Bayern on Tuesday, which is why I said what I said…Cheers
plus when he did come in he was forced to play on his wrong side…this would have never happened with Saka, if the situation was flipped
btw that should be a penalty
Nicely taken pen by Saka.
1-0… just the beginning hopefully because we need to keep that GD as well.
decisive and well-struck penalty by Saka…good on him
TRVL,
Yes, more like Thomas Partey going back to bench. Our next game is with Bayern in 3 days, and if Martinelli do not start that game, then I’m wrong and you are right.
what are the chances of Havertz not getting a stupid yellow, against this one-touch footballing side in particular
Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz are not nice guys unlike Saka or Martinelli. This was a fair penalty, no doubt but you would see both of them playing their dark arts, havertz even bugging opposition players through out the game.
We most certainly needed some rough boys out there.
I remember TH14 asking Saka couple years back to not be nice. No great player is ever nice. You can’t change at age 20 but he has been a bit vocal against the fouls on him, talks with referees more often, complains in front of the camera…
Partey hasn’t been a starter all year or given substantial minutes when he was medically cleared to play, so that’s not really an apples-to-apples comparison
I think it’s quite a bit more nuanced than that Ambarish…neither of those players are considered “tough” guys in the PL…in fact, they would be categorized as floppers and whiners, which can serve a purpose at times…now Gabs wants to be a tough guy, which looks far different than the actions of the other two players you mentioned
I would have agreed with you but the problem with Mikel is that, he hasn’t got any alternative to Saka and Marti. He can’t afford a beef with either one of them. Jesus is inferior to Marti at wings and at this stage, even a bum would not jeopardize his chances of winning the league and CL just because he don’t like one of his players…
Plus, Marti is too nice to complain and get himself in trouble with Mikel.
LB is a good example. Mikel can afford to frustrate Kiwior because he still has got Zinchenko, and Tomiyasu to cover that position. And Timber is about to be back. He can do it with Partey because we have got Rice / Jorginho.
He didn’t want this situation for the LW because he was in the market for Mudryk, ready to pay 90 odd millions but at present, he can’t afford to upset any of the two wingers. Even if he does, he would need both of them with so many ‘very important’ games coming in next 2 months.
Jesus is injury prone and doesn’t help in drawing 3 players away from the game like Martinelli does.
how quickly you forget what happened the last time he was in MA’s doghouse…Arteta had publicly stated that Marts wasn’t playing because he was injured and Marts disputed that erroneous claim vis-a-vis social media…his actions led to considerable fan pressure against our then struggling manager, which in turn led to Marts being reinstated, so to speak
maybe a bigger question is why not Tross then instead of Jesus, IF Marts is injured
“maybe a bigger question is why not Tross then instead of Jesus, IF Marts is injured”
Yep, now that’s one I will agree with you. Probably the same reason Zinchenko starts ahead of Kiwior.
DeZerbi is going to light up his squad up at half, so we had better be prepared for the immediate post-half pushback
A big-up to Raya and that save. The shot was almost identical to the one that Porto scored. This time, however, old Nostrildamus predicted the future correctly and got his feet in the right position. Definitely a penalty, calmly dispatched by the King of Arsenal. Good all-round display so far.
I’m convinced we’ll get the 3 points and int won’t be pretty in doing it with Havertz & Jesus on the pitch.
Trossard LW, Marts 9, and ESR for Jorginho and we’re cooking goals for fun – well at least a couple more anyway.
Sorry Kiwior LB let Zinny go sharpen up his shooting skills.
Right one nil to the Arsenal ………
Tony,
Timber is coming too. Him and Martinelli on the left side will be exciting to see.
Ambarish—I think this speaks directly to MA’s more conservative inklings, as he’s going to try to rely on those who’ve been there and done that, even if they weren’t considered key cogs elsewhere…so now we have two forwards who typically drop deeper up front, regardless of their supposed position, providing some additional cover for the defensively-stunted Zinchenko and Jorginho…if this was about outscoring our opponents a different starting 11 would likely be on the pitch
KP,
Indeed, we miss out to praise Raya but he does his job silently and is leading the race for golden glove.
btw Timber should be deployed on the right with Saka
TRVL,
As long as we keep winning, I wouldn’t mind if Mikel goes on and play Elneny up top.