Now then, we won, we definitely won the second half, but the first half had me worrying.
In that first half Leeds were all over us, they were creating chances for fun, had way more possession and frankly looked much the better team. Our midfield looked like it did when Emery had the keys , Ozil saw nothing of the ball Guendouzi was all over the place. Worst of all the passing was poor, Holding in particular, with him Guendouzi and Luiz all playing straight balls which were easily cut out by Leeds players. We were lucky , very lucky, to get to half time without being at least a goal or two behind.
Then came the second half and it was a complete roll reversal. We pushed much higher up the pitch, pressed with more intensity and it was us that were dominant. Now Guendouzi seemed to be doing everything right, He pressed, won balls, drove forward and had a big positive effect on the game. Ozil was given more of the ball and started to open Leeds up with his passing and composure. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t vintage stuff, but they had clearly been given instructions from Arteta and were able to action them.
The goal was a bit of a scruffy affair in the end, but Nelson wont care, it was enough to win the game, as it happens.
Lacazette was given man of the match, and deservedly so, he work tirelessly and held the ball well, bringing others in ,doing everything bar scoring.
I have to say that when Martinelli came on for Nelson, he immediately looked the real deal. What a prospect that boy is.
So we now face Bournemouth in round 4, I think we will win that.
COYG
Positively Arsenal 
just a couple of things on 2 of our young players tonight
our match winner nelson. i have to ask does he wear the wrong studs in his boots, as he falls over a hell of a lot of times when he goes to turn
martinelli, really impressed me once again, a very direct player, and a battler, a little bit selfish but he brings so much more danger to our attacking play, its great to see
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Great, no replay to contend with either.
As said the first half was a flashback but you know what I was sure that things would change second half. Mikel must have instilled some believe in me as a supporter.
Guess what another clean sheet.
Onward and upward.
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“They had clearly been given instructions from Arteta”
Think that’s the polite, diplomatic way of describing the HT team talk
Compliments to Martinez, esp in the first half,, without him, this victory may not have been possible
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From football.london, the after game press conference from Arteta
Arteta on the first half
“Thank God, I wasn’t happy at all. If you’re not ready for Leeds, you’ll get exposed.
“When I see what I don’t want to see I cannot be happy and I have to let them know.”
Arteta on the change in the first half
“That’s why we had to react. The biggest change was how aggressive we are. Making runs forward and being positive.
“The players are not used to a transition game and they have to experience it.”
Arteta on Auba and Boateng
“I’m really happy. His commitment has been phenomenal and I hope we can keep him.
“We don’t talk about any transfers but we are working on a few things.”
Arteta on Leeds
“To play against Leeds is like going to the dentist. They are a great team and what they’ve built is powerful.”
Arteta on momentum
“Not relaxing but feeling more confident in building something together is important.”
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Probably helps explain much to see how unhappy couple of ex refs on twitter were with Xhaka not getting booked (and, heaven forbid, us getting a soft free kick at one point).
I’m pretty sure both men are 100% convinced they are irreproachable integrity wise, and have thoroughly mastered any bias (though they generally find even considering that could affect them to be an absurd idea), but…so upset and worked up over it tonight, so silent on so many occasions, each and every one of the occasions, when refs are lenient with fouling against us.
Forget conspiracies or like, that could explain almost everything. One of them was head of pgmol after all. Danny Murphy in a uniform, more or less, though I think he’s self- aware enough to know he despises us.
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Loved the Martinelli cameo. Two separate bits of footwork in there which give another suggestion he could be a special talent.
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Amount Nelson fell was a bit weird by way given I’m sure similar has happened a few times before. It’s a key asset for him those really quick twists and turns, but is being undermined. Enough now that you wonder if someone has to take over and tell him to wear different studs, presuming he’s been making choice till now.
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Funny how Xhaka gets grief over not being booked this, but never a word on the antics of English players, like Cresswell.
Danny Murphy was a second rate player, is a second rate pundit, and prob only on air due to the UK media ex Liverpool players retirement charity
On another note, I Remember an UA article a while back where they provided data suggesting refs give us a much more level playing field in the FA Cup than they do in the league, who knows why….agendas…
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We only had 3 shots in the first half to their 15, but we had 13 shots to their 3 in the second half.
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Sam Dean
@SamJDean
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38m
Arteta: “It was a big release for them when they won against United and they took a little bit of that pressure off. And then your body and your mind tries to relax a little bit. Now, we are not in a position to relax because we are not good enough to relax.”
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Not good enough to relax!
Artetas a demanding guy!
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Looking back, some of Xhakas tactical fouling, straight out of the City casebook.
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The way we started the game I feared a humiliating defeat. We were all over the place, rattled by Leeds’ pressing, with our players yelling at each other and the grumbles from the crowd at half-time did not bode well. I don’t know what Arteta said or did at half-time, but it was a very different Arsenal team that came out in the second-half. One-nil to The Arsenal was a very welcome outcome in the end and the recovery continues. Well done Mikel and the boys.
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stillarich, Hackett is an embarassment. What a clown. No mention by any of these Arseholes about the constant unpunished fouling by Man U against us, oh no.
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Are people just now realising that we are refereed to a different standard than others?
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I expect a very soft never before given to anyone else red card for Granit in the next fixture
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Where the hell is Fins?
