Martin Odegaard won the Premier League Player of the Year award, beating young Bukayo, Ivan Toney, Harry Kane and Mitrovic. He already has 10 goals and 7 assists, captains a team which is topping the league and is in some fine form. Martin wanted to keep it short but thanked everyone, talked about how far we have come as a club and it’s great to see the club being recognised at all levels. Very excited for the future, just like all of us.
Though Bukayo missed the POTY award, he did bag the Young Player of the Year, beating Michael Olise from Crystal Palace, Martinelli, Saliba and Billy Mitchell from Millwall. It was lovely to see 3 of the 5 gunners in the list and one of them picking up. Loudest cheer was for Saka, who thanked everyone for the award, and dedicated it the children growing up in London with big dreams, called himself one of them not long ago and just showed the world how humble he is, again. This lad is a gem, not for just football.
Aaraon Ramsdale was picked for the Goalkeeper of the year, beating Raya, Leno, Kepa and Vigouroux from Leyton Orient. This should have been the easiest of the lot, Ramsdale is miles ahead of the London competition and nominations. He was honoured for his first award, aims to stay at the top for 10-12-15 years at Arsenal, hopes doesn’t get to leave.
Now, if you would have told me Mikel Arteta is going to, not only top the league in 2022-23 season after 27 games but also manage to win Manager of the Year award, I would have laughed you off. But here he is, winning it all when his competitions were Thomas Frank from Brentford, Marco Silva from Fulham, Emma Hayes who manages Chelsea women team, and Richie Wellens from Leyton Orient. Mikel Arteta was very honoured to be part of the award. Thanked his colleagues and staffs at the club and of course the supporters. It was good to see him in suit for a change!
It’s not wrong to say Arsenal dominated the London Football Award this season. And it’s just the beginning.
Hearing a 90 sec speech from Ramsdale showed how important it is for these lads to win things at Arsenal Football Club. How we have managed to build a culture where the players wants to stick with the club and define their greatness. Truth be told, we had been frustrated by the likes of RVP and Sanchez who left for what they called something bigger. These 20-24 years old wants to create bigger things at this very club, in red and white, and I love that.
I have been very critical of Mikel Arteta, I will continue to do so till he manages my club, but he deserves his appreciation for revisiting the club’s culture and motivating a group of players to give their best for the club we all love.
Cheers!
always nice to see any of our boys receive some accolades, but come on, any awards show in March is little more than a glorified excuse to get all decked out and get even more complimentary 5 star treatment…not to mention, if we look around the London footballing landscape, it’s been a rather dire season for many of the other teams, minus maybe the slightly above average offerings of Brentford and Fulham…that said, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to argue that the managerial contributions of both Frank and Silva might supersede those of our manager, but as we’ve seen in most of the categories involved, being in first place trumps all else…personally, the one redeeming quality of this particular event is that it provides a forum for our players to display their class, which seems to be a highly valued attribute when it comes to many of our young blue-chip players…kudos to whomever has greatly influenced this particular trend, which I’m assuming was a combination of both Wenger and Per, as most of the players in question joined the club long before Arteta’s arrival…hopefully this will embolden the players even more as we move into the most crucial month of the season
Yeah I agree. If the same players win the NATIONAL poty awards (at the end of the season I presume), then it’ll underscore that we’ve had the kind of league campaign we’re all desperately hoping for. That said, I’d be interested to know who were the last Arsenal players to pick up these awards….
KP–Saka won the young player award a couple years back, Wenger won for manager in 2015 and both Marts and Auba have been nominated, but not sure if either of them won their respective categories
…for the charity and Saka is class.
Ambarish—don’t get me started on “charities”…let’s just stick with the class narrative…Cheers
City getting a penalty which they didn’t even ask for. Lol…
TRVL – yep, not been a fan of charities meself but that speech from Saka will be a motivation for 8-9-10 years old londoners. Every little help these days.
Haaland scores another one of a DeBruyne’s near world class miss.
Era of the Messi and Ronaldo are coming to an end. Hate to say but Haaland leads it.
So, Ederson takes out a Leipzig player and referee decides to award a yellow to Timo Warner who wasn’t even involved.
What the fuck is going on!
