Finally! No football for months and it was probably the most boring phase of this year. Football is back, Ladies and Gentlemen.
We are up against Nottingham Forest today at home and City has made it a must-win already. We can feel the pain of Klopp’s Liverpool for 3 years in row when they competed against Pep’s side. The only way to beat them is by outperforming them each week for 38 weeks in a row. There is no margin for errors and a slip (like ours, last season) could cost you the title race. We can’t have that slip, can we?
But, lets not complicate it today. We have a long season ahead to talk about the possibilities. Today, it’s time to re-stock your fridge and enjoy the afternoon. Today, we celebrate the start of a season for one of the best teams in the world who is on the rise.
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For the starting XI, I’m guessing Mikel will stick to the the players who started in Community Shield against City. All the players are fit and available for selection except Gabriel Jesus. A back 4 of White, Saliba, Gabriel and one of the Timber/Zinchenko, will be pairing with Rice and Partey in the midfield. Odegaard will captain the side, Saka and Martinelli keep their places on the wings and Kai Havertz will get a nod ahead of Nketiah. Arteta loves his new toys, and I would appreciate it if he plays Timber ahead of Zinchenko. There is no bias here, Zinchenko is injury prone and Timber against a Forest side is a good game to judge if he can make the LB his own.
Rice has shown some glimpse of his game against City and his pairing with Partey is gelling well. He can go forward, he can track back, is athletic and have good shots in him. He has got to justify the massive faith Mikel has shown in him by making him the costliest British transfer till date. Pressure, but he is in Premier League winning player of the season for Hammers in last few years and I’m sure he can handle that. How much he makes that position his own, remains to be seen.
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No game is easy in Premier League. Forest was one of the teams that beat us last season and hammered our chances of title win. They had a lots of incomings last season and they were in mix in the relegation battle throughout the season and still they did beat us. You can’t take them lightly and Cooper would have utilized the season break to make these players work together. A tough game, yes. Can we win it – yes. Should we try winning it big – absolutely.
It will be hard fought battle. Not only every game will matter, but also the no. of goals you score and the clean sheets you can manage. Lets win big today, lets start the season on a high and show to the rest of the world, it wasn’t a Leicester-esque season earlier.
Right, a short one today because the game here starts at 5 PM and only a couple hours left for me to reach to the restaurant that will play the game. Hope you have a good day. Enjoy the game, lets keep the worries for other 37 weeks.
Cheers!
And if you happen to go to Emirates, I would be grateful if you can click some pics of the new makeover stadium and Arsene Wenger’s statue for me.
Killroy-have to agree in that regards….it’s clear that he’s given all the new boys assurances regarding the starting 11….so what we have here is a manager who spent an absolute fortune on players who haven’t the requisite passing or finishing skills to take us forward…only a couple of class moments by Marts and Saka, the former being the MOTM…Eddie had one fortuitous strike, that was heading directly for our former lightwieght backup if it weren’t for the deflection and Ode was telegraphing his passes far too often today…I don’t give a flying fuck about the possession stats, as that was always going to heavily favour us, and the Timber injury is more than a little disconcerting…maybe it had something to do with playing on the wrong side of the pitch for only the 4th time in his professional career…more to come later…Cheers
Table is about right we are in the company of Palace & Fulham, while City hang out with BHA and Newcastle. How the fuck did we end up with Harvertz and the Bar Codes with Tonali, almost forgot we still have Moe & Curly pissing away money at Chelsea rejects.
We’ve got super Mik Arteta
He knows exactly what we need
A £35 million right back at left back
The best DM in the league at RB until he moved
We’ve got super Mik Arteta
Thank fuck we don’t have a manager who make subs on 70 minutes like clock work though..
to be fair, there were some brief periods throughout the match, especially in the first half, when I was rather impressed by some of our one-touch passing and off the ball movement, but in the main there was far too much wasteful possession and not nearly enough definitive chance creation…an all too familiar refrain during MA’s tenure…It’s not like I don’t understand the underlying tactical gist, but in order to achieve such lofty heights you simply must have the personnel this brand of football requires and neither Rice nor Havertz really fit that particular script…furthermore, you can’t have passengers on the pitch, unless they’re potting goals for fun
I think it’s important to remember that the whole point of replacing Xhaka was to add some more pace and directness to our attack and to have someone who could cash in on a higher percentage of those grade A chances that invariably arise as a result of our opponents doubling-up on Saka and Marts out wide…unfortunately, Havertz was a non-factor until the 90th minute, which begs the question, why the fuck was he still on the pitch…meanwhile, Eddie was once again showing you exactly who and what he is, a relatively untidy player who can poach on occasion, but who butchers his chances on a regular basis…now good on him for getting on the scoresheet, but that shot was literally heading straight for an already grounded Keeper if it weren’t for an incredibly fortunate bounce
finally, if I were Tierney, ESR and maybe even Tross, unless Jesus isn’t returning anytime soon, I would seriously contemplate pushing for a trade before the current window closed…with this in mind, I might likewise be concerned if I was Partey and Jorginho, as I can only assume if both Zinchenko and Timber our fit, they will be deployed on opposing flanks and we know full-well that Rice and Havertz aren’t going to be watching from the sidelines too often
are fit
Have to agree with the room Arteta’s just added more pets to run into the ground. Partey at RB is a misnomer for that position. To play him there reduces his efficiency by around 30%+, as he doesn’t have the speed to carry into fast transitions in the way Timber and Klopps FBs have. It’s a needless tactic!!! Especially against a feeble Forest.
