We are 1-nil down to PSG and we are playing today at their home ground. Not an ideal situation to be in, specially when PSG under Luis Enrique are playing some beautiful attacking football. But we have our midfield back and with Thomas anchoring it and Declan getting his freedom to move forward, we can certainly play better football today. The only goal from first leg will force Mikel to go all out attacking and the second leg of the Semi Final could turn out to be an exciting affair.
There are couple of things. Declan Rice is an asset, a 100m player when moving forward with the ball but he is not a match to Partey as a DM. Having both fit and in the squad boosts our win rates. Secondly, we can’t afford to miss our chances today. In the first leg, we did fail to bury some of them and it could be fatal to our Champions League run. Barcelona v Inter was a treat to watch last night, and gave us a hope that it’s not over till the final minutes.
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I am expecting Merino to be back to his newly found CF role with a back 4 of MLS, Kiwior, Saliba and Timber. Partey, Rice and Odegaard will start in the midfield while Saka and Martinelli will retain their positions. We were a threat whenever Saka moved towards the middle and we have noticed it with Martinelli too, but I have no idea why Arteta instructs them to stick to the side line. If we are expecting to win this, we need to be more direct, we need to move ball faster and we need to be precise in our passing and shooting. There’s zero margin for errors if you expect to qualify to the finals for the Champions League.
There was a news earlier that Ousmane Dembele had picked up an injury and will not be available for today, but we are not that lucky. He is back to his fitness and he will be a bigger threat today at his home. Kiwior and Saliba needs to find a way to suss him while allowing the wing backs to move forward.
1-0 is a dangerous proposition and can work in favor or against. If we put some pressure initially, manage to score one in the first 30min, we will be in the driving seat.
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Truth be told, I have never seen Arsenal play a semi final game (except the first leg). The last time it happened in ’09, I was still playing cricket. If we win today and go to finals, there is a very good chance we can beat Inter (compared to Barcelona), and it can make things easier for Mikel.
Right, a short one today. Extremely sorry for being absent recently, the immunity overall after Covid has been fucked up and doc says another week before I can get back to normal.
Lets conquer Paris and paint it Red and White! #COYG
I think we all agree that PSG are an excellent well managed side , where I disagree is that we are a poorly managed overrated side as the usual suspects seem to think.
Personally, I thought there was very little between the 2 sides over the 2 legs, the result could easily have been reversed but for some crucial moments in the game.
The PSG keeper was magnificent over the 2 legs , he made 4 or 5 world class saves and that was the difference between the 2 sides, though of course PSG had some very good moments over the 2 legs , plus of course we had saka’s missed open goal with 10 minutes to go.
I have always said it is difficult to win a trophy (conference cup the exception) , there will always be for a manager an element of being in the right place at the right time and getting the rub of the green when you need it..
Alex ferguson had an element of luck when he won so many league titles in the 90’s because the competition was weak until wenger came along and won 3 trophies in 6 years..
Wenger won the title in 1998 with something like 78 points because he was in the right place at the right time, slot won the title this season with a lower points total because he was in the right place at the right time , whereas Arteta has accumulated way more points than both slot and wenger in the previous 2 seasons prior to this season and walked away with nothing, which is a case of not being in the right place at the right time.
As I’ve said previously, the longer a manager/team go without winning a trophy the harder it becomes but I do think we will win the league next season as long as we don’t suffer another crippling injury list , plus it must be time for the decisions to “even themselves out” as we so often hear, a 2nd place finish this season for me is acceptable considering the number of highly contentious decisions that have gone against us this season costing us numerous points, all I ask for next season is for the officials to treat us fairly without preferential treatment
I thought I’d share an email I sent to TRVL today.
I waited until after the game before giving my thoughts. Over the last few days I have looked at LIR just to read yours (TRVL), KP’s, Marc’s and was happy to see Almuniaisnomore back adding his valid points in his enjoyable reading style. Hope you and yours are well.
I just left Pricksy’s or is it Pedro or Pedro’s muppet to spew his Arteta excuses by skimming past his posts.
