No fucking way. No one has forgotten the last time we played City and Etihad. Man City took the lead in the 9th minute when Erling Haaland scored from the centre of the box. We took the charge and played some attacking football thereafter and Calafiori levelled up from his left footed shot from outside the box of an assist from Gabriel Martinelli in 22nd minute. We kept playing some good football till the half time. Things changed a lot in those extra minutes. Guess who was the referee? Michael Oliver!
Oliver decided to award a staggering 10 extra minutes for the first half. Gabriel Megalhaes scored a brilliant header first and just before the extra time ended, Oliver gave a very controversial second yellow to Leandro Trossard to send him off. Reason being, Trossard cleared the ball after a challenge on Bernardo Silva within a fraction of a second after Michael Oliver had blown the whistle. The same referee who had not given a second yellow to Mateo Kovacic in a previous encounter between the same teams because he didn’t want to influence the game badly, gave a second yellow for Arsenal because the player kicked the ball in less than a second before the whistle was blown. Also, we haven’t seen a yellow for kicking the ball away after that day.
We were down to 10 men and we had a whooping 45 minutes to play against a lethal attacking Man City. Mikel went full Mourinho and substituted Bukayo Saka with Ben White at the start of second half.
In the 65th minutes, Myles Lewis-Skelly got his first yellow card in Premier League without even making his debut. Imagine the hate from Michael Oliver for a player in red and white that he awarded a yellow for a player on the bench. It was not like MLS was fighting someone, or causing any trouble. He was shouting to his team mate. Yes, everyone on the touchline shouts. Every god damn fucking minute of the 90.
Anyways, it was a day of attack and defence. Gabriel gave his best while City attacking every other minute. We kept our cool, never looked nervy and with some luck, we managed to keep our 2-1 lead till the 90th. There were 7 extra minutes awarded to the game and we all knew what was coming after seeing that. John Stones scored the leveller for City in the 9th minute of 7 extra minutes and the scoreline read 2-2 at the end. Haaland believed, after the game, that he was the descendent of King Leonidas of Sparta and started giving lectures to Mikel Arteta to stay humble. After a 2-2 draw. At Home. Against a 10-men Arsenal. With Michael Oliver as their 12th man. He might be the most lethal striker on the planet, earning more than anyone else in footballing world, but that age showed in his behaviour.
Team News
We are playing City again, tomorrow. At a very crucial time when we need the win to keep ourselves in the title race. And this time, the war is at our home, and without Michael Oliver. We have not forgotten and we will add to their miseries.
Myles Lewis Skelly red card was rescinded so he is available to play. Raya missed the Champions League game against Girona with a muscular injury and will be assessed before the game. I don’t want to see Neto between the sticks, he was very poor and lacked confidence in our last game and we need David Raya back to calm the defence down.
The usuals, Ben White, Tomiyasu, Saka and Jesus will be missing out the game. Saka is the one we will miss the most, as he has been prolific on that right side and he has always been the main figure in big games. Hopefully, Nwaneri won’t let us miss him after his brilliant Saka-esque goal against Girona. I am hoping Raya starts in the goal with a back 4 of Timber, Saliba, Gabriel and Calafiori. We will most likely see a midfield of Odegaard, Thomas Partey and Declan Rice. Nwaneri should start at RW, Martinelli on the left and Havertz in the middle.
No show (yet) in transfer window?
Well, we haven’t done anything at all in the transfer window so far. Only a couple of days left before it shuts down, and we went to Aston Villa in the pursuit of Ollie Watkins with 60m GBP which was rejected. So, we have the money but we are looking for a profile. 60m and some change would get you Sesko, or Mbeumo but Arteta likes players who can do the defensive job and I don’t see him getting an outright predator anytime soon. Watkins bid was a strange one, we need it more than ever but no one would have expected Mikel would go after him after showing so much trust in Havertz.
