‘Did you think you had Eze’ – asked a reporter from Thomas Frank. Thomas, appointed only recently as the manager of a shite club, responded in an attempt to create some humour by asking back –
‘Who is Eze?’
Well, he just scored a hattrick in a NLD after 47 fucking years and by the time 90 mins were done, Spurs fans were already at home, probably sobbing and blaming the cold. If you are one of those and delusional enough to think you own North London, let me just say that even with a 4-1 win, we were more frustrated than you lot because we couldn’t keep a clean sheet. You are used to losses so that was just a regular day for you.
Right, that was a brilliant evening for us Gooners. A 4-1 victory over Spurs, at Home, hat-trick from the man who had almost joined Spurs but the club brought him to Emirates in the last minutes, Saka dancing and fans staying and singing once the match was over. And we did all this without our first choice striker, and our best defensive player while Hincapie started his first game in place of Gabriel. Our captain was missing too.
We took the lead in the 36th minute when Mikel Merino set up a beautiful ball to Trossard who, very precisely, put it into the nets. Eze, doubled the lead in 5 minutes when he put the ball into the nets courtesy of Rice’s assist. We went into the break 2-0 and Frank made some changes hoping he could turn it around. I am pretty sure he is aware of the spursy nature of that team but hey, he is paid enough to at least try. Eze made it 3-0 only 1 minute into the second half, assisted by Timber but that lad was dreaming of something more.
Richarlison scored a good one from far away. When you play a high line and your goal keeper is involved in setting things up, this can happen. I don’t mind it more than Raya, who would be furious to not add this game to another one of his clean sheets. Frank made some more changes but Eze scored his 3rd in the 76th minute and made sure that no one but the red and whites celebrate the day.
Spurs were so shite we didn’t even need to use set pieces to beat them.
We had finished 2nd, three seasons in a row. We lost points in dead games, injuries derailed us and there were some very odd decisions from the manager. This season, we lost our best defender and yet Hincapie finished his 1st full game with a 9.5/10. Odegaard is out injured but Eze comes in and does better. I was doubting Trossard but he has proven that he can play better than Martinelli when he is given a chance. We have a saucy striker who looks adapted now, was out injured but we didn’t miss him. Saka was world class and will remain so.
Now, onto the next game in Champions League tonight against Bayern. Only 3 teams are with a perfect score so far, and two of them are playing each other today. Bayern sits at top of the table with equal points and same goal difference but have scored 3 extra goals than us. That also means we have conceded 3 less than them, in fact, we have conceded fuck-all so far in 4 games in the group stages and Bayern will test that today. We will be without our best CB partnership but Hincapie dropped a bombshell of a performance against Spurs so I am not really bothered.
To finish in top 8 and avoid 2 extra qualifying games later, we have to win at least 6 of the 8 games. After today, we will be playing Club Brugge, Inter and Kairat. Inter Milan is the third team with all wins so far. Frankly, it’s not a do or die situation for us but there’s always some uncertainty in Champions League. We saw Chelsea beating Barcelona last night, and Newcastle losing to Merseille thanks to 2 goals from the ex-Arsenal man, Aubameyang. Anything can happen, so make the most out of what’s in front of you.
Martinelli and Madueke are back in the team. Odegaard might also be available, though I doubt Mikel will bench the hattrick man for him. Mikel, when asked about facing Bayern, had to say this –
For sure, this is the kind of game in the competition that we want to face, and we’ve been very consistent in both competitions; they have been as well, and tomorrow is a great test for us to see where we are.
source:Arsenal.com
A very challenging game indeed, and the one which will highlight whether we have progressed to win something of importance of this year. Beat Bayern today and the boys will go home in confidence. Also, there can be only one team sitting at the top and we would love to be the one.
See you during the game.
Again, how did we miss that. Eze should have done better.
should have scored there, especially after Eze nutmegged the defender then got the ball back in space
Fuckin hell
That was a finish.
you’ve got to be on high alert after you miss such a big opportunity…I’m a bit worried about the tandem of Moq and Skelly on the left
TRVL
Odds that we won’t see Skelly again and Arteta puts in a £35,000,000 bid for Zinchenko in Jan!
Moq looked as if he was completely unaware of Karl on his backside…probably because he doesn’t usually play on that side of the pitch
TRVL
At least we can rest easy knowing Arteta never shoe horns a player into a position.
Olise’s far too crafty of a player for Skelly without some help…not sure Moq can provide what he needs…we probably need Rice or Zubi to help fill in the Gabs void
hopefully we’ll show some flexibility from time to time by having Noni and Saka switch sides on occasion, as that could present this Bayern side with some issues
we have to make Bayern pay for some of their midfield sloppiness…it doesn’t happen much but when it does we have a decided numbers advantage if we counter with pace
Tetty touchline cuntery. Pass the bucket.
Was that not a penno?
KP—hardly the kind of response that foul required…it speaks to his inability to check himself as the stakes rise
The issue / problem we face is quite simply we’re not clinical enough in open play. We might be able to get away with that against lesser teams but when you go up against the top teams you’ll end up being punished.
VG was / is expected to be part of a solution to that but will he play second fiddle to the love child of Arteta and Gina the Giraffe aka Havertz when he’s back?
Hip played well on Sunday with no recorded knocks. Obvious to us mere mortals that he is the better replacement for the injured Gabriel. But bollock brains knows better than us. MLS is still learning and our other youngster has probably been put out to grass in El B’s mind. One of the best young talents in the UK and he cant get a minute.
Marc—I do like how we’ve performed in comparison to the last time we faced Bayern in the CL, but the fact that we’ve spent such an enormous sum then simply conceded our preferred style of play, while at our home park, speaks volumes about MA’s thin margins approach…now of course we could still win this fixture, but it would likely require another set piece tally, which would typically be the mindset of the lesser side
TRVL
Tonight’s fixture is irrelevant – we beat PSG in the group stage last season and who then not only won the CL but knocked us and Liverpool out but thrashed Inter in the final.
My point is you can’t be profligate against the best teams and expect to win something like the CL.
Marc—I think you misunderstood, as we were on the same side of that argument
my point was that we can’t consider ourselves to be one of the best sides in Europe if we let an opposing side to come into our park and allow them dictate the terms of the match…it would be totally different if we were a counter-attacking side