We could have done the double last year had we not lost to Man City in the finals. The loss to Man City was a disappointing one for us. Nico O’Reilly scored twice and ruined some of the fun that was about to come later. We also lost to PSG in the Champions League finals, and missed the treble. The getaway was that you shouldn’t lose finals but to learn from those losses, we must reach there again.
And the journey begins today. We are visiting Ipswich Town today in the third round of Carabao Cup / EFL cup. There are some good teams competing this time – Chelsea, Bournemouth, Sunderland, Palace, Newcastle have already made it to the next round. The fate of Arsenal, Man Utd, City, Liverpool and Spurs will be decided today.
We are unbeaten so far this season. 4 Premier League wins and a CL win so far, and we can add another one today. And it’s the second last game before we go into the international break, so the manager is under no duress to rest players. Though, I would like to see the likes of Max Dowman getting some game time today, Mikel likely prefers to go with the best fit XI.
Wenger used these cups to develop academy players and he would find some gems often. He invested his time and also cost the club a few points in doing so. But we are way past the development phase and we can spend 60m on players that would be second fiddle to Saliba and Rice, so don’t expect anything interesting. The best we can do is, WIN, and move on to the next round.
Every trophy matters. We have the best squad in the Premier League and we have already won the Premier League. The next target is to win more, and not just settle with the title this season.
In the team news, we would probably see Kepa back in the goals. There’s so much to do for Raya, so he will get some rest. We can also see a midfield of MLS and Guimaraes, with Merino in the Odegaard role. Madueke is a candidate to get a start and we might see Eze over Tzolis. Gyokeres could also get his start. I don’t care frankly who starts and if he is fatigued, we have got at least 2 players for each position and that removes the injury anxiety for me.
That’s all for today, see you during the game.
AF—everyone knew it was only a matter of time before others got their proverbial shit together, especially after our blunt instrument slow crawl to the top…our window just might be closed, which is incredibly discouraging considering how long it took for MA to fucking open it…a smarter man would have seen the writing on the wall and adopted a more offensively-minded transfer policy, but not our stunned rinse and repeat cunt
Marc—not buying it in light of our laughable pursuits of Vini and Alvarez and the fact that we spent so much on a luxury purchases like Bruno and, in some respects, Konsa…that cost-cutting gig likely has more to do with eliminating those on the lower end of the totem pole…we all know how much rich cunts like doing that
Marc
I like the lads bottle. And he looks technically clean.
He scored their goal to get them up into the league.
That cunt Gabriel yesterday was an utter disgrace. He is ok kicking Martinez in the head though last week.
He runs from the battle, Ballard steams in.
TRVL
After last season we shouldn’t need to be making cost savings and you don’t spend a lot of money with consultants to save a few quid on the cleaners.
I wonder if Arteta’s piss poor spending has caught up with us – the money he’s wasted is criminal.
Hopefully Fulham can get at least a draw so the Spuddies spend 3 weeks at the bottom of the table.
That we struggled against Brighton didn’t surprise me at all , Brighton pressed Arsenal as if their life depended on it and for me this Arsenal team isn’t press resistant and yesterday was a great example of that.
Last season we dropped points to Villa, Sunderland and Bournemouth who all press with intensity and I think it’s fair to say that both Villa and Sunderland gave us problems this season though we just about came away with the points.
I thought Arteta got it wrong tactically yesterday because we persisted in playing out from the back when it was obvious that Brighton were not going to give us an inch to breathe, consequently Brighton were given all the incentive they needed to push players high up the pitch.
I’m not sure why Arteta didn’t consider going longer , maybe bringing on Merino or Gyokeres to play close to Havertz to replace the hapless Odegaard who is redundant without time and space to play.
I find it strange that the Brighton manager isn’t considered for one of the big jobs like United or Tottenham as he certainly knows how to set up a team.
As for city , they have got away with it the last couple of weeks , winning your first 5 games though good does not necessarily mean a successful season as Liverpool and Tottenham proved last season.
What Arsenal’s defeat will do is stop all the ridiculous noise about us walking the title , there are so many difficult away trips that it is possible to come unstuck whoever we play if we are not on our game as shown yesterday..
12 points from 15 is a decent start considering the quality of opposition we have faced especially away from home, last season on most occasions we bounced back from a defeat and I would expect similar after the international break.
Wicksy
Over a billion spent and we’re not “press resistant”?
Are you fucking serious?
You blindly support a manager who you’ve just said is incompetent.
As I have previously said, we were beaten by a far superior team who, from day 1, proved my prognostication that they were better than Arsenal. I saw it coming and have nothing but fulsome (look it up, it’s not what you think) and cloyingly oleaginous praise for our wonderful manager who has mercifully just signed a new and highly lucrative contract (which I foresaw of course and thoroughly welcome as one of his unquestioning fanboys).
Writing on mogodon…with a couple of qualudes to wash it down. I found it fucking exhausting writing that. 😴😴😴
KP—I knew you would say that…this predicting shit must be fucking contagious
I predict that the International (3 fucking weeks until real football) break is going to bore the shit out of everyone.
