Well, we are into another international break and I have lost count of it now. As a neutral, I find it frustrating but I do understand that some of us loves to see our country play. And to go into a 2 weeks break after sharing points with Chelsea and ranking 4th on the table isn’t a good sight for us. Chelsea under Maresca has improved but not enough to beat us at home. In fact, we should have taken all 3 points and it feels like a loss.
We have had a fit playing XI. Odegaard was back into the team, we had our usual back 4 and a front 3 of Saka, Havertz and Martinelli. Chelsea dominated us for the first 25 min where David Raya had to make a brilliant save for a long distance shot from Cole Palmer. In 24th minutes, Gusto wasn’t able to put the ball in the nets from a close range header which should he should have been. Neto’s cross was brilliant, Ben White wasn’t bold him to move closer to him and in a way let him make space for himself to put a cross. We finally managed to put some pressure when a poor pass from a Chelsea defender was blocked by Saka and Odegaard took the ball, passed it back to Saka who then took a shot which was blocked. Martinelli got the ball from that block but wasn’t able to get pass Sanchez. In fact, it wasn’t the very best of his attempt, was on a perfect height for the GK and he didn’t have to move to his left or right. Not good enough.
Havertz scored within some min but it was offside. In the second half, Martinelli finally scored from a similar angle to the one he missed earlier. Much much better and we only had to get through 30 odd minutes to win. Even though Odegaard gets the assist, it was Thomas Partey’s brilliance. Timber tried a long range shot in 65th minute which was a bit wide. Why was he trying to shoot when both Havertz and Saka were in good places to receive the ball – I don’t know. Neto levelled the score for Chelsea and we couldn’t have done anything about it. It was a great goal, similar to what we have seen from Odegaard in the past. Nothing exciting in those minutes.
Right, that was the Chelsea game.
This draw came on the back of a 1-0 loss against Inter Milan in Champions League, a 1-0 loss against Newcastle, a 2-2 draw at home to Liverpool and a 2-0 loss to Bournemouth at home when Saliba picked a red card. These results are not enough to panic (just yet), but there has been some lacking in consistency and poor managerial decisions that could have made it better for us.
Lets talk about the players first. We had some injuries, Odegaard’s absence affected the game, Martinelli is on a poor form (still one of my favorites in the team), Trossard/Saliba had a brain fart which costed us the Liverpool game, Declan Rice had one earlier against Brighton (1-1, 2 points dropped), Trossard against Man City (2-2, against 2 points dropped). I have been vocal about the refereeing decisions going against us, but we are talking about the players who are probably in 1% of football players around the world, and they couldn’t concentrate enough to not get a silly red card for kicking the ball away? Ok, refs are not blowing whistle for other teams, but you can’t kick the ball away it’s in the rulebook.
Martinelli and Trossard are out of form. Both of them shouldn’t be on the pitch at the same time. Merino gets tired after 60 minutes, Ben White wasn’t brave enough to stop Neto for that cross and there has been other incidents. Only Saka and Partey are putting up the fights so far. The less we talk about Havertz, the better. Talking about ‘this might be the year we win’ doesn’t get you trophy. You need to put your mind and body on the line without thinking about what happens tomorrow. If you are in red and white, and has a cannon on the chest, you need to show that you earned it – every goddamn minute.
Now, lets talk about the manager. I am okay with Mikel’s infatuations towards defenders as long as we don’t neglect other areas of the pitch. But we have done exactly that. Going for two competitions at once with only 1 attacking midfielder will cost you. Odegaard is brilliant when fit, but we didn’t have a back up. Ok, we had, but we sold one of those to Fulham and loaned another one (Vieira) without bringing any like-for-like player.
This was highlighted before the season started and some of the news outlets confirmed that the club and the manager sees Nwaneri as a back up and they are not actively looking for a replacement. Guess what, Nwaneri is playing Carabao cup games and Mikel feels putting 3 DMs (Rice, Partey, Merino) in the midfield is better than giving him a chance in PL / CL. First, you didn’t have a competition / rotation to Odegaard. Second, let go off 2 players which were closest to play in that position. Third, you are hesitant in trying a 17-year old that might do the job.
