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.
Subs?
We’re 15 minutes into the second half – the Tomi change hasn’t made any real difference, we still look blunt going forward so when will shit for brains make changes?
My guess is 70 odd minutes – its like watching latter day Wenger without the decent football.
Still no ESR.
You guys haven’t commented on the second Fulham goal ?
Is 2-1 now off a scrappy corner set piece
Everyone will be ventilating about who to buy ” to complete the squad ”
Does it not occur to the Kroenkes after such arguments for last 4 years it is cheaper to just out Fraudeta?
A worrying stat is we have only conceded 6 fouls and we’re losing.
Can always count on wisdom from you Hoopah. 🙂
Finishing 5 is looking 👀 tricky at the moment.
We’re like old men
Son on Song spuds winning 2:1
Pereira for Iwobi. !
Fulham going more aggressive
Williams is playing old Chelsea level.
Maybe better to prove a point since he could not speak in terms of Contract cancellation at Arsenal.
Fulham USP today is going at the ball at all times. This is a spanner in the works of a ponderous moves STRICTLY as dictated by dictator
Hoopah
I’m not sure they’ll be much money to spend in Jan – we had to loan Raya to stay within FFP rules I can’t see that much has changed on that front since the end of August.
Tony – ESR will be sold sorry mate but if Arteta rated him he’d get minutes at some point. I think we’ll also see Partey sold if there’s an offer.
Begs the question of why Arteta couldn’t get a tune out of Willian but at Fulham his the band master albeit for 60 minutes these days.
He’s
Another Arteta casualty I’m afraid, Marc.
Are we having our run in crisis early this season?
Tony
For those 60 minutes Williams played with a ferocious intensity. Marcus da Silva has been intelligent to substitute. That Fulham did such a large scale substitutions without drop ,shows they actually tried out both combinations during training.
5 minutes to nick a point and we give them a free kick just outside our D
Not one sub has had any impact where it’s the opposite for Fulham
Saka needs resting just off his game.
If someone who wasn’t familiar with English teams or the players on the pitch watched this after being told one team has a squad worth over a billion £ and the other has been at risk of being pulled into a relegation battle they’d get the teams the wrong way round.
The real crime of it all is this isn’t a one off.
Same as Martinelli.
Fulham seems to be purposely holding back from another goal. Raul jiminez wouldn’t normally let go of those 2 chances
What’s going on ?
Last chance saloon for a point
Game over bar the shouting
So we lose to Aston Villa, then West Ham beat us 2-0 at Emirates and now this Fulham game. It isn’t a Merry Christmas for Mikel’s side.
There is still half the season left, but comes May and if Arteta hasn’t won anything, I’m afraid he needs to go. You can have a bad game but not a bad month with that squad, having spent billion pounds with 2 first team players in each positions.
Something tells me Saka is feeling enough is enough seeing old mate ESR humiliated with bullshit arguments about injury ,etc.
Same way Auba used to play supporting the youngsters.
Know when they were both cutting it 2 years back ESR was respected as the superior player. Is a fact ESR had a groin surgery which was successful. Therafter we just been getting Arteta soundbytes to substantiate his argument of ESR who openly acknowledged Ozil and Auba is not good enough
Completely deserved for Fulham they were by far the better team and only a complete cunt would make excuses for Arsenal.
So I’m expecting Arteta to blame:
The weather
Fixture congestion over Christmas
Having to play on grass
Not being given enough money to spend
Its not fair for the opposition to be allowed 11 players on the pitch
He was given a Croissant for breakfast and he really wanted Shreddies.
Ambarish
We’ve got Liverpool in the Cup next Sunday.
Marc
The croissant was so fine and crumbly it got digested and there was nothing in Arteta tummy like in his noggin.
Convincing argument
If the Kroenkes each have backbones and just a shred of intelligence, they’d kick Tets, Edu and all the coaching staff out tonight. Find a caretaker manager til the end of the season with some proven talent and start again with the aim of going as far as possible in the CL and FA Cup. Completely change the way we play allowing the players to create (we looked like rusty automatons out there). We are not winning the title again this year. So concentrate on the cups.
Arteta is a cunt and an enemy within. Sack him now just for being responsible for serving that up. Fucking useless prick of a manager.