Happy new year 2025 – lets start with a bang

According to MA at his presser there’s been a sickness hence the changes.

He also crowed about all the incredible records he broken at the club.

No idea so will see what happens.

Brentford are strong at home with 22 pints from 24

Happy new year to all my fellow Gooners. Let there be abundance of happiness, prosperity, health and above all peace and love in all your lives.

Clever goal great finish how do we reply👀

Nwaneri showing his class on the ball Jesus nets for us

Another goal mouth scrap and Arsenal score.
Looks like set piece coach is saving the bacon of our resident p-g
Another accurate assist by Nwari

For 3rd goal

New Year, no streaming. I’ll have to do with the highlights. It sounds like we’ve really turned it around.

good on us for the way we managed Brentford, especially once we went up by 2…Brentford is a very competent and productive home side and the very fact that we turned this into a relative snoozefest, for much of the 2nd half, speaks volumes about our ability to work as a collective unit…of course we sat a little too deep at times, as the 2nd half possession numbers would attest to, but that was always going to be the case with MA in charge…in fact, we were so effective that TF basically conceded the match before the 80th minute, when he brought on 4 subs, two of whom had barely seen any playing time with the first team…he’s an analytics fanatic and when the numbers told him that it was time to prioritize their weekend matchup, he simply acted accordingly…not exactly sure what my thoughts are on this, but I’m sure their lower than expected position in the table has forced him into being a tad more pragmatic, especially considering their plethora of injuries

a few points of interest:

(1) Ethan should have been introduced into the first team as soon as Ode went on IR a couple months back…it’s quite clear to me that if MA’s bully-ball tactics had won the day, he might have never seen the field except in an emergency and/or in lower tier cup affairs…Ethan has skills for days with the ball at his feet and that shouldn’t have been so easily disregarded/overlooked by MA, especially when we were bereft of creativity in the final third

tbh I so wish that Rice and Tross had come on for Partey and Merino, so Rice would have been required to sit deeper and Ethan could have been deployed as the 8…am I wrong for wanting to get a glimpse at Ethan playing along side of Ode?…instead we always seem to cater to MA’s “bestie” bunch…even when we’re supposedly locking things down, Rice was the furtherest man up the pitch on two of Raya’s longer kicks…why would that ever be the case???

(2) Cala’s got some skills, but I’m not sure he can handle the riguours of top flight football as a LB…his lack of pace, for a wide side backer, requires him to take some Xhaka-like fouls, which could be problematic moving forward…not to mention, it’s likely why he’s so susceptible to injuries

I would suspect that MA had first targeted him to replace Gabs, who’s been the subject of rumours for the past two seasons, but when Gabs stayed on he was simply shoehorned out wide…anyone who did their due diligence would know that Cala struggled out wide earlier in his career and only returned to prominence when he was deployed as a CB…simply-put, MA has tinkered with our backers far too often since arriving on the scene

(3) Timber has to be more savvy when it comes to taking unnecessary fouls deep within the opposition’s end…he’s now going to miss our next match against BHA, which could prove costly…to make matters worse, this was the last match before the yellow card reset…I just wonder if he was made aware of this situation prior to the start of the match

all that said, it was a good outing…let’s hope MA’s New Years resolutions have something to do with growing a pair, tactically-speaking, and finding a way to get out of his “yes man” comfort zone when it comes to recruiting alpha dogs up top…as for me, I’m happy as fuck considering our first lineup of 2025 didn’t actually include our German giraffe

Happy New Years Ambarish…thanks for putting up with me, as that surely must be trying at times

TRVL
Read you earlier post with interest, so thanks for your thinking. Hope the family get together wasn’t too taxing.

I watched the fist half with Junior, and went to bed at 3:1. I thought we played better without Saka and with Ethan, which now MA is waxing lyrical but only gave Ethan his first PL start last night.

Says it all really.

Without Saka we look more balanced in attack where if the play was fed through Ethan instead of the lumbering Merino, we’d get more chances.

Ode – Rice/ Partey – Ethan should be our 3 midfield.

Just think if Ethan had been given starts last season, where he’d be now?

When asked about the potential of adding someone up top our delusional manager offered up this gem, “In the last calendar year you see who has scored for us and that’s our strength”

so based on the fact that Saka is out for the foreseeable future, this appears to be suggesting that he’s placed our fate squarely in Havertz’s and Jesus’s hands, or should I say feet, which is at best a terribly disingenuous take or at worst insanely negligent on his part…the former has only scored 2 or 3 goals of real quality since donning the kit, whereas the latter hadn’t scored a single PL goal in almost 12 months, prior to his recent purple patch…now I get that most managers wouldn’t publicly sewer their current players, nor should they, but surely there must have been a more commonsensical way to respond…sometimes I feel like this is some sort of Moon Over Parador-like con job where the real Mikel Arteta has been kidnapped or worse and the current version is simply an actor with an earpiece…maybe Arsene’s actually feeding him his lines

