I wrote a 500 word article about the things Pep taught everyone around him and then it hit me that you can’t beat him to his own game, so I started fresh.
Two managers, playing the same brand of football with equally technical players drilled for years are set to face each other in a major cup final for the first time and we will see who outclasses whom. Both of ’em have been fighting for the Premier League with Mikel falling short of his guru every single fucking time – but could this be a season where he can win the title and a beat him in a cup final? It starts today.
First, you can’t beat Pep to his own game. If Mikel has a game plan totally based on what Pep taught him during his City game, it’s not going to end well for us. He has to ‘unlearn’ some of that, take a leaf out of Wenger’s attacking football, score a couple and park the fucking bus like Mourinho used to. If you can’t score one, you have your own set piece strategy, make use of that. I won’t mind us winning 1-0 from a corner because it has been ages since we won something of importance.
Some Pep v Mikel stats
Ever since Mikel took over as Arsenal manager, we have faced City 12 times in the Premier League, Pep won the first 7, while in the last 5 games – Mikel won 2 and we have shared points the other 3 times.
In the FA cup, Mikel beat him in the 2020 season semi finals when we went ahead to win the only title under him. We lost to them 1-0 in 2023 though in the 4th round.
In the Carabao Cup, we only faced City once where Pep outclassed Mikel in a thumping 4-1 win in 2020.
The only other game where they both faced wach other was the 2023 community shield which ended in a 1-1 draw and we won it with penalties but I don’t give a fuck about it. Let Pep count it as a major trophy because he believes it counted as a quadruple for him.
9 wins for Pep, 3 for Mikel while they both shared points for the other 4 times. Mikel has been able to get points of the City in recent years so it’s not as bad as it looks. There’s a chance today.
Team News
We look fine. Except for Odegaard and Timber, everyone is available while both of them will be assessed before the game. I think Eze will play ahead of Ode even if the captain is fit but we do need Timber to make it. White had looked rusty, I love him but I have more confidence in Timber recently.
Kepa has been the keeper of the Carabao Cup. The tradition calls him to play today while a team that’s looking to win a trophy should play the best XI available. Is Mikel picking up Raya ahead of Kepa – it would be an interesting decision from him. I would go with Raya. There is no need for emotional crap when there’s a trophy on the line. Pick your best XI and Kepa will get his medal if you win.
Gyokeres is certainly starting for me. I won’t mind if we go with Madueke in place of Saka since the starboy has struggled a bit recently form-wise.
Wrapping Up
Right, a win today will boost the confidence of the lads and will motivate them to win some more. We are doing well in all 4 competitions and today could be a deciding factor of how we end up in PL, CL and FA Cup.
We are already competing with City in the Premier League – 9 points difference with 7 games to go and City has a game in hand. There is an Etihad visit lined up for us, so they are still in the mix.
In the FA cup, there is a very high probability that we would face them in semis or finals. They play Liverpool while we are against Southampton in the Quarter Finals.
Today’s not the end of it. It’s only the beginning and whoever wins it, will count it as first and use it for motivation for the rest of the season.
See you during the game.
On another note, BBC and Netflix have ruined the Peaky Blinders movie. It’s shite.
Mikel’s plan was to not let Haaland score tonight. I’m sure he would be happier than Pep.
However, you win football when you score goals.
Ambarish—keep in mind that minus Timber’s absence this could be considered MA’s preferred 11 (with Merino as his first sub on or starting for VG)
Odd’s we’ll see Kepa start a match again for Arsenal?
there was only one side who came to Wembley to win tonight
Kepa is not bad until he freaks out . Within 15 minutes Havertz missed 2 sitters . So agree about substitution at 15 minutes.
We had enough firepower on the bench to win it against City , n although their GL appears to have quick reflexes
Meanwhile
Saliba and Saka seem to be having second thoughts .
I didn’t find White bad today. It was the midfield or the missing of it that lost us the game.
And before anyone points out that Ode and Eze were injured, you had Dowman on the bench who couldn’t have been worse than Havertz.
Really shite day for me. Peaky blinders ruined the afternoon, football the evening.
I have some Irish left to calm meself. Take care guys.
I’d forgot about Merino not being available.
So Wicksy will blame not having Ode, Eze and Merino missing as having 3 nailed on starters missing!
Marc
That’s a 1 billion+ squad. I don’t care if you are missing half the team.
Seeing that Silva face is even more worse than losing.
