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.
Kilroy
Speaks volumes to us, but not KSE. What I can’t understand is why a serial loser is given so much power?
With us winning nothing for 5 years bar a lucky covid cup, it begs the question what Lewes was hired to do? From where we sit keeping the CL status quo is probably TL’s main remit. if we win the league, it’s a bonus, which was Wenger’s mantra.
If all Josh is interested in is keeping things in a rough financial order, where all the leveraged loans will evaporate as soon as our autonomous streaming starts adding to our coffers, then it doesn’t matter who the manager is so long as CL football is achieved.
The thing about power is it can be given and equally taken away just as quick. Edu knows MA can’t ride his luck forever, and jumped ship. Probably absorbed all MA’s blame by doing so with the back stabbing that always goes on with such debacles.
You and I prefer rugby internationals if they are at the same time, and I tend to watch Pool, Chavs and Fulham than watching us recently.
How damning is that, Kilroy? How many other long term gooners feel like us?
All we want is to witness is similar football quality to the aforementioned, but we get disjointed, scrappy football with MA citing ludicrous excuses that only make sense to him. To have to watch our rivals or with KP local football to get our football fix is as incredulous as it sounds.
Do we have any idea what our line up is for tomorrow? Are we confident of the win tomorrow with our current and this season’s form?
I have no idea of the end result tomorrow and wouldn’t like to guess, would you?
That’s our manager for you. We could as easily win by three goals, as lose by 3.
Good find Killroy—of course we all knew this was a Wenger reboot script, but it’s good to see others at least talking about it, as there’s no doubt in my mind that all of MA’s PR minions were desperately trying to bury that lead at the time of Edu’s rather abrupt exodus
on another note, I found the article below the one you were referencing to be quite intriguing, as it spoke about MA’s glaring lack of investment when it came to attacking options:
“The Arsenal boss explained four reasons for that:
(1) Because Arsenal already have good attackers
(2) Because strengthening other areas of the pitch was more important
(3) Because of player availability
(4) Because of Arsenal’s inability to afford their key targets”
this disingenuous/delusional nonsense had Wenger’s fingerprints all over it, in that it read like a montage of responses Arsene had given to various media outlets during his second term in office
(1) let’s face it, everyone with eyes and even a rudimentary understanding of the sport knows that we don’t have the attacking horses to reasonably compete for trophies
(2) as to the strengthening in other areas bullshit, is he really trying to suggest it was more important to purchase 7 keepers and 15 fucking defenders before acquiring a bona fide Striker and/or anyone of real import up top??? what a fucktard
(3) in regards to the old Wengerian bugaboo involving the supposed lack of available talent, I simply say fuck that shit…I never believed it then and I believe it even less now
(4) the audacity of this spendthrift prick to actually utter those words, or something similar, speaks to his glaring lack of self-awareness…even if that were the case it would only be down to the fact that he already spent so much money on luxury buys, half measures and square peg fucks
I can only hope that this was some sort of lost in translation situation and the author completely misread MA’s responses, but I highly doubt it…Cheers
Tony—we’re in total agreement when it comes to Kroenke’s rather lame and uninspiring ownership model, thus the reason why I’ve always referred to him as an absentee landlord, but when it comes to our particular case I lay the blame squarely at the feet of our manager…the reason for this is rather simple, as all of his other major franchises have found a way to win, even though his actual involvement has been minimal at best (except maybe with the Rams and that was only because he forced a move to LA so he could build a 5 billion dollar stadium on land he already owned)…in each of those situations he let those in the know do what they do best, without interfering, then simply opened his purse strings when each said they were on the precipice of winning…in our case, when MA made the call, Kroenke opened the vault, but our little MIT cocked things up, not once but twice, when it mattered most…this is probably why it appeared as if we needed to sell before we brought in any new pieces last summer, as MA had to pay a price for his repeated failure to live up to his end of the bargain…how sad would it be if we missed our window both on the pitch and with our owner…Cheers
TVRL, Tony – iam convinced that MA will be in the job till he delivers cash to the owners which is there and there abouts in PL and CL every year. That will keep revenues flowing in he won’t be under any pressure to win anything. Of by chance Barca comes for MA he will jump ship otherwise he is in the most cushy job ever. On odd occassions without much effort he will probably win any domestic cups but I really doubt he can deliver any PL or CL for us.
