We have not been beaten yet in Champions League. In fact, we have dropped zero points so far in 7 games and 3 of those games were against the likes of Bayern, Atletico and Inter. Also, lets not forget that we have achieved this while competing for the title in Premier League (sitting at the top there, too) and playing in semi finals in Carabao Cup. Lot of games, and not only we have managed to keep ourselves in the competition, we have been bossing it.
The best Arsenal we have seen is the Champions League one. I’m pretty sure it’s because some of those teams we played against – Bayern, Inter, Atletico believed they could beat us and we were able to open them up. In the 7 games we have played so far, we have scored 20 and conceded only 2 which is a solid defensive stat. While we were arguing about who gets to play at the LW, Martinelli has scored the most goals while Trossard has the highest number of assists in Champions League.
Last night, we beat Inter without Gabriel, Rice, Calafiori and Odegaard in the starting line up. Gabriel Jesus took it upon himself to give us the lead, twice before Gyokeres scores the third one to seal it off. While Cristian Chivu tried his best to do some damage on the counters but also pressed us hard through out the game, Mosquera and MLS managed to keep hold of them. Two non-starters, one of them is 19 years old, the other one is 21.
Champions League nights are madness – we saw Madrid scoring 6 past Monaco, PSG losing to Sporting, Leverkusen losing to Olympiacos, Tottenham winning, Bodø/Glimt thrashing Man City to name a few. Only Arsenal has looked consistent and even on our not so great days, we have come out as winners. I don’t wanna talk about Premier League today, but when we drop points there like we did against Forest, Aston Villa lost to Everton and City lost to Man Utd. We literally dropped 2 important points and still ended the week with a +1 point advantage over our rivals. The luck is in our favor so far.
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I have a complaint though, for Saka. He needs to keep his head up and forget what the legend Henry told him years ago – about being brave. He is shooting a lot but with no end results. We have a CF in place and he needs to practice more of feeding him rather than trying to find an angle from the wings. Against Forest, we did see Gyokeres frustration once and I think it’s only going to grow if he doesn’t get the service. Martinelli / Trossard doesn’t help him either while Odegaard is too slow to read his movements.
I think it’s not a Gyokeres problem. I think Arteta needs to instructs his attacking players to find him near the opposition box and feed him more.
Right, that’s all for today. We have a good game coming up this weekend, against Manchester United. They feel they can beat us because they did it to Man City but didn’t we beat them at Old Trafford earlier in the season? Everyone deserved to hope, we can only make sure to end it.
And I hope you like the new banner – thanks to Thomas Frank for the idea!
Ambarish
We are the only constant at this time. All of the other teams keep finding banana skins. Are we approaching a spell of poor results – doubtful. Perhaps this is the year – 3 years late.
Sunday, on paper is an easy one but Carrick may be the one to get Man U firing but it will probably be they crash with a bump.
Hi Ambarish
Two things.
The banner is terrific. You should think of some ways to get extra PR for London is Red on the back of it. I’m impressed. Won’t it be great to eventually find out the background behind Frank drinking from an Arsenal paper cup inside Brentford Stadium? You might put a short line beneath it saying, ‘another cup won by the Arsenal’. It’s up there with Lasagne-gate at the end of that season many years ago. Does anyone happen to have discovered the background?
I’m also pleased about having one of my words redacted. Given all of the absolute bollocks certain people place on here, I’m wearing it as a badge of honour and am congratulating myself for being the first to be censored!😁
NORG
Indeed, when we fail others fail worse than us, which is why I think we might make it this year. Also, the players are much matured having fought 3 seasons for the title and must be hungry to hold one.
Quadruples? A statue of Mikel outside Emirates? Is that too much to ask for?
KP
Haha that lad was probably fired who handed that cup to Frank. Poor guy, not a single good thing happening with him but that’s what you get when you wear that shite badge on your chest.
My hosting had some predefined checks, which shutdown the website for few hours because of those two words together. I have added two more words in that list, Spurs and Titles if written together should send an email to Daniel Levy with words written on it – fold it mate and put it where the sun don’t shine.
We’re on a good run in the CL but we should remember we were on a pretty decent run last season including beating PSG in the group stage (still not sure it qualifies as a real group stage) and then hit PSG again.
