Well that was rather good. Beautiful ,fast ,aggressive , organised football in the first half to open up a 2 goal lead, then controlled shape in the 2nd half to maintain the advantage. What a wonderful refreshing change to the way we have laboured for the bulk of the past 18 months.
The result was needed, but not half as much as the performance. That should give the players belief in Arteta and in turn give him the belief in the playes. Players that had been written off in the media and by many of our own fans, specifically Ozil, Xhaka, Torreira and Luiz, were absolutely brilliant.
I said that Mikel would struggle to find a balanced midfield, how wrong could I have been?
Lacazette, much maligned in recent week, although not at his best in front of goal, put in a shift and a half.
Ozil purred like the beautiful player he is, he was back to his best, again,
Torreira was everything we hoped he would be when we signed him and Xhaka will have upset a lot of people because he ran the midfield.
This my positive friends, was a great start to the new decade, the time of Arteta dawns.
Positively Arsenal 
Great great win.
Playing Torreia, Xhaka and Özil in their correct positions, it rodent take a genius
But Mikel has got them back to basics with clear ta tics.
If we can find an attacking midfielder with a few goals in him, and get Auba-Laca working on the same wavelength then I think there is still a chance of climbing up the table.
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Just when we’ve got stuff to be mighty positive about, comments section seems iffy.
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Terrific. Was in tears at the end and credit to BT Sports for their positive coverage post match. Referreing was appalling but today no matter. Luiz is our captain now.
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Fantastic performance from all, and as for Xhaka, Torriera, and Ozil, my oh my.
Delighted for them all. Especially after being robbed by Chelsea and the PGMOL so recently and another clear Rileyist officiating today, but our players stood strong.
And what has happened to AMN! A player emery said he wanted to build a team on, then preceded to try and ruin him, but AMN is back with a bit of a bang.
Great start to 2020 and a nice little feck you to Mike Riley, and long may it continue
Well done Mikel Arteta
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Green shoots a plenty!
It seems like those players have been crying out for structure and I’m sure playing in their best positions helped. I’m not sure why it has taken so long as every person and their dog could see it.
Arteta is clearly a great man manager and is able to convey exactly what he demands.
It is only one win but the world looks a different place tonight.
A clean sheet as well HNY!
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Arteta’s press conference, quotes from Football.london
Arteta on the result
“I am very pleased with the performance and even more with the result.
“I said to the players what you transmit to the fans is up to you. Thank you so much to the fans because of the energy they brought.”
Arteta on the energy levels
“I hope it will get better. We are suffering to maintain the level of our first half but it will come.
“But I like to see them suffer. When they have to defend deeper I want to see that reaction.”
Arteta on Xhaka
“I think he’s going to stay.
“Yes, (he gave me that assurance).
“I like how focused he is, he’s willing to learn.”
Arteta on the importance of the result
“We are judged by results and that will give the players a massive lift. What we are trying to create is happening.”
Arteta on his first win
“I was so happy to turn around and see smiling faces. That’s what I want.”
Arteta on Nketiah
“I’m having a meeting tomorrow with Edu and Raul so we will see what’s best for him.”
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Green shoots a plenty!
It seems like those players have been crying out for structure and I’m sure playing in their best positions helped. I’m not sure why it has taken so long as every person and their dog could see it.
Arteta is clearly a great man manager and is able to convey exactly what he demands.
It is only one win but the world looks a different place tonight.
A clean sheet as well HNY!
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‘Tis a beautiful sight
To see the Arsenal purring
2 goals and a clean sheet truthfully emphasized the display on the pitch. Well done to the players
Well done to MA & his staff.
Long may it continue.
Structure at last, structure at last!
COYG!!!!
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now who would have thought that Arteta, a man who was captain of the club when Mesut Ozil joined, and who played and trained along side him for a couple of years, would actually know that all the Ozil is finish, Ozil is lazy, Ozil is a luxury, Ozil can’t cut it in the EPL, was and is a total load of bollocks, and would set up the team to allow Ozil to play the way he can play.
I’m not only talking about letting Ozil take up the positions that best suit him, cos for me Ozil was taking up those positions in most games he played in when Emery was here, but I’m talking more about setting up other attacking players to take up positions and make runs into area’s that would mean Ozil has people to pass to, people to feed the ball to, and once again I will say, and not only that, but those people Ozil sets free also have players getting into positions to keep the attack going. That is the biggest difference to our attacking play through Ozil now under Arteta from when Emery was in charge.
