We have been on a great run this year. I have never seen such a winning streak with score lines ending like it used to do in my college days playing FIFA all night. Crystal Palace 5-0, Liverpool 3-1, West Ham away 6-0, Burnley away 5-0, Newcastle 4-1 and Sheffield United away 6-0. Add 4 clean sheets to this to make it even better. We have this habit of downplaying our own achievements and to give extra credit when someone else does it. Credit where it’s due, Mikel and that Dubai trip has somehow motivated the team to score, and score a lot. It doesn’t take away the fact that we need a CF but at least it’s not costing us as of now.
The title race is ON
It’s getting tough at the top. The gods are giving Klopp and Liverpool some luck since he announced his departure, Pep and City are world champions and they intend to keep it that way, and Mikel and team are trying to prove the last season’s fall is not a pattern.
If you don’t put much effort in calculating all the permutations and combinations like me lazy arse, there are 11 games and whoever wins the most of it will walk away with title. The two most important games of this season will be played in this month
Liverpool v Man City – March 10th
Man City v Arsenal – March 31st
Man City has twice the probability to go behind, and whoever beats Pep will have a better chance of winning. Rest of the games are almost against similar opponents for all three teams.
Our mantra would be, win the winnable ones and give it all on 31st March. Mikel has to beat Pep, to win… – the beauty of football but only if, he does it.
Arsenal v Brentford – Match Day
We are playing Brentford tomorrow. We always have suffered against them and it’s going to be a physical, counter attacking game from them. Mikel knows this and acknowledged it in the pre-match conference.
Every point that we left, or we left this season hurts, and that’s still there. We have a lot to play for, the difficulty of the match is always really tough. We’ve played them twice already and we suffered, we always suffer against Brentford. On Saturday I expect a really similar match.
source: Arsenal.com
Well, we expect a different result though. Nothing less than a WIN because when anyone of the City or Pool loses, we need to go to the second place. We can go top if it’s a draw.
In the team news, almost everyone’s fit and available. It’s good to see Partey back because inclusion of Jorginho has allowed Declan to play in an advance position and Thomas can do a better job than Jorginho. Saka and Martinelli took a very small injury in the last game but will most likely be available for the game. Tomiyasu remains a doubt, Fabio got back in the playing XI against Sheffield and our academy product in Emile, Nelson and Eddie are fit as well.
Expectation? A win. You don’t win titles just by beating the top 6. You need to remain consistence against all 19 you play and we have seen last season how much it can cost. I hope the players see a trophy in front of them and they keep playing like they have been in last couple of months. It’s just a matter of 11 weeks and your name would be in history.
Winning against two of the best managers in the world is going to make it even sweeter. It’s in our hand.
Right, that’s all for today. Almost weekend now, and hope it’s get better tomorrow with a win and both the City and Liverpool dropping points.
Brentford are swimming in it now, but we need to make more of our chances so as to snuff out some of their lingering hope before any adjustments can be made at half
I think we know now why Ramsdale is not getting chances. He has all the chances in the world and he still messed up 1-0 lead.
Shittttt
But to be fair to Ramsdale that ball should not have been passed back
Hoopah-can’t even imagine how Jesus feels knowing that such a bag of toys has replaced him on the pitch…talk about deflating
maybe Ramsdale’s rusty…although that seems almost unthinkable considering MA’s love of rotating Keepers at times
Arunnar Ramunarsson.
It’s not like MA has picked him unless he had no choice in the matter, which must be tough on a cold backup…both Raya and Ramsdale have that sort of brain fart in them, but the former hasn’t had to pay quite so dearly for such mistakes
Raya cannot play , being still a Brentford player on lian to Arsenay.
But yesterday El B gave his sound bytes likely to wind up Ramsdale
3 back passes with seconds left in the half and the ball ends up with der koncentrationmeister himself.
Anger would depend on how it ends. Ramsdale would be praying we score couple more because at this stage, you can’t afford a fuck up as a player.