Same with the PL – being top at Christmas by 1 point or 20 doesn’t mean shit unless you win it.
I’m reluctantly coming to the conclusion that Arteta will probably drag us over the line in the PL this season – not so much due to him being capable but so many other teams just being poor. If he does pull it off I’m going to have a make a decision I never thought I’d have to make.
Do I want to renew my season ticket? The cunt wins it and we’ll be stuck with him for life and forking out 1500 odd quid to get to October and realise you just don’t want to go is not something I think I can do for a third season.
I will always hate Arteta with a zeal that most could not understand – Arsenal outside of family are the oldest relationship in my life, good friends have come and gone but Arsenal were always there through good times and bad (from either side) but Arteta killed my love for the club.
I wouldn’t piss on the cunt if he were on fire.
Marc
“I’m reluctantly coming to the conclusion that Arteta will probably drag us over the line in the PL this season – not so much due to him being capable but so many other teams just being poor.”
5 English teams in the top 8 of the champions league table and you’re still going with the narrative that the Premier league is poor.
It’s the same with the narrative that we can’t score goals which of course is as dumb as you can get considering in the last few weeks we have put 4 past villa , 3 past Bournemouth, 5 past Portsmouth, 3 past Chelsea and 3 past inter , and 4 of those games were away from home, what it tells us is if a team is prepared to open up against us we will destroy them , hence why they park the bus like Liverpool and forest, neither of whom had a shot on target…
This league is as tough as it gets and that is why English teams are dominating Europe , most of the bottom half teams in the prem would hold their own in the champions league..
Marc
” but Arteta killed my love for the club.”
You need to grow up mate , the difference between me and the likes of you, KP , ufraud , trvl and Norg is that I am big enough to admit if I am wrong about a player or the manager, take gyokeres for instance, I don’t rate him but I would love him to score 25 goals this season to prove me wrong the way Arteta has proved me wrong with the way he has turned things round from his first 2 seasons.
Whereas you lot are so immature that you would rather the likes of Havertz, jesus or Arteta fails just so you can be proven right, and if Arteta does succeed or jesus does bang in the goals you will blame it on the weak opposition instead of being mature enough to give them credit for proving you wrong…
Kp saying “Given all of the absolute bollocks certain people place on here” is about as ironic as you can get after the total bollocks he writes when discussing world events though his take on the Arsenal is not quite as extreme as others on here .
Marc
I have my doubts too. We could have one bad game in quarters/ semis or finals and we are out. We may have some drop in form like we did, three seasons in a row, and City will not miss their chances. We are most likely going to play them in Carabao Cup finals, and a final against Pep is the worst thing you can imagine in football.
Yeah, things are not easy for Mikel. We have made mistakes earlier, we have luck gone against us, we have had injuries detailing our title hopes and we have some bad rotation/management from Mikel.
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But that won’t stop me for hoping to see Arsenal win their first CL title ever, and first PL title ever since I was hooked to football (it’s been good 15-16 years since that transition from Cricket).
Cautious Optimism, I referred it as, in my earlier post.
Also, the world has shifted from the Wenger and Klopp version of football. Stats, possession, data has taken over the ‘exciting’ part of football, thanks to that nerd spending half a billion dollars each year.
It will change, someone will figure it out someday. For now, we got no choice that to live with it.
Shite football, and a PL/CL trophy will do over Ange’s brand of football and finishing 17th.
Wicksy
Yes, we have scored few lately but here’s my take. We have done so because of the system – one of them being the set pieces and corner routines. But the system becomes ineffective when the opposition is happy to sit back with 10 men defending for their life. You don’t have the passes between the lines, the corners will be found out in future and even we could guess what Saka is going to do when the ball is on his feet.
A little bit of freedom from the system will allow the players to show their individual brilliance. Martinelli has lost his shooting boots, Saka has like 3/4 goals in last 12 months, Odegaard can’t put a shot on target which is not in GK hands.
We have seen that with City. It was the system where Raheem Sterling was a star performer, Jesus was winning trophies and Zinchenko was one of the best LB. They were drilled to do only a few things but they did it very well.
Allow some freedom, take some risks, go all out attack if the scoreline reads 0-0.
