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.
TRVL
Sorry mate but you just don’t understand how higher thinking in football works – you don’t buy a really good striker to play as a striker that would be a round peg in a round hole. You buy a Giraffe who’s more midfielder and then get him to spend half his time dropping wide right than push up through the middle, you buy CB’s and play them as RB’s.
One day you’ll get it.
another ref gift, which somehow included a Joelinton yellow…let’s take this opportunity
enjoyable first 45, minus the scoreline…not exactly sure what’s next if Tross is actually injured
that’s what football is like when you take your chances…half my kingdom for a clinical finisher
sadly enough, Isak might have priced himself out of a move to North London
It’s nights like this that remind you that Arteta isn’t just a poor manager he’s a complete fuckwit.
Havertz bumper sticker “Got it all wrong”
Rice looks like he wants it not sure that can be said of a few of the others.
Marc—I prefer the term fucktard but fuckwit will do the trick
You say tomato!
I’m surprised that Isak’s coming off…maybe we already made an initial bid!!!
Too static and way too fucking constipated. I wonder if the pre match meal involved some of the Vieira family cheese buttons?
Displays like this give the lie to the idea that Tets cares about domestic cups. Sack him -he’s a lying bastard. Really shit tonight
Nobody taking anyone on and therefore no penetration and zero chances. Arteta is a piss poor con man.
“Too static and way too fucking constipated”
Enough about you Kroenke – what do you think of the football?
(BTW you’ve got to give me credit for not making that a Starmer joke!)
there was a perfect example of what’s wrong with our squad a few minutes back…on the counter Havertz shifted from the right flank into an open pocket of space in the middle of the pitch…he signals for a pass, which was quickly provided…he then sees Rice bombing up his left and leads him into a wide pocket of space…it’s the first time in awhile that we’ve had a numbers advantage in their final third, but instead of setting up someone else up, Rice takes a shot with his wrong foot, even though Willock’s now caught up and will easily block his misguided attempt with his foot…that kind of selfish bullshit isn’t going to win us anything
setting up someone else (no second “up”)
we’ve had all sorts of opportunities, as they’ve been rather sloppy at the back, yet still no goals to be found…even one tally could change the complexion of the return match, as Newcastle could puke all over themselves if they’re asked to defend a one goal lead for 90+ minutes
sad state of affairs, as we needed a clincial finisher or two before Saka went down…what now then??
Well well that’s a hard watch. I really wonder if we practice shooting at all. Martinelli would have buried prior to MA training him for sure. Even the corners are not going in anymore. Today we had around 15 of them with the same routine and nothing coming out of them.
I was telling my son there is no way MA is going to be sacked. It’s like Arsene as long as he gets into CL he is making enough revenue for Josh. The day he drops out of CL then there is a chance that Josh will think about sacking him. The other way is Barcelona one fine day call MA to be their manager then we will be relieved of him.
Arteta ball so ponderous , backwards and forwards, sidewards. Same rinse and repeat.
Since Arteta’s arrival we’ve been subjected to a whole host of rather embarassing post-match interviews where our MIT has offered up a plethora of excuses in an attempt to explain away poor results…typically he leans into a storyline that his most ardent supporters will easily glom onto, like something related to officiating, but not today…instead he went full batshit crazy:
Arteta admitted his side must be more clinical but also believes they were not helped by the match ball: “Very different to a Premier League ball, and you have to adapt to that because it flies different, when you touch it the grip is very different as well so you adapt to that.”
one can only hope that this was simply an epic brain fart and he didn’t actually believe that both sides were playing with a different ball…after all, Newcastle didn’t seem to require the same sort of adjustment period when it came time to produce…maybe he’s become such a pathological liar that he can no longer differentiate between fact and fiction…let’s hope there’s some sort of capacity clause in his contract so he can get the help he needs and we can bring in a real manager
Good morning all
Really enjoyable commentary to read this morning.
Needless to say I didn’t even bother looking for a replay preferring LIR’s version of events.
It’s a familiar old Wenger styled stats’ game:
3 shots on target and 10 off with 10 shots blocked.
70% possession
11 corners – no set piece goals from corners
And yet we lost 0:2 where MA is blaming the balls now for the high wide and handsome shots. I didn’t read the Mirror’s interview with MA, what is the point?
At the moment I’m finding less and less to write here because I don’t want to sound like a broken record because of MA’s continual repetitive mistakes and new BS.
Finally, a game that finishes just before midnight against Manure for me, but City, Pool and Chavs have got Saltford, Accrington Stanley & Morecambe respectively, in the cup so should be resting their squad with rotations.
MA will want to get bragging rights over Amorim and could well come unstuck Sunday if Manure plays like they did against Pool.
An interesting game I can’t call either way.