And yes, I can’t understand this infatuations with the back passes when hardly 30sec left on the clock. Old habit die hard may be!
you can’t expect a Keeper to be at his best when he hardly ever sees the pitch, which certainly doesn’t excuse Ramsdale for his cock-up…if Raya had been in net for that Toney attempt from distance, it would have likely gone in
Game has reverted to type. No direction, no plan
Enjoy the process
Havertz should have been booked for his horrible flop in the box…not sure why Havertz has remained on when Jesus entered the fray…just par for the Arteta course…maybe he will fall backwards on a set piece and the ball will accidentally careen in off his head
this better not be an indication of what’s to come in our return home match against Porto or we might have only one thing to play for this season
some moves that might be deemed more positive, with Nelson and Zinchenko coming on, but I’m baffled that he didn’t take off Havertz for ESR now that we have some more speed out wide, as that should open up the middle of the pitch a bit
when’s the supposed top-notch passing version of White going to finally show up, as that was all the rage when we paid through the nose for his services…he’s performed admirably in recent times, but not to the level worthy of our initial investment
If we win this, I will eat the humble pie served by Havertz!
how ironic that after my previous comments White would pass to Havertz for our much-needed 2nd goal…my bad on this day…that said, even a broken clock is right two times a day
time to take this home then see where we stand following the Pool/City fixture
we need to curtail all this whining to the ref shit…I wonder where they learned that from
if we come out on top today, which looks increasingly likely, I’ll take far more positives out of this much more resilient performance than any of those cake walk fixtures…not to mention, it’s the first time we actually got something out of our summertime purchase from Chelsea
good hard-worked victory, one befitting of a title challenger
Arsenal 2 Ramsdale 1
Brentford – what a bunch of cunts.
Arteta doing a hulla hulla on the pitch.
Another Salt Bae level behaviour
we need to curtail all this whining to the ref shit…I wonder where they learned that from
Vieira – from Brentford in thus game at least.
Players and Frank wishing Ramsdale profusely tell a story.
It will play out if at all the wheels come off
…you reddsss!!! Say, we are top of the league, say we are top of league.
Brentford surprised me, they made it hard, that was expected, but the shithousing came as a surprise. I don’t know if I’d missed it before or that’s just how they are now.
Toney, he’s not bad but not worth splurging North of £80m just to disrupt our play. I wouldn’t say no, he’s decent and didn’t have a bad game, but given scoring goals isn’t in question, an overpriced striker isn’t the answer. I’m happier with the way more pressing needs were address in the last couple of windows and it seems be bearing fruit.
If a guarantee 25 a year striker comes available then take him, I think there’s only 5 or so sure shots and it doesn’t look we’re in a position to buy them now. Unless we sell. I’d like us to have a bash with Biereth next season, he’s done well this season. But that may be a reason to flog him while his stock is high a la Balogun.
We’re not going to blow everyone away 6-0 so we have to find ways to win the tighter games. We spent the first half of the season trying to work that out and it will stand us in good stead this run in.
Bookies still have City at close to even to win the prem. Clowns.
Tomorrow, if it can’t be a draw then City win, that way we still have some control over our fate. Beat them at home.
Enjoy the run in.
Aitcho
I agree about Toney. Vastly overrated in a mediocre team. Wissa would suit Arsenal’s current style of play much more. If Toney was an Arsenal player, I doubt too that he would have been much use today. If we want something different and more muscular when chasing a game, he’d be worth a punt (scuse the pun) at a figure significantly less than we’d be able to sell Eddie Unket. Given Toney’s age, and his limitations, I would bid much more than 25 million for a player like that. Brentford are sniffing glue with a valuation like that.
It sounded like a tense but ultimately raucous night. Grimsdale redeemed himself but that howler took me back to the days if Eboue, Senderos and Almunia combining to fuck things up.
Agreed…Toney isn’t the answer to our questions…if he had half the valuation, I would take a flyer on him for the short-term, but certainly not at the suggested price…if we could find a suitor for both Jesus and Eddie, as there’s no way Havertz is going anywhere, we could go all in on Osimhen…otherwise we would have to hope that an up-and-comer, like Zirkzee, could find their way in the PL from the hop…I would much rather we went the readymade way, but the half-measure option seems the more likely