And if I remember correctly, we paid 65 million for Kai Havertz because he was a versatile player who can play in the midfield and as a CF. We didn’t see him the midfield and he isn’t really doing much up top. We needed a proper CF, not another Gabriel Jesus.
Careful what you wish for. We were asking Wenger to stop neglecting defence and he would still go with 7 attacking players. The football was great but we would often lose. Now, we have a manager who can hold off City to a 2-2 at their home with 10 players and loves hoarding defenders. The football has gotten boring and we don’t get to see any of the Sanchez/ Wilshere like goals. Martinelli fits in that profile, but he hugs the sideline like his life depends on it.
We needed a blend, we got the opposite of what we had. City’s loss to Bournemouth is keeping us in the fight, Liverpool is leading but they will have bad days and I still feel it will come down to Arsenal v City at the end. We are still in the Champions League, not doing great but not as bad as some other teams.
Lets hope Mikel learns, unlike Wenger. I would love to hear your say in the comments.
Cheers.
Tony—Just Arsenal is the worst of the lot when it comes to excommunicating those who didn’t prescribe to the Arteta Know Best nonsense…I spent a considerable amount of time on that site and even contributed a dozen or so of what were deemed by many to be rather controversial articles during Wenger’s latter years…the only reason why those articles didn’t get me banned was because the blogger in charge had experienced a change of heart regarding the direction of the club under Wenger’s tutelage…as you know, it was a polarizing time and this assclown used me as a shield against those longtime posters who were vehemently opposed to the new Wenger Out directive…in fact, he would personally reach out to me on the DL to offer his support then admonish me on the site, like some sort of good cop, bad cop hustle
I didn’t mind at first, as I’ve always relished the whole back-and-forth gig, but everything went south once Arteta came into power and this Howdy Doody acting fuck tried to play me for some sort of expendable rogue troll…as I was on incredibly thin ice I decided to expose that two-faced prick by posting some excerpts from his earlier direct messages with me…in an attempt to control the narrative he banned me then removed any potential incriminating evidence, like he was trying to erase me from existence…I toyed with him for awhile by using a variety of aliases(VPN), but the whole thing became rather boring after a few months or so, which is how I ended up on LG…little did I know that I would encounter a very similar set of circumstances with that Sybil-esque small dicked Pedro fuck, albeit in a mere fraction of the time
the only silver lining was that it ultimately led me here, thanks in large part to Killroy…Cheers
Thanks for the heads up TRVL, had me laughing as I can appreciate the need to fcuk with them when used in such a way.
You’ve found your rightful home among like minded gooners who really appreciate your posts and knowledge. As KP said Madhu enjoys the more technical side and exposing MA for what he is as we do with good posts, which makes it more fun and interesting.
Long live the anti MA revolution unless he wins the PL this season. Pistols at the ready then……
the very notion of MA having some sort of comprehensive “vision” of the future seems incredibly delusional considering how many times he’s changed his squad construction script…from the original retool, that included the re-upping of Auba and Willian acquisition, to the youth initiative of sorts, when the old boys gig went tits up, to the Xhaka-centric Pep-inspired possession-based borefest, which ultimately led to the only version that produced a watchable brand of football, when our Swiss Miss was deployed in more advanced spaces, to his most recent rethink that appears to be some sort of ode to Pulis’s bully-ball era…how anyone could misconstrue this laundry list of missteps as proof of him possessing a singular vision is beyond me…the sad part is if he had only properly replaced Xhaka, then signed a proper front man, he might have tripped into success in spite of his obvious shortcomings
TRVL
I have a different alias on Just Arsenal but find their articles boring and the commenting not very intuitive and at times downright juvenile. I am not wasting my time to post there as I find the community not to my liking. On LiR you do have posters that see Arsenal’s reality and call it what it is, which I like. Straight shooting from the hip and being of German background, I don’t like the British way of hinting at something, stop wasting my time and spit it out. Don’t care if feathers are ruffled life is too short to pussy foot around an issue.
