We have the chance to go to the top of the table briefly if we beat West Ham at home. Liverpool has to play Chelsea later today, so that might just be brief but you never know. Liverpool has some tough games to play in Premier League, Chelsea today, United next and Brentford, Aston Villa and Man City in their subsequent 3 games. We have some easy games coming up and we need to make the most out of it.
And we need to start today against the hammers. West Ham sacked Graham Potter a week back to bring in Nuno Espirito Santo. Nuno is tough nut, and he would set up a low block, counter attacking team against us – exactly what we don’t like. We would need lots of creativity from the midfield and some brilliant defending on the counters to win today. The fact that they beat us in both of their previous visits to Emirates has not been motivating and we need to break that curse.
In the team news, Hincapie, Madueke, Havertz are still unavailabile and Gabriel remains a doubt after coming off in 75th minute against Olympiacos in Champions League. With all other players available, I am expecting to see a back 4 of Timber, Mosquera, Saliba and Calafiori with Raya in the goal. I would love a midfield of Odegaard, Rice/Zubimendi, Eze but we all know it’s not going to happen, Arteta sees Modric in Merino and you don’t sit the likes of Modric on bench. A front 3 of Saka, Gyokeres and Martinelli would for me.
Listen, I know Martinelli was in bad form and his output has dropped and Trossard has some brilliant shots in him once in a while but, can you write me a note that you believe Trossard can win you games on his own? Like Martinelli did against Man City in 93rd minute (it was a draw, not a win exactly), and against Athletic Club when we were devoid of any ideas? Yeah, right; lets play the match winner and rebuild his confidence. Trossard is a menace against tired legs so he will get plenty of his minutes and he can contribute to our wins that way.
There’s another problem for Mikel and a good one. Declan Rice has been warming bench recently, and we would slowly see Eze starting over him/Merino. To have a 100m and 65m player fight for a single place is something every manager would dream in Premier League. I think who starts the game depends totally on the opposition. If it’s a team that’s going to attack (City, Liverpool, Brighton etc) you play Zubimendi and support your defence. When there’s a low block, going all out on attack is the only way you are going to win and Declan Rice is brilliant moving forward with the ball.
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We are not in best of our form yet, partially due to the injuries to Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli and a CF who is still 5 games in the season with these blokes. Even with some tough games initially, we have managed to keep ourselves around Liverpool and can overtake them today. We have a perfect record in Champions League so far, only 1 loss in Premier League while Carabao Cup is still to pick up the pace. We are in a very good situation, and the only thing that needs improvement is the quality of football. Put in Eze in the starting line up with Odegaard on the other side, let go of some of the defensive duties Gyokeres is assigned and you will see the quality improving massively.
Will that be today? We will know in couple of hours. See you during the game.
I hate to say it but Chelsea has been playing some good football. They tested Liverpool on the dying moments and could have easily scored couple more.
Good, we remain at the top and it’s lonely out there..
Top of the league , who could have predicted that ……me.
My actual prediction was that we would be sitting top of both the premier league and champions league tables by the end of October.
A perfect game today , no drama just a very professional performance with Zubimendi giving a masterclass when he came on , including supplying the defence splitting balls leading to both goals.
I’m not sure why Arteta benched Zubimendi , he should be the first name on the team sheet, I know Odegaard is the blue eyed boy but Zubimendi is a different level and the injury to Odegaard may have done Arteta a favour…
Our next 4 league fixtures leading to the next international break are
Fulham away
Palace home
Sunderland away
Burnley away
Liverpool fixtures
Manchester United home
Brentford away
Villa home
City away.
lol
So my take on yesterday after a pain in the arse journey there and one almost as bad on the way home.
Look at the stats and it looks like a easy win watch the match and it was hard work. We started with 2 creative players and weren’t very creative. The worst part of it for me is Gyokeres is a willing runner and works hard but we’re giving him fuck all supply – what’s the point in finally having a striker we’ve all been calling for if we don’t play to his strengths.
Our players seem to have 2 basic binary body positions when we’re in position – facing our goal if they’re in front of the ball or facing the opposition goal if behind the ball. Hardly anyone is side on looking for a pass to be played into the space behind the opposition – Gyokeres does a little but I’m sure Arteta will coach that out of him.
Our football really is ugly and clunky which with the money spent and the players bought is not what the fans deserve.
The other thing to note is West Ham looked to kick us from pillar to post yesterday (the ref did very little to control the game) with Saka really being on the end of it – what sort of fucking moron doesn’t take him off when it was clear he was struggling / carrying a knock?
possession not position!
“Top of the league , who could have predicted that ……me.”
It only counts after the final match of the season dopey.
It’s going to be a long season for some on here as we go from strength to strength.
