Fulham is not doing great in the league so far. They are sitting at 14th with only 2 wins out of 7. They won’t threaten us but we often shoot ourselves in the foot. We have non other than ourselves to blame for losing the title thrice in a row. Injuries and other factors contributed to it, but prior to that, we had lost points against bottom half teams which ultimately came to haunt us.
We should keep that in mind today, go out with a positive mindset, score some goals and win.
Not even 1/4th of the season is over, so we are not in a panic/depressed mode as of now and there’s still a lot to play but seeing ourselves at the top of the table will only boost confidence of the players and catching up doesn’t help when you are competing against the likes of Man City and Liverpool.
Team News
Martin Odegaard will not be returning to the ground any time sooner and gets added to the list of Madueke, Havertz and Jesus. We might see Hincapie today, he is back in training and fit to play. Since our Captain is unavailable, it brings back the long running debate. Who are we going to see in that midfield? If it’s going to be 3 defensive players – Rice, Zubimendi and Merino then what’s the point of the getting Eze and renewing Nwaneri when you can’t trust either of them against a Fulham side.
If it’s me, I would pick any one of Rice or Zubimendi and put Eze and Nwaneri on either side. Saka, Gyokeres and Martinelli can keep their places. If you are wondering if it will make us weak defensively, you have got the best CBs in the world, you have got a solid GK in Raya and you would see Nwaneri and Martinelli playing in defence for half the game.
Not losing a game is important, but it shouldn’t come for the cost of not trying to win and waiting for a set piece adventure. You can go and play some good, attacking football and you can still beat the likes of Fulham and Forest. Wenger used to do with a defence of Mustafi, Bellerin and Kolasinac.
Managers have gone bonkers
Arteta, in his recent press conference, had some things to say about Victor Gyokeres.
I told him before the first meeting, the nine that I want is a nine that when he doesn’t score for six or eight games, he can handle that. If not, you have to go somewhere else because the pressure is gone, the expectation is going to be there. So if you put a number nine shirt for Arsenal, you have to be able to say, OK, six games, don’t score. I’m a different player, I start to act in a different way. I want much more of the same of what he’s doing.
source : Arsenal.com
That’s a very strange take and it pissed me off to be frank. You are okay with your striker to not score in 6 games? Ok, you demand other things from him – pressing, defensive duty, link up work, pulling player(s) out of their position for others to thrive but at the end, we spent 65m for a Centre Forward to score some fucking goals. Coming from a manager, it’s giving me future-cover-up vibes where you won’t adjust the style of play to shift scoring opportunities from set pieces and from wingers to a striker and when that happens, us fans will want answers from the player and the manager.
Arne Slot, the Liverpool Manager, had to say something about the set pieces
If you’d tell me that we’ve conceded 40% of our goals from set pieces & the number one in the league has scored 60% of their goals from set pieces and we’re still one point behind that team, I would probably think, ‘it’s not even that bad!
source : I don’t care
Now, that’s some more shite but from a different manager. I will write about it someday in November, hopefully I will decode what he is trying to say.
Wrapping Up
Right, that was 2 boring weeks we managed. If I have to guess, we are winning 3-0 with Gyokeres scoring a double and Martinelli scoring the third. Let’s go out and burn the cottage.
Drab, uninspiring win. Fulham is a terrible club.
I am just happy with the 3 points. There was nothing else exciting about the game.
Ambarish
Game should go well with your veg byriani 😷
KP – it takes two to tango. Both teams are uninspiring.
Are you still thinking of moving to Spain?
I wasn’t able to watch the match in real-time, but when I ultimately subjected myself to this rather pedestrian set piece-heavy outing I heard something that got my full attention:
“Even The Arsenal aren’t above these things nowadays”
the commentator expressed these sentiments right as Cala was about to launch a long throw into the box like the second coming of Rory Delap…now for the slurpiest MA-loving whores among us the underlying message of this carefully-constructed statement likely fell on deaf ears, but for those of us who aren’t mindless sheep, the inference was undeniable, that our little tactically-stunted fucktard has turned us into a blunt instrument outfit ..now maybe just maybe this wouldn’t be so bad if we were a cash poor outfit trying to right the ship with a first year manager, but to hear those words in year 6, after close to a billion dollars has been spent, is like repeatedly getting kicked in the junk by novelty-sized steel-toed boot…fuck me
by “a” novelty-sized
Hi NORG
It’s all on the back burner at the moment to be honest. Kids staying put, impossible to sell houses round here at the moment cos of Council Tax surcharges plus other shite. So we’re supplanting it by taking some short trips to places. It’ll come good again at some point in which case Italy and Spain will be on the agenda. You doing much travel yourself?