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I think we got what we feared in that 3.0 Arteta is basically the same and equals the next level is the next level. Arteta is so anal and full of himself that he represents Wenger 2.0 more as each season goes by. Sadly, it’s the last decade of Wenger Arteta is replicating.
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What about Havertz? Pretty uneventful & unmemorable performance for me. Memorable is not so important for me as Gilberto Silva was an unsung hero who merited far more credit for his unselfish and largely unrecognized brilliant 6 work.
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A GOAT for that position.
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For Havertz it’s unmemorable performances thus far. It’s really hard to fathom just what the best role for Havertz is? He displayed very fast accelerated pace at times, especially near the end of the 2nd half. He’s not our Smudger as a CF as Alan Smith was a robust skinny and lanky scorer of goals for fun.
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I see ESR playing 7/8/9 far better than Havertz if he ever gets some continued game time. Havertz is too easily knocked off the ball that clinical ball technicians can be.
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A ring rusty game with collective fitnesses issues a few games off correcting that showed throughout the game for both sides.
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As for Arteta, it’s no change! All the same issues are still there and where we are still fragile and likely to collapse or implode at any time. Was that a title winning performance, one where we laid our marker down for all to see that we are here to claim what is rightfully ours?
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Well, no actually. It was a grim hang on to a one goal lead because our manager after almost 5 years here is still clueless with his in-game management. Einstein’s definition of madness once again rearing its head here.
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Ok a plus point. Harvertz is better than Xhaka I announced during the game to which junior replied Pumpkin is better than Xhaka and he had a point the lad. Certainly quicker with lightning quick reflexes who would never have ended up on the floor cuddling/nurturing the ball as Xhaka repeatedly did during his too many years with us.
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Junior asked me how I felt at the final whistle and I said relief. How would we have reacted if we had been at Forest when Forest scored? A much stronger panic than at the Emirates yesterday I’d wager.
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That was not a title winning performance scraping past Forest at home.
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However, it was the first game, so my real first judgement will be after 10 games when everything has had time to settle into the league’s rhythm.
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My biggest and expected lesson from the first game was that Arteta 3.0 with his £billion+ team is no better than Arteta 2.0 or 1.0 with his £600m/£400m team. A the end of the day it’s still Arteta in the manager’s chair, where I think if he had a £1.5billion team we would still get Arteta 1.0. That is Mikel Arteta the manager. Mikel the coach is his level.
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The only thing that changes are the players names.
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Haver a good one fellow pain suffering masochists the season is going to be a long and winding road as in the words of there song.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl5vi9ir49g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEJTRKQFbCw
One to gently rock your morning coffee
Anyone goy any clues as to why Timber came out for the 2nd half when obviously injured?
Kai Havertz stats against Nottingham Forest
51 – Pass Attempts 88.2%
3 – Prog Passes
2 – Key Passes
0.22 – xA
2 – Shots
0.12 – xG
4 – Fouled
6 – Prog Carries
10 – Prog Passes Received
5 – Touches in the box
1 – Tackles
2 – Fouls
1 – Interceptions
3 – Aerial Duel Won (of 7)
Make of that what you will, but to me looks like a £30m player and behind ESR if he ever gets a chance.
I enjoyed your analyses lads.
Certainly not the perfect start. Just watched a bit of match of the day, ie the parts without the pundits.
Everton’s defeat was pleasing. Bernie L looked at his best in Fulham’s goal. The Toffees deserved to win which made their loss sweeter. Woy the Bwoy getting lairy on the touchline against Sheffield was comedy gold. Geriatric twat should have been standing in his manager area. They should have yellow carded him (and taken away his driving licence) .
Arteta doing his usual touchline bullshit is hugely depressing. He’s an idiotic fuck. The knives will be sharpened again for Partey if he continues in that silly right back hybrid role. I fear he’s next in line to have his reputation and value trashed by legohead. Marseille on a free transfer (ie one where he’s paid to go) will happen this winter.
Looking forward to watching Spurs without their K(c)ane – limping, hobbling and shouting into the wind about the injustice of it all. Looks like Richarlison is being given the first crack at replacing His Royal Lispinesse’s goal scoring ability. Harry himself looks to be bringing his uncanny silverware luck to BM. First German chance at a pot – failed.
