We took a point against Liverpool at Anfield. I had been complaining in the past about our lack of goals from headers and set pieces but the team has turned it around lately. It was the 11th goal from set-pieces, not counting penalties. We were almost levelled in possession (49-51), had equal number of shots (13) and only one short of shots on targets compared to those scousers (2-3). It was an intense first 30 min and some very good football from both sides.
Not-so-much-positives – Zinchenko. I know Salah has cooked almost every left back in the league on multiple occasions but we knew from the beginning Zinni wouldn’t be able to cope up with Mo. It was a shame Tomiyasu is out injured or he would have started ahead of him. I’m pretty sure Mikel knows about this and that’s why we went and brought in Timber. We didn’t have options left, Kiwior starting against Pool at Anfield? No. I would have gone with Zinni too.
Playing a high line and aggressive football comes with a problem – you are open to counter attacks against a fast paced team. We saw in the 71th minute how within few seconds, Raya and Declan Rice were up against 4 of the Liverpool players, with Salah doing what he does best with the ball in his feet. We were lucky, Trent’s shot hit the bar. On any other day, it was a beautiful counter attacking goal.
Did you notice the pitch? They certainly had watered it down more to suit their long balls and slow down us. Martinelli slipped or that would have been a goal. Saka slipped and Tsimikas picked up an unfortunate broken collarbone injury (karma!). Liverpool direct style of play and long balls gives them an advantage in such cases. They had done it against Ream Madrid in UCL earlier, they did it against us.
Good. We need the teams fearing us.
Away from the Premier League football, the European court of justice has ruled in favor of Super League, not allowing the UEFA to maintain a monopoly on football. Every Premier League club has re-iterated their stance of not interested in joining them, but lets not forget the top 6 had it signed previously before the fans took over. Lets not forget football has become more of a business for the recent owners. If you haven’t noticed yet, Sportbible is already running stories about the new format suggested by A22 – the company behind the new Super League and how the format has changed based on merits now. Pretty soon, the internet will be filled with such articles and we would be made to believe that it is probably not a bad thing.
Global followings for every club has grown in recent years. With internet and cable, anyone sitting in America or India can watch a game live, order a tshirt from the official Arsenal store and receive it within a week. This extra revenue allows the club to spend more which in turn gets you trophies and more international followers. It’s a vicious cycle.
I have been there and lived the atmosphere for about 3 years. I understand the soul of football. However, ask any overseas fan and they would love a competition where Arsenal or Manchester United plays against Read Madrid or Bayern on weekly basis. There will be supporters of it, and sooner or later the British audience will have no other options than to participate.
That’s my prediction. Not today, but in 5 years things are going to change. Is it a good thing? No! Will it happen? Most likely.
Liverpool has overtaken us in the league but we are playing West Ham at home tomorrow and we are going to reclaim our top of the league position. I would love to hear what you have to say for our state of play, the pitch saga, and the Super League in the comments.
