It’s Champions League night. A loss against Bournemouth was devastating and a win today will wash out a bit of that. We are playing Shakhtar Donetsk at home, and a win today will also bring us back in the top 8.
Playing XI is out. Mikel has fixed 2 of my complaints with whatever was available. Trossard makes into the midfield in place of Merino, so we are not going with three DMs today. Martinelli is back into the team with Havertz up top and Jesus in place of Saka. Sterling should be a ‘give him 15 min in a 2-0 game’ option, not a starter.
Line up looks okay to me.
European nights are always nervy. There are upsets but we should be winning against Shakhtar comfortably and I am hoping to see all 3 of our forwards scoring today. I hate to say it but a 1-0 win is not going to fix our confidence. We need the attacking football back today, we need to be in control for the whole 90 min, we need to show that we can win without making any errors.
And the seniors needs to take that responsibility. Trossard has played enough game, Jesus was brought for his huge experience and was believed to mentor the likes of Martinelli and Saka And Thomas Partey needs to keep control of that midfield. It’s Champions League night, couple years back – these same set of players were dreaming of these nights and when you got one, you need to show that with your actions.
Right, there is one more very important thing I have been talking about. We need to finish in top 8 of the group stage at any cost. I don’t want us to see playing 2 qualification games later in the stage.
It’s too early to say anything but there is some serious competition. And the fact that Bayern, Barcelona and Real Madrid are on the same points with us and are going to compete for the top is going to make our life difficult. What can we do? Win the easy ones and put fights against the best teams in Europe.
We have an easy one today. Lets go out in red and white and WIN this. Lets beat them 4-0 and get back our confidence.
See you during the match. #COYG
As to MA’s no-ball 2nd half tendencies Saka and Carragher expressed the following concerns:
“Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, the England international, who opened the scoring with a superb strike early on, said he felt Arsenal didn’t show the best version of themselves, and that they sunk back too much, which gave Liverpool more momentum as the game went on”
“Carragher has placed the blame on Arteta, who he believes is moving away from being a Pep Guardiola clone and shifting toward a more pragmatic, Mourinho-esque style… Mikel Arteta is slowly morphing into a Jose Mourinho type of manager and nobody really thought that would happen. I just think it’s really interesting how he’s got there..Now, I know they had a couple of injuries at the back, but they’ve still got the midfielders playing, still got their attacking players playing, who you think ‘can you get on the ball, can you try and take the sting out of the pressure you’re under…that comes from the manager, but it happens too often now”
Now I might better understand his more recent defensive inklings if the cupboards were always bare, but he’s the only manager I can think of that’s ever spent such an enormous sum dumbing-down his squad, at least from an offensive perspective…we’ve literally spent close to a billion dollars trying to construct a side who’s primary objective appears to be winning games by scoring goals on set pieces..I feel like he went on some Ayahuasca retreat at the end of last season with a bunch of fucked up analytics ass-clowns
Just watched the 2nd half this morning with a fresh bakery breakfast sans sugar which made the viewing relaxing instead of hyper, as if playing in my seated position. We’ve all done it suddenly sticking out a foot to the imaginary ball.
It took me time to work out if L’Pool didn’t turn up and let the game nerves get the better of them or MA finally got his tactics right as well as most of his selected starters.
For me Nwaneri and Skelly should have started with Skelly at LB. Timber looks like he may have been rushed back too soon. Merino looks like his shoulder hasn’t fully healed when he hit the ground hard, too. They need looking after or they will be out again for longer.
I was dreading the El B full turtle TRVL and others here were, too. Finally, MA out thought the best performing manager in the PL this season, thus far, but we should have won that game had MA made the Skelly & Nwaneri subs at half time. It would have given Slot more to think about with fresh legs and better link up play from the young duo, as well as boosting their confidence.
We slipped in and out of the game in the 2nd half letting L’pool get back into the game from Slot’s favourite subs: Gakpo made a difference.
We put in the much needed same City performance and yet in the end gave away 2 points we could ill afford to lose with City marching on with another 3points.
Partey did well at RB considering his lack of pace where he uses his football IQ well.
Sorry to say Kai should have scored from the 2 good chances he had. There was a 3rd chance outside the box but it went high wide and handsome.