No water in the Bees’ stadium.
Marc – seeing as they’re playing Spurs, could you get some of your conservative party overlords to pump some fucking raw sewerage in?
I think the Spuddie’s line up has that covered.
Excellent
If Richarlison continues his epic slump in front of goal the Spurs will struggle against top clubs…that said, the brand of football on tap is decent for the casual observer, as they keep on “coming” like an undersexed drunken housewife with a bottle of Spanish Fly in one hand and an industrial strength back massager in the other…the match did highlight a few concerns I have with our own club, in that, much like ourselves, the Spurs have only one player who can unlock defences with the ball at his feet, which can lead to a plethora of unproductive sideways nonsense, and we need to learn how to counter with pace and numbers, like Brentford, in order to have any chance of beating City
what a beautifully worked first tally for Pool…very reminiscent of the previous era…just trying to imagine what we might have looked like with Mac and Caicedo in our engine room
Didn’t see the spuds drop 2 points, but watching the Chavs and L’pool and Poch has got Chelsea looking better than Fat Frank and Pool are better then I thought they’d be.
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Both will be hard to beat.
Both Pool & Chelsea look like they will be a handful this season. It also shows how fortunate we were last season finishing 2nd and how Arteta made Arsenal implode and hand the title to City. This season shapes up to be a dog eat dog season.
Chelsea’s Jackson looked really good, where did they find him and how come we are stuck with fucking Eddie, who runs around like a headless chicken with no aim and idea where to go and when he does he has to sort out his feet in front of goal. The clueless Arteta will be in for a surprise on October 21st and December 23rd when Poch & Klopp will beat him.
what an enjoyable affair for a fan with no skin in the game…both of these teams haven’t properly redressed their respective defensive frailies, so we had better come on the front foot when we eventually meet them…I can’t quite put my finger on it, but Klopp and Poch look like proper managers, regardless of the antics of the former
Killroy
We took 10 points from Liverpool and Chelsea last season – if we made 7 from the 4 matches this I’d be surprised.
Killroy-Jackson has bags of energy, but the big man I’ve been far more impressed with is Isak…I’m not sure what they’ve been feeding him at the Castle, but he’s been quite a revelation since he returned from injury late last season…btw Jackson’s another one of Unai’s former players
We surely have to get someone into the front attacking line. Ivan Tony perhaps after his return? I could live with that. But than we have Moe & Curly doing the job of finding a striker, there goes that idea. The problem that is materializing is how to shoehorn Havertz into the starting XI because having him on the bench would be admitting he was the wrong purchase and Arteta had a brain fart.
TRVL
Jackson is raw from Villareal so new to the PL whereas Isak has had time to settle with a calming and astute manager. Jackson has that brutal Drogba way about him who will come good in the next 24 months. Ditto Mickey Mudflaps who looked more positional awareness yesterday.
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Chelsea and Liverpool can be added to City as teams to beat if we want to win the title as well as dispatching mid and lower league teams, such as Forest.
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Let’s see what comes next, but I’d really like to see Arteta create his own tactics and not try to be Pep 2.0 because he’s poor at Arteta as MK .0 anything.
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Serious question, does Arteta have his own designed tactics or is he just a Pep copy merchant. Can anyone name his original tactical ideas?
to have*
Tony-just to clarify matters, I’m a big proponent of what Jackson brings to the equation and I think he would have been a great addition as either Jesus’s clear-cut backup or for legit competitive purposes…at just over 35M, he would have cost us about the same as Vieira, which would have been a far more astute investment…we could have likewise sold off Eddie and Balo,, who clearly doesn’t want to play for Arteta, then allocated those funds towards another midfielder/forward with some pace and an eye for goal…my comment simply spoke to my genuine surprise about what I’ve seen thus far from Isak than anything negative regarding Jackson
TRVL, I was agreeing with you and adding more weight to your post with how I see Jackson becoming and Isak’s rise under a thinking and tactical astute manager Eddie is. Newcastle will cause upsets this season.
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I think use have a good idea of what the repetitious Arteta is going to serve up this season that won’t differ much to last season. Sadly, our main competitors will be offering vastly improved performances to their down turns last season.
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We are never far apart in our views. Sleep well.
we*
If anyone’s interested in some LiR Fantasy –
https://fantasy.premierleague.com/leagues/auto-join/x8sn7e
Just talking to junior and he asked me if I realized that Eddie Howe had only been with Newcastle for 13 months when he secured CL football and 4 points above Liverpool.
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Makes a mockery of Arteta really showing Arteta who’s the better manager.
Tony
Howe didn’t take over a squad that had finished 2 points off 3rd the previous season – a fact that is glossed over by the fanboys.