Tony—my holiday festivities are far from over, as they don’t conclude until all the youngest members of my extended family return to school next Monday…tomorrow’s activities will see us split into two groups, one of which will go to the local ski club and the other will make their way to my old homestead, where they will make a shit ton of cheese buttons

the whole ski adventure is typically a bit of a shit show, as only a few of those participating actually know how to ski, so I spend the majority of the day putting out fires and praying to God that nothing serious happens…if I’m lucky I’ll get two good runs in over a 6 hour period

as for the cheese button gig, it’s an old family recipe passed down from my half Russian/half Ukranian great grandmother…tbh it’s a fairly basic undertaking, so it’s really more about getting together, playing holiday tunes for the last time and shooting the breeze…thankfully they’re tasty fried treats, so usually I’ll quickly devour about 2 dozen of those little fuckers upon returning from the club…it kind of makes the whole thing worthwhile

I agree with your more “balanced in attack” comment and I would likewise hope that once Saka returns MA would play Cala, Marts and Ethan on the left and Timber, Ode and Saka on the right for at least a match or two…have a good one bud

Tony and TRVL – great takes on the game. I completely agree about Ethan. It’s a case of him saving the proverbial bacon of MA. Now that he seen the versatility of Ethan playing on the wing I doubt he will have him play along Ode as the creator. MA wants his fav Merino there and he has scored as well. Not sure what he brings to the team but he will play left 8 whenever he is fit. Once Saka returns Ethan will be on bench. That’s MA for you haven’t we seen this movie before with ESR? Hope Ethan gets treated better than ESR. You can see the way ESR is playing in Fulham MA has truly broken him. Hope Ethan is smarter than ESR. Hate to see another academy star not making.
MLS should start getting more mins in this year for sure. He looks so comfortable with the ball at his feat and not shy to move it forward. We can only wish MA will have other ideas.

TRVL
Thanks for that personal snapshot into your holidays, it had me laughing with you as I’ve never really had that kind of family togetherness bar here with my son & daughter and Pumpkin. Cheese buttons sound cool. I like fried Camembert if done well, my arteries like not so much….. Going to give Inclisiran a go instead of statins.

As for MA’s non sensical uttering, there must be an Arsne 101 dealing with pressers where the aim is to confuse.

Madhu
Ethan has a 15 year old brother at the academy, so would be cool if they played together. Heard the match commentator bring it up with Andy Townsend who’s my favourite pundit, as he always talks sense like Ally MaCoist.

MA has little choice now but to give Ethan minutes after yesterday’s performance. If Merino was the decoy runner letting Ethan exploit whatever gap that afforded him, Ethan would offer far more than Merino could hope to deliver. I’ve said before Ethan reminds me of Kanu’s dexterity with his feet and keeping the ball glued to them. He has exceptional standing start acceleration and can unleash a powerful shot with little backlight.

The kid is a phenom in the making if MA could only see what we all saw last season.

Last night’s football, while still stale at times, was at least played with more tempo in the 2nd half. That needs to continue for the rest of the season.

A good result yesterday at a difficult ground to visit.

On Arteta’s halfway point season report on like for like matches (promoted teams replacing relegated teams) we’ve conceded one goal more, scored four less and we’re five points worse off.

Not good enough with the money he’s spent.

https://youtu.be/uyrpIPKdEyQ?si=5VgC3jkiA-65aQiO

Game was a bit of a damp squib yesterday but you can see yours truly in a high vis jacket struggling to contain the massive crowd as the team took to the pitch. But seriously attendance was nearing 1500 which is a record for the entire league this season and the vibe throughout was really positive. A business like and deserved win if not the most spectacular of displays. Finish 3rd or higher by the end of the season and County will be in the hat for next season’s Europa conference. Better than Spurs will do in my estimation.

“In that position it wasn’t because of the bug – I made it because I thought he was the best player to play in that position at the start of the game,” Arteta said. “And because there was a story there with him making his Premier League debut. Sometimes that feeling comes in and you think it’s the right one.”

Only our cake and eat it too fucktard of a manager would try to propagate the notion that even if Havertz were healthy enough to play Ethan was going to get his first PL start…if that was the case why not announce that before Kai’s gameday status had been determined, after all, MA loves him a contrived “feel good” story…I would bet my left nut that if Ethan had stunk up the joint he would have talked about how Havertz’s illness had forced him into making decison he wouldn’t have made otherwise

In other pathetic news:

“Brighton are expected to insist on an obligation-to-buy included in any loan deal if they decide to let him go in January, which could see Arsenal look elsewhere…Ferguson has scored just one goal in 14 appearances this season after ending the last two seasons with 16 goals in 61 games, but he has huge potential..The Gunners have not had a physical number nine for a while, and their style of play could be perfect for the Brighton star”

we had better not go anywhere near this half season wonder, as he’s not nearly good enough to be anything more than another underwhelming option up top…not to mention, he’s rather injury prone…personally I think BHA are just waiting for some sucker to come along and pay a premium for this rarely used front man in the hopes that he will come good again…what we need is a readymade Striker who can both craft his own chances and clinically finish, not some coin toss proposition…furthermore, we require someone who can raise MA’s tactical bar and not simply fit into a script that has never properly incorporated the Striker position