Vieira
Yes, this recent addiction by all teams to long throws isn’t edifying but it makes one wonder why they haven’t always done it. A good one dropping inside the 6 yard box causes all sorts of havoc if you have aggressive forwards up against hesitant defenders. I suppose the potential for a scrambled goal against a well parked bus defence is the final throw of the dice for Arteta after he’s spunked all that money and incorrectly coached his players. If I were still going to games like last night’s, I’d possibly consider it a poor return on the £100 paid for a ticket. Not a game for the annals of AFC history last night.
Very little decent crossing on display last night as well, by both teams.
Hi KP
You are right – not a good time to sell a house at the moment. We started taking short trips last year but this year we have concentrated on some major items with our house.
We are moving closer to a major alumina refiner using our technology at their refinery in Northern Spain so that may be an area we frequently visit. At the same time interest is gaining in Viet Nam – a trip to Hanoi and HCMC could be on the agenda.
I must admit Italy is tempting. Houses in Marche and Umbria are cheap and are positioned in the same type of landscape as Tuscany. Even in Tuscany you can get a lot for your money.
9 points Away to United,Liverpool, Newcastle and Fulham is an excellent return considering that these 4 teams have caused us problems in recent years on our travels.
For the educated observer it was clear to see from the outset that Fulham intended to sit deep. With 11 men behind the ball and try to hit us on the break.
This worked early on because we were loose in possession 4 or 5 times and on these turnovers Fulham broke with purpose and could have nicked a goal, so it was obvious that we needed to be secure in possession of the football and importantly to be patient as any turnover would give the Fulham players and fans something to feed off.
We learnt our lesson from the first half hour or so and dominated the ball from then on without looking particularly dangerous due to our reluctance to take risks with the ball due to the danger of being caught on transition.
Saka was superb , he always looked a danger and was a constant threat. I’m still not convinced on Gyokeres, he is a willing worker but technically poor, he had a few chances that on another day may have been converted but for me the return of havertz and jesus will give the team a new dimension, maybe the floodgates will open for Gyokeres if he can put one away but the main problem he will find is that teams will put 11 men behind the ball home or away when playing Arsenal due to the fear factor, so space is very limited for the striker which is why I believe jesus is a better option with his quick feet and sharp movement in and around the box .
I don’t think this group of players have anywhere reached their peak and we are sitting 3 points clear at the top of the league, once we have a fully fit squad with the likes of odegaard , madueke , havertz and jesus to return, we will then see the handbrake released a little as having so many injuries restricts the manager’s options from the bench.
Fuck me that was hard work.
The issue isn’t a poor performance but getting the 3 points from a set piece as a one off.
The issue is that’s Arteta’s entire game plan – the more of it I see the more I’m convinced Arteta didn’t want a striker but was forced into it by fan pressure and possibly pressure from above. During the first half Sky put up a “touch map” for Gyokeres he’d touched the ball twice and one of those was in our half. I guarantee that once Havertz is fit we’ll see Gyokeres slowly sidelined to the bench.
There can be no excuse using injuries – he’s spent a BILLION £’s.
The good news is the stories coming out of the club are saying Arteta’s job is on the line he has to win the PL (CL won’t happen) or he’s gone. The bad news is that means we’ve got a season of him doubling down on piss poor football and tactics but as they say it’s always darkest just before dawn.
If you do one thing today….
Check out Buendia’s goal against the spuds. A move that was stunningly beautiful. The kind of goal we ought to be scoring. Fuck me!
KP
Both Wenger and El B would cringe – he shot from outside the box.
That tosser McAllister looks like he should be playing water polo.
Liverpool equaliser was on the cards – question now is can ManU hang on for a draw?
And ManU go and score to go 2 – 1 up.
What today’s games have shown is that this is a very tough league , villa beating the spuds and united beating Liverpool, both against the odds, highlights the dangers of any team near the top dropping their level.
Liverpool look vulnerable at the back but to be honest they were a little unlucky today as they hit the woodwork 3 times and Salah had a bit of a nightmare with his final ball and in front of goal…
Momentum is how you win the league and Arsenal are the team with that in abundance, however momentum(and confidence)can desert a team very quickly as Liverpool have found out this season and city suffered last season.
I would also revert back to our defeat at old Trafford in 2004 when we were chasing 50 unbeaten games , we lost to United and our form completely deserted us for a number of weeks and cost us the title.
I’m sure you will all agree that it is a great time to be an Arsenal supporter, 3 points clear at the top with a champions league tie against athletics Madrid in the week which could see us topping the league in Europe as well , just as I predicted nearly a month ago.
Arteta saying this morning that he ‘looks up to’ Diego Simeone.
The miniscule bastard has to look up to just about everyone unless Stuivenberg is giving him a piggy back.
Did anyone suffer watching the Hammers last night? Brentford were little better but god they were shit.
Matchday post is live.