Kai Havertz has picked up an injury in Dubai. We had a front 3 of Martinelli, Saka and Havertz – all of those are injured. We are left with Nwaneri (an 18 year old), Trossard and Sterling (who is on loan). It was clear 2 seasons ago that we needed enforcement in attack and we ignored it completely. I don’t care if it’s the manager or the technical director or the club stopping such a move, I know the money was there and we spent it all on defenders. We have this approach of making sure to cover all ifs and buts in the defense while praying for the god if something happens in attack. And the pryaer didn’t work, so we are going to pay the price!
Kai Havertz is out for the season. Not that he was a prolific striker but we lack even the half decent options in attack and him missing at this season puts our season in jeopardy. Ultimately, Sterling will play on one side, Nwaneri on the other and Trossard in the middle. It doesn’t give me confidence at all.
I’m not sure if anyone had given attention to the attack, at all! Gabriel Jesus is an injury prone player, everyone knew that when he was at City. Havertz was brought as a midfielder who is covering the CF position, but it’s not like he is a TH14 incarnation whom we have moved from the wings to the middle. We needed a striker and we didn’t have one since Aubameyang left. It’s such a pathetic condition that if the twitter ITKs spread the rumours that we are in the market for Eddie Nketiah, I will feel happy!
All this crap of ‘titles are won in the defence’ makes sense when you have Mustafi in your line-up. Not when you have a 17 year keeping the likes of Zinchenko (45m), Calafiori (35m) away from the starting line up. You, at this level, should have identified that talent, stopped yourself from spending 40 odd millions in the defence and used that money to get a CF. We were ready to pay 40m for Ollie Watkins, Villa were asking for 60. 60million GBP for a decent striker at 29 years of age is YES any day when you have Jesus and Havertz to pick from. If you were out of money, you should have sold Zinchenko, or shouldn’t have bought Calafiori and used some of that money to fix the main problem.
I’m frustrated. Havertz is injured for the season and we have no one to fix this problem. We did nothing in the transfer window.
You know what Mikel will do? He will try to fix it by playing Merino or Trossard in that position. Be brave enough, accept your mistake and develop someone in that role from the academy. You got MLS, Saka, Nwaneri who is saving your arse, go and develop someone for a change rather than crying in every press conference. If you can’t do that and the only thing you know is spending 100m to fix a problem, you are just Pep without trophies.
Right, a short rant today. Hope you are doing well.
Tony
I’m guessing you agree with me now
Merino our new 9 finally playing sensible with thinking player.
Well until Martinelli’s back when there’s an argument for him to start through the middle I don’t want to see Sterling starting for us.
Over to Slot now. Pressure now on pool at last.
Marc
Sterling should be sent back to Chavs. He’s that bad and why Chavs didn’t want him.
Can someone tell me why City – Newcastle isn’t a televised match in the UK?
I mean the 5.30 kickoff is Palace vs Everton – we’ll all need some of Kroenke medicine to keep awake for that one.
Tony
No argument – we’d be better off investing the time in a youth player.
If on Hotstar, select Premier League tag. Thare all matches are listed.
Match has not started yet.
Maybe 12 minutes more
Marc try this streams. Really good.
https://soccer-100.com/
Thanks Madhu
It was more a who’s selecting the televised matches.
I couldn’t stream it so watched Cardiff get a late fighting draw against the Shit (aka Bristol City).
Arteta gets out of jail. Well done to the players.
Marc
Can you get a US or Europe company like peacock? We paid 20 Euros for a month in Madrid for Tazztv using a vpn.
KP
No Nwaneri and our season was over. Kid’s Brady and DB10 special. Hope we can keep him.
Good Cardiff got a point.
What do you guys think of the City legal win?
Merino has his limitations but he does have very good movement in the box and today that movement came to fruition thanks to 2 superb crosses from Nwaneri and trossard.
Arteta should take some credit for recognising that we needed a different type of option up front to allow us to put the Leicester defence under pressure from balls into the box.
Liverpool will now be looking over their shoulder in the knowledge that they have to go to villa park and the etihah in the next week , whilst we have West ham at home.
Let’s hope Nwaneri stays injury free until the end of the season as his performance today gives the belief that he can has the magic in his feet to break down defences , plus of course an exceptional football brain , put those 2 together and you get a world class footballer.
