Well, a lot of things are not going our way recently. We have had some horrendous performances recently, we have fallen a bit in the title race and our technical director has left. We had injuries and it affected the way we played our games, we also had refereeing decisions going against us. Most important of all, it was a failure from the manager to not plan for it in advance. It was a failure of manager to not motivate players to play the way he wants. If you tell me that we can’t play the way we want if couple of players from starting XI are not available, then what’s the point of having a 24-man squad? You won’t have a 100% favourable condition, no matter which team you manage in whatever era. Today, against Inter Milan, on a Champions League night, away from home is the perfect place to show the world it was just a hiccup, and not the way forward. Let us make an statement with the ball.
Right, here I am in all the doom and gloom, EXCITED for the Champions League.
Team News
Lets start with a good news, Martin Odegaard is back in full training today. We needed him so badly to fix the creativity in that midfield and to get back on winning terms. He may not start straightaway but he would have some role to play tomorrow in case things don’t go as planned. Ben White was used as a substitute against Newcastle and should be available for the game. Declan Rice hasn’t travelled with the team, as a precaution to some discomfort. There’s no statement yet from the club but he is certainly not playing.
Arteta confirmed in his press conference when asked about Declan Rice
Declan unfortunately picked an injury against Newcastle. He was able to finish and he wasn’t feeling good the last few days. We’ll have to assess him on Thursday and see if he’s ready for Chelsea.
source: Arsenal.com
On Odegaard,
The positive news, Martin it’s great to have him back. He trained with us first time today. He’s a bit earlier than expected. But it’s great to have him here and we will decide if we use him tomorrow.
source : Arsenal.com
Back 4 is sorted with Ben White availability. Timber and White can cover LB and RB respectively. Midfield is going to be a problem again for Mikel. Thomas Partey and Merino will be present but who is going to play in place of Rice? We wouldn’t be risking Odegaard after 2 months of an injury to start straightaway in a highly competitive game against Inter Milan. Jorginho? May be. Because, apparently we don’t trust a 17 year old who had shown some good football in whatever minutes he has played.
We have been over-reliant on our defence. Defence wins you game – fine, but if you don’t score you lose 2 very important points. We need to go offensive against Inter, we need our front 3 to own up and not hide behind a non-existent midfield. It’s not like the likes of Saka, Havertz and Martinelli didn’t have chances, it wasn’t a lot but it was there. At this level, if you can’t convert a 50-50, you are not good enough. Lets not talk about Gabriel Jesus at all here.
I haven’t watched Inter from a long time. I don’t know how they play but I am guessing Martinez will be cause some chaos.
[this is a work in progress, please revisit to check the updates]
KP
t’es de la merde
being a clown and being funny are two totally different things…he’s unequivocally the former
our whole setup nowadays is based on appeasing two players, Havertz and Rice…neither is worthy of such a level of importance, especially considering that the latter wants to play up front…now we’ve got Jesus coming in for Merino, which is rather perplexing in light of our midfield concerns…why the fuck not Ethan???
Biden was a clown and not funny at all.. anyways, not my problem, Americans needs to deal with it.
TRVL
Because Ethan is a 17 year old ambitious player, who is not going to confine himself if your JDP shite.
we’ve had more corners today than shots on target in our last 3 matches combined…Saliba should have got his head on that one…looks like he’s been studying the Havertz close your eyes and duck method
Ambarish—unlike yourself I’m on this side of the world, so this shit matters…btw Biden wasn’t a clown, but he should have bowed out much earlier so that the best possible replacement could have been identified
TRVL
From a neutral perspective, it probably came down to choosing a mental and a old age guy. Elon and the likes of Joe rogen helped Trump get that edge against Kamala…
They had their reasons, indirect tax, capital gain taxes etc..
I understand that a bit because I’m suffering from the same here in India. Out finance minister has shut down every opportunity to save money because she wants the economy to reach 5 trillion dollars. The provident funds interest rates (muck like 401k) are the lowest, the capital gains taxes have increased in recent budget, and I’m on a upper middle class spectrum but still can’t afford anything of importance.
If I had to choose between my current finance minister and Trump, I would choose later.
