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.
“The 2023-24 Premier League campaign has reached the half way stage, showing exactly who is punching above their weight and which teams have regressed based on their performances from last season. And according to analysis from Opta, the biggest underperformers are Arsenal and Fulham, who both have ten fewer points than the same stage of last season on -10”
just read an article containing the above information, which speaks directly to many of our concerns about the current season…of course they likewise spoke about United and Newcastle’s struggles, but even these two underwhelming squads haven’t regressed to the same level as the red and white
as to the most plausible explanation for our present woes, that can be directly traced back to 2 key managerial failures, (1) not getting the window right, even though he was gifted by far the largest transfer kitty in club history, and (2) MA’s glaring lack of tactical nous…even if you take Timber’s fees and wages out of the equation, as he’s hardly touched the pitch this season, MA invested well over 190M, fees and wages combined, and yet we’ve significantly regressed, especially in the final third, which btw was the area of the pitch that many on LIR were most worried about entering the summer window
now I certainly wasn’t opposed to the Rice acquisition, so long as we got things right up top, especially when it came to finding a Xhaka upgrade, but once again MA/Edu went off the fucking board…so instead of adding a readymade cog or two, the powers that be missed the mark badly by opting for a reclamation project who didn’t fit the script
now that wouldn’t have been the end of the world if we had plucked him from the bargain bin, as that would have left us with something in reserve, but instead these half-wits not pnly paid well-above the number, from a fees perspective, they likewise made him one of the highest paid players in the PL…so anyone who even tries to suggest that players are clammering to jump on the MA “process” train, should ask themselves why did we need to provide someone who failed miserably at Chelsea with a massive raise
so I’m not quite sure what will happen in the upcoming window, even though there’s been plenty of chatter involving the likes of Toney, Osimhen, Martinez, Boniface and even Mbappe, which all seem like a bridge too far unless a substantial piece or two are sold off, but the very fact that all the names being bandied about play up top speaks volumes about what should have been done when we were flush with cash…I guess only time will tell if our not-so-dynamic duo will rectify the situation, but I’d be lying if I said that I was very confident in the possibility of this self-inflicted clusterfuck having a happy ending
on a more humorous, albeit delusional, sidenote, MA actually suggested to reporters that we must be doing something right, as we were at the top of the standings, which makes one wonder if his “yes” man minions are providing him with strategically altered info simply to appease his fragile ego
“according to analysis from Opta, the biggest underperformers are Arsenal and Fulham, who both have ten fewer points than the same stage of last season on -10”
Now you can never take a half way point as pure gospel because of fixture differences etc but when you bear in mind how poorly we’ve been playing pretty much all season and that we finished 17 points off 5th with an improved Liverpool and Spuddies, Emery going great guns at Villa then top 4 is now seriously in the balance.
I think it’s top 5 this season for CL births, Marc, but your point remains valid, all the same. I never saw us being in the top 4 at the season’s start. Why? Because of our left side recruitment including a RB to play LB rather than his preferred position.
TRVL, I think, but not overly sure, we can’t buy any of the people we should be looking at because of FFP, which makes Havertz, Zinchenko and Jorginho purchases all the more poorly thought through, and yet Arteta refuses to give ESR starts and would rather him sold like Emi before cheap just to get money.
We can’t find a suitable 8, but sold Willock to the Bar Codes who has clearly improved under Howe.
I agree that Raya isn’t an upgrade on Ramsdale when you consider all required skills for us.
Neither is Ramsdale, but Emi was, and still is; look at Villa. They’d be shipping more goals without Emi.
Last season we scrapped our way to the top then started playing half decent football to stay there, and rode our luck far too often, but dug out the results.
Let’s be brutally honest here, lesser PL managers are out thinking Arteta and his motley back bench crew tactically and selection wise and with solid in-game management, which can only continue if Arteta remains with his predictability. When you see a manager at odds with himself because he believed he couldn’t be beaten with his tactical nous, all too often is, then you know our dreams are not going to be realized this season or while MA is in the job.
4+ years now……………
I had a quick look in LG last night and was not surprised to see Pedro with all his Peddibot monikers talking to each other to try to impose his sad life on others to keep Arteta’s flag flying, which will likely be at half mast come May.
KP
Hope you’re ripping it up with County. Have you thought of making up yellow and red cards to wave to keep the ruffian quarter in line?
Away derby game against Fulham and really a must win game for us. If we start sliding now, we may never make it to the CL next season and be back to Europa or Conference.
Win comfortably and we might keep on hanging in there.
I got no idea, so I’ll wait for Ambarish to light us up again.
As for today’s games I can’t see Villa or City dropping points at home, can anyone here?
Have a good one.
Tony
I’d forgotten about the 5th place – it might be enough to save Arteta’s bacon. Remember how far we were out in front last season and still fucked it up?
Well its a lot tighter this season – City might continue to stumble but they’ll still match us and Liverpool look like they’ve gotten the bit between their teeth.
