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.
Savvy, intelligent and composed in the final quarter of the game. Impressive result against a reasonably organised team.
KP—measured approach, but boring as fuck…just wish I knew this was the plan once again before I forked over another $300 to watch our CL season…that match could have been summed up in a 30 second youtube clip
Ouch…I got it gratis with my fire stick! But considering we were away, that was a good result. Agree that they’ll need to be a bit more attacking in the home games.
KP—get your point but that wasn’t one of the Madrids or Barca, that was a side who hasn’t seen the CL for 10+ years who was likewise playing their best player, Nico, out of position, which made them even easier to defend…just don’t want to see that midfield being rolled out week-in and week-out
Quite ironic that Martinelli came on as sub and provided ‘end product ” especially as the accusation is he has little or no end product, and talking of “end product ” , Madueke’s was non existent and something he will need to improve on .
Madueke was a constant threat throughout the game that’s for sure and I have no doubt that on some days it will click with his final ball but at present Saka when fit rarely fails when it comes to end product, but I do like what Madueke brings to the team .
That was a tough game last night and time will tell how good a result it was away at bilbao when they play their upcoming games in the group.
Mosquera deserves a mention , man of the match for me and it looks like Arteta is building a fearsome back line with Hincapie looking like a brute of a defender who likes a tackle.
No injuries which is good and martinelli and trossard making a statement as to not right them off yet, if only there was a way of playing martinelli more centrally as he can be devastating running behind the opposition defence as we have seen many times before especially away from home , villa, Chelsea, Madrid and now bilbao spring to mind where he has run from his own half to finish with aplomb.
*Write not right
Am I allowed to say that Arteta’s substitutions worked to perfection, good in game management I think is fair to say.
Herr Wickmeister
Wie gehts?
Yes, you are. Pluralism is welcome.
But think of it more as being akin to a fucked clock being right at least twice a day. Arteta isn’t exactly renowned for consistently getting his subs right is he? He has a very long way to go in that regard. And if that ‘long way’ took him to Old Trafford as their new manager in a few weeks…
Ambarish
I’m going to sound like a heretic but Wicksy makes some accurate comments (for a change! only joking) about our new signings. Just an idea for a piece you might want to write next time an international break comes along…a sort of half term report on how each of our signings has performed. Norgaard was on for a few minutes but also did some decent stuff.
Arteta bringing on Martinelli to score isn’t a sign of good management its a sign of a massive fuckwit who went a large swathe of last season without any striker and didn’t try Martinelli there.
I mentioned the negative approach taking off VG against Forest and not putting Martinelli up front then after the match.
KP
“. Arteta isn’t exactly renowned for consistently getting his subs right is he? ”
Exactly , and that is why he should receive maybe an ounce of credit when he does get it right.
Yes Marc, Arteta’s failure to recognise that Martinelli’s strongest asset is using his pace through the middle will always be a bone of contention for me , .maybe martinelli will have to this season settle for being the next David Fairclough, there is hardly a better sight in football than Martinelli breaking the defensive line in his own half before slotting the ball past the keeper , did anyone have any doubts that he would finish yesterday..
the only thing Arteta deserves any credit for is his ability to continually brainwash a rich white dude, his Bond villian wannabe son and our shell-shocked/easily-duped fanbase…he was allowed 6 mulligans when it came to choosing a Keeper and he lucked into a world-class defensive tandem of Saliba and Gabs…fuck me, Moq, who clearly was a Berta pick, looks better than any of the CB options MA ever considered let alone brought in…minus Ode, who’s been bang average for the better part of 18 months, there’s no logical tactical linkage between our backline/midfield and our front line players…any fucktard could design this rudimentary plan and accomplish the same results if you gave them a billion+ dollars…btw the only person who deserves credit for our opening goal is their halfwit manager who had his side playing such a ridiculously highline in a 0-0 affair, especially after our fastest player just came on the pitch…context matters
TRVL
Well done, some one who actually understands. Great analysis.
This moronic cunt in charge has simply spunked millions on overpriced players and hopes that it finally sticks.
Who buys 8 players after coming second?
Don’t forget the slag wanted the likes of Mudryk and Watkins a while back. And what about Ramsdale and Willian, Zinchenko and Jesus.
He is fucking useless. And 95% of football supporters would have done better given the same budget and circumstances
Dont let the cunts rewrite his story.
I’m not a fan of the midfield 3 of zubimendi, Merino and Rice, the only thing they really give us is defensive stability.
Maybe someone should mention to Arteta that we have failed to score a goal this season with those 3 in midfield in about 135 minutes of football , though it’s fair to say we also haven’t conceded which equates to boring, negative football.
Maybe someone should also mention to Arteta that 7 of our goals this season were scored with Nwaneri on the pitch in about 120 minutes or so of football, though to be fair Leeds and forest at home are easier opponents..
A big disappointment for me the other night was when trossard came on for gyokeres in the 65th minute meaning we could put merino up top which would have given us (and Arteta) the chance to see Eze more centrally as trossard could play on the left…..this didn’t happen and I don’t know why, maybe it is a trust issue which is often commonplace with Arteta as he obviously doesn’t trust Nwaneri to start..
The starting line up v city at the weekend may tell us all we need to know about Arteta’s attitude, will he persist with the safety first policy of 3 sitting midfielders or will he start eze or Nwaneri in odegaard’s role and play martinelli on the left to give us more creativity and movement in the final third of the pitch…personally I’d like to see Eze more central .
TRVL
I wouldn’t disagree with part of your analysis regarding the goalkeeping situation and centre backs , he clearly didn’t rate saliba at first and the injury to white at the start of the 22/23 season gave Arteta no other option than to start Saliba , and yes the excellent (so far) mosquera is 100% a Berta acquisition an Odegaard has been bang average though for me he is overrated and only tends to perform at his best when the team is 3 up, Norway’s recent 11-1 thrashing was a prime example as Odegaard was at his very best when the game was done and dusted, if he could bring that performance to the table in the tougher premier league games I would be happy to be proved wrong.
Rashford absolutely sticking it to the Geordie maggots. Two very nice goals. Not a fan of Barca but I admire Rashford.
master & pupil this weekend – will it be a turgid game centred around the middle of the pitch with more short passes than usual.
Perhaps VG will be able to burst through the lines and rifle a shot into the net – just a pity he isnt as fast as Martinelli.
Slags who support this moronic cunt in charge should have seen how Barcelona played Wednesday under Flick.
Total attacking football for the whole game , even when Newcastle scored late.
Flick has not been there 6 years and spend a billion on mostly average players either.
Art Fraud
They seem to have blinkers on – they can’t see how good other managers are and can’t see how bad Arteta is.
I had a mate (season ticket holder for 40 odd years) telling me the other week that we could never get Enrique “why would he come to Arsenal?”.
Marc
Flick and Enrique are world class attacking coaches.
You think they are on the phone trying sign to overrated mugs like Havertz , Madueke. Eze, Merino, Gykores and co for multi millions?
They sign world class talent or extract and nurture it from their talented youth teams.
Absolute masterclass from Barcelona at Newcastle on popping the ball about and using every part of the pitch.