That was little more than a fortuitous win over a relegation side who has leaked goals all season long…clearly MA’s plan was to run things through Sterling on the left and to target Rice on crosses, as he was the most advanced player on far too many occasions…what a fucking shit plan and it proved to be just that…thankfully in the second half, when goals were required and Sterling was finally put out of his misery, we started to allow our best player, Ethan, to have a little more time on the ball…Merino simply became a viable target in the box, unlike Rice and the diminutive Tross, as that’s what he does best, but of course no one could have known that LC wouldn’t even mark him half of the time…it was like Xhaka in his final season all over again…now there will be some who will hail this maneuver, like there was some other option, and heap praise on our MIT, who clearly had other shitty plans in mind, but before we get too carried away, there’s certainly no guarantees that this would look similar if Merino was to start against sides that were given time to prepare…so this could be a one-off against a championship level side, unless MA stops pissing around with his Rice/Sterling-dependent amateur hour tactics and gets Ethan more involved early on…good reading this morning guys…Cheers to one and all
TRVL
It was either Cala or Merino as was all we had with height. I thought we’d go with Cala.
MA had no choice but to play height in the box as we were crossing to Tross with towering CBs around him. Rice proved he’s too slow up top.
I see City picking up now the FA clouds have lifted. Their win today amplifies that. Of course they have to put a run together starting with beating Pool.
Merino might have to play up to but again as you say managers will find it easy to deal with our 8 come 9.
Have cleared baking decks and found a dispensary type shop next to our apartment building. Spain loves its Moroccan chocolate or Zero zero which are favourites but right place wrong time.
We have to learn a whole new camera eco dust with lights and zero movement being 100mega pixels. Hasselblad used on the moon landing or in a huge hanger depending on what you believe in, but the potential for incredible results only work if you are 100% movement free. Our prints start at 2 meters by 2,3,4 + meters so quality is everything. Trigger the camera from the M4 ultra even if at 3000 feet on the firefly alta X.
So much to learn in the coming months. I’m ll drop you a line with all that’s going on now I’m in the Madrid apartment for the month.
Thought you’d be in your sports fun to see the game.
Good to be on European time again and not miss games any more.
Talk soon bud.🙏
Tony
You’re right. If EN and MLS cannot convince the Kroenkes of the virtues of promoting our own youth players in years to come, then nothing will. Arteta is a moron by contrast and a medíocre cheque book manager. I’m incredibly proud of both of them. It may even rekindle my interest in watching Ingerland if/when these two rightly become fixtures in the team.
Kroenke
Being rather generous with the description “mediocre”!
Eco system *
History will tell you that titles are won by winning games similar to our 2-0 victory v Leicester today.
Not every game will be a 5-1 city thumping, some may think it was a fortuitous win today , personally I think it was more to do with staying patient and disciplined as it would have been so easy to lose discipline against lowly opposition knowing that a draw was insufficient.
At the end of the day we have 4 forwards out , the 4 players that are regarded as our main goalscorers, so it is futile complaining about our lack of fire power , bringing in a new forward may or may not have helped, I would go with the latter as any player that comes in has to hit the ground running or would be slaughtered by certain fans and media.
So what we have is Merino scoring 2 goals in a 10 minute spell, is he a striker …of course not , but it’s good to know that we a player who can come on and contribute when needed.
Sterling is a worry as his performance today, especially in the 2nd half , was poor and that does present a problem for Arteta as it may mean playing a different system to accommodate a different type of player.
I get that there are many that dislike Arteta, I have never been his greatest fan but he has brought Arsenal back to a club who are in the top 10 in the world, possibly top 5 .
Some Arsenal fans are blinded by their agenda, I prefer to give credit or criticism where it’s due, there are too many who find it difficult to celebrate a win because of their narrative against Arteta which is sad really, though it’s probably the same fans who abused wenger for years …entitled I think they call it.
Wicksy
Arteta took over a squad who finished 2 points off 3rd the season before, had Saka, Saliba and Martinelli in it (plus lots of other players who were rated at the time) and has spent over £700 million.
He’s a cunt, a massive CUNT, a MASSIVE USELESS CUNT who’s going to bottle it again and this time not have the excuse that it’s “Pep”. He’s going to finish behind Slot who took over a squad that looked like it needed an overhaul, spent a tiny amount of money and is going to spank Arteta’s arse.
If you want to make excuses you won’t find them here.
Wicksy—I knew it was only a matter of time before you shed your sheep’s clothing…fortunately, or should I say unfortunately, we’re well-versed in your particular brand of fandom…first you spew some “never been his greatest fan” nonsense, in the hopes of giving off an objective observer vibe, then you proceed to recite many of the main tenets of the Kool-Aiders manifesto…talk about adding nothing to the conversation…and to think I was actually willing to tolerate your grade school level understanding of the sport for the greater good…well that fucking ship has sailed…buh-bye!
