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
TRVL
I’d love for one of the fan boys to give me an honest take (which they stick to) on what’s an unacceptable level of performance for Arteta.
Their problem is of course is they can’t be honest because they’d set the bar so low they’d make a mockery of themselves – they’ll claim this season is a master class without admitting that having spent £350 million plus inheriting a good couple of hundred million pounds worth of players already at the club that should be a minimum expectation.
I never expected us to mount a title challenge this season but having got into the position to throw is away is beyond unforgivable.
Tony-no Scottish accent, unless you count my outstanding Star Trek Scotty impression, but I’m a mix of Scottish, British and Ukrainian…btw my son’s Asian leanings likely stems from the fact that his schooling included an incredibly diverse student body, which certainly isn’t the norm in my neck of the woods, which he embraced with great zeal…far too often, in parts of North America, children will harbour the oft-times ill-conceived prejudices of their parents instead of embracing the untold possibilities…in our household we wouldn’t tolerate such nonsense, as my sporting background has brought me in close contact with peoples from all manners of backgrounds, which I’m sure helped to shape his views on such matters…Cheers
I never expected us to mount a title challenge this season but having got into the position to throw is away is beyond unforgivable
Marc
A perfect summary of where we are.
Marc-couldn’t agree more…in many ways it reminds me of the Pool gig, in that I didn’t expect us to win, but when we found our way to dominate the first 35 and pot a couple goals along the way, it’s only logical that expectations would subsequently change…that’s not a case of arbitrarily moving the goalposts, that’s just common sense
I think we’ve performed admirably this season, especially in light of my early days expectations, but once we emerged as one of the presumptive favourites come the winter window, it was imperative that we acted the part and did whatever was necessary to make an honest push for an otherwise unexpected title…this was why I was so distraught about the way we settled in the window, regardless of how one might colour the subsequent results…for me these moves spoke to the settling and scared nature of our manager, which has come home to roost once again…of course, this doesn’t mean that I have no love for those who’ve come on board, I was just convinced that we needed was the kind of players who could help us over the hump in spite of the gutless tendencies of our resident eunuch in charge; not to mention they will negatively impact our future transfer options…furthermore, neither provided us with the kind of tactical flexibility that’s generally needed when the same old, same old gets stale and we need to find an alternate way to score…now maybe if MA could take his Xhaka blinders off, he might find a way to open up opposing defences, but I swear those Swiss-made specks are welded the fuck on
why am I in moderation mode?? If there’s a particular reason, like swear words, just let me know and I’ll make the necessary adjustments….Cheers
I’m sure it’s just some sort of IT glitch, but it’s more than a little disconcerting, especially on gameday
OK guys here is one that will lessen the pain we all feel today. It appeared in the comment section of the Athletic under an article describing the situation at Chelsea that has developed since Todd the Chump took over. It applies equally well to MA.
A Turkish proverb describes aptly the situation at Chelsea and Arteta at AFC:.
“When a clown takes over a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.”
Ambarish? what’s going on with my posts bud??
TRVL
No idea, but have approved them now. Something to check later today.
thanks…I guess I’ll know in about 10 seconds if everything is smooth sailing once again
all good bud
there must be an element of schadenfreude when it comes to City’s fans watching us perform lately…tv ratings in East Manchester must be through the roof as fans of the baby blue tune in to see how far Sisyphus can get up the hill before the rock rolls backward on him
frankly, I’m sick and tired of these and other embarassing narratives that have centered around our habitual shortcomings…it’s becoming so deep-seated that I fear if we don’t find a way to win the day I’m seriously concerned that our next opportunity will be a long time coming…so whereas there are those on other platforms who will see this as a logical stepping stone to bigger and better things, regardless of how and/or where we finish, I take a totally contrarian view
face it, how many seasons can we expect the following things to happen: (1) that several perennial contending teams would mightily struggle for considerable periods of time, (2) that we would be offered up so many silver-platter affairs where it appeared as if the opposing teams made a collective decision at half to save their energies for their next respecitve matchups and (3) that we would have a relatively healthy starting 11, considering our organizational history over the past decade and a half, for the vast majority of the season
it might seem overly pessimistic, but I’m much closer to the now or never camp than buying into the Kool-Aid crew notion that contending for titles will be some sort of commonplace occurrence so long as MA’s roaming the touchline…boy, I hope and pray I’m way off base
Just finished watching MOTD and what a fucking shit show AFC put on display but especially by Saka and the defense. Saka should have come off and would have liked to see Trossard much earlier after the 2nd equalizer by WH. The subs should have come on because Saka, midfield and defense was ineffective in the 2nd half not a single shot on goal.