I said this to KP privately last night:
“Game over now mate; what we expected has happened.
Look at our bench compared to the other semis teams and our £Billion squad is a joke.
We knew this could happen, but it’s a bitter pill to take.
Arteta has to go.”
To which he replied:
“Agreed. It should be obvious to everyone after two games like that. We never competed.”
Arteta’s post game comments just sickened me. Him feeling we were the best team in the CL is a delusion that should have him fired. To add that the PSG bench said Arsenal was the best team over 2 legs just shows Arteta can’t see when people are taking the piss out of him.
How does Berta and KSE not see what aclueless idiot they have as a manager? 5 years being a loser, save that of a lucky covid FA cup to show for for this generational wanker. Manure have gone through several managers in the last 5 years, as has the Chavs.
Looking at the game, what did Arteta do tactically that was different to all our games?
Nothing! Yes, our initial onslaught produced great saves from Donurama, but PSG were also wasteful in our final third. For the last 3 seasons at least we have seen our repeated tactic of pressing our opponents to death for around 20 to 30 minutes until our energy levels are sapped sufficiently that we have to slow down. Even if we have grabbed a goal by this tactic, we all know that later in the 2nd half we will concede a draw or worse a loss, such as with Bournemouth last weekend.
13 draws and 4 losses support my assertion of MA’s repeated tactics this season. It seems that introspection is not a word in Arteta’s vocabulary.
Back to last night’s game Merino for which our goal scoring hopes at CF were pinned on had a paltry 2 shots off target and none on target. He had zero blocked shots and was only fouled once telling us that he simply was not a worry for PSG’s defense.
Ethan would have done a better job as our striker.
Saka our best striker had 2 shots on goal, 2 blocked shots and 2 shots off target being fouled only 3 times. PSG nullified Saka where his goal was very fortuitous with the ball being deflected to him in the box to score from a poor cross that was initially way behind Saka’s run.
Overall, PSG had 6 shots on target to our 4 scoring 2 goals to our 1. They allowed us to have 64% possession that resulted in us having 6 corners we couldn’t convert even though we had more height in the PSG penalty box.
Martinelli had one shot on target and none off.
Rice had one shot off target and one blocked shot where he wasn’t fouled at all. Yet he was supposed to be our midfield dangherman, but was easily subdued due to his lack of pace and inability to get into threatening positions. Basically, Merino 2:0 up top. He made 23 successful passes in 96 minutes.
Our king playmaker, Ode, had one effort on target, none off and one blocked short. His most damning metric was that he only made 42 successful passes all game that led to our 4 shots on target, but who did he have to make killer defense splitting through balls to? No one! Ode wasn’t fouled all game, which proves he was not real threat to PSG’s defense or midfield.
During the game junior and I concurred that had we scored early, PSG would have upped a gear and scored 2. They were playing containing football that made them look a little unsettled to start with, but from about 30 minutes in it was PSG smothering us all over the park that led to the above stats.
They missed a penalty and were generally poor in front of our goal where Rice stopped at least one goal with a last ditched tackle.
Yet Arteta told the press we were the better side over two legs and the best team in the CL. Clearly MA didn’t witness one of the greatest semis ever the night before.
PSG have been my pic to win the CL this season. Can they beat Inter in the single game final? I think they can. PSG are better defensively and equal in midfield and attack if Dembele is fit to start.
It should be a brilliant final for the neutrals.
Back to Arteta, simply put he is the loser I’ve maintained since we talked about hiring him. He came to us with no experience and is still making rookie mistakes. 85322 are not the stats of a winner. An average player from Everton who took a pay cut to play for the declining Wenger.
Let that one sink in.
Then MA jumped on Pep’s coat tails thinking he has the footballing nous to come to manage our great club and be successful.
He’s been the polar opposite spending £700m and tanking players’ worth.
Recently, in the press he’s talked about 8 of our players not being safe. A couple of months ago he said we needed 4 or 5 players to really compete. He thinks Rice is an 8 and Havertz is a world class striker and knew within 20 seconds of talking to Sterling that he would be perfect for us this season.
