We are visiting Anfield today. One of the most important games of the season, clash of the No #1 and No #2, and two teams fighting for 90 minutes to sing ‘I am better than you’ at the end of day. Quality wise, we are on par with them. It will all come down to the players and their passion to beat the best team in Premier League and the manager to devise a strategy to neutralise the Mo Salah threat while breaking that defence to score some goals. Trent is gone so that’s a relief, we always hated his long balls to Salah.
We haven’t won at Anfield since 2012. In recent years, we have proved to be a match to them sharing points in our last 6 encounters. Today is the day to reset both these numbers.
Their new striker, Ekitike, had a wonderful start in Liverpool color. He has scored 2 and assisted 1 in his first 2 games. We have got our own fighter up top in Gyokeres, who scored 2 against Leeds after a sus first game. It’s the battle of the Forwards primarily and we will see who is the geezer of two.
Then, they have one of the best CB of recent Premier League era and we have got one for the present and future. VVD has enjoyed his fair share of praises, but Saliba has taken over. They have the best player on the planet in Mo Salah which we don’t have answer to as Saka is injured but we as a team have better chemistry, better defence and a better midfield to counter that advantage.
Team News
We needed everyone for one of the biggest games of the season, but unfortunately we are without 2 of our main team players. Saka is out injured for about a month and Odegaard for probably a couple more weeks.
Smart teams anticipate such kind of scenarios and cover it in advance. Last season, Saka and Ode injuries would have meant we go into the game with Nwaneri on the wings and no idea who as the sole playmaker in the midfield. Today, we have options. Madueke is a premier league player, played in the Chelsea team against the likes of City and Liverpool and he knows what it takes to play in such a game. Eze, another premier league ready transfer, can cover the Odegaard’s position, without any drop in quality. We overpaid for both of them, but at least we have the confidence in both these signings to continue what Saka and Odegaard does.
Saka is a big game player and it’s impossible in current football world to replace him with a similar player. There would be some drop of quality on the right wing but it won’t lose us the game. Same for Eze.
Arteta will most likely stick to his back 4 of Timber, Saliba, Gabriel and Calafiori. The Italian will have a massive job today to handle Mo Salah who has a great start of the season with a goal and assist in previous 2 games. If he fails, we have MLS on the bench who can do that.
In the midfield, we would see one Eze coming in for Odegaard. Rice and Zubimendi will keep their place. I am not sure if Arteta will ever try one of Zubimendi or Rice in the middle with both Odegaard and Eze on either side, but if he does, it won’t be today.
Front 3 will be interesting. Madueke on the right means Martinelli will keep his place at the left and Gyokeres will start in the middle. Martinelli is menace for defenders with his pace and he is a big game player. For me, he starts today and he will end up benching Madueke once Saka is back.
Don’t be shocked if …
On the referee part, we are not in luck. Chris Kavanagh would be officiating the game, the last time he did that in an Arsenal game was against Chelsea in March. He ignored the Cucurella handball in the penalty box and totally missed to see Fofana stomping on Declan Rice. This is the same lad who red carded Declan Rice against Brighton for kicking the ball away where in fact he didn’t kick it while missing the leg kick only a fraction of second before, also totally ignoring Joao Pedro kicking the ball away a few minutes later. I am not really conspiracy theorist but lets just say he was born in Manchester and as far as I know, those cunts don’t really like us.
Wrapping Up
I think we will make it today and break the Anfield curse. 2-1 to boys with Martinelli scoring one in a counter and Gyokeres proving his worth and letting the world know he has arrived. It’s not going to be an easy game at all but lets see how much we can keep our focus on, not let Salah break free and keep our heads in the game. It’s too early in the season to make 1 single game important for the title, but having earning all 3 points against a top 4 teams given you the luxury to not think about a draw later in the season against a bottom half team – like Manchester United.
We have some big games coming up after this, so a loss could derail the confidence. Hopefully the new signing in Eze was able to get in the mix comfortably and Madueke does 9/10 of Saka on that right side.
