Sorry for being absent from some time. I wasn’t able to watch the game live replayed it first thing in the morning and it stood out to me that we had a good game against a not so good team. Forests were average at best, and we tried to encash it.
Saka opened our account with a beautiful solo goal beating 5 defenders and the goal keeper. Ok, there was a bit of help from Odegaard but I would still give 100% credit to the best right winger on the planet. Bukayo could have scored 2 hat-tricks had he been more lethal, but he has come a long way in scoring and is only going to get better. Mikel subbed off Jorginho at the beginning of the second half and Thomas Partey, within 6 minutes of his introduction, scored a worldie. Saka passed it back to Partey, who wasn’t marked at all, made some space for himself, and sent the ball on a bullet train to the Forest’s nest.
About 10min left on the clock, Odegaard and Saka made way for Nwaneri and Sterling and within 4 minutes, the pair decided to make it 3-0. Nwaneri took the ball to the final third, passed it to Sterling who fed him back and the 17 year old scored his first Premier League goal. He is brilliant for his age, and to his bad luck, we have two world class players with whom he is competing. And the best part of it all, is that, he has that knack of goals. Probably too early to say that, but he is always there around the ball and is always direct. He has got the intent, he has that natural striking mind, and with more game time, he could become a 20-goal player. Time will tell, but I have a very positive feeling about this lad.
Right, so we won 3-0 and moved to 4th position with 22 points, equal to Chelsea who sits on 3rd and only 1 behind City. Tottenham, for once, helped us by beating City 4-0 at Etihad. This will further dent their confidence and we might see a change in title winner this season. Would it be us, or Liverpool who sits with a 5 point lead and a game in hand is a different conversation.
Let me quickly say that Odegaard was brilliant. We missed him, and we struggled without him. And we seriously need Nwaneri to step up as an understudy to him because if we want to win anything, his role becomes very crucial. If he remains fit, he plays that role or we get someone else to do it.
We have lots of games coming through, and December will give us a hint of our season. We are visiting Sporting on Tuesday night, then playing West Ham on Saturday evening in our next 2 games. Some exciting games ahead, December won’t bore you and me.
Short one today, hope winter is doing you well.
Looks like Saka will be leaving bin dippers at the end of this season.
šØ Salah on his Liverpool future: āIām probably more out than in! I didnāt receive any proposalā.
āWeāre almost in December and I havenāt received any offers yet to stay in the clubā¦ā.
āIām probably more out than inā.
– Fabrizio
Couple things out of it –
1. They are going to push it harder now.
2. Liverpool management is smart. Salah’s pace is going to die in a season max, just like Auba. And they would be left with a player on 350k/week.
*push it for the title
Ambarish
Slot will buy Martinelli and turn him into a monster.
By the way Ambarish, where are you from?
Great stuff guys totally agree with both your thinking.
Sporting tonight but 3am for me so will watch in the morning.
Will be good to finally get to see what the VG fuss is all about. Amorim wants him at Manure where MA is also a fan, but Iāve not seen him play yet.
We last beat Sporting 1:0 in 2018 with 3 draws since home and away.
So, another draw? Will Sporting have a new manager bounce? Will we improve on our Forest performance with Ethan starting?
Always questions with MAās selections but Iād be surprised if Rice & Kai didnāt join tonightās selection, so will they slow our game down in our transitions again?
Hard to predict when we have no idea who starts in Portugal: however, if we improve on our last game, then maybe a 2:1 win for usā¦ā¦š
“Gunners have lost all of their last four matches on the road in Europe without scoring, a run that dates back over a year…under Arteta, we’ve won just one of seven games on the road in Europe”
these facts certainly don’t fill me with the utmost of confidence going into today’s affair against Sporting…to make matters worse, MA did functionally nothing in the off-season to help rectify our CL road-scoring drought…I will say this though, at least the manager who toyed with MA when last we met, will no longer be patrolling the sidelines…of course, the fact that Amorim just left and his replacement, Joao Pereira, was an in-house hire, means that we should expect a very similar tactical approach…even so, surely MA can’t get schooled, when it comes to player selections and in-game adjustments, by someone so wet behind the ears he needs to wear a fucking baby’s bib to keep his shoes dry
if it were up to me I would try to overwhelm them from the off by starting what might be best described as a 4-1-4-1, with Rice sitting just ahead of the same back 4 as on the weekend, then Marts, Ethan, Ode and Saka in the “midfield”, with Havertz up top…if Tross weren’t so diminutive I would start him instead of Havertz, but we all know there’s no chance in hell that Kai isn’t the first name on the lineup sheet, especially after him not seeing the pitch for the first time in seemingly forever…I just think we need to find a way to get up early on this side so as to force them into making the kind of adjustments that could leave them even more exposed at the back
of course, this will never happen…in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if MA found a way to have Partey, Rice, Merino and Havertz in the starting 11, or at least 3 of the 4, then simply hoped & prayed that our new bully-ball tactics found a way to win the day, even though that hasn’t been a winning formula thus far…regardless, he will undoubtedly have a preprepared post-match statement blaming the refs in his back pocket just in case
Madhu
From Patna, Bihar but been living in the capital from some time now..
Ambarish that’s nice to see an Arsenal Blog from India. It’s always been Man U everywhere when I started supporting Arsenal.
Timber shouldn’t play anywhere but on the right.. it was a brilliant pass, Martinelli putting it IN will give him confidence as well.
That’s why I favour Timber over White…good on Marts for being in the right place at the right time…not sure why Havertz wasn;t able to make contact beforehand, but probably good for us because who knows where his effort might have gone
not sure why we always seem to be on our heels after ever tally…obviously that’s some “learned” behaviour that MA’s mistakenly instituted over the years (Wenger had a similar propensity during his latter years)
I’m a fan of Partey’s, minus all teh injury bullshit, but the only reason he’s playing ahead of Merino is so that Rice can continue to push forward, which still seems nonsensical…no top-notch manager would ever make the investment we made to do likewise
that’s the kind of Eddie-like chances that Havertz needs to score…good work by both Partey and Saka to silver platter that one
TRVL
Havertz heard you..
That was some pass from Partey. A fit in form Partey is better than Rodri on his day.
2-0 away, one more we need to put this to bed. #COYG
Martinelli is playing very central today. Calafiori is filling his place on the sideline. I told you guys Mikel reads us š
Ambarish—I will say this, knowing full-well that Havertz will be a starter so long as MA’s in charge, I’ve seen a few glimpses recently from Kai that make me think that he could be a positive contributor if he were to play along side a bona fide Striker…now if it were up to me he would be utilized primarily as a depth piece, in a similar vein to Jesus nowadays, but one must be realistic when discussing such matters
btw your Partey comparison to Rodri was totally mental
Sporting’s Keeper has been caught in no man’s land on multiple occasions, including on both goals, so we should be both encouraging their defenders to pass backwards and sending in low crosses ad nauseam
good save by Raya…there’s a lot of eyes on that 17 year old…supposedly we’ve been sniffing around Quenda too…hardly doubt we would be his first priority considering how MA has treated young blue chippers
good work Gabs…what a well-timed run-up!!
this Sporting side looks completely different from the version under Amorim…thankfully we’re taking full advantage