So how much does Arteta want to waste buying another 4, 5 or 8 ‘yes men’ players he can only get by making positional promises to with guaranteed playing time?
The above comments are based on his 5 years of being a ‘nearly man’ Souness so aptly said at the beginning of this season. I said Arteta would win nothing of note when he was hired, no CL or PL trophies. I will continue to maintain that theory.
My question to Berta and KSE is why can you not see what we see when Slot comes to our league and wins the PL title at a canter?
We are 2nd where our AKBs led by Pedro will see that as progress. How is losing progress by capitulating season after season? Furthermore, MA is against giving Pool a guard of honor because he feels Pool were lucky to win the league scoring less points than us last season. How irrational is that? All it’s going to do is galvanize Pool to win at the weekend, at Anfield where if we lose and City beat Southampton they will be level on points after a disastrous season by Pep’s standards, as Pep is rebuilding and also chasing a CL place for next season in a tight group.
Then we play Newcastle who also have CL aspirations.
I wasn’t going to post again until MA had left the building, but I thought I’d sum up my feelings and know others who love the club will feel the same.
Wishing you all a great summer and time to reflect and hope KSE decides they really want to win the biggest trophies and not just live off CL profits.
See you all when the Emirates door hits Arteta’s arse on his way to the waiting taxi.
Wicksy
Right place – right time? AFC have achieved two 2nd place finishes and may secure a third if they do not falter in their final three games.
Would we still have finished second if Chelsea, Tottenham & United had not had issues. El B has been lucky.
Unless Stan grows a pair or listens to his wallet El B will still be Manager. I seriously doubt he will out perform the growing number of seriously talented managers that are currently at smaller clubs in England and Europe.
There are other factors – Bertha may roll up his sleeves and take control.
The rumour at the club is that Havertz has been receiving special training – he can now put his left boot on his left foot and right boot on his right foot.
Berta’s main task this summer is to extend the contracts of three main first team players or find their replacements. Saka, Saliba and Gabriel all have contracts that expire in 2027. Another year will mean obtaining a lesser fee another 2 years and they walk for free.
The PSG goalkeeper kept Villa at bay, I didn’t hear Emery go on about , his Aston Villa side being better.
They lost, they are out .
But our silly cunt says the same shite every fucking time he loses.
An absolute bore and fucking shit loser.
I wonder what the silly cunt, will say when Liverpool and Slot batter us Sunday.
That will be 4 defeats in a row, how’s the fucking process going now, you cunt!
We have three games left – Liverpool, Newcastle & Southampton. Currently Southampton must fancy their chances. If we lose the first two there is a chance we could slip down the league and scrape CL qualification. If that should happen then Stan needs to get of his wallet and turn nasty.
in a strange way it’s good to see that our little sad sack interloper hasn’t gone awol following another managerial failure as it reminded me of a great irony that continues to exist within our fanbase…there are those who would have you believe that we, the “dissenters”, are like a broken record, always complaining about the manager and his perceived missteps, yet it’s them who actually fit that particular bill, with their endless blathering about our supposed maltreatment of Wenger or their seemingly incessant excuse-laden claptrap about injuries and the supposed two decade or more long conspiracy involving every single ref who has ever had the displeasure of officiating one of our fixtures and, in more recent years, their next year will be the best year delusional narrative bullshit…these broken record fucks have been spewing this whack job nonsense year-in and year-out, even though all the prevailing evidence doesn’t support a single word out of their shit-eating mouths…so next time you want to highlight what you perceive to be as our obvious foibles, when it comes to our perspective on Arsenal-related matters, hold your tongue and look in the fucking mirror…Cheers
As Wicksy did a half decent hackett comment on Arteta a little while ago with the caveat of “of course if Arteta wins the CL” does it now mean as (as we all knew) Arteta is a fucking piss poor manager and a loser Wicksy thinks he should be fired before the end of the season?