The problems at Arsenal are very complex and in my opinion can’t be corrected, unless KSE brings the hammer down and puts someone into Arsenat management that has the skills, connection and expertise what KSE has done with the LA Rams, Colorado Avalanche or Denver Nuggets, win major honors and the associated trophies.
Until we see these changes Arsenal’s future will be hopeless. A good start would be to shit can our MIT in the summer if he again has under performed, in other words, he almost has won something without actually winning anything. But we will always have Win the dog.
Killroy—the guy who runs that blog relies heavily on “managed” articles by what appears to be a whole host of made-up authors, minus those written by Dan Smith, who I butted heads with on numerous occasions, due to his unwavering admiration for all things Wenger-related…sadly he’s the only real dissenting voice left, from an article-producing standpoint, as everyone else was either admonished into submission or sent packing…the only thing I miss are the sensible and well-reasoned commentaries of Durand or the brash and cutting tone of one Dan Kit…he and I developed a close online bond after a considerable period of great angst…next time you post on there, if you could, tell him where he could find me…much appreciated bud
With Pep signing for another year, one MA blog is trying to suggest that its good for Arsenal and MA. The same blog gave a vision of MA which is based on Pep leaving end of this year :). What kind of attitude is that and the same people question us when we talk about MA.
It takes someone with knowhow and experience on how to put one over on Pep, unfortunately Arteta is short on both but he knows how to pick an emotional support animal.
Watch Slot winning manager of the year and Arteta and his minions will be standing there with their dicks in there hands.
The mail this morning has a supercomputer running the numbers again, and have come up with the following New Year table positions after Jan 5:
Liverpool – 48 points (23 GD)
Manchester City – 45 points (26 GD)
Arsenal – 41 points (19 GD)
Chelsea – 36 points (14 GD)
The computer has us winning all our games bar one draw (Fulham away I imagine ESR wants payback), and a loss to BHA away including a 3:1 home win over Manure. See what you all think, as there is really little to no news worth writing about other than obvious clickbait.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-14105075/PREMIER-LEAGUE-TITLE-RACE-PREDICTION-Liverpool-Man-City-Arsenal-Chelsea.html
I think Amorim’s new manager bounce will be very real because VG and other elite players will be watching closely before the next two TWs. Ratcliffe has made statements of intent with the stadium and installing Amorim who will have put a number of players on notice: “prove you are good enough to stay!”
Our home game against Manure I can see Amrorim wanting to use us to make a statement of intent to the PL, I would if I we’re him. We can expect a very hard fought game with no prisoners being taken.
If we are going to make a challenge, it starts with Forest at he weekend, where we need to go on a winning run for our next 9 PL games: put 27 points on the board to show that the first shaky 11 games were this season’s only blip, right?
Anyone believe we can do that?
Forest Home
West Ham Away
Manure Home
Fulham Away
Everton Home
Crystal Palace Away
Ipswich Home
Brentford Away
BHA Away
I think we will amount 17 to 19 points, as I feel we will continue to drop points from the next 9 games. I see our tactical plight continuing its footballing malaise because of our unbalanced squad.
Without the requisite 9 we needed from the start of the season, and an 8 who has craft in his boots as Ethan has on the bench, we have no plan B; just right side centric attacking tactics, and risk adverse football being defensive with slow movement from players playing in positions they shouldn’t be.
Ethan is thrown on late to save games but needs time to warm into a game.
Change it up to 352 with wingbacks in their natural positions keeping Rice at 6, Ethan at 8 and allowing Kai to play 9 only defending from the final 3rd. Let him just be a striker not the Swiss army knife player he’s shoehorned into by the defensive paranoid MA.
The above allows us to attack from all over the park, which will improve Mart’s game to hopefully the form he arrived with. He’s been Artetarised and a shadow of hisself.
