Hello and how are you? Sunday the 25th of January sees the Mighty Cannon play host to Manchester United. KO at the Emirates is at 4.30pm local time. Expected weather is partly cloudy with temps at 7° ( feels like 1°) with 30% chance of rain.
So suddenly United are being ( in some areas) touted as a club with Lazarian qualities, a club that will save the PL from the dreaded Arsenal and bring back the title to the red side of Manchester, which as we know is the only place it really belongs, at least in the media/pundit heart. Well we shall see.
Hincapie and Calafiori were both back in training for the Cannon, but young Gun Dowman is still out of action. So almost a full squad for Arsenal.
Mazraoui is back from the Africa Cup of nations, however Matthijs de Ligt and Joshua Zirkzee are missing for United.
I walked into Statto HQ and while they argued about the finer points of coding in HTML they gave me the match predictions: Arsenal have a 61.1% chance of victory through harmony, while United have a 16.5%. Next up, another CL clash, this time against Kairat at the Emirates. So COYG!
Mills
A couple of weeks ago this fixture would have been considered a gimme, Not so much now? The old “new manager bounce” is in full cry, I mean this new manager is “unbeaten”. Players that United fans well calling useless are now being touted as world beaters, A spirit that was broken is now said to be back to the real United. Mmm. Ok.
I hope they cone here brim full of confidence and have a right go atus, because if they do, in an open game, we should batter them. Shooting boots on lads , leys have a clasic display, because the media keep suggesting we will get jittery in the run in, this is an opportunity to kick that into touch.
Enjoy the game.
Pedantic George.
Positively Arsenal 
Good previews guys,
So we face the fast and furious today, with manure under their new manager playing in a low block but with a lightening transition (thats a fast break to me and you). Not only do they break quickly but last week against city they did it in numbers so giving the ball away just outside their box is an absolute no no, Odegaard beware.
They also score lots from dead ball situations as well and ate nearly as good as us in that respect.
Having talked about their weapons in his presser, Mikel is well aware of the dangers and should have planned accordingly.
Manure do like to conceed goals from set pieces as well so we will have to take advantage of that.
We know they have players all over the pitch who can score but so do we in abundance and from the bench.
Normally I would always start with Gyorkeres but their defences might actually find a small Jesus more of a handful.
Whoever starts they will he frightened off and will also be very scared of those coming off the bench (Endgamers apparently).
This may be one of those games where we need to score first and early to disrupt their game plan.
Another week another must win game but we are very good at home COYG.
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Raya, Timber, Gabriel, Saliba, Hincapie, Rice, Zubimendi, Odegaard, Saka, Trossard, Jesus.
Subs: Arrizabalaga, Mosquera, White, Lewis-Skelly, Merino, Eze, Martinelli, Madueke, Gyokeres
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14 wins needed maximum for the title.
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HT: Arsenal 1-1 Man Utd
an own goal after dominating the first half hour seen us looking like we were in control, but we eased off, and mistakes came into our game and one such mistake let them in for their goal.
a big second half needed.
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arsenal have shit the bed, 2-1 to utd,
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Eze on Odegaard off
White on Hincapie off
Gyokeres on Jesus off
Merino on Zubimendi off
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15 minutes to go and the last throw of the dice, Madueke on for Trossard
we have been abysmal
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2-2,
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Merino scored that goal
we so need to win this, about 5 minutes and stoppage time to be played
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of fuck off, utd take the lead again almost instantly, we can’t deny we are bottlers, we like to laugh at spurs but we do the same shit as them, we find ways to lose.
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7 minutes of stoppage time to maybe even save our season, let alone our title chances. This performance has been dire. Arteta is a coward, sets the team out to play like we are the underdog, its set up to try not to lose and hope to win instead of try to win and hope to not lose. Risk averse bullshit.
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FT: Bottlers 2-3 Man UT
what an abysmal performance, totally on top for first half an hour, took the lead and then stopped playing, as so often happens to this risk averse team.
We get level with 7 minutes to go and bottled it. I will not be surprised if we don’t win a trophy this season, if i was a betting man I put money on Chelsea knocking us out of the CC.
We have an array of attacking talent who are completely stifled with Artetaball. And don’t get me started on the amount of time it takes us to take throw ins and freekicks. Its all paint by numbers football, a team built in the image of its manager. But he is good at press conferences.
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Many were saying after the stale Forrest game it was a good away point and the performance was a one off, but today proved we are not right. To give a Sunday league player that mutch time you expect to be punished but top quality players will have a cup of tea, score, then laugh in your face.
We need a reset and build some quality performances or we can wave this good bye….again.
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The AAA are out and sniffing blood…always coming out after a loss.I always wonder why you dont come out praising Arteta when we win???
Man utd took their chances 3 shots on target 3 goals…how often does that happen in a match???
Next up Chelsea in Carabao cup….COYG!!!!
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Wow talk about pick out what you read. When we play well everyone on here says that. Ignoring bad performances however is not supporting your team its just a “I see no ships” moment.
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Well actually its Uefa champions league…COYG!!!
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some like to pretend that Arteta is some sort of Pep/Arsene hybrid, but the reality is that he is Moyes with a chequebook, he is an underdog manager.
Arteta is so focused on the fine details, the set piece coach, the throw in coach, the control, he is so emersed in the fine details he has forgot the main detail, a game plan that is centered around creating goals, the fine details should be the icing on the cake, not the actual cake.
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I do think the boos are ridiculous. Yes we didn’t play well but we are top of the league for fucks sake. The modern Premier league fans are shit and we are the not the spudsthey need to get a grip. It makes me wonder if because the game was against manure there was a lot of glory hunters there.
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I think Ian that the boos are cos of a couple of things, we started well, took the lead and once again after taking the lead we stopped, our level dropped big time, this is a recurring theme. Not just this season but for 3 or 4 seasons now, and that is the biggest reason for the boos, they have seen it cost us a couple of league titles, and can see it costing us this one too. We’ve had the chance in the last few weeks to now be 11 points clear, but two 0-0 and now a defeat, sees us just the 4 points in the lead. there is a real fear that Arteta and the team can not handle the pressure of being title favorites.
We have what should be very winnable fixtures coming up now, we have an easy CL game midweek, Leeds on Saturday, the second leg of the CC cup, where we only need avoid defeat to make the final, Sunderland, Brentford and then Wigan in the FA Cup before we face some big games spurs and chelsea.
A run of wins in the league is very badly needed. the manager and the team have to embrace being favorites and stop being shrinking violets. Arteta needs to take the leash off and find a way of playing creative football. When behind today it looked like all we wanted to do was get corners. Goals from corners should be the icing on the cake, not the whole cake.
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Speaking during the half-time interval, Arsenal legend Patrick Vieira was far from impressed with his former side’s tactics. He said on Sky Sports: “The feeling is that there’s no risk, there are too many passes going backwards, not forward. I want Arsenal to be more brave, take a little bit more risk
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just seen this elsewhere and couldn’t agree more
It wasn’t a throw in coach we needed, it was an attacking coach.
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