Also, please don’t laugh about Tottenham, they lost to a mighty Bournemouth at home with 1 shots on target to theirs 6. Thomas Franc is a great manager, but so were Mourinho and Conte, you can’t coach the Spuds to play football, can you?
See you during the game.
Here is where I think Arteta may have a problem with his team selection.
The previous 2 seasons partey had been at the base of the midfield playing as a 6 by himself and we played with 2 number 8’s with 2 wide players and a striker
This season it looks like Zubimendi and Rice are both playing the deeper role with Odegaard /Nwaneri playing a sort of no.10 role with 2 wide players and a striker, though yesterday we basically played with 3 holding midfielders but I think that was a one off due to injuries and playing at Anfield.
Does Arteta not think that zubimendi can play the deeper role by himself as it looks to me that he is using Rice to give more protection to the defence which helps defensively but we are not creating chances from open play probably due to lack of support for our striker.
Unless Arteta trusts zubimendi to play the partey role by himself he will have selection problems as Eze is more a no.8 than a wide player but I can see Eze used as a left winger as Arteta will not want to leave out his favourites, namely Odegaard, Rice or zubimendi.
Will we see a midfield of zubimendi, eze and Odegaard/Nwaneri I doubt it, will he drop zubimendi and play Rice as our no.6 I doubt it , will he change back to last season’s system of 2 no.8’s but play Rice as the no.8 instead of eze ….probably.
So how I look at it is the problem lies with Zubimendi and Rice as they are 100% starters as is Odegaard, so unless Rice or zubimendi are injured then Eze will be destined for the left wing position.
Will be interesting to see how this selection problem pans out , it could be a case of an injury to either Odegaard, rive or zubimendi may be of benefit for Eze to play more centrally.
Of course due to our excellent defence results will always be in our favour to finish in the top 4 but to actually win the league we will need to create and score way more goals from open play but Arteta knows this …….doesn’t he ?
AF
100% agree wit your thinking. I disagree that Eze not being worth the money we paid. Pool want £50m for Harvey Elliott who is levels below Eze in my opinion.
It’s no secret my choice was Olisse. I banged his drum until BM bought him where he’s been good for them.
I think Eze, under the right manager, such as Enrique who Marc, TRVL and I feel would turn us into winners always challenging and winning the biggest trophies from time to time.
MA calling Eze out after not starting him instead of that useless piece of cheating shit: Merino who has no pace or footballing IQ; who just throws himself to the floor ever time he loses the ball, and then looking for the ref to give him a free kick, which rarely happens because the refs know that Merino, Cauliflower, Timber, and now Zubi cheat to try to con the ref.
Does MA train them to do it? He is teaching darks arts to our squad for free kicks, corners, and much more, isn’t he?
100% behind you with the rest here who hate the Cnut, bar Wicksy, but he’ll come over the the dark side soon.
Ambarish good to see the pages of post rack up. LIR is getting there.
TRVL
Bud, what a shit show the game was yesterday.
MA’s playing not to lose, risk free football is never going to change.
Even Pep is shit now with City very inconsistent, something we’d would never have thought while he was a cheque book manager. Now Pep is having to buy cautiously and frugally, he can’t win anything where inconsistent form prevails, and will all season is my guess after watching their games with Junior. Pep has the players just look at Oscar Bob? Very talented as are others, such as Jani Reijnders and co.
City have lost their cohesion, and I’m not sure if Rodri is going to be their talisman this season. He looked off the pace and nowhere near his usual quality, as being the best 6 in the world.
He looked average against B’mouth and why they won. Sometimes players don’t come back to their former glory after a ACL injury where Rodri is fitting the bill tab the moment. maybe early days but I feel he’s lost his edge.
Pep was MA’s mentor. Ergo, MA is baby Pep and just as shit, even after almost 6 years in charge of the squad.
Wonder when the planes are going to start flying banners again on home match days again?
What are your thoughts on Rice appearing Gassed at around 75 minutes. He starts to stroll around conserving energy I assume around 70 minutes. I first noticed it towards the end of last season when he thought his extra Roy of the Rover’s efforts in games would win games for us.
I haven’t looked at his heat maps as they mean little to me. Having been a semi pro coach I wondered what your thoughts were?