Sorry for being a broken record, but if you guys have other solutions I’d love to hear them.
From the immortal words of TRVL “what the fcuk do I know?”
How many points do you guys think we’ll have by January 6?
I’m just an armchair supporter wanting my club of 60 years to have a manager who can win the biggest trophies, and not keep capitulating from making the same mistakes year in and year out…….
The only good news to read is that the next international break is March 10. Now we can concentrate on the PL, CL and tin pot cups our bench and reserves should be winning or at least making the semis of each.
Transfer spending the last 10 years.
1. Manchester United – £1.08billion (€1.3bn)
2. Chelsea – £1.07billion (€1.2bn)
3. PSG – £825million (€991m)
4. Arsenal – £661million (€795m)
5. Tottenham – £591million (€711m)
6. Manchester City – £585million (€703m)
7. AC Milan – £527million (€633m)
8. Newcastle United – £521million (€626m)
9. Barcelona – £500m (€601m)
10. Al-Hilal – £462million (€556m)
———————-
11. West Ham – £456million (€548m)
13. Aston Villa – £433million (€521m)
16. Bournemouth – £318million (€383m)
17. Liverpool – £304million (€366m)
18. Crystal Palace – £301million (€363m)
20. Wolves – £287million (€345m)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-14105739/Footballs-biggest-transfer-spenders-decade-Man-United-1BILLION-spent-Premier-League-giants-17th-world-Bournemouth-Al-Nassr.html
I read an interesting article today entitled “Is Mikel Arteta still making progress at Arsenal”, which spoke of our failure to meet his rather ambitious goals, at least thus far, of improving in every measurable capacity possible:
““We want to improve in everything,” the Spaniard asserted, highlighting metrics in attack, defence, restarts, and set pieces”
of course, these sort of half delusional/half captain obvious diatribes are an all-too-familiar refrain around here…just once it would be nice if his recruitment practices were properly aligned with his on-field expectations
now I can see how he might have been optimistic about our set piece prospects, as we tower over most of our competitors when healthy, but even that physical advantage hasn’t improved our numbers…the very fact that he would even try to double-down on something that we had basiscally maxed out on last season seems like a bit of a desperate reach by a clearly tactically-stunted manager
as for the defensive and attacking sides of things, I don’t think anyone with even a modicum of knowledge about MA’s prediliction for shoehorning truly thought that the additions of Cala and Merino would significantly improve us at either end of the pitch…Cala showed his best as a marauding CB, so to have him come here to play out wide simply meant that Timber, who’s already playing on his wrong side, would struggle at times for minutes…whereas Merino, although far more proven as an 8 than a 6, was obviously coming here to further enable Rice’s more advanced dreams, which not only wasn’t going to help us from a goalscoring capacity, it was going to weaken us defensively…I didn’t even mention Sterling, as that 11th hour Wenger-like appease the choir bullshit was never going to properly address what ailed us…enough said on that
now there is reason for some optimism, which speaks directly to your question Tony about our upcoming schedule…”Opta’s metrics show Arsenal have one of the league’s easiest run-ins over the next ten games”…now of course you still have to play those matches and get the desired results, but there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to claw our way back into the conversation over the next couple of months, regardless of the ineptitude of our fucktard manager…I guess only time will tell
Good post TRVL would you hazard a guess as to how many points we could potentially put up on the board by Jan 6th? I thought my maybe 19/27 was being optimistic lol. Where you at around 23/27?
We have cup games in-between some games and I was trying to add in injuries. White is out for up to 6 weeks so probably back in 3.
Madhu
The same morons man worshipped Wenger. El B has replaced Wenger. LEGO will be producing an El B toy for them to worship.
Tony etal, this is my prediction for the next set of games.
