Well, we all knew we weren’t a match to Man City with their 33-goal scorer Haaland and the best midfielder on the planet in Kevin De Bruyne. But no one expected that we won’t show up for a fight. In the title race when a win was a 6 pointer, we lost and we lost badly. A 4-1 score is as bad as it gets, but the way we played it could have been worse.
So, where did it go wrong? As a starter, Arteta failed to adjust to the Pep’s tactics. Their first goal was a result of the free space De Bruyne was enjoying between our midfield and defence. In the first 30min, it happened couple of times when the pair of Haaland and De Bruyne were left with our CBs. I don’t think anyone can beat Haaland for the pace, it was a fight to be lost. We should have adapted, we should have dropped down and closed the space . We could have switched back to back 3 and fight on counters.
Second, we stuck to the playing XI which didn’t work against Liverpool, West Ham, and Southampton. Yes, Xhaka was back in place of Vieira but it doesn’t make any difference. Both are poor! If you say what options we had, I would like to point out that it’s our own doing. We haven’t been polishing the bench. We gave Vieira couple of matches in spite of his poor performance in his first, but we didn’t try an ESR. We haven’t tried a Partey + Jorginho midfield pairing. Saka looked knackered but we didn’t see Nelson allowing him some rest. Kiwior was brought into the fold against Liverpool, in last 20 min; I’m sure it wasn’t the perfect time to begin your premier league career.
Arteta’s stubbornness to play his favourites and not adapting to what’s in front, has cost us games. If you expect a player to deliver in 60 games a year, and if he don’t, you switch things up. Jesus might be great in compact spaces and running into 3 opposition players, but where’s the end result? If your CF do not have a goal in him, bring on Eddie. Revert to Trossard at the front who looks more clinical.
I don’t know, there has been a lot of things which we can see is wrong, but our manager sticks to the same old – same style, same player, same tactics.
Here’s the bitter truth. We didn’t lose the title because of this City game. We lost it against Pool (going 2-0 up), West Ham (going 2-0 up again), and Southampton (going 2-0 down at home in first 15min). I understand we are a young team, but young guns can fire too. It don’t matter if it’s your captain, if he is not having a good day, bring on your other no. #10, who saved your career at some point and was considered the next DeBruyne.
I’m not sure how much Arteta will learn from this but I’m sure of this – he is going to spend another 200m to bring some more enforcements, but with this stubbornness and Champions League + Premier League next season, we will have the same conundrum. Unless he buys another playing XI, which is not likely.
Here’s another one – if you think it’s a progress to finish 2nd this season, remember that Arteta was appointed as the head coach of Arsenal on 20th Dec, 2019. It’s been 3.5 years, with half a billion spent on a completely new playing XI bar our academy products. This season has been anomaly, Liverpool is having a bad one, Chelsea are sh*t, Spurs are spursy, and United is going through a rebuild under Tan Hag. If you think allowing 3 years for a manager, only to see him finish second after having a 9 point lead at some point, is considered a progress, then you have very low expectation.
With money coming in for New Castle, Chelsea appointing Poch probably, united getting stronger, Pool back in their form, what happens next? It would be tougher than this season. There will be 2 games a week and more Saliba-esque injuries. Who will we blame? Fixtures? Injuries? Bad weather? Because that’s what we have been doing apparently from like last 10 years.
We need an upgrade. We need an upgrade on Xhaka, whose average performance looks like a world class by his standards. We need a midfield, because you buy all the 50m defenders as you want, but it’s not gonna work if you don’t have functioning midfield. We need a better goal scorer if you don’t have confidence in Eddie. And we need an upgrade on the manager. Learning on the job is not a bad thing, but the pace is too slow for a club as big and as ambitious as Arsenal.
We need courage. We don’t need a captain who goes missing in big games, we have had enough of Ozil for years. We need the winning mentality, not the one we saw against West Ham of dropping performance after going 2-0 up. We need players who make fun of the opposition, on the pitch; who can bully the opposition, who are not satisfied with 2-0 lead at Anfield and want more.
Frankly, it has been a depressing month. We have thrown away the title and there’s no one else to blame. It was ours to lose, and we lost it. I’m angry, I’m frustrated and I’m sure you are, too. I hope the players feel the same, and motivates themselves to make the best of rest of the season.
It’s over for me, but we fight again tomorrow.
KP
2nd best sums us up this season. Decent win where we frustrated Newcastle whose game became hesitant. Hitting the bar twice didn’t help their belief, and we disrupted their game with time wasting and niggling dark arts.
