Mikel completed his 6 years as the Arsenal manager 4 days back and he won his only trophy – an FA cup – in Aug 2020. It’s been a long journey for him and the club and of course the supporters, we have spend more than a billion GBP and have 2 playing XI that would finish in top half of the table. But as the former British F1 Champion, Damon Hill, used to say, “the only ones who remember when you come second are your wife and your dog”, finishing 2nd and making into the semi finals means nothing.
And in the pursuit of greatness and the trophies, Mikel and Co. are going head to head against Crystal Palace in about an hour in Carabao Cup. Newcastle and Man City have already qualified and will play each other in the semi final and if we win today, we would be playing Chelsea. It’s not going to be easy, but to come to that stage, we must beat Crystal Palace first.
We have beaten them in Premier League at home, thanks to an Eze goal and we can do that again. The line up is out and Mikel has gone with some changes –
Kepa gets his start today in the goal. Timber and Saliba keeps their position while Calafiori shifts to CB to make way for MLS at LB. We will see a midfield of Norgaard, Merino and Eze. Saka gets some rest and Madueke starts in his place, Martinelli gets the nod ahead of Trossard and Gabriel Jesus makes his first start after 23 years and 6 months. With all the players we have, Mikel couldn’t have picked up a weaker playing XI that us. A midfield without Declan Rice or Zubimendi will struggle and Calafiori / MLS are LBs and only one should be on the pitch at any point of time. Also, I am not sure how fit Jesus is, and will he hold on for 90 minutes. If he can’t, there was no point playing him ahead of Gyokeres.
But, hey, I won’t care if we come up with a win. Personally I think Nwaneri could have started ahead of Merino and must be sulking to not make into the playing XI. We have a strong bench though, so Mikel can certainly make some changes if something goes wrong.
WE NEED A TROPHY. See you during the game.
Ambarish
I hadn’t heard the Damon Hill quote – that was funny.
As for needing a trophy? If Arteta and the fanboys trying to pass off winning the league cup (that’s the trophy the organisers threatened to kick Wenger’s team out of if he kept fielding kids – he told them whatever and they couldn’t afford to not have Arsenal in it) as an achievement then Arsenal as a club has basically become the Spuds.
Anything other than the PL or CL should see Arteta sacked and the fan boys receive two dozen lashes each.
Marc
I am not much of a fan of EFL cup but it’s been long and the last I remember Auba was dropping the trophy during celebration. But, we are in 4 competitions so far (FA cup is yet to start) and I don’t mind us competing for all 4 till the last minute. Win whatever you can, and we will still judge Mikel, don’t worry about that.
Ambarish
Mourinho and Pep use / used the league cup as a springboard to go on and win the PL.
Arteta and the fanboys will celebrate it like winning a fifth straight CL. The last thing we need is them having another “excuse”.
Marc—I left you a response on the previous thread but, as is often the case, as soon as I did so Ambarish posted this live thread…Cheers
TRVL
I did see it and the Tony Pulis wet dream comment made me laugh!
How did that not end up in the nets..
So far, it’s one of those games where we keep all the possessions, we play some good attacking football and we create a lot of changes but the opposition scores one towards the end.
We need to convert these chances
I wrote a rather lengthy piece documenting the errors of MA’s ways since his arrival here but I deciding to shelve it for the time being…I’m sure I’ll revisit it over the coming weeks and months…if things go as I think they might I’m sure it will find it’s way here before too long…Cheers
Jesus is till a bag of toys inside the box…just once I would love to see a front 3 of Noni, Saka and Marts, with lots of rotational movement amongst them, then a midfield of Ode, Eze and Rice(sitting deep)
Marts is putting on a show…he has Canvot in a fucking blender…still a little lacking when it comes to the finishing side of things
I don’t put much stock in this Cup but I’ve certainly enjoyed our style of play thus far…just wish that we had potted a few so that it would embolden our raisan bag of a manager to pursue this course of action far more often
we’ve had a difficult time adjusting to their adjustments…surely MA didn’t think Glasner was going to run those shit tactics back in the second half
now we’ve combined our plan A, set pieces, with our plan B, own goals—fucking scruffy
that said, I’ll take it
Thought the Palace player was going to miss that one.
TRVL
You mocked when Arteta signed “Own Goal” in the summer but those who know their stuff knew he was a winner.
Saliba doesn’t look comfortable.
it’s hard to believe after witnessing so many brilliant and decisive penalty kicks that we struggle so much in front of goal…how apropos that Own Goal shit the bed again…he should have gone to his right considering that Kepa had clearly shown that he was going to his right until the end of fucking time if necessary
The league cup is an ideal comp for keeping the fringe players match fit as will be the fa cup tie at Portsmouth and our last 2 champions league games, a competition that we have dominated from the outset to give Arteta the chance of resting players.
I would find it difficult to find any Arsenal supporter who would be happy with winning just the league cup this season , so I’m not sure why anyone would suggest that.
What a fantastic position the club are in as we are seriously competing for all 4 trophies, apparently we are having a blip but 4 wins in 5 tells a different story.
Martinelli was superb tonight before his injury, let’s hope it’s nothing serious , Eze is struggling at the moment but he will have ample opportunities to rediscover his form in the above games that I mentioned.
Norgaard was solid today , jesus just needs a goal as he has already shown that he has the ability to find space in the box and has been a little unlucky not to find the back of the net.
