Champions League group stage is concluding today after 8 game-weeks. Every team will be in action at 8 PM UK time, and we are visiting Girona today. Though a draw is sufficient to qualify for the knockout stage and avoid 2 additional games in a play-off, we would love to win and keep the confidence high. Girona aren’t having a great season, having lost 6 of their 7 CL games and we should be beating them easily.
Mikel Merino and Odegaard missed out against Wolves but are back in contention for the game. Saka will be missed but Nwaneri is back and I am hoping he won’t let us miss the starboy. We have a game against City on Sunday, so I won’t be surprised if Mikel pull out the likes of Jorginho and Sterling to rest some of the main team players.
Liverpool and Barcelona has qualified already, we are sitting on 16 points. Lets see how it can go if we lose today!
Inter, Atletico, Milan and Atlanta are between 14-16 points, a win would take them above us bringing us to 7th position. There are 6 clubs (Leverkusen, Aston Villa, Monaco, Feyenoord, LOSC, Brest) with 13 points that will level with us. But we have got a very healthy goal difference of 12 and only Atlanta (14) with their win will surpass us. It will bring us down to 8th position. No other teams with 13 points has more than 7 goal difference and for us to not qualify to round of 16 directly, we would be losing badly and one of the 6 teams would be winning with some margin. That’s a lot of permutations and combinations and it still favor us.
So, lets just sit comfortably, enjoy the game and lets hope Mikel do some rotation to keep the players fit for the game against Man City. Again, we should win against Girona with our bench players and I won’t mind if Nwaneri keeps his place in the team ahead of Odegaard, Jorgi starts ahead of Partey/Rice and Sterling gives some rests to Martinelli.
I never got time to write about MLS red card but what a shite decision that was. FA has rescinded the card and has deemed it to be a wrong decision. Michael Oliver (as usual) gave a RED against us for challenge that didn’t deserve it, VAR looked it in slow motion for a handful of seconds and agreed with Oliver. If we remove the bias-angle from that decision, what in the hell was VAR doing? A referee can have bad day or bad view but VAR was put in place for exactly the same reason to fix this. There’s incompetence at all level and PGMOL should be held accountable. With such small margins, you can’t forget to draw the lines at VAR, you can’t give two yellow to a player in the same passage of play, you can’t have two rules for two different teams for kicking the ball away, you can’t be handing straight red cards for challenges that deserve a max yellow. It’s a shite show and it needs to stop.
Right, that was all for the game and all thing Arsenal. But I have something more to talk about.
I read an interesting take from Goal.com regarding the new Champions League format :
I have been a supporter of the new Champions League format and though I agree with some of the things they have written, they have missed to touch the some important points for the sake of criticizing new format. Hear me out!
I agree with the sentiments here – more matches means more injuries and almost every big club in Europe is playing twice a week where both the games are considered important. They talk about players welfare but lets be honest here, no team would play another big club in all of those 8 group stages games. If a manager is fixated in playing his best XI every game, it’s on him. With high profile signings and money spent, clubs like City, Arsenal, Chelsea have got two XIs of 40-100m players. If you are hell bent on achieving success only via ‘100m’ players, it’s on you. If players are getting injured (excluding impact injuries) because they are playing more than they can sustain, it’s poor from the manager and the club who can’t decide when to rest a player even with multi-million health experts on their payroll.
Their next argument is money over meritocracy. UEFA wanted to make more money out of it – agreed but that’s not helping only the big clubs. Even the likes of Girona are getting 8 games, some of them happens to be big enough to generate excitement among their fans. There’s a trickle down effect here. For every Read Madrid making more money, there are Young Boys, who are trying to sustain in this market and remain competitive.
Regarding the extra safety net they are talking about, giving example of City, who after losing to Sporting, Juventus and PSG can still qualify by beating Club Brugge today – I’m not sure how that’s a bad thing. With the earlier format, it was more of a luck where you could land in a group of death, or lose a game on a bad day and you are out. How often we had seen a very non-competitive round of 16 earlier – very! Group stages may give you some boring games, but it would also filter out the elites for the next stage and it’s going to be more competitive as we go. I don’t want the likes of Madrid, City, Arsenal or PSG to go out of the tournament because of a bad day.
Right, that’s my take on this. Goal has certainly made their case and I am just on the opposite side of it. I am stirring the pot here, because I would love to hear your say – some of you have seen the changes in the past and would have better, valid points for and against it.
that’s why you should run things through Ethan!!!
Gentlemen (and Kroenke!) that is what is known as pick that out.
he’s the most clinical finisher on our current roster, which is frankly an indictment on our manager’s recruitment strategy
if we don’t try playing Ethan and Ode together in the midfield, when Saka comes back, that should be grounds for firing the manager…btw Ode should be on the left and Ethan on the right
Folks Ethan will be coached out of this if he does this more often. Have to easy that was a lucky penalty call. Partey fouls the defender who falls on him and trips him.