Inter have gone into a semi-MA half-shell so we had better score before they bring in Thuram and Barella or they will hurt us on the counter…Havertz finally showed some touch, but he’s an embarassing fuck when it comes to flopping
Ambarish—that’s the problem, everyone is thinking about themselves first instead of the greater good, so he fits that negative script exceptionally well…that doesn’t make it right though…he’s no fucking Robin Hood-type, if it weren’t for his inheritance and all the privileges that come with that he would be a toothless fuck in a trailer park cage fingering his first cousin
TRVL
There is some difference to what Americans see themselves and the rest of the world do. First world country, biggest economy, dollar controlling everything around the world, most powerful, no one does poor (if they want to, ofcourse). Health care is shite compared to UK but only UK is an exception.
At that level, it’s never about development and jobs.. it’s about the LGBTQ shite, abortions policies, personal remarks, businesses, taxes, etc.. Trump handled that well to Kamala.
Oh, and sorry to say but Kamala is not an American American, that went against her…
Havertz is back to his Chelsea form.
What’s the point of putting into the box if no one score off a header.. Mikel still hadn’t figured it out.
Nwaneri is coming for 8 fucking minutes.. yeah.
Now I understand why you mistakenly felt like Elon and Joe Rogan were at the forefront of this victory, you’re an alogrithm baby, thus the reason why LGBTQ and abortions were at the top of your list…of course, I’m not suggesting that these issues didn’t play a role, but one must be careful not to be too myopic when it comes to the political realm…this story goes much further back, long before the aforementioned individuals were mistakenly placed in a role of unjustified prominence…this was a Paganist vote in many ways, even though it pretended to be something decidely different…when things have gone full Florida Man, you want somene in office that best reflects your gluttonous desires
we have to take advantage of our chances…too many missed opportunities
good to see Ode back on the pitch…hopefully it’s not too late to salvage a point
TRVL
Frankly I don’t care who runs America. Elon was a part of it, because I could see his Twitter influence. He spent 44b dollars not just for fun.
It’s too late.. that Nwaneri shot looked like what Martinelli would have tried, couple seasons back…
Right, that’s all for the day.. that was boring day for football for Arsenal fans.
btw that overtly thirsty fuck simply dipped into his endless pile of money that came from the very same Chinese people that his bed buddy Trump called his sworn enemy…must be nice to never be accountable for your actions…just saying…Cheers
I’ll give MA credit if he can find a way to win trophies without scoring…now that would be a serious Dark Arts masterclass
Morning all from this side of the world.
Marc & KP funny as to read as always thanks for the humour.
What did I enjoy most from that game from a purist’s POV?
Martinez’s vision and Ally McCoist always making football sense, in his easy fireside manor that one tunes into to enjoy. Rio, although can talk sense, most follows his own and Manure’s agenda punditry, so levels below Ally for me.
Ally was brilliant on World of Sport of yesteryear.
Lautro what a baller? Even when he had been taken off, he was still on his feet, still in the game from the bench area. I thought when do we see or how often does an Arsenal player do that?
I don’t know about you guys, but I felt if we did score from a set piece Inter would just go up a gear. To me it looked as if they had one eye on their Napoli top of the table clash this weekend, whereas we had to be frantically all in just to try to get an equalizer with no thought for the Chavs this Sunday.
TRVL
You’re right we are blunt in the final 3rd. Havertz is neither a striker of note, nor a flair attacking midfielder, and I agree with Ambarish Merino is another flop that you and I thought he’d be.
I wondered if Inter would be a bit too early for Ethan?
Clearly not is the answer: the fake and turn he did to accelerate to the box and get a rushed shot off was probably the best solo midfield move of our game. Ethan needs time to warm up, we saw that last time before he scored his curler, so, had Ethan started, I feel he would have scored or at least assisted.
The cameo he was ESR-esque given, being a last ditch MA effort to salvage a point that really shows MA’s myopic lack of vision along with his trust issues with youth players still continuing.
I’m still a Martinelli fan, just not a fan of his limited game hugging the line for width tactical play. It’s like Marts has lost his freedom license to play that Trossard has when starting as LW. I think if Martinelli could play his natural game, he sees the Timber pass when he was free in space, in the box.