I, so wish, someone like Wenger and Klopp comes to Premier League to change this.
Pricksy
My take on your sadly unending smug bullshit is a bit more concise…
Fuck you, you racist cunt.
Do not mention me unless you want to be reminded of this fact.
Criticism of the team has been around for decades. Even though I held season tickets I would often give them up to friends and join a bunch of people who stood in the Clock End. This group was made up of very successful business men – all were Arsenal through and through and all criticised the team at the time. The banter was electric and worthy of a place on stage. Win or lose we always left the ground at the end of the match in a happy state of mind. The managers were all doing their best under the severe financial restraints placed upon them by Hill Wood and his cronies. Imagine GG having the spending power afforded to El B. We would still be talking about his successes and not that of old red nose. Currently RM are the only team in Europe that spends more than Arsenal (not counting City) and therefore we should be achieving at least a place in the final.
Marc
Well said,
I would rather bathe in lepers pus than support this cunt.
You are not alone on that front.
He is everything thats fucking rotten about the modern game.
From the billions spent, the excuses, the style of football and the arrogance , the fawning by the media dogs who thinks he is some sort of genius and how he treats the fucking players like robots sucking the flair and spontaniety.
Cunt
Ambarish
I won’t have a bad word said about Wenger , a true gentleman( like myself) who was a genius ( unlike myself) and should be applauded for keeping us in the champions league for 20 odd years despite the opposition having an endless pot of money to buy players ( including ours) whilst playing a brand of football which probably will never be repeated until the next Arsene Wenger comes along as there is too much fear in the game.
At the moment our style of football is hopefully a means to an end ….trophies , and once we have one or 2 (or more) trophies in the cabinet then I’d like to think that Arteta will take the handbrake off , though of course if he does that then results may take a downturn and then the LiR regulars WILL have something to whinge and moan about..
Ambarish, I wouldn’t worry about how many goals we score or how we score them , the important thing is we maintain the gap at the top as there is no way the chasing pack will win every game as the league is too strong , as long as we remain defensively strong until the end of the season it should seenus through.
Teams are reluctant to attack us as they know we are too strong for them, I’d be interested to see how Chelsea approach the 2nd leg of the league cup , will they leave themselves open in their endeavour to recover from the first leg ….a failure from Arsenal to progress to the final will be a massive dent to our confidence.
Wicksy
I need to grow up? How about you need to mature enough to realise that people are allowed to have different opinions – mine was I don’t enjoy watching the club anymore.
Let’s see how long you’d be “big” about outlaying thousands of pounds for something you don’t enjoy? The mature response would have been “Marc if you don’t enjoy it anymore you should do what you feel is the right thing”.
You won’t accept criticism of Arteta and say above you won’t accept criticism of Wenger – that sounds like your average moronic spud supporter.
Marc—don’t even waste your time responding to Pricksy’s long-form “I told you so” nonsense…this halfwit fuck has continually backed the manager to win trophies ever since he crawled out from under his rock and landed here, yet not once has he ever “actually” admitted that he was wrong…in fact, he’s constantly reminded us of his supposed predictive powers, even though any fucktard in a helmet could predict results at a high rate when you consider that we’ve been a top 2 side for the better part of 4 seasons…so whenever you you read a post by this smug little prick attacking your opinion or mine just remind yourself that this cunt doesn’t know jackshit about this sport, which is why he couldn’t find a bad word to say about Wenger and why he’s such a slurpy bitch when it comes to our present manager
back to real world…below you will find a few excerpts from an article that speaks to our collective concerns about our manager’s boring as fuck “masterplan” and likewise spits in the eye of any stunned cunt out there who can’t see the PL for what it is nowadays:
“The most remarkable thing about this Premier League season may well be it’s mediocrity. Last season there were 16 bore draws, a 0-0, after each team had played their 38 game allotment. This season there already have been 17 with teams still all having 16 games to go — that’s another 160 total games and they’ve already topped last season…the record of 51 scoreless draws was set in 1995, so that record is probably safe, but the lack of quality in the league this season is clear…there’s not a single team in the league that presently has won at least two games in a row.