Am I the only sad twat not watching but tuning into a radio station? ‘Yes!’ I hear you all say. Ethan’s goal sounded sublime.
Villa and Pool being pegged back and City losing…
Marc – I wear my ungentleman-like attitude as a badge of honour. Mug the muggers is my motto.
KP—it was sublime in the sense that we’ve been bereft of clincial finishing up top…it wasn’t some sort of Ibra-esque highlight reel strike
we had better not repeat the Sterling mistake at the close of this window
I’ll give you one guess who put Villa ahead
just what we needed, another flopping fuck
the fact that Sterling is still on the pitch suggests that he’s not going to take part in our City fixture this weekend, which is a real statement about his output, as it’s a “revenge” game for him
I’ll be interested to see if Rice sits deep now that he’s coming on for Jorginho, who was playing as a 6
Girona seems to be a classy outfit, which makes some sense beased on how KP described the city
at least Marts didn’t have to defer to Sterling
if Havertz had any balls he would have stepped up and taken the penalty, especially considering Sterling’s patchy history in this regards
what a statement about our glaring lack of proper finishing
ho-hum, minus one piece of brilliance by Ethan, much to MA’s chagrin
Whither Sterling? He makes Willian look like a sound signing. At least we’ve avoided an entire CL 2 legged round, and will play a lesser team in the last 16…
This is where the CL format looks a bit daft. All that football between 32 teams and only 8 drop out at this point.
there’s no way Watkins is coming as I think Duran is going to Al Nassr for 77M
WTF was that game, yeah the result but it was fucking boring and with some disgraceful performance by Sterling.
Here is what a decent DOF can do, Monchi signed Rogers for Villa and we spent +100mill on Rice and 67mill on Havertz,
Morning all
Didn’t see the game but will take the win with our boy Ethan doing what he does best by the sound of it.
We’ve bid £60m for Watkins which was turned down. Tomorrow is the last TW day so we’ll get the Wenger excuse from MA of his start of the “I nearly signed ……(insert credible striker’s name) ?
Why not Kluivert or Semedo or Isak who we all want?
If we only rock up with excuses Feb 1st, I will not be one bit surprised.
14 days to go for the last of my 25 years life here and counting.
Have a good one LIR
Tony—just so you know the window doesn’t close until February 3rd at 11pm…of course that doesn’t mean we’ll get anything done, but it does give our collection of recruitment simpletons an extra few days to conjure up some sort of Sterling-like clownish reach
so how did we get here? here’s my best guess…MA butchered another window and now he’s scrambling like a little bitch…obviously it’s more nuanced than that…so let’s go back to where this fuck up originated and work from there:
(1) the summer of 23, when we broke the bank to acquire a disgruntled DM and his tweener sidekick…you don’t invest that kind of coin on a fucking whim, which is exactly what transpired here, as there was no evidence that would lead anyone to conclude that Havertz was a viable replacement for Xhaka or that Rice was a really an AM disguised as a world-class DM
(2) Havertz fails rather miserably in the midfield and since the only competition up top was the habitually injured Jesus and the similarly goal-stunted Eddie, he was gifted the job…let’s face it, this was already baked into MA’s twisted plans, as everyone knew the midfield gig was at best a coin toss proposition…so when Havertz experienced a second-half purple patch, MA made it out to be another genius move on his part and the usual suspects lapped it up…problem was most could see that it wasn’t sustainable, as he only scored one goal of any note…tbf deep down MA knew it wasn’t really a viable plan, as you’ll come to understand with point #3, but he publicly leaned into that narrative anyways so as to justify his mismanaged recruitment strategies
(3) as stated above, even though he was publicly praising Havertz, behind the scenes he tried to woo at least one Striker(Sesko)…now he had to tread carefully so as to not upset his gangly bestie, who was simultaneously campaigning for the same job with his national side for the upcoming Euros, which wasn’t being well-received by his fellow countrymen…tbf it’s not like there was a lot of real competition for that job anyways…once MA was turned aside by the young Slovenian Striker, he doubled-down on his support for Kai, as he likely couldn’t fathom that this punk kid sent him packing, which simply reaffirmed his anti-Striker inklings, and then prayed to God that his sort of first choice Striker had a good showing for his country…tbh he didn’t shit the bed, as he always puts in a shift, but his finishing once again let him down
(4) during that same Euros MA fell in lust with a couple players, who were never even mentioned on any rumoured wishlist prior to the tournament…ironically Merino wasn’t even the player he coveted on Sociedad, as the real object of his affections was his midfield partner Zubimendi, who likewise told him to kick rocks…so instead of fulfilling his brief, he treated that window like some sort of thristy 11 year old playing FIFA online and targeted two players who made a name for themselves on two plays of import…Merino scored an overtime winner as an unmarked sub and Cala was the primary setup man for a late winner, which saw him maneuver his way up the pitch, with time running out, in a manner usually reserved for an AM or a pacey forward…so instead of staying the more logical course, he went full-on fanboy and put what should have been our primary objective on the back burner
(5) now our inability to take the nest step wasn’t all his fault, as we’ve suffered far more injuries this year than last, but if he were a more astute and experienced manager he wouldn’t have taken that for granted, especially considering his rotational practices and our longstanding history in that regards…instead he read his own headlines, many of which were ironically written by his bought and paid for hacks, and went all-in with his not-so-dynamic duo of Havertz and Rice up top, then simply hoped that the rest of the supporting cast would score enough to cover up the obvious shortcomings of this plan…to assist in his squad construction ruse, he likewise switched up his tactics a bit, so as to better accomodate his more super-sized lineup, by including a set piece-based homage to the old Stokian dark arts master himself, Tony Pulis
(6) the fact that this led to a regression should have surprised absolutely no one…so now our little short-sighted MIT is trying to salvage our season after pursuing a course of action that most everyone could see was going to be an unnecessarily tough ask
Cheers
Brilliantly put, TRVL, that’s it in a nutshell.