It seems Havertz was there to press only because he only mustered 24 passes which he completed a measly 18 @ 75%. Surely we need much more than someone who presses and makes the defensive numbers up as our 9, right?
Whilst I’m very happy for the point and avoiding a humiliating result, the 3 points were there to be had if MA had trusted our best youth, as both fitted in seamlessly as far too late inclusions.
In the first half we played like we believed we could be champions and it showed being 2:1 ahead. The 2nd half we let Pool back into the game too often regressing to the poorer inconsistent selves we have seen too much of this season. Maybe it was tiredness creeping in……
Anyone have any thoughts on why Martinelli has lost his mojo?
Lack of service has been an issue this season with play more down our right side, but yesterday Marts had much more of the ball and being mostly wasteful with wayward shots from good scoring positions when cutting into the box, and so was reduced to the odd decent cross.
Makes you wonder why Sterling wasn’t added in place of Marts? Maybe MA was a too worried about Sterling’s lack of pace for counters? Then why loan Sterling?
Happy for the point, but it should have been 3 points for us, so another chance to make a statement has gone begging……..
Table wise, only 2 points separate us at 3rd from 7th with Forest sitting on 16 points to our 18 points. Villa, as was said last night, Chavs and Brighton will be looking for a CL spot come May with Pool us and City challenging for the trophy.
To make a realistic challenge we need yesterday’s first half performances as our basic level against all sides, not just City, Chavs and Pool.
We have the squad as was proven yesterday we just need MA to believe it………
TRVL
Totally agree with your thinking. MA prefers risk adverse football all too often.
Getting his selections right would make the difference for me. MA needs to be braver and trust his players including youth who can fit into our 1st 11 as Saka, ESR did and Skelly and especially Nwaneri can today.
Until he gets that right and stops relying on Kai ‘the wonder 9’ we will see few goals from open play.
January we need a ‘proper’ 9 who is the ‘dog’s bollocks’ for us as we’d say in the city.
At the moment we have a 9 prone to hissy petulant fits who is always trying to con fouls from the refs by crumpling to the ground theatrically.
God help us if MA goes full on JM for the rest of the season. How did your ‘red zone’ plays go last night?
Tony—the “red zone” refers to the area inside your opponent’s 25 yardline, so the NFL created a show where they simply go live to any game where one of the teams is inside the 25…it was largely created for gambling junkies/fantasy players…I’m not a huge fan, as it’s insanely frantic and the “host” sounds like an old school game show fuck, but it was necessary on this occasion, at least until our match against Pool ended…I do quite well, monetarily-wise, when it comes to fantasy/betting, but it can be incredibly fucking frustrating sometimes…that’s when the hash bt’s come in handy…time to crash…take care bud
Knowing how agile your brain is TRVL I can imagine once in the groove you have a lot of fun especially when winning.
I’ve been to Vegas many times and never gambled, but in Laughlin at Harrahs the $1 poker is fun back when I would drink the odd tipple because drinks are complimentary at the tables. Oxygen is $5 a shot for the one arm bandit junkies.
I’ve always won a few dollars more – well it does look like Clint E’s territory with Arizona just across the Colorado river starting from the local Davis dam, next to the high red rock formations straight out of the movies.
Only unlike you, I had no idea most of the time. Often the multi state players would tell me I’d won laughing too much to explain to the colorful Brit. Problem is they kept changing games on me. Texas hold em then 5 card something and so on. So, how I’d end up 20 or so dollar up when leaving the table I will never know but it was fun chewing the fat with the 10 or so players.
The bigger problem was across in Bullhead city where there are Indian reservation lands who have incredible peace pipe contents that are easy to find when you make friends with the locals. To make it more western authentic, the local jeweler in BHC has a sign on the front door, at eye level, saying “you steal from me and I have a gun and know how to use it” in flowery text.
Laughlin is a cool place when you want out from Vegas, and just 90 minutes up the I 15 or down it, can’t remember now.
The only time I’ve gambled money was at Harrahs. Worth a couple of nights or go when they have the Bull Head City bike run like a mini Sturgis and Daytona.
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=laughlin&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
“Carragher has placed the blame on Arteta, who he believes is moving away from being a Pep Guardiola clone and shifting toward a more pragmatic, Mourinho-esque style”
Sorry did I miss the match where Arteta was a Pep clone because all I’ve seen is almost 5 years of negative play?
