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.
Ollie should be embarassed by that…that was some Merino/Havertz level shit
that was bonkers…sums things up
McGinn has been shite for most of this season
Raya goes from unbelievable save to letting the ball go through his legs.
Not sure why we’ve sat back so much considering how poor they’ve been in the second-half, but just think about what had to happen for them to actual get a goal
you know everyone wants a match to end when a Keeper is given a minute and change to kick one out
Unai ghosted MA, much to MA’s surprise…not a big fan of those sort of antics, but it tells you exactly what Emery thinks of MA as a manager
A tactical masterclass from Arteta with his half time team talk , 2nd half we played with more intensity and never allowed villa to play to the feet of their offensive players , that can only come from the manager, though of course the first goal changed the course of the game plus the injury to the excellent onana.
Odegaard was very influential in the 2nd half , trossard was superb throughout , gyokeres was gyokeres and will probably struggle to keep his place as it obvious that jesus is by far the superior option..
The lack of game time for players like eze , madueke, Nwaneri, martinelli, havertz , jesus and norgaard is not an issue as in the next month they will have ample opportunities against Portsmouth, Chelsea twice in the league cup and 2 dead champions league games, plus the return of Ben White is a bonus and hopefully. Mosquera is close to fitness….personally I’d like to see gyokeres in the cup games rather than the league .
You wouldn’t know a tactical masterclass if it punched you in the face…MA completely missed the mark with his lineup and his first-half tactics, but when Villa failed to get the job done, even though they had ample opportunities, they simply hit the proverbial wall…without the requisite subs, Villa simply gassed out…they stretched the play so much in the first 45 that even the halftime break didn’t seem to provide them with the necessary recovery time to handle our pressure following the set piece tally…simply put Onana’s abasence opened up the middle of the park and we made them pay dearly for every defensive mistake they made, most of which were of the amateur hour variety
this was bound to happen at some point for a side that had won 11 on the bounce, the last 9 of which were all closely contested affairs (each were one goal victories)…it’s likely why Unai switched things up, as he was likely hoping that they could have taken an early lead then shift into full-Arteta mode, by sitting deep and squeaky out at least a point…I would imagine this had something to do with his post-match ghosting maneuver, as he was so looking forward to the possibility of outmanaging Arteta once again…regardless, good on us for finishing our chances, especially both Tross’s and Jesus’s efforts, as they were actually well-taken and from some distance…that said, if you gave Jesus that opportunity 100 times he would be hard-pressed to get the same result more than 4 or 5 times (btw that was another example of piss-poor defending)…I will say this though, those are the kind of results that could prove vital down the road, in that even though I don’t see Villa as a true contender, they were in the 3-hole and whenever you can stretch your lead over a side you don’t face again it’s a very positive outcome
Stubborn made an arsehole of himself last night again. The first thing a winning manager should do is shake hands with the other geezer. It’s just basic good manners which should be ingrained into all Arsenal managers of our teams. Stuivenberg or Heinze should also have done their bit by reminding him to shake Emery’s hand before celebrating with our back room team and the players. He’s a fucking bad egg and a poor representation of what it is to be sporting and a decent human being.
I can imagine him hanging out the back of Señora Stubborn and congratulating his chopper before saying ‘sweet nothings’ to his poor wife.
It mildly stained what was a big night for the players by not offering Unai a bit of basic respect. Coño.
KP
A complete arsehole. Wenger used to get a ‘strop on’ occasionally, especially towards the end of his time as manager. GG always respected the other manager and in return earnt their respect. Over to you Art – what is El B?
NORG
I would not shake the cunts hand full stop.
Emery should have told him to fuck off and then called everyone in the ground they are all cuckold cunts while he was at it.
Lets hope Bournemouth can do better.
Their manager is another likeable fella.
NORG
Spot on. Remember 26 May 1989? After the final whistle blew, GG was the master of restraint and sporting good manners. Trying to calm our players down and paying full respect to Dalgleish and the Liverpool players after they’d lost (and the horrors that their club experienced after Hillsborough a few month’s earlier. Arsenal was a class act back then. Now not so much, even though the players are a generally amenable bunch of lads.
Lir can’t find any negatives about the football and our domination of the Premier league and Europe , so they resort to making up stories about Arteta , if we are being honest it was Emery who was disrespectful as he was down the tunnel within 5 seconds of the final whistle , probably due to his team being played off the park, no doubt he will apologise for his actions and words in the coming week in his next news conference as he is usually a decent human being.
It says it all that the comments on here have been negative about our manager despite sending the team out in the 2nd half to obliterate a villa side that had won 11 on the bounce..
Hate to say it but my analysis of gyokeres is looking spot on, his 2 missed headers from 5 yards showed his lack of heading technique, his near post header was as easy as it comes, it was just a matter of glancing the ball as the pace was on the ball..
His overall game is more akin to a Sunday league player , he lacks pace and technique and needs too much time to get his shot away .
Yes he will get a few tap ins here and there as by the law of averages the ball will break in his favour but as I have said many times, his movement and anticipation in the box is poor , a few more near post runs are advisable as he has no spring in his jump, I was hoping I’d be proven wrong but unfortunately I can’t see gyokeres being anywhere near our first choice, I’d put him 5th choice behind jesus, havertz, merino and martinelli.
I was ridiculed on here for suggesting jesus would be a far better option and we are now seeing how jesus is far superior in all aspects of the game despite coming back from a serious injury and has not reached 100% fitness.
TRVL
“Not sure why we’ve sat back so much considering how poor they’ve been in the second-half, but just think about what had to happen for them to actual get a goal”
To educate you , at that stage of the game it was all about staying injury free and preserving energy, unlike the the previous 35 mins of the 2nd half we hardly made a tackle which allowed villa to have comfortable possession , but what those last 10 mins did show is how villa could have caused us problems if we hadn’t played with such intensity after the break.
I switched over once the final whistle went so didn’t see any of Arteta’s behaviour but it doesn’t surprise me.
What it does do is back up what was said on Sky before kick off where Mark Chapman asked Alan Smith why when Arsenal are top of the PL, top of the CL and into the last 4 of the League Cup why did the stadium feel so nervous. Smith’s response was basically a vague comment on fans not wanting to see us bottle it again.
Arteta is feeling the pressure and we know what happens when he’s put under pressure.
I made a comment at half time yesterday about villa’s negative first half tactics.
Apparently the ball was in play for only 24 minutes of which over 17 mins was due to villa taking time over mainly free kicks and goal kicks.
Marc
Arteta’s behaviour at the final whistle was exemplary (unlike Emery’s) .
Marc
“Arteta is feeling the pressure and we know what happens when he’s put under pressure.”
Yeah, beating villa 4-1 is really feeling the pressure, that’s 6 wins on the bounce during our fictitious blip.