Ambarish-by the looks of this match, it doesn’t matter what the ref does or doesn’t do…I’ve already shifted my focus to the Porto/Inter affair
just to clarify, I’m a huge fan of “charity” but only when it involves a selfless act by all participants involved…that just doesn’t seem to be the way of the world since the “haves” and their significant others took it on as a hobby
Haaland has now scored a mitt-full of goals…what a troubling match for Leipzig, they’re lucky this one isn’t on their home pitch
Morning all, a HOME 7:0 win in the CL last night for City certainly won’t do their confidence and self belief any harm for the PL. Moyes must be wondering what’s in store for West Ham when City visit at the weekend? His stress levels will have increased being just 2 points off the bottom of the table with the same games played.
However, in this topsy turvy season no result is a foregone conclusion although it would be hard to bet against anything other than City continuing momentum with 3 points, and a boost to their GD. I can’t see them slipping up and being over confident against the Hammers. Can you?
Then again City were woeful against Palace last week in front of goal only managing a penalty to win over Paddy’s condensing the low block and stifling City’s attacks.
We just have to take care off our business putting Palace to the sword where ultimately we should have too much for them. No time for sentiments with Paddy for this game, as we need to continue our winning run to be PL champions.
I hope Arteta is instilling, “Anything City do we can do better!” Not brush their win under the carpet, but use it to add more fire to our play and mental resilience in handling the run in pressure. This is where Jorginho, Partey, Jesus can use their winners’ experience to help those who have not been through the league winning pressure cauldron.
First things first we have to deal with Sporting and remain injury free, which for me is more important than winning the game in the Pl circumstances.
Look it’s difficult to to say we don’t want a 2nd trophy this season, especially a Euro cup, because it would be perfect to launch this young team for the next 5 to 10 seasons for challenging and often winning the biggest prizes.
We’ve gone past the being back in the CL challenge, so the EL cup offers secondary value to winning the league; therefore, I hope Arteta plans for the PL title first and El cup 2nd.
with a 5 point lead and with only one match left against City, this title is ours to lose…now this isn’t to suggest it will be easy, not by any stretch, but our destiny is in our own hands…of course there was point in time, not too long ago in fact, when it appeared as if our old demons were going to rear their ugly heads, as things were looking rather dicey immediately following the winter window, but since that time we’ve refocused and taken care of business
personally I believe it’s important, albeit not imperative, that we win on our own merits and not simply due to the failures of others, which was an all too common occurence during the race for the Wenger Cup era…to do so would go along way in justifying this reinvention initiative, which appears to be ahead of schedule, according to any reasonable metrics for “phase 3” of this project…now I certainly don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but it’s imperative that we don’t fall into the overachievement trap, which can oft-times lead to the kind of deviations that can negatively impact longer term organizational plans…one only has to remember what happened in the weeks and months following our rather fortuitous FA Cup victory in MA’s first half-season in charge
I digress
finally, health related issues will play a huge factor in the run-up, but we seem to be turning a corner in that regards, especially with the return of Jesus, so hopefully nothing silly happens during the upcoming break(knock on fucking wood)…that said, it’s vitally important that they remain laser focused for the next 2 fixtures so that we both eliminate Sporting and maintain our 5 point lead…anything short of that could have some potentially negative unwanted consequences, as everyone knows the importance of entering the break on a positive note, otherwise you might find yourself with too much time on your hands stewing over spilt milk
Tony-just like your post from yesterday morning, we’re typically on the same page when it comes to club-related matters-it makes me laugh when I’m unable to see your post, then I post mine and realize you’ve beat me to the punch…Cheers
Hi lads
I think you’ve hit on something there Tony. Arsenal need to go out and dismantle Sporting on Thursday night to send a message that we’re on the crest of a wave too.
Taking junior to see the Bluebirds v West Brom tonight. A mere 200 mile round trip. Not holding out much hope of a win although they’re far stronger at home these days.
although I’m increasingly upbeat about our prospects this season, the PR driven agenda still rubs me the wrong way…you have numerous headlines professing how the “restructuring” is a clear sign of ownership’s intent when it comes to big trophy hunting, then hidden deep within the original AP copy you discover gems like these, “this is not a huge overhaul by Arsenal, but instead a formalisation of the roles that have already been in place for a few years”…can’t we just end this fluffed up nonsense, stick to “real” football related narratives and let their actually actions do the talking…just saying
Morning all, as much as I’m all in on positive mental attitudes in life, especially in sport, there are also extremes that go too far, such as rubbing hands and the piss taking by Palace’s Zaha and others before a game, just after the Amazon release.
