You didn’t expect Wolves, who are sitting in 20th position, to do you a favor, did ya? Man City closed down the gap by 3 points today and it’s now in our hands to extend the lead back to 7 points by beating our legacy rivals. Man Utd are crap, lets be real. But they still sit at 5th position, ahead of Chelsea, Newcastle and Spurs. They are only a point behind Liverpool and they know few wins could get them into the Champions League. They have something to play for, so do we – and we will find out tomorrow who wants it more.
Calafiori and Hincapie will be assessed before the game but it’s fine to say we will have a fully fit squad for the first time this season. Mikel will have everyone in front of him to pick for his playing XI, and our next game in a not important CL games against Kairat. So, yeah – lets go for everything.
If I have to pick, I will do the usuals. Raya in goal, with Timber, Saliba, Gabriel and Calafiori in defence. A midfield of Odegaard, Zubimendi and Rice will do where Rice plays in a more advance role. I would pick Saka, Gyokeres and Martinelli as front 3, but won’t mind Trossard if Mikel finds him more contributing to our game.
16 games left. 7 points lead (4 but then City has played one extra game). A Premier League trophy we have been dreaming of since THE INVINCIBLES. That was in 2003-04, about 23 years ago. There are some Arsenal fans who can vote, marry and have a kid but haven’t seen us lift the trophy.
And then, we have a billion dollar squads, most of which have finished 2nd three seasons in a row. Most of them had the heart breaks, some of them were exhausted, some would have punched a wall. Some of them are on big fat wages, some renewed, some joined from other clubs to be a part of red and white in the hope of winning something. NOW IS THE TIME. Mikel and the team does all the talk, but we need to walk the walk.
I know there is still a long way to go, 16 weeks of Premier League football and we would see a lot of ups and downs, but I am not wrong to say it’s ours to lose now. Man Utd, under Carrick, will try their best to stop us. Can we sustain the pressure? Can we keep our winning run?
We will find out. See you in the comments.
Norg
The cunt wins the PL this season and we’ll be stuck with him for life.
Marc
If we do win this season (and it does look as if we will – 3 years later than El B stated) then I think it will be a case of a one season wonder – normal service will be resumed the following season and we will be fighting for 4th.
Norg
Arteta’s lived off an FA Cup win followed by piss poor football and some disgraceful league finishes for six years.
Winning the PL and he’ll live off it for decades – fuck knows what new animal will be named when its brought to the training ground.
Marc
If we win the league it would be daft to get rid of Arteta in my opinion.
Three runners up places is far from disgraceful. I don’t get your logic here, the league was harder the last three years and 2nd was a disgrace despite that yet if we win it this year it’s only because it’s not as hard as it was. The stats don’t lie, we’ve been good and got better.
It might all be a big fluke or perhaps you’re still viewing this through the prism of 2021.
Even if you dislike his hair and LinkedIn, The Apprentice waffle, he’s far from a shit/cunt/fraud.
It’s the kind of reductive narrative that had us calling Wenger a senile cunt for years when he was merely a bit past his time but still posting up the odd cup.
Aitcho
Taking over a squad that finished 2 points off third and then finished 8th, 8th and 5th?
He’s a cunt because he’s a cunt, he plays shit football I’ve never seen his LinkedIn page, couldn’t give a fuck about his hair and have no idea what you’re talking about re: the Apprentice waffle.
The PL has not been harder the last 3 seasons. Season 21 / 22 was far harder.
Arteta’s a cunt end of.
Art,
I think the opposite could be true. Arsenal win something and his alma mater Barca will surely call, or failing that RM. He might even become hot enough property for a return to the Parc des Princes.
‘I listened to the little boy inside’ said Stubborn en route to Luton to catch the late EasyJet to Spain. 🙏🙏🙏
Just imagine…we win 3 or 4 trophies this year AND Arteta gets his head turned. A season to remember!
Aitcho
“Three runners up places is far from disgraceful. I don’t get your logic here”
There is no logic from the usual suspects so I wouldn’t try to work it out, they literally can’t see that we are on the cusp of possibly our most successful period that may even surpass the great Arsene Wenger’s first 6/7 years
Of course the football will never surpass Wenger’s as we we don’t have an Henry, Bergkamp or Vieira , unless the likes of Max Dowman and/or Nwaneri reach world class levels.
There are parallels when comparing Arteta and Wenger in that they both won a trophy in their first season and then had a period of 3 consecutive 2nd place finishes which then led to a very successful period for wenger with 2 titles and 3 fa cups.
It is not out of the question that Arteta can win a couple of titles at least and possibly champions league with a couple of domestic cups.
What I will say is that if we finish 2nd again this season then Arteta will leave on his own accord as he will regard 2nd place as a failure and rightly so.
Arteta will know that the stars have aligned for Arsenal this season, everything is in place for the Arsenal to push on and win the title convincingly.
a strong squad with depth.
an easier run in
very few injuries
a 6 point cushion which could and should be more after next weekend
0ur rivals faltering which is something that hasn’t happened the last 3 seasons, so it could be a case of now or never for aarteta.
KP
“Just imagine…we win 3 or 4 trophies this year AND Arteta gets his head turned. A season to remember!”
