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.
Vera
Any educated fan when analysing Sunderland would recognise that they are where they are in the league primarily due to their home form.
That’s not say they haven’t had a couple of decent wins away from home but their 2 defeats came on their travels.
I believe Sunderland are a similar kind of side as Bolton or stoke back in the day under pullis and Allerdyce, who both relied on their home form to maintain their Premier league status.
These type of teams when playing at home were/are allowed to basically get away with murder by the officials , the writing was on the wall yesterday with the elbow on Merino early in the game that could have done some serious damage that was allowed to go unpunished, away from home it’s a different story without their home crowd .
After coming to terms with the physicality un the first half, our 2nd half performance showed that we won’t be bullied , unfortunately our crippling injury list didn’t allow Arteta to bring on experience from the bench to see out the game.
Sunderland are punching well above their weight. How? Well could it be the manager? Sunderland’s team cost about 30% the amount of dosh to assemble compared with Arsenal.
Sunderland were expected to be relegation fodder from the start of the season and they could still end up in 18th or lower however their manager is like a breath of fresh air and can be compared with the manager of Bournemouth.
Aitcho predicted a 3-0 win to the Arsenal but we did not perform. The excuses – we are without several first team players – that is no excuse as the value of the team put out by El B yesterday was, in value (money spent) twice that of Sunderland.
Lets hope it was a ‘one off’ .
KP
Good cricket club do yesterday? I have just read an article about a guy finally hanging up his bat at 85.
Amusing to see the fanboys making excuses for Captain Fuckwit, dismissing criticism of him and then agreeing with the criticism.
Arteta is a cunt full stop and we will never win the PL with him in charge.
The most depressing part of it is we’ll probably miss out on another top class manager in Enrique who’ll end up going to another PL club all while we stick with the cunt.
Maybe the fanboys should ask themselves why we get so many injuries to first team players?
Could never be down to the cunt could it.
Marc
These slags never learn.
They make excuses after fucking excuses for the cunt.
Fucking huge parapgraphs of excuses for the cunt.
The morinic cunt has spent 1 bill and its his fault the players are injured, no one elses.
He has 5 subs to use, remind me how many he used yesterday?
AF
Preaching to the converted.
The good news is the media especially TV is building Arteta up to fail this season – when he does what he always does they’ll tear him to pieces. There are also rumours that the Kroenke’s are finally expecting results, with the stories about the stadium expansion seeming to have some merit they’re not going to fuck around with all the money he’s spent.
They have played better this season but thats only because the cunt has bought so many players he cant instill his over coached negative bollocks into them.
Give it time though.
Good on the Villa players for their reaction to the Bournemouth clash of heads.
enough talk about the fucking early elbow on our wet noodle of a “Striker”…if the wind blows too hard he’ll be on the pitch flopping about
TRVL
Merino was caught but it was just part of play.
Of course according to some we’re the only team who ever get injuries or have players get caught in a fair tackle.
Marc—totally agree…he’s a fucking magnet for contact because he’s a rather poor defender who tends to lean into any contact that might provide him with some sort of out/advantage…when you play like that sometimes you’re going to absorb the odd “real” knock…soon enough, much like Havertz, he’ll get labeled as a little “crying wolf” bitch and you won’t get those calls, which could leave us exposed defensively or earn him some much-deserved yellows…btw isn’t it fucking ironic that our little Apologist would compare Sunderland to Stoke considering our blunt instrument-like tactical approach
TRVL
You don’t see anything even close to the physicality even brutality that Stoke or Bolton used to use in the PL anymore.
For someone to even suggest that tells you they either haven’t been watching football very long or don’t have a fucking clue.
Of course both is also an option.
Liverpool 2 nil down coming up to half time and looking really poor which they’ve been for much of this season.
Why did Captain Fuckwit go so negative against them when they’ve looked so poor at the back all season.
chickenshit syndrome
https://youtu.be/38-aOv_MWXg?si=DjcBkGq-U4BliPSp
Northern teams have such fair weather hypocrite fans yet they love to portray themselves as mythologically being more into football than anyone else. Fucking liars the lot of them.
Packed last night cos we were playing there but check this clip for an almost empty stadium when they’re relegated and not playing the big teams. Wankers.
Where were you when you were shit?
Marc
Agreed. Liverpool’s slump is remarkable. No energy and no flair.
KP
The stadium of light is rarely full – the last time they were in the top tier they struggled to fill the ground and only did so with ticket offers.
Kroenke
The worst of the lot are City fans – couldn’t even sell out for their first CL match.
Very ironic to see a few on here slagging off opposing fans when they have spent the last 24 hours doing exactly that to the club and players they are supposed to support.