Basically, every one of the our games this season is a must win for the title race but I like to hype things up a bit hence the title.
Yesterday, Man City showed us why it’s not going to be easy. They were 3-0 up by half time against Leicester, replaced half of their first teamers including Haaland, Stones, Rodri, De Bruyne by first hour mark and managed a very comfortable win. They further improved their goal difference to 50, seven more than us having played equal games. With only 8 games left, we are not going to win on goal difference anymore, covering this 7 goal difference AND matching the high number of goals City scores, is almost impossible.
So, what do we need to do? We need to win, every game for the rest of this season. There are other permutations and combinations, but we aren’t in that territory as of now. If we beat West Ham today, we go 6 points up against City, with an extra game played and I’m sure chasing us every week along with Champions League football will cause trouble even for Pep.
Back to today’s game, Eddie is back in the mix but Saliba remains unavailable. William has been phenomenal this season for us, and we needed him at this juncture but looks like the back problem will haunt him for some more weeks. Holding has been decent enough as a cover, so it shouldn’t be a problem till it’s a Holding v Haaland.
West Ham are not really rocking under Moyes but they are a very tough team to beat. Moreover, we are visiting them, they are in a relegation battle and these sort of games comes with a chaos that can benefit any of the two teams on the pitch. We need to maintain our calmness and composure, do not allow them balls in dangerous areas and keep up the high octane pressing throughout.
I’m guessing we will see somewhat a similar playing XI we have been seeing. Ramsdale in the net, White, Holding, Gabriel, Zinchenko in back 4 with Partey and Xhaka along with Odegaard managing the midfield. Saka on the right, Martinelli at left with Jesus leading the line at the top. One thing I would personally like to see is Trossard playing the Odegaard/Xhaka position, rotating with Martinelli and Jesus, but I doubt we will get to know. Mikel is very strict in his team selection.
Good news is, this team should be enough for Moyes.
Whatever happens in the end, we must go to Etihad in winning confidence and with the point difference advantage we have on City. That is why winning today and the next ones are very important. Hopefully we get a 4-0 win but I would take a hard fought 1-0 today, considering Moyes.
I will go with a 0-2 prediction for the boys, just because Ramsdale is not getting his deserved clean sheets from last few games. Hopefully, we keep a clean sheet today, we score couple and it turns out to be a easy afternoon for the Moyes.
Short one today, see you during game.
#COYG
And still Xhaka is on… Unbelievable
20 minutes to keep our title hopes alive
Substitutions are good but for wrong guts. Like everyone is saying why not Tossard in place of Xhaka if you want to change things?
Guess Arteta has a single template, and has not tried combination during practice. In such circumstances the pegs are factory made to fit only a specific slot.
Phew
Can see how Saliba was crucial to get Arsenal up!
His calmness has also made Gabriel less rash, has improved him
Now the substitutions are an expression of a list manager. It has become a game of dice. Throw them in and, who knows, if luck is on his side Tetsie will be hailed
Hey Hoopah Saliba is a huge miss but Arteta bottled his selection persevering with Xhaka and reducing us to 10 players.
Arteta the great pretender being found out yet again
Arteta’s face says it all. Serial loser.
Entirely avoidable
Entirely down to that prick of a manager
Got to beat City
Fucking awful
Arteta realised, unfortunately only in hindsight, that he has crapped his pants.
But on a positive note, we are sure shot in Champions League where Arteta will be shown, and hopefully the Board will be educated. Looking at Arsenal bench 20 minutes back, there was no way we could not win this
They look exhausted after a whole week off. I thought not playing in other competitions would solve that. 1 week of training to prepare for this game and it is deja vu 2 nil up drawing 2:2. WTF in the last 20 minutes we were always 2nd to the ball no drive and energy, no desire to win this game. WH was always looking like to get the next goal. Mentally weak and no manager to instill brains of steel.
Apologists on LG will say top 4 was always the goal so we did excellent, abysmal wankers.
Hi Killroy
Apologists on LG would be saying we’d have beaten Pool and the Hammers if only supermik had picked himself alongside the irreplaceable Xhaka. The Kroenkes ought to be looking at this and working out how much compensation they’d get if they fuck him off to Real Madrid or your friends at Barca. 4 points dropped and it’s down to the basque bantamweight who will never cure his addition to Xhaka. I fear we’re not going to move forward til we’ve purged these 2 ball bags from the club. We’ve moved from a clear position of strength to it coming down to a rigged cup final away at a superior team with a far superior coach. Play one more game with the same lack of cohesion and intent we displayed today and it’s over. They have to beat City and everyone else.
We are just as likely to beat City and then lose to Brighton. That’s how clueless Arteta is.
Let this sink in. We are top of the league and heading for our first tile in 19 years and Arteta let’s us lose 2 consecutive 2-goal leads where we run out of steam at 30 minutes, which has been our way all season.
Hoopah sorry to rain on your CL parade but look at Arteta’s stats for Europe and we’ll be lucky to get out of the group stages.
De Zerbi anyone?
Brighton played Chelsea off their park where Keppa’s brilliance kept the score respectable. Any other day and Brighton would have won 5:1. Football is delightfully simple to watch a poetic cohesion of quick touch football from end to end.
Arteta lost this one like he did last week. Wrong subs and at the wrong times. Worst 35mill signing Viera and he gets brought on, that is on MA. In game management and subs are on MA he should have taken off Saka as he had a shocker today, but that will not happen as there are a few non negotiable players that will always be first on the team sheet.
There is hope that Pep’s Gimp will be taking one of the available jobs at big clubs next year or the one after that. He is in his 4th year and the good fortune of two top 4 contenders having an off season enabled him to finish in the top 4.
