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!
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