I should just wrap up the article, this headline is enough.
We are going into the world cup break with a 5-point lead over Manchester City. We managed to win 2-0 against Wolves while City lost against Brentford. It wasn’t easy against the organized Wolves defence and they had their own chances in the first half but couple of goals from Martin Odegaard in the second half made sure that we weren’t dropping any points.
First half was full of mistakes and some hard luck for us. Gabriel Jesus’s goal was ruled offside but what a magnificent first touch he had, and what a goal it was. William Saliba was having a bad day at work, with a sloppy back pass when Gabriel came to the rescue. Xhaka was substituted because he had a bad stomach in 15th minute and that meant we switched to a Partey + Vieira instead of our usual. I am still not sure where Vieira plays, is he a competition to Odegaard or can he play on the wings? Sambi would have been the usual choice to partner Partey in Xhaka’s absence but Vieira didn’t disappoint and earned an assist lately.
Jesus had another one of those shots hitting the woodwork, which would land in the nets most of the time. He is going through a goal drought. He has been brilliant for us and he brings a different positioning play for us. You could see him moving to the wings when Martinelli or Saka move towards the centre. Martinelli specially loves to do it, to put himself in a scoring situation and Jesus provides an overlap to Zinchenko at the left wing. And mind you, this all happens without drop in the quality of our play. Brilliant, innit?
The other day I was having a chat with one of my City mates who was eager to prove Phil Foden is better than Saka. Well, he is not. I agree Saka lacks the cutting edge finishing which Foden has (his goal against Brentford was superb) but if you are telling me Foden is better than Saka because he has scored 7 goals to his 4, I would point out Saka has a better assist numbers (6 to 3 of Foden). I would also point out that Saka brings much more to the play at Arsenal than what Phil does at City.
So where are we after 14 games? Top of the table and it’s lonely here!
A 5 points lead after more than 1/3rd of the season is over is not a fluke. Brentford was an easy game for us but City lost against them. We have beaten Liverpool and Chelsea.
We play West Ham (H), Brighton (A), New Castle (H) before going into the North London Derby on 14th Jan at Shite Hart Lane. Four crucial games, West Ham because players will be World Cup fatigued, Brighton is always a tough game, New Castle are playing some superb football and are sitting ahead of Liverpool, Chelsea, Man United and Spu*s.
But all of them are winnable! A true test to Mikel’s side because we are leading and keeping a lead is always tougher than chasing.
Irrespective of how rest of the season pans out, these 14 games have given us a hope. A hope that we are competitive at the top level. I have been critical of Mikel Arteta and he did take a lot of time while learning on the job, but the results looks brilliant now.
We have a young team, playing some nice football, who believes in themselves and winning against the top 6 home and away. Fans are louder than ever, players celebrate a goal like it matters, no one’s bi*ching and dropping a Ozil-esque performance and we, the fans, and players believe Arsenal can achieve something great this season.
Cheers to that!
Oh and don’t worry about my former teammate Starmer when he wins the next GE, Marc. It’ll be continuity Blair/Cameron/May/Major/Heath/Sunak all the way masquerading as a Labour movement. Notice I didn’t include Thatcher, Truss and Bojo in that roll call of honour. Those three are properly swivel eyed lunatics who hate(d) British people.
Good Times ahead – not! Getting back on message (kinda… ) I’d rather Tets was PM or Gareth horse face Southgate.
K’Phobe corruption isn’t just about power and money, it’s about morals, too. Particularly for people in seats of power.
“An that’s all I gonna say about that” 🙂
Life’s too short for me to get excited or uptight about politics, nor do I have the energy for it. I’ve pretty much always livid in my nomadic world rarely putting down roots for more than a few years tops until I came to S E Asia.
I’m happy chipping into to put a new roof on village schools our club is doing at the moment. Which school is next is political enough for me, guys. 🙂
Enjoy the weekend.
Nice one Tony. You too. There’s space for Marc and me on a football blog – he’d be lined up on the right wing, and I’d be the Marxist Leninist controlling the centre ground in midfield… And the left of course!
OK it’s official ref’s are even bigger cunts (sorry Ambarish I know you’re not a fan of bad language but its warranted here) than even I thought.
Player scores for Cameroon against Brazil in the 92nd minute takes his shirt off in celebration and is shown a 2nd yellow / red.
Any decent person / ref would’ve “got something in their eye” and missed it.
Marc
Common sense is rarely used these days.
Marc
Good point. I’ve never been a fan of automatic bookings, esp for something like that which is pretty mild. Meanwhile, on the other channel Xhaka, Xhaquiri (sp – can’t be arsed to look it up) and the Serbians are making gestures to each other that rake over severe historical conflicts with impunity. That Serbia game sounded like a good one.
I though I’d get some of the real thing last night. I actually went to a thing called a football ground and watched 22 geezers kick a ball around on grass. The stands were constructed by well paid builders, none of whom died in the process. And neither Beckham nor Infantino were there whoring themselves out. All overseen by a Welsh Labour government – not an oil kleptocracy (although the team is part sponsored by a local refinery…) Haverfordwest County 2 Penybont (aka Brigdend) 1.
Thats how you do virtue signalling lads. 😁Have a good one.
“I actually went to a thing called a football ground and watched 22 geezers kick a ball around on grass.”
It’ll never catch on!
Watched Martineli in game for Brasil. Impressive running into players and getting past with a feint. But watching him realised why Martineli is not a starter for Brasil . Wants to score, which is a good thing . But at that level the shot towards the goal has to be more perplexing to the goalkeeper. That way heading down is more result oriented than heading where the goalkeeper clutches your shot cleanly.
It is unfortunate that Martineli could not go on loan to learn , since more sauce is not what he needed.