The Brighton game was one to forget and though I was a bit disappointed losing 3-1 at Home, I don’t care much when we have the League to fight for. I don’t think even Arteta cared, starting with Hein and Marquinhos. Frankly, we can’t fight on all fronts, Europa and League should be our priorities!
Only positive was Eddie’s goal. We need him to get back to his confident self and we need him to score when given a chance. With two games a week, he will get plenty of it. There were a lot of negatives but hey, Brighton are no mugs and we were literally playing with our B team. If you ask me if it’s a given win with our first playing XI against Brighton, it’s not.
Coming to the important part, we are playing our last game against Wolves away before the World Cup. A win today would mean we finish top of the table irrespective of what happens with City v Brentford (1-1 currently at half time).
Irrespective of the controversy surrounding the hosts, I love World Cup. We don’t qualify as a country, but the trio Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho of 2003 introduced me to the world football. It would be just fucking brilliant watching this years’ knowing Arsenal is sitting top of the league after 14 games. What else do you need. Also, it’s cruel that people have died for the only purpose of entertainment. I am no politician and I don’t care about their belief about a dozen things media houses are highlighting, everyone to their own, but at the end, we must understand that SPORTS are for ENTERTAINMENT.
Sorry, back to Arsenal.
We were able to win against Wolves last year both home and away. They are in a relegation fight at the moment, and if we play the way we have till now, there is no reason we shouldn’t return with three very important points. I doubt Arteta is going to make any changes to his preferred playing XI, and I’m sure Gabriel Jesus will have a point to make before he joins Brazil for the World Cup.
We don’t have any injuries at the moment bar Emile Smith Rowe.
I’m expecting a 3-0 win for the boys, Martinelli and Jesus on the scoresheet. Any guesses? Let us know in the comments!
Bees have to hold on for next 30 min and if City drops a point, it would be lovely.
I would love to have Ivan Toney in our playing XI.
Brentford up 2-1 at 98 minutes. Clockwork counter after a mist resolute defending.
Would have been 3-1 at 99 minutes, phew.
Tell you unkempt Frank is the real deal. Scholarly
Arsenal are still going to be at top of table, irrespective of the score
Tonight will be a strange one – Wolves are really struggling but there will be players who have one eye one the World Cup and avoiding injury.
Truth is I never know what to expect.
City got the late win last week this week they were on the receiving end.
That’s football.
Your blog is really neat and readable Ambarish. Would rate as most readable. Matching with quality of posts you get here.
Guess it helps you being an IT guy
Marc
“think everyone’s surprised by our position but even with that in mind if you look at the fixtures there’s only one result that stands out as better than what we should expect and that’s Chelsea away last week”
Are you being serious?
That is complete rubbish. We have played one third of the season and beaten teams that have taken points from our rivals. Did you watch Man City lose at home to Brentford? We went to Brentford and won easily after they had rolled over Man Utd there 4-0.
This is the Premier League. Every week you get unpredictable results. The aim is to be consistent and that’s not easy.
I think the manager and team deserve more respect than that very strange and ignorant comment Marc. We are top of the league despite Man City having a huge squad, Spurs having Conte & Chelsea spending £265m but you think it’s nothing unexpected?
Brentford doing us a favor, only if we beat Wolves. On a bad day, everyone is going to drop points, City at home too with the best midfielder in the world and a Striker scoring a goal a match.
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Thank you, Hoopah, though it’s not that hard anymore. Everything is pre-built 😅
Welcome to LiR, Terry Ball.
Thank you Ambarish. Nice layout, found you on twitter.
I hope the players don’t have the World Cup on their minds tonight. Just heard Leicesters Maddison could be out of the Qatar tournament, that’s so sad.
Terry
It can turn out to be a motivation, though with our luck of injuries in past, I hope they go to World Cup healthy and return back the same.
Both Gabriels sure would be in ‘play well, impress manager’ zone.
Terry
“Spurs having Conte & Chelsea spending £265m but you think it’s nothing unexpected?”
How much has Arteta spent? Check this link out: https://talksport.com/football/1163867/arsenal-mikel-arteta-transfer-window-gabriel-jesus/
Another question is how much has he pissed up the wall in bad contracts, bad signings and wiping out the transfer values of players?
I clearly have higher expectations than you do. Out of the matches we’ve played the Chelsea and Palace away matches are the only results that really goes against what I expect. Liverpool are not the team they were so competing and beating them at home is what I expect for a team that should / expects to be in the CL. I never said the PL wasn’t tough but beating mid table teams doesn’t make me think Arteta’s the second coming.
The simple fact is he’s spent close to £300 million and inherited a team that had finished 2 points from 3rd the previous season.
Terry
Apparently Maddison was seen after he came off laughing and joking with other players after he came off – hopefully that means it’s not as serious as first thought.
Half-time. A little flat and uninspiring although Wolves are organised. Need to speed up the passing and make more runs to get in behind their packed, high line.
Martinell’s work in the build up to that goal was terrific. Good assist by Harry Potter too.
Jekyll and Hide. Brilliant second half.
Woke up and watched the highlights first thing in the morning. Match was too late for me here.
Seems like Jesus is just low on luck. On any given day, that would have landed in nets. Is Martinelli the next cr7? I think so.
Vieira earned an assist but how well was the Partry – Vieira partnership?
Hi Ambarish
Arsenal-wise, it’s glass half full time for the next few weeks I think. Odegaard deserves a lot of the praise but it was a fantastic team performance – and Jesus was at the heart of it.
The WC leaves me cold. I’m not planning to watch any of it and will use my time to have a ‘holiday’ from ‘big’ football. The entire thing stinks of the worst capitalist and corrupt shit, and I struggle to get beyond thinking about the thousands of migrant workers that died to make that awful place appear sophisticated and worldly. Not to mention their so-called legal system. Blatter, Beckham, Platini and those awful cunts in Qatar all have blood on their hands that dollar bills won’t wash off. And fans themselves being paid to lie about the WC. It’s not much better here of course with Kroenke, UAE and Geordie favourites Saudi motherfucking Arabia to name but a few. So much for human progress…
In the meantime, we’re top of the league.
Great win last night (early morning here) watched a recording with a very good old Scottish friend who was an original Celtic Boys striker from ages 14 top 18 but after a couple of bad ankle breaks he left the game and is now one of the world’s top Practical Engineers. My friend is overseeing my pre install with the main install next weekend.
Was interesting watching with him with Junior: fun morning.
5 points clear until Boxing day where we must be starting to get into City’s heads, so a good restart will be essential.
As I’ve got company I’ll write more later.
Ambarish
Jesus needs a goal – the longer he goes without one the harder he’s trying and he’s now trying to force it.
He’ll get one eventually – it’ll either be an absolute worldy or a complete fluke but that will settle him down.
Marc
Agreed. He’s done everything but score in the past few weeks. Like you, I don’t think it’s a serious problem and it evidently isn’t affecting the others. I couldn’t care less if he’s in the Brazil team, but training around the likes of their players will surely benefit him.
Kroenke
From an Arsenal point of view you’d prefer all of our players to have a month off but appearing at the world cup is an ambition that drives top players to be better so if it makes them happy you want them there.
Ultimately we can only hope that the awarding of the world cup to Qatar finally makes the world of football stand up and say no more.
Marc/KPhobe
I think differently Marc if we had a month off even with games as in pre season, I think we could go off the boil and not start as well as we have done. When hopefully our lads come back full of great experiences, they should be a source of energy and experience for the squad.
Injuries are the only worry.
New post.