We have seen this all during later Wenger years but where I differ and still respect Wenger is he is still the last manager tk have delivered is a PL that too as invincibles. So respects to the man and laos the fact that he has remained anonymous and distant from the club unlike Fergie who seems to be ever present in Man U. What Wenger has proved is that if there is someone challenging you at every step line Dein and you are under pressure to delivery trophies with the right setup if you are a good manager at a big club you will deliver trophy. Well looks like our owners dont want that and are happy with a healthy P&L. That brings me to a fundamental question. At what point of time the Kreonkes think that Thier investment has borne fruit and sell the club to make profit and invest into some other pet project they have?
“Tony—we’re in total agreement when it comes to Kroenke’s rather lame and uninspiring ownership model, thus the reason why I’ve always referred to him as an absentee landlord,”
They’ve let Arteta spend best part of £800 million in 5 years – where they are at fault is not putting in place senior management to oversee the spending and stop the ridiculous devaluing of players that Arteta decides he doesn’t want.
Latest TW diatribes from MA that sounds very Wengerish. From the Mirror
Arteta said: “First of all, someone that can impact the team, bringing in bodies doesn’t help us all. It’s just about somebody who can immediately impact our performance and can bring something that we don’t have. To find that in this market is very difficult to achieve.
“We set very high standards and we really only want to have players, if they come through the academy or we have to sign those players to really elevate and impact the team, otherwise bringing bodies it doesn’t help us.
“If you look at a sample of a game or two or three, that’s a very small sample. You cannot use that, we don’t use any short samples because they don’t correlate to team performance when you look at a year or two, and the team performance, scores, the amount of players that are involved. There is no discussion that we have to focus on our players.”
“We always have discussions with the ones above about how we can improve the team, whether the market is open or closed because you have to plan for what the necessities are right now and what they could be in a month,” he added. “Those discussions are always open. I have so much support from the board, and I continue to have it. We are all sitting and willing to do the same; just to win the maximum amount of football matches in the way that we want to play.”
“And achieve ultimately the goals that we want to achieve which is to win trophies. That support to continues to be there. Every manager when he is appointed is for a reason, but the reasons can be different.
“Sometimes it’s just to improve a football team and get more performance out of certain players, sometimes it’s to transform to the football club. That’s a totally different dimension of a job, and if I have to relate to mine at that time, it was more towards that than the previous one I mentioned.”
Completely out of touch manager…….. I rest my case………….
Madhu
KSE is waiting for the super league and individual club’s global streaming….
They are just biding their time. Tried once with other clubs and failed but they will get it done in the end.
Tony – I agree super league with no relagation is right in the alley of Kreonkes. I do believe they were one of the few owners who spear headed the earlier attempt. It was almost a testing of waters and thur saw the backlash. They will bide time and during these years they have built narrative about ref decision, PSR etc and use them as reason for super league. Next attempt they will be more prepared and I suspect they may not worry about fans backlash. They will plough ahead and as usual we the fans will cave in after all we addicted to out club and football.
A super league will never happen (at least not in the next 20 – 30 years) if it means the end of the PL. Playing Real Madrid, Milan or Barca etc is exciting but the bread and butter of the fans who attend matches is the Monday morning banter after playing West Ham, Palace etc.
What people need to understand is why the PL has been so successful – its because of stadiums full of vocal passionate fans and the money being distributed in a far more equal way than how La Liga used to do it for example.
Pissed off fans and empty stadiums don’t generate big TV deals.
Marc
I agree with your thinking and hope your estimated timing is correct as I doubt I’ll live to see it.
Stadiums will be full or tourists, not fans as often the Emirates has too many tourist fans.
LIR
I turned down Liverpool and Chelsea interest – now I could join Arsenal for £58million’ The Mirror says.
Ronald Araujo has reportedly told his Barcelona team-mates that he’s eyeing a January move to Arsenal amidst rumoured interest from Mikel Arteta, according to a report from Spain
Another defender……. words fail me here.