In the press conference today, here’s what he had to say when asked about bringing a striker –
It doesn’t depend on us. We have the intention, purpose and ambition to try to help the team and support the squad to be better and to finish the season really strong, and we are actively trying to do that.
source : Arsenal.com
This confirms the club and the manager are aware that we are lacking up top. With only 2 days left before transfer window shut, we will know whether it’s just intention or if we do something in real.
Right, that’s me done. It’s going to be a great watch tomorrow, and I am pretty sure we will come out on top. We need the bragging rights for next 6 months, and I mean a 3-0 win bragging right, not a 2-2 at home against a 10-men bragging right.
Also, I am pretty sure non of those players and the manager has forgotten the child-like behaviour from Erling Haaland and the cunt-like behaviour from Bernardo Silva. I want to see them faces sulked, embarrassed and hopeless.
#COYG
Madhu
Yes , noticed about Partey yesterday and refrained from commenting because he also breaks quite often.
Frankly , during the last 2 years we been talking about his replacement, was my gut feeling to keep Partey as long as he can play because he positions so well , always with a forward pass. In a quagmire play Partey makes things happen subtly
Madhu—I have no doubt that Pep could do wonders with a middling side, as it’s hard to argue his mastery of the x’s and o’s…he might not win it all, as that typically requires backing, but I guarantee you that any organization who had the good fortune of having him in the building would quickly become the best version of themselves…of course, he doesn’t need me to defend his record of dominance, as it speaks for itself…I will say this though, sustaining a dominant brand of football comes at a cost, both financial and human, which can lead to managerial and organizational burnout, especially in more recent years with the substantial rise in player movement/wages and the entitlement that oft-times comes with that…this is why it isn’t really surprising to me that Pep tends to move on as soon as his vision and the club’s are no longer fully aligned…we know all too well what tends to happpen when someone stays on too long…Cheers
Ambarish—the biggest issue with Partey certainly isn’t his ability to provide a top quality performance, at least when he’s fully fit and totally engaged…problem is that far too often those things haven’t been a given…now this season has been rather anomalous, in that he’s never been more available…maybe he should have always been on one year deals or is that just a coincidence…as for the future, unless he’s willing to take a significant reduction in pay and bet on himself with a short-term contract, I would thank him for his services and move on…I kind of wish MA’s supposed “plan” didn’t require so many GD phases, as maybe then he could have played a significant role on a multiple title-winning side
As for our transfer window activities it appears as if the two best bets are a hail mary, in the form of Ollie Watkins, now that Villa appears to have acquired more depth up top, or Mathys Tel, who wanted United all along, but maybe they weren’t interested in providing him with the kind of ironclad assurances he required…just once it would be nice to be someone’s first choice option before we offered them unjustified wages and short-sighted promises…I certainly won’t be upset if we snag Tel, as he’s showed some glimpses of what could be a promising future, I’m just not sure a winter window is the best way to integrate a player of his ilk and lack of experience…that said, it’s better than nothing and it can’t be any worse than what happened in the last hours of the last window…I can only hope that whatever we promise him doesn’t put the kibosh on our Striker pursuits come the summer…who knows, maybe he can form a brilliant connection with the other young budding superstars already on our roster
Viera – the midfield of Partey, Rice and Ode hasn’t lost a match yet this season for Arsenal. It’s only when Partey is deployed in the square peg of Right back we have lost matches. Doest that say a lot. That begs the question of what is the contribution of our Analytics team and why don’t any of the coaching staff ram this into Arteta s head. Why not deploy someone else in RB or play 3 at the back of you don’t have anyone? All points that we have lost is due to this shoehorning Partey at RB and a midfield of Rice and Merino. Both of them doesn’t have the passing range of Partey and that not their game. To an extent Jorgi does posses that passing range from midfield but he is a spent force.
If possible I would retain Partey for a season more to see if he can provide some cover to Xubi if he comes in. Losing Partey without any replacing anyone with his passing range will make us more turgid in our attack. Passing vertically from center mid is a gift and we had plenty of it in the times of Cesc, Santi even Eong to an extent. Rice doesn’t come anywhere near this range.
In spite of Marc’s orange faced, little handed rapist friend, the world feels like a slightly better place this morning.
