Half of the boring international break is over and only six more days left of misery before the Premier League resumes. We are going to visit Brentford and judging by the way we play after a break, it’s not going to be an easy one. Bees are anyway a very tough opponent with Thomas Frank sticking to old-school, no non-sense football that runs vertical. If you want to name one team no one likes to play against, it’s the Brentford.
About one- third of the season is over and it usually gives us a good perspective of where different teams stand and who are involved in the title run.
We are in the title race with joint second on points with Liverpool and one point behind Man City. After a poor season, Klopp must have reintroduced the high caffeine diet back and the results are showing. They have been a bit lucky too. Tottenham, on the other hand, had a new manager bounce but it’s ended now and pretty soon they will be back to where they belong, a fight for Europa Conference League spot. Man United is not going to be good for a foreseeable time. Newcastle are suffering from injuries and there’s no one else I think will be part of the fight. Sorry, Chelsea aren’t even in the screenshot so lets not talk about them for now.
Unlike last season, it’s a three horse race now. Pools are not going to back down, Pep is always part of the challenge and we are continuing our previous season form. Leave City out of it, the other two clubs performance depends highly on how they manage their players and what little injuries they suffer. Judging by the recent points tallies, the narrative of ‘lets not drop 3 points’ has changed to ‘lets get those 3 points’ – a draw is a loss because it’s going to get tougher.
We have got 8 games before New Year and if we managed to get 20 points out of available 24, we would be in a much better situation for the second half of the season. Games against Brentford, Wolves, Luton, Villa, Brighton, West Ham and Fulham can be considered winnable while the visit to Anfield will decide who remains closer to City.
Plus, we have to manage our Champions League games though we are in a much better situation till the round of 16 starts.
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In other news, Aaron Ramsdale dad decided to go on a podcast to criticize the club and Mikel about how they were not transparent about their plans in bringing David Raya just after 2 months of offering them a contract renewal. Well, Ramsdale had a drop in performance, he wasn’t improving anymore and it’s still too early to judge whether Raya will turn out to be better than him, I think the club and Mikel has got that authority to improve on players. You fight for your place and if you are better than the other, you play ahead of him. It’s as simple as that.
Except when your name reads Kai Havertz. You will play no matter what, there will be positions created for you and since you just played in a LB position for your country, we will suddenly have game plans where Havertz at LB will be the real deal.
Thomas Partey injury has baffled me. It’s time to move on now, from one of the best players in recent years. ESR, the same. I have been a big fan of both of them, but with their injuries we are limited to not bring in a replacement. An injured horse is of no use. Sad to say but we need to move on – get some money back off Partey and make some on ESR. I would have loved seeing ESR in place of Odegaard in that LCM role but it’s not going to happen now.
Couple more months and we might see Timber back in the squad. Zinchenko has been Mikel’s favorite for the LB position but I personally like Tomiyasu more in that role, simply because he is a bit defender and has a Honda engine in him.
We spent 100 odd millions on Declan Rice and it has turned out to be a good deal. Had Partey been injury free, our only worries would have a CF who can score and a back up to Saka (Marquinhos?). But we need a back to Declan Rice and a competition to Odegaard along with CF and Saka’s back up. Lots of positions to fix and it might have to wait till the next summer.
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Right, that’s all for today. If you are an Aussie reading this, congratulations on the world cup win and you can fuck off (sorry).
Cheers
Emery football at its best with a great squad. Could be our wake up call for Arteta
When you look at Villa and their identity- just think if Emery had been able to buy his players for us.
Pool won so can’t afford to drop points
You around KP?
WTF Zinchenko not our level
Yeah Tony
Half time. We’re pressing well but I’ve been surprised at the number of offsides. Ref not doing us any favours. Their goal came as our defence and midfield collectively switched off. I’m not writing Arsenal off just yet. We could get a goal via one of their defensive errors (which is something Emery teams always do) and then we could be in business. All well with you mate?
You’re right KP we’ve looked just on top but toothless and Ode has no power in his shots.
Home wise all good as per the last update.
We spectrum residents live and see life differently. Mrs T is casting an eye on QC for my traveling companion.
Hope all good your end
Definitely going to Nepal next year.
Same story of no creativity in the final third from us.
Emery always smacks Arteta’s arse.
Tony
If I may be a little reductionist… It was complete piss. Villa were no better.
KP I liked my version better 😱
It was a stalemate game where Villa went racing out of the traps and we were playing catch up for the rest of the game.
Emery nullified every Arteta move with subs. Villa were defending from the front 3 always at pace it broke our passing rhythm that we have no plan B for in nearly 5 years.
Villa were brilliant for their goal but dropped back to counter attack football around the 40 minute mark for the rest of the game.
2nd half we had 71% possession but Villa had 4 to our 3 shots. They stifled our already lacking creativity. Ode was very poor.
I agree the football was dire but we haven’t been much better scrambling late last ditched winners.
Said before we are levels below Pool and City in terms of consistency.
Emery beat City in the week and now us and only one point behind us. Could you imagine Pedro the counseling he’d need if Villa finished above Arteta?
As we’re not winning the PL this season it would be worth seeing LGs spewing their bile and conspiracy garbage. Get shares in tin foil though.
Arteta out thought and out fought. Emery wasn’t good enough for us but with a BILLION £ squad what does that make Arteta?
“Emery beat City in the week and now us and only one point behind us. Could you imagine Pedro the counseling he’d need if Villa finished above Arteta?”
It’d be the fault of everyone but Arteta – the players he’s bought, the ref’s who are consistently poor for everyone but never the cunt.
Kroenke
Villa were better they won.
Emery schooling the cunt again.
Villarreal and now tonight.
we were a blunt instrument for much of this match and until we’re willing to be flexible, from a tactical perpsective, we could face a similar fate in the coming weeks and months…without adding some much-needed directness to our attack, we play into the hands of those opponents who’re willing to deploy double-teams in wider spaces…there were countless times when players made good runs but failed to get service, even though the channels were open…I counted no less than 11 times when a good run resulted in a 5 foot sideways pass, with only 2 getting the standard apology wave
as for those on the pitch, Jesus looked exceptionally slow at times, which cost him two grade A chances in the second half, Ode’s shooting was atrocious and Zinchenko was caught out of position far too often…furthermore, we’re never going to breakdown defensively sound clubs when we rely far too much on Rice and Zincehnko as our midfield service providers, considering that neither can pick a pass on a consistent basis…Havertz did do some decent things, albeit his presence still doesn’t justify him starting or playing a full 90+ minutes…he did look to play more direct, which at one point should have tied things up, if it weren’t for Ode’s horrendous miscue, but no one seems to have enough faith in him to go off-script and play long…Villa didn’t do much, except take advantage of some amateur hour defending by White, but our lackluster effort didn’t require them to go outside their comfort zone too often…man, we need to pick up someone of consequence, with goals in their respective boots, this winter or we could find ourselves SOL come season’s end