Really, we have to result to that tactic all game? Last 10 minutes sure.
tbh neither side was impressive from a defensive standpoint, regardless of the eventual scoreline, as there were a myriad of opportunities for both sides…I do prefer Kiwor to Holding, as he appears to be far pacier and not so spasmodic with his movement
I still find it baffling that Jorginho appears to be our most vocal leader, by quite a margin, whenever he’s on the pitch, which says a lot about the glaring lack of leadership that was forged under Arteta prior to the Italian’s arrival…with this in mind, I want to reiterate the fact that my concerns about our most recent window was not directed towards the players involved, in that I think they’re both skilled players, I just don’t think they’re the kind of players that were going to get us over the line and they will undoubtedly impact our off-season transfer plans in a negative way
I so badly want to have faith, but every fibre of my being is still not convinced by this manager or those he favours in key positions
DeGea had another howler against the Hammers…he’s such a frustrating Keeper, as one minute he looks to be a world beater, then the next he’s amatuer hour personified
watching United play the Hammers is akin to watching a pickleball tournament at the local seniors home
Neville never misses a chance to troll the shit out of us, as his most recent take suggests that maybe we’ve found our Partey replacement in Jorginho…that’s just what we need moving forward, an older, smaller and slower DM…he would be happier than a pig in shit if we bought into that twisted narrative…of course, this issue is highly nuanced, as Partey was a victim of Arteta’s poor tactical decisions, which left him oft-times isolated in no man’s land with Holding in behind, whereas Xhaka was deployed much deeper and the pacier Kiwor was at RCB when the Italian started in the last two fixtures…nice try though Gary
Brighton are terrible. De Zerbi is clueless, being spanked by Everton.
Maybe I’m bitter, his job was simple, come above Spurs, sink Everton but I don’t see the attraction some on here have for him yet.
speaking of trolls…see above
it’s interesting that someone could be so critical towards a coach for 1 bad result, considering that your favoured Kool Aid King secured 5 points from an available 15 in April and likewise lost to that very same team…bless you
According to the Express, “Arsenal are set to allow Xhaka to make his own decision on his future following the seven years of service he has given them”…now I’m not sure how much faith I have in this particular source, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this were the case…supposedly Bayern Leverkusen are still interesting in bringing Granit back to the Bundesliga, as he has a close relationship with their manager, Xabi Alonso…I, for one, would be over the fucking moon if Xhaka finally moved on, but I don’t like the implication that the decision is entirely in his hands…maybe if the player in question had given us his all for all 7 years of his tenure here and, looking for a way to extend his career, made an impassioned plea to the higher-ups, but considering that the majority of his stay was rather underwhelming, I find this to be a totally dumbfounding business practice, if true
now the real impetus behind this article wasn’t actually Xhaka’s potential exodus, but the idea of bringing in Kante as his replacement, as his contract expires this summer…I’ve always been a huge fan of his, in fact, if we had just opted for him instead of Xhaka, some years ago, our more recent fortunes could have been substantially better…regardless, things have drastically changed since he was supposedly on our radar…he’s obviously much older and far more injury prone, so this blast from the past transfer target just doesn’t fit the script…now if I had come across this a year ago, I would have paid it no heed, as I couldn’t imagine our supposed youth-thirsty manager signing a 32 year old DM/MD, but since that time he’s continued to play Xhaka each and every week, then proceeded to sign two players over 28 years of age, including Kante’s former Chelsea midfield mate, Jorginho, who turns 32 next year…so who the fuck knows
hopefully our love of all things “free” won’t negatively impact our off-season recruitment drive, as we need to start adopting a best available option policy when it comes to addressing our pressing needs…so long as we continue to lean into our all-too-familiar settling business practices, we will never re-establish ourselves as a perennial powerhouse…this is why our summer window should be the most important recruitment statement period since our arrival at the Emirates…either we repeat the mistakes of the past or we forge a new/old path; god help us I hope we finally chose the latter
Morning all
As a Gooner with nothing left to hope for bar winning our last 3 games now that we’ve consolidated runners up in the league. I always prefer ‘Runner’s Up’ as it suggests a close hard fought race. When in all reality we choked led by our serial bottler. Of course, we’ll win the last 3 games now nothing is riding on them. That was Wenger’s mantra. Go out on a high with teams all ready packed for their summer hols with planned debauchery for the single multi millionaires.
Funny how people come here to troll and yet offer no suitable Arteta replacement. Sort of thing incognito Pedro or Don would do. Neither have the English written language down enough to retain a Nomme de plume remaining incognito. Same as Pedro using Conetta/ Nigel T and Don using un & Raulispuss when he’s in racist modes.