I’m going to watch that game again and enjoy it. My kids were sat with me last night and we’re getting irked by my shouting at no one routine during the second half.
Agree about Partey. Just play him at the base of midfield, in the middle, and let him do his thing. Kovacic and that little prick Bernardo had no answers and they got thoroughly bossed. One of TP’s best performances.
Marc
Shock? Horror? Probe?
UK could avoid US tariffs that the ‘atrocity’ EU is facing because Starmer has been ‘nice’, Trump suggests – UK politics live
Starmer’s obsequiousness towards your Fascist mate might save your company!
KP
Starmer has some photos of orange head.
Yeah NORG
Maybe like those ones that Putin has of Trump being pissed on by sex workers in a Moscow hotel.
What did you think of that display yesterday?
Madhu—first and foremost, we’ve only lost 2 matches, so the difference between having those 3 in the lineup and not is minimal; not to mention, Ode was out for a considerable period, so let’s not get too wrapped up in this sort of in-match commentator filler…my eyes don’t lie and this side, regardless of who’s been on the pitch, has played about 4 matches worthy of “real” applause…now some, like yesterday’s affair and the win over the Spurs, were enjoyable for other reasons, but both of those sides gifted us victories while in a state of relative disrepair, so I’m analyzing our performances accordingly…now if we had found ourselves on the right side of a 5-1 scoreline against City last year or the year prior, when the circumstances were vastly different, I would be over the fucking moon, but that certainly wasn’t the case yesterday
now this doesn’t take away from the fact that I’m a big fan of a healthy and fully engaged Partey, far more so than a free-wheeling, in and around the box 100+M dollar Rice…it makes me wonder what might have happened if Partey wasn’t such an unreliable entity just prior to our push for Rice, as maybe we could have used those monies to get Isak in…I can only assume that Partey’s off-field issues have complicated matters, as it’s difficult to rely too heavily on someone with so many obvious question marks…frankly, I’m shocked that he’s actually remained here and played nearly as much as he has…now he’s had a few stinkers, but more often than not, he’s performed admirably, which I’m thankful for
let’s keep it real though, MA always sets us up as a defence-first side, so the fact that we haven’t lost with 4 defenders, 2 of whom are world-class, 2 DMs, with Rice as more of a B2B variety, and the requirement that all of our forwards, including our supposed Striker, defend all the way back to our final third at all times, isn’t that shocking…that said, I bet that statement wouldn’t have resonated with you nearly as much if it made mention of how many draws were included within that “no loss” record soundbite and/or the circumstances surrounding our opponents in those partiuclar matches…just saying, as context matters…Cheers
it looks as if Tel has done an aboutface and is now going to join the Spurs…supposedly the reason why were out of the Tel sweepstakes is due to Bayern’s unwillingness to include an option to buy within any loan agreement…as you might know, I’m not a fan of loan deals with obligations to buy or without an option to buy, so if this is the case, I’m not that upset, but that doesn’t mean MA hasn’t cocked-up another window, as this player was largely an afterthought until this past week…it likewise appears as if Watkins isn’t going anywhere, if those bloggers, who are closest to their club, are to be believed…so let’s hope MA doesn’t pull another Sterling out of his last minute hat…fingers-crossed that something of consequence can be done, but I’m certainly not holding my breath
Thierry Henry said after: “because Arsenal have won so emphatically, the talk of them bringing in a striker will go. He felt they still needed one…I think without another special player in attack – and I said this at the start of the season and not just because of the last six months – it’s not going to be enough to win the Premier League”
this is why no one should ever get any grief for expressing their concerns regarding positive results like yesterday, specifically in and around the January window, for fear that it might negatively impact our desire to properly redress our most pressing needs…btw this was the same need that was wrongly ignored last summer and would still be our most glaring weakness even if we had won 30-0 yesterday…tick, tock
KP
Good to see the youngsters having fun. In my time as an Arsenal supporter I have seen several players make their debut and perform really well for the following games. Some make it but quite a few will fall by the wayside. Our current two starlets will be around for a long time. Saka has already established himself.
