You couldn’t be any happier as an Arsenal fan. Well, there are some caveats but if you look at the overall picture, we are having a heck of a time. We are sitting at the top in Premier League with a 4 point lead to 2nd place Bournemouth and 6 points over Man City whom we can consider the competition. We have 3 wins in 3 games in Champions League, one of them was 4-0 against the Simeone’s side. We qualified for the Quarter Finals in Carabao Cup with a team that started a 15 year old and will face Crystal Palace and not one of the City, Chelsea or Newcastle. Our FA cup run is yet to start, but everything else looks fine so far. In fact, much better than just fine.
However, the road to success will get much tougher as we move forward, other teams will figure out their mess and every game will get decisive. All we need to do, is keep our head cool, perform the best we can, challenge each other for the starting place and prove why you deserved it and we can win something of value finally. We have got some of the best players in Premier League on bench. We have the best defence in the league and the opposition is struggling to put a shot on target. We have 15-year olds challenging Brightonions and we have players that are making history with the 15 minutes they are getting. The hunger is there, the team has fallen 3 years in a row after getting so close to the title and they surely would have that pain in their heart. I am pretty sure they don’t want to feel it again.
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Right, lets get back to the game. We are visiting Burnely today, and they aren’t in a very good condition. With only 3 wins in 9 games, they are fighting a relegation battle and the three wins they have were against Wolves, Sunderland and Leeds. We are surely the favorites and a win today will either keep the lead to 6 points against City or Bournemouth can do us a favor by beating them tomorrow. But, in any case, we can’t afford to lose our focus today.
Gabriel Martinelli picked up an injury against Brighton mid week and will not available for today’s game. Mikel is starting Trossard mostly in Premier League anyway so it should be fine. William Saliba remains a doubt after coming off at half time against Palace last weekend but we have Mosquera who can fill in his place. He had one bad game but you can expect that from a 21-year old CB trying to fit in the shoes of the best CB partnership in the world.
I am hoping a back 4 of Timber, Mosquera, Gabriel and Calafiori starting today with Raya back in the goal. Both Rice and Zubimendi are expected to start with Eze playing the no. 10 role. Saka, Gyokeres and Trossard will keep their places.
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I am bit sorry for Gyokeres. That lad thought he is coming to Arsenal to bang in couple of goals every game but is being surrounded by 3 defenders every game and is not getting the freedom he was otherwise getting with Sporting. The league’s tougher than anything else and with Arteta’s style of play, where your CF needs to go back in his own penalty box to defend, he will have to work harder to get his name on the scoresheet. However, it’s allowing Saka, Martinelli, Trossard more space on the wings and is ultimately improving our game in the final third so it’s not a bad thing as long as we keep winning.
Also, I hate to be overly dependent on set pieces and winning games 1-0, but 3 points are 3 points. Would I love some David Beckham free kick goals from Eze? Yes. Would I love Gyokeres scoring a hattrick with bicycle kicks? Fucking Yes. Martinelli picking the ball in his own half courtesy to a Raya’s pass and then beating 3 defenders to score a solo goal is a mesmerizing thing, but if you come at me calling the club a set piece club, I would show you the 3 points and the league table. If you happen to be a Liverpool fan, I would also ask you fuck off.
Right, that’s me done. See you during the game.
Congratulations Ambarish – is your daughter your first child?
Congrats Ambarish….best wishes to you and yours bud
Ambarish
Congratulations.
I trust her middle names will be Dennis Thierry Patrick Tony Xhaka!
Norg – yes, and thank you.
TRVL – thank you mate.
Marc – Noted haha
Ambarish – I bet she has you wrapped around her little finger already.
Always positive to see Merino up top and he didn’t disappoint. He rarely does.
Hopefully we’ll have the options of him Gyokeres plus Jesus and last season’s top scorer before too long.
Arteta has developed a forward line to comfortably carry us on all four fronts
But of course, it’s the defence that wins titles, another clean sheet at Europe’s top table. Fabulous
Congrats MB. Mini kit on order, seal the deal.
Hi Ambarish
That’s terrific news. The warmest congratulations to you and your partner. Your life is about to get even busier in the best possible way. As the first ever LiR baby, your daughter will have a special place in history! I’m really pleased for you mate.
Sometimes when a team is winning football matches it all seems too easy, 10 wins on the bounce, no goals conceded in 8 , how could it go wrong.
Well it can still go tits up, ask city last season , ask Liverpool this season ask Arsenal after United beat us to end our 49 game unbeaten run.
When you are winning as we are now it feels like we are invincible but we are nowhere near that stage yet.
Fortunately we have had very little drama in our matches , we have not had to rely on any favours from the officials , we are conceding very few (if any ) shots on target and we are finding a way to score despite having odegaard, jesus, havertz, madueke, martinelli and now gyokeres out injured.
Anyone who can’t recognise the improvement in Arteta’s squad and in game management is being dishonest with themselves. Arteta hasn’t complained about the injuries, he has managed the squad to perfection so far this season and with the return of the 6 offensive players from injury we will see a more expansive Arsenal as Arteta has had to rely on the defence and midfield to see us through this injury crisis and he has done it impeccably.