Thanks for the TW update, I just assumed it was end of the month. Likewise I doubt we’ll see anything close to what we need.
TVRl – very entertaining to read your post couldn’t stop smiling. Spot on with your assessment.
Meanwhile Killroy’s link is alluding to the fact that the Kreonkes are slowly getting to grips the difference between US sporting clubs and Arsenal. Looks like they aren’t throwing money at Arsenal only for MA to accumulate his pearls. mA is treating all these windows as a power grab and consolidation opportunity rather than making the squad better. I mean rehabilitating his mate from city Sterling is a classic case of bribing his mate to support him in the dressing room.
Now having said all the window that we don’t have money and then making a extremely disrespectful attempt at Watkins on the last of CL game is despicable. How did the 60 M come about? Did he lead some kind of bank heist?
What Villa are doing with John Duran is puzzling but they way they are doing is a lesson. They first bought Malen and now trying to sell Duran which ensures they have competition for Watkins up front. But selling Duran for a huge profit from a financial sense makes a great sale but he was promising and scoring goals. Looks like they were not happy with his head and attitude. Remains to be seen of Duran really makes it big. Will he return to Europe through Saudi route remains to be seen. Agreeing to this move for his fledgling career doesn’t make sense though. Interesting case.
Thanks Tony & Madhu
the only reasons why Watkins might be available is that (1) they did bring in Malen and there’s ample chatter about Unai’s strong desire to bring in Joao Felix, for the purposes of playing him up top, and (2) they’re still not realistically competing for titles so they will sell anyone for the right price and under the appropriate conditions, which might be the case here as Watkins is fast approaching 30…that said, it might have just been a greasy move by MA to get under Unai’s skin right before their vitally important CL fixture, as he’s a petty little man who’s been schooled by our former boss on most nights in which they’ve faced one another
From Sky Sports:
“It is not clear who initiated contact, but one source has told Sky Sports News that the chance to sign Watkins was proposed to Arsenal. Arsenal value him at £40m – but the source claimed £60m was Villa’s valuation – and the feeling is any potential deal would have required Villa to reduce their valuation. Arsenal’s long-term interest in Watkins remains, but the imminent departure of Duran means he is now expected to stay in this window”
this might have come at a time when Villa was unsure of Duran’s exit as many felt that Al Nassr might be signing Lever’s Boniface instead…right now it appears as if the Duran is having a medical in London today or tomorrow and this deal will be formally announced over the weekend or Monday…now if this doesn’t come to pass, for whatever reason, anything is possible…I find it interesting that Arsenal-friendly media outlets were quick to suggest that we went in with an incredibly strong offer, whereas the report above seems more on brand, as we tend to waste a lot of time nickel and diming, only to pay above the number in the end
TVRL
“(2) they’re still not realistically competing for titles so they will sell anyone for the right price and under the appropriate conditions,”
They’re 4 points off a CL place in a season where teams above them are all over the place – top 4 is worth hundreds of millions why would you sell a player now who could make a difference when you could sell them in the summer and have a chance to prepare properly. Even if the fee were halved it’d be worth it.
Marc—I get that, but even Unai has publicly acknowledged that no one’s off limits if the bid is right…and I don’t mean that someone has to come in with a absolute insane offer to turn their heads, they just have to meet their internal valuations…so the reason why they quickly rejected our bid for Watkins wasn’t because they wouldn’t consider offers, it was primarily because we came in far below their preferred number…of course losing Duran and it being so late in the window, which would make it difficult to bring in a replacement, will factor into the equation, but based on what they’ve said they wouldn’t be considered deal breakers
on another note, I read this today, which was disturbing yet incredibly predictable:
“However, Arteta reportedly does not wish to sign Isak as his ideal number nine is a player who could be much more of a focal point for a team’s attack”
this is likely one of the reasons why Edu jumped ship, as even he could see that this little experiment was nothing more than a poor man’s latter days Wenger reboot, where the manager’s unwilling to share the headlines/locker room and the football suffered as a result