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
TVRL- the match yesterday was as boring an Arsenal match that you could ever watch. I did the dishes and most of the times just not looking the TV. Had a PTM yesterday so ended up discussing the feedback on my son with my wife the TV on. My son has half an eye on the game and an eye on scores of City. Zagreb just came to give a game and probably get the rust off. Finally the greatest striker in the history of Arsenal got a goal who wants a weighty or a Henry when we have the Kai. Ode has a goal when he realized that he could actually run into the box and is not kind of barred from entering the box. Clearly we can all see the conservatism that this team goes about but not MA. The deployment of Rice and his fees doesn’t make any sense. What is the point of Rice and has he moved us incrementally from second to first the resounding answer is no. Same with Raya. We came second with Ramsdale and Raya replaced him with an even more assured defence you have to think that the incremental push you need to go from second to first would be a Raya or a Rice signing. But we are where we are a sense of stasis with no hope of ever bridging the gap between the first and second.
Regarding Trump , I always thought that US has a way of correcting itself and it’s institutions are more free and are able to apply checks and balances. But with Trumps election I have lost all that respect. US is as much a flawed democracy as India is albeit a slightly less chaotic. US is a democratically elected Autocracy. Look at the way he has pardoned all attackers even with criminal antecedent of capitol hill. Look at the way he taunts Canada and Greenland both sovereign republics. How is he different from a Putin. Why is there no outcry and calling US an expansionist, imperialist and land grabbing regime. What a pathetic set of so called leaders we have in world politics now with Trump, Bibi, Modi, MBS, orban, Erdogan etc each trying to show the world who has the biggest balls and dicks. In realty all are corrupt, morally bankrupt and intellectually challenged bigots who uses religion and sells hate. It’s the easiest way to catch votes rather than do the hard task of controlling inflation, maintaining democracy, improving std of living of your citizens etc. what a world we live in pathetic state of affairs. Less said about the corporates acting as sidekicks to these leaders is better. While we slog or asses off for these corporates just to earn a decent living and ensuing that our kids get decent education and jobs.
Marc
Like all the other Trumpers, you obviously have a problem with female leaders, white and of colour. Just relax and watch the world’s economy suffer as we inch closer to another world war. If you regard Harris as a weaker candidate than Trump, then as Pedro would have said in his infinite wisdom, ‘I can’t help you’. Wait til those tariffs start to take hold…
Kroenke
Yeah I have a problem with female leaders – I don’t rate Thatcher at all.
The 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico impact major items of consumption . Timber for building houses. Meats and vegetables from Mexico. What will happen is prices of commodities will go up by that amount.
Hope there is no retaliation on power supply from Canada.
Trump wants to be a major player in destroying the planet – he just loves a miner. The Canadians are already ahead of him – their mining legacy is a nightmare.
I think the public is just frustrated across the globe. So, they are replacing one shite with another with the advantage that they know what’s happening.
Trump is vocal, speaks dumb but at least speaks his dumb thoughts. Others, they just do dumb things while showing themselves like a messiah.
A known devil is better than an unknown one. We have similar case here in India, the Congress thinks people are fool going behind the reason, the BJP thinks they are playing the game right… The public thinks they are just putting a better known devil in power.
*religion
And to be Frank, the leftist media hasn’t helped in last 20 years or so. With the rise of social media, people can notice their ‘intentional’ reporting compared to the newspaper era where whatever you read was the only truth.
No one likes a smart arse.
Leftish media Ambarish…pray tell who you’re talking about because most left leaning people could never afford their own mega outlet. Musk, Zuckerberg, Murdoch, the owners of the Washington Post, Telegraph, L Figaro. Not a single revolutionary Marxist among them. You’ve been conned mate.
KP
We have got NDTV, the Hindu (ironically, anti-hindu), Ravish Kumar, Barkha Dutt and few more… They were partying with State Chief Ministers, getting government contracts for their brothers and so on… Public sidelined them because someone showed it on social media. They lost their relevance and they went on a rampage. Right wing media took birth amidst all this here in India (republic tv, ndtv bought by a Modi supporter) and so on…
I live on the border of the national capital and the biggest state of India. Ironically, the government here 5 years back was socialist. The Chief Minister was distributing pamphlets of ‘free rice’ from a helicopter. Socialist, in a helicopter.
Btw, I hate the right wing media as much as I hated the left ones. But at least I can see the truth about Republic TV. They show it they are making money in the name of nationalism.
They are like fools acting as fools. Left ones here acted like intellectuals, holier than thou individuals, who were fools as well.
There’s no true left ideologies left. Everyone is looking for money and power. The anti-left just show it on the face. Like the trump, like the modi, like the angela morkel, and that poland guy.