Now Arteta has outdone himself by bringing in a new name for subs: Impacters first created by the joker of rugby: Eddie Jones.
Arteta obviously devoid of unique ideas of his own chose to borrow Eddie Jone’s narrative: ‘Finishers’ who rarely finished anything of note in a World Cup and 6 Nations & Test tours. Don’t get me wrong Eddie’s 3-test win in Australia was best for the sore losers the Aussis are. Their national press read like comics for 8 year olds the next day unless you’re not Australian; then it’s hilarious.
Other than that Eddie was a patchy coach/manager that never really got the best from England stars. In fact many will say Eddie overstayed his abilities by 2 to 3 years and left for losing every major competition he was in in the last couple of years: He won an appalling 5 from 12 tests. However, Eddie does have the best overall win ratio for England managers with 73% of 31 test matches winning 19 losing 11 and 1 draw at 62%.
Ok, we are comparing apples to oranges, however, both are elite sports comprising of elite athletes and hopefully management/coaches.
As far as I am concerned there has only been one truly great England manager: Sir Clive Woodward winner of our only world cup. The England RFU are clueless when it comes to selecting England managers. I don’t hold a lot of faith in Borthwick. The myth that 73% is a historical landmark is backed up by (barring Clive) by the poorest level of English managers the England RFU have selected to date.
Will we see the bench collectively rubbing their hands together their hardest to curry Arteta’s favour to be the ‘Impactor’ of the day? As the hand rubbing failed abysmally last season perhaps the ‘Impactors’ will be Arteta’s coup de gras to beating City away.
It’s not good optics to use a failed system from a failed England rugby manager who was fired for poor performances.
We’ve barely got a squad to play and win our remaining 11 PL games, which will likely be very thin if we make to the EL cup finals.
I’d rather our manager just concentrated on winning each game as it comes and keeping our squad fit and healthy than playing with a semantic hoodoo. I mean after Reis’s sub who else has had a winning impact as a sub?
What’s next Hoddle’s England’s spiritualist?
TRVL – I would be interested to hear your thoughts on this being American who took PMA to a new level in Carnegie’s days.
There’s no punch to beat, as we write differently and therefore our offerings are nuanced differently. I always enjoy your writing style. No smoke blowing I just appreciate the academic mind having written curriculum case studies for the international Masters Management here for one of the top Universities. I did a lot of senior govt agency management work in the early 2000s as a consultant. It was an interesting period and a good way to make influential Thai friends.
KP – A draw is better than a loss, but it does leave an empty feeling. Hope the game was good for you and junior to have quality time together, especially in the car for what 4 hours+?
We also have to make our statements to prove to City and Pep this season is no fluke on our part: our football is worthy of our position. We, as was City, are at home tonight where the atmosphere will be electric for us and hostile for Lisbon where a win is essential even if we go no further in there next round.
The more City see us as winners in the PL & EL cup the more they will concentrate on the CL if not only mentally.
Palace lost to BHA last night taking their unbeaten loss run to 12 games (?).
We can afford to play most of our starting 11 against Lisbon with Palace also being a home game Sunday. We have the players who can work in tight spaces now at pace, so we’ll get through Paddy’s condensed low block he used against City to good effect. They nullified Haaland, which is no easy feat, so we can’t be complacent or too low on collective gas. It’s a fine balancing act.
Title chasing is as much a mental pressure as it is physical on the pitch. We really saw that for the first time against Fulham where we played like champions elect against a decent side.
Too late for us so will watch in the morning.
Cheers Tony. A good draw in the end. Terrible in the first half but showed some fight in the second. Powerful headed goal from our Guinean (I think) loanee from Midtylland and therefore with CL experience, Sory Kaba.