Only a fool would think that Arteta would leave the Arsenal after tasting success , you and your cronies need to pray that we bottle it completely and then you will get your wish and what we will have is a small and meaningless number of Arsenal “supporters” replicating that lot up the road in wanting their own team to lose..
Desperation and panic is how I would explain Rodri and Pep’s comments about there being a conspiracy against city .
There is enough video evidence to refute those allegations and I’m sure we see how ridiculous those claims are when those videos are plastered all over the Internet of City benefitting from decisions.
Arteta is learning , he has kept quiet this season when VAR overturned stone wall penalties earlier in the season, he could easily have made a big deal out of the forest player a couple of weeks ago when a clear and deliberate hand ball was ignored to deny Arsenal a last minute penalty and 3 points, the Dorgu hand ball before scoring wasn’t given, Arteta to his credit kept quiet as he has learnt that complaining doesn’t actually influence the officials.
Arteta is now the master of the press conference as he laughs and jokes with the reporters, compare that to the grumpy pep who is obviously feeling the pressure as he complains about a couple of injuries and referee decisions , though at the same time ignoring that Rodri escaped a 2nd yellow and red card against Tottenham…
Should be a great view tonight with Chelsea pushing the boundaries to the limit , but thankfully we have a ref tonight who is not afraid to give cards when warranted, he will need to be on it tonight as this Chelsea team are full of distasteful players who will exaggerate every tackle , my advice to them would be to concentrate on the football as they are a very decent side going forward , this tie is far from over, though to be honest if I had a choice I would take a win on Saturday over tonight, will be interesting to see how strong Arteta goes with his starting line up , for me it makes little difference who starts offensively but I would like to see saliba and Gabriel start at the back with Rice and Zubimendi in midfield with Raya in goal .
Nice try Pricksy, you fake news Make Arsenal Great Again gaslighting fucktard…minus the past couple of weeks, MA has constantly complained about the officiating/VAR this season, especially when it comes to unawarded penalties…with that.in mind, your recency bias-dependent nonsense about him turning over a new leaf is fucking laughable…to make matters worse your insanely hypocritical Pep/City take, regarding their “few” injuries, considering how many times you’ve used that same argument when coming to the defence of our indefensible cock-up King, combined with your “exaggerate every tackle” claim directed towards Chelsea, especially in light of the fact that no one comes close to the flopping antics of Havertz, Merino, VG and Jesus, speaks to both your seemingly boundless slurpiness and glaring lack of credibility…keep up the good work you nonsense-peddling twat
although I’m not a fan of antics of the now-injured Merino, which likely came as a result of one of his dirty tackles from behind, his loss could be significant in light of our current tactics…neither VG nor Havertz are known for their headers, so Merino could be dearly missed…saying that, I’m not surprised that we didn’t try to replace him before the window closed, largely due to the late timing of his injury, but we don’t really have a like-for-like replacement…of course, under.normal circumstances, I probably wouldn’t have loaned out Ethan, but the chances are slim to none that Arteta would have tweaked his tactics so that players like Ethan and Eze could have thrived in Merino’s absence…it’s far more likely that Havertz will be shoehorned into the midfield, much like he was during his last start…if that doesn’t work we just might see Cala, once fully fit, playing in those more advanced spaces along side MA’s primary offensive weapons, Rice and Zubi…mindboggling
fan of the antics
after watching Sanchez’s last save, I would make him play the ball as much as humanly possible…as per usual, he’s an accident waiting to happen
finally someone employed the same tactic as PSG against our corners…doesn’t mean that it will work, but the fact that most have continually rolled out the same flawed tactics wasn’t a good look for a large contingency of the managers in the PL
kind of a choppy affair thus far…good for us I guess, as we don’t need to score to move on
Even Sanchez knows he’s a bag of toys…why else would he not come and take that ball that Eze almost got on the end of…at one point I thought he had a promising future but he’s actually regressed when it comes to his ballhandling…he’s a bit like the early days Leno, who was an exceptional shotstopper but a shit show with the ball at his feet (Leno has wisely upped his game in that regards in recent years)
Cunt
Get back in your box.
the fact that Enzo was the hero in Cheslea’s comeback against the Hammers actually helped us on this day, as he was determined to do likewise on this evening…fortunately for us he didn’t bring his more clinical boots, if they even exist, as he had mutiple chances to effect the outcome…personally I don’t think he’s worthy of the fees they paid or the wages he’s continually demanding, so I’m pleased that his more true self showed up tonight
good to see us going to a final for the first time in quite some time…that said, it was a bit of a tough watch, but I was well-prepared for exactly that…still don’t put much stock into this Cup, but if you make it to the finals you might as well put your best foot forward and win
That gave me George Graham 80s flashbacks. That narrow 2 leg semi final win against Spuds and and a slightly less narrow one v Everton (I think). Can’t remember who we beat in the semi when we won that final v Sheff Wednesday. Tense cup football. Great that they eventually won rather than going through with a nil-nil.
Chelsea have got some terrible personalities in that team exemplified by that hair bear bunch twat.
Nice one Vieira. Good to be back at Wembley.