Afraid to say many are going to be pissed when they wake up and get their time zone morning PL news feed. Xhaka clone is about right but this new improved slower-than-refs Jorginho is just as costly brain fart stupid at times. Xhaka and Jorginho pivoting is likely to resemble something out of Fantasia and the dancing Hippos. Shouldn’t take more than 3 minutes or the time it takes to birth a super yacht sideways onto the dock to complete the pivot.
19 games to pray to whomever is your deity that Xhaka and Jorginho don’t play together in midfield. Do we remember how easy it was to have Jorginho in Ramsey’s(?) back pocket, in Wenger’s last FA cup win? Jorginho was completely ineffective and that was over 3 years ago. Does Arteta and Edu think Jorginho has improved? To anywhere close to Partey’s level?
We were after the ‘Dogs Gonads’ and ended up with the neutered version no one wanted, and on the put down list, to be cast off in the next 5 months into football’s player wastelands: better known as Sunday League football parks.
So what does this season now offer for us in light of our revelatory Jan TW?
I think we were our usual incompetent selves overworking our vast PR machine who deserve a pay increase and a reduction of hours to just 20 a day. 22 is far too much but with The Arsenal and Arteta and Edu very necessary to keep a semblance of our tradition in TWs from Wenger’s last dozen years of almost signing the world’s elite players: who all turned us down. Now Arteta and Edu are forming their own nearly-signed list to match Wenger’s in less time, only they’ve added a gazumped column now as well.
If you were talking to a complete football ignoramus or blinkered cricket mate and said “My club has just been gazumped by Chelsea for a player we really needed above all other players, and then a few weeks later we went to Chelsea to give them money for their worst and slowest player they were replacing with the gazumped player, which in turn helped Chelsea to buy one of the world’s top young talents.”
What answer do you think you’d get?
Now try that with a savvy PL club supporter and watch them collapse in the snow/ground laughing uncontrollably. Poor Junior is putting out fires all over his school, as more hot banter is hurled his way. Thai kids give no quarter. Before Junior went to school he had his well prepared “Well where are you in the league?”
I didn’t have the heart to tell him it wouldn’t be enough because he’s been giving them belters all season. All I could offer was keep your noise cancelling ear pods in your ears and talk to girls who don’t follow football.
So how did we really fare?
We got a watered down version of Mickey Mudflaps but… one acclimatised to the rigors of the PL but a far lower ceiling. For our title ambitions Trossard fits the bill being one of those nuisance players that buzz around the box breaking the concentration of defenders, as Trossard brings our other attackers into play.
Trossard has an eye for goal and an assist and that’s exactly what we need right now someone with goals and assists this season and who seamlessly fitted in after one training session. Jesus will love playing with Trossard’s, especially for his movement.
He can also play 8/10 and on each wing. Trossard’s a Duracell Bunny player whose gas tank rarely empties. Arteta got lucky; Trossard had been a bad boy upsetting De Zerbi in the process who wanted rid of the player in quick time and Edu obliged for £21+++.
In a normal TW situation Mr. Bloom would have wanted £40+++ and Edu would have not gone near Brighton because he was floundering on what to do in the wake of Mickey Mudflaps debacle until the bargain basement player & price appeared. Edu grasped with both hands thinking there is a god!
Jacub Kiwior just 23 is unknown to me but Zinchenko seems to rate the Pole highly, so perhaps we’ve got a semi-polished diamond who can fit equally well as a CB and CDM. I would imagine Jacub is a vastly improved Holding who may well move on in the summer.
It’s too early to be predicting winning the title or what effect if any (if Partey stays fit) Jorginho is going to have on our summit defence. More likely the EL cup will be Jorginho’s brief. Europe comes into the mix in February, which generally causes pain for a few of the competing clubs with injuries and playing players in the red zone: something Arteta does often without consequential thought for our long-term strategy: see last season.
It wasn’t a bad window just embarrassing once again for Edu and Arteta with them being snubbed by the players they needed.
In the end we couldn’t go through a transfer window without our usual trolly dash in this case Jorginho as our panic buy. What are the odds on Xhaka playing all remaining 19 games if fit?
Buckle up lads/lassies it’s going to be a rough ride to when the fat lady sings for the last time this season.
TRVL, thanks for Junior’s good wishes. Thankfully, he can get round his injuries with inner padding. His suit and helmet is 35kg. Just found out it’s being filmed for transmission, but Junior is hugely invested and proud to be a major part of such a decent production of the One dance.