I decided to venture down the proverbial transfer rabbit hole today, likely due to the fact that I got next level trashed last evening so I found myself firmly affixed to the couch…besides the typicaI baseless nonsense I noticed the return of a rather disturbing and all-too-familiar trend, journos in full-fledged apologist mode
now if this were during Wenger’s second term I would still be suitably pissed, but at least it would be somewhat warranted, as he had earned a considerably longer leash…whereas in the case of Arteta, we’ve functionally won nothing, unless one might conveniently count our covid-aided FA Cup victory with an inherited squad…in fact, we’ve spent buckets of money to little or no avail, except for Ode, who still tends to disappear when the stakes are raised, and Rice, who can clearly defend our middle third, but doesn’t provide us with the kind of final third bump that would totally justify our massive outlay…as for the rest, they’re either overpriced stop-gaps or underwhelming tweeners…to be frank, it’s been an unmitigated square peg/round hole clusterfuck, which has seen us revert back to days of bore
one of the articles that caught my attention stated unequivocally that MA’s first priority was to add another CB, which makes about as much sense as tits on a Nun…in fact, redressing the Striker position came in a distant 3rd, as MA even prioritized the midfield more…I find it difficult to fathom how this sort of tripe makes it to print unless someone is being suitably fluffed/financially coerced and/or their intended audience is a bunch of echo chamber wet dreamers…one needs only to have eyes and a rudimentary understanding of the sport to know full-well that if we don’t get things right up top, we’re SOL
the more pertinent question might be why would our absentee landlord ever sanction any further shopping sprees to these coin toss talent evaluators, who have placed too much importance on one’s dominant foot or positional versatility etc…analytics be damned, I say…stats will tell you whatever you want to hear if you put in enough work…not to mention, there’s no way that the underlying numbers ever suggested that it would be best to deploy players in their weaker positions, or even worse, to shoehorn in expensive luxury recruits regardless of the prevailing logic, like with Partey at RB, Havertz as a box-to-boxer or Zinchenko as an inverted back…furthermore, why would you (1) encourage Rice to do things in the final third that you didn’t allow the much better-suited Partey to do and (2) never acquire a single backer who might actually help you get the best out of your blue-chip wide side forwards
this author was so lost in MA’s eyes that he actually attempted to defend the “genius” behind the whole Havertz pursuit, simply because both he and Xhaka are left-footed and each supposedly have knack for being uncovered in the box…now if Havertz could unlock a pass, distribute the ball from deeper lying positions, score from distance on occasion and/or if we had paid well below market value for a clearly struggling player from a rival club looking to dump salaries, I just might entertain his argument, but none of these apply…instead we’ve employed the world’s most expensive passenger, who has not only proved to be functionally useless, he’s likewise the most culpable on-field variable when it comes to our offensive regression
ironically, the writer in question actually postulated the notion that Sergio Roberto, the quintessential jack of all trades master of none, was the best case scenario Xhaka replacement, then proceeded to provide a plethora of counterintuitive stats(of course he didn’t pull this name out of thin air, as it’s well-known that MA is a big admirer of the Barca player)…in actual fact Sergio’s numbers were better in his own third, but notably worse in the opposition’s half, which belies logic considering the original impetus behind the selling off of Xhaka…it wasn’t to find a like-for-like alternative, but to find a definitive UPGRADE, someone who could open up defences, pot goals on a consistent basis, maybe even the odd one from distance, and who was competent defensively…the latter of which was the least important due to our massive investment in Rice
in the end, I was left with the feeling that this organization has spent infinitely more time creating consensus, real or imagined, than they have devising a plausible tactical script and/or recruiting the kind of players who BEST fit our particular needs…as such, I’m deeply concerned with the ways in which this duo might handle what appears to be an important inflection point in our club’s history…after all this was supposed to be the season where, if we got the summer right, we would change our organizational narrative from that of habitual pretender to perennial contender…right now, I have exceedingly little faith that things will end well
I apologize for the length, but I must say it was rather cathartic…Cheers
No need to apologise, TRVL, your posts read excellently as much as your content is always bang on the mark.
You & Marc have kicked us off into 2024 in the way we left 2023 – completely pissed off with the club for keeping Arteta – let alone giving the narcissistic lunatic money to buy more crocs and I don’t mean the ones with teeth.
How junior is growing up. Keep tissues handy.
Today’s conversation was about body piercing and tattoos. He also said he’s in his philosophy stage and had been discussing Japanese monks earlier. Junior followed up with the monks imbibe large amounts of THC to reach the highest catatonic state. My first thought was, love to test that theory with them here.
I suggested junior try Napal first. When asked why, I said you can’t speak Japanese, but in Nepal they do. When I hear chants coming from junior’s bedroom I’ll just hope the smell is the incense seeping from under his door.
All joking aside, I’m happy junior is a deep thinker and becoming more empathetic towards others.
Junior has finally found his gang of broken misfits he can look after in his Virgoan way.
When you inspect the misfits more closely, you find some serious talent under the curious exteriors, and in one being a jazz pianist, with another highly talented bassist. Currently, Junior is drumming and the best thing for his ADHD.
We had a conveyor belt of kids over the festive period sleeping in Junior’s lounge, that I was impressed with.
I gave Junior one rule: “respect this house and us.” They did in spades and it was really nice to see them all happy, off the street and away from home abuse because they are different.