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David Ornstein says Arsenal are looking to move out 12 players this window, many young players on loan, he says Smith-Rowe likely to go on loan to an English club
it looks like Nketiah is off to a Championship club on loan again, with Bristol City favorites, but Nottingham Forrest and Sheffield Wednesday also in for him.
I’d expect Mavropanos, Medley, John-Jules, Tormey, Olyinka, Burton and maybe Macey to be among the younger players we are looking to loan out, as for sales, I’d expect it to include players out on loan like Mkhitaryan and Eleneny, plus it now looks like Mustafi is not part of Arteta’s plans at all, so we might see him leave.
could we see a surprise loan out too, maybe Willock, or even Nelson,
with our injury list I’m not sure we can afford to let as many as 12 go, even if that includes Eleney and Mkhitaryan who are out on loan, and a batch of youth, unless nearly all the youth we let go are u23’s who have not played first team yet.
so if we sell Mustafi, Eleney, Mkhitaryan, either sell or loan Mavropanos, loan out Nketiah and Smith-Rowe, that would account for 6 of the proposed 12 departures, Macey, Medley and John-Jules would bring it to 9 without impacting on the first team squad at all.
Arteta said last night that Arsenal are working on some in comings but would not discuss any names, when asked about AFC interest in Boateng of Bayern Munich.
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Happy new year George and you everyone
I give my thanks to Edu and Vinai and those advisi n them for making Arteta happen
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yeah Markyb, our granit will have to be extra careful after Murphy’s non stop whinge about him, but from several video clips out there from the man city documentary, tactical fouling to stop transitional play will be a big part of what AFC do under Arteta, and despite what Murphy was saying last night, Xhaka’s fouls in my view would have pleased Arteta no end, and as has been shown in the city video’s Mikel would expect Granit to keep fouling till he gets a yellow, then its up to his team mates to step up and commit the fouls Arteta would expect. We’ve just had two clean sheets in a row, how much of that has been down to team shape, and how much of it has been down to tactical fouling the opposition in transition.
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Reminds me of the massive fuss about Coquelin against Palace that time. Sickens me given the horrendous red card challenges others get away with against us
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I meant to ask about Fins a while back when realised it had been good few days since seen anything from him. Lost track of time with Christmas and NY, but been ages since he last posted, I think. Hope he’s ok.
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The question should be why did Taylor ref this game differently to how he would normally ref a PL game. My suspicion is he knew Leeds would want to commit loads of fouls and so thought he would let everything go.
Xhaka and Matteo should have been booked early on and Laca probably should have got a red however Taylor let a thousand fouls go and so to be consistent with the way he reffed the game you have to say the fact they didn’t receive these penalties was just. Talking about penalties yes if the game had been reffed normally then we would of had one.
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passenal ,Not me. I’ve been banging on about it non-stop for about 10 years or so. Not done yet either.
Wondering as well if tv boys tucked us up a bit yesterday with Laca kick out. Was surprised to see the kick on replay, as didn’t see anything like that in tangle initially, and very surprised VAR didn’t send him off.
Right away though I knew they were only showing that small (end) slice of incident, which isn’t right if there has been provocation etc, and only from that one angle.
Anyway, even from that angle (behind), can see that the Leeds player’s hand goes up , quite possibly for a nut shot by looks of it, and Laca reacts instantly to it.
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Hang on, there’s Finsbury. Hope all’s well and happy new year.
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George, I finally managed to re-login in to WordPress.
A lot has happened in just over a month!
But until it did probably best I kept my Rants on Raul the Clown over on Shotts’ blog, didn’t want to bore everyone too much with that as I appreciate not everyone was as convinced as to what was going on behind closed doors, who was telling the clown Emery what to do and who to pick etc. briefing the press against players who are legends etc But blimey obviously the person making the Football calls at Arsenal Football Club for those 18 months doesn’t even know how to kick a Football!
Most enjoyable for me was the experience of watching the Arsenal Media content for the first time in months and realising n that the directors and editors all wanted to show Raul in a bad light. Subtly, but it was there. Hehe. So, we can speculate that Edu & Vinai has some support at the club and we can appreciate how they got their man in in spite of Raul’s glum face at Arteta’s first press conference, my heart bleeds for him hehe.
The parable of our times: a dishonest and incompetent management consultant leeching off the sweat of more gifted souls, the last 18 months could’ve been a movie directed by Oliver Stone and called The Damned Arsenal.
Which it makes it so, so, so fitting to achieve the result last night against The Damned United, who damned themselves decades ago by choosing “Pashun and Grit” over Clough and then again when they whored themselves for Risdale and Scudamore’s financial gain (or theft?).
Fourty or even more years is a long time to watch a procession of frauds fleece your club, bearing in mind what we saw happen in 18 months at The Arsenal. But I have zero sympathy for Leeds or their fans for some inexplicable reason! In fact I greatly enjoyed their journey down.
Couldn’t have happened to a nicer club.
Bielsa has a lot of work to do.
But if I may on the subject of Guendouzi: how did it take our Uber blaggers 12 months to comment on the Football? I like the kid but as everyone can see after the his last two appearances he’s benefitting from some coaching!
If there was one benefit from the nightmare/horror story it was the nasty ****s who exposed themselves as a bunch of nasty know-nothing ****s. First with the risible “Ramsey and Ozil can’t play together” meme