At the beginning of the season who would have thought that Ten Hag, Howe & Emery in their 1st year are making a run for top 4 while MA in his first 3 years was beyond pathetic. But we won the trophy of youngest team in the EPL.
After being dragged over to the pub (completely against my will of course) to watch the match I can’t convey how fucking angry I am at Arteta doing an Arteta whilst at the same time being completely unsurprised.
What a complete and utter cunt the man is.
The best chance we’ll see in a couple of decades and not only has he just fucked it but he’s he’s managed to do it against one of the weakest of teams in the run.
What a CUNT!
Killroy
Nailed it – Arteta stays and next season we’ll be looking at finishing 5th – 8th.
So assuming we beat Southampton and lose to City that’ll be 5 points from 12 in a tight run, then we’ll see Arteta do his usual and lose a few more.
We’ve gone from being well in front of City to being lucky to finish within 6 points of them.
Draw
Killroy & Marc
Take your pick at why but this season is working out to be Groundhog Day for last season.
Exactly the same mistakes with exactly the same results.
Just finished my match viewing, as it was a rather early Sunday morning start on this side of the world, so I had to retreat to the cone of tech silence bat cave to watch a taped version undisturbed…must admit I had to chuckle once I starting reading the above posts as they all sounded a tad too familiar in that most of the comments were very reflective of the angry conversation I was having with myself
sadly, it came as no surprise whatsoever that our castrated one trick pony of a manager found a way to cock-up another early 2-0 lead…to make matters worse, somehow, someway our “centerpiece” figure, Xhaka, remained on the pitch even though we used all our available subs…for those keeping score, every single time we’ve faced a high pressure moment of real consequence, whether in a Cup, Europa or League match, MA’s tactical naivety has been suitably exposed…this should have been the kind of match where we made positive inroads towards the prevailing goal differential divide, but instead we’re heading home with our tail between our legs and another psychological black eye to boot
now I understand why our usually spasmodic manager was so stoic today, as he was clearly concerned that if he were jumping up and down on the touchline a Trainspotting-level of fecal matter would be flying out both of his fucking pant legs
Personally – and it obviously matters to no one but me – I’m staying positive and hoping that the players can do it despite the formidable obstacles posed by Arteta being our manager. I remember 89 vividly. And beating City at their place would be akin to what we did at Anfield on 26 May 1989. We had GG on the touchline then of course and he gave me and all the other Gooners confidence that we could do it.
Fuck Arteta. Keep believing in the players to do it starting on Friday with Southampton. If he’s fit, ESR needs to be given his chance and Xhaka needs to be sat down. I’m hoping that the data from today’s game will support that and Arteta will eat humble pie. We desperately need to have Saliba back too.
On a different issue, I sense a real opportunity for you Ambarish to start usurping Pedro or at least offering a credible alternative to the Arteta-is-a-genuis mantra. Subtly or otherwise I recommend you get yourself on there and wrest away some of the posters who are being vilified for daring to suggest Tets is the problem rather than the solution. Pedro probably thought he was avant garde at some point but LG is nothing but a piss poor facsimile of the club programme and official talking points now. Offer them readership three things – honesty, openness and freshness. Pedro did it when it was clear Wenger was a busted flush. You can corner the market by making LiR a place where its OK to debate and also cast doubt about Arteta.
KP
There’s always hope until there isn’t and mathematically impossible. As Gooners and deep in our gooner souls we hold on to what slivers of hope are left and support each game no matter how painful it is to watch thinking of what could have been.
There’s that and the Arteta stark reality we are left with.
after scoring 2 with relative ease, on the backs of a Pool affair that went tits up, a ballsy manager would have replaced Xhaka with Trossard and forced Moyes into a position where it would have been difficult to have Rice pressing so high…the Hammers were playing a rather unsettled back 4, which we should have continued to take advantage of…instead, all of a sudden, Partey’s getting squeezed, Jesus is coming way too deep and it’s the sideways borefest all over again…Tierney was decent on the wide flanks, but when tucked inside he was telegraphing his passes too much, which led to numerous cheap turnovers…if we had Trossard taking up those more inside positions, Tierney could have played in more logical wider spaces, which would have likewise stretched their defensive zone coverage…once again, by the end of the match it felt like we were actually fortunate to leave with a point, which isn’t acceptable considering our respective places in the table
Kroenke
What’s ESR got to do to get a minute on the pitch? You’ve only got to cast your mind back a short time and it was ESR who kept Arteta in a job now he can’t get on as a sub for love or money.
I’d love to be wrong but the simple fact is we’ll end up being closer to 3rd (or even 4th) than 1st.
Maybe when shit for brains finishes 5th or worse next season we’ll see the larger fan base realise what we’re dealing with.
TRVL
Yep – Arteta being so smart he’s stupid again. Today especially at 2 nil was or at least should have been a walk in the park but Arteta bottled it.
He’d be a great manager for the Spud’s.
Marc-funny thing is, they wouldn’t want him, which speaks volumes about the glaring lack of self-awareness by both North London clubs
Ambarish
Another USP which distinguishes you from LG is your willingness to let others write pieces without fear of censorship. Paranoid Pedro would never allow the overall narrative to slip from his hands for fear the truth will emerge. Go and sell it if you can – you won’t regret it. At the very least you’ll still have us old bastards!
watching MA manage a two goal lead is like watching pie-head Maguire start for United, as you just know something asinine is bound to happen
KP-totally agree with your LIG sentiments, as we’re all well-aware that Pedro’s only as good as his delete button will allow…really enjoyed your earlier comment regarding Pedro’s late to the party Wenger ouster campaign, as some of us were trumpeting the call for his removal long before it was in vogue