This is this Gooners reality; we’re about to enter ‘Silly Season’ where every kind of story including City buying another 2-meter alien only this time a 6-rubber like extending arms’ goal keeper.
This is my hibernation time and soon to be flowering season when the garden is awash with colour one was aiming for. This off season is going to be one that determines the level of our future re-entry into 1st world life after 24 years of oriental spice.
Maybe I should go and buy into the Wrexham dream – That would be tantamount to me persuading Putin to restoring Ukraine and take Russia into Nato on bended knees as getting Mrs T’s approval.
This off season will see me finding an honest estate agent and French lawyer with the highest integrity. So, what could possibly go wrong? Luckily, I have well connected, good French friends in Paris & Grenoble who will set us up with people sans ‘lip service’ and really ITK.
KP as with your viva Espana adventure this will really start to have legs by the end of the year. Junior found a 18th century place with its own 9 hole golf course. I thought a studio there would be cool and then had visions of the Clash type band let loose on the greens or Axle mole hunting with a M16.
It’s gong to be one crazy arse way to see my life out keeping the family together hoping my daughter doesn’t poison the local mayor or pop star in her Thai/French fusion eatery. Mrs T will run the place with military precision and I’ll finally be able to unload music from my head I’ve had rattling round for multiple decades.
It’ll be a place for musos to escape music tours, city life to pass through and lay music ideas down in the studio at the same time. Then come back later to finish. Same for publishers’ song writers.
A 5* accomodation meeting place for musicians, engineers and producers to stay and be creative. That’s what will eventually unfold. in the next 5+ years.
So, for the first time in a very long time, my off season is going to be full of recording studio and acoustics’ ideas/planning for the record room and control room with at least a 60+-channels desk along these lines:
https://vintageking.com/wunder-audio-wunderbar-console-60-channel
https://www.allen-heath.com/avantis/
The 2nd for the writing room. The studio will have 3 creative stages.
This is where I started my career, and now it’s where my career ends and junior’s begins and where ever he wants to take it after he graduates with a degree suitable for studio work (electrical engineering) including sound engineering and producing. Junior has excellent ears, reads music and plays guitar.
When I’m not around in the coming months it’s not me being unsociable. I’ll just be lost in my world’s future.
We should all be in France in October, so I’ll see if I can take Junior to a game.
You guys are my Gooner family and in many ways keep me sane. Ditto Junior you also help him grow in different ways from his reading of LIR.
Back to football as the season, can RM knock City off their winning ways? I’m not holding my breath for any different outcome.
Be well all at LIR.
🇨🇵
Bonjour Tony
Maintenant nous allons parler seulement en francais pour t’aider avec les preparations pour la nouvelle vie en la belle France. Je t’envoyera quelques chansons francais de youtube aussi mon ami!
It’s great to hear about your plans mate. I think it’ll be a huge success for all of you. My diplomatic career ran out of steam in Paris and I still bear a few scars. It’s been a graveyard for many over the years – Paris (unlike the rest of France) is just a shit place to live and work. I loved the other major cities though (esp Marseilles) and some of the smaller places.
Talking of awful, depressing shitholes, no LiR reader should ever visit Burnley. A piss handed yo-yo team. Cardiff’s players showed as little fight there yesterday as you could imagine after some stirring victories recently at Watford, Blackpool and Rotherham. A testicle-less dog of a season (how’s ‘pumky’ by the way – fully restored after the City blip?).
So no more championship drama for me. Only the confirmation of Arteta’s bridesmaid status to come. Phew – we’ve been on a roller coaster this season all of us which is better than mediocrity I suppose. That said my local team, Haverfordwest County, have made it to an eliminator for Europa League qualification so one more gruelling road trip to Newtown on the ingerlish border for that next weekend.
For the future, I reckon we should all get behind Hoopah’s team in Goa and help him turn them into India’s version of Wrexham.
You guys are my Gooner family and in many ways keep me sane. Ditto Junior you also help him grow in different ways from his reading of LIR.
Tony – it’s really cool of you to say that. I feel much the same way as you and Junior. I love the idea that you’ll both be exploring ligue une, deux o trois(!) soon.
All of us have a need to get Gooner related shit off our chests for one reason or another and this is the perfect forum. Ambarish has carefully cultivated a gem.