the general consensus is that we won’t be making any moves this window…of course, MA’s PR minions have made sure that everyone is well-aware of our supposed transfer windfall come the summer…whoopee fucking shit, as a lot can happen between now and then to derail said imaginary plans…how many times can this organization allow our MIT to kick the proverbial can down the road???
fact remains, the whole Watkins lowball bid was, as expected, another ruse in a similar vein to the +1 Suarez debacle…it’s clear they wanted media outlets to report that we had come extremely close to their valuation, but I’d bet my life it was 15 to 20M under that mark..in many respects, he tried to do exactly what Wenger did to get his fame thirsty ass to the Emirates…maybe he was preying upon Ollie’s fandom and hoped that he would help to push a much cheaper deal over the line…frankly, it’s just another embarassing moment for an organization who’s experienced their fairshare during the post-Highbury era
so until this fucktard can convince anyone of consequence to come here, without any strings attached, we’ll never be a true blue contender…now we can still matter in this lightweight transitional era, but until we act like a “serious” club we’re far closer to LC in 2016 than the Barcas or Reals of yesteryear…only saving grace is that Ethan’s going to get a lot more attention from those in the “media”, so MA’s going to be forced into having to incorporate him into the tactical plans or he will undoubtedly face a significant backlash
(btw I just read that the Spurs deal will include a option to buy—so possibly another MA-inspired myth dispelled) tick, tock
no matter what transpires between now and the end of the season doing nothing can never be misconstrued as a genius move, after all it’s not as if we didn’t “try” to do something…so even if others slip up and we find a way to win a major trophy, it won’t be as a result of us doing nothing in this window…that ship sailed when MA spoke of our need for new recruits then made numerous failed attempts to rectify this predominantly self-inflicted situation…as such, any future revisionist narratives that attempts to suggest otherwise will be utter bullshit…that said, I hope for nothing but the best for our players, especially Saka, Saliba, Gabs, Ode, Skelly, Marts and Ethan, who’ve put in the work and done things the right way, even when the manager didn’t always favour them and/or put them in the best position to succeed
Arteta has had 10 TWs in which to bring in players that will get us to the promised land’s trophies. Over on Le-Arteta, Arteta’s Gimp, Pedro posted “Arsenal have to sign 4-5 players this summer”. Just tells you all you need to know about AFC’s fake manager. How in the world can after 10 TWs the club still need 4-5 players to win the title or major trophy unless you have a kit man doing the managing. Wednesday late evening we will then only be in two competitions,
Six Nations didn’t disappoint, especially the Ireland v England. England v France and Scotland v Ireland this weekend.
Killroy
Its not the 10 transfer windows that bothers me it’s the over £700 million spent on players when he inherited Saka, Martinelli, Saliba etc plus a squad that finished 2 points off third the previous season.
If a manager sat in a job interview and commented that after 5 years and spending £700 million he’ll only be 4 – 5 players away from winning something he’d be laughed out the room.