Those of you who have know me for some time, will know my back story. I actually feel pain the kids feel because I lived through it all personally. It’s also cathartic for me to help good people, and these kids are really good people.
It’s not pity from my side, just genuine help to give kids a leg up or safe haven when the parents are going to beat them. The parents can come round and fuck with me: I’ll happily teach them what real pain is. I imagine TRVL and KP are nodding when reading this.
Sorry, I digressed.
However, Almunia I thought this might resonate with you being a teacher, and more aware than any of us I would think because you are a deep thinker, too. You see it in your professional life every day. Believe it or not your insights with your children’s were always interesting to me to learn from or just feel normal when I saw similar here with my daughter and Junior.
2024 is going to be an interesting year here for many reasons one of which will see Arteta fired because Marc and TRVL couldn’t have summed things up better.
Have a good one.
Belated New Year Greetings to all
RVL
If you are trying to place Havertz…he is the Appendix….a vestigial organ from a hoary past ..like Arteta’s tactics. Is situated at the end of the arseh… I mean Arteta last purchase. understand the chronology
TRVL
I don’t think Partey’s injured – the allegations about an unnamed player fit to easily and the club is in a no win situation on that front.
That aside let’s assume we make another expensive mid field acquisition – who get’s dropped? The Captain – no, the new hundred million man who’s actually one of Arteta’s few signings that’s performing – no or Havertz who Arteta’s only just bought for £65 million – that would undermine the manager.
99% of what you’ll read will be click bait – journalists don’t earn by being good anyone.
Will Brentford sell Toney in Jan – it’d be a bold move and would upset the fans so they’d need a fee that they could justify as too good to say no to.
If that’s the case how can we afford it when we needed to load Raya in the summer to keep within FFP rules?
They say its darkest just before dawn well I think Arteta’s stumbling into pitch black territory and will have a poor end to the season which will then begin to turn the fans on him.
Failure to qualify for the CL and an unconvincing start to next season should see him ousted.
Bang on the money, Marc.
Funny thing is, and it’ll be confirmed in the TW, is I don’t think Josh is going to pony up £100m for the window to buy a CB. It’s buying White when we desperately needed an 8 again, and still do.
Mikel has out ‘galaxied’ himself this time. It was a matter of time when it caught up with him and losing the club so many millions: £200M by now? Bet he wished he had that now.
I see our downward turn continuing because he runs his stars into the ground and doesn’t believe in youth even at 23.
I’m going to enjoy every second of that cnut being kicked out as I did for Wenger.
Football is a winners game and but for City which was all Pep, the cone boy really only became a cone man.
This is the fucking idiot that put shitty speakers on the training ground pitch touch line to recreate the Kop in full flow at Anfield. If I’d have been a player or coach I’d have been on my knees crying with laughter. I’d be in the naughty corner with whoever replaced Quendouzi, ESR by the look of it.
He’s got a fucking big stadium replete with decent speakers just up the road, why not there?
This is the mug who can’t see a decent player for love or money. Then kills and chance of building relationships when he’s too busy calling them all cnuts who are not proving it in training.
Proving what? I refer you to the speakers on the touchline comedy gold.
By the way has anyone seen Vieira?
No, not Paddy; our £38m flop midget?
Did no one put string on him during training over Xmas and the wind got up bad? Oh well, hope he lands safely in France and has his passport, as Mikel is going to need our little flier in the coming months.
Did he even come with a high wind danger? Contracts have a word.
Now, if Arteta was a comedian using The Arsenal and his time here for the comedy, I think Mikel could have a future if anyone could keep up with his machine gun mostly illegible patter with an emphatic clapping of the generational wanker’s hands with wilder gesticulations to no one in particular.
If you’re wondering where all this shit comes from I write, I haven’t got a clue.