I predict that we will be sitting top of the league by the time the next international break comes around in November.
That’s not to say that we won’t drop points in that spell as we have Liverpool away and also a trip to Bayern in the champions league.
Home to Leeds and Lyon after the international break is a good couple of games to get the season back on track before the tough away trips.
Last season we were 100% in the group stages in Europe and it did help us in the draw for the knockout stages, there is no way we will as successful in the group stage this time round, though we should finish in the top 8 (possibly top 4) which will give us a by in the first knockout round.
So the premiership panel is in 100% agreement that Sunderland were wrongly awarded a penalty against The Arsenal….hardly surprising that they came to that decision.
Of course that is already the 2nd decision highlighted by the premiership panel where Arsenal have been on the wrong end of a potentially crucial decision as Villa got away with one when Bruno was scythed down in the box.
As for city , we will await the panels decision on Anderson’s hand ball for city against Sunderland at the weekend, I can’t see any other ruling than Sunderland should have had a penalty which is twice in a week that city have had very favourable decisions go their way after the offside goal v United last week.
The usual utterings are that decisions even themselves out in a season but so far the impression is that city are getting the big decisions in their favour whilst Arsenal , despite the narrative, are being treated harshly, let’s hope that the big decisions do even themselves out.
context matters you tin foil twat…if it was such an obvious error why did they likewise vote in favour of VAR not intervening…they probably hoped that it might stop the constant whining by our cake and eat it too fucktard of a manager…imagine if they fine-tooth combed our set piece/floptard season last year, which landed us a title for the first time in two decades…here’s a prediction, you will continue to annoy the fuck out of everyone with your know-nothing dime-a-dozen hedge your bets cherry-picking dumb-ass takes…eat a dick Pricktard
Is it the same panel that ruled Arsenal should’ve conceded three penalties and three red cards that weren’t given against us last season, Wicksy?
But I’m sure you’ve written something about that already.
Did Arteta call for an internal PGMO audit having benefitted from those last year the way he has after the Konsa pen?
Tom
“ Is it the same panel that ruled Arsenal should’ve conceded three penalties and three red cards that weren’t given against us last season, Wicksy?”
The least you can do is provide evidence of the 6 errors, good luck with that..
I have provided the evidence and events for this season’s errors that have been confirmed by the panel.
And to Vera I would point out that the 5 panel members agreed 5-0 that it wasn’t a penalty for Sunderland…..
Tom
In fairness it does say that Arsenal had a net benefit of 3 for last season so you was half right..
I would suggest that it was the only season in the last 20 years that we have a net benefit in our favour, which is a sad indictment on the game in that officials can influence a season which should never be the case.
or…
During Covid in the premier league season 20/21 season , the away side had a higher win rate than the home side for the only time in its history.
Away 40%
Home 36%
During Covid as we know fans were not allowed to attend games.
If ever we needed proof of the referee being intimidated and influenced by fans then this is it , the fact the klopp’s Liverpool lost 5 home games on the bounce during Covid is further evidence of how referees can be influenced by fans.
If we look at Arsenal’s away games in the league this season v Villa and Sunderland especially, they have been very physical compared to our home games against Coventry and Chelsea , but why is that , the only reason is that the referee allows the home side to physically intimidate the away side , hence why the win home percentage is always higher, except in the Covid season.
This is not an Arsenal problem as it is the same for all teams , in fact the Emirates crowd has become a very intimidating atmosphere at times which favours us.
Referees are human , and for an easy life they will favour the home team because they don’t want to be verbally abused by the fans and players who know they can get away with more playing at home.
Is there an answer to this problem, probably not , it seems like it is an accepted part of football that referees are weak and easily intimidated by home fans.
Maybe they should give the referee ear plugs so he isn’t influenced by the noise and only gives decisions by what he actually sees, there is no reason for the referee to need to hear the players or fans , in fact the players will soon learn that it’s a waste of time trying to influence the ref.
Of course nothing will change because the league doesn’t see the bias towards the home team as a problem, despite the results during Covid giving us all the evidence we need that there no bias if there are no fans..
So city has been found guilty of 114 of the 115 financial irregularity charges levelled against them and are launching an appeal.
Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t they have to wait for the punishment to be made public before they can appeal? That’s the way it works in legal cases right?
City’s mens’ team needs to be ended as a sporting organisation in the light of this. Fucking pariahs.
All the relegated clubs need to be compensated and teams which missed out on any honours need also to be compensated, plus paid holidays and beers for fans all over the world for the belated open topped bus celebrations as city’s trophies are annulled.
Fuck them! All other fans need to laugh at city supporters.
I hope this verdict brings everyone down.
Every fuckin club in the top flight goes skint with legal fees.
We are complicit as well as Manchester City.
We took the moronic cunt of them and Jesus and Zinchenko
We bought Chelseas cack for inflated fees.
Every cunt in the country, knew Manchester City and Chelsea were at it, but our cunts ignored the warnings signs , so they are all complict in it.
If my mate Hong Kong Mick, buys stolen goods knowingly, he is nicked, because he is complict.