Aaron Ramsdale. Got a chance because Raya couldn’t play against his parent club as he is still on loan.
In the 16th minute, Brentford earned a corner which Aaron saved comfortably. He then, took a brilliant throw to set up Leandro Trossard which he should have scored. It was basically a 1v1 but LT took a bad touch and then took too long to recover from that. In just 2 minutes from that, Declan Rice scored off an excellent cross from Ben White. 1-0 to the Arsenal, it seemed like a night for us.
But nope, as we do, we missed some chances after that. In the 24th minute, you would expect Odegaard to take that shot, he missed it and his bad touch didn’t allow the shooting space for Havertz. Again, in the 35th minute, Declan Rice pass through the lines to Havertz, leaving him ahead of the Brentford defenders. Havertz did a Henryesque flick but it missed by few inches. It was a great pass, and could have been the goal of the month.
4 minutes into the extra time, Ramsdale had a brain fog, got the ball from Gabriel and without much pressure, somehow managed to fuck it up. There were options available but he decided to not take that, costing us the goal. 1-1 at half time, we all were sulking.
There were few more attempts. 10 minutes into the 2nd half, Ramsdale was off his line but managed to do a brilliant save to deny a great shot from Toney from 40 yards. There was another brilliant close range stop from him in the 71st minute. I think it was the best of the lot, 9 out of 10 Goal Keepers in the Premier League would not have saved that.
Fortune favors the brave, Ben White crossed again and Havertz made sure it landed in the nets. 2-1 to the Arsenal, Ramsdale was relieved and so does the fans as we reclaimed the top spot even if its meant for a day (Liverpool v City will decide that).
There are 2 things to take from this game. 1st, an upgrade to Ramsdale was required. It’s too early to say Raya is that answer but he has got that errors in him and errors from goalkeepers cost you games. We were lucky last night to recover from that.
2nd, the players involved in both goals were Ben White (2 assists), Declan Rice (1 Goal), Kai Havertz (1 crucial winning goal). I have said earlier that we paid a lot for Ben White, he didn’t let me feel that. I thought Declan Rice on 105 million was too much money, but it doesn’t seem like that. I thought we overpaid for Kai and paying him huge money in wages, and I still do, but at least he is winning game for us so that’s a humble pie in making. I will eat that at the end of the season depending on his performance for the rest of the season.
Some of the gambles Mikel has taken has paid off. No denying in that. 10 more games, and we can judge if Mikel himself lies in the Ramsdale category – good enough to get into the mix but not good enough to win things.
Over to you.
City 1-0 up, now Ederson going down injured and Pool earning a penalty? Sounds good to me.
Lets just blow the whistle and go home.
Ambarish
Its absolutely frenetic both teams playing at 100mph but making mistakes with it. Can’t see this finishing 1-1 – Liverpool still have Salah on the bench.
Diaz could have had a hat trick.
If it stays at the current score it will certainly be tight at the top. It will certainly make the City game on the 31st even more interesting.
Havertz on the score sheet this week is one better than Haaland. Haaland earns marginally more than Havertz.
Who would we prefer in out team?
Always interesting to hear ramblings from another part of the world Tony – I can remember a few critics you had on LG – they probably had one dimensional lives.
If it was against Arsenal, Diaz would have scored that hattrick. A prick.
A draw suits us the best though.
Definitely a point won for City and 2 dropped for Liverpool after that.
Weird and rare sensation watching a game as a neutral and wanting there to be a draw.
It’s been a rather good weekend factoring in the Cardiff win.
Hi Tony
I was thinking of dropping you a line to find out how you are. I enjoyed reading that.
I needn’t have even thought about it, knowing you’d be doing a million different things all at the same time at 150 fucking miles an hour! What’s your secret mate?
Thai driving as you allude is not for the faint hearted, but the scariest places for me behind the wheel were Iran, India (sorry Ambarish and Hoopah for being undiplomatic!) and either Mexico or Argentina. Sounds like you’ve had a pretty full-on weekend which is the spice of life.
KP
Point and go – and of course muttering ‘ coming out ‘ as you pull in the front of an angry driver. I have not driven in the far flung places you mentioned but Naples provided the best fun and quite a few angry Italians taking their anger out on the cars hooter.
A good result today for the good guys. Pep will probably be the most disappointed of the three managers. There are still 11 games to go but I expect he will not feel as confident as last year when we crumbled.
I think next year will be harder still.
NORG
Only 10 games now….