Ozil’s running stats were always usually very high, but under Emery far too often we hadn’t the game plan, or the will of tactics to get the ball to him, and have runners off him. We had a world class no.10 being asked to play like a run of the mill no name midfielder.
Arteta is an intelligent man, he was an intelligent player, he surely knew from his playing days here just how outstanding a talent Ozil is, and as a midfielder Arteta knew how to feed the ball to Ozil when they were team mates, and its bloody brilliant that he seems to know how to set up a team to feed the ball to ozil once more.
Ozil is the player in our team who understands the attacking game the best, give him 3 options to pass to and he will almost always pick the right one, the best one.
Tonight he was able to last the full 90 minutes and it meant we continued to have an attacking force for the full game, unlike the last two game where our attacking play went once ozil was taken off, we had no ice cold passer when we had our breaks v Chelsea in the last 15 to 20 minutes of the game.
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Xhaka will be Arteta to this team… Am really glad if its true he decided to stay… He can really learn much from Arleta… also hardworking and seems to be loyal like him…
Emery being gone give a chance for a fresh start for the team and their new manager. Hope He can consign the past to the past
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have to laugh at steve bruce complaining that the amount of games over christmas has led to 4 of his players getting injuries due to fatigue, he claims he knew fatigue would cause injuries,
so if he knew it would likely cause injuries, then why the fuck didn’t he rotate his team. Its clearly his fault as the man who selects the team, if he over uses players and that sees them get fatigue caused injuries.
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might not be the time to ask this, but our next game is not till Monday, in the FAC v Leeds, and then its the Saturday in the EPL v Crystal Palace, so with that in mind, should we be selecting as many senior players as possible so that they can keep learning the Arteta way, and build up that 90 minute fitness that they and he says is missing at the moment, or should we be giving squad men and youths a chance.
For me where possible we should go with a first choice starting 11, maybe youths on the bench, we certainly should not take leeds lightly and we should be looking at trying to win the FAC this season.
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At last! It was great to see us finally playing to our strengths. Yet again we have to play against appallingly biased refereeing and end up with more cards for less fouls and the unbelievable booking of one of our players for time wasting! The crowd were also on good form tonight. Hopefully this is something we can we can build on.
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Well done for the win too… Long overdue… so many matches that looked weird as to why we lost or drew them… this is so much better
Arsenal being Arsenal Again is a good title!
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The FAC would be a good trophy for MA to start his reign with.. He won a few with Arsenal back in the day!
LOL
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I’m glad to hear that Xhaka is staying, he really looked like he was saying farewell as he clapped the crowd at the end of the game. I feel even more positive with him sticking around.
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I’d go other way for FA cup. Centre mid at least, and cb depending on what situation is with various fitness issues.
Risky given its a v good Leeds team, but can’t stand thought of losing key player at end of punishing period schedule wise. Thinking of Torreira in particular. Has worked phenomenally hard in this period and without doubt was feeling it latter stages today.
Also, I’ll admit, really love seeing young players get opportunities. maybe a little extra with Arteta, as they all seem to have responded well to him
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Good day for one of my theories, bad day for player safety in prem. Theory is that when players get away with bad tackle, instead of reflecting as you’d hope and being less likely to do it again, they are much more likely to do it again, normally soon.
Cresswell. Brought out again that favourite of dirty shits of getting strong contact with ball then going horizontal mid air and making heavy contact with player.
Ref-hurrah- did right and showed red. VAR- for fuck sake- reversed decision
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Refs/pgmol have- incredibly, implausibly- no concept of their rightful role in reducing likelihood of players suffering bad injuries from bad challenges. Cresswell decision should dismay anyone who cares about the issue.
Likelihood of him injuring someone far higher than should be. Each time his type get away with something they become more likely to do it again.
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yeah rick that old crock of shit about “he got the ball so no red” was trotted out once again, can you imagine next summer a defender doing that exact same tackle on one of England’s Golden boys at the Euros, they same pundits and commentators would want him hung drawn and quartered, there would be none of this he got the ball bullshit that keeps getting trotted out for the “not that sort of” English “player and he loves his mum”
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Ed. Thing for me is to think of prospect of Cresswell doing it again soon, or even any time, and badly injuring someone. Truly believe, it is much more likely, thanks to pathetic pgmol leniency, and that they would bear huge amount of responsibility for it.