Tony—I remember when you raised the possibility of Cala playing up top, but for me it was always going to be a Merino gig…just like Havertz, he’s struggled to meet the demands of his original positional brief, so it only makes sense that MA would shoehorn yet another failed 8 up top…tbf he’s a much better in-box finisher than Kai, but he can’t play with his back to goal or cover the same amount of ground, so in order for him to succeed we’ll have to continue to stretch opposing defences then hope that he can continue to find space in and around the box…my concern is that this is much easier task when you’re being deployed as an 8 and have the luxury to come into the box late, versus when you’re the starting 9 and could receive considerably more attention by the opposition’s best defenders…regardless, it’s a much better option than watching Rice playing as a false 9 or having to rely upon a clearly inept Sterling…personally I would still like to see us actually maximize our current roster by employing a back 3 with wingbacks, but that seems to be a bridge too far for our tactically-stunted skipper
great to hear that things are going according to planned in Spain…take care bud
What if I told you there’s a 22 year old striker who scored 2 hattrick for Monaco recently, has 7 goals in 5 games and one for the future?
Yeah, he was an Arsenal player and we sold him for 10m GBP.
The Spuddies vs ManU could be a good match for the neutral (well as neutral as we can be anyway) this afternoon.
Can’t win vs Can’t stop losing (not sure which is which!) should see some goals. What us interesting is the vibes coming out of the Spud fan base is a general malaise about the Fat Aussie and how long will he last but the angry is really turning on Levy.
I think Levy is amazing and should do whatever it takes to keep his position even if that means banning for life any and all ST holders who protest.
15 unbeaten in the league , top 3 in the champions league , 4 points behind Liverpool in a season that that has been blighted by abysmal decisions against Arsenal and many medium and long term injuries in the squad including tomiyasu, calafiori, zinchenko, white, Odegaard, saka , jesus and now havertz and martinelli.
Arteta has managed the squad well, we still have the best defence in the league, yes he has been fortunate in that we have 2 potentially world class players coming through the ranks which have dug Arteta out of a massive hole that could have ended very badly for him.
Under Arteta I’ve always believed our strikers have a thankless job leading the line, the play very rarely goes through the striker in normal play , it is the wide players who benefit in the Arteta system whilst the striker is often just a passenger during games feeding off scraps. So although there is this constant reference to Arsenal needing a prolific striker , I don’t quite see it like that as we score goals from many different avenues, the only striker that would really interest me who would guarantee goals and improvement to the team is isak , the rest of the names mentioned constitute a gamble, so hopefully we are going to put all our eggs in one basket and offer 150 mil for isak in the summer, failing that we may have a striker coming through the ranks.
We all know that as soon as we struggle or fail to score in a game in the coming weeks there will be over the top criticism about our failure to secure a striker in the window, to me that is a very simplistic way of looking at things as all sides with or without their first choice forward line can have an off day( Newcastle yesterday).
Our tactics and performance during a game are usually guided by the score on the pitch, if we are to close the gap and win the league we need to control the outcome better instead of being reactive, yesterday’s game was a case in point as it was an even game until we put our foot down to win with 2 late goals
Against a team like Leicester who go into the game with very little confidence I believe we should look to dominate the game and not allow the opposition confidence to grow, yesterday was a game that could easily gone wrong due to our inability to dominate the game and create chances.
The Liverpool/wolves game today is a potential banana skin for Liverpool, a draw is probably the best we can hope for but ultimately Liverpool will probably be too good for wolves.
Wicksy
A billion pound squad that still doesn’t have a striker and bottles it whenever the pressure is on.
Arteta is a third rate manager and a CUNT. I don’t have time for fan boys.
TRVL
When all said and done we are not too far apart in our opinions on Arteta and the team’s players and performances so I’m not sure why you were so triggered by my recent post.
The main difference is I find it much easier to give credit to the manager and certain players when they deserve it.
I like the fact we have competed for the title in the past 3 seasons though our performances in cup comps have been abysmal.
There have been times and there still are times when I have hated Arteta’s style of football , very negative , very boring, recycling football that I have no time for.
The lifeline at the moment is Nwaneri and skelly , I’m not sure the football can be boring with those 2 to light up the game , they are so positive in every thing they do , I suppose the fear is that Arteta will coach the individual brilliance out of them in his pursuit of disciplined team play, if that happens then any criticism of Arteta will be deserved.
I’ve always believed the manager is the most important person at the club but that has changed with the arrival of Nwaneri and skelly on the scene, those 2 will help lead The Arsenal to success whoever is the manager as they are already putting in motm performances week in week out, if the academy keeps producing the quality of saka , Nwaneri and skelly then the future looks bright, I think Jack wilshere probably deserves some credit for the development of Nwaneri/skelly .
TRVL
It takes great courage, or rather obdurate stupidity to come on again after pants have fallen to the ankles.
After all ,in such a situation it would be sensible to cover the arse(ts)and vampoose gracefully