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.
Cool piece Ambarish pretty much bang on the button all round.
I afraid I am of Marc’s and other respected Gooners here that we’ll always be needing just 2 or 3 players. We are following the same repeated pattern where if Arteta doesn’t start using his bench like a professional manager would and not buy what is needed in the coming TW.
Arteta has become reasonably proficient a the first part of the seasons recently and he has a TW to address to make our assault on the top and CL cup worthwhile by winning one or both; I might warm to the cnut if he does 🙂 Still won’t like the unpalatable arsehole but if he walks the walk and talks the talk, then I’ll respect his achievements.
I’ll throw this open to LIR: who should be buy and sell in the TW?
Hi Tony
I put some stuff up on the last thread while watching footy last night.
Buying and selling… Could I add another category? That is ‘getting rid’ ie of Tets before he potentially blows it all at the business end of the season again. But seriously, I think quite a bit the strategy depends on Timber. If he’s back by, say, February I’d hesitate to make any changes in defence. Similarly if ESR and Partey come back strong I’d leave that department alone too. I’m also sceptical that we’d find a tall impact forward to snatch a headed goal from a corner in the 85th minute (although somehow recalling Giroud would be interesting). So I’m agnostic about reinforcements. Sales wise, I’d listen to offers for Eddie Unket and I’d try and offload Elneny, Soares and Kiwior. And if those slags from Chelsea or Newcastle were ready to offer serious money for Ramsdale, then do it early and replace any sales with good solid back ups for the run in.
But I won’t be sticking even more needles in my wax effigies of Tets and Edu if it’s to be a quiet window. Timber, TP and ESR back and fully firing will be tremendous.
Love the enthusiasm, KP.
Just buy the Ajax LB ffs, or one just as suitable. Timber can play RB where he should be playing.. TP will last his customary 4 to 6 games before being out for the rest of the season.
ESR has lived in the bench for 2 years. More likely he gats sold in the TW to pay for the next galaxy Brian idea.
Almunia happy festive spirit and hope all is well with the family.
I wish I could share your enthusiasm but the last 2 seasons killed any of that until Arteta has left the building.
Fucking more bullshit coming out of Old Trafford today after Villa folded like a pack of cards last night. There have already been 5 or 6 of those narratives this season along the lines of
– turning a corner
– the renaissance has started
– this is the start of something big
– sexually liberated, dope smoking disco baldy conservative ten Hag has got the team behind him now
– the players are taking responsibility and taking it seriously from now on
It’s all false dawn cack. They’re rubbish and a team of misfits who’ll lose their next game and be back to square one. It’s a gift that keeps giving.
Tony
But give more cash to this cretin and it’ll spread disharmony. We should have a more indepth debate on here one day about all of his signings and how successful they’ve been. Frankly, the idea of him with more money just frightens me. That metaphor about a monkey being left in a room with a typewriter and finally producing a bible springs to mind.
Ambarish
It’s a nice piece but you leave a huge question hanging.
“I’m pretty sure Mikel knows about this and that’s why we went and brought in Timber.”
Arteta knows Zinchenko from his days at City, he’s not a player where he’s got a few scout reports or even the question of how he’ll cope in a different league.
Why did he spend €35 million on a player who he apparently knew would need replacing after 1 season. If Timber hadn’t have gotten injured we wouldn’t have even got a single season of value out of him especially with the number of injuries.
Zinchenko will be on a couple of hundred grand a week give or take so selling him will be a major problem.
So we’re back to Arteta pissing money up the wall at an alarming rate with the solution to left back (no issue with Timber but in Holland he played on the right) ending up costing us £70 odd million plus wages.
Its just not sustainable.
Just caught up with your last post posts.
Sounds like you’re having a lot of fun at the Country ground and I could see you using the steward job as chatting around the ground with all sorts.
As with Marc’s post I was never in favour of Zinchenko or Jesus. I have relented on Jesus as a back up false nine and generally a good chaos maker in and around defenses.
Both a waste to what we really needed.
West Ham is Friday morning 3am so I’ll catch it later in the morning.
