We beat Man City 5-1 on Sunday, courtesy of goals from Odegaard, Partey, Lewis-Skelly, Havertz and Nwaneri. We scored first, let City have the control for the rest of the first half but wrecked havoc in the second after Partey’s deflected goal. MLS scored the decisive goal and then went on to recreate Haaland’s celebration.
Havertz and Nwaneri humbled down the Haaland’s and Silva’s of Manchester. Out of a beautiful game, some very prominent journalists and pundits have decided to confront Myles Lewis-Skelly celebration calling it a disgrace and that an 18 year old should keep his head down and play ball. I don’t know what to say to that, except someone from Man City had asked him ‘who the eff he was’ not so long ago. The same ‘someone’ asked an opposition manager to stay humble and an ex-team mate to fuck off. I think he deserved it! If you can’t handle some banter your way, don’t be a bellend next time.
I have two positives from the game. First, we win against the big teams. We look comfortable against the teams that play progressive and attacking football and do not just sit back and ask us to break their line. Second, we have some STARS coming out of the academy. MLS is a very confident lad, he had shown us so far, keeping a fit Calafiori to the bench and the arrogance which he shows (pumping fans after being asked to leave the pitch, Haaland’s celebration in his face etc.) is what the legend Thiery Henry has been asking of Bukayo Saka. Nwaneri, another brilliant player, doing wonders at the age of 18, not letting us miss the best right winger in the world is scoring curly goals after taking on 2 defenders. If you have got 3 starters from your academy, it’s a great thing!
We are still in contention. Liverpool has got 6 points lead, with a game in hand but still a good part of the season is left.
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CARABAO CUP – Newcastle v Arsenal
At home, Newcastle scored 2 against us in the first leg. To remain in the tie, we must at least match it at St. James Park in the first 90. It’s going to be very difficult, Eddie Howe has coached them very well and I doubt we can see it out frankly. It’s going to be a very tough day for the lads and they would have to give their everything if they want themselves closer to a trophy.
I would love that trophy. A win today by 3 goal margin takes us to Wembley. There’s a lot at stake and we have to see how the players react.
Team availability remains the same, so I would expect the same XI we played against City. There’s going to be 10 days off for the players so I think they can take it. MLS and Nwaneri should keep their place, Partey should anchor that midfield with Rice and Odegaard on either side and Martinelli should keep his place as well. It’s going to be a physical game and the presence of MLS, Nwaneri, Havertz will allow us to neutralize it.
The other leg is between Liverpool and Tottenham where the spuds have a 1-0 first leg advantage. I would love us winning the trophy and stopping Spuds to win one in the process.
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I am a little frustrated with our transfer window. We did nothing. We needed a CF and Villa offered Ollie Watkins to us for 60m but we valued him a lot less and rejected the proposal. I think we have made a mistake. Watkins could have helped us for at least 2 seasons and when you are in a title race, you need players for NOW and not tomorrow. If it’s to safeguard Havertz then it’s a firing offence. Jesus is out for a year, and we are reliant on a player who hasn’t been doing as much as he should. Getting Watkins would have improved that position. I also don’t believe we did that to keep the money for summer, that would just imply that we have given up on the season when we are on 2nd in PL, in knockout stages in the Champions League, in semi finals in the Carabao Cup.
I will say it again, someone at the club needs to get hold of Mikel and stop his fantasies for defenders. We have enough bodies and the academy can fill in if the need be (MLS is doing pretty well). Nwaneri has stepped us so we haven’t been missing Bukayo but we need a back up of him, Odegaard, and a CF first before any defensive signing.
I’m pretty sure we will be looking for a Partey’s replacement while ignoring the CF position completely in summer.
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Right, that’s me done. The game is too late for me but I will try keeping myself up. Hope you celebrate the City’s win and the cunts getting humbled in the process.
Cheers.
thankfully we have a 10 day break coming…he didn’t seem to be favouring it when he was walking off, which could be a good sign
let’s hope Howe does something stupid at half, like taking off Isak and/or Gordon, as their countering could hurt us as we look to score
time to give our new recruits a look
let’s hope we start running our offence through Ode and Ethan in the second half
Aren’t tackles low on the ankle a red card? Or is that another rule that appeared and was then decided its a fucking stupid idea after an Arsenal player was on the end of a red?
