Leeds were superb in the first half. They kept us in check, they kept their positioning and we looked clueless for much of the game. My heart almost sank when they scored their first, we had dropped 3 points against Brighton before the international break and it looked like we will drop points again. But, the substitutions fixed it. Calafiori’s goal wasn’t very mesmerizing but Mikel sensed a win after that goal, brought in Gyokeres, Timber and Guimaraes and it paid off. Gyokeres was much better than Havertz in pressing and creating some unrest in the Leeds half, Timber is certainly better than White and Guimaraes scored a beautiful goal to put us forward. Bukayo Saka did miss a 1v1 against the Leeds goalkeeper in the last few seconds of the game but hey, we walked out with 3 points.
In out title winning last season, there were 5 games where we finished the game with at least one point after trailing. There were 3 draws and 2 wins. This season, we have already done this twice (against Chelsea and Leeds) in 6 games and we have won both game ultimately. That’s a sign of confidence, that’s also a sign of a good bench because when you need players who can make changes, you look towards your bench and they deliver. Bruno G has been a great addition as well. This is brilliant because going down 1-0 in the 15th minute doesn’t mean the game is over for us anymore.
Coming back the progress so far, we are sitting on 2nd place with 15 points behind City. We wanted those YNWA cunts to win a game for once, and they fucked it.
We are just 6 games into the season, there’s not much to deduce from this as of now. We would need few more games to comment and go berserk.
Champions League hasn’t picked up the pace yet. We have won the only game we played so far, there’s 2 more games this month and one of them is against Bayern. It would be exciting few days. We have a 4th round Carabao Cup match against Fleetwood later in the month. There’s a long way to go before we would have the trophy in sight.
I missed talking about the 115 charges of Man City. They have been found guilty of all the charges, but I don’t think Premier League has the guts to punish them. You and I both know a 100m GBP fine will be a slap on the wrist and a transfer ban is something that they can live with. And, there is no chance Premier League will tarnish its credibility by taking away the titles City has won over the years. If you ask me, they should be demoted so down the league, you could spot Erling Haaland playing in the park behind NHS building in East Ham against the 14 years old, while taking instructions in Bengali. Fucking cheats, ruining the images of the best league in the world.
In the other part of world, Mourinho is not able to discipline Vinicious Jr. I have zero confidence Mikel could have done better, because if anyone has bigger ego than Mikel, it’s Mou. I was excited for that Brazilian but looks like that was a good miss for us. It would have caused chaos in an otherwise gentlemen dressing room.
Mikel got his new 4 years contract. That was expected after the title win in 23 years. We can all stop whining now, he is not going anywhere and he has a trophy to show. However, that doesn’t mean he will not get his fair share of criticism. He might have a Premier League trophy, but there’s Champions League left. And then we would go for the treble.
Right, that’s me done. Life’s been busy lately with work, kid, family, but I will keep trying my best. This place is open as always, and I am going to try to bring in some more people in comments section through X/Twitter and Reddit.
See you in the comments.
Hi Ambarish,
I disagree that Leeds were ‘superb’ in the first half. In my view, both teams were poor, neither able to string passes together and move threateningly up the pitch. Leeds gave the ball away far too often. They also didn’t press energetically as Brighton did. It was almost as if Farke thought he knew better. Their goal came through defensive slackness on our part. Overall, it was a very ordinary game, saved by Arsenal’s substitutes.
The feeling has abated somewhat since Saturday but my overriding sense remains that we haven’t advanced from last year and have arguably regressed in a crap league. The bindippers game was also pretty uninspiring. It may have something to do with that shitty world cup in the summer. Maresca’s post game showing off after beating 10 man and seriously under strength Liverpool was ill judged will surely return to hurt him.
Arsenal Unveils Bespoke ‘Rocastle’ Blackletter Typeface – Footy Headlines https://share.google/R1Xx0NpmSP9trh0ig
Am I the only one who finds this sort of thing a bit distasteful and unworthy of Rocky’s memory? He was a fine footballer, not a graphic designer. Just awful.
Sad news about Ken Friar who always struck me as a modest but very effective and capable football administrator. He did a decent job of forming a bridge between the board and supporters’ concerns. I think he genuinely loved the Arsenal and wanted the best for the club. RIP.
KP
May be not superb, but at least better than us. Brighton was surely on a different level and are one of the worst team to play against, home or away.