We had a defensive problem for the first 3 seasons under the Everton reject and by bringing in Saliba we masked that problem. Take Saliba out and the defensive problem resurfaces. WTF did MA buy Kiwior for just to keep him on the bench? Totally clueless the same applies for Vieira both of them cost £55mill just to warm the bench totally inept manager that can’t win a piss up in a brewery.
Hopefully one of the clubs looking for a manager will take a look at the not so generational one. Can’t wait until we get a manager that can produce in the 1st year at the club and not string along supporters for years.
So, we will play in the CL next season, but if we play like we did in the last two games we will never make it out of the group stages and may even end up in the EL again playing Thursdays. What a fucking disgrace this club has become by Pep’s gimp.
definitely agree Killroy, as there’s no way MA’s chickenshit tendencies won’t get exposed at the CL level…you can’t pursue an offensive brand of football, then abandon it whenever the stakes get too high, as we’re simply not wired to defend for 45+ minutes against teams of consequence…fuck, we can’t get away with that shit against bottom-half squads…so maybe what we need most of all is to find a manager who’s got an eye for talent and the onions to stay the course, as I believe under the right managerial circumstances we’re 2 or 3 top quality players away from competing with the best Europe has to offer
Morning all
Everything said above ratifies what a shit show Arteta has created through ‘The Process’.
When you break it down we can sprint for 30 minutes and then spend the rest of the 90 trying to recover enough to do a few token counter attacks while backs to the wall defending with a completely porous midfield that hasn’t been fixed in the 4+ years by Arteta who has laughingly been called a manager and tactician.
Where do our fitness levels go? We had a week off and were running on empty from the 31st minute. A brief flurry of action in the 2nd half, and then it was park the bus midfield and defense becoming as one.
Almost a carbon copy of the Pool game last week. Arteta at the end looked like Emery after losing the EL cup final: beaten and clueless.
I really feel for you, Ambarish. To be so close and see the manager make the exact same mistakes as last season. There is still a sliver of a chance mathematically that requires City to have at least one bad day at the office. I think De Zerbi will beat us at Brighton and Southampton away just became winnable for their players, fans and manager. They just have to be fitter than us for 90 minutes.
It’s a cruel baptism by fire for you Ambarish and my Junior of how The Arsenal works. We’ve always been a benevolent club sharing the points at the business end of a season- last season was the same and this will follow the same path.
Why is it we are throwing another title away?
Poor squad management throughout the squad including Hale Enders with potential
Not bringing players like Balogun back who might just have won the game for us in his current form
Extremely poor team selections trying to fit Arteta’s football rather than football players can adapt to in their preferred positions
Continually over playing key players (Saka) into the red zones
Reliance on Xhaka as Arteta’s MVP who is mostly a passenger and always a liability
Not buying a RB and 2 quality midfielders last summer TW and ensuring we had the right sized squad to at least show well in the domestic league and EL cup
I’m sure anyone reading this can add many more reasons why Arteta won’t succeed at The Arsenal and be our “Pochettino” until Josh wakes up and smells the coffee and realises he’s been royally scammed and indeed Arteta was using us to gain experience for Madrid et al.
No point in rehashing the game we’ve had nightmares enough in the last 24 hours to endure.