Thought this was an interesting read:
“Ignore Arteta’s nonsense – Arsenal were beaten by the better team
‘We were much better than them’. Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta there, proving that some people shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near microphones. Let’s cut to the chase. Paris Saint-Germain’s 3-1 aggregate victory over the Gunners in the Champions League semi-final was thoroughly deserved. Arteta’s side came out swinging in the second leg at the Parc des Princes last night, but were ultimately not good enough to get the job done. They have now played eight semi-final matches since 2020/21. Number of victories? Zero. Arsenal have also come up short again in the Premier League. If Jose Mourinho still worked in England, he’d call Arteta a ‘specialist in failure’.
It would be feasible to write a book covering the reasons why the Gunners have repeatedly lost big games. Their latest failure is pretty easy to analyse. When they needed to produce a big performance in a big game, their big hitters failed to deliver. Bukayo Saka can be partially excused after giving Nuno Mendes a tough time, but missing a glorious chance late in the game is also worthy of criticism. And then we come to Declan Rice. The £105 million midfielder was signed to help Arsenal win major silverware. It’s not going well. Rice was praised for his standout performances against Real Madrid in the quarter-final. However, he needed to prove he could reach the same heights in an even bigger tie against the Ligue 1 champions. He didn’t. Rice spent most of the semi-final chasing shadows as Joao Neves, Vitinha and Fabian Ruiz dictated proceedings in the middle of the park. Rice had a glorious opportunity to prove the doubters wrong against PSG, but failed to deliver. Ultimately, he isn’t all he is cracked up to be”
Truth hurts…unfortuntely the truth has no place in Arteta’s Arsenal
TRVL
Arsenal’s problem isn’t (mostly) the players (there’s always of course areas that can be improved) it’s all down to the manager.
A good manager makes a team better than the combined sum of the individual players and develops tactics that protect weaknesses and exploit the strengths.
When was the last time someone saw Arteta make a sub that wasn’t like for like?
You’re chasing a place in the final and need to score goals – name another manager who making 3 changes would have 2 of them be full backs leaving Nwaneri on the bench?
To call Arteta a fraud is a joke he’s a conman of epic proportions – Bernie Madoff had 41,000 “victims” Arteta’s taken in hundreds of thousands.
Marc—I agree…I didn’t post that because I agreed with every sentiment, I just thought it was interesting that someone who typically excuses the manager for every cock-up was now calling him out for his delusional post-match takes…baby steps
Is Arteta delusional in saying that we were the better side over the 2 legs v PSG….yes.
As I said previously, there was little between the 2 sides and their keeper was probably the deciding factor , but no Arsenal were not the better side.
Yes we probably had marginally more chances and their keeper had more to do over the 2 legs but PSG’s football was far superior in that they were technically better and attacked with pace and had very good movement off the ball.
Arsenal’s attacking play was good at times but generally we relied too much on the long ball and set pieces to create openings, for me we are a much better side when we keep the ball on the ground instead of resorting to Wimbledon/stoke tactics which in a way was an admission from the coaching staff that we are not technically good enough to beat PSG without resorting to the long ball game.
I would have a technically superior side over a less technical but hard running, hard working side all day long. Letting the ball do the work is a part of the game that has been lost, nowadays it is all about running stats to the detriment of the game.
We have our supposedly most creative player (Odegaard) who is lauded for the amount of grass he covers rather that his creative genius, we have a striker in Havertz who does not have the technique to hit a volley or half volley from a cross into the box, we have martinelli who is runs down blindcalleys too often and if we take partey out of the side we will have a midfield that is technically not good enough to receive the ball in tight situations.
Our 4 most technically gifted players in the squad are probably saliba, skelly, Nwaneri and saka and what they have in common is that they did not cost Arteta a penny out of the 700 mil or so that he has spent.
Arteta recently has gone for the tall more powerful player in calafiori, havertz, Rice and Merino that cost in the region of 250 mil , all good players whose game is more about strength and power rather than technical excellence., meaning our game has become more rigid and reliance on set pieces and balls into the box to create chaos rather than intricate one and 2 touch football, which has brought Arteta an element of success in that we are now regarded as top 3 in the country and probably top 8 in Europe.