Living in Paris, where I was working 12 hour days and the kids were toddlers, and where its the wanky PSG or bust, I took a bit of a sabbatical. But my junior and I once had a chat about which foreign teams we’d support if we live in France, Italy, Brazil, Germany etc. I went for St Etienne in France – something about the green kit and their fans.
KP, bien sur mon amis.
The studio doesn’t need to make money, which is why it’ll be a success. There’s no time line pressure, so the creativity will flow when it flows. We can take small %’s of songs as payment, then you only need one to be a hit and it pays for all the others and then some. The Gites and eatery will take care of the bambinos’ life time. They will have to have the right work ethics where in doing so will set them up for life.
My health might be complete shite now, but life is good otherwise, so I’ll take that. 🙂
Still got a few years to go here, but time flies at our ages and finding the right place is going to take time anyway.
KP
We’ve been chatting for a couple of years now same with Almunia, and now TRVL has joined the band of Gooner Brothers where Marc was earlier than me on LG. Killroy of the same mind and wit. We’re a good fit.
Junior and I can be the roving Gooner loanee patrol reporting back to LIR. Maybe get some interviews to post on LIR; we’ll get up to something for sure, as it’s rude not to.
Tony-I must admit I picture you in the French countryside in an elegantly refurbished 15th century Chateau flanked by a handful of turrets, with Troglodyte caves on site and a swimming pool with a rare view, which overlooks garden terraces, the adjoining woods and a vast meadow beyond…by day you would hunt for truffles, while in the evening, after a workout in your recently converted dining room cum octagon, you would retire to the lounge, where you could watch anything of your choosing on your wall of tv monitors…after a few years, you would return everything to it’s original condition so that you could maximize it’s potential for tourist expolitation as either a wedding destination or a high-end B&B…at this juncture you would become the eccentric but affable owner who could always be seen in a cashmere, yet manly, robe, with Doc Martins, a bespoke chapeau and a vape pen with an extended Hunter S. Thompson flapper pressed firmly between your molars…vivre et laisser vivre
as a follow-up to my Xhaka-related post late last evening, there’s been plenty of chatter today about his potential exodus…all I’ll say is this, if we allow this player, who has underachieved for the vast majority of his stay, to go on a free, after his contract expires in the summer of 24, instead of selling him to BL this summer, we don’t deserve to be a team of European consequence…considering our wretched asset management record, especially under our present regime heads, this would the cherry on an otherwise shit sundae
TRVL 😊
Some typically pleasing imagery there of Tony in his French milieu.
I’ve always thought of Tony in my mind’s eye as being a tougher and even less compromising version of Peter Grant, the erstwhile Led Zeppelin manager. Great bloke to have as a mate but someone you shouldn’t cross. Posing by his pool on the French riviera wearing a gold lame smoking jacket and matching budgie smugglers with half a dozen blue rinse killer poodles (and a recently imported and therefore jet-lagged pumpkin) lying primed to kill in the Mediterranean chaleur. All the while puffing on a massive and illegal Cuban cigar or a Camberwell carrot. His eyes alert and calculating but looking fashionably bored and cool as fuck.
Tony – put Vera and me out of our misery… Which version is nearest the truth?
TRVL
Xhaka:
Cost £35 million
Salary over 6 seasons £30 odd million
Could’ve sold for £20 odd million
Could’ve sold for £15 odd million
Cost us CL football for 5 odd seasons cost £250 million plus
Total cost £350 odd million.
Now someone tell me how good he is?
KP-I feel like your Rick Rubin/Tony Soprano love child will win the day, as my adderall-aided Stanley Tucci, with a healthy side of Johnny Rotten, might be a less palatable doppleganger option on first blush…Cheers to you for your efforts, as I always enjoy your turn of phrase capabilities
Marc-you know full-well I’m onboard with your assessment, regardless of your tongue-in-cheek creative accounting…why are we paying homage and/or kowtowing to such a historically underwhelming individual…talk about recency bias gone amok…what’s next Arsenal retiring #26 & #52 for all Bendtner’s contributions?!?
TRVL
Ouch… Bendtner…that really should have come with a spoiler alert mate. I wasn’t ready to think about him at this time in the morning. He’s going to stay in my mind now all day, unless I get the absinthe out. 😊
It’s possibly a lazy, albeit positive, trope but one tends to think of Danes as calm, rational and modest people. And in sporting fora as hardworking, sporting winners and losers (well maybe not that racist bastard Peter Schmeichel) . Unassuming but with a steely edge when the boots start flying in. So why the fuck did we end up with Nicky B?