When a team plays collectively bad as we did yesterday, there is only one person to point the finger at: The manager, Arteta.
Did anyone notice Rice running the show yesterday and force his luck to their first goal? Apparently, Rice waited in the tunnel to talk to Ode.
That’s the kind of winner we need bedside Ode in midfield.
#Arteta out – De Zerbi in it won’t be popular with Aitcho for understandable reasons, but as Ten Hag is busy, I’d fancy De Zerbi ahead of Nagelsmann on his footballing methods and tactics. Chelsea win was no fluke.
His teams run virtually flat out throughout the game and never tire. He can also bring BHA’s recruitment systems.
Commiserations, KP, just saw the Cardiff result and felt for you. Us and The Bluebirds results are a terrible thing to endure at the same time.
Ever thought of paragliding and doing aerial photography at the same time, the results would soon be lost to the heavenly sights from 20,000 feet lol. Wouldn’t suit my vertigo, but I would imagine you’d get some great shots off the bluff where your rental is.
I find beating and kicking a 160kg punch bag in our gym does it for me only I’ve run out of Arteta and Xhaka faces so will have to get Mrs T to run some off at the office.
Arteta needs to spend the next few days working out what went wrong (the same set of problems in 2 consecutive games). And the psychologists need to restore the players’ mindsets before Southampton. Odegaard also needs to work out how to motivate his fellow players on the pitch especially if Arteta is failing to come up with anything new and credible. We need a good old PL home domination against a club that is falling fast and unable to score. Don’t give them a sniff on our goal and avoid giving Ward-Prowse any free kicks. Start like a train and maintain the intensity until at least 3 goals have gone in and 60 odd minutes have elapsed.
He’s not really impressed so far in the little time he’s had, but it might be worth trying Kiwior and moving Holding back to the bench. Southampton pose no aerial threat which I think might be Kiwior’s weakness.
I’d pick.
Ram
White Kiwior Gab M Tierney
Partey Ode ESR
Mart Jesus Tross
With Saka coming on if needed. He and Xhaka (obviously) need some rest. I’m assuming Zinch and Saliba remain unfit.
KP
I’d agree with that selection or with Southampton’s lack of real attack, we could go 343 or 352. From the little I’ve read of Kiwior he’s predominantly left footed, which its why it’s possible Holding got the nod as RCB.
I feel he’s at least a loan away from being a useful starter for us if he makes it. That said Southampton would be a good test for the Pole.
It’s our collective fitness more than our mindset that’s at fault. We can be as positive and full of fight but without energy it’s useless. A wafer thin squad does this; it fatigues the squad. Injuries follow. The general considered opinion is that we switched off after going 2 up. The truth was we’d run ourselves into the ground and West Ham fed off that.
I honestly don’t think Arteta is capable of sustaining a last dash title charge because the City game will exhaust us too much to recover for the next game. We just don’t have the squad to do it.
Last ditch
I know Tony. You’re right. I’m just willing myself to keep believing because I’ll be deeply disappointed if we don’t win it (as we’ll all be). Moreover, this was a Leicester-type season if ever there was one and it’ll will be nigh impossible to repeat. Everything was in our favour til recently and we needed that help. I just hope Ode and the boys can do it still, irrespective of what Tets says. He and the club would never do it, but I’d get GG AND PV 8n the dressing room for Man City.
Cardiff have 3 keys games left. Stoke, the cheating cunts of Rotherham and a home tie with Sir Neil Warnock’s Huddersfield. They also might be lucky on the last day away to Burnley who could well be on the beach by then. Despite scoring first and playing a strong first half, I always had them down to lose to the Blades.
KP- I’m holding onto hope as well, brother. It’s all we have right now.
Somewhere else
Sid the Popoulous has thrown a cat among the pigeons
“ there is nothing wrong with Saliba’s back, he is just frozen out “
But there is no dare to take it to the bank, do guess it is just a cat among the pigeons
Tony, as you’ve menntiined me, ‘m not sold on De Zerbi just yet for very understandable reasons.
