Good day one and all…
As festive fixtures continue to pile up Arsenal will be hosting their Premier League cousins Huddersfield Town at the Emirates this afternoon.
Following the last inter-break we had to navigate our way through some tricky fixtures, but with a more favourable run of six fixtures, bar Liverpool on the 29th, till New Years Day against teams at the bottom half of the PL table one feels we have a good chance to cash in – starting with the Terriers.
These two teams couldn’t have more contrasting fortunes; while Unai Emery’s side are looking to maintain their strong position in the race for top-four and bettered by only Manchester City on the goal-scoring charts, David Wagner’s Terriers look toothless having scored the least number of goals and their only hope is to be spared falling through the relegation trapdoor.
We had little trouble dispatching them 5-0 in this fixture last season and it doesn’t look like they have improved much since. They are amongst the league’s worst travellers having failed to win 17 of their last 19 and conceded 16 goals in their last 7 away games.
With the hosts in good goal scoring nick one can’t help but feel the visitors may be in for a long afternoon, which of course wouldn’t cause them much concern. With injury concerns and their next two fixtures at home to Newcastle and Southampton… it would be a matter of knowing which battles to fight. Who want to be a Terriers supporter eh?
Rob Holding out for the rest of the season has left us a bit short at the back at the moment, which could see us going back to the more conventional back four. The extra attacking player being add may be Alexandre Lacazette as one sense Unai want him and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to build a partnership upfront as they are both key to our season. Auba of course is the PL’s leading goalscorer and the French striker has been impressive off the bench recently. With Granit Xhaka back from suspension to continue building on an already imposing partnership with Lucas Torreira in central midfield, Arsenal wouldn’t be short of quality.
With the Terriers’ lack of attacking impetus its really hard seeing them coming to the Emirates to outscore a free scoring Gunners side, so this may turn out to be a straightforward game for the hosts.
@LaboGoon
Positively Arsenal 
Arsenal Academy
@ArsenalAcademy
2m2 minutes ago
Goal for @LFC. Christie-Davies latches onto a long ball and picks out Camacho, who finishes from close range
🔴 2-1 🔵 (44)
#AFCU23
LikeLike
‘Replays show there wasn’t much contact at all and Mustafi might well have embellished that.’ [BBC]- doesn’t that describe most pens now, including many against us, such as Son’s last week.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Missing Mesut in this game
LikeLiked by 1 person
Miki and Iwobi coming on for the second?
LikeLike
Mkhitaryan and Iwobi on for Lichtsteiner and Lacazette
LikeLike
7amkickoff
@7amkickoff
15m15 minutes ago
Arsenal – Huddersfield
0-0 Goals
5-3 Shots
4-4 Tackles
6-12 Fouls
4-3 Yellow cards
2-0 Yellow cards for “diving”.
LikeLiked by 1 person
so why wasn’t pritchard booked for a dive there – oh thats right he is already on a yellow and he is not in an Arsenal shirt
LikeLiked by 1 person
A game for Eddie to come on and score a blinder.
LikeLiked by 2 people
PEA despite all his goals don’t half miss some decent chances
LikeLike
Mustafi off with a hamstring injury, we have no luck with CB at the moment
LikeLiked by 1 person
Koscielny or Monreal coming on, both getting warmed up
LikeLike
A game for Eddie to come on and score a blinder. However hes not coming on.
LikeLike
Monreal coming on
LikeLike
And now we lose Mustafi
LikeLike
A game for Nacho to come on and score a blinder.
LikeLiked by 2 people
its not only in the senior game that we get screwed over by officials
Arsenal Academy
@ArsenalAcademy
1m1 minute ago
Coyle’s shot is blocked, before @BukayoSaka87 goes down inside the area. Plenty of calls for a penalty.
🔴 2-1 🔵 (61)
LikeLike
COYG!
LikeLike
Hope this ref is as hot on other teams I can think of for diving, but what is it that makes me doubt he will be?
LikeLiked by 2 people
get in ttttthhhhhheeerrrreeee!!!!!! Have that!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Torreiraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa overhead kick six yards out, no more than we deserve, the 11 are 1-0 up on the 12 men
LikeLiked by 1 person
Arsenal Academy
@ArsenalAcademy
2m2 minutes ago
Goal for @LFC. Millar scores his second of the afternoon.
🔴 4-1 🔵 (76)
LikeLike
we’ve had 3 players booked for diving today, no really
LikeLiked by 1 person
the crowd have woken up
LikeLike
The Spuds will want to sign them all Ed.
LikeLiked by 2 people
ref has been nothing short of a disgrace today
LikeLiked by 1 person
The Spuds will want to sign him too Ed.
LikeLiked by 2 people
why wasn’t that a booking for a dive from the huddersfield player, one rule for our players, another altogether for everyone else’s
LikeLiked by 1 person
7 minutes of injury time, we would not have seen that is it was still 0-0
LikeLiked by 1 person
FT: Arsenal 1-0 Huddersfield
Torreira with our winner, a deserved win even if we did not play at our best, and despite the best efforts of the PGMOL game manager today we got the win.
This was one of the worst Ref performances I’ve seen in a very long time, the PGMOL have found their long term replacement for Mike Dean.
Mustafi injured, Sokratis will also miss the Southampton game next weekend through suspension
LikeLiked by 1 person
did i mention we are currently 3rd in the table
LikeLike
Phew. Hudderswank werent easy at all. But we did the biz. Ha! Har!
COYG!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Arsenal Academy
@ArsenalAcademy
1m1 minute ago
Full-time: @LFC 4-1 #AFCU23
Despite an early goal from @tyreecejj9, the hosts went on to secure all three points with a clinical second half performance 😫
LikeLike
I will take that. Leggy, injuries, notat our very best.