Thanks guys I’ll beat you to it for the Meercat Manor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX3PXeSqu4U
TRVL
The only “creative accounting” in my comment is the double sales fees the rest is spot on – knock £15 – £20 million off that and you’re there.
Of course I could add he cost us the title this season with his petulant response at Liverpool that brought them back into the game. Win that and we beat West Ham and Southampton.
So actually my calculation of how much he cost us is about £100 million too low.
Marc-I certainly wasn’t trying to chirp you about the whole “creative” gig, I was just making note that it’s difficult to come up with a firm figure…I should have just steered clear, as it’s one of those times when it required a bit more nuanced response on my behalf…Cheers
TRVL
Wasn’t picking a fight mate – I’m serious when I talk about what he’s cost us. He’s been a disaster of a signing, all managers have signings that don’t work out remember Veron at ManU? The only thing that stopped that being a complete embarrassment was Chelsea being daft enough to buy him the following summer but Xhaka’s on a whole different level.
Marc-we’re definitely on the same page…I should have just offered up my support, instead of trying to be “cute” with my words…as you know, I’ve spent a considerable amount of time pushing for his exit and regardless of this being he’s “best” season to date I strongly feel that we won’t ever compete with the best and brightest until he’s been suitably replaced…have a good one
Will Xhaka command a fee of any substance (I don’t think he’s out of contract right?) . If he’s going anywhere other than another PL club or one of the European giants, then I guess not. Whether it’s the numerous and needless red cards, fuckoffgate, that disastrous manoeuvre at Turf Moor or his general standard of play, the guy won’t be missed even by the biggest tettyarselickers.
According to today’s guardian, Chelsea are looking to offload Kovacic. Now he’s a player I’d consider getting in. A defensive midfield quartet of TP, Jorginho, Kovacic and Rice would be formidable in next year’s PL and CL. All assuming we can sell Xhaka to FC xenophobicos in the Greek delta league. Or the rising, defecating spread eagles in the Kosovan championship.
As for Patino, I think he needs more time. The club should try to loan him to a bottom half club. West Ham? Fulham? Or a proper championship team with ambition where he’ll be playing alongside winners. God knows what’s happened to poor Miguel Azeez – they need to get him back on a progressive trajectory too. I also wonder if Lokonga needs another year out. Elneny has surely booked a return to Switzerland or Egypt as well. Fingers crossed.
Any thoughts on what the club will do with a certain Monsieur Pepe?
“Any thoughts on what the club will do with a certain Monsieur Pepe?”
Pay him to leave only to see Chelsea buy him for £25 million 3 weeks later?
Sricking with my childhood habit of shouting for English teams in Europe,so disappointed with events at the London stadium tonight so far. I have,over the years, developed a deep disdain for Liverpool,man utd and Chelsea,but otherwise I don’t mind other English teams winning when it doesn’t affect Arsenal. I’d imagine a lot of English gooners disagree with such a stance.
Rice isn’t impressing but I really like Bowen,he just drifts out of games too often to make it at a top 6 club. Paquetta hasn’t lived up to his price tag either but I think there is definitely a player in there. Wouldn’t pay 100 mil for Rice. Lacks intelligence. He chose England over Ireland!!
City at Everton is probably our last hope. 3 points there and they’ll coast home. Lose or draw and it’s back in the melting pot. It’s the hope that kills you in the end……….
news of the day—reports suggest that both Saliba and Zinchenko will miss the remainder of the season…the former isn’t surprising, as this notion has been bandied about for several weeks now, but the latter is a bit unexpected, in that when we last saw Zinchenko on the pitch he was displaying his immense displeasure with being subbed off…maybe something happened on the training grounds, albeit the aforementioned report indicates that it happened during the Newcastle affair…not that disturbed by the prospect though, as this will give our January signing, Kiwor, a chance to prove his worth, while likewise improving our defensive stoutness out wide, as Tierney’s clearly a better defender than Zinchenko, and hopefully increasing KT’s market value for the pending summer transfer window
it appears that where there’s smoke, there’s fire, as the stories about Xhaka’s potential exit continue to proliferate…today there’s been talk of Edu cutting his asking price in half from last season, when they were ludicrously demanding 26M…surely someone would want someone so “valuable” for such a pittance…maybe Edu’s hoping for some sort of bidding war, can you even imagine??? for the love of God Lever don’t come in with an insulting yet totally justifiable low-ball offer…on a more positive note, it appears as if Xhaka’s wife has wanted to return to the Rhineland for quite some time, so maybe just maybe this journey into the world of footballing mediocrity will finally come to an end…remember Xhaka, happy wife, happy life