Against Pool, Rice was done on 70 but wasn’t subbed. He has no recovery pace and is regressing from the player we bought for nearly Isak’s price.
Totally agree and have posted as much. We could & should have bought Isak instead of VG who I never wanted as not being good enough. He thinks he’s better than Haarland. Deluded prick.
I hope somehow he is our PL 20+ goal a season and more in the cups, but I just don’t see it.
I think VG is Porto’s Viera level who never made it under MA. Now loaned back to Porto because we can’t offload him. An all too familiar story under Mikel Arteta who simply has no eye to pick talent. Where sadly the players we need don’t want to play for MA or we would have bought them when MA named the players he wanted.
Funny, MA didn’t want Isak we can see by his actions.
Even with Sake yesterday our negative tactics were never going to win the game.
Arteta went to Anfield for a draw is my thinking, what’s your TRVL? Marc?
TRVL
“It’s just like with VG, Noni, Rice, Havertz, Merino, Cala, Tross and White…none of these purchases truly made sense from a cost benefit analysis standpoint, so long as MA was in charge…even if they were deployed in a manner that best-suited their individual skillsets, many would still fail to meet the above standard…of course”
Well said and sums up MA’s TWs perfectly.
Today Arteta should reach the billion pound spend milestone and also the few million pence income.
It looks as if we will still have our Ukrainian on the books for another year as Marseilles will definitely not meet his demand. He will have a year with his feet up earning a couple of million – what a waste.
Wicksy
So finally you’re asking the questions that a few of us have been asking on here for ages – there’s no logical approach to signings from Arteta. Its like a fat kid in a sweet shop who just buys up players for the sake of it.
When we have everyone fit assuming a first team of – Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiore, Rice, Zubi, Ode, Eze, Saka & VG on the bench we’d have the new £50 million CD we’re about to buy (loan now buy later), White, Skelly, Mosquera, Trossard, Martinelli, Nwaneri, Norgaard, Merino, Madueke and Havertz.
I’ve left the players I expect to leave out of that list.
There’s having a squad and then there’s having £400 million sitting on the bench.
Glad you’re coming round to the light.
Marc
This cunt actually thinks his job is simply to stockpile players every window.
No semblance of thought as how it all works on a physcological level or on team continuity. Or with simple economics of supply and demand.
Slot loses his right back and moves the Hungarian midfielder into his position, our cunt would rush out and buy another one instead.
Just signs the media and our cunt of a fanbase might be stirring. Like a sloth with haemorrhoids ,the speed they turn.
Mugs like Wicksy are two a penny and are simply a lost cause.
Sorry Wicksy nothing personal, but some of us old cunts like to win and not get constantly mugged off.
TRVL
Bud, what a shit show the game was yesterday.
MA’s playing not to lose, risk free football is never going to change.
Even Pep is shit now with City very inconsistent, something we’d would never have thought while he was a cheque book manager. Now Pep is having to buy cautiously and frugally, he can’t win anything where inconsistent form prevails, and will all season is my guess after watching their games with Junior. Pep has the players just look at Oscar Bob? Very talented as are others, such as Jani Reijnders and co.
City have lost their cohesion, and I’m not sure if Rodri is going to be their talisman this season. He looked off the pace and nowhere near his usual quality, as being the best 6 in the world.
He looked average against B’mouth and why they won. Sometimes players don’t come back to their former glory after a ACL injury where Rodri is fitting the bill tab the moment. maybe early days but I feel he’s lost his edge.
Pep was MA’s mentor. Ergo, MA is baby Pep and just as shit, even after almost 6 years in charge of the squad.
Wonder when the planes are going to start flying banners again on home match days again?
What are your thoughts on Rice appearing Gassed at around 75 minutes. He starts to stroll around conserving energy I assume around 70 minutes. I first noticed it towards the end of last season when he thought his extra Roy of the Rover’s efforts in games would win games for us.
I haven’t looked at his heat maps as they mean little to me. Having been a semi pro coach I wondered what your thoughts were?
Against Pool, Rice was done on 70 but wasn’t subbed. He has no recovery pace and is regressing from the player we bought for nearly Isak’s price.