I think City will still be challenging us, because of the players they have and the drilling Pep did to them. Iraola will keep Liverpool in the top 4 and that’s the most they will achieve. They had a golden age of Salah, Mane, Firmino with VVD, Trent and Alison in defence. First three are gone, Trent is gone, VVD and Alison are old.
Xabi Alonso will have some memorable games for Chelsea because of his attacking football, but it won’t be enough to win the league.
I am waiting for City to be relegated and we can add few trophies to our cabinets in coming years.
Any idea what Liverpool did between 1985 and 1991?
Read somewhere that it was worse than the 115 charges of City but no idea about it at all
Team sheet is out.
Raya
Timber, Konsa, Gabriel, MLS
Bruno, Rice
Madueke, Merino, Eze
Gyokeres
–
VG gets his start, a midfield of Bruno, Rice and MLS should be enough. Madueke is back on rhe right wing after his impressive performance on the left, so that’s not making much sense.
Captain, Saka gets some much needed rest.
#COYG
whining? your not-so-secret disdain for us is showing again Ambarish
until we get some quality finishers and devise a way to get them on the ball in key areas this will be the kind of blunt instrument football we will be subjected to on a regular basis
A real manager after winning the title last season would have looked to bring in a seriously top notch difference maker. Now that can be different types of players in different positions and depending on the strengths / weaknesses of an individual team.
If you look at us the obvious options would have been either a left winger or forward / striker. We lost 2 left wingers and replaced them with 1 okish player and up front we still look poor. The more I see the more I think Arteta under pressure to buy a striker bought Gyokeres purely as a player he knew wouldn’t fit and stop him playing Bambi on Ice.
Personally I’m looking forward to watching the City PSG match tomorrow – tonight I’m just watching paint dry.
Very good goal by Timber.
looks like I inspired them to get their heads out of their asses lol
I can’t remember us playing a side who gave the ball up so cheaply on such a regular basis as this particular Lille side…it was only a matter of time before it came back to haunt them
Hi Vieira
You need only cast your mind back to Saturday. Leeds gave the ball away incessantly.
The euro bore is well and truly underway.
KP—at least Leeds spent some time in our final third…there’s nothing about what we saw today that would suggest that Lille came today with a result in mind…even a draw seemed exceedingly unlikely with that “game plan”
Marc
“A real manager after winning the title last season would have looked to bring in a seriously top notch difference maker”
Do you mean like Alvarez or Vinicius…oh yeah he did
Lille who are 2nd in the French league were no match for the Arsenal despite us starting with what was effectively our 2nd string attack..
Taking into account the lack of game time that Gyokeres/ Eze/Madueke/ Merino have had this season for the club it was hardly surprising that it was a little clunky in the final third.
3 more superbly worked open play goals shows how good we can be once we get our nose in front and relax on the ball.
Havertz linked the play superbly when he came and it was good to see Saka score and assist as well as a superb finish from Eze.
Vera
“ I can’t remember us playing a side who gave the ball up so cheaply on such a regular basis as this particular Lille side”
Credit should go to the Arsenal side who in the 2nd half never gave Lille an inch , obviously Lille in the French league are not used to playing under the same intense pressure that we put them under and in the end our quality shone through..
What a great time to be an Arsenal supporter, we are still well off our peak this season but have won 8 out of our 9 games in all comps and our 2 wins this week have set us up nicely for some tough matches in the next month or so, including Bayern and Liverpool away.
or…
Wicksy
A real manager would have targeted a player he could sign not someone who’s position was “I won’t play for that cunt”.
Vera
“ until we get some quality finishers and devise a way to get them on the ball in key areas this will be the kind of blunt instrument football we will be subjected to on a regular basis”
Although I think there is room for improvement, I would say an average of over 2 goals a game is acceptable.
To educate you , it can be very difficult to to play against teams who operate with a low block, it would be very naive for Arsenal to over commit against a side who are looking to play on the counter , hence that is why we have to play with patience and control.
As we have seen in our last 2 games , once we make the breakthrough the opposition have to take more risks meaning we have more space to operate and that is when we play our best football culminating in goals of the highest quality..
I do not expect anything different away to forest at the weekend, they will sit deep and play on the counter , so unless we score early then we can expect to see a patient game from the Arsenal , similar to city at the weekend against Liverpool when they struggled for an hour but with the help of the officials they played their best football in the latter part of the game after making the breakthrough..
me no understand