It is a lack of football knowledge and understanding of the game why some would criticise the team for not playing open expansive football, Ange at Tottenham tried it last season when he had injuries and they were almost relegated, Arteta has shown his intelligence with the way he has managed the squad and has adapted to the players he has available and to be critical of the style of football is a sad and desperate attempt to refuse to admit the superb job he is doing at this present time, the doubters (of which there are very few) are clutching at straws when they highlight our goals from set plays as if it’s a negative, our open play goals in the last 2 weeks have been exceptional.
I’m sure the doubters on here are now starting to doubt themselves, though they won’t admit it, my advice to them is enjoy our superb defending, enjoy our set piece goals, enjoy our open play goals and enjoy watching this Arsenal team hopefully win the league and probably much more besides in the coming seasons….why would anyone want their own team to fail , especially when we are probably the best team in Europe(along with bayern) right now ….crazy.
Congratulations Ambarish
With a daughter now you are mellow like a good single malt.
She is the princess of LiR
I thought Wicksy was the princess of LiR?
More like the court jester
All 5 English clubs in the top 10 of the Champions league group shows how strong the Premier league is, which makes The Arsenal’s 6 point gap at the top look even more credible.
Superb management of the squad is the key , as any educated football fan should know that to bring in as many as 9 new players into the squad (including a 15 year old) and compete at the very highest level is one of the hardest things to do in managing a top football club, .and to manage that with as many as 6 offensive players out injured is a credit to the manager’s tactical nous and understanding of the difficulties he could have faced if he had not been so tactically astute.
Sunderland away is potentially another tough away game especially after a very physically demanding game on Tuesday, but as long as we have our 7 more defensive players available Raya, Timber, saliba, Gabriel, calafiori , Zubimendi and Rice then we should have enough to get the job done, Liverpool play city on sunday, a draw would be ideal for us but to be honest any result ppppppwill favour Arsenal due to our strong position sitting top of the league.
An international break is not such a bad thing for us as by all accounts some of the injured will be close to being ready for action when the Premier league returns, fortunately with our strong position joint top of the champions league table it will enable Arteta to rotate the squad to give the returning players a chance to build up their match fitness, plus of course we play palace in the league cup so we have potentially a chance to field a very strong side if Havertz, jesus, martinelli, madueke, odegaard and gyokeres are available. …happy days , congrats to Ambarish on the new arrival.
You’ll all know me as a confirmed disliker of Shit on the Villa, but I hope they fucking destroy (yes, destroy) those racist warmongering cunts that play for and support maccabi tel aviv tonight in the Europa league. A truly horrible club that doesn’t even play in Europe. I also seldom agree with the police’s attitude to managing matches but banning their fans was spot on because people in Brum don’t need these extremists in their midst. Israeli clubs have no place in these competitions.
KP – even the rest of Israel hate Maccabi and their supporters. They make the Millwall supporters look like children in a kindergarten.
KP
“but banning their fans was spot on because people in Brum don’t need these extremists in their midst ”
I agree , there should be no extremists on the streets of Birmingham tonight.
Fortunately Islam is a religion of peace ……….isn’t it ?
Wicksy
None of them are, are they? I think the rot set in with the crusades (a thousand years ago?) and plenty of people have died at the hands of Christian colonisers since. Organised religion and conflict go hand in hand. And don’t even get me started on those bullying bastards stateside who love starting wars and never win any.
If you want to talk contemporary conflicts, it’s all Jews and Christians to blame right? The middle east is divided between the wealthy oil kleptocracies, ie Saudi and the Emirates, who don’t help their Arab neighbours because money is their real god, not Mohammad. And on the other hand, the victims of Christian/Jewish aggression (Palestinians, Yemenis, Libyans, Syrians etc.) who are fighting desperately for their lives against bullies. Iran, on the other hand, involves itself in foreign adventures as a means of maintaining its place in the international pecking order and suppressing its own citizens. A fucking mess in other words, but it can all be traced back to the west and other main powers.
And who said we just talked shite about football on here?
KP
“If you want to talk contemporary conflicts,”
I don’t, i have no interest whatsoever, especially in religion, the closest I have got to watching anything religious is “the life of Brian ” which as far as I’m concerned sums up religion to perfection..
Marc—I hate to say I told you so, but…
Nice one Herr Wickmeister. Non-interventionist line (yeah, I’m being ironic). If only that pariah, state sponsoring terrorist shit hole Israel were half as willing to follow your approach.
Replace that murdering cunt Netanyahu and his circumcised cock sucking whore of a corrupt wife with Biggus Dickus and his wife Incontinentia Buttox. Watch that magical Life of Brian clip on YT and try not to laugh…I’ll post it on here so you can all have a giggle.
https://youtu.be/clYE6NNOIoU?si=u-PHSBcPJ0t40yhz
Magical. A wonderful cure for the blues. ‘he has a wife you know…’