Staggering to me that Cresswell’s lesson other week was not to think how close he came to badly injuring a fellow player, but rather that it is ok, good even, to challenge like that.
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So he’s a dickhead, Cresswell. But he’s not part of any wider organisation that is meant to run on logical, moral grounds, distinguished more by mental rather than physical prowess. That, however, is, surely, precisely what those tasked with player safety and, basically justice in game should excel at. I simply don’t understand how their minds work, how they can’t see it even reasonably close to the way I do (although, without doubt, they’d claim to)
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One tentative theory I have, and this is wrong language for it, but best can do at late hour, is that they are Beta’s trying to ingratiate themselves with Alpha’s.
There’s the joke, unfair though it is, but with a fair old kernel of truth, that if you can’t play football, you referee, and I think they may act under some wrong-headed impulse to try show ‘hey, I may be a ref not a player, but I’m one of you.. in that I like to see game played hard. Man’s game, isn’t it. I’m not some officious, weak little shit. I’m on your side tough guys’
Though, of course, they aren’t truly consistent on even that. So it could never be that alone which explains their ways.
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Happy New Year to all! Well isn’t this just what the doctor ordered! The shift in the team started when Freddie took over but now with MA I think we will see a structure quickly take place. Already other teams no longer are getting 15-20 shots a match. It’s too bad el molino didn’t get the axe in November but here we are….like others have said getting our best players playing to their strengths is a pretty good idea! It will be nice to look forward to games again!
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Interesting little piece here. part of Series apparently. Arsene one of interviewees.
https://www.getfootballnewsfrance.com/2020/to-counter-possession-football-a-new-style-has-emerged-based-on-counter-pressing-quick-transitions-why/
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Thanks stillarich, that is very interesting, as ever Arsene knocks it out of the park.
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I read somewhere that incoming managers of clubs in crisis are most likely to trot out the line that the players were not fit enough. And that the bounce factor is often due to players trying super hard and working a lot more industrially than their basic levels of fitness would allow on a consistent basis.
I find it hard to believe that a club like Arsenal with all its advanced sports tech would not get its players as fit as it is possible to do so.
Which makes me wonder when MA suggests that our players are not fit enough to do the job he needs them to do whether he has become used over the last few years to a regime that makes it easier for young men to go beyond what seems humanly possible.
And that when David Luiz echoes those sentiments he too is used to key players having their little helpers.
And I am absolutely certain that the top teams in recent years (City, Liverpool, Leicester and Tottenham) have done everything in their power to extract the last drops of commitment and energy from their squads.
I wonder what AW would think.
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arteta on xhaka staying
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Arteta confirmed that Calum Chambers had an operation on his knee today
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Did the player that injured chambers get a card.. seems there is a targeting of our defenders!
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Well done to Arteta on Xhaka Staying…
Hope he is able to turn things around for Mustafi too… I like him
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Well done to Arteta for Xhaka staying. Hope he is able to archieve same with Mustafi…. I think he is a hard working player and actually scores goals…
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teamspirit. I suspected foul play with Chambers after comment I read, and because normally case with our injuries, but on this occasion don’t think opponent to blame.
From angle I saw looked a pretty honest battle between two players. Hint of a little shove at end but didn’t look worthy of card and probably not a foul.
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On same front, just became aware Villa player Wesley was injured in tackle by burnley player other night and prob out for 10 months or more.
The still image of impact is absolutely horrendous. I’ll admit, live video of it the Burnley player doesn’t look a tenth as culpable. Still my belief that if player gets lot of ball but then absolutely smashes into player, injuring them badly, red should almost always be produced. A case of how can it not be reckless- or whatever red criteria is- if it produces that result?
More important though it the simple logic that the only way to reduce probability of those challenges and injuries is to lean on side of harshness towards tackler, even if they don’t cause sickening injury. It’s guaranteed certain players and no doubt certain managers will never change behaviours over close calls, etc, and will only respond to punishment.
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Believe it’s been coming for a while now in prem this year- horror injury, where players leg devastatingly caught, as Wesley’s was.
Alarmingly, don’t think it got much coverage at all, so won’t act as a reset or anything, and danger level will remain far too high.
