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!
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
We are back were we ware all throughout the last seasons, finishing in front of goal.
it appears as if Sporting thinks we can be had in a penalty kick scenario, as they’re setting up deeper and playing on the counter…this is the type of affair when you wish we were far more clinical in front of goal
we were clearly on the same wavelength
Martinelli hasn’t done shit in this game except doing excellent dives for free kicks. Looks like if Adan is MOTM you know that means AFC goes out.
talk about a game when you couldn’t afford for your Keeper to allow a goal from the center stripe…Adan might be having his career best performance
it would suck shit to devote this much energy then shit the bed, so fingers-crossed we find a way to win from the dot
Same thoughts here, injured players 120 minutes and going out with a league game on Sunday.
neither team have a lot of penalty kicking experience on the pitch…the commentator said that Saka is 2 for 2 and that Sporting is 1 of 4, but the player who scored the 1 was taken off…i bet a lot are watching this through their fingers like an old horror movie viewing
I meant experience during this season thus far
eggs firmly in one basket now
There you go gents as predicted and my 1st born is safe. As already mentioned Martinelli is way off his best throughout the last few games.
Marts had been on a bit of a scoring run lately, but that will be a tough pill for him to swallow…I’m more worried about MA’s upcoming slection headaches, now that we don’t have any European fixtures ahead, as I’m sure the assurances he gave to our veteran TW additions were largely predicated on us going much deeper in this particular competition…of course, I’ve always placed a premium on our title pursuits, but this could lead to some questionable decisions on MA’s part moving forward
selection
I wouldn’t be too disheartened after tonight. They played out of their skins and we weren’t too shabby either. It was a really good game in my opinion and we came out of it on the wrong side. I think their coach got his tactics right and SCP excelled themselves. Sometimes you just have to take a setback like that.
One focus left – and that’s not finishing between 2nd and 4th.
Disregarding the result we are hurting going into Sunday’s game possibly without Saliba and Tomi, our starting 11 all played way too many minutes and their mental strength just got shot to pieces that is the crux of the matter.
LiR shouldn’t show the predictability and the meltdown that is displayed on LG. Like when AFC misses out on a player LG goes into mode he was shit and we didn’t wanted him anyhow. When dumped out of a competition local or European “glad we are out we can now focus on the more important tournaments”.
FFS winners win, we did not have the aura of a winner today, this was a two legged affair to forget, the two matches were an absolute cluster fuck. How on god’s green earth will we ever make it deep into the CL if we get dumped out of Europe in the round of 16?
On LG in the state of denial is in full bloom and delusional fantasy has taken over by dreaming of bringing players in the summer to AFC and then with that squad we will finally make it in Europe. The delusion is monumental. Until changes are made to the ones responsible to put down the starting XI and in game management, nothing will change in Europe for us.
If United win the EL and perhaps spank Sporting should they be drawn against each other there will be no end to ridicule and next season when ETH has players coming in there could be a repeat of what happened this season in the EL except it will be in the CL, AFC going out in the round of 16 and again no trophy.
To all those that say good riddance of the EL I have never subscribed to the notion that teams gunning for a title should somehow just ditch a trophy to preserve energy. It can actually help teams keep on that rhythm of playing every 3/4 days and, psychologically, can be big if they come through another tough test together as a group.
KP-I get what you’re saying, as it was definitely an enjoyable watch, notwithstanding the outcome, but it feels like we were outmanaged again, which is becoming an all too common refrain…it was clear that the Sporting manager took what he gleaned from the first match and game planned accordingly, whereas I’m not so sure the same could be said about MA…of course, it’s not Arteta’s fault that Ramsdale got caught with his pants down, but there’s no doubt that he was instructed to be his most sweeper-self, which is likely the main reason he was starting in place of Turner, and that was clearly a deciding factor…regardless, I would be lying if I said that I wouldn’t have switched Keepers after Turner’s piss-poor display in Portugal, so I can’t hold him to the carpet for that
now if it weren’t so bloody obvious I would suggest that Sporting has supplied our future opponents with a tactical blueprint whenever Jorginho and Xhaka are on the pitch, but if you need a blueprint to figure that shit out you’re likely in the wrong profession…in the end their plan only yielded them a goal from the center stripe, albeit they did control the play for the first 15 or so and then again for the large chunks of the second half, so it wouldn’t be too off base to suggest that this game came down to the fact that their Keeper stood on his head
now do I think the result might have been different if we put our best lineup on the pitch to start the game, maybe, but it’s a nuanced question, considering what transpired injury-wise and the very real possibility that their tactics might have looked vastly different if our lineup had more cutting edge…that said, the fact that he was willing to go against the Europa tactical grain and start Ramsdale, we might of been best served by having a more tried and tested squad out there, especially with a break upcoming…so maybe if you’re going to have both Jorginho and Xhaka in the midfield, maybe you don’t also have Vieira out there, for obvious pace-related reasons, and Nelson, who doesn’t require nearly the same defensive attention that a Saka demands, as that clearly emboldened them, tactically-speaking
in the end, I care considerably more about a bona fide title run, so let’s hope that this result, if nothing else, allows us to play our best 11 the rest of the way, even though I’m still worried that without European matches going forward MA will have some serious selection headaches, which could cost us some crucial points
KIllroy—I agree with your sentiments, but I think I would be far more concerned if we had laid an egg with our best and brightest on the pitch from the get-go…I certainly don’t like us going out this early, but we have seen in the more recent past, like with LC and Chelsea, how having no European fixtures could be incredibly beneficial when making a title run, especially when it was unexpected and/or ahead of schedule…let’s hope that 3 times a charm
Being out of the EL also has a financial implication these are the figures for last season and the assumption is we win the title and United finish 3rd and win the EL.