Marc—spot on…today MA’s spending all his time divorcing himself from our lack of transfer activity, liike he had nothing to do with that…I wonder what Edu would say about all of this nonsense? even when you project forward and look at those players we supposedly have “arrangements” with for the summer window, Sesko and Zubi, they’re problematic for a couple of contextual reasons and speak to MA’s scatterbrained roster construction:
(1) Sesko has twice denied MA’s approaches, which isn’t a good look for a manager of a top 2 club in arguably the best League in the footballing universe…the reasoning behind these snubs appears to be MA’s unwillingness to guarantee him minutes ahead of Havertz, which might make sense if Kai was brought here specifically for that purpose and/or if he had even one clinical bone in his entire body…even from a financial capacity, this has been totally mishandled, as there’s no way Sesko won’t end up costing us substantially more, which could easily derail our plans anyways…so eiither we’ve stupidly helped to raise his profile, which will have financial ramifications and bring more suitors into the mix, or we’re praying to God he doesn’t perform quite as well in the second half of the season and we don’t cock things up again, otherwise it will have made a total mockery of our previous two windows
(2) Zubi has likewise shunned MA’s advances, so to think it wouldn’t happen again is insanity personified….regardless, our pursuit of him speaks to the failure of our window two summers ago when we forked out over 170+M for Rice and Havertz…the former was brought here to fill that specific roll, yet somehow he’s become a vastly overpaid AM, whereas the latter was wholly miscast as Xhaka’s replacement then gifted the roll up top so as to paper over MA’s transfer mistakes…so instead of soldifying those two pressing positional requirements, we’ve actually shoehorned them elsewhere, even though no one would have ever shelled out those respective sums if they knew the end results…now we’re still contemplating how to rectify that totally mismanaged situation two years later…by the time it’s all said and done, we’ll be 200+M poorer, easily reaching the billion dollar spending mark, and both Rice and Havertz will still be shoehorned into positions that they’re not best-suited for
on a side note, MA’s Wenger-like bullshit about not being able to find any world-class options in this window is laughable considering that new information has emerged which suggests that we reached out to Morata’s people…what a joke show
just read this and it spoke to my previously discussed concerns regarding our potential pissing away of our championship window, both at home and abroad, which simply can’t be ignored after this window:
“Most of the more frequent challengers for Europe’s biggest prize are playing below par. Manchester City have been shambolic. Real Madrid lead La Liga but haven’t looked half as menacing as usual and have concerns over defensive depth. Bayern Munich aren’t quite the same dominant force that they have been in the Bundesliga, and PSG are firmly in transition, not that they ever win in Europe anyway. If ever there was a year in which a team from the second tier of continental competition (an impolite but fair assessment of Arsenal’s place in the grand scheme of things) could win the Champions League, this is it. A ‘genuine’ striker might have made all the difference – now we will never know”
strangely enough, considering our pathetic window, I’m rather bullish about the possibility of us overturning this Cup tie(keeping in mind that they had a similarly piss-poor window)…with a 10 day break following, I could see us putting in a energized performance, especially if Newcastle try to defend their lead and allow us to dictate play…now they’re a threat on the counter, if Isak and Gordon are playing, but I’ve got to think that there’s no way MA doesn’t start Ethan, who has the skillset required to breakdown their defence from wider positions, which should keep them somewhat honest…I would likewise start Marts on the left, to further stretch their backline, then deploy Merino in the 8-hole, so when they send extra help out wide there will be a more legit target in the box for crosses…of course this won’t happen as it would actually require Rice to do what he was paid to do
Cheers to one and all for putting up with my seemingly endless posts…it’s clear that I wasn’t impressed with our all-too-familiar transfer window nonsense, but I’m starting to come to terms with it
TRVL
Keep the posts coming good buddy. They are a staple diet for all here I’d say. There may be quantity from you but in the quantity come interesting reading that I have learnt a lot from.
I’m sure others do, too.
I thought this may wake you up frothing. MA as you say is priming the summer TW but the sickening shit from him is he’s taking the glory for bringing Skelly and Nwaneri to the fore where the PR are lauding MA’s vision.
I’m just waiting for the “Louis and Ethan are the reason I didn’t buy this TW, MA will say. He’ll continue to allude “it’s all been part of his process all along” forgetting we were all screaming for them last season.
As it is with them they are keeping up with Pool but not making up ground on the nine point potential lead they have.
6 more days here and then gone forever. Off to Madrid for 4 nights with junior, and then Marbella for a month to wait for Blighty to warm up, and enjoy my new X2D 100 camera kit. My Canon 5D was around 40mp at best, but now having 100mp to play with and same with Ryan’s GFX II 100 100mp stills and video we should have a blast in Spain.
Killroy
We will always be 4 or 5 players away from a winning squad and never with the winning formula/tactical nous.
I would have thought that next season we’ll see a resurgence from the heavy weights in ther respective leagues and CL football.
Enjoyed the England game knowing eventually the Irish would up their gears. England are like Arsenal; they threaten, then flatter to deceive, as they are not a 90 minute team.
Matchday post is live.