@LaboGoon casts off the weeks cobwebs and heads for N5
Good day one and all,
The headline fixture this weekend will no doubt be Arsenal’s second London derby in as many weeks, with Chelsea taking the short trip across the capital to the Emirates Stadium.
Last Saturday the Gunners endured a miserable time at the London Stadium, compounded by wins for our top-six rivals, bar Tottenham of course who do have a seven point advantage. Now, six points off of top-four and beyond halfway through the Premier League season, Unai Emery will hope his side has put that Hammers’ game behind them with the visit of Hazard and co.
For all our concerns of how Unai goes about his business there’s no denying that his Arsenal project is still very much a work in progress. With the honeymoon period now a thing of the past though, we do hope he works out his best matchday XI sooner rather than later, because with games against the Blues today and defending champions Mancity on the horizon, the team definitely have their work cut out if they want to see a revival of their Champions League qualification hopes. Victory here today would give an invaluable boost in pursuit of that following a rather indifferent past few weeks.
In like manner, Chelsea will want to maintain their place in the top-four and a win for them would really turn the screw in the race for 4th place, as a nine point gap may prove to be too difficult a deficit to turnover for the Gunners.
Both sides have their strengths and drawbacks, which almost seem to even each other out; whereas Arsenal’s main struggles are at the back, the visitors lack a reliable finisher with Morata’s head in the Spanish capital and Giroud injured. Likewise, the hosts possess match winning attackers, whilst Maurizio Sarri’s team have one of the PL’s best defenses as only Liverpool have kept more clean sheets than them all season.
Where was this “match winning attackers” last weekend some may ask as both Lacazette and Auba started, well, they didn’t see nearly enough of the ball for us to be in control of the game. Which has led to what has been more than just a hot topic all week – Mesut Özil’s absence. It started with Sokratis saying post match that we lacked creativity, having had just three shots on target, two of them hopeful shots by Guendouzi from outside the box.
Now the question most are asking is will Unai draft in our creative enforcer who can deliver two to three golden chances per game. That’s anyone’s guess, but if Özil don’t play the onus will be on the forwards to make more of the half chances than recently.
Playing at home always seem to give the Gunners that bit of an extra edge but make no mistake, that’s not going make our opponents less difficult. And while I’m sure a draw won’t be frowned upon… in the context of top-four and Manutd hosting Brighton in an earlier game, we need a win more than anything else and now certainly is the time to play brave or go home as we eye more than just a fifth consecutive win in front of the Emirates faithful.
Positively Arsenal 
Banging goal from Lacca, Auba nearly had a couple, bad tackle on Rambo from Luiz-could see Luiz off in the second, a lot of high pressing and hassle from the Gunners nice to see it. COYG!
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HT: Arsenal 2-0 Chelsea
a high tempo and breathless 45, Lacazette and Koscielny with our goals, we’ve had a couple of other good chances, but Chelsea have had some very close calls too, hitting the woodwork too.
felt there was a nasty element in that half and taylor will have to stamp down on it more in the second half
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Great contest – CFC roaring back. They don’t lose the ball often, very tidy. Just seen Sead’s take out of Pedro – the thunder of Bosnian hooves strikes again – classic
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will this game finish with 11 v 11
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Other than Luiz being an idiot all civilised so far – even Hazard hasn’t started chucking himself about (yet)
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Good, exciting half.
Vintage Kos. Tried to savour his performance because you never know how many more he has in him.
Luiz looks to have lost his head. Did something off ball to Torreira early doors; studs and a lot of force on Ramsey; then at a corner late on putting hands all over numerous defenders. Just hope any craziness to come doesn’t endanger our players.
Lot of good performances that half.
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COYG!
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we are finding it hard to retain possession
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cfc bring on barkley,
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we are after having a couple of good attacks, just fractions out with final ball
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that was a sore one, kos puts his body on the line to block a shot
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iwobi and amn on for lacazette and ramsey, both have been very good
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wished they could have stayed on. But hey i aint the Guv. COYG!
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bellerin looks to be in real trouble, game stopped
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That’s an ACL. Poor boy.
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elneny is coming on for him, bellerin still down getting treatment, seems to be a bad knee injury, the stretcher is on to bring him off on, fuck it
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Doesnt look good for Hector.
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that could be Bellerin’s season done
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the put his leg in a brace, might be something broken
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Ffs, looks like yet another serious knee injury.
Bellerin is a vital player for us, the seriousness of the injuries we are getting is a real concern. Always one of ours when you see a stretcher!