Why can’t Saka and Martinelli swap wings and interchange with whoever is playing 9? We are static up top, and why we are not scoring because we are 100% reliant on Saka’s brilliance. I’ve mentioned before that White is being called more into defensive duties as a tactic from opposing managers, where without White & Ode, Saka is left without help he needs to create the small space, to get a shot off on target.
If Ethan had started we get at least a point is my thinking. If we played 3 at the back with wingbacks, we might actually win the game by dominating midfield by numbers and quick counters because our fullbacks are very agile with their mobile movement.
That’s just my humble armchair opinion.
MA is trying to drum up sympathy, in the press, with we should have had a Merino penalty while also insisting His handball was not a penalty either.
The reality is buying Merino and Sterling over an quality 8 and elite 9 is MA’s undoing, and why we are where we are in the PL, and have been shown up last night by a very composed and well drilled Inter, where their giraffe like CB gets license to very ungainly carry the ball into our 18 yard box. Then, the said CB stayed up to press and play with the ball when Inter got it back before slotting back into the back 4.
Inter looked comfortable for about 90% of the game where we harried, huffed and puffed until their final third and then it mostly went Pete Tong for 100% of the game, over relying as per usual on our brilliant Saka who is expected to bail us out of trouble each game.
Not this time and no set piece goals to save our CL blushes; our dark arts are now light magic sans the magic.
As per the selection of midfield it was wrong playing Trossard, Sterling might have had a better impact for about 60 minutes if played at full pace, which is still slow for Raheem. Our mini Chav addition apparently had MA salivating in wanting to buy him after the first 20 seconds of their meeting.
I guess playing him was not what caused the urgency to get the loan done; the bench was and now is being seen more as the panic-buy Raheem was.
Until MA changes things up, we will continue on our haphazard form of putting in good shifts against our top 6 rivals where, with City’s current form plight, it makes our draw with them look less of an impressive win when you take their losses into account now.
Did we miss Rice? His corners, yes, where too many were wasted yesterday and reduced out set play chances greatly. Ethan is a good dead ball specialist – shocker I know.
Saka’s corners were on point and we should have netted one at least and would have had we bought Isak in the summer…ho hum.
I thought Partey put in a good intelligent shift always compensating positionally for his lack of pace, where he needed Ethan and not Merino, so He could play his old AM game of solid 6, and give Ethan the freedom and time he needs to shine.
The above said we need to win at Stanford Bridge at all costs, and I’m really not hopeful at all. They have a very good manager now who has improved them very quickly who are now above us on GD, but they are still a work in progress, and we are, dare I say hungry like the malnutrition wolves for points.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RatTijc2YR0
Ambarish
Sorry to hear of your plight it’s not much better here either for different country run reasons.
Hope things improve for you and your family/business.
Plummeting form, disastrous results, toothless up front, Arteta (thankfully) being questioned again. It’s deja vu all over again!
And…….it’s Chelsea away coming up a la 3 or 4 years ago (cannot be arsed to check – if every other cunt in the world is lying or being lazy as regards the truth why should I bother?).
Can something happen to save stubborn el bastardo’s career? I think not.
No ESR = no shot at redemption.
On Trump, my personal plan is to shut him and all of his sycophants off. The world is in a very bad place – cheating, hating, lying and violence are all going to thrive. 60 million odd vile white supremacist cunts in America saw to that, as indeed they’ve brought about their own self-destruction as America becomes a dictatorship run by a wheezing mad man. Fuck ’em! Turkeys voting for Christmas.
KP
I echo your red neck America voting with their feet thinking as they are the majority it seems. The mid west cowboy states bar Colorado are all Trumpites. As with where I live there are too many areas of pure avarice where you pay double for private health care and operations here than you do in the Private UK medical sector. Like America you are OK here if you have full health insurance and pay your excess. You know as well as me health cover is always a fight when you need them to pay.
For me that means a redo bypass is around 2 to 3MB = £40 to 60K+ in the UK it’s £15k to 25K.
As always here it’s the poor who need the help the most and get the least and as the rich get richer the poor get poor.
I keep out of politics so that’s my lot on world politics.