No idea about this game. Moyes maybe boring, but he’s got them playing well with a couple of dangerous players other than Bowden who could hurt us.
Being at home you’d fancy us, but…………
Good piece of writing Ambarish…that said, I’ll leave any Super League talk until something substantive occurs and the proverbial reactionary dust settles a bit
some very valid points across the board by several members of the LIR executive wing…Tony’s thoughts on MA “walking the walking” and proper squad rotation hit home with me, albeit I wouldn’t be so inclined to hammer MA on the latter point if he was far more adept when it came to properly redressing our starting 11 deficiencies…instead he continually pursues incredibly expensive half-measures, reclamation projects and/or those he intends to use in positions that are counter-intuitive, considering their respective CVs…as such, it comes as no surprise that his preferred tactics have floundered at times this year, as a blueprint clearly now exists, and that he’s failed to make any real headway when it comes to deploying a backup plan
KP-I do concur, in a some degree, with your anti-spending sentiments…for a long time now I’ve spoken about my concerns regarding our spending practices under this particular manager…not because we’re willing to do so, as that’s been a welcome change, but the fact that he’s been so bang average in this regards…minus Rice, whom anyone with a brinks truck and European football invite could have likely plucked, most of his choices have been rather suspect…just think what might have been, considering whom he inherited, if an experienced manager of some consequece was given similar backing
unfortunately, given our previous January missteps, I fear that if we don’t add some goals this winter window we might end up in the exact same predicament come season’s end…I would gladly sell the likes of Eddie, GD Havertz, ESR, Partey and Ramsdale, in order to pursue this much-needed ends…of course, I would rather keep both Partey and ESR, if healthy, which seems almost unthinkable at this juncture, but it’s clear that MA doesn’t favour either player
Marc-spot on with your comments regarding MA’s propensity to overpay for stop-gap players, especially from a wage perspective, which makes it incredibly difficult to move on from them…instead we should be targeting those with a proven record, within a similar scheme, then deploy them on their preferred side and/or position…I can’t help but think MA suffers from the same ego-based affliction that our old manager wrestled with during his post-Highbury phase, which can lead to a whole mess of shoehorning and struggles in front of goal…Cheers
Marc
I think the reason behind that was, let’s qualify for the Champions League first and Zinchenko, Jesus were capable enough for that. Coming from Man City, playing in CL and winning PL, kind of makes sense. Even Ramsdale.
Now, that we have qualified, he is trying to improve all those positions, Raya, Timber are for the two weak links there. Havertz for Xhaka for the CL experience. And we were out for a CF.
Financially, it’s not sustainable unless we start selling and making big bucks. Raya is still on loan because we need to comply to FFP. Any incomings will be difficult, the owners had opened their purse but till when? I think ESR will go, Partey too. Nelson may be. Some academy players like Patino, Marquinhos..
I will keep a track of it, don’t worry. I need many sticks to beat Arteta you know that :))
Ambarish
On face value I agree with you and the idea of bringing in players to make the next step and then improving is common sense however that’s not what we see with Arteta.
We already had Tierney at LB who’s a good player and Timber only cost a small amount more than Zinchenko, you’ve then got the issue of moving on a player on big money.
As for Raya – Is he even an improvement on Ramsdale? There’s areas he’s better in but in others he’s weaker.
All in all if Raya is an improvement its by such a tiny margin as to be too fine to separate them. You’ve then got the stories about Ramsdale being made promises in the summer to get him to sign a new deal only for him to be dropped – things like that get round a squad and can make future contract negotiations more complicated.
If it was a couple of isolated incidents you can look past it but it the truth is how many of Arteta’s signings are untouchable for any length of time?
I can only think of Ode and Rice – there were rumours that Gabriel was going to be sold in the summer.
“I will keep a track of it, don’t worry. I need many sticks to beat Arteta you know that :))”
It’s why we support you and LIR, Ambarish. You’re fresh goonership approach with balance keeps us grizzlies from being too grizzled.
I think I speak for all here, Ambarish.