Marc—I think some felt that MA was going into full Pep shadow puppet mode during Xhaka’s last season, when our former “captain” was being deployed in more advanced spaces and we were dabbling with the whole inverted notion…for a good chunk of that season we were pressing higher, attacking in a more direct fashion and potting more goals from open play…unfortunately this all changed when MA went off script the following summer and brought Havertz in
instead of doing what was best for the club, buying a more athletic readymade Granit alternative, he overspent on our German tweener, who failed miserably in that particular role…once he moved up top we started to see a decided tactical shift, which was always a very real possibility considering the monies spent and assurances given to both he and Rice…as such, I wasn’t surprised whatsoever that no Striker was forthcoming this past summer, even though I held out hope until the final days of the window
one had to only look at the profile of our two real summertime aquisitions to understand that a more Jose-like bully-ball tactical approach was in the offing…as for the the whole Sterling afterthought maneuver, this was simply the 11th hour knee-jerk actions of a rightfully scared manager who knew full-well that we might struggle for goals from open play…now this whole tactical deviation could come good, but no manager of any note flips his entire script based on the whims of a gangly non-Striker and our DM’s offensive wet dreams
Tony—my gambing history is quite extensive, so much so that someone with little to no experience would likely view me as a bit of a degenerate…I was exposed to both Vegas and Atlantic City at a relatively young age, rightly or wrongly, and those environments really resonated with me…very little reservation land casino activity in my CV, but I did venture to Monaco some years back, which was on my gambling-related bucket list…I lost my desire for the “high roller” lifestyle some 20+ years ago when I became a borderline addict…at that time I was a card playing fanatic and a parlaying whore…thankfully I came to my senses before things got too messy…nowadays it’s a much more g-rated gig that’s been far less lucrative but decidedly more family friendly…Cheers
TRVL
Not surprised knowing from the many chats we’ve enjoyed. It’s really cool you can get past the obsessive/compulsive side to still enjoy playing the odds where no doubt with you, a pretty intricate system/strategy based thinking.
Your MA interpretation of events are soot on. There’s never been a long term plan, just fly by the seat of his pants ‘process’ that keeps failing with each new part of the process.
It’s Wenger lite now rather than Mourinho. How poor is it when MA can’t even copy proven winners to at least emulate some of their success.🧐
To quote a tough winner Souness MA is the nearly man who needs to prove himself this season.
“On comments made by pundit Jamie Carragher that Arteta’s tactics are closer to Jose Mourinho’s than Pep Guardiola’s: “I don’t talk about myself. I leave him to give his opinion.”
Interesting response from someone who’s PR team has spent countless hours and enormous sums with the sole objective of controlling as many MA-related narratives as humanly possible so that he doesn’t have to talk about himself…that said, kudos to the reporter for even asking
in a surprise to no one ten Hag has been sent packing, unfortunately it’s opened the door for Sporting’s manager to enter the fray and we all know how he toyed with our little MIT…looks like Viktor won’t be coming here anytime soon
TRVL
MA never ceases to amaze in all the wrong ways.
PNE at 0245 hours my time and unlikely to be found in the morning so any commentary will be appreciated. Should be a no brainer – play the youth and get a comfortable win.
We don’t need injuries for Saturday’s early game sing Hallelujah! For me anyways and our Asian brothers.
Newcastle haven’t won in 5 games with 2 draws and 3 losses. With Tan Hag gone I’m sure Eddie Howe is looking over his shoulder at his Saudi and its crown prince owners possibly sharpening their knives?
Eddie has to stop the rot as does MA. Newcastle with injuries away is not an easy game to navigate.
All eyes on MA then
not nearly enough youth options in this starting 11…not sure why Timber is playing after coming off early last weekend
if it weren’t for set pieces we might never score again…wish I could say it’s hard to believe that Jesus hasn’t potted one since last January…talk about a waste of wages…no wonder he’s playing up top against the minnows
decent piece of business by Kiwior to set him up though
Ethan’s a little off with his finishing today but he’s getting into the right spaces
he made the necessary corrections and scored a beauty from outside the box…outstanding…how the fuck he’s not playing in place of the injured Ode is beyond me…fuck me, maybe he should be starting up top instead of tweener boy
necessary adjustments NOT corrections
looks like MA got a call from Havertz’s agent at the break and reminded him of the assurances he was given
best header by Havertz in the last several years…he was clearly brought on to fluff up his stats against a championship side
with this group out there we had better score 6 or 7
Not watching the match and haven’t seen the full lineup but can someone tell me what the fuck Havertz is doing on the pitch to score when he’s our main “striking” option?