Some seem to think that I am an Arteta sycophant but that couldn’t be further from the truth as I am a fan that likes to watch one and 2 touch football mixed with individual genius with intelligence and lighting pace, Arteta football is certainly a long way from that.
What Arteta has done is built a formidable squad and with his style of football has competed for the league in the last 3 seasons and taken us to a champions league semi final , and despite it not being the style of football I prefer to watch I have no qualms in praising him when credit is due, I think he has one more season to win some silverware and I hope he manages to win the title next season and then we may see the players play with more freedom and expression , though I wouldn’t bet on it as hard work and discipline are probably top of the list for Arteta.
Wicksy – I am an optimist however with my rose tinted sun glasses on I cannot see us even getting close to winning the premiership next season (whilst Arteta is in charge). I cannot see Liverpool dropping their standards and are probably likely to improve their squad. Pep is rebuilding and could even knock us of our coveted 2nd place.
Next season Chelsea, Newcastle and perhaps even Villa are likely to have stronger squads and will be in the mix plus a couple of others who will be capable of spoiling our ambitions. We will also have to contend with a stronger Spurs and United – one of them will also be a CL team next season. You may be right – pigs might fly.
Norg
We also have an issue with the contracts of Saliba, Gabriel and Saka all ending in 2027.
With Madrid’s interest we could easily be looking at back 4 next season that doesn’t contain Saliba- replacing him will be incredibly difficult.
“Arteta recently has gone for the tall more powerful player in calafiori, havertz, Rice and Merino”
Havertz powerful? He’s like a 90 year old bambi on ice, Calafiori’s too injury prone and Merino is a back up player.
Marc—that’s because our fragile twat of a manager was only willing to acquire “larger framed” players with beta tendencies, so as to not upset his monopolistic power dynamic…just think about it, why would our highest ever transfered player, Rice, who wore the armband for his previous club and currently wears it for his country, not be chosen over the clearly timid Ode, who perfectly fits MA’s aforementioned agenda(like Wenger with Koscielny)…so even though Rice is far from a wild card option, he’s claerly viewed by MA as someone who’s more likely to upset his little applecart than our 140 pound soaking wet current option
btw this isn’t an attack on any of the above players, except when it comes to Havertz, who’s a gangly flopping overpaid albatross of a player, as I like what Cala brings to the table when healthy and I think Rice could be our world-class DM if we changed up our lame tactics, by employing a more wingback-friendly system, and he worked on his ball distribution skills…not to mention, I view Merino as a viable depth piece for a team vying for silverware on multiple fronts
nice try Pricksy…your bizarro world flatter to deceive trolling techniques won’t work around here…you made you bed, now lay in it
clearly viewed
Marc
Berta must be thinking ‘oh shit’ what have I let myself in for. The three main players out of contract in 2027 is a major issue. He must sort out their contract renewals by 30th June or we have a problem. Gabriel is the eldest and was shit upon by El B at the beginning of this season. Saliba has his own agenda and now is probably the time he has been waiting for. Saka – ditto, he is bright enough to know the next pasture is much greener in terms of the manager he has to deal with.
Norg
Berta if he’s any good will be looking to make a name for himself by showing how good he is.
My personal view is Arteta’s going to have a far more cynical media watching him next season (it’s already started) which will be turned up even further if he fucks up 2nd. Berta needs to be very politically savvy because we know Arteta will look to throw him under the bus – if Saliba (for example) leaves Arteta will use that as a prepaid excuse, which the morons will buy those more clued up (most of those on here as a good example) will point out that Saliba would stay if he were picking up major trophies.
🚨 Arsenal agree deal to sign Martin Zubimendi from Real Sociedad, here we go! ❤️🤍
Zubimendi has now verbally agreed to sign a long term deal… so formal steps must follow soon with Arsenal to trigger €60m clause.
Zubi, ready to become the first signing of the new season.
— Fabrizio
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Ok, anyone seen him play in real time? I have heard the name and I know he has been one talked about a lot recently but what says in eye test?