I checked the date on the drive over and junior confirmed it was the Ides of March. So a win was always out of the question! It was a good, fun evening nevertheless and we put his learner plates on the car on the way home.
Rotherham away on Saturday. Ever Been? I’m toying with the idea.
Sounds like great fun, KP. Don’t ever recall going to Rotherham. Cool you got the ‘L’ plates for the way home. I bet junior loved driving. Didn’t we all at that age? Driving meant freedom in my day, and I doubt it’s changed.
Just came across this movie called Tigers.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9850488/
Tony
There was a band playing inside Cardiff Stadium yesterday before the game that made me think of you. All lads who looked like they were born in the 60s unashamedly playing punk and new wave cover versions. The Clash, the Ruts, the Only Ones, the Damned (new rose), the Jam and Elvis Costello. Oh, and they finished with that Specials track ‘it doesn’t make it all right’. They were having a good laugh together. Put all us old geezers in a positive frame of mind before the game.
I must admit I’m a little bit apprehensive about how this lineup might get things done tonight…of course, I want the focus to be squarely on our League pursuits, but with the pending break we probably could have got away with less changes…it still seems to me that until Xhaka is shipped he will forever be in our starting 11
Tony—can you elaborate a bit regarding your PMA question? I’m assuming this is in reference to the Miliatary Academy?
Tomi looks like he lasted a whole 7 GD minutes…he might be too fragile for this gig
Jorginho’s pass to Marts was spot on, but the fact we’ve had two backline subs in the first 20+ minutes is a bit troubling
far too often Vieira assumes the role of headless chicken, but he definitely can craft a cross…let’s hope he figures the rest of his game out
Jesus was unlikely to not have scored….I sure hope he gets back to his early season form sooner rather than later and there’s little doubting that a goal or two today would surely help shed his snakebitten ways
there’s an intriguing amount of directness in this game, by both squads, which is surprising considering the preferred tactics by both managers and the fact that this was a tie coming in…I’m certainly not complaining, it’s just unexpected, so it caught me off guard
one must ask, why is Jorginho man-marking their tallest player inside our box…he’s quite fortunate that a penalty wasn’t called, in fact, the official appeared to be admonishing the Sporting player instead
end of the half…I find it difficult to imagine this game not having more goals in it, unless a major tactical change is forthcoming
here’s hoping that the halftime subbing of Jesus for Trossard was preplanned and not an injury-related move…with this in mind, we used two defensive subs in the first-half, now the halftime move up top, plus both Vieira and Xhaka are on yellows, so we just might use all 5 of our available subs tonight
what an absolute shocker of a goal from the midfield stripe…WTF Ransdale, Turner could have done that sort of brainless shit
WTF is this 2nd half shit show by AFC, heavy touches, misplaced passes, and anyone still think we don’t need a goal keeper in the next TW? Anytime Ramsdale kicks the ball has it at his feat I am dying. Unrecognized the team in the 2nd half and what we at least need is extra time. What an Arsenal shit show this is.
here comes our last two subs, Partey and Saka, let’s hope they can get this game back on the rails or we could find ourselves on the outside looking in
Killroy-thank goodness you entered the fray, as I was starting to get sick of reading only my own posts…the real drag about this scenario is that I’ve been calling for some more directness in our game, I just wished it came with a more logical 11 on the pitch…as such, the wrong lessons might be learned here…very enjoyable game to watch, if you’re a neutral observer
glorious save by Ramsdale!! might have saved our blushes
Are these clowns practicing on the training ground how to give the ball away? I have not seen anything in the 2nd half that merits recommendations to the AFC players. When will the AFC players recognize that the ref will not give the fouls that you see in Serie A and La Liga, they are abysmal in the 2nd half.
For a betting man atm it would be Sporting to go through in extra time.
If it goes to penalties my 1st born for Sporting to go through that is how terrible Arsenal is.
what another glorious save, unfortunately this time from Sporting…so much for saving our legs for Sunday’s fixture
Note to Arteta, FFS on the training ground practice dinking the goal keeper.
my bad, I thought we were only allowed 5 subs, but that’s not the case in the knockout rounds, which allows 6
talk about getting your money’s worth…I agree with your penalty kick sentiments Killroy…as such, we had better pot a winner in the next 15