Well, football gods aren’t treating us well so far this year. We started well against Brentford with a 3-1 away win but then gave away the advantage by drawing to Brighton at home. Newcastle beat us 2-0 at Emirates in the first leg of Carabao Cup semi final, we then lost to Man Utd at home in a penalty shootout which ended our FA Cup run. We did beat Spurs in the North London Derby but Emery made sure we grieve again against Villa. We are plagued with injuries with Bukayo Saka side-lined for a very long time, Jesus as well.
On one side, we have been out of FA cup and Carabao cup looks almost impossible since we have to visit Newcastle in the second leg and they have a 2 goal advantage. In the Premier League, we have been giving away points and chances to catch up to Liverpool who are sitting on a 6 point lead to us and got a game in hand.
On the other side, we are sitting 5th in the Champions League table with 13 points in 6 games and we have next two games against Dinamo Zagreb and Monaco. These are relatively easier games, though European nights are very unpredictable. A win against Dinamo today will make it easy for us to qualify for knockout stage.
William Saliba will miss the game due to the hamstring injury he picked up last week and it would take couple more weeks for him to recover. Calafiori and Nwaneri were back in training but they will need another evaluation before the game. The usuals – Saka, White, Tomiyasu, Jesus remains unavailable.
Arteta in his press conference gave the reason for playing Partey at RB – unavailability of players. Now I can understand that, when Timber was injured and we didn’t have anyone to play on the left. Recently, MLS has been sensational in the LB position and Timber is back at RB, but he has got another problem with Saliba’s injury. Take it with a pinch of salt but some of the publications were reporting that he might try Declan Rice at CB. Rice was playing in that position at West Ham academy. I would take that over playing Thomas Partey at RB.
Here’s what Mikel had to say about playing Thomas at RB.
I had no choice, I didn’t have another right full-back, just Jurrien, nobody else. Who plays when Jurrien isn’t available for his load is too high? The other day was the first time [he moved Jurrien to centre-back] but in relation to the way we have to play, we cannot have a right-footed player defending a right winger. I didn’t have another right-sided centre-back.
source : Arsenal.com
RW is another problem. Martinelli is not cutting it and I have no idea why we got Sterling in first place. A sane manager would send him back to Chelsea and recall Nelson.
Right, I am looking forward to the game. Mathematically there are 16 other clubs competing for top 8 with us, and a win today will make it smaller.
Lets do it. #COYG
Thank god, we are starting with 4 defenders in defence.
Raya
Timber, Kiwior, Gabriel, Zinchenko
Odegaard, Rice, Jorginho
Sterling, Havertz, Martinelli
–
Not happy with that midfield, Partey is on bench and should have started ahead of Jorgi. It’s a very important game, not the one to do rotation.
Marc
So you’re another one of those British so-called patriots who idolise Trump? I can imagine your grandad back in 1941 getting the red carpet unrolled for Hitler… You’ve become even more extreme these past few months. A government of billionaires ain’t going to give a fuck about you…or anyone else. You going tonight?
Kroenke
Why did I say anything positive about Trump in my post?
KP—I hope you were able to check out my music selections on the previous thread
Marc—I can only hope you weren’t placing Trump in the same category as those other Presidents you mentioned…Biden’s greatest contribution might be his Eisenhower-esque Billionaire industrial complex comments upon leaving the White House, as they’ll make the Bilderbergers look like a bunch of tree hugging pussycats
TRVL
The complete opposite I was asking where the Democrat candidate was who was more than a halfwit or suffering from serious dementia.
I don’t support Trump – we need better politicians on both sides but slagging off Trump when the best the Democrats could come up with was Harris meant they deserved to lose.
Marc—clearly it was more nuanced than that…Harris wasn’t the best candidate, she simply steamrolled her way into the top spot, which made some sense as she was not only the VP, she was likewise behind the scenes getting her financial ducks in a row just in case…she would have been challenged and likely lost, if it weren’t for the mitigating circumstances, as it was 3 months away from the election and the democrats didn’t want to get embroiled in an intra-party pissing contest
Biden should have come into office with a clear understanding that he was to be a one term bridge President, then he should have surrounded himself with the best and brightest possible candidates for the 2024 election, so as to nurture them and provide them with a much more high profile platform…instead the old heads, like Pelosi and Schumer, took up too much of the oxygen in the room and the only other prominent figure, Gavin Newsom, was far too polarising to help them succeed in those key battleground states
We don’t need no stinking Strikers, we can just deploy a front 2 of Havertz and Rice (which is exactly what Arteta is saying to himself while watching us dominate this bang average Zagreb side)
this is Zagreb’s first competitive match is over a month and the rust is clearly evident…so what’s our excuse? looks like we could be had on the counter
“in over”
Marts must have been so flummoxed when he saw Zinchenko, an actual backer, making a dummy run to provide him with a 1v1…talk about a rare sighting
we should have boat-raced this side in the first-half…let’s hope we can find a way to put this to bed early in second-half…tbh we look a little vulnerable at the back
I guess I was a match premature in my Havertz/Rice goalscoring prediction…oh well…only the result matters, unless this leads MA into believing that we have enough going forward, which would be incredibly foolish on his part
you know you’re playing a minnow when they don’t even press hard when they’re down by a couple goals…maybe goal differential means something to them in the bottom tier
Morning all
Didn’t see the game this morning only read the comments here and the Internet.
