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.
Great game at Fulham with a sublime outside of the boot 30 yard curve to the RWcwho earns a pen that’s converted for 2:2 in the 89 th minute.
Fulham pushing for a winner.
Game of 3 penalties all right calls with VAR doing its job
Liverpool ManU could be seen as the game that effectively decided the PL and it could happen on the 5th January.
ManU one up – absolutely lashed in.
Madhu—great follow-up post, especially your commentary regarding MA’s lack of confidence in our ability to defend against the counter, which makes it even more confounding that our 100+M DM isn’t being deployed in his best position…let’s not forget that Rice actually played as a CB before moving into the midfield, so why wouldn’t you simply have your best 3 defenders, Saliba, Rice and Gabs, acting in that capacity, then have everyone else in play in more advanced positions…this simply further confirms my suspicions about the assurances that were given to the former Hammer captain upon signing, which is why I was so infuriated by MA’s claims the other day about him not needing to convince anybody to come here…when he says such disingenuous shit it reminds me of Wenger, during his latter term, when he was so fucking disrespectful to the fanbase…what makes it doubly disturbing is that not only did Rice get what he wanted from a positional perspective, even though it didn’t make footballing sense, he likewise didn’t help us whatsoever when it came to getting his deal over the line, which cost us a sizeable chunk of change…in my estimation, the whole transaction was a cake and eat it too fuckfest
it seems to me that MA simply came to the realization that he can’t compete with the best managers in the final third, tactically-speaking, so this is why he dumbed-down our tactics…think about it, why would it take 5 fucking years and 4+ phases to achieve such rudimentary ends…if this was what was in store why not hire the best set piece guru in the business day one, then buy every 6+foot fuck you could find…this looks far more like the start of something not the finished product…maybe MA’s dyslexic, but too proud to admit it!?!
TVRL- the kicker is the time hen we were buying rice Pool were buying Gravenberch and MacAllister for combined price of less than 100 M. Yet rice is being played in a position where he hasn’t made his name. I can’t understand the penchant to for square pegs in round holes.
it appears like Ethan has some sort of muscular injury, so at least MA’s halftime subbing wasn’t utter stupidity on his part…maybe he should have given him some more minutes throughout the season so he wasn’t so susceptible to injury during this more problematic period…anyways, it’s too bad for the kid,, hopefully it’s nothing serious and he’ll be back on the bench in no time…see what I did there?
there’s little doubt now that we’re going to have to consider bringing in a reinforcement or two…just worried about how MA will deal with that situation, especially with the kind of players I’m seeing rumours about in the last day or so…there’s a belief that none of MA’s supposed preferred options up top are available in this window, even though I’m not still not convinced that he’s looking for one, so it’s likely going to be a nothing burger move or a loan…all I can say is if it’s the latter, it better not include an obligation to buy!!
Madhu—at that time, I spoke at length about our all eggs in one basket approach, considering the dollars involved and what Pool had done…of course, no one would ever argue against the notion that we got by far the best player of the bunch, but that wouldn’t be the case if we had known all along that Declan was coming here to rewrite his positional script…knowing what we know now, he might have the lowest ceiling of the bunch, as all 3 of Pool’s midfield buys are younger and being deployed appropriately…the last thing we need is players emulating MA’s “prove everybody wrong” MO or even my “hail mary” hope of us winning in spite of the manager, if we were to acquire a few readymade finishers, will never come to fruition
Morning all
Watching the Manure/Pool first half I wasn’t surprised to see Manure finally back to playing as a team again. Until now, it’s been too many solo efforts where they lost possession to give away silly goals, and far too many of them.
The conditions made it a typical UK winter night of freezing rain where mistakes were easily come by that wouldn’t be made normally.
It was Like United have just woken from a long slumber, and it took playing their most hated rivals to wake the beast up again.
If I were MA, I’d be very worried playing MU in our current state, and where March 8th away at Old Trafford will be a must win for both sides. I don’t see Saka being ready for that, do you TRVL? You have better knowledge of injuries and recovery times, than I. Michael Owen, the hammy tear king, says he can’t see Saka playing in March after going under the knife.