100s of stitches? I thought you’d have to be a blind boxer to get that many stitches, and I think of your academic side, so I arrived rightly or wrongly at being unlucky at fencing. 🙂 Leave me guessing and ask what Junior thinks.
That sums up this morning’s daily post.
Almost. K’phobe and Almunia and all LIRs favourite Bruce Sprinsteen’s song?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j1aCBRWlc8 For me this Hyde Park version is Springsteen at his best
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWvdFIU6hZg Very close 2nd. Land of Hope and Glory
Kone*
Aicho in business as well as elite sport pragmatism plays its part if used correctly. Equally, procrastination is a winner’s biggest nemesis. You’ll find LIR’s posters to be proactive in their views, more so because of the widening gap between title wins.
An even longer gap between a Euro trophy. You are very correct that that we are more senior in our years to say LG’s posters, but that also means more wisdom regarding the sport and the running of a sporting company/business. It’s here where we discuss our views and hopes for TWs, and hoping against all odds that this is our season.
If our left side selections are Zinchenko, Trossard and Martinelli with Xhaka on the bench, you’ll find most here, if not all, will be very happy that our sloth like player: Xhaka is finally on the bench because what’s worrying is we’ve been out of Europe since Xhaka arrived. That’s not rhetoric, but sadly the truth and nothing but the truth of Xhaka’s history with us.
Aitcho, if you’re happy with Jorginho then that’s your prerogative where time will tell if you are right. None of us are too high and mighty to admit when we are wrong and when to concede a point.
If you believe the ‘Everton loss’ was a one off and you are vindicated with those views over time, then your views here will be looked upon more favorably, as we are open to debate and seek more of your take of what’s needed going forward. I mean that with sincerity, as we all want The Arsenal to win major trophies.
You maybe of the view that the older one gets, the more one becomes senile or have softer sensibilities that woke becomes a get out of jail free option. That would be LG’s way of thinking and why we all happily vacated to come here.
You seem to take our comments as gospel where much is just banter erring on the side of satire. We get serious when Arteta & Edu compromise our ability to win the PL, which has happened in the last 2 January TWs. The comparison between our current player plight and poor squad management to last season is too close for comfort: hence our what seems to be negativity when sitting at the top of the league.
Aitcho, thanks for posting here. We welcome your views and you’ll always get an answer sans agenda other than wanting The Arsenal — our Arsenal we ALL love and support in our own ways to get back to its glory days.
Speaking of which:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vQpW9XRiyM
At LIR we are all Gooners who don’t take ourselves too seriously; we leave that banality to Pedro and other blogs, such as Untold.
As TRVL said our posts are oft nuanced that can easily be missed and ergo the point ion what is being made.
I promise you, Aitcho, we all want to win the PL and CL in our lifetime, just some have less years to witness than others.
Happy you favour some of our concerns and welcome your restraint in making your reasonable opposition views here.
Have a good one.
Tony—your a better man than I…personally I think the poster in question is part of the new passive aggressive troll brigade, who come across as easy, breezy types, then look to bait those who don’t prescribe to their particular view of the world…Positive Pete’s alter ego minions were always dropping easter eggs so as to intentionally stir the pot, which I usually relished, until I realized the fix was in…maybe it’s just me but there might be a rat in our midst LOL
As you say TRVL we are a nuanced lot of posters. 🙂
Sometimes it better to use honey instead of vinegar. On LG I’d go for the jugular which is out of character for me because the blog became a KSE mouth piece for Arteta.
Here we are more our real selves, so let’s see how Aitcho responds. If he responds. I’m as curious to his authenticity as you are. Enjoy the weekend TRVL. 🙂
Sorry all, just catching up after a few days doing christ knows what…
Tony – please give junior my best wishes. Kids that age tend to heal really quickly and he sounds like a tough geezer with a lot of bottle and determination. I’m also highly impressed by his ‘the show must go on’ attitude. He’s going to go far.
For possibly the first time ever on an Arsenal forum, I’m not going to wade into this ‘woke’ debate which I find absurd and incomprehensible. Same goes for terms like snowflake/virtue signalling/triggering etc. Not least because if you asked 100 people for their definitions, you’d get 100 differing replies.
What Almunia said the other day about how the club is getting its tentacles into so-called unofficial communications channels about AFC is spot on in my view. I think Marc and I had the same discussion a few months ago when Pedro was telling his alter egos and other mugs on LG how they should support Arsenal. Football is so irredeemably bent, it should come as no surprise. It won’t be long before ESL 3.0 is upon us which, for me, will mean getting real football from the lower divisions.