AK
Believe it or not Maths was my best subject – I was a year ahead of the rest of the class. But that was a long time ago – technology makes us lazy – but capable of acquiring so much more.
today’s affair simply reinforced my belief that the door is open, as these two teams are still flawed, so maybe just maybe we can slip one passed the guards whilst everyone is fawning over the more obvious options…I still believe that of the 3 most worthy contenders we’re still the biggest long shot, but our odds are better today than at anytime prior, as we’ve seemingly never been healthier and somehow, someway we’re finding a way to score in bunches more often than not…if these aren’t the signs of great things unexpected to come, they just might be the 7th sign of the apocalypse, as I can’t quite remember when these particular things were last so perfectly aligned
as I see it, even though we’re more flawed than the best City side and we certainly don’t have the motivational push that invariably comes when one of the greatest managers alive preemptively announces his departure at season’s end, we do have a couple things in our favor…firstly, Pep hasn’t the wide-side forwards, with the requisite end product, he’s normally accustomed to, so if the opposition can find a way to bottle up Haaland, or at least limit his service, they can be beaten by those who dare to be brave in attack…secondly, Klopp has been hampered by a litany of injuries this season, which means he’s had to rely on a whole host of players who might have never seen the pitch otherwise, except on the rarest of Cup occasions…now in the main, these periphery pieces have risen to the occasion, but that’s certainly not a given should their services be required when the stakes are invariably raised
surely our team that has played together for the vast majority of the season can equal the performances of a City side far too reliant on one player for goals or better a largely unsettled and oft-times inexperienced Pool side…if that were to happen, we might not only reshape our future prospects, but we would likewise make amends for our most recent late season cock-ups, which would inevitably enable some to spin these tragic happenings into a redemptive tale of epic proportions…normally I would despise such a contrivancy, but if we could find a way win it all, at home and/or abroad, any such feelings would be greatly overshadowed by my genuine sense of happiness
better than a
there’s seemingly no end to the praise being heaped upon our club following the results of the weekend…some of it’s justified, as our recent League form, combined with our late-game heroics against Brentford, are both noteworthy feats…not only did they catapult us into first, albeit by the slimmest pf margins, it was the kind of win that are typically needed if a title run is in the cards…now it wasn’t quite as dramatic as Pool’s win a week prior, but potentially just as important…I guess only time will tell
on the other hand, some of it’s just pure rubbish…in fact it reminded me of what was being peddled by a whole host of paid hacks in years past, when Arteta’s PR campaign was in full throttle mode…one writer even went so far as to suggest that maybe losing to Porto would be the batter option, so we could focus our efforts on the PL title…this is the sort of preemptive strike baked-in excuse nonsense I detest, especially in a year where there’s no “super” teams in this year’s draw…this might actually be our best chance to win considering that Real appear to be going into full-bown juggernaut-buildng mode again this off-season
simply-put there’s no excuse for us to be eliminated by the likes of Porto, so we better put all our eggs into our CL basket until the fat lady sings…I personally think we’ll win our home leg tomorrow, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was 2-1 at the end of regulation and extra time was required…can you imagine what some will be thinking if Ramsdale, who’s our much better shot-stopping Keeper, is on the bench and the match goes to penalties…just to keep it real, both our Keeper’s have a pretty poor record when it comes to stopping penalties, so it might be a moot point, but there’s no doubt in my mind that the cameras will find Ramsdale if things don’t go our way
here’s hoping that we wipe the floor with them and move confidently into the next round!!!
Ramsdale, to my mind, is a level-6 arse. He acts like a goalkeeper rather than actually being one. Winding up opposition fans because he’s been wound up by them, making stupid faces when the camera is on him, and constantly watching what is going on on the big screens rather than the actual game. Alternatively, Nostrildamus, to his credit, appears to do none of that, seeking instead to show as little emotion as possible. I’d say most good goal keepers tend also to exhibit calmness and control. Ramsdale should have learnt by now that this is an important skill.
I remember watching that episode of all or nothing when his buffoon of a father was front and centre. It’s clear to see where Ramsdale’s clowning came from but he really should have learned to rein it in. Our GK coach is partly to blame (as he is for many other recent fiascos).
Rather than the bi-polar keeping display we saw on Saturday, we’d have all much preferred the rarest of things – a game in which Ramsdale sought not to be the centre of attention. Without the clearance fuck-up, we’d have gone on to dominate the game and the Bees’ second half chances would not have arisen. He needs to be sold before his value is completely trashed like many others before him).
KP – Ramsdale should never have been bought in the first place. The price we paid is bordering on the criminal.
I fully agree. We bought Ramsdale for much more than we sold arguably the best GK in the world (Martinez is another, different, type of knob of the highest order of course but one who still does the business between the sticks).
Any thoughts on Porto? If we stick to our PL style of high energy, pressing play then we ought to have enough. But if laughing boy and the lads over think things and imagine they have to play differently from, say, the way we dismantled Liverpool, then it could be a long evening.
Unfortunately the later may be the way El B instructs the team to play. El B is aware that Porto like to counter attack but our forwards should be dominant over their defenders so for me out and out attack.
Old red nose chose the defensive option many moons ago and came horribly unstuck.
KP-that’s what I meant about the cameras finding him, as they know full-well he will gladly supply them with the type of reaction that will generate the most buzz…I certainly wasn’t suggesting that we should start Ramsdale or have him replace Raya should it go to penalties
I likewise agree with the above sentiments regarding the ridiculous fee we paid for Ramsdale, especially knowing that MA wanted to play out from the back…this tactical flip-flop had already cost us a tidy sum when it came to Leno, as his MV dropped below the Mendoza Line following his year long benching, so why would we overspend on a half-measure alternative…far too often we’ve settled for expensive options that didn’t fit the script and/or were clearly a “rental” option, which left us in a worse financial position when they invariably needed to be replaced
as for Arteta’s assessment of Mart’s injury, minor cut my ass!!!
Match day post is live…though a very short one 🙂