Watching the game last night we would not have beaten either side, as their energy alone was far higher that us against BHA, where both sides stifled each other with insane pressing. We would have crumbled or got a red card.
This weekend has shown that City and United can push on from their respective wins. The Chavs, too, can get a run together, so, also in the mix to take points, but not win the league.
What we have going for us is we are home for the next 5 games:
Newcastle & Manure in the lesser cups.
Spuds & Villa in the PL
Dinamo Zagreb in the CL.
With home advantage all winnable with the right selections and tactics.
It really is all down to MA in the current TW, and then, getting everything right, which is akin to asking Stevie Wonder to play in goal asking for a clan sheet.
TRVL
As soon as you mentioned Ethan having a musical niggle earlier I immediately thought he hasn’t had enough minutes prior and last season to build muscle game strength and durability.
Nope! MA has just gone all last-resort, as is his way and thrown Ethan in the deep end wanting him to be the next Phelps. Had MA introduced Ethan to the shallow end and progressed from there, Ethan would be pulling up Fabregas type trees now, and making us tick in MF while scoring goals.
Has MA realized Ethan has more PL goals than Ode with only 2 PL starts?
Now, Ethan is laid up WITH MA frothing at the mouth to play him, so expect more Artetarization for poor Nwaneri.
We lost a good chance to gain ground on Slot this weekend, and blew it. I don’t see Slot dropping more points than us to the end of the season, do you?
All I can see going forward are disjointed and unbalanced teams being put out by MA.
What are your views guys?
Tony – the narrative after yesterday’s game is that league is back on from Arteta lovers blog. Apparently pool fluffed thier lines yesterday. The weather was horrific and yet we were served a very entertaining end to end game.
I really don’t know what MA is going to do in TW or setup the team like. I think it’s safe to assume that he will go conservative and setup like Brighton game and look to be tight at the back and win 1-0. In the two PL games both spurs and villa are not at thier best. So it may work out that we will beat both of them but 1-0 may be a doubt. Both sides are capable of scoring goals but I suspect Emery will setup a low block and look to counter us. Spurs I have no clue what they will serve up but if I were Ange I would look at it as a opportunity to get one over Arsenal. We are not at our best and surely will have player availability issues. It’s going to be interesting though
Madhu
“I can’t understand the penchant to for square pegs in round holes. ”
Ans – small duck ?
Okay , someone has to fill in the hole in the conversation when Art Fraud is not showing up, right ?
“While Arsenal’s primary targets like Alexander Isak and Benjamin Sesko seem unattainable until summer, Arsenal are reportedly considering other options such as Brighton’s Evan Ferguson. The potential acquisition of Ferguson might involve a loan with an option to buy, reflecting Arsenal’s strategy to find a cost-effective solution in the short term”
regardless of what’s being suggested above, by the sounds of things BHA is looking to secure an obligation to buy clause in any loan agreement involving this oft-injured one year wonder…they likely have the leverage required to achieve those ends too, as there’s several teams circling their respective wagons…to me it looks like a sucker’s bet, regardless of his age/size profile
you simply must ask yourself, why would BHA push for any such stipulation if they believe their own claims about his potential up-side…this simply tells me that they’re more worried about things going tits-up and his value taking a hit, than him coming good, as this could cost them a considerable sum and Bloom very rarely gets caught with his pants down…fuck, he can’t even get significant minutes in a side that’s been missing Welbeck for over a month and struggling for goals as of late
of course, I hope I’m wrong, as I too saw glimpses, but that was quite some time ago now…clearly something’s gone horribly awry along the way…whether it’s a behavioural issue or it’s as simple as their current manager is unwilling to rely too heavily on someone with such a spotty injury history, matters very little, as both should be considered serious red flags for our little project manager…after all, he’s certainly not a fan of problem child-types and the only reason MA’s really out their looking for top-side help is because of our own injury-related issues
speaking of bargain bin hunting, the other rumour making the rounds revolves around a little known Brazilian, Igor Jesus, who up until a month ago never had a MV above 9M…since that time his MV has reached new heights at around 15M, undoubtedly because we’ve been sniffing around…as is too often the case nowadays, he somehow has a 100M release clause, but those in the “know” believe he could be had for around 20M…this reeks of a classic South American transfer grift
now I get the thought-processs behind the whole cost-effective approach, as this isn’t typically the window when top talent is dealt, but this philosophy falls flat if we become unnecessarily tied to this stop-gap option, vis-a-vis an obligation to buy clause, or if we invest in someone who’s simply coming in for appearances’ sake and is unlikely to have an impact in the run-up…Cheers
For a good reason called El Bastardo
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/arsenal-mikel-arteta-aubameyang-row-34431037
Hoopah
How many other players have had the same treatment from El B. Quite a few I expect.