The stars definitely seem to be aligning for Arteta. City being charged with over a 100 breaches of FFP mean it just can’t be swept under the carpet. If City players begin to think they could be docked points they could easily switch off, if they think City could be relegated or kicked out of the PL (apparently the EFL would need a rule change to let them in) they could be rushing to find new clubs.
Either way the distraction for a team that isn’t quite clicking is a golden opportunity.
Hi Marc
I see you as someone with a good feel for things like this. What’s your guess about the final sanctions that will stand against City, and the timing?
What irks me is that City have been given a free ride since the oil kleptocrats took them over. Why were they not watched like hawks and challenged earlier on? The PL apparently did their due diligence on Newcastle but eventually relented, probably in the face of some seriously large brown envelopes. And Chelsea pre and post Boehly must also have some sizeable skeletons in the cupboard.
Why? Purely by virtue of the fact that people like Abramovich and Boehly are hard-wired cheats or manipulators of regulations. It’s why they’re billionaires.
It’s all very partial and unbalanced so far. 5 of the big 6 ganging up on City if the rumours are to be believed. My fear is that whatever shakes down, it’ll take football even further away from what real fans (ie non LG readers) enjoy about football. Hope you enjoy the Brentford game.
Marc & KP—I can envision a scenario where they won’t go all scortched earth on City, as it would negatively impact their bottom-line and likely open pandoras box, which could land several clubs in hot water…more likely they will tighten up some obvious loopholes, under the guise of being more accountable moving forward, as everyone seems to eat up the whole transparency narrative…that said, I’m a bit surprised that so many PL clubs are piling on, if it’s to be believed, as that could force the powers that be into pursuing a course they might not have otherwise…I guess only time will tell
as Marc suggested, this could be another distraction for City which could ultimately work in our favour…even with our sizeable lead and game in hand, I’m not going to get too wound up about a title run until we put some convincing wins together, as we’ve lost 2 in a row without a single goal to show for our efforts
Good morning L-I-R (Vi – et – nam) and thankfully it’s a great sporting weekend ahead of us with Football and 6 Nations rugby.
However, for those of you who have had some curiosity or a lot of UFC curiosity and haven’t watched Fight Night or have watched once, but wasn’t smitten, then this weekend belt unifier bout between Machachev v Volanovski or the silent one of Mongul descent vs the lippy Aussi gladiator.
Easily, in the UFC world, could be deemed as the Thriller in Manila or Rumble in the Jungle. Both fighters are what legends are made of and not the whinny Mcgregor type.
https://sports.yahoo.com/ufc-284-betting-odds-islam-makhachevs-improved-striking-efficient-takedowns-make-him-a-wise-choice-202152197.html A fair review for the uninitiated.
Poor junior’s Kone partner the monkey king played by a girl twisted her ankle the morning of the performance. She managed to climb up junior, but couldn’t maintain her balance while junior did a 360 stomping the stage floor, so they did an abridged version and the few 1000 watching were none the wiser all clapping Junio and the monkey King.. All in all, they all acquitted themselves well for the parts they were playing and naturally we are very proud of Junior, whose stitches are healing nicely.
Back to football a very tough game tonight: 10pm for us. Home advantage should prevail, but it will a far bigger advantage with Xhaka on the bench with Trossard at LCM. The rest of the team picks itself if all are injury free with Tomi at RB and White on the bench. If Gabs is injured Jacob can deputize. Will be good to see him play.
We’re rested and should have a good 90+ minutes in us to continue to overrun Brentford, but that script can only work if we keep pace all over the park banishing the Everton game from their collective minds.
Make no mistake Brentford are a good well organized team coached by the open mouth, chewing gum, Franc trying to look hard most of the time. Not good optics for kids I might add. Disgusting in my and Junior’s view. Classless red nose Fergie was the same. Chewing gum like cows chew the cud. Fat Sam another. What is it with football managers.
Hard one to call with knowing the line up. If Xhaka and Jorginho are playing together then the Irish vs the French will be far more exciting a game to watch and we’ll just keep an eye on FOTMOB.
Another Manure style victory is what we have the squad for – Arteta assembling the starting 11 to win from the off is another thing to hope for.
I’ll make a prediction before K.O. Sadly ESR is injured again. Poor lad you have to feel for him and wonder if he’s not our new Diaby. We absolutely love the kid and are hope he can shake off his injury curse and that it’s not a weakness in ESR’s body.
A win is the only result good enough for our title push.
Care to join the debate, Aitcho, with your game thinking so it would allow us to understand your thinking better. All views are welcome.
I don’t about tonight, but the City game will be spicy.