A ref who was all over the place, cynical tactics rewarded. The only ref in this league with an eagle eye for diving, for one side at least. Set him on Vardy Kane Dele Son Sterling Lamella Salah et al, and if he reacts the same way he did with our players today, he will gain some of my respect, but we shall see.
Their penalty hunt could have been rewarded at the end.
But what a player we have in Torriera and what a week he has had.
3 points, a superb run, just need to watch those injures and suspensions though.
Good to see Nacho back
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ha ha at the 7 minutes. Lovely touch that is. Fuck that twat and the gimpship he sails in.
Yes! 3 points. No doubts now- not that there ever were really- we have a tough little gem in Torreira
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lacked a bit of cutting edge today but the boys barely a week ago left it all out there on the pitch and had a bruising encounter midweek. Add the referee also being a deadbeat and one can’t fault the performance at all when we got the result. A win is a win is a win. COYG!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Koscielny due to start in our EL game next Thursday night, Monreal back today, their comebacks could not have come at a better and more needed time.
poor old Eddie Nketiah, everytime it looks like he might get some game time we suffer enforced changes and he doesn’t get on. Hopefully his time will come soon, or he will not have that chance Emery talked about, to prove we don’t need a new forward signing in January
LikeLike
The worry is both Kos and Nacho were going to be eased back and now they are going to be pressed into action quickly. the other problem with the December/January fixture list means they may have to play more than once a week.
The squad is going to be tested big time over the coming months and all the youngsters will have their part to play and that includes players like Jenks as well.
Got to say although Auba’s movement and positioning are fantastic his finishing is poor, those who moaned at big Oli but think Auba is the dogs should hold their head in shame, as a first touch finisher Oli is much better.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Eddie’s bad luck outrageous on sub front. Hopefully few years to run on contract as think young players more likely to get frustrated and look elsewhere these days.
Thursday’s surely a guarantee though.
Mustafi Socratis out could well change Kos thinking for Thurs?
Not ideal at all to bring him back to intensity of prem any sooner than planned and ,crucially, with no exp cb on bench, but that may be a necessity.
Ballard would be my choice of most ready from u23’s (for sub spot maybe), but would be big jump, plus maybe u23 suspension applies to prem also (plus medley seems preferred)- so maybe not!
Thurs could provide opportunity to throw in one of the young centre backs so they are at least a little better prepared for 1st team if needs must in this period.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Would hurt me to see Kos back in twice a week action anytime soon. Feel he may have got away with achilles issue, till world cup at least, if only playing once a week.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I suppose Sokratis should be selected on Thursday in EL seeing as he misses the Southampton game
We then have the returning Koscielny and Monreal, plus Lichtsteiner, and Jenkinson, plus young lads like Medley and Ballard, not forgetting Pleggy if he is over his injury by then. Elneny could maybe play there too.
LikeLike
CFC leading man city 1-0 at HT, is there only going to be one unbeaten team by end of todays games
LikeLike
CFC 2-0 Man City, about then minutes to go, looks like city’s first BPL loss of the season, and we will be down to 4th, and 8pts off LFC in top.
We could do with LCFC avoiding defeat v spurs, a win would be great
LikeLike
Just one more team to lose to keep those immortal Invincibles unique, not that they aren’t anyway
LikeLike
A well deserved win by CFC – ahead of us on GD only. I fancy Leicester to get something from tonight against the neighbours.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Silvana Flores featured for Mexico in the Under-17s Women’s World Cup final against Spain on Saturday.
The 16-year-old midfielder played in all six of Mexico’s fixtures in the build-up to the final – but she was unable to stop them from slipping to a 2-1 defeat.
Mexico qualified from the group stage following outings against South Africa, Brazil and Japan, before beating Ghana 4-2 on penalties in the quarter finals.
They then went on to beat Canada 1-0 in the semi-finals – but a brace from Spain’s Claudia Pina condemned them to defeat.
Copyright 2018 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to http://www.arsenal.com as the source.
It seems her 15 year old brother is in our Hale End Academy and her 14 year old sister is also with Arsenal Girls teams
LikeLike
HLTCO
@HLTCO
27m27 minutes ago
Next weekend…
Manchester City v Everton
Liverpool v Manchester United
Reds cheering on Everton & City fans backing United to win. Strange times.
LikeLike
Chelsea were good that second half-fair play. Pedro one of a number who looked very sharp.
Anyone know if all that moaning from Pep was about the disputed corner Chelsea scored second from?
Looked a good call to me first time, replay seemed to back it up, then, for reasons unknown, they decided Pep’s protests were worthy of some special zooming in (which you don’t often see)
Don’t know how they decide what incidents are worthy of that CSI: Sky treatment, but there are a plenty of incidents a lot more deserving of extra scrutiny than that one (not that the zoom added anything comprehensible)
Pep looked like a dick anyway. Feck knows how he’d react if he was seriously hard done by.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Alli down under minimal if any contact. Looks up and thinks ref is about to book him. New policy and all that. Nope.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s a long time since I’ve seen such a one-sided performance by a referee, so we did exceptionally well to get past him and Huddersfield. That was a tough game, especially coming on top of the spuds and manure. I think we seriously missed the guile and creativity of Ozil and/or Ramsey. Those who can’t see how much they add to our team must be wilfully blind.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Trouble is Rich, Tottenham are a team with a less than Corinthian attitude to the game, and as the PGMOL refuse to punish their diving, indeed, I would suggest some refs are at pains to reward it, meaning they are under no incentive whatsoever to curtail their cheating, especially in the face of media silence
LikeLiked by 2 people