It’s Brighton at the weekend who have been inconsistent , at the moment we have been wasteful in front of goal, that needs to change as we can’t keep relying on our defence to see us over the line, we had many chances tonight to sow the game up , similar to Everton at the weekend , part of it has been bad luck but we can’t keep relying on own goals and penalties, we are creating good opportunities but have been wasteful.
Eze’s “struggles” are easily remedied, stop deploying him so fucking deep….tonight it was Merino in the more advanced role, on most nights it’s Rice…neither of whom are the kind of offensive threats this finishing-challenged side requires, but when you’re tactical approach relies on a million crosses into the box, like tonight, the more talented Eze has to take on a role than basically ignores his unique skillset…that’s shoehorning 101…we saw glimpses of what he can do when he’s given the AM reigns and positioned accordingly, but as per usual our offensive scheme disproportionately favours our lesser skilled players, to the detriment of those who deserve much more tactical consideration…that doesn’t mean that Merino or Havertz or even Rice can’t score goals, but you ain’t winning shit if they’re the focal points of your attack
(1) MA’s unwillingness to adopt a more direct approach with VG on the pitch has basically reduced him to that of a rodeo clown…maybe it’s his way of saying fuck you Berta, I told you I wanted Sesko (who btw would have likely struggled to carve out a role of any import in this wasteland for Strikers approach to football)…no wonder Jesus is getting so much action now, that back-to-goal, 3 dressed up as a 9, couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn non-Striker fits this “system” to a T…it’s not as if he doesn’t get chances, he just generally requires an unreasonable amount to produce something of real consequence
(2) Marts continues to get little to no help even on days when he’s carving up the opposiition…of course those days have been few and far between, due in large part to his lack of playing time after we re-upped Tross and bought Noni to play on his wrong side, but no one’s going to be lighting things up when they’re left on an island to face double-teams ad nauseam…at least Saka has an advancing backer and a midfielder at his disposal on most occasions…Tross is usually tucked inside so the tactical dynamics are completely different with him on the pitch (he’s actually part of the “plans”)
(3) today I saw Cala, Merino and Skelly in the high slot far more often than Eze and Noni…the latter two are far more likely to get the desired results from anywhere just outside the box, yet that never seems to be intentionally placed in those sorts of positions…now EZE and Noni can create their own chances on occasion, if MA gives them the go-ahead, (today the commentators spoke about how infuriated MA was when Marts failed with an attempted nutmeg)but wouldn’t it be nice if we devised a plan or two that provided them with those kind of opportunities without them having to take on 2 or 3 defenders beforehand
if I was creating a player-based hierarchy, when it comes to MA’s offensive vision, it would look as follows:
(1) Saka, yet he’s become more of a service provider than goalscorer due to his wide positioning and the double-teams he faces more often than not
(2) Merino/Havertz—when he’s on the pitch he’s the main target
(3) Rice—he’s basically the only player who has he luxury to shoot from distance and roam into the box at his leisure
(4) Gabs–set pieces
(5) Cala/inverted backer—like Rice, he’s been given the green light when it comes to shooting from distance
(6) Tross—he’s an interesting one in that when he comes off the bench he’s much higher on the list but when he starts he seems to play a more periphery role…likely because he struggles to fulfill his required defensive duties and be his most effective self up top
(7) anyone playing the wide side left forward role
(8) the actual Striker
from a purely commonsensical perpsective this list should be flipped, minus Saka of course…there’s no evidence that would suggest if one were to pursue this bizarro world course of action that trophies were in your immediate future, but when you’re a shoehorning wizard black means white, up means down and logic be damned…just saying
TRVL
“A million crosses into the box”
Lumping crosses into the box is not a good look , last night wasn’t quite the case as both martinelli especially and madueke got behind the defence to put telling crosses into the box that created numerous chances, plus 8 corners that caused palace problems all night, but it is a fact that in our last 2 home games v wolves and palace we have been over reliant on crosses with an average of 30 per game compared to about an average of 15 throughout the season which to me shows a degree of desperation in our attacking play, surely we need to be more creative in and around the box.
Their keeper did play well but our finishing was poor as it has been in our last 3 games in which we have had 54 shots and scored 4 ……3 own goals and a penalty, in fact other than the Brugge game , our finishing has been poor recently when you look also at the chelsea and villa games
The good thing is we are making (rather than creating) many chances and conceding few chances , so is it a case of just being patient and the goals will come or is there an underlying problem that needs to be addressed.
The return of Odegaard and gyokeres has had a negative affect on Eze, I can’t remember Eze having a worthwhile shot on goal since the munich game and that is where I agree with TRVL analysis of Eze in that he is playing too deep and I put that down to Eze having a different type of striker ahead of him .
Merino is a striker who likes to drop off which vacates the space for Eze to drift into as he did so brilliantly v Spurs and munich , whereas gyokeres rarely drops deep which restricts Eze to a more deeper and less effective role, it will also be interesting to see how Eze links with jesus who also likes to drop a little deeper, though unfortunately going by Arteta’s history he will soon lose patience with Eze the way he ignored Smith Rowe and now Nwaneri, which is fine if the team are playing well , winning games and trophies, the problem comes if our form and attack continues to stutter, as an over reliance on our defence will inevitably lead to dropping points.
We really need to get back to our form in Nov where we demolished Spurs and munich as city are starting to look worryingly good.