We are playing Nottingham Forest today at home. There are 2 very motivational reasons for the team to win this – first, because we lost to Liverpool and we need to get back to winning games; second – they have got an ex-spud as their new manager. It’s still too early to go through the table but we are sitting only behind Pool and Chelsea, both of them remain unbeaten so far. Things are going to get much tougher as the season progresses – with injuries (we already have 2 of our first XI unavailable), fatigue, playing twice a week, winter and Havertz coming back from injury.
We need to make sure we win the most of what’s in front and Forest looks to be there for the taking. Nuno was a tough nut, he would set up his team for counters and frustrate you through out your 90 min. With Ange and his philosophy that ended him with Spurs at 17th last season, we should win this pretty comfortably.
Team sheet is out and it looks like Mikel Arteta has gone mental and in a good way. He finally starts a team with just one DM. A strange but a brave move and it should be the way forward. That midfield should only one of the Rice or Zubimendi at any point of time and there should be 2 attacking midfielders feeding Gyokeres. If you have a defence of Saliba (when he is back) and Gabriel with Timber and Calafiori on either side, you need to be more aggressive.
Mosquera starts in the defence as Saliba hasn’t recovered from his injury from the Liverpool game. Odegaard is fit so he is back in the team and Merino forces Mikel to drop Declan Rice for the game.
Eze picks up his first start in Arsenal color. Martinelli sits on bench for the game, Rice too while Saka will not be available for some more time.
I am liking this set up. We look more attacking and Gyokeres will get more balls hopefully to convert. There is no point playing a poacher up top but no one behind him to feed the ball. Timber and Calafiori will do the overlapping to provide more space to Eze and Madueke and I am kinda surprised Mikel decided to go all attacking finally.
Cheers to David Raya for his 100th game in red and white. It was only yesterday that we were enjoying Ramsdale’s shenanigans but were frustrated with his mistakes. We improved on him, Raya has very little errors in him and he always look solid.
Mosquera gets his first Arsenal start. He is only 21 years old and you would think that in Saliba’s absence, White would be the first in the list but it’s not so. The kid managed to keep the veteran on the bench.
Right, that’s all of today. Sorry for being absent these days, busy schedule and some family time overall kept me away. See you during the game.
Wicksy
I beg to differ regarding your concern in the attacking areas in the last post. Even with Saka, Havertz and Jesus injuries, we have Martinelli, Nwaneri, Trossard sitting on bench today. I don’t think its the front 3 where we will struggle, but we will in the midfield because I don’t have any trust in Odegaard and Mikel will never play Eze in his best position.
Guys,
Our official moto is – “Difference in opinion is healthy!”. Lets not become what we hated, AFTV is doing that really well.
Marc
Jesus would have been sold, we certainly didn’t want him in 25-man squad this time. He is a very good player but only if he can keep himself fit.
KP – done.
Odegaard landing on his previously injured shoulder. Damn.
Zubi and Gyokeres 2-0 up. That was some goal by the midfielder.
You will be sacked in the morning… Lol fans are enjoying their Spurs hate.
Think pushing the GK physically out of position , like what Gabriel has done should be a no no . Initially positioning ok , but whatever the team that should be penalised
Nwaneri has not let us miss Odegaard.. told ya, our captain getting replaced by a 17 year old.
Zubi dubi dooooo
KP – well said
a bit of a snoozer, minus a few brief moments of interest…we seem to get a lot of layups, whether it be due to a plethora of injuries on teams without depth or managerial shakeups, like today, where Ange had one session with his new players before facing us on the road…they were lethargic and basically useless in our final third…thankfully for us Zubi got two deflected goals and Eze/VG took advantage of a really bad play by their RB…I’ll take the 3 points but this type of performance typifies what’s wrong with this club with MA in charge
our tactically inept manager continues to care far more about catering to the offensive whims of those who will never get us over the hump…today he left Noni without any overlapping help, which meant that he rarely got to utilize his more dominant foot…instead of providing him with the requisite help so that he could take full advantage of a CB playing out wide, he was left with the pedestrian task of providing service into the box with his right, almost as if he was playing on the left…of course this was to help Merino, not VG, as the former is the only one with a penchant for scoring with his head…VG has been about as effective with his head as fucking Havertz, at least since he mistakenly arrived here
on the opposite side MA did likewise with Eze, who’s not a burner or a true wide side player…Cala was basically another midifielder, so Eze wasn’t able to get onto his right foot, with any space that is, in and around the edge of the box…why get these players if you’re not even going to set them up to succeed…Sanchez would have been useless under this nonsensical manager…no wonder Marts has suffered mightily in the last year and change
furthermore, if you don’t add some more directness to your attack why the fuck would you put VG on the pitch…he doesn’t have the skills required to be another fucking back to goal Jesus/Havertz…I saw him coming back to the halfway line on numerous occasions today, yet never once did he get a long ball direct look…same old, same old
btw relying on Zubi to score goals, deflected or otherwise, is about as logical as hoping that Rice would duplicate his Real wet dream outing on a regular basis…it’s always swimming upstream with our tactically naive fucktard, who must have been right pumped by the notion of starting Sociedad’s midfield 3 from 5 years…btw they’ve been known as one of the worst offensive sides in La Liga since Ode’s loan ended…well organized but dreadfully boring
don’t get me wrong, there were a few bright spots…Noni played well, Moq was effective once again and Zubi did make great contact with his strike from deep, but if it hadn’t been deflected it was directly at the Keeper
I’m not sure why there should be any negativity regarding today’s performance.