It’s bad enough having to put up with the nearly man who is turning into a serial loser and a really bad loser.
No wonder Edu wants pastures new: how bad does it look on our board scrambling to offer a knee jerk offer to keep Edu. Better just to wish him well and keep the moral high ground while finding the right replacement.
The Chavs game is 23:30 for me, so I’ll just watch the first half live, and the 2nd in the morning. My sleep is more important than anything MA does.
Get a new manager, and the it’s who needs sleep? I’ll sleep when I’m dead, ask Bon Jovi.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts-e0uZfooQ
Hi Tony
I see what you mean. Germans voted for Hitler in the 30s and look how that turned out.
Trump is on record as idolising AH and being deeply antisemitic so it doesn’t look good. Plus he just about hates everyone else from general foreigners, democratic voters, the military and his own voters to non white people and members of his own family including that dizzy money grubbing whore of a wife.
White supremacists (ie 50 % of septic tanks) have essentially fucked themselves and we’ll all feel a little bit of his orange diseased dick inside us whether we’re in Thailand, India or the UK. He’s an agent of some especially harmful billionaires who have successfully persuaded lumpen idiots to vote for him. Fuck knows how…the US has lost it’s collective mind. Watch these cunts take over while Trump is pardoned and gets back to playing very bad golf. He’ll die soon but that’s when things will get even worse.
This is how bad it is…I actually prefer Arteta to Trump and his arselicking cult.
Tony
This song has never been so apt.
Tony
This song has never been so apt.
https://youtu.be/m2zKdIcOV5s?si=039lhPbi18PStem1
Did you ever meet Gil?
Did you ever meet Gil?
There’s an echo in here today….
KP – I saw Gil in South London ages ago – probably 74ish. Stick was with him and a guitarist with the same style as Dave Rawlings. John Cooper Clark was on the same bill. We often bumped into JCC – he lives in Wivenhoe next door to our friends.
KP
That’s a blast from the past I only remembered the name until I heard the song and it vaguely came back to me.
It’s such a shame as America is still a beautifully diverse country from north to south. I’ve been looking at Nevada, Utah, Wyoing and Colorado/Montana? as places to pitch up a tent and do business, but was waiting for the election outcome. Now Australia looks far more appealing, as a safer option both for business and a slower way of life. Still getting the sale done, so have time to see what transpires.
Has the UK budget hindered you in any way for your Gerona plans? Will the myriad of taxes slow markets? Outside investors won’t want to look at the UK until all that settles.
I was thinking how Josh K is taking all this in with Edu breaking up the dream team – I wonder who Josh was closer to, as they are around his generation. One also wonders if Josh really has learnt about our club, its history and more importantly: how the game works financially with player assets, as I don’t think he’s got his head round that yet or MA has Josh marveling at the process and how far it’s come; except it hasn’t; it nearly did 3 times, but MA capitulated due to bad TWs player investments or were they?
MA has assembled a yes man squad underpinned by Saliba, Ode, Rice and Saka that are keeping us in the top 6 for now, although only just. Saliba and Saka are wanted by RM who are also imploding where heads will roll, and efforts will be ramped up to bring in new Galaticos who want to win the CL and domestic leagues, and be starters for their country.
I assume if Haaland goes to RM, Ode will follow.
Let’s hope Josh can see the wood for trees, and tomorrow wakes up and smells the coffee and seeks independent advice he can trust. Josh must have some contacts from fans who have no agendas other than to see us challenging on all fronts each season, and winning one now and again.
Surely, now Edu has left the building there will be behind closed doors inquests to how the £800m was spent, and how the profit and losses look on that huge figure. Josh would want to know that, wouldn’t he?
Then, he’d know how much more needs to be spent to win the league. Might be the only European completion we are in next season after we just built our payroll to CL levels again, unless MA can stop the rot.
I think we are Branstoned with the lid on, KP. In a real fcuking big pickle….. and facing a positive Chav side.
Should be a cracker of a game with a few goals just not sure we’ll be scoring any……
No, never met Gill, KP or saw him play. I didn’t favour poet songwriters that much way back when. I appreciated Donovan and Bob Dylan et al, but I was more into sound than lyrics although that changed in the 90s.