Surprise, surprise, a good ole Brit did it. All those worries over years of too many foreigners not enough Brits playing but you would never guess if only had list of bad tackles to go on. Must be over 90% of time it’s a Brit player doing it.
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Arsenal are being linked with Bayern Munich CB Jerome Boateng
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“We’ve had a tough 2019, but something very special is starting to happen at our football club”
From a man who should know, club photographer who spends his days around the players and coaches, Stuart Macfarlane, …and that quote was from before the Utd game
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It is Chambers left knee he’s done then. Must have been strange type of injury as 90% sure landing was purely on right leg. They put it down to awkward landing during game but can’t have been that.
On video did look like something went wrong as he was jumping.
Makes no difference of course, but never heard of an ACL going as player takes off from ground before. Seriously gutted about this one. Am with them all but seems exceptionally cruel when had shown such persistence to fight into team and with plenty of uncertainty in that position.
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Here’s a team news update ahead of Monday’s FA Cup match against Leeds United:
Calum Chambers
Further to the injury sustained during the match against Chelsea on Sunday, we can confirm that Calum ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament of his left knee. Calum has had successful surgery in London on Thursday morning. The rehabilitation process is expected to take between six to nine months. Everyone at the club will be supporting Calum to ensure he is back on the pitch as soon as possible.
Hector Bellerin
Tight right hamstring. Being assessed ahead of Leeds United (h).
Gabriel Martinelli
Tight left hamstring. Being assessed ahead of Leeds United (h).
Kieran Tierney
Right shoulder. Dislocated right shoulder during the match at West Ham Utd on 9 December. Kieran has had successful surgery and will now rehabilitate for around three months, aiming to return to full training in March.
Copyright 2020 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.
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When did Bellerin last play by way? Guessing about a month but who knows with amount of games recently.
Can’t remember many like this before with that update for hamstring game after game.
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“ non negotiable” might try that one myself ,at work, and in certain family matters, as it seems to be the motivating buzz word phrase of the moment, in the Arsenal world at least
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/i noticed in Arteta’s press conference the journos tried to make the hard work thing about Ozil and thankfully Arteta shot it down as he said it applies to every single player, not just Mesut.
Arteta seems very media savvy, seldom 100% commits in an answer, like the Xhaka and PEA transfer rumors he went with the “I want them to stay”, or “not even thinking about them leaving”, also he pulled a Wenger on possible transfers in “looking to sign players who will improve us but it will be hard, so I’m more concerned with getting our injured players back playing”
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The Mezut distance covered thing is not new, when he was playing well under Arsene he was regularly amongst the highest travellers. When he is allowed to roam he is at his best and therefore covers a great deal of ground. Under Unai he was constricted and obviously covered less it’s not necessarily an effort thing it’s just a tactical thing. Not rocket science but there you go pundits and journos are usually stupid anyway.
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What was great about New Year’s Day was to see the crisp first-time passing again. There was a real sense of players enjoying being good at their work. As well as the motivational skills Arteta seems to have, and his obvious tactical nous it would appear that he takes the technical side seriously. It would not surprise me at all to see him get huge improvement out of Ceballos and Guendouzi. And I really hope that is the case with young Matteo, for he wont have found it easy to be the coach’s blue-eyed boy and then end up as bench at best.
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I have a feeling that our unbeaten record is about to be repeated If not bettered by Liverpool.
I always hang on to that accolade in bad moments and there have been a few of those!
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foreverheady there are rumors that Guendouzi is for sale, that Arteta is willing to let him go to help raise funds for incoming players
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Arsenal Academy
@ArsenalAcademy
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53m
📋
Here’s how #AFCU23 lineup this evening against @dcfcacademy
XI: Hein, Olowu, McGuinness, Medley, Bola, Smith, Olayinka, McEneff, Tormey, John-Jules, Balogun
Substitutes: Omole, Hillson, Greenwood, Cottrell, Clarke
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Interesting selection with a few of those youngsters hoping to be involved against Leeds. Maybe we’re going with a strong side.
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Bradygirl, a good chance of Liverpool doing just that, though don’t forget we will have a say, if the PGMOL let us that is. A very good team, excellent manager and transfer policy, but also very rare a ref or VAR decision ever goes against them, and far less injuries than the likes of us, despite the number of games they play, and the way they play.
I don’t think I have ever seen a team with so many stars align in their favour, and that includes Fergies mob, am I suspicious, damn right I am
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