I am not being contrary but it appears like I saw the game completely different to TRVL as I was very impressed with the way we totally dominated the game , plus there was lovely touches from our midfield 3 of zubimendi, Merino and Nwaneri.
Our 2 wide players played with freedom, pace and skill and often skinned the full backs and Arteta’s tactics was spot on as we never allowed forest to counter on us.
And yes I will mention that we were without saliba, Rice , Odegaard, Saka , Havertz and Jesus but still won the game with ease against a side that were in the top 4 for the majority of last season.
Cuntsy,
You , out and out slag.
Giving it large these days , you utter scrote.
I will reply to your War and Peace dirges, the moment you front up and answer my simple question first.
How many times has this moronic cunt won at Anfield and Manchester City in 12 attempts?
Give me your concise and balanced answer, not 800 words.
Slag
AF
No personal attacks please…
Ambarish—I implore you to not take this position when it involves those who’ve come here with the sole purpose of sowing discontent…it’s not as if I’m pulling this notion out of my ass, he’s actually admitted to this on several occasions…furthermore, the language/personal attacks you speak of clearly hasn’t detered him one iota from continuing to engage… in fact, he wants nothing more than for us to verbally thrash him, then he acts as if he’s butt hurt, just for show of course, which, in turn, puts you in the awkward position of believing that you have to address the matter…don’t fall for that twisted woke nonsense
just because his trolling practices don’t involve him using the same colourful language, the intention behind his not-so-carefully curated words are no less vile…don’t let him play you for the fool, as he’s only using you as a means to a wholly selfish ends…simply put, either he thinks so highly of himself that he actually believes he can convert the LIR dissenters, which seems quite the stretch considering his simpleton ways, or he’s hoping that by playing the victim he will have you do his dirty work, by chasing away many of your regular contributors…this ain’t my first rodeo with these passive aggressive fucks…food for thought…Cheers
Trvl
Nah mate, you are taking it too seriously. We can keep this place civil with usual cuntish banter without name calling.
LiR was set up as a place for pub banter, you disagree with your mate, call him cunt the whole 90 minutes on some Heineken pints and then go home and repeat it next weekend.
–
My call is for everyone, not just you in particular. Lets not be the USA of football blog.
Wicksy
The bonus with Odegaard missing is Ethan gets to play and prove he is the better player. Odegaard goes missing against top teams and others that are managed well such as Bournemouth.
Marc
Were you at the game yesterday?
Our 2nd goal was a thing of beauty and very un Arsenal/Arteta like.
3 touches ….calafiori with a perfectly weighted 50 yard ball over the full back , and yes it had to be perfect as the margin for error was zero , a perfectly timed run from Eze , and yes it had to be perfect as the margin for error was zero , a perfectly struck volley by eze into the corridor of uncertainty with his weaker foot that never left the ground from a ball that came over his right shoulder , a very difficult skill as the margin for error was zero , and finished by gyokeres who was in the right place at the right time….an exceptional goal that that unless I’m mistaken was as a direct kind of goal you would wish to see , so I find it strange that TRVL emphasised our lack of directness adding
“yet never once did he get a long ball direct look…same old, same old”
May I just point out that the 2 goals scored by gyokeres from open play have both been from a long ball from calafiori over the top of the right full back so maybe there has been a slight switch in tactics from Arteta though I doubt he would receive any credit on here .