Arsenal, the runaway league leaders, haven’t scored in their past two games. Manchester City — you know, the behemoths who just paid $158 million for Antoine Semenyo and Marc Guehi (who apparently is making close to $600,000 a week in wages) — got within two points of Arsenal and haven’t won a game in their past four.
Last year’s champions Liverpool haven’t lost in 10 matches, but that includes five draws, including Leeds (twice), Sunderland and Burnley. It’s the most underwhelming 10-game undefeated streak you could imagine
Is it fatigue? Is it too many games with the international calendar stuffed with competitions? Is it teams playing more directly while packing defence and hoping for goals off set plays or hopeful long-ball counter attacks?
Probably a combination of all of it, but it’s dull as dishwater. Try and get through a game without going to your phone or a laptop these days.
While Arsenal has a comfy lead at the top, which probably allows them to play the ultra-conservative, take-no-risk style that has seen them play back-to-back 0-0 draws and STILL increase their lead over the chasing two, it’s the middle of the table where the anticipation will reign”
now I would give our simpleton of a manager some credit if he took all that money and devised a way to breakdown the bus-sitters in a skillful manner, like Enrique did last season, but instead he chose a competely different path, the most expensive “if you can’t beat them join them” strategic approach the footballing world has ever known…as such, he’s little more than a poor man’s Jose or a one-balled Pulis with a Crypto Sugar Daddy…so we might find a way to finally win something of consequence this season, but that won’t change the fact that we’ve done so in the least interesting/inventive way possible, which, in my estimation, fucking matters…Cheers
Vera,
One of your daftest comments, and there have been many, wad your classic line “winners win” when disparaging Arteta’s 2nd runners up spot.
Along with your entry level tactic directions of pulling on “big boy pants”, growing “a pair” and similar inananities, you’d have thought you’d be happy at Arteta winning or being a winner who wins, big boy pants, a pair or otherwise.
You sound like those gorms on youtube
“Sure he’s top of the league, top of the champions league, irs only everyone else is rubbish”
Winning entails, by definition being better than or less rubbish if you want to put it that way and it makes you happier.
But man, if you’re already getting in your excuses for being a dozy know nothing here in Feb, I’m going to love the rest of the season and your excuses getting more outlandish and desperate.
Cheers squeaky.
Achoo—for someone who used to get so bent out of fucking shape whenever someone would randomly involve themselves in other people’s matters, it’s so comical that the only time you seem to make an appearance on here is when you’re coming to the defence of one of your fellow Artetite slurptards…I might be wrong but I thought you weren’t supposed to appear until I said the word fucktard 3 times into a mirror…anywho, based on the above word salad I can only assume you were half in the bag and combing the myriad of Arsenal blogsites you frequent looking for a good old fashioned cockfight…clearly you hid your meds under your tongue again and your legal guardian retired for the evening
all joking aside, I was starting to get a bit concerned about your general well-being, as you kind of disappeared for awhile following your single white female meltdown last year…I can’t even imagine what it must feel like to waste countless hours trying to dox someone who had toyed with you for so fucking long, only for it to fail in such an epic fashion…wouldn’t it have been much easier for everyone involved if you just admitted that you deeply admire the way in which I conduct my online business and leave well enough alone
instead you opted for the gluttom for punishment route, even though you’re constantly paying homage to me by incorporating my words/expressions, such as “know-nothing,” within your posts like some sort of half-baked Mr. Ripley…I must say though it’s a tad disconcerting that you’ve added some phrases, like “winners win,” that I’ve never even uttered, so you might want to dial things back a bit from a self-medication standpoint…or maybe you’ve simply confused me with someone else you’ve been fucking stalking…if that’s the case I can only hope you’re faring better in that exchange or you just might be the saddest fuck I’ve ever crossed paths with…have a good one bitchtits
TRVL
“Is it fatigue? Is it too many games with the international calendar stuffed with competitions?”
Well is it the above and Haaland has complained about the number of matches it means next season will be much of the same or worse for a lot of our players with the world cup coming up.
We need a way to control how many matches players are exposed to. Between FIFA & UEFA wanting as many internationals as possible, UEFA club competitions and then fucking clubs who complain about too many fixtures and then once given a mid season week off go and arrange a money earning friendly with hours of flying to play the match those running football can’t be trusted to act in the best interest of the sport.