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.
Vera,
Chelsea have ‘snidey’ built into their DNA.
To a man, they’re a bunch of diving little tossers. You saw the same game we did.
If youre going to take any of our players to task for diving antics, fair enough, unwarranted but your opinion.
If you’re going to use that unwarranted opinion to defend Chelsea scum players you’ve really can’t claim any semblance of raruonality.
“Chelsea snidey, diving wankers?! Whatabout our players?!!”
Isn’t an argument I’m familiar with in my regular Arsenal circles. This isn’t social media, you don’t need incessant shit takes to drive engagement.
KP
The league cup game I remember was in an early round in the 79/80 season. A friend was flying to New York the following day to start a new job and his Father was 60 that day, I gave up my season tickets to other friends and treated my friend and his Father. What a night – the team were on fire and Highbury was rocking – 7-0 the score – what a send off.
Nice story NORG. I lent my season ticket to a mate in the late part of the 96/97 season before I went to Argentina for a few years. By the time I returned, he’d let it lapse without telling me…sob!
I think I’ve witnessed two 7 nil victories in my time. One was a home game v Sheff Weds in the 90s. The other was a truly glorious demolition of Standard Liege in Belgium.
The other end is being on holiday in Cornwall when we were thrashed 8 -2 by old red nose. I had my lap-top with me and surprisingly managed to get a signal in the car park at Lands End. My son and I couldnt believe what was going on – my wife was wondering around enjoying the scenery.
What will happen now is that the media try and build the narrative that the league cup final result will have a massive impact on the title race. They will infer that a city victory will dent Arsenal’s confidence or an Arsenal win will make city come back stronger , it will be just a ploy to put added pressure on Arsenal.
The league cup is 6 weeks away so for me it is a competition that will have little bearing on the title race, we have already shown that we can bounce back after any setback.
The fact is that Arsenal are unbeaten v city in the previous 6 games and similar to chelsea (unbeaten in 10) it means we can go into any match against city with confidence and belief . I watched city last night and they have exceptional offensive players but defensively they looked vulnerable, Newcastle must have had close to 10 big chances but were wasteful in front of goal plus the city keeper was excellent.
The goal from Havertz was a perfect finish to the night against Chelsea leading to wild celebrations that were probably a little over the top but it was more relief from the players after failing to win their previous 4 semis.
We need to come quickly down to earth for the Sunderland game on Saturday, Odegard and saka apparently had niggles so may be fit and probably on the bench, we have got our defensive dominance back which will be vital in the title run in , all our back up are also fit so we are going into an important part of the season with only Merino sidelined.
Havertz coming back after a long lay off and hitting the ground running is a perfect scenario for Arteta as he can either use havertz and gyokeres in a radford/Kennedy type partnership or Havertz can play deeper as an 8.
Every weekend seems like a pivotal weekend at the moment but I will very disappointed if we are not at the very least 8 points clear of city after their trip to Liverpool who are running into a bit of form.
As for the Arsenal game, sunderland’s away form isn’t great , they are a team who rely on aggression and passion from their home crowd , I’d expect them to play off their centre forward who is very good at retaining the ball and linking the play so gabriel and saliba need to frustrate him and bully him …3-0 to Arsenal with city losing 3-1.
NORG
That was THE day that Wenger’s reign should’ve ended. Instead the old chihuahua headed egotist carried on… and on…and on and the rot spread everywhere. One of the grimmest days in our history along with Swindon, Luton, Wrexham Real Zaragoza and that euro final v Chelsea (in Kazakhstan?). 🥃 Made me feel a bit glass half empty thinking about that. 😭
He should have already passed through the exit door. He lost the plot after the Cup final in 2005 – one of the most boring on record. By 2008 the players were tired of his promises to bring in new good players when all he did was sign crap and sell the ones that were allied to Cesc (Hleb, Flamini and a couple of others).
“I lent my season ticket to a mate in the late part of the 96/97 season before I went to Argentina for a few years. By the time I returned, he’d let it lapse without telling me…sob!”
That’s criminal – bordering on needing the death penalty brought back (maybe a fate worse than a fate worse than death and forcing the culprit to have a Spud’s tattoo on their forehead with be a suitable punishment).
Norg
“. By 2008 the players were tired of his promises to bring in new good players when all he did was sign crap”
Crap…..Are you sure?
In 2010 we had
RVP
Fabregas
Nasri
Wilshire
Arshavin
Eduardo
Rosicky
Diaby
Walcott
Ramsey
Song
Sagna
Clichy
Gallas
Vermaelen
All bought at a fraction of the price that Chelsea and united were spending at the time
Of course 3 of those players were the victims of horrendous tackles leading to broken legs , plus players loke wilshire and Rvp suffered ongoing injuries meaning that squad never realised their potential. Wenger’s comment of ” to beat Arsenal you have to kick Arsenal ” was 100% true.