Have a good one
I think we’re fast approaching a best case/worst case scenario crossroads of sorts, especially if no top-class Striker is forthccoming in this window…let’s face it, in order to achieve this ends we would need to not only totally reinvent our typical winter window MO, which has been generally defined by two words, underwhelming and sloth-like, we would likewise need to both convince some players to move on, like Eddie, who has an incredibly warped sense of self, and be willing/able to pay above the number for whomever we ultimately pursued because we presently reek of desperation
so if we don’t properly redress our most immediate and pressing concern, as this appears to be beyond the capabilities of our MIT et al, one must consider what band-aid/half measure maneuvers will be on the horizon…lord knows we can’t afford to make the same mistakes as the last two January windows, by either doing functionally nothing or unnecessarily inflating our wage bill with those who don’t even fit our tired old tactical script…sadly, I can see MA not only pursuing a similar course of action, but likewise leaning into his effectively clueless base by hard selling the notion of having Havertz being deployed up top, either as a 9 or 10(kind of like a new signing)…in fact, I’ve already seen these exact “seeds” being planted by Arteta-friendly members of the media…if that were to happen, although it would be the worst case scenario from winning percentages standpoint, it could be a best case scenario from a mangerial perspective moving forward, as I’m not sure if our seemingly infallible self-absorbed little teflon Don could survive the potential fallout
If you’re wondering where all this shit comes from I write, I haven’t got a clue
Tony – And there’s me thinking you wrote at least 4 drafts and ran things by a highly paid New York lawyer every time you press ‘post comment’…. 😁 Keep them coming by the way.
I think even the biggest Artetapologists over on ‘le merde’ have reached a watershed moment about their idol. It takes very little for gooners to realise these days that big trophies are unlikely this season, indeed every season. Despite that, plastic Pedro still wants to bang the drum – he’s almost running on empty and is just counting the money now.
Like I said the other night, the architects of this perennial shitshow need to be sacked and a caretaker installed to see out the remainder (could Ryan Mason be tempted to make the short trip down the seven sisters road?). Get the players to manage and plan things themselves and make Declan the captain. It couldn’t be more abject than what we’ve seen recently.
KROENKES – DO NOT GIVE THESE TWATS ANY MORE MONEY. IT’LL MAKE THINGS WORSE.
I’d give PV a chance to prove himself. Fuck what happened at Palace.
Great posts the last few weeks lads. KP I just looked up and read the words I’d typed incredulously.
Made me smile and then your comment cracked me up laughing at just the right time.
I thought Mikel might have been gone by Xmas, but sadly Mr. No Points manager Arteta was allowed to implode the team to 4th from 1st. Not sure we buy anyone worth keeping as is Arteta’s way.
On the evidence of the festive period games, sacking Arteta early December would have been good shout.
So, now we hope for Mikel to have left the building by May. Looking at the fixtures below what do you guys think?
Mikel looks ill in his pressers. He knows his days are numbered and he’ll soon lose the dressing room and then The Emirate’s faithful with our Marc a happy chappy to the max.
First thing I did when the fixtures were published was look at our run in and I know instantly that without big changes by Arteta, our season was going to fail.
Only question in my mind was how badly? Back to 8th I think worst case and maybe 5/6 best case.
What do my esteemed colleagues think?
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=arsenal+fixtures&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8#sie=t;/m/0xbm;2;/m/02_tc;mt;fp;1;;;
Anyone old enough to remember the Captain Scarlet series? For background for the lads in India, this sinister cold war puppetry was staple TV for kids born in the 50s, 60s and 70s. No wonder that British people are soooo fucking bonkers. Here’s a clip of evil Arteta identical twin Captain Black getting tasty at a garage on the Holloway Road when he and Win realise that they don’t stock KY jelly. YT is full of Captain Scarlet stuff.
https://youtu.be/QbaaRy2lvpA?feature=shared
And don’t get me started on the mysterons.
Almunia
Sorry it was remiss of me not to acknowledge your post. God of you to pop in. I hope things are on the up and that you’ll back to LiR full match fitness a some stage soon. That said, Arsenal’s malaise seems immutable so there’s little change from earlier times.
I’m running on fumes as far as Arsenal are concerned, and am finding it much more fulfilling getting into local football. I think anyone with more than a few grey cells (ie everyone who comes here) realises that we’re in stasis and that the club has been corrupted by complete a-holes. As your compatriot D-ream said (back in 96 or 97?) things can only get better.
God? Good.
New post.