‘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.
Got to say I love HIncapie’s reaction there.
Hincapie having some fun with Neto.. Loved it.
Hip has gone full-Gabs!!
Can’t stand Cucurela . An absolute piece of cheating shit
Marc—my bad on the Palmer gig, as I had read recently that he was out again for at least 3 games…now he clearly wasn’t ready to start, but as you stated he’s on the bench
Hoopah
Couldn’t agree more.
Hoopah—I want to give him credit for both his tenacity and the fact that he’s a starting backer on a top PL side, especially in light of his size and stature, but then I put eyes on him again and I instantly realize that he’s a conniving little sack of shit
We need a batman celebration to end this
Cucurela is one of those players who you love when he plays for you and hate taking the moral high ground when he plays for anyone else.
MA was outmanaged today by another Pep underling…sometimes it was difficult to tell who was a man down, which should never be the case…Chelsea look to be the real deal, when healthy, albeit they still might be a year away from piecing it altogether
this is why I spoke about the advantageous nature of our CL schedule, which saw us play all of our most difficult matches at home…our gutless leader always dips his balls in freezing cold water right before he devises his gameplan for any away affair of consequence
The referee did caicedo no favours early in the game by allowing him to run wild in the first 20 minutes or so without giving him a yellow.
As an example I would liken it to Paul Gascoigne in the fa cup final v forest being allowed to get away with a chest high , studs up challenge before launching himself into a challenge that put him out of the game for a year, if the ref had booked Gascoigne for the earlier challenge then I’m sure the 2nd challenge wouldn’t have happened.
Today , caicedo pushed an Arsenal player blatantly in front of the ref without punishment, he made another couple of dubious challenges which again the ref ignored , caicedo then launched himself into a ankle breaking challenge that he rightfully saw red, and like Gascoigne may have suffered some kind of injury….this could have been avoided if the ref had punished him earlier.
As for Arsenal, a poor performance on a night when they failed to have any control in the game and yet came away with a draw thanks to another well worked open play goal , and but for a couple of sharp saves down low from the Chelsea keeper we may have come away with all 3 points.
Is it 18 games unbeaten in all competitions, as I have said previously it is away from home where the title will be won or lost as teams will be looking to try every trick in the book to influence the referee , today Reece James in the first half forgot that he was supposed to be playing football and took it upon himself to tell the referee how to control the game.
The red card should have been a turning point but Chelsea were very clever in the way they exaggerated every challenge as they rolled around in mock agony in their vain attempt to get the ref to even it up.
This made it very difficult for an Arsenal player to make a challenge in the 2nd half as no doubt they were under instruction not have a player see red.
I wouldn’t imagine that Arteta was particularly happy at our performance, it was a blow to lose Saliba so it was a tough ask to go into the biggest match of the season without our 2 recognised centre backs but Mosquera and Hincape coped well in a red hot atmosphere where they knew that one false move would have the crown demanding a red card.
Brentford at home next in the week with Chelsea and city away, so as I have often said , away matches have become increasingly difficult to come away with maximum points for the top clubs due to the enormous pressure on the referee by the home crowd who like nothing better than to get points off the likes of Arsenal, city, Chelsea or Liverpool.
City travel to Fulham and Chelsea travel to Leeds, games that on paper should be formalities for the top clubs, we shall see.
Had to laugh at KP playing the race card at me, does he not realise by now that throwing words around like “white supremacist”, “racist”, “xenophobic “race hate”, “extreme right wing” ” beer drinking bigot” are empty words these days.
KP has unfortunately lost the plot after first trying to goad/troll me with this rather silly comment
“Your political idol Nigel Farage is reffing tomorrow’s game at the Bridge. He’s going to start by red carding all the non white, non Ingerlish players on both teams in recognition of his racist past and present.”…. a peculiar comment that came from nowhere, maybe it was the wrong time of month for him..
In reply, I just knew that mentioning the maccabi ban would trigger KP, it was done in jest but the diatribe that has been aimed at me from him has been rather over the top.
As for the constant referral to ” non white ” players/ people sounds a bit like that former Scottish mp Humza Yousaf who was sacked for his anti white views….not a good look KP.
Just to clarify to KP that I don’t touch alcohol and my beautiful grand children are ” non white”.
Also Farage is not my “idol” but I do like the way zia yusuf and Leilah speak and they are both Muslim by the way.. …. make sense of that KP, doesn’t quite fit the non “non white ” narrative does it
I thought someone must have had a machine gun in the crowd the way Chelsea players were hilariously dropping to the floor like they had been shot in a desperate attempt to get the ref to even things up.
No mention of these pathetic antics from Chelsea in the media or the fact the Chelsea goal should have been disallowed by VAR for Enzo being offside, especially as he tried to head the ball and also stopped Mosquera from clearing the ball….I think we were a little naive in this situation as we accepted the decision to readily , city or Chelsea would have created a fuss to make the officials aware of the var.
Wicksy
Even by your irredeemably poor standards that was a pathetic attempt to try and justify your racism. Thick as pigshit and twice as unpleasant. Try harder…or better still just fuck off!
Pricksy—as I have often said, you’re a know-nothing, tin foil hat wearing, excuse-mongering simpleton fuck
Oh dear , more abuse from KP and TRVL, I wonder how long it will be before they realise that their words have no effect on me …just about the only accusation I haven’t had aimed at me is “pedophile” …maybe because I’m on the side of the fence that want to protect women and children.
As for Chelsea , they were an embarrassment yesterday, but I hear no condemnation from the media at their ill discipline this season or their behaviour yesterday.
I do think we were naive in giving the ref the opportunity to book 6 of our players even though we only made 12 fouls , though i would say that most were correct, fortunately we showed tremendous restraint in the 2nd half which allowed us to finish with 11 men, though it did mean we lost some aggression in our game as the Chelsea players went down as if they were shot by a sniper in the crowd anytime they were touched..
KP
Wicksy crossed off your Christmas card list then?
Not a startling performance from our team yesterday even after Moises put the boot and studs in. We should be top at Christmas but El B might bring back his lover and it will be downhill from there.
Wicksy
You’re a worthless piece of racist shit, unfit to be on here (a site kindly hosted for our benefit by an Indian person in India and read by people from a pleasing array of different backgrounds). You also do not deserve to support this club which sits proudly at the heart of a multiracial/multicultural city like London, whose fans come from all parts of the world and whose players represent the very best from a diverse range of countries and ethnic backgrounds.
You’re scum and I suggest Ambarish thinks carefully about whether you should be allowed to remain on here. You don’t belong. Marc might object to people with politics like mine who want a fairer system, and he will proudly consider himself a follower of right wing divisive dogma, but the racism on here is unique to you and you should be ashamed of yourself.
It’s a times like this that I feel embarrassed to support Arsenal which means I have something (anything!) to do with an amoeba like you. You’re repugnant.