Saliba’s having a mare tonight – so unlike him.
Game over and completely self inflicted. Stupid ball from Raya to Rice.
Truth is Arteta’s had another Spursy day when the pressure was on.
we could easily be down by 5…so much for taking any momentum from that City fixture
Fucking supine. Another Arteta domestic cup shit show.
well no one could say that Havertz hasn’t proved his manager right for standing pat…what a paper mache fucktard
WTF are those subs?…how does Havertz survive the first substitutions?
this was a far more telling match than the one on the weekend, minus the whole former.cone-boy narrative, as this one was a win or go home affair…as per usual, we looked miles off…I wouldn’t have been nearly as pissed if it ended 4-3, especially coming in 2 down, but to be 2nd best, by a considerable margin, on the heels of that piss-poor window, is unacceptable…after those two fixtures one has to wonder why would Isak ever push for a move to North London
C
U
N
T.
Bournemouth smashed them 4,
Fulham beat them.
We roll over in a semi final.
Howe has beaten him every fucking time, this season.
Still wanking themselves silly over beating Manchester City.
The reason we lost, they used the same ball as in the first leg.
AF—it’s clear that Howe’s still sour about MA getting the Arsenal gig over him…tbh I never wanted him here either, but I can see how a cat like MA could rub a lunch bucket coach like vanilla Eddie the wrong way…just look at their post-match interactions, it’s prickly as fuck…talk about rubbing salt in our transfer window wounds, as Isak was the best player on the pitch in both legs…meanwhile, instead of bringing it, after getting a supposed vote of confidence from the manager, Havertz was a flopping, petulant bitch all evening
now I’m not a big fan of this particular competition, but if you make it this far you can’t lay an egg in these higher pressure moments…Bournemouth put 4 on them at St.James a couple weeks back and we can’t get a single fucking tally over 2 legs…I just don’t see us winning anything of consequence with this big moment shrinking violet on the sidelines and our resting bitchface tweener leading the line
Killroy—I almost forgot about the whole ball’s fault rant…now it all makes sense…it’s clear that Isak must have been playing with a different ball or maybe he was wearing specialized cleats that were made specifically for the occasion…what a cheating fuck…we should probably file a formal complaint
first and foremost, sorry but I’m not buying the current narrative regarding MA’s supposed lack of involvement in our transfer window….so Edu flies the coop and his level of involvement actually decreases…what a cake and eat it too fuck…you can’t wrap yourself in glory when the response is positive then divorce yourself from the situation entirely when it’s a shit show…secondly, don’t try to force-feed me this Wenger-esque couldn’t find the “right one” bugaboo, especially if you’re sniffing around Morata, lowballing Villa for a getable Ollie and employing Sterling…finally, don’t you dare bring up the summer window when the body’s not even cold yet…that’s gaslighting 101 by a manager who appears to care far more about preception than reality
Stubborn Bastardo never fails to let you down does he? All the momentum from the City win gone, up in smoke. Is it too much to expect that this Dubai trip will work miracles and produce another winning run? I think it’ll be a bridge too far.
TRVL
I fucking guarantee ,you won’t find a team anywhere in the world , that exits a semi finals as pathetically like we have.
All stems from this cunting manager and it’s fans who are a disgrace. Fucking brainwashed cunts. ‘North London is forever’ slags.
How about be the best in England or Europe?
Spurs will put up a bigger fight tonight. I am old school, I want to win the League Cup, FA Cup
Who actually gives a fuck if you finish 2nd , 8th or 12th?