If ‘more worse’ is grammatically correct.
“Saliba and Saka seem to be having second thoughts .”
That’s why we have to get rid of Arteta ASAP – these players will not stick around forever and eventually they’ll see through his bullshit.
Imagine the training ground tomorrow morning if the players were called into a meeting to tell them Arteta had been sacked with immediate effect and Enrique was taking over in the summer? They’d win the PL with Doris the tea lady picking the team.
“That’s a 1 billion+ squad. I don’t care if you are missing half the team.”
Ambarish – I’ve been saying it for years Arteta isn’t good enough. With the money spent he should have a third 11 good enough to finish top 8.
The answer my friend is on the look on Arteta face
– fear, confusion, perplexed
maybe close to peeing in his lucky tight pants.
Very contagious . No wonder the players lost it .
this Cup means fuck all to me and even less so to MA, it would seem, based on his tactical approach, which looked a lot like the putrid gameplan he used to rollout against Pep several years back…why not throw caution to the wind and try something different for fucking once….everyone knows that City struggle against the counter so why not put out your fastest forwards and attack them with pace at every opportunity, especially with that backline…I’ll tell you one thing that wouldn’t happen if we did so, you wouldn’t find O’Reilly, the “LB”, setting up shop in our box 24/7
Hope this doesn’t put wind in City sails and confidence in the team
We got what we deserved …nothing.
The problem with the league cup is that it means very little to win it but if you reach the semis and then the final it then impacts a team that is in Europe and in contention for the title.
Wenger probably got it right in that he basically played the kids in every round including the final….as an example our starting line up v chelsea in the final included a number of teenagers ( amongst other non starters)
Walcott
Fabregas
Hoyte
Aliadiere
Denilson
traore
Baptista
Sendoros
With this line up against the best team in the country Wenger basically decided that the league cup was a trophy not worth winning…we lost 2-1
What we have seen over the last few weeks is Arteta put the league cup up there with the champions league and Premier league when you look at his starting line ups in the semis and final …it is ironic that the one position that Arteta did not prioritise was the goalkeeper position and that cost us the match.
For me a manager has to either go all in for a trophy or not , Arteta decided to drop Raya for a cup final whilst playing his strongest side and I’m afraid he got it wrong..
If Arteta had played the 2nd string then of course start Kepa but it doesn’t make sense se to play the first team with a 2nd string keeper
As for the game , we lost it in the first 20/25 mins of the 2nd half , city dominated that period without creating much until kepa gifted them the opening goal, the fact that city had only 2 shots on target in the 90 mins tells me that if we had come through that dodgy period unscathed we would have caused them problems.
Even though we hit the woodwork a couple of times in the final quarter there was never the feeling that we had the quality to make a serious comeback.
We have been here a few times this season when a poor result has raised questions about our ability to get over the line and each time we have gone on long unbeaten runs, losing to City is not a disgrace but it will be interesting to see how much of an impact today’s result and performance will have on the rest of the season.
Cunt.
I’ll second that in both regards…
City didn’t need Haaland but they had semeyo, cherki and doku who were all prepared and had the confidence to put their foot on the ball , compare that to Trossard, Havertz, Gyokeres and saka and the difference in quality on the ball was night and day.
Havertz was abysmal as was gyokeres , Trossard never once committed the defender , saka was slightly better but the referee gave him no protection and he faded from the game.
Calafiori came on and made a difference offensively, hit the post and was unlucky with a near post header.
Did pep school Arteta, I would say the answer is yes as it was like he fooled Arteta into believing that City would continue to play with little or no
desire to attack as they did in the first half, but what happened was in the 2nd half city pushed higher up the pitch as they knew Arsenal didn’t have the pace on transition and city strangled the life out of our game for those important 20/25 minutes at the start of the 2nd half.and Arteta didn’t have the answers.
Should Arteta have made changes before the fatal first goal …probably as it looked like Hincape was scared to make a tackle after receiving an early yellow, Havertz was clearly struggling and Gyokeres was his usual self , but unfortunately Arteta did nothing until it was too late , Calafiori made a big difference though Martinelli was disappointing when he came on and why Dowman wasn’t given 15/20 minutes to try and change the game is a mystery..
So yes, Arteta was schooled by Pep even though City only had 2 shots on target and one of those was due to kepa’s handling error.
Give it a rest, whining.
Better to say fuck all, than constant whining.
They are all cunts ,led by the cunt of cunts.