I must have watched a different game to marc as the only part of our game that was “clunky” was gyokeres , his touch was poor as was his decision making, but my main criticism of him is that he failed to do what a really top striker does instinctively and that is anticipate where the ball will be in the area , the 2 instances I can think of was the calafiori shot that hit the post and rebounded to the centre of the goal when gyokeres was criminally on his heels instead of ANTICIPATING the ball coming back off the woodwork or the keeper , the other instance was in the first half when Rice put a perfect ball across the face of goal and yes gyokeres was close but that ball should be meat and drink for any decent striker.
I’ll put my neck on the line and say that in the next 18 months Eddie Nketiah will prove to be a better striker than Gyokeres if he can stay fit…
I doubt that gyokeres will retain his place in the side once jesus and Havertz are fit but give his due he does work hard and is probably a handful but it says a lot that when I watch him play and I yearn for giroud to lead the line who has a way better technique.
Let’s hope gyokeres gets a few tap ins over the next few weeks as he is a little slow to get his shot away due to having a high back lift and in the prem that fraction of a second is crucial.
I was travelling yesterday so thanks to all for your views on the game and Marc’s personal account of being in THOF. Wickmeister – I love your chutzpah man. I spat tea over my new India cricket shirt reading that!
We managed to extinguish any new manager bounce at least. The match of the day highlights made it look more comfortable than it probably was in reality. Liverpool’s loss and going top was pleasing although it’s more to do with a Scouse implosion I suppose. Looking forward to some post-holiday extended arse time this afternoon watching the east Anglia derby followed by one of 4 pl games. Think I’ll plump for Newcastle v Forest where the losing manager will be staring down the barrel I hope.
Kroenke
West Ham didn’t threaten us at all – Nuno has a lot of work to do but my guess is he’ll be pragmatic with his first target getting West Ham out of a relegation battle. You don’t do that away at Arsenal.
Wicksy
We’re looking to sell Jesus (reports are we’ll accept £30 million – I won’t ask who’s stupid enough to pay £30 million for an almost permanently injured player because someone will appear his wages could be another matter) and if Havertz walks back into the team in place of a striker the fans and media (they’ve decided Arteta is a target this season) will be all over him.
KP
Your other teams did well yesterday. The Bluebirds winning over the mighty O’s after a magnificent come back. Meanwhile I was decorating and yes watching the paint dry and listening to the game on 5 Live I believe I had the best visual entertainment. The commentator ran out of description points as there was not a lot to say – towards the end he was talking about cake. Arteta ought to package his playing style and sell it to insomniacs. Perhaps the package will come with a free pair of rose tinted specs.
NORG
Nice one. Yes, Cardiff and County (finally) had good wins. We were flying back from Palma while the games were being played and taxi-ing into Bristol airport when we realised all three had prevailed. Nice afternoon and pleasing end to the holiday with one of the twins. Arsenal top of the table…
Surely no one will pay that for Jesus after the last 18 months and his age.
Norg
How dare you – Wicksy said the game was amazing. Me being at the match and watching it live and your professional football commentator clearly don’t know what we’re talking about.
Kroenke
I’m alway hesitant to say “noone will” because there are plenty of football chairman who are fucking idiots but if we got £15 million you’d think we’d done well out of it let alone £30 million.
Marc
You got the 15 right – forget the million unless you mean pennies. Probably nearer the correct value is 15million marks from 1933 Germany.
NORG
Aaah…the dear old Weimar Republic. Going shopping for a loaf of bread with a wheelbarrow full of cash and leaving it unattended for 5 minutes only to return and find the cash still there in a heap and the wheelbarrow gone. 🇩🇪
Can I be controversial and say I don’t much like the AI logo and motif? Mixing lower case and capital letters is a stylistic no-no for me and the cannon looks a little underpowered and, er, shit.
Marc—if MA wasn’t willing to take a chance by bringing in Ethan for an injured Ode, instead of Merino, against a poor side at the Emirates, then when…doing so when you’re chasing a scoreline is nothing like doing so from the off, as the opposition has already shifted into a completely different defensive mode…in order for us to progress offensively MA needs to grow a pair and start an offensively-minded 11 from the opening whistle…only then will we be able to fully comprehend what adjustments are required moving forward
for a manager who constantly fawns over HIS players he doesn’t really seem to have a lot of confidence in them unless we have 11 box-to-box players on the pitch…at some point the players will realize that all MA’s banter is complete and utter bullshit…only then will the room turn and either things will radically shift or he’ll be summarily sacked
btw Pricksy kind of revealed himself when he was heaping praise on Eddie…there was only one individual on LG who was a full-blown Eddie apologist and anyone who spent time there knows full-well who that was…he wasn’t some Nigel-like waste of space, but he had some fairly weak-ass Arsenal-related takes that he constantlyy ran up the LG flagpole, which tracks considering what we’ve witnessed from him here
KP—i responded in kind regarding the whole AI-generated banner yesterday…be careful though as this one might be an Ambarish creation