When I read yesterday that Zargreb hadn’t played for a month, then their match fitness alone would be seriously lacking against any fit PL side.
With Rice and Havertz scoring I assume we flattered to deceive even though we scored 3 goals against a very poor side.
TRVL
Sadly, I see this as MA’s cue to say we don’t need a striker. 23 Jan now so 8 days to go before the do our player trolley dash at the 11th hour and buy more unwanted players, such as, Jesus, Zinny, Merino, Cala and Havertz before to name just a few.
Away to Wolves Saturday which should be a comfortable win, but with MA’s selections and over confidence from last night’s game anything can and will happen.
The last game with City v Chavs should be an interesting game to watch after City just got spanked by PSG.
Pool will surely beat the Tractor Boys at Anfield, so we cannot drop any points against Wolves.
Have a good one LIR
Morning all
Didn’t see the game this morning but after reading yesterday Zargreb hasn’t played for a month, I felt the game was a forgone conclusion but thought we’d make hard work of it as MA always does this season.
TRVL, Havertz scoring means we don’t need a striker in MA’s eyes, so either he’ll buy what we don’t need, such as Cala, Merino, Zinny, Jesus & Havertz the wonder 9, or no one.
Wolves away is a must win for us with Pool home to the Tractor Boys.
Game of the weekend should be City v Chavs.
Have a good one lads.
sorry forgot there is a glitch here.
Tony—isn’t it interesting how when you believe that your original post was lost in the matrix, the do-over usually takes on a real CliffsNotes vibe…I’ve been there before..ever since my last posting snafu I started to save them just it case…it reminded me of an old Billy Crystal/Christopher Guest recurring SNL sketch entitled “I hate when that happens”
as for our world-class Striker duo, I think it’s important to have some perspective, which isn’t meant to tarnish Rice’s sublime strike last evening or the fact that Havertz did exactly what he should do with any silver plattered service that close to goal, but both were more one-offers than par for the course…fact remains, the former had two other much easier chances, one where he had a free header 4 feet out that he absolutely butchered, and the latter was his usual pedestrian self on every other occasion in and around the box…he even missed a gimme, which wouldn’t have counted anyways as he was offside again… so far this season Rice has scored 3 goals against a who’s who of nothing burger sides, Bolton, Palace and now an overmatched Zagreb squad…Havertz has done likewise, at least in League play, as 5 of his 8 goals have come against bottom-feeders, which has been his MO since getting the nod up top
my biggest concern isn’t that we won’t do anything as a result of this performance, but that it might adjust the trajectory of our recruitment…if we had laid an egg, maybe we make a push for something more substantive, but after that result, considering who scored, maybe we temper expectations and go off the board with an Igor Jesus-type signing…this is why we’re not viewed as a truly “serious” club…now this doesn’t mean we can’t make a deep run in the CL or make a race out of it in the PL, as every side out there is inherently flawed and beatable, but I think our back-to-back mismanaged off-seasons are coming home to roost…the fact that this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, is the most infuriating part…so when I heard MA’s claims about him having to address more pertinent areas first, I almost threw up in my mouth considering the 7+Keepers and the plethora of defenders(17) that have been purchased along the way
don’t get me wrong though, as I’m a big proponent of Rice when he’s deployed properly…and even though he cost almost as much as Bellingham, he’s no Bellingham, so we shouldn’t treat him as such (which doesn’t mean he can’t go venturing up top on occasion)…as for Havertz, his mere presence just rubs me the wrong way, which certainly isn’t helped by his on-pitch mannerisms and the way he flops about like a fraud looking for a freebie…it’s not all his fault though, as he can’t help that I associate him directly with MA’s failures in the market and what might have been…unfortunately his position at the top of the wage bill means that unless we’re willing to eat a tidy sum week-in and week-out or someone makes us a sizeable offer, which seems extremely unlikely, we’re stuck with this shoehorning half-measure…fingers-crossed MA falls for a proper Striker and offers him the world, then plays two up top and Ethan out wide…this way Havertz can stick to what he does best, sniffing out the odd poachers goal…Cheers
“Unless a dramatic turn of events emerges, Arsenal face the real prospect of not boosting their front line for the season run-in. So how do they react? Goals from midfield could be the answer.
Declan Rice’s first Champions League goal harked memories of the back-end of last season, when his impressive late runs into the box and finishes to match helped Arsenal come within two goals of the title. “His intent, his purpose, especially attacking the positions he’s taking, how he’s driving with the ball, there’s another bite to his game,” said Mikel Arteta.”
like this was just a recent experiment and not the plan all along…the fact that more people don’t talk about this ridiculous 100M dollar gamble is so baffling…I think it has a lot ot do with the Rice-based narratives surrounding the Euros, which had far more to do with Southgate’s dire tactics than the fact that Rice’s presence up top was somehow the missing link…now we’re suffering the consequences of those misplaced rumblings
Tony / TRVL
WordPress caching mechanism is quite weird, you post a comment and it reloads the cached page without the recent comment. If you refresh the page again, it shows the comment.
Fixed it, should be fine now.
I failed to keep myself up last night after the first goal but 3-0 sounds a fair result. It brought us back to 3rd place, and in the worst case scenario, we would make it to the knockouts without playing 2 additional games even with a draw. We would still have a chance with a loss but there would be other factors affecting it.
Good for us, in this tight schedule and injuries everywhere, playing 2 games less will keep us a bit afresh.