Another clean sheet tonight. 2-nil. Jesus and a screamer from Declan.
Rather adventurous starting Alpha-tross in midfield instead of the suspended Havertz. I was expecting to see Jorginho.
as we embark on the second half of the season one only has to look at some of our first half stats to understand just how fortunate we are to be in 2nd place…right now our top scorer is Eddie with 5(tied with Saka), followed by Havertz with 4…so our lackluster backup Striker, who scored 3 of his 5 in one match, leads the team and our sour-faced, vastly overpaid German passenger has scored the 3rd most goals…if that doesn’t tell you how pedestrian our tactical schematics have been thus far this season, nothing will…to further highlight our offensive deficiencies, Ode has all but 3 assists, which equals the total he had in the first month and change of play last season…so here’s hoping we can find a plausible remedy once the window opens
KP-I’m hopeful that the starting of Tross might help Marts, who’s been largely left to his own devices with Zinchenko typically tucked inside and Havertz being Havertz…of course, he’s missed some chances that he potted last season, but to constantly be facing double-teams with little to no help, surely can’t be easy
too often this year we’ve dominated possession in the opponent’s final third with nothing to show for it, then had to witness the opposing team score, against the run of play, with their first real opportunity…that was some old school keystone cops type of shit
our current tactical approach is completely counterintuitive when it comes to our most talented players…in fact, it actually caters to our weakest links, which was likewise the case in previous years when Xhaka was a central figure…unfortunately MA opted for a shot in the dark option instead of doing his due diligence and getting a readymade positional upgrade for Xhaka
as it stands, our gameplan relies too heavily on our defenders and DMs to be on the ball, yet none of them are able to or actually allowed to stretch the field or push the play…how ironic considering several of those very players were sold to us with that particular ends in mind
to make matters worse, when we get into the final third, we rarely provide the necessary cover/protection for those we need to get the most from, so as to maximize our potential, and we don’t have a marksmen in the entire lot
as we’ve all learned from our past failures, it’s difficult to win anything of consequence when you rely far too much on passing the ball into the net…every other team in the top 5 has someone in double digits, minus Villa, who has Watkins with 9
My point is, if you can no longer see any part of the ball in play, then where the fuck is it?
It’s out of play of course! Clearer than the Newcastle one for me. Nuts.
KP-just not sure why the goal-line technology doesn’t extend all the way along the end-line…this happens fairly often in the NFL, where if nothing definitve/conclusive is found during the review process, the call on the field stands…let’s face it though, it was amateur hour defending
of even bigger concern, it appears as if MA doesn’t even realize there’s a left side on this fucking pitch
KP-your Rice prediction almost came true
ghosts of Christmas past
I’ve always been a fan of Mavro’s, especially when he seemed like we might shift to a 3-back system…it will be interesting to see how we try and find our way back from a 2 goal deficit, especially with our goal-scoring issues(we’re the lowest scoring team in the top 5)
when it seemed
looks like Nelson and Eddie are readying themselves…does that mean Jesus and Marts or Marts and Tross are going off?
maybe a 3-5-2 or 3-1-4-2
Honestly couldn’t be bothered with going to such a late kick off with all the rail issues and piss poor weather so sold my ticket a couple of weeks ago. I’m not watching the match but I feel sorry for the poor fucker who paid bets part of £60 to turn up tonight.
At least I have the excuse of once you’ve got a season ticket you sort of have to go to most matches.
The excuses from the fan boys is going to hit hysterical turned up to 11 soon – City having an off season and no one else looking too great and still Arteta will fuck it up.
cheeky comment by the commentator after Jesus missed another high quality chance
“Toney’s transfer value is going up with each passing minute” I might be paraphrasing a tad
Marc-if we don’t do anything in the window, this could be the functional equivalent of the year when Wenger only brought in Cech and LC took home the silverware
if only the net were 8 feet wider and 6 feet taller we would be the champions of the footballing world, especially considering the amount of touches we get inside the opposition’s box on most mights
actually I take my previous post back, as we would likely still hit the Keeper square in the chest with 90% of our shots