I am originally from Bihar, Madhu and Hoopah probably can relate – it’s the poorest state.
A socialist individual was CM for 15 year. There was an income tax raid on him when I was still in school, he had to dump cash in a river because he ran out of places to hide it. Fishermen found it the next day.
A fucking socialist. Give me a trump over him anyday. I can live with an idiot but not a scum. Probably whey 51% of Americans voted for trump.
Well Ambarish I will agree with you on the media but disagree with you on the right though. The nonsense Hindutva and right wing ideology is an absolute no no for me. Modi is a killer and rules like a gangster. RSS and it’s ideology is poisonous.
Madhu—I concur with most of your comments, especially those pertaining to the rise of the morally bankrupt at both ends of the financial and political spectrum…how else could one rationalize the connection that Trump, a silver-spooned fuck, forged with the disenfranchised classes…in him they see themselves, as they feel he’s actually a victim of a society that has attempted to fast track a fundamental shift in the way it operates with the rise of a variety of several once well-intentioned seminal movements(Me-too, BLM, LGBTQ etc…)during the Obama years…this new world placed many of them squarely within the crosshairs, as it required them to either change the way in which they conducted themselves, both publicly and privately and in accordance with “their” ever-increasing rules, or face their wrath
now this wasn’t a slow crawl commonsensical gig, this was a reparations on steriods “I’m going to get mine” fuckfest, so I can see why it ruffled so many feathers…so, at least in theory, the choice became either suck it up, tuck your head and spend the rest of your life apologizing for things you may or may not have done, or find an outlet for your growing frustrations by aligning yourself with a bunch of like-minded individuals and acting as if everything outside of this no longer mattered…thus the rise of fake news and the like…unfortunately Trump not only swims in this pool of unenlightened entitled despair, he found a way to harness it for his own purposes, without care or concern for the potential long-term consequences…this fuck isn’t even a Republican, he’s a morphing wannabe entertainer who was embarassed one night at a White House correspondent’s dinner and has sought his revenge ever since…hardly the kind of origin story that brings the best out in someone…so until this misappropriated restlessness dies down and/or the majority who sit somewhere within the commonsensical middle insist on a less radicalized course, this Caligula reboot will continue to run roughshod over the rest of us
“Arsenal are willing to do a big deal in January – but only if they can land a primary target”
this is simply setting the stage in case we do sweet fuck all in this window…it’s like the ghost of Wenger past
TrVL – what I find it hypocritical and outrageous is his call on Canada and Greenland. He is a bully and we all know. He takes advantage of being president of US and makes derogatory statements on the sovereign nations going to the extent of talking about annexing them. Any other leader says anything remotely close there will be calls for sanctions. Because Us and dollar has monopoly over trade and Is cannot be sanctioned it gives a free hand for him to ride roughshod over other nations? Because US citizens are not averse to elect a corrupt and criminal person as president doesn’t mean that the world needs to reconcile with that. He is a thug and no matter he carries a bible with him will not undo that. It’s despicable that half of the world bows to such a thug and as a bully he keeps bullying knowing pretty well that any balance of push back he can unleash his weapons on that country. This is the so called world order that we live in? He has 4 years of unfettered power since he doesn’t need to bother to re election. This is last term and he can unleash whatever mayhem that he wants. That’s the danger and whether the natural checks and balances in US works or not is to be seen. It’s predicted that Elon Musk in the next 4 year might cross 1 trillion wealth and the next closest rich man may be far behind. If this is going to become true then our woes are only beginning.
There’s a lot of wisdom in what you say about Elon, Madhu.
I wonder is dystopia that far away? 100 years from now with another few billion pulling on the world’s resources? Will Darwinism prevail and bring down dystopia with the strongest prevail?
Sounds science fictional but I find the corporations are just as scary bringing the Rollerball movie to mind with James Caan.
In our lifetime the super league is coming with relegation but the streaming rights’ billions will eventually suck the very soul out of football to something unrecognizable.
Meanwhile back on planet LIR looking forward to the game tomorrow as it’s a 10pm KO for me.
TRVL
I assume if I quote “like a new signing” it might not go down well?
” It’s predicted that Elon Musk in the next 4 year might cross 1 trillion wealth”
They say there’s a fine line between genius and being a madman.
Personally I think Musk splits himself equally between genius, madman and complete twat. The only prediction I’d make about him is he will at some point manage to kill himself probably trying some lunatic idea.
In the meantime if he helps the US reduce the size of the blob / drain the swamp it can’t be a bad thing – I’d stand back everyone Kroenke will have a complete meltdown at the idea of reducing the size of the civil service even if its in another country.