Ladies and Gentlemen, we took another trip around the Sun and celebrated like it’s the last one. But it’s not, and we have to get back to business in our personal, professional and football world. I will let you deal with the first two, but lets talk about football. We are playing Brentford today on their ground. It’s going to be a tough one because Brentford had a great home run in 2024, they are very well coached for set pieces and we have an injury to our best player.
It shouldn’t deter us though, we saw what happened with Chelsea after a great run and there’s a very good chance that Liverpool will have a bad phase sometime soon. We need to remain closer to them to take advantage of the situation and we need to win today for that.
Team news
Bukayo Saka is out injured for a long time. Sterling is suffering from a knee injury. Ben White and Tomiyasu have not recovered from their injuries as well. But there’s a surprize today in the lineup which we have been asking since long.
Here’s the line up to play –
Nwaneri starts at right wing. Timber and Calafiori are back in the defence so MLS has to sit this one out on bench. Declan Rice gets some rest for Merino with Thomas Partey anchoring that midfield, while Nwaneri and Martinelli starts on the wings and Jesus plays in the centre. There’s no Havertz today, not sure about the reason but I don’t have anything to complain.
We certainly are going to miss Bukayo but lets see what Ethan offers in his first ever Premier League start. I would have loved to see him play in midfield but if he benefits from Saka’s absence, he will have a big claim for that midfield position once starboy is back.
Right, I will keep it short today. Hope you had a blast and lets see out the first day of the year on the positive note with a massive WIN. Liverpool are not backing down and are probably in a place where they will go ahead and win this, but there’s always a chance and a win today will make sure we remain in the mix.
See you during the game.
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👀
Fuck
Timber gets a yellow and will miss the next game now.
Nwaneri showing his class on the ball Jesus nets for us
What the fuck was Raya doing, and then what a save from David Raya, with a second. Good goal from Partey + Jesus. We are back in the match now.
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
Nwaneri is going to be the next big thing from academy after Saka. We can only wish he plays in place of Merino and that partnership between him and Marts could be better than what Saka + ode provides.
Still 30 min to go, lets score couple more and be done with this.
New Year, no streaming. I’ll have to do with the highlights. It sounds like we’ve really turned it around.
We went down 1-0. Raya almost gave away the second one and we levelled within a minute of that. And we scored couple more, looked in control even after conceding first. That’s a very impressive WIN because we look lost whenever the other team scores against us.
Nwaneri had a great game. Calafiori will have tough times starting games ahead of MLS in 6 months. Jesus > Havertz.
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.