Totally agree and have posted as much. We could & should have bought Isak instead of VG who I never wanted as not being good enough. He thinks he’s better than Haarland. Deluded prick.
I hope somehow he is our PL 20+ goal a season and more in the cups, but I just don’t see it.
I think VG is Porto’s Viera level who never made it under MA. Now loaned back to Porto because we can’t offload him. An all too familiar story under Mikel Arteta who simply has no eye to pick talent. Where sadly the players we need don’t want to play for MA or we would have bought them when MA named the players he wanted.
Funny, MA didn’t want Isak we can see by his actions.
Even with Sake yesterday our negative tactics were never going to win the game.
Arteta went to Anfield for a draw is my thinking, what’s your TRVL? Marc?
Isak to Pool looks to be done with the medical today. Guehi looks to be a done deal for Slot, too.
Those 2 players if stay injury free will probably be what Pool need to win the PL again.
Marc?TRVL
Looks we still need a defender. Is Saliba badly injured?
Isak to Pool looks to be done with the medical today. Guehi looks to be a done deal for Slot, too.
Those 2 players if stay injury free will probably be what Pool need to win the PL again.
Marc?TRVL
Looks we still need a defender. Is Saliba badly injured?
Marc/TRVL*
Tony–Wicksy “mistakenly” summed things up when he stated that “if Arteta learns from the mistakes” we might finally turn the proverbial corner, as there’s a whole host of inherently flawed sides out there…unfortunately, no one with a fully functioning brain truly believes our albatross of a manager will or can make the required changes…he’s a blunt instrument of epic proportions and now our side is simply a reflection of that irrefutable fact…so long as he continues to shoehorn the fuck out of his lineups, due to a series of nonsensical assurances and his bang average tactical approach, we will continue to underwhelm when it matters most and ultimately come up short once again…it’s really quite sad
tbh I’m really fucking pissed about the whole Isak scenario, so I’m going to get the fuck outside and enjoy what’s expected to be a sunny and warm holiday Monday…Cheers
TRVL
Sadly Wicksy is still short of commonsense when talking about MA. Sees with his hopeful heart and not his eyes. The delusion is thinking that something is going to change.
It’s obvious it won’t. Things could well get worse.
We both said Isak should have been our target but Havertz probably got the way, as pets always come first.
So Eze was supposed to put that one very iffy on goal chance having just arrived on the pitch? Would Merino have scored? Would MA have thrown Merino under the bus?
As you said a midfield of Rice, Zubi and Merino to play pool. They were there to defend more than attack.
Enjoy, the Monday holiday.
Tony
“Common sense” is understanding that we went into a game at the home of the league champions without our 3 best players and never really looked like losing but for goal by a player who I doubt will ever reproduce such a strike for the rest of his career.
Strange how Liverpool are not being criticised for such an insipid performance despite having a full strength team out.
Over reaction is a common theme to a defeat , there is nothing wrong in criticising the manager, players or performance but it is important to have some perspective and that is where you struggle due to having an agenda against the manager so “common sense ” goes out of the window though I’m sure your son is certainly learning how not to support the Arsenal with your miserable/negative views on the club…poor kid.
You fraud
“Slot loses his right back and moves the Hungarian midfielder into his position, our cunt would rush out and buy another one instead.”
slot basically copied Arteta in moving a midfielder (partey) to the right back position….
Marc
“There’s having a squad and then there’s having £400 million sitting on the bench.”
Liverpool after today and city will have spent around 400 mil each this year , Arsenal have spent around 300 so it doesn’t take a genius to see that there will be expensive players on the bench for all top sides.
Wicksy
Yeah but players will sit on the bench at teams who win things – sitting on the bench for a team that constantly bottles the big occasion and you’ll get friction in the camp.
““Common sense” is understanding that we went into a game at the home of the league champions without our 3 best players”
Saka & Ode were missing who was the third “best player”.
If you’re going to answer Havertz I’d keep quiet unless you like being called various forms of cunt.
Marc
Saliba….he went off after 5 minutes …mosquera played over 90 minutes of football .