Tonight will be interesting. Isak was available in 2022. AFC have a good relationship with Real Sociedad and Isak was keen to move to North London. Our manager wasn’t convinced but has now changed his mind when the players worth is 125% more. A year later we purchased Havertz – made him our highest earner. Who would Saka prefer to play alongside?
“The Gunners have been criticised at times this season for being too defensive when going ahead in games and not building on their leads…But Arteta insists this is not an instruction he is giving to his players…sometimes the opposition forces you to do that, sometimes you are not good enough in certain areas to allow you to do that”
so let me get this straight, he started 4 midfielders, including Partey at RB, none of whom are going to scare any opposition in the final third, yet he staunchly claimed that his main objective was an offensive one…for fuck’s sake, he started Rice in place of Ode…I don’t think he has an honest bone left in his body
Hoopah—I’ve read a few articles regarding the breakdown of their relationship, as Auba has discussed it at length on a couple occasions…now of course this is only one side of the story, but I’m fairly certain if his account was too off-base MA, or his people, would have found a way to refute anything he felt was egregious…regardless, both have dirty hands in this regards, as Auba clearly took advantage of the situation at times, whereas our “in over his head” manager mishandled the situation…to make matters worse, he used the situation to turn the fanbase against the very player he had given both a highly lucrative deal and the captain’s armband, just a few months earlier
sadly, we’ve seen this ruse before, as Wenger had done likewise with Sanchez…both cases were amateur hour personified, as neither served the best interests of the club as a whole…frankly, I was more disappointed by Arsene’s actions, as he should have known better, whereas MA was swimming in it and looking for any scapegoat that might give him a bit longer leash…in the end, his actions have played a role regarding his inablility to recruit players of any note, as they clearly don’t trust him
as for today’s first-leg affair, it will be interesting to see our starting 11, as it will tip his hand regarding his priorities…if we field our best possible 11, it suggests that he desperately wants some hardware, regardless of the fact that it’s a second tier trophy, but if he rests several of our regular starters, especially those with niggling injuries or those who’ve been ill recently, then it will give the impression that he’s prioritizing our League fixtures…I’m hoping that it’s the latter, but considering our lack of hardware over the last half decade, it’s likely the former, as he needs something to spin.to his choirboys
Arteta going about as strong as he can so outside of an argument about Havertz coming in for Jesus next to no rotation.
Don’t win on the night or see players fatigued on Sunday and it could massively backfire on him. Personally I’d always favour the FA Cup over League Cup and ManU are bordering on an unknown quantity.
Tross is a lucky boy not to get at least a yellow for that little maneuver on Isak…how will the tin foilers explain away that?
I dare Marts to try and hit a post any harder
MA’s clearly desperate for silverware, maybe instead of putting out his best side in a second tier cup, he should have invested in a real Striker like Isak this past summer or the year prior!!!
So one of the best and most on form strikers in the PL and who was marking him?
Ode sort of got a shove and didn’t bother to track but where were Saliba, Gabriel, Timber, Rice or Partey?