Just as we can see his win V a pretty crap Chelsea as no fluke, his double losses to a not much less crap Spurs were probably no fluke too.
In short, a series of underwhelming appointments in Italy and a spell in a fourth tier league isn’t much get me enthused. He may turn out to be the next Villas Boas. it’s way too small a sample size to suggest he’s ready for a big club. I wasn’t in favour of Arteta using us as work experience, De Zerbi would be much the same, an experiment.
I get that he’s flavour of the month but this time last year many of us would have taken Potter seriously over Arteta. We’ve all had our moments of considering fashionable at the time managers in favour of our own. The list is long and full of flash in the pans. Roberto Martinez anyone? Owen Coyle?
Not saying you’re wrong just not right just yet.
I’m still monstrously fucked off after yesterday what I’m struggling with is alongside that I’m not in anyway surprised.
I’ve been waiting all season to fuck it up and was just beginning to think maybe he won’t and bang. We take a hammering against City and he’ll manage to gift Fat Frank the only point he’ll pick up as manager at Chelsea.
Fuck Arteta and fuck those who support him.
I’ve always been a big supporter of Wrighty’s, both on and off the pitch, but his recent take involving the preposterous notion that Haaland wouldn’t improve our attack is indicative of what’s gone wrong at this club ever since RVP left the building, irrespective of your personal thoughts about this rather polarizing figure
once Wenger had lost his administrative wingman, our transfer policies took a decidedly negative anti-star turn…with each passing year it became increasingly obvious that Wenger wasn’t interested in having anyone inside the clubhouse who might usurp his monopolistic control, so instead of making the necessary moves he hid behind the disingenuous new stadium frugality narrative and the ludicrous belief that passing the ball into the net was the only pathway to greatness
now the vast majority of managers would undoubtedly be sent packing if they continued to spin such nonsense, unless the intended results were forthcoming, but this didn’t apply when it came to our Professor, as he knew full-well that he could package up just about anything and it would be lapped up en masse by his “how high” minions…unfortunately this not only hurt the product on the pitch, it likewise led to the development of a rather twisted organizational dynamic
on the one hand, our misplaced superiority complex, which was a logical outgrowth of both our former boss’s unbridled arrogance and our pre-move successes…whereas on the other hand, when Arsene’s tunnel vision tactics and transfer window cockups led to the onset of the Wenger Cup era, an inferiority complex seeped in…during this phase the finger of blame was pointed in every which direction except inwardly, almost as if there existed some sort of League-wide conspiracy
sadly, this troubling dichotomy hasn’t left the building, as our present manager’s actions on and off the pitch have done little to remedy the situation..in fact, in many ways, he’s simple picked up the same illogical and debilitating mantle…as such, we continue to settle too often in the transfer market and tacitcally-speaking, then we’re quick to blame things outside our control when things invariably go pear-shaped…so it’s my belief that until we embrace the notion that we deserve nice things and stop espousing Wenger-like “equilibrium” nonsense, we will continue to be a fringe player in the European footballing landscape
sorry for the length, but I had to get this off my chest…Cheers
TRVL, no need to apologize, because we all come to LiR to get something of our chest since the club is at the moment looking to be floundering or doing at the business end of the season what Arsenal does best, collapse.
Morning all
Aitcho
I completely agree with your thinking re De Zerbi, I would have wanted a larger sample. I doubt Arteta will be leaving this or next season regardless of where we finish, so we might just get a better view from more sides of De Zerbi. Either way, what we want and what we get generally aren’t the same. I never wanted Arteta. 4+ years later I still don’t want him.
Busy day ahead so will leave LIR with this DM article.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11982777/How-shape-shifters-taking-football-teams-playing-evolving-series-formations.html
Marc, It was only a matter of time. Sad but true. Let’s hope we keep our CL birth.
TRVL
That us in a nutshell. With LG it’s recollections may vary from the myopic bunch with few exclusions.