“Arsenal’s mind-boggling £105 million outlay on Rice is increasingly difficult to justify. Rice was signed to dominate games and lead Arsenal to silverware. He had the chance to prove his worth last night and failed miserably. Rice’s antics late in the game demonstrated his weak mentality. Endless arguing with referees after committing blatant fouls is not a good look. Constantly gesticulating at teammates rather than rectifying his own shortcomings also cast further doubt on his mindset. If Arsenal are serious about becoming regular contenders for major silverware, they should cut their losses on Rice this summer”
Now I’m not going to go as far as that last statement, but as he’s currently deployed he’s definitely not worth the price we paid…of course it’s not all on him, as no one could begrudge him for having dreams further up the pitch, but it’s up to the manager to be the adult in the room and set him straight…likewise I don’t place all the blame on Rice for the goal that came on the heels of Raya’s bad pass, but it’s clear that he’s not nearly as effective in our end since he started thinking he was the second coming of Steven Gerrard…fact remains, even if we wanted to move on from him, we would have to be willing to take a loss to do so, which would be the same case with another of MA’s miscast flunkies, Havertz
Some might view this as a bold take, but I would be willing to bet a considerable sum that we won’t acquire a single one of our supposed targets come the summer, regardless of all the nonsense being spewed by MA’s personal army of “media” hacks…Sesko will likely end up at Bayern or PSG, unless his play drops off massively, then who the fuck cares…Nico & Zubi will likely remain in Spain and find a new home in one of the top 3 clubs there and Lautaro Martinez just doesn’t make sense, money-wise, as he’s never had any real success leading the line, in that his best years saw him playing along side another Striker in a 3-5-2 formation…so if MA pursues him one can only assume that he’s intending to team him up with Havertz, which seems like a massive financial gamble simply to hide Kai’s obvious deficiencies…if we waste another off-season worrying about how we can best accomodate the interests of Havertz and Rice, our “window” for titles will be lost
Morning all
Really pushed for time but had to welcome another lifetime gooner and ST holder who went to Newcastle driving 6 hours and said it was disappointing.
He owns the car sourcing company I’m using to find my car for the UK. A serious petrol head gooner; a great mix. I’ll ask if I can post his website and invited him to read the blog.
That busy I didn’t find out the result until this morning. Every time I one to to look yesterday Junior and I were distracted by non stop email traffic.
To be honest I didn’t expect to overturn a 2 goal difference in their back yard on our rollercoaster display season.
Let’s hope the remainder of the squad not away in international duty go to Spain to rejuvenate and get their mindsets right again.
That’s me for now. I’m in BKK tomorrow for 3 nights then London on the 12th and then Madrid for 5 weeks with junior until late March. Then back to Blighty. We’ll see from there.
The international break has come at a good time for me. We can watch the games in Madrid where, if there is a Gooner bar, it will be great for Junior’s first trek into Europe.
TRVL/KP
As always really enjoyable reading to catch up on with the others here.
Will keep you posted of our adventures with the Madridians where I have my Timekettle products at the ready.
I see RM are renewing their push for Saliba and also telling Zubi they want him too, which just happens to be MA’s high value target.
Do we see RM saying give us Wille and we’ll let you have Zubi coming any time soon?
Plymouth knock Liverpool out of the Cup – I did not see that coming.
Hi Marc
Sweet, wasn’t it? Classic Liverpool – underestimating opponents in domestic cup competitions… you’d never see Arsenal doing that. Yes, I’m under the influence of drugs this afternoon.
Meanwhile Shit on the Villa are 1 up against those other wankers. Antonin Kinski might be an anagram of Runnar Alex Runnarson. He even looks a bit like our former one armed Icelandic goalkeeper.
PS
I had a meeting with my right wing labour MP on Friday. You’d have loved him but maybe concluded he was a bit too reactionary even for your tastes. We didn’t agree on much…Ms Kroenkephobe joined me and said I was full-on in the car going home. Who’d have thought it?
That’s the fucking point surely.
Kroenke
Only this afternoon?
The Cup’s looking open this year – Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool out, City a shambles, ManU rotten. The likes of Villa, Brighton and Newcastle should be thinking about going for it.
Add Cardiff to that list, miraculously. 2 nil up at Stoke, then losing 3-2 before scraping a draw and winning on pens.
To be fair, Spurs’s season got a lot easier in the past few days. All they need to think about is avoiding relegation (they’re never going to win the Europa league). Ange P must surely be on borrowed time now.
brilliant stuff KP/Marc love your wind ups. Junior was in tears laughing at “Only this afternoon?”
Great win for Cardiff, KP.
Just about to the junior shopping for UK warmth clothes.
At least the Rugby was again fantastic over the weekend. Too bad Scotland didn’t give it a better fight. Just hoping Ireland will do another grand slam. Playing France in Dublin makes it doable. Now if they only could repeat that in 2027 we are all good to go.