A Hammer’s and Chav’s draw will do us nicely if they can oblige. A Leicester home win against the Spuds would also be a fortuitous result.
Sunday a Leeds bounce to beat Manure and Dick Emery to further Pep’s depression.
A win tonight is a necessity not just for the points, but to carry into the City game.
With financial regulations being breached so vehemently and vastly numerical surely it’s tantamount to financial fraud. If so, I’d forget all the dropping points malarkey: custodial sentences should be meted to the perpetrators making the decisions and to other who were knowingly complicit.
This isn’t just a ‘Bad Show’ old chap, it’s the full monty of irregular financials that are being reported and investigated.
Those who turned a blind eye should see the inside of our prisons, too, if gratuities came with the eye patches.
If football owners and CEOs, suits et al know in the future a jail cell awaits if the break the rules of football financial impropriety as well as the club being sanctioned.
I mean cheating at Scrabble is one thing, but this is cheating on the daily with players who shouldn’t have been bought in the first place.
K’Phobe, Pumpkin seems to be happy with life again so had his tummy scratched rubbed and ticked turning into a slasher moggy, so we’ll see if he brings us luck again. I have let it be known to our fluffy temp mascot that after last week, he’s on thin ice: balls or pussy no balls. 🙂
Well,big day today,can’t see anything other than 3 points after another lightning start. No disrespect to Brentford,they are having a dream season. I just think at the Emirates this year we are virtually unstoppable. Would like to see either Saka or Martinelli have a great game just to alleviate the fear that both are slowly slipping form wise. Bound to happen of course,they’ve been great all season but would like to see the recent trend reversed all the same. Going for a two nil home win presuming we play our standard eleven.
Tony, that was awful about your young lad. Christ I’d be in some panic if that happened to mine. Fair play you both seemed to take it in your stride. Hope the show made it all worthwhile. Best wishes.
Aitcho,
I think my conversation with TRVL upset you looking over your comments. It wasn’t intended and KP is right that such a conversation on a football forum is probably somewhat incongruous. I’m pretty sure that you misinterpreted what was being discussed,we were actually talking about Arsenal football club,past and present and it’s relationship with it’s fans as opposed to Arteta and Edu and the TW. The latter was mentioned as a brief example of a much wider point. Ironically the tone of your posts conveyed the unwillingness to allow open discussion that we were actually referring to. The old white guy remark was ,I hope you know,nonsense and unnecessary. Nonetheless if you took offence to what I said I apologise,it was unintentional. I’m in the habit of straying away from strictly football matters I know but I enjoy the social side of the blog. If I come across as lecturing ignore me,it really isn’t intended.
Tony,just sitting back here to watch the west ham Chelsea game. I can’t quite get my head around this Chelsea team. I don’t know half of them. There was a time there I could name the Chelsea starting eleven with more confidence than Arsenal’s, but now wouldn’t recognise half of them if they knocked on my door. Looking forward to it though. Mudryk’s development is going to be watched carefully by gooners everywhere for obvious reasons. Felix also. I’m eager to get a view of Fernández too. Not to mention keeping an eye on Rice.
Then Ireland v France is going to be a cracker while also tuning in to the Emirates. Wales Scotland rarely disappoints,KP,you keeping your allegiances quiet on that one?? Newcastle later also. Great day of sport. And over here the GAA is back in full swing. Happy days!! Hope you all enjoy the thrills.
Almunia watching the 1st half I said that Chelsea look to have no cohesion and with West Ham pressing aggressively are knocking Chelsea off their stride. Mudryk is tag teamed where Cucurella is of little help so Muryk is looking more like a flop currently. Loftus Cheek also seems a luxury player for Chelsea never quite performing.
Rice, Enzo, Felix and Mudryk were the players Junior and I were looking to critique where so far only Felix is showing his class.
Ireland v France will be a cracker as will Wales v Scotland. I fancy France and Scotland to get the points.
Enjoy Almunia
Three nil today. Our front 4 should be too strong for their defence. Brentford will pack the midfield so we need to vary how we go up the field.
Almunia
I’m really hoping Ireland beat France. And I think the boys in dark blue will have enough to beat a weak Wales team.
KP, just watched some of the first half and Ireland look good. I said to Junior you’d backed then for the double this year.
3:0 would love it if it comes off. I think it will be tighter.
Usual home form. Prefer Tomi at RB. Xhaka just gets in the way. Trossard a much better fit.
Not looking good where we could be 0:2 by now.
More hand rubbing needed in the dressing room at half time. First half was not football from the PL leaders.
Tossard doesn’t have the penetration of Martinelli. Already being dispossed by Brentford..