Forest Home – Win
West Ham Away – Win
Manure Home – Draw/Loss
Fulham Away – Draw/Loss
Everton Home – Win
Crystal Palace Away – Win
Ipswich Home – Win
Brentford Away – Win
BHA Away – Draw/Loss
The problem is that our defense is not the same as last year. Our attack is slow, pedantic, constipated with a series of backwards, sidewards, forward, sidewards movement. This gives enough time for a well organized and drilled defense to cope up. We hardly pick the run ins behind defense with through balls. We play all our attacking football in front of opposition defense with no dribbling or one touch football looking for space behind defense. So teams like Fulham and BHA has attacking flair which may be a bit a too much to handle.
Watching our games be it any opposition seems a bit tedious nowadays. As a long time Arsenal fan spoilt on Dennis, Henry, Viera, Fabregas, Rosicky, Hleb etc play with such flair and pace, this team looks devoid of any character. Its been 5 years now, do we remember a single goal which had the flair of say that Wilshere (Norwich) goal or that Ramsey Goal (Fulham) etc. I remember the brilliant counterattacking goal of Auba (assisted by ESR against Spurs) or the last min screamer of Reiss nothing else. Forget about the gazillion goals of Henry, Flair of Dennis, exquisite through balls from Cesc, now its all backwards, sidewards, forwards, sidewards turgid football.
There goes my rant for the week.
Madhu—I totally agree with your sentiments about our glaring lack of flair, especially when it comes to our end product…it’s undoubtedly why Nelson received so much fanfare for his late match heroics, which somehow earned him a re-up…I would suggest that if someone were to generate a montage of goals scored since MA’s arrival, then compared it to every other PL side during that same time period, our video would be the most pedestrian of the lot…this doesn’t mean that every tally needs to be an absolute stunner, after all we finished higher in the standings than all but 1 other side, but to completely ignore the value of having a player or three with the ability to produce the odd screamer seems incredibly daft
in my estimation we’re simply repeating the mistakes of the past, when Wenger’s “pass the ball into the net” approach failed to yield the desired results…in many respects I feel that MA, like his former sideline boss, can’t handle what’s required of a championship manager in these particular times, when absolute power is a fictitious notion and if you really want to win at the highest of level you’ll have to open your door sometimes to special talents who might challenge your authority and steal your spotlight…until he comes to terms with this we’ll continue to look far more like Rice’s former team than those who currently sit above us in the table, both here and abroad
Tony—we should be able to secure 23+ points, but based on our present form I would be absolutely elated if we got anywhere near your points prediction…there’s a couple potential banana skin affairs, especially on the backend of that sched, like Brentford and BHA away, which could make things rather squirrelly around here
TRVL
I thought 23 would be your thinking – we are only 4 points adrift = 2 draws or loss and a draw. I was factoring in our sporadic form this season and failing/faltering challenge.
I guess we’ll get our first glimpse as MA takes on a decent Forest at home. Should be 3 points with home advantage alone. We don’t appear to have lost anyone from the internationals bar Saka if the press isn’t just more silly mind games. Did I hear right that White has been to Lourdes? Seems to be a MA like miracle thought process.
Has Edu left he building? As it would be mighty embarrassing for Edu if Forest pulled off a win, which they are very capable of. Their counter attacking speed is the one & two-touch football Madhu was rightly saying we’re missing.
Cala should be back so Timber can play his natural RB with White moby dick with his back issue. Problem is Cala was bought for his inversion-ness more than his defending for me, which would be all fine and dandy if our Cala was a fcuking race horse.
Dray horse is more to my thinking with donkey potential when tired if we’re going down the equine analogies. Cala is nearly Xhaka slow or appears it, and easily turned where, if if he’s in Forest’s final 3rd, you have 2 hopes (Bob & No) of Cala lumbering past the halfway line when Forest counter into the left abyss where big Gabs is going all diarrhea about trying to cover for Cala’s vacant arse. Timber has pace so can get up and down with Saka who’s a natural defender helping them to combine well together at both ends of the pitch.
This is Nuno Espírito Santo’s 5th PL season. Personally, I would have loved Nuno to have stayed at Spuds; a match made in football heaven for me. Santo did some good work with Wolves but got ahead of himself I think where he lost the footballing plot.