Arsenal $54.4 million
United $49 million + $9.73 million
For me it is the embarrassment first for going out that early and in the kind we did it. I agree that the title is the most important since it is almost 20 years since we last won it. However, great teams will ALWAYS compete successfully in several competitions as the history of the big six minus Spuds testify to that fact. Ever since Wenger went past his sell by date it seems AFC has lost that magic of winning trophies in the same season.
We can only be fortunate that Liverpool and Chelsea are very bad this season. However next season is a different story, Bellingham has to make a choice go to Real and get hardly any playing time or slot right away into Pool’s midfield. United & Chelsea are going hard for an elite striker and lord help us if the Qataris buy United.
This is the season for the title and could have been the season for additional trophies.
Morning all – Didn’t get to see the game; however, after reading your match posts I decided not to bother with the highlights this morning. Looks like Xhaka had one of his rare MOTM outings where he played to his best his best abilities in a ridiculous midfield. If you check his MOTM stats on FOTMOB you’ll find them not that impressive to win the award.
On that note the more pacy and mobile ESR should have played in place of Xhaka. Just think if he had license to run in a free role? It’s not like he’s own the red zone or even close to it.
How do you make that midfield selection after playing them last week? Just looking at the line ups and stats from FOTMOB, they tell an all too familiar Arteta poor selection story. Vieira is just getting up to speed and comes from Portugal, so is too familiar to the Sporting players. Faux Pas #1. The 2nd was playing Jorginho and Xhaka together with Vieira. Who was covering Xhaka’s final 3rd excursions? The marginally faster Jorginho?
Sounds like Lisbon flooded the midfield as so many team do to us. That said a 1:1 score line says the players did their best under the inept midfield tactical circumstances because, if we can draw, we should be beating them at home.
Seems none of our Impact subs were impactful.
Penalties are always a lottery, as our 3/5 showed. On another day all 5 takers would put their penalties away.
What last night’s result does mean is we can concentrate on winning the PL. No excuses. A home win against Paddy’s Palace and a much needed rest with the international break for as many of our players as possible.
Arteta should be talking to the international managers with his medical team. Saliba and
Our big bang of a statement to City last night became a damp squib because our manager was caught in two minds with his selection: particularly the midfield selection. That and Saliba on crutches last night leaving the ground and Tomi with yet another injury.
Time to bounce back and make our title statement, Sunday, and see if Arteta has what it takes to be a PL winning manager because he has an easier route with squad rotation with less games to be concerned with now than City.
All Arteta has to do is protect our 5 point lead. What could possibly go wrong? Will our bare bones squad be Arteta’s undoing as last season?
11 games will tell us all we need to know.
KP, that band sounded great at the ground with the raw music being a cool wind up to the game. Have you decided about Rotherham? More driving lessons for junior?
TRVL, the PMA I referred to was Positive Mental Attitude.
In the 70s America was all about the PMA with posters, such as Do It Now! Adorning workplace walls with similar positive messages. The UK was far behind in that respect at the time. Carnegie was a trail blazer with business and sales systems, such as AIDA with SMART- following, plus Phillip Kotler for marketing (still used in Unis today) with others during the next decade – all from America.
The Brits in their infinite stupidity, bless their myopic blinkered souls, used to poke fun at such desire using such silly slogans to increase production. At that time in good old Blighty the stiff upper British lip was quite-so, that employees would always do their absolute best and didn’t need micro management or so they thought.
The positive American way was better accepted and implemented during the 80s after the turmoil of the 70s 3-day working weeks to conserve electricity and coal reserves.
In the 90s, Britain had caught up with America including Horizontal management replacing the slower vastly ineffective Top Down with dogmatic leadership in ivory towers et al.