Back to today’s game, what do we think?
As I said yesterday, I have no idea how to call the result.
I go for a goal scoring draw……
I was sitting at my screen and trying to decipher what language MA spoke other than Spanish and machine gun patter English?
At first, I thought he spoke that more unrelenting “Utter Bollocks” but felt on further reading and sound bites, that the more final but more incredulous “Complete Bollocks” was more appropriate.
As much as the latter fit’s MA’s narratives where MA tells anyone who will listen to his excuses of winning nothing, but saying his he’s achieved many new records in 5 years – omitting most were breaking negative records going back many decades.
I’ve finally come to the conclusion MA’s preferred language is:
I-have-no-idea-what-the-fcuk-I’m-doing, and where as such makes it up as he goes along……
To be fair to Mikel that’s a language few would understand and rates below Dysche & Pulis where even Moyes speaks more sense.
I’m guessing the obvious A+ demographics, and well bred & groomed Tim Lewes is not an aficionado of such languages, as I fail to see how Tim can make sense of anything that comes out of MA’s mouth or would be taken in by such ludicrous excuses.
If Josh is happy with MA’s non-sensical, football patois, then poor Tim will find it hard to dissuade TRVL’s bond villain that in football winning is everything and we keep losing from top position.
Thinking about it from a son & father who wanted a super league with no relegation, the emphasis from them to win is most likely below the bottom line requirements for the club to keep in the CL where the rookie will come good some time.
Yet here we are, Edu’s left and we have Wenger 2.0 in MA keeping KSE’s little UK business ticking over nicely having probably doubled in value.
I think we are where KSE wants to be, so they are happy with the financial status quo.
We may well have MA for at least another 3 years………
It does make me wonder if there’s actually any irons in the fire when the most talked about transfers involve an exceedingly messy and disinterested Rashford, a Barca defender, Ronald Araujo, who from a positional standpoint should be the least of our concerns, and some Norwegian kid, Sverre Nypan, who’s nowhere near ready for prime time…hardly inspiring stuff…it’s so quiet around here that no one’s even wasting their time making shit up…maybe that’s why MA was pleading with the fanbase to stick with him, as he knows there’s little to no chance that anyone of consequence is heading our way in this window…it’s another classic call to arms by our excuse-laden fuckwad
as for today’s affair, it’s difficult to imagine MA not starting whomever he considers to be his best 11, even with our Spurs derby in 3 days time…personally I would place considerably more emphasis on our mid-week fixture, but I get the feeling that MA’s desperate as fuck for some silverware and right now this is looking like the most plausible pathway…I can’t believe I’m saying this, as you know my feelings on the matter, but I hope he simply leans into his flavour of the year bully-ball tactics, as this United side has struggled when defending set pieces this season
as for our opponents, it’s incredibly difficult to predict what version of United we’ll face, but injuries or no injuries we should find a way to win this rather convincingly…problem is, I said likewise before the Newcastle match and we all know how that turned out…this could actually be an ugly affair as I’m not exactly sure where the goals will come from…we’re struggling in front of goal and many of their most likely goalscorers are either “suspended” or in the doghouse
I think Man U and Amorim will be up for this. They know that Arsenal is vulnerable as of now and they what to make a stmt. Amorim would want to make a statement and show that he has arrived. As regards to us and MA have we heard lately about his co called JDP or it’s all now muddies into a No money narrative. No idea who is in charge of our club and what’s going on. But club seems to have learnt headline management while a crisis brews underneath. May be iam overreacting and everything is probably according to a plan.
ManU are all over the place but they seem to be performing in bigger matches – beating City and getting a draw against Liverpool which they could have won late on.
If they’re up for it today they’ll give us problems purely because we’re struggling to score.
Are you going to the game, Marc?
Hi Tony,
Not today (I haven’t been for a couple of months) didn’t take up the option of the cup ticket – too bloody cold to watch Arteta fuck things up again.
Arteta taking a massive risk by dropping both Rice and Partey.
my feed has been delayed because the fucking Spurs couldn’t score a single goal against Tamworth until extra time…we had better beat their brains in on Wednesday after that showing
TRVL
Not missing much it’s a pretty even stale mate