I don’t know about you guys, but what I’m seeing from Nuno’s Forest are basically 2 gears: flat out attack with some real speedsters turbo boot boosted over 40 to 60 meters who take some catching.
Or a methodical machine like, almost impenetrable force with 4 in front of 5 reducing most sides to long range scud missile shots leaving precious little gaps or room to lift over the top or being pushed out wide to deliver crosses to mostly Forests’ defenders. Wolves are also brilliant at the 2-speed football of defend and counter attack and defend – wash rinse repeat.
It’s actually been good fun football watching seeing top 6 sides panicking throughout their games, so I’m expecting a very lively game until Forest go ahead, which is where they have been most deadly with counters as a side panics to get level.
Nuno has beaten Slot at Anfield, so let that be a warning, few have done that with Slot in charge. They drawn with a decent Chavs side making them look slow at times, at the bridge recently, and are only one GD from being level with us on the same points. From their games I’ve watched they been good value for their points.
It won’t be an easy game because Nuno sets out his stall to harass using his pacy harriers to good effect to unsettle the opposing players nicking possession or breaking down attacks pushing them sideways and backwards – MA’s fav risk averse tactic.
Great game to kick off no more internationals until March 10. Can I get an hallelujah?
Praise be brother Tony! I’d careth not if a swarm of locusts or a wave of pestilence and shitty doom smote international football with a massive pointy rod of divine retribution (with loads of nails hammered into it gadzooks!).
And where are the 4 horseman of the apocalypse when brave, lisping sir harry of kane spouteth his interminable horseshit?
Brilliant KP as always
Only caught a snippet on the news but apparently White is out for “months” and Arteta saying we’ll have to see but I don’t think it will be 6 months which would obviously be the rest of the season.
The feeling I’ve had for a while that Arteta might struggle this season is getting stronger and it looks like it could be down to injuries caused by his inability to rotate properly.
@TRVL
Did as you asked and this was the reply from Dan Kit
“Fcking love that Md – gunner
Did t know that as a fan forum
Tell him I miss his amazing wordsmith on JA (one of kind )
I’ll make my way over and see if I reconnect.👍
much appreciated Killroy—we used to go toe-to-toe in the wee hours, when BlogDaddy was fast asleep, then we would get put on blast once he had awoken and realized what the fuck we were up to…absolutely top drawer individual…Cheers
Dan kit sounds like he’d fit in perfectly here…….. The more people with voices the merrier is all I can say: narratives are never controlled here just welcomed. Fan boys , too, if they have reasoned and measured posts from an open mind and not a myopic Pedro like MA vision.
Marc
All I saw this morning was White is out for months whatever that means in MA speak?
To be fair that kind of does us a favour.
I’ve felt that White, even at his best, is an Arteta player level player. He lacks consistency in good positions and really isn’t a natural RB. For me, at best, White is a good defensive utility player (Swiss army knife) including DM at a push.
These kind of players come with the jack of all trades master of none for me.
They are mostly average with some bright moments, such as the odd 40 meter pass landing on a 6pence for Saka or Kai – but rarely Marts. White’s work with Saka in tight spaces is good, but defensively we suffer, as is the problem with inverting RBs inviting balls over the top or through the channels for fast counters into acres of space vacated by our inverting fullbacks – all too often both at the same time. When players like Partey, Cala and Zinny go walk about up top Saliba and Big Gabs are left scrambling to cover, and not as well as previous seasons, as results are proving.
White’s absence allows MA to play Timber in his favoured RB position. Timber has better feet than the natural CB White and is more rugged in defense; possibly too much so, and could do with keeping a cooler head when being intentionally wound up. It leads him to be targeted by savvy managers to unsettle his game.
I’m not sure Timber is as physically strong since coming back. Whether this is psychosomatic or the knee being a little weaker from the ACL tear, I have no idea?
Do you have any thinking on this TRVL?
Imho Timber is the better RB where I’m hoping Timber makes the position his own in White’s absence. I’d be happy to see White more as a minor cup and bench player, as we need to move the needle at RB now if we are to put in the challenge we need.