Cheers Tony & Madhu

Vieira
I’m having trouble processing the image of cheese buttons. Help, please…! As a confirmed camembertophobe and almost all things cheesy, I’m thinking about them and trying to suppress what the Scots call a boak. I’m starting to wonder if cheese buttons will forever live rent free in my Roquefort resistant mind. 🧀🧀🧀

I survived another day on the slopes with my band of misfits…a few minor bumps and bruises, but nothing of any permanence…then I proceeded to wolfed down what seemed like enough cheese buttons for a family of 5

KP—I don’t know all the particulars, but I could inquire if you would like…there’s several variations of differing descent, most notably German or Norweigan, and they can be sweet or savoury…kind of like a perogie, but with a thinner outer shell…you simply make egg noodles, cut them into palm-sized cricles, place a large dollop of your premade mixture, which should include cottage cheese, ricotta and egg, then fold them into a dumpling or tortellini-like shape…I like them best when they’re fried evenly on both sides until they’re ever so slightly burnt in the center…I’m sure you could find a whole host of more elaborate recipes online, but I prefer them in what most would describe as their most simplistic form…be careful though, as they tend to get really hot inside, so they’ll squirt a bit when first cut, kind of like in that Seinfeld episode when Frank, George’s father, was a cook in the army…Cheers

“Arsenal are considering signing Real Sociedad attacker Takefusa Kubo before the end of the January transfer window…He has four goals and two assists in 23 appearances across the La Liga and Europa League so far this term, and his versatility makes him the ideal signing for Arsenal…Kubo can play on both wings, through the middle and behind a striker, featuring in all these positions thus far in 2024-25…The Sociedad star weighed in with seven goals and four assists in 30 league games last term, and he ended 2022-23 with nine league goals and seven assists”

what’s with MA’s almost unhealthy infatuation with all things Sociedad-related? we’re talking about a side that has only finished higher than 4th 3 times in the last 40 years…now to be fair they’ve finished 6th or higher in each of the last 5 seasons and Isak’s success in the PL has undoubtedly raised their profile, so maybe they’re viewed by some as the Spanish equivalent of BHA or Atalanta, but I would hope if we were going to emulate another club we might want to set our sights just a tad higher

maybe now that his attempts to mimic the likes of Pep, Wenger, Moyes and even Pulis have failed to yield the desired results, he’s adopting a whole new approach, identify the best parts of an Europa-level Spanish side and slowly but surely relocate them to North London…first Merino, followed by Kubo and possibly Zubimendi, then bring in their DOF at season’s end, who’s already high on a shortlist to replace Edu…I must say, the whole thing is a bit too bizarro world for my liking

in regards to the player in question, his stats the last 3 seasons hardly jump off the page…as such, this for me reeks of settling…the underlying transfer costs and/or MA simply not wanting to bring in someone who might squeeze out his German bestie, shouldn’t even enter the equation, as neither should be high priority considerations when it comes to decisons of such import…MA’s continual pursuit of half-measure options have cost us dearly in years past, so it’s about time he stopped pissing around and put his big boy pants on…after all, it’s not fucking rocket science

wolf down

KP
Looked lively to me with missed headers being committed by both sides.

I watched the Chavs lose to Ipswich highlights this morning where they need to get the defense sorted out. They blow hot and cold up front, too.

TRVL
MA being MA again with his verbal diarrhoea, but has created a conundrum, does he start Havertz or Ethan at RW next game or does he drop Merino?

Tony
Agreed mate. I was beginning to worry about an unforeseen Chelsea renaissance, but some recent results have settled my disquiet. That they lost to Ipswich was pretty shocking given how absolutely piss the tractor driving, sheep shaggers were against us. Good to note that Brighton have hardly been pulling up trees recently either.

PS Thanks for taking a look at the clip. I know it’s not high end football but there’s a lot of commitment and will to win among these lads and the club is definitely on the up.

KP and other cheese lovers
Have you tried Baron Bigod? It is produced by Fen Farm near Bungay a few miles down the road from my Son.

If you like it warmed add a covering of fig jam to the surface, add slices of fresh figs and a sprinkling of Pistachios – bake for 4minutes at 150 C.

TRVL – the DoF position is a mystery. First you allow Edu to leave without having someone to replace him. Surely you have your strategic planning done for all key positions of a top club. Then you get into a window with no DOF and in charge of transfers. What does that indicate. It clearly points to the reason Edu left and now we go into Jan TW with Arteta in charge of recruitment. Does it mean that we will not get DOF at all? Isn’t it negligent and serious dereliction of duty not to have any DOF till now. Rumours are then floated on all possible names but no concrete development. This is in a season where Man City is probably at it worst and we are supposedly the most stable club yet we are fiddling with one of the most important position. Result is that Liverpool who just changed their manager are clear 9 points ahead at exactly half of the season games completed.
Not sure how to see this and also reconcile that the club is really stable and looking to win the league in a season when Man City is at its lowest point ever. What a serious lack of strategy from the club hierarchy or is it just power play and Josh is happy that we are being in enough revenue and winning trophies is really not his concern. Why give a novice of manager with no track record of anything the complete control over all things football? Bizarre state of affairs.