It’s @LaboGoon once again
“Daunting”… That’s the word many in the media space use to draw us a picture building up to our game at the Etihad. I don’t necessarily think they do this to dishearten us per se, it’s more to do with the excitement and the ‘aura’ that encompass Pep’s team at the moment.
Now let’s be fair; scoring 35 goals in 10 games, 21 in 5 home games, is nothing to scoff at. That is impressive.
With this ‘runaway train’ narrative comes the question: “Can anybody stop them?”
I found this on the Beeb:
• Mancity’s only win in the last 9 games vs Arsenal was a 1-0 PL victory at the Etihad last season.
• Arsenal have scored at least 2 goals in 8 of the last 10 fixtures, with City failing to keep a clean sheet during that period.
Now THAT is nothing to scoff at either and it does show Arsenal is the one team that can stop them.
I’m not gonna fool myself and pretend today’s game will not be difficult, because for us to get any joy we will need to put our backs in, stay focused through out (all over the pitch) and play to our potential.
Man City has been creating and scoring goals from everywhere, and for us to have any hope of getting a positive result we can not afford to be all over the place defensively. Petr Cech, the back 3 and Xhaka will need to be aware at all times and ensure their reading of the game is near perfect, as well as trying to be in the right positions at all times, especially in anticipation of something happening against the run of play.
Bringing me to this point: if there is one thing we need nothing of today, it is our propensity to give the ball away rather cheaply when on the front foot. The majority of our goals conceded is because of this and Man City will hurt us if we just gift them chances. We can expect them to make us work for it so there is no reason why we shouldn’t let them do the same.
That being said! Man-City conceded twice mid-week as well as twice vs WBA last Saturday. So Alexis, Ramsey and Lacazette can expect getting goal scoring opportunities, and against a team of this quality it’s crucial to make the most of it.
In our last game vs Man-City in the FA Cup semi-final Mesut Özil was the rock on which a brilliant Arsenal performance was built, and my wish is for him to provide us with that same composure today.
On team news there’s some mixed reports on whether Sead Kolašinac will be available. If he’s not we can expect Holding or Debuchy playing alongside Koscielny and Mertesacker with Monreal moving to the wing. Whether Sead will be available I guess we won’t know till few hours before kick-off.
Whatever happens the Arsenal will need show their testicular fortitude to keep a very good City team in check.
Brace yourselves Gooners, don’t listen to the great and good of Arsenal twatter that doesn’t give us any chance. If we can be resolute in defense and quick-witted in attack this will be an exciting game.
Good luck to everybody watching and supporting the Arsenal from all over the globe. To quote Shotta from the previous comments thread: keep the fingers and toes crossed.
If there’s one thing in the back of Pep Guardiola’s mind it’s that a game against Arsène Wenger’s chargers – be it from his time at Barça, Bayern or now City – it has never been easy. In fact it’s been quite “daunting”.
Positively Arsenal 
I bet he ends up selling his Arsenal stake, probably, ultimately to Stan K
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Maybe true in the case of City Xeru, unlimited money is a distinct advantage in most walks of life, but can think of other games, namely Stoke and Watford recently where we were robbed by officials against lesser teams and lesser managers
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Zero. Can I respectfully suggest that you have missed the point.
Acknowledging that man $ity have been trained brilliantly by Guardiola to be Barcelona mark 3, nevertheless at 2 1 we were beginning to show ascendancy and looked like we could save the game.
Rather like that fateful game in Barcelona when we were winning on away goals and the ref decided to intervene and send rvp off for a minor offence, if it was an offence at all, Oliver decided to hand the game to man $ity by allowing a goal that was clearly offside.
If the Barcelonas of this world cannot be beaten fairly what hope is there for anyone else and what is the point.
Yes they can be beaten but not if the ref does not follow the rules.
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media expect Wenger to get an FA charge for pointing out that Sterling dived, city’s third goal offside and shit officials got both decisions wrong, and not for the first time. Just about sums up both the FA and football journos
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well mandy, re Usmanov, he did say a couple of months ago that there was a chance that he could sell his 30%, especially if the buyer was also buying out Stan,
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Xeru, when I see a pretty non dirty team concede ten penalties in the premier league in a season, last season, two offside goals for city against us last winter, the travesty at Everton last dec, two Spurs dives resulting in penalties last season, crystal palace and west brom allowed to kick our players off the park, Chelsea allowed to knock bellerin out with an elbow to score, our team with one of the worst negative penalty balances since 2009, consistently robbed by officials against hoofers like Stoke and Watford, multiple offsides allowed against us at Southampton, the Mike Dean Chelsea debacles, Jack Wilshere crippled right in front of a ref by paddy mcnair at old Trafford with impunity , your examples kind of lose out number wise I’m afraid. And every time we get one of the decisions you so mention, the media , and certain so called fans.go overboard in their indignation , and we all know what comes next, as we do when Wenger complains. It’s coming, probably in the form of yet another Kane/Dele/dembele dive
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Cannot see anyone buying out Stan Eduardo, but who knows.
Wenger to be investigated for calling Sterling a diver! guess the truth should not be told then.
I wonder if Wenger is going to , relatively, soon call it a day, and might be more vocal than in the past? Hope one day, he lets them have it
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I don’t know how he got in ,but he’s binned.
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But , refs and officials aside, know I keep labouring the point, but we are really missing Santi Cazorla.
Wenger has a tough ask soon, it is possible he may have to effectively replace Sanchez, Ozil and Cazorla, where do you even begin on that one?
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Man City were good, but I think we matched them especially in the second half and deservedly got back into the game, and I can confidently say that we could have gone on to actually win that game but for that offside goal to knock out all the fight and momentum we had built up. Our players looked dejected and the frustration was evident as we started picking up unnecessary bookings and we could barely master any real threat on their goal.
So that’s at least 7 points we have lost this season to poor officiating in effect all but ending our title challenge. Our true enemy is the PGMOL, Wenger has pointed them out time and again but our fans choose instead to attack him and let them off the hook.
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Jeri, think our extremely powerful and well connected exec should maybe be doing something behind the scenes about this
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Am I right in saying Chelsea and Liverpool the only two of our away games we haven’t had huge calls go against us?
Stoke : pens denied, and Lacazette called offside for something so close benefit of doubt clearly not applied
Watford : fake pen (+ offside, though, as it was similar, but a bit more, than Lacazette’s, main cause for complaint is they got benefit of doubt applied where we didn’t)
Everton : foul on Xhaka leading to goal and lead for them
Man City : extremely soft pen (refs shouldn’t give those, and if they know Sterling, as they should as they are encouraged to study players extensively, talking among selves, swapping notes, preparing for each game, well, definitely shouldn’t give it. Very clear offside goal.
In reality, you can half take Liverpool game out of it. We did ourselves there early on and and they don’t tend to ‘waste’ bogus pens etc in those circumstances.
So just Chelsea where they didn’t hurt us badly in a game.
It’s why, away at least, it’s not really football to me. A football match goes on with us having to not make any sort of challenge in our box, while we can be fouled in their box; where teams can look to nick it off us for breaks with borderline challenges and get though on us, but we can’t do the reverse; offsides- same story.
It increases the difficulty level considerably- don’t miss a chance or two or who knows what’s ahead!- anything but a two-goal advantage and however the respective sides are playing, the threat is sky high.
Anyway, maybe it’s just a home advantage thing. We did get away with a pen early on against West Brom, after all.
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New post up
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