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No Ozil today
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giroud is on for cfc
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stat just came up both teams with 11 shots, afc with 5 on target, cfc with none on target
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If that is what it looks like, think the fitness team may need to have a closer look at training methods, that could be three such injuries at once, not a medic, but that would seem a little unusual within a first team squad, even for this team? Guess we have to wait and see what is diagnosed, but really does not look good
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the much talked about Hudson-Odoi on for cfc
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alonso with a bit of eye gouging on AMN, cunt
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Torreira down with cramp
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xhaka down with a shoulder injury,
6 minutes stoppage time to be played
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nasty one by barkely on guendouzi, lucky it was only a yellow
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FT: Arsenal 2-0 Chelsea
Lacazette and Koscielny with our goals, a good all round high tempo performance, begs the question why we don’t see this against the lesser sides,
the bad news is that Bellerin looks to have suffered a season ending injury
several more of our players took some heavy knocks too.
FA Cup v Man utd next up, lets hope we see this sort of tempo and energy from us again
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We are now 3pts off 4th spot
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A very decent win, and clean sheet against a rival, well deserved.
But costly. A time for backup player, a second choice, fringe player or youngster to shine in Bellerins place it seems, as reported transfer targets seem to be those who can do what our most talented player can do, rather than strengthen at the back!
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Absolutely tremendous. Great shift from Guendouzi.
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Well, great work from lads (apologies if this is against the grain, but I much preferred us with Rambo and Lacca on, after they went off we looked less like scoring again), I personally missed Mesut, he no-show should keep the hack- Fleischers in ink for the week though.
However the first half display was really great to watch, top goals from Lacca and Kos. If we play like that lot from Old Toilet better watch out.
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Great performance especially against such a shit ref oh and a top four side
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mandy our options to replace bellerin are AMN, Licthsteiner and Jenkinson, I can’t see us using any of the young RB’s such as osei-tutu or daley-campell, for me it really has to be either AMN or Jenkinson, as our system so needs someone with a good engine at RB
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Good performance and an even better result. For a side that has struggled to put together a defensive performance over the full 90 that was much, much better.
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Well, whoever it is Ed, hope they shine, but big boots to fill.
AMN is a pretty useful player, always like to see Jenks wear the shirt, Licht can look off the pace, but perhaps as the season goes on, his, relatively, aging limbs will adjust.
Youngsters, we shall see.
On another note, Great to see Kos roll back the years
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Interesting to compare Guendozi’s outing today against Chelsea with pre-season. Haven’t heard any doubt about his potential. One of Sven’s gems?
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Andy
Koscielny after his pre-season showing he’s not thinking of going to Lorient just yet. My MOTM.
Sokratis won my heart with a gentleman’s hack on Pedro* in pre-season.
*the Spanish Theo. Has a better technique then the former Gunner but half the goals and assists. Very grateful the Chelsea manager chose to not start the World Cup winning targetman ahead of forwards like Hazard, Willian or Pedro. The World Cup wining coach is probably as confused by that call as I am (swap Hazard and one other for Mbappe and Griezman…).
I am happy to report the former Gunner Giroud received a great support from the home crowd after the final whistle, and also when warming up. Standing ovation for Ramsey too.
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< no shots on target for the visitors? Pedro with a good chance, but fortunately it fell to Pedro!
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Hazard is usually deadly against us one way or the other Fins – today though he was never able to find the extra yard in the box or to draw in a lunging challenge from a defender. Really good discipline. Willian is still a handful. I’m surprised they are letting him go at the end of the season.
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from football.london – emery’s after game comments
Emery on the win
We started very strong, with high pressing.
Today, the circumstances were with us. The mentality was good, our supporters helped us a lot.
We want to find the same performance and mentality when we are away.
Emery on his players
Every player contributed. They worked first, they were together when we had the ball.
Today, every player worked a lot. We said before the match we needed to run more than them.
We needed to recover the ball very quickly and we did that. The second half it was difficult to keep this pressing and the match changed technically.
We worked well defensively deep when we needed to. The clean sheet was important.
Emery on Bellerin’s injury
We will wait. It’s his knee. The prediction is is could be an important injury. I hope no, but our first impression is not positive.
On signing a replacement for Bellerin
We have Ainsley. Also Lichtsteiner. Also I don’t forget Jenkinson.
Emery on whether the deal for Denis Suarez is now close
The club is working. I cannot speak about individual players, but I know the club is working.
On whether he expects a transfer to happen this week
I believe they work, I know it is difficult. If one player is coming, I am happy. I am going to wait.
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yeah anicol, its very odd that Wiliian is being let leave as he is always in the thick of the action, wouldn’t mind seeing him rock up at the Emirates
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I’m surprised they’re letting Giroud go and not playing him when he’ll be riding high and full of beans after having won a World Cup! But I am not complaining.
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seemingly Denis Suárez has been left out of Barcelona squad to play Leganes tomorrow, and as Emery said the club are working on getting a player in, we might have a new toy in the coming days
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fins I wouldn’t mind old Giroud back with us either, a different option from the bench maybe.
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some suggesting that Bellerin’s ACL has snapped and would be looking at six months or more out of the game.
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Eds I couldn’t imagine a coach that wouldn’t want Giroud in their squad, but the Chelsea manager isn’t keen to keep him.
Think he’ll want to be a starter for his next team.
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