In hindsight Arteta asking advice from set piece coach
Anyway Todsard gets a goal
Brilliant play by Saka. Saka, Partey are a reason Arsenal are progressive with the ball. Pleasantly surprised by movement of White.
Hi Hoopah
I’m unable to watch. Frustrating as fuck.
Hoping for a stress free final quarter.
Spurs losing 4-1. Their 44 million signing having a debut nightmare.
very fortuitous for us, but I certainly won’t complain considering that we could have quite easily been down by a couple of goals…good on Trossard for being in the right place and getting the required touch on a somewhat difficult bouncing ball…still concerned about the assurances given, as I still can’t fathom why Xhaka is untouchable…I’ll be interested to see what we do tactically with 20+ minutes left, up one and knowing that we’ve only scored once in the last 250+ minutes…nervy times ahead
we’re like small boys in short pants against this squad inside the box…Ramsdale needed to stay big in that situation, but he got it all wrong…praying for an offside call
no such luck
based on tactics alone, we’re being out managed again…Ode looks like he’s been watching too much of his old loan spell film, as his service has been incredibly disappointing…I can’t believe I just saw Xhaka going off for an offensive-minded replacement…MA must be really fucking worried about not getting all 3 points after 2 losses on the trot
really hoping that Vieira gets a chance to shine from distance, albeit I’m a bit worried about the counter with him on the pitch
it’s like Vieira was told to steer clear of the ball as much as humanly possible…I do like that we’re on the front foot though
we’re failing the title credentials test thus far, as that’s one point from a potential 4 since the closing of the window…looks like we’ll be relying on others to get our business done, which was an old timey bugaboo I’ve mine during Wenger’s second term in office
WTF was that? Everton provided the blue print on how to play against AFC and Brentford tweaked it, is this the implosion of Arsenal? certainly looks like Pep’s gimp is not having the answers at this time. So title good bye and hello hanging on to top 4.
Viera didn’t shine from the distance with that free kick, looks like he needs game time.
City beating Villa and us on Wednesday and they will be top of the table and us having a game in hand which at the present state of play we sure will loose. WTF!!!
if City can get all 3 points against Villa tomorrow, by this time next week we could be tied on points, with only a game in hand…I’m exceedingly worried that we could wilt at the prospect of that potential reality…could be a lot of nail biting in our future
Didn’t see the game but I gather that a draw didn’t flatter Brentford at all,got to give credit to them,working on the proverbial shoestring. As for us, it is worrying of course as we’ve read this book before. I’d like to think that Arteta will try to freshen things up but given that the next game is v city that’s highly unlikely. When you look at the bench there is still a serious lack of depth in quality,but money has been spent. The 40 mill on Vieira is particularly bemusing. I’m still hopeful that the anticipated City surge might not materialise,they have lots if problems on and off the pitch. Most definitely going to the wire.
Ireland France was a cracking game,Wales Scotland also enjoyable. Good to have other sports to take the mind off football on days like this.
The Viera purchase doesn’t look like the brilliant one it was made out to be and Ramsdale was not all that great in the goal they scored. True we read that book before with heart attacks looming when the ball gets into our box and the defense not being at the top of their game when we registered clean sheets.
Fuck Arteta’s AFC setup and game plan the 6 nations owns this weekend.
I hate to say it but when you overpromise in the window then underdeliver, you just might struggle for positive results…when oh when will Xhaka finally find himself on the bench, to start a match, so that we can get some more offensive players on the pitch…the problem now is that it’s far more difficult to pursue such a course when you’re facing City next…it would have been far more savvy to have tried to up the attacking ante against the likes of Everton and/or Brentford, no disrespect to the latter, but instead we stood pat and ended up with 1 point of a possible 4
Fuck me, a repeat of last weekend sort off. Arteta’s Arsenal being wanting and being flat and bad, CHECK!. The teams in Rugby’s six nations that I wanted to win and do excellent, CHECK! Well next weekend no sixmass so hopefully AFC will do better, but then we are talking about Arteta, so slim chance he will introduce changes, he is not know for that.
Arteta has named the same starting line-up in every match since the World Cup. This a a serious problem and it is underlined by the fact that a substitute scored our only goal today. WTF does he think this is, a cookie cutter job, do one formation that is all that is needed? Look at Martinelli he failed to create a single chance today, is he Xhaka ver 2.0 when it comes to being first on the team sheet?
And here we are again relying on Villa and Leeds top do us a favor so that City and Man Utd. don’t capitalize on the shit show Tets presented us with for the last two weekends.