So to say that wenger “lost the plot after 2005 ” is very disrespectful to our greatest ever manager, the football was fantastic but we were thwarted by injuries and lack of funds compared to our rivals , meaning wenger couldn’t bring in the players he wanted like Hazard , Ronaldo etc because the club wouldn’t pay the wages or the fees and eventually the players we had went to the clubs with the finance like Chelsea, united , city and Barca.
Things are different now and we can finally compete financially with our rivals , hence why we are fast becoming the team to beat in England and Europe.
Achoo—I’ll gladly concede that Pedro was a flopping bitch the other evening and Gusto deserved the yellow for simulation, but Delap received a yellow with no contact on Noni, Eze flopped and was gifted a free kick in a dangerous area, Hip went into full judo mode by the corner flag, Zubi made a meal out of a grade school trip and on 2 occasions we attempted to have the game stopped, when we were pinned in, with fake head injuries…all teams typically have a player or 3 who are known for this sort of behaviour, but there’s only one team where it’s clearly a team-wide manager-led innitiative…I get it if Saka or Marts, who have faced a shit ton of unwarranted contact over the years, started to embellish a bit, but when many of your physically largest/biggest players are your worst offenders, that’s some fucked up cake and eat it too bullshit…all that mouth breathing must be fogging up your rose-tinted shades you simpleton fuck
Pricksy—enough with the tired narrative about Wenger being deprived of funds…if that was the case why was Gazidis declaring that we were open for business and flush with cash, which was later confirmed by RVP…if Stan wasn’t interested in splashing the cash why would his supposed “lackey boy” be pushing a contrarian agenda…surely he would have been summarily axed if ownership wasn’t on board with this…Wenger simply hid behind this narrative due to his disdain for the new class of diva stars whom he feared might usurp his monopolistic inklings (which grew exponentially once Dein left the building)…not to mention, he loved the idea of getting all the credit should he find a way to secure some major silverware with the supposed “lesser” side on paper
just think of all the players we could have had (according to Wenger himself) and you will notice that most were fucking alphas of the highest order (Yaya, Ronaldo, Benzema, Ibra etc…)…they would have all made us better, but at what cost to him…then think of whom he was willing to let leave, RVP, Nasri, Cesc and Sanchez, all of whom were known for their inflated egos…let’s not forget that as soon as Sanchez started to feel himself and make demands over personnel, both for good reasons I might add, Wenger used the pro-Arsenal media to turn the fanbase against him, thereby making it easier to ship him out…finally, how many times did Wenger opt for inferior transfer options, when far better players were available, simply because they fit his selfish “under my thumb” agenda (fuck me, there was a period there when wearing the armband was a fucking parting gift)
it’s no wonder you’re a card-carrying Artetite bitch, in that you have a somewhat shared experience, as our current manager was Arsene’s bitch when he was brought here to be one of his locker room cops, even when it required him to be shoehorned in as a DM, a position he hadn’t played since he was at PSG a decade or so earlier, and a paycut…FU
TRVL
“enough with the tired narrative about Wenger being deprived of funds”
OK I get it, you have an aversion to Arsenal managers, though you are probably no different to 90% of the others on LIR.
None of what you say makes sense, your hatred for Wenger, who was a genius for keeping us in the champions league for nearly 2 decades, has clearly made you devoid of any reasoning or commonsense.
These are the facts
Wenger’s transfer budget was severely restricted between 2006 and 2015 due to the financial demands of building the Emirates.
From 2006-07 to 2012-13, Arsenal/Wenger generated a £40 million profit on transfers, compared to massive net spends by competitors like Manchester City (£427m)0
Yes, from 2013 onwards there were funds available , Ozil was the first expensive signing , followed by sanchez which led to 3 fa cups in 4 seasons and what a superb partnership who were never quite the same players once sanchez left for united, a decision he regrets to this day.
To say that there were funds available from 2006 to 2013 is a lie , wenger was prepared to spend money before 2006 and from 2013 onwards.
Only a fool would think that Wenger would deliberately make his job harder by not using available funds , the simple fact is he had to balance the books due to the building of the Emirates and he still managed to build superb , exciting football teams though sadly it brought zero trophies mainly due to those 3 broken legs and refs giving the opposition the freedom to kick Arsenal with impunity leading to multiple injuries.
I suppose it’s like deja vu for you and your ilk as soon you will have to come to terms with another manager((Arteta)winning trophies whilst you are perpetually slagging them off , entitled fans are the worse type of fans , constantly whinging saying ” it’s only because we want to win trophies” as if any club/ manager has a God given right to win trophies.
Success goes in cycles and, Liverpool didn’t win the league for 25 years , city won nothing in 40 years , Chelsea didn’t win a title for 50 years and probably won’t win it for another 50 years , united didn’t win a title for 25 years before fergie came and probably won’t win it for another 25 years , so everything is in place for a period of Arsenal domination so you and your cronies will have to eat humble pie as Arteta leads us to possibly many trophies culminating in the champions league…
TRVL
In your biased analysis against Arsenal you conveniently forgot to mention the 2 penalties we should have had v chelsea.