Problem is does Cala move the LB needle much past the poor and defensive error prone, Zinny? Not much for me, but it’s Cala’s first season, and he’s in danger of being Arteta-rised along with the misguided Rice AM 8 wanna be.
Rice, dead ball specialist? Seriously? He probably hits a good ball in 1:4 deliveries from corners and free kicks. As TRVL pointed out Rice lofts the ball in a high arc giving defenders time for a cigar before defending, and is why we are no longer the set piece kings – that and our dark arts being found out and stopped.
How does MA and his vastly experienced team not see this? Contracts causing selective vision?
That said, MA likes to play Partey at RB and Timber at LB as Cala is becoming injury prone, so I doubt we’ll ever see the end of shoehorning during MA’s reign.
The team MA puts out this afternoon and his tactics will tell us if MA is shifting to playing players where they naturally play best or shoehorning, as is His norm.
Forest has Hudson-Odoi, Gibbs-White & Elanga supported by Dominguez and Yates all very pacy and tricky players. They are on a high being where they are in the league where they normally come to play us as the underdog, but I’d say things are as even as both our table standings relate, so Forest’s confidence will be high, and it’s up to MA to dent that high sufficiently to get the 3 points.
We have home advantage, but it all depends on what MA decides to do tactically, and how he puts the brakes on Nuno’s speedsters? The new rules prohibit cynical midfield fouls, so we may well see a lot of yellows again.
Timber need to be cool throughout, I wouldn’t trust him if on an early yellow. When a speedster gets caught at top speed the resulting foul goes spectacularly airborne leaving refs little option but to produce cards.
I hope Ethan gets a start because Ode alone cannot create enough in games to win them and control the game. Rice is not an 8 and Merino is very underwhelming – more a bench player. Trossard isn’t an effective AM8. So, I don’t understand why Ethan doesn’t start with say 60 minutes a game. There are no easy games in the PL everyone on their best day can beat the other.
I’ll go for a 2:1 win to us in a very hard fought game if Nuno has Forest playing like they did when they beat Slot in his back yard earlier this season, because the result was no Fat Sam type fluke or Pulis kick-em-off-the-park tactics. Forest deserved the points on the day.
I’m hoping we deserve the point this afternoon after the fat lady sings……….
Tony—like yourself I believe our best 11 sees Cala on the left and Timber on the right, with Rice sitting deeper so that each can take turns getting forward…both have the ability to attack on either side of our wide side forwards, which should keep defences honest, thereby opening things up for Saka and Marts
of course, Marts could find himself on the bench if MA’s deadset on re-upping Tross, which appears to be in the offing…personally I wouldn’t enter into any such discussions until season’s end, as I would rather allocate those wages elsewhere…let’s face it, he’s not a legit 8 or 9 and he doesn’t possess the wheels required to play out wide, so he doesn’t really fit our script…he’s overvalued by some due to our glaring lack of clinical finishing, but his numbers this season have been pedestrian at best…we simply can’t afford to have another luxury player up top, as we already have Havertz, who’s clearly going nowhere
I kind of think our future lineups, should MA stay on beyond the summer, will see Havertz as a 10, tucked in behind or along side whatever Striker we acquire next summer…as such, let’s hope we don’t replace Edu with some ring kissing fuck or we might butcher another window
against Forest I would suspect we’ll see a back 4 of Timber, Saliba, Gabs and Cala, a midfield of Partey, Rice and Ode, with Saka, Havertz and Marts up top…the only reason MA might go with Marts over Tross(see above for the counter argument), is because of the former’s speed, as we know Forest can run with the best of them and quite frankly Cala could use the help…I like our chances, especially if we play on the front foot, which certainly isn’t a given…I still don’t think we’ll be seeing a lot of Ethan in our immediate futures. unless more injuries occur and/or we’re down late in matches and searching for a spark
time for a few “after hour” bts before crashing….just got some blueberry hash strips, so I’m hoping I don’t overmedicate and sleep the fuck in…see you at kickoff (fingers-crossed)
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/nov/22/mikel-arteta-returns-visit-owners-arsenal-title-challenge
Worth a read in order to gauge the mood at the club during another dull interlull. Just a soupçon of suspicion that Stubborn El Bastardo has been told to buck his ideas up by the two American vultures who both probably still have Viagra (or Valium) boners after fascism prevailed in the US.