Don’t know if you’re watching the voice America but Snoop has taken the show over. He’s hijacked it and has made it infinitely better. Bouble is also a judge who is funny and wacky, so a good mix, but the warblers on the show are just unreal and cool to watch and listen to. I don’t watch any others just the US judges down the years have been the best with the funniest banter.
I imagine the next ‘Have I got news For you’ will be brilliant post US election.
“RB Leipzig forward Benjamin Sesko gave serious consideration to joining Arsenal last summer, but was reluctant to join them amid concerns he would be second-choice to Kai Havertz”
“Arteta’s side has struggled for goals in the last month with Kai Havertz and Leandro Trossard both finding it difficult to add goals to the Arsenal side..;according to Football Insider, the Gunners are now plotting a move for Newcastle United attacker Alexander Isak in the summer of 2025…They were expected to sign a new attacker in the summer transfer window but Arteta showed faith in his current set of attackers but clearly it has not worked well for the Premier League giants or the Spanish manager…The Gunners have now realised that they need firepower upfront and Isak is the player who could provide that considering his record for the Magpies…Isak scored in Arsenal’s last defeat in the Premier League at St James’ Park and his goal proved to be the winner…It showed what Newcastle United have and what Arsenal do not have, a proper striker upfront and not a makeshift attacker”
these excerpts speak directly to my long-held belief regarding MA’s inability to oversee such a nuanced project…first came the Tross move, which in the short-term appeared to make some sense, at least from a financial capacity, but from a long-term perspective raised some serious concerns…not only has it clearly stifled Mart’s development, it’s likewise prevented us from buying a proper wide side cover piece or using those funds elsewhere…secondly came the Havertz misstep, which has played a far too dominant role when it comes to both our tactical pursuits and transactional plans…now some two years later we find ourselves no better, in fact maybe decidely worse off, possibly plotting the very moves that should have happened before ever even contemplating the above acquisitions…at least with Tross we didn’t provide him with a king’s ransom and ironclad assurances…that said, it will be interesting to see how MA attempts to thread this organizational needle…personally I believe that our best option would be to eliminate him from the equation, as that would render all of his nonsensical “deals” moot…regardless, there’s no way I’m giving him a plug nickel come January for fear that he might set us back even further in an attempt to save his proverbial ass once again
Kroenke
“Trump is on record as idolising AH and being deeply antisemitic”
I get it you don’t like Trump but I’m not sure you can accuse him of antisemitism – he’s got form in supporting Israel.
The left really don’t do themselves any favours when they attack Trump for things he isn’t / hasn’t done.
As for Arsenal as far as I’m concerned the current form is just a case of the luck running out. We’ve been poor at best all season but have got away with it for periods.
As always things always balance out in the end.
My only hope is that this time will be the end of Arteta.
People in the US are exhausted, totally stressed out from this last election and couldn’t give a fuck anymore on who would be president, they wanted this to be over and done with and really didn’t fucking care who is in the White Kindergarten.
Born and raised in Germany knowing the German history and mentality very well and now living in the US for decades, it is the first time that I feel, that the mantra, this could never happen in America is no longer true. America has lost priding themselves as champions of democracy and entered the world of securing a dictatorship.
Prior to the 2016 election in the NY Times appeared a full 1 page add with a border around it and a simple sentence “Germany 1933 what could go wrong?” It was then attributed to a German individual who had the black, red and gold German flag next to his credentials.
On November 6th 2016 I celebrated my anniversary in Curacao and woke up to the news that Trump had won the election and I wasn’t bothered a bit. Now though, to safeguard my sanity the first 2 weeks of November 2028 I will be in a warm and pleasant place somewhere in the Pacific islands to escape the craziness of US election time. Never applying for US citizenship not being eligible to vote all of a sudden seems like the right choice as it doesn’t matter who is running the government, because in 50+ years, besides the ERA and other amendments, Social Security, Medicare there has been done fuck all for US residents.
The problem has been with us from day 1 and it has been my experience how true to this day the words are by King Solomon recorded for us in the Bible in Ecclesiastes 8:9: “All of this I have seen, and I applied my heart to every work that has been done under the sun, during the time that man has dominated man to his harm.