I haven’t been on Le Bullshit for ages – how many comments were all about the out of play ball?
I only ask because those people need to remember that Liverpool are in front of us in the queue on “VAR should have done X” regarding the pen that wasn’t given against Ode last week.
Marc
It was hilarious. Obviously, Pedro only trolls when he can’t get his pedrobots interactions to work. It’s a good bit of comedy gold from time to time. Just think if Emery finished above Arteta for only being back 5 minutes.
I’m expecting Pedro to go full on PTSD when Arteta is finally unceremoniously fired.
I agree with you and see this as an uneven season for the top 6 to carry on throughout the season.
Pool or City first and second would be my best bet in any order. 5th was my original shout and I think 5/6 is where we’ll end up unless there is some spectacular signings for LB and CF.
Tony
There are a few rumblings beginning to surface in the ground (and that doesn’t include West Ham as I wasn’t there) its just general frustration with the slow pace of play, negative predictable tactics and lack of anything being done to change what’s being washed, rinsed and repeated for pretty much every match.
Villa conceded to go 1 all a couple of minutes ago – they’ve just scored a second just go back into the lead a couple of minutes before half time. The fan boys need to remember that it was Emery who have Saka and Martinelli their debuts!
Cant’ see anything beyond what you say on first and second – after that its going to be tight.
Ultimately Arteta’s been backed financially beyond anything I expected, he’s been given plenty of time and inherited some top young players – there is no reasonable excuse for the fanboys to make when he is sacked (assuming he doesn’t decide to jump ship for another job rather than take the ego hit) but that won’t stop Pedro from making them.
I reckon autumn of next season.
Marc-in regards to the negative tactics, even Burnley have been more direct than we were against Villa and they’re down to 10 men…as I’ve said on a multitude of occasions, we need to target readymade seminal players who can succeed in spite of the rather static tactics being deployed…unfortunately, I very much doubt our fragile manager would bring in someone who might usurp his monopolistic control of the locker room…it’s like latter days Wenger 2.0
just to highlight our anemic output, we had 77 touches in the Hammer’s box(that’s what she said), which is the most ever, on record, for a PL team that failed to score a goal
TRVL
Arteta loves setting records that no one wants.
Why some fans are so forgiving is beyond me? Everyone has their odd quirks on things, players who most love don’t tick the boxes for them etc but Arteta is just a poor manager who’s ability to talk a good game should be transparent even to the most gullible of fans after a fortune spent and into his 4th full season.
I won’t be able to watch the match in real time, so here’s hoping that the “sleepy” Fulham shows up and we’re able to put our goal-scoring woes behind us, at least for one day…regardless of the outcome, it’s beyond obvious that we need some reinforcements sooner than later…no bargain basement half-measures need apply…Cheers
Three hours to kick off anyone got any ideas? Pumpkin has come and gone back today so number one daughter is going to do the stroking.
A win is the only result we can accept with the 3 points
I’m not confident of the points where Villa and City have made sure of theirs. Can’t see Pool losing at home to the Bar Codes.
If we drop the 3 points we stay 4th and if Spuds beat B’mouth at their Toilet Bowl, they will be only one point adrift of us and a few goals less.
Good to hear, Marc, the wise are wising up. Once Mikel loses the stadium fans it’s only a matter of a short duration before he’s pushed or walks.
Anyway, looking forward to the game and see you there, KP, if you’re watching. TRVL I’ll drop a few clues to the actual play during the game.
Will ESR make today His day? I really hope so and most likely why we will win if he plays.
I’ve had enough of Zinchenko being the opponents MOTM/best player every game. 🙂
Arteta will go all in today for a win. He has to dropped points today will mean 4 of out last 6 in the PL will be draws / losses with Liverpool in the Cup next week we could go from top of the table at Christmas to 5 points off the lead and out of the FA Cup by the first week of Jan.
Eddie Unket starting instead of Jesus and Kiwior starting presumably at LB. Errr right…
Stronger bench though than against the Hammers.
A big factor today will be if F-F-F Fulham try to low block. They’re at home so maybe not (which will suit us).
I’ll go with your positivity as it’s New Years Eve, KP.
All good in your neck of the woods, KP?
That Fulham manager is a doppelganger of sorts for Arteta – cold, prissy, miserable, of limited ability and a stroppy control freak.
Hi Tony
Yeah mate, pretty good thanks. You?
I drove through pouring rain to watch county get a lucky away draw up in Aberystwyth yesterday. The team was a little off song and really needed to win to get into the top half mini league that happens here. Junior and I had a good day out however and met some mates up there. Not doing much tonight – wish I was up in your original neck of the woods getting some proper hogmanay action. How do you see this one going? I’m a little nervous – if they score first, I think it’ll be trouble.
Who’s that svelte Brazilian guy playing for Fulham with the hair bear bunch haircut? Looks like a proper footballer.
Willian – another bit of bullshit business!
Oh, and can we have Bernie back?