Won’t even be trying to stream the game today because County are playing at home to Y Bala. We beat them away in a terrific display so hoping for a home repetition which will put us second in the table.
The club has decided to jettison the bus, presumably because of the cost, so I’m firing up my new second hand Volvo V70 and driving 2 other stewards (one is a very sad spud fan!) and 1 of the club’s 6 season ticket holders (who is a Gooner). I might try and inspire an argument to spice up the 70 mile round trip. Check the BBC later for any stories of a bitter fight to the end between 2 geriatrics in a lay by on the A40.
County’s manager ( 🎵 we’ve got super Tony Pennock…) who has just extended his contract by a year is a seriously good egg, football tactician and motivator who put out a message on X thanking various people at the club including volunteers. It sounds silly but it really made my day to be recognised. Could you imagine El B doing that? Football at this level is sooooo much more meaningful.
Enjoy the game everyone. I’m going for a 3-1, Ode inspired win. Goals by him, Saka and Martinelli.
KP
At that level emotions still come into play regarding the club and its well being. People see others as fans and human beings, not so with The Arsenal any more. it’s just big business and I hope you’re right that El B was summoned to the Kroenke ponderosa with the threat of being football’s neutered with his nuts being fed to Winless the failed dog experiment. If he’s still there and not Battersea dogs home being the canine version of non-negotiables.
We all like to be appreciated from time to time, although for El B that has to be 100% of the time by everyone and their sister.
This, however, is El B’s fluffer for our amazing owners fawn fawn fcuking fawn…….
“And this sport and the demands that we have sometimes put the temperature up a little bit, sometimes bring it down and everybody needs it. I’m the first that needs that. And not only from the owners – from the coaches, from the players, media, it’s great to have that. So you are always seeking to be the best and evaluate and judge yourself in the right way.”
Temperature? What exactly is El B the first to need? Heat? Always riddles with him, I think Emery communicated better.
“So you are always seeking to be the best and evaluate and judge yourself in the right way.”
Clearly El B hasn’t found the right way yet! But evaluate and judge yourself?
Now in English that would mean look for the errors and don’t repeat them.
El B’s ‘right way’ is to continue regardless and keep making the same mistake since he was deemed a rookie. His logic is it will work in the end and after 5 years it still hasn’t
Thanks, KP that was really illuminating.
KP have a little empathy for the Spuddy. He’s obviously a loser supporting perennial losers – maybe humour him a little. I know it’s not easy him being a spud an all, but I’d maybe give him a pork burger…
Couldn’t hurt could it?
You’ll get the commentary here, KP. You should be able to imagine the rest…… Good luck with Country..
TRVL
Agree with your thinking especially Marts being a back up to help Trossard. See you at the game amigo….
Nice one Tony. The spud fan is 65. I think (but can’t be 100 percent sure…) he was pleased when I told him he was a true rarity, ie one of the few remaining Spurs fans to be alive when they last won the league in 61. Every year their number dwindles.
The Kroenke’s (whatever you think about them) has allowed the club / Arteta to spend a huge amount of money – they’ll at some point expect results.
Edu’s replacement will be interesting – if they are a genuinely independent and capable individual one of the things that could or should see conflict is Arteta’s regular destruction of players values who he doesn’t favour. There’s no problem with looking to upgrade on a player and there’s no problem with deciding to move a player on but look at the money we generate in sales.
Its pathetic and has cost the club hundreds of millions of pounds.
Great goal taken under pressure by Jackson with Chavs all over LC.
Points should be in the bag for Moresca boys against men this game.