In the first half a chelsea defender thought he was the keeper as Hincape headed the ball towards goal from a corner but the defender saved the ball with his hands/ arms ….an excellent piece of goalkeeping I have to say.
The 2nd pen was the clear trip on martinelli in the 2nd half , I’m not sure why the ref would ignore such an obvious deliberate trip.
There were also a few occasions when there was a lot of grabbing and pulling at corners from both sides , personally I would like to see teams penalised(including Arsenal)for holding in the area as it makes it a farce.
It wouldn’t surprise me if very soon we have like a no go zone area in the box to be used only by the keeper before a corner is taken as it’s like picadilly circus in there at times.
Good points, well (re)made Vieira. You summed up that disastrous ‘second half of Wenger’s period perfectly as accurately. Anything else is cultish revisionism.
Wicksy
No doubt on the day the players mentioned were good however Wenger at that time was managing with an incomplete pack of cards – his choice. He seemed to have a hidden agenda – he could achieve the same as others without spending – 4th was the new 1st in his eyes and the morons that thought he was a god. Its a wonder he didnt install a pond so that he could show it was possible for him to walk on water.
IG would pull out what little hair he had – the snake oil salesman had more ambition than Wenger.
Prickay—to set the record straight, I was a massive supporter of what I stil consider to be the best managerial/administrative tandem in footballing history, Wenger and Dein, but when the former was left to his own devices our recruitment practices and aspirational pursuits took a significant dip…as for your whole “stadium finance” narrative, I don’t buy it, as that was being paid for by the fanbase, who were paying some of the highest ticket prices in Europe…if you even bought one fucking ticket you spent more money on that build than the fucking Kroenkes…not to mention, why don’t you explain why every other “legit” side with a new stadium spent considerably more money once the ribbon had been cut…don’t be such a fucking pawn…btw Ozil’s a perfect example of the kind of big money hire Wenger was comfortable with because at that time he was viewed as maybe the most benign melba toast “superstar” in world football…of course that would eventual change due in large part to his highly politicized social media presence…FU
TRVL
There is a story attached to the signing of Ozil. Wenger had his phone switched off when news came out that he was available. The procurement team IG, his PA, Legal Company reps had been twiddling their thumbs all day.
IG had tried to get hold of Wenger – no answer so he signed Ozil. By 22.50 Wenger finally made contact and was given the news. It was touch and go if they could meet the deadline – they go to the point of no return with minutes to spare. They still had work to do after cut off but were allowed to proceed.
TRVL
There was a period where the stadium move severely impacted our finances – why do you think Dein was so against the move? The difference with what clubs have done since is the TV money went from big to fucking ridiculous.
The whole point of the stadium move was to increase our income to try and compete with ManU – today Bournemouth with a capacity under 12,000 are in the top 25 or so richest clubs in the world because of just how much money the PL generates.
The problem with fans and Wenger is they divide his time into 2 periods Highbury and the Emirates – this is wrong there’s 3 periods. Highbury, a period after the stadium move where staying in the top 4 was actually an achievement and then the later years when there was money available but Wenger was too stubborn to spend. Hence the frustrations of Gazidis and his statement about we could afford any player in the world outside of Ronaldo and Messi. Companies (and ultimately Arsenal are a business) can’t make statements like that if they are a blatant lie.
Norg—if you remember there was a lot of chatter involving DiMaria, not Ozil, so maybe he turned his phone off in the hopes that this might derail IG’s DiMaria plans…why else would anyone in that business have their fucking phone off on deadline day…at that time, there’s no way that any such deal got over the line without Arsene’s involvement and approval…this of course changed over time, like when IG signed Lucas Perez without Wenger’s consent, which is why Arsene hardly ever put him on the pitch
Marc—I beg to differ with your opinion on such matters, but I can totally undestand how you might have arrived at those conclusions…keep in mind, in 2012 we had cash reserves totalling 156 million, which was the highest in the PL at that time…these reserves were clearly amassed during the supposed forced austerity period…so the math ain’t mathing…keep in mind, that Wenger’s self-sustaining model ruse enabled him to reconfigure the squad in a manner more to his liking, with little to no personal backlash, and to garner the full support of a largely conservative board
as for Dein, he wanted to move to Wembley, which was the far cheaper option, as he feared that he would have his hands tied when it came to recruitment should a new stadium be built, due to the aforementioned conservative board and his growing concerns regarding Stan’s commitment to winning major trophies…that doesn’t mean we didn’t have the abiiity to spend, it just means that he felt that a new stadium could be used as an excuse for not doing so, regardless of the financial reality…this is undoubtedly why he backed the Russian, who appeared more than willing to extend himself financially…Dein wasn’t interested in being some sort of muted neutered fuck who couldn’t do the kind of things that made him the best in the business…ultimately his actions ruffled the wrong feathers and he was summarily tossed out of the building, albeit with an incredibly soft landing, financially-speaking