This is why we burn out and we see players get so many injuries.
Saka got a couple of weeks rest because of an injury and looked dynamite against Liverpool – does Arteta not see it?
Maybe a little bit (just a tiny amount) of rotation would do us the world of good.
Wenger would have won tonight’s match 4-1 with the under 12 girls team.
decent watch…two things are clear from today’s affair, (1) MA’s clearly worried about our chances when it comes to the biggest trophies and (2) Ethan should have been playing far more, especially during Ode’s absence
Morning all found a replay of the game so had a quick flick through before reading comments here, which I agree with wholeheartedly.
Usual shit show selections by MA, risking players he didn’t need to, and not playing more youth when Nwaneri once again proves a point for his inclusion as a starter in our PL first 11s.
From Nwaneri’s first minutes last year we all saw the rough diamond that needed PL time to be polished and got virtually none.
The lack of said polishing was evident in Ethan’s first 20 minutes where he was well positionally aware, but took time to get settled by getting his quick feet being more balanced: we witnessed and early wayward shot leaning back with his first attempt on goal, and a wicked curler into the top corner beautifully flighted that you would expect Havertz to score, but can’t.
Havertz doesn’t have Nwaneri’s vision or unspoken magic in his boots.
When we investigate closer at Ethan’s stats, they make Havertz’s usual game stats look like a Sunday pub striker:
80 minutes
1 goal
2 shots on target
3 shots off target
98.2% pass accuracy rate
56 passes of which 55 were successful
2 tackles with 100% success rate
Far exceeds Havertz’s average PL minutes, which when you consider Timber had multiple opportunities to slip a simple ball inside to Ethan, but instead he chose to give the ball to the largely ineffective Sterling where I guess seniority rules here, no matter that Sterling has no business wearing an Arsenal shirt unless he’s in the stands or brought on to defend from the front, but really too slow to much.
Here’s why with Sterling’s stats:
90 minutes
3 shots on target
88.4% pass success rate
43 passes
38 successful passes
1 blocked shot
When you compare with Ethan’s 10 less minutes, then all sorts of negative questions come to mind re MA’s Nwaneri thought process or obvious lack of it. Had Ethan seen more of the ball from Timber, Zinchenko and Saliba, his stats would have been even better with maybe a 2nd goal.
I see Ethan as being the better option over Jorginho every time, as well.
As TRVL and others here have said Nwaneri is more than able to deputize for Ode, and move to 8 when Ode returns, it’s the drum I’ve been banging since Ode’s injury and well before.
Nwaneri is a natural AMF whether left center or right sided; the kid has something special in his boots that make him glide like Kanu, and a very high footballing IQ that, as a player is way above Arteta’s playing ability now at 19.
So, why is MA not starting Nwaneri when we can all see his abilities?
Why buy Havertz & Merino when Nwaneri is our next Saka plus ability player?
Has Nwaneri finally done enough for MA’s myopic, pet playing vision to see the obvious? I guess we’ll find pout at St James Park Saturday.
As a final thought our newbie Merino’s stats are not good either, and maybe why he was hooked off at half time?
45 minutes
22 passes
100% pass success rate
3 tackles made
2 successful tackles @ 67%
Compare to Ethan’s stats and one wonders why we bought Merino when Ethan is obviously the far better player?
Am I missing something here or are things only blatantly obvious to us here on LIR?
It was a good display against a very ordinary championship side. Too much left to luck but I think it was relatively injury free.
Nwaneri is 17. He seems to have been around a while and I had egg on my face when I told my kids he must be over 20 by now. What a superb goal. And Palace in the next round.
Thanks KP I’ll get the egg off my mush, too. He reminds me of Fabregas at 17, only I think he’ll be Fab 2.0++ and an improved version with a mix of Fab & Kanu football genes.
This kid excites me for the future, let’s hope we can keep him…..
Hi Tony
I watched Nwaneri quite closely during that win over Bolton in the previous round. His style of play is just like Odegaard’s in terms of his positioning and his use of the ball. He’s a terrific player.
New post.