Thanks for the insight Killroy, it comes in handy at a time I will be back on my nomad trail to find my last retirement setting, as I’m 70 next year. The last 2 years have been real eye openers with the aging process where my gym training has undergone many changes borne out of necessity as old age approaches.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IymQ1VA3h2k
However, for those who want a healthy old age, there are always things you can do to keep one’s 6-pack even in old age like me, if one is advised to reduce body fat.
Emi Wong’s Plank work-out will keep any core where it should be, at any age. In my case I make cholesterol for fun with bypass surgery in my mid 30s and 5 stents since. The lower my body fat, the better, so I try to keep between 10 & 12% as my cardiologist of 15 years confirms at each check up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z90xpWvuUPs
Add battle ropes and give Cassey Ho’s short Internet targeted workouts a try on a gym mat, and we can still enjoy life even when battling what life throws at us health wise.
30 minutes a day of the above mix will keep you healthy with no need for a gym just some space. One 15-meter battle rope, a hanging bar or captain’s chair, computer/tablet/phone/tv with Internet and floor mat and the above links and other that are easy to find that may suit better: these work for me.
Junior is into his callisthenics now he’s into his living in BKK and studying phase and fancies the US for his undergrad degree. My daughter is considering furthering her Aerospace Engineering education with her Masters in the US or Australia. Her goal is to improve and invent better and new materials for space flight.
My resting place will be what’s best for their education, visas and future life. For me it will be a quiet location with beautiful panoramic vistas and a modern writing/recording studio for junior and me and musician friends…..
A stable business environment and safe place to live away from cities and adverse weather conditions will suit me perfectly.
A place where it’s better timing for our games would also be a must. S E Asia is not good for match times.
Back to football and the Chavs ran riot last night with a 8:0 demolition of a team I’d never heard of: Noah.
All I can hope for is complacency from Chelsea on Sunday. Somehow, I think Enzo will have brought them down to earth by Sunday.
Marc
Your naivety about Trump is alarming.
There’s a littany of Trump saying abusive things about Jews, whether in business or when he was President. His own military adviser described him as an enthusiastic fascist. Kin ell…he is also by definition an anti-Semite if he adores Hitler right? Wow…is that where the English right wing thinking is these days?
He may want Israel to continue committing genocide because he hates Arabs even more, but that does not make him pro-jew – it only makes him a temporary supporter of Zionism, which is not the same as being a friend of Judaism.
He’s coming to an early fork in the road. He’s going to leave Ukrainian Nazis in the lurch to favour Putin and the Russian ones. Why? Because Putin has Kompromat on him, ie watersports photos with prostitutes (I know, impossible to even imagine Trump, piss and hookers in the same sentence right?). But the dichotomy comes when he jettisons one bunch of fascist fighters (Ukraine) but continues supporting another (Israel) in their quest to obliterate Arabs. And all the time, he fucking loathes Jews in the way Hitler and Goebbels did.
And I suspect if you could have, you would have voted for him just like your ideological and patriotic friends Farage, Kemi bad-enoch, Laurence Fox and all the avuncular neo Nazis in Britain first.
I keep telling you but you won’t listen. Starmer ought to be sufficiently right wing for all of you. He’s got a flourishing track record right now.
Killroy
I appreciated reading that – thanks for posting it. My kids were born in DC but are also British. We applied for US passports when they were born but have not renewed them. This week only confirms the wisdom of that decision. I have no interest in going back at the moment.
I met some brilliant people all across the country in my 5 years there. It was in the era of dubya so it was far from being stable then, but who would have thought it would get this much worse? The aftermath of hurricane Katrina, in which I was involved helping people get out of the affected areas safely, was an ominous portent of worse to come. Trump has made the US a scary and sinister place where violence is just around the corner if you’re not white and rich. And here, the UK will feel the effects of America’s impending decline.
In 2011, I was organising Obama’s state visit to London. Obama is instinctively right wing, cautiously conservative and not prone to rocking the boat. The visit was a big success and helped to revive the so-called special relationship. He and Cameron (yuck) got along reasonably well. I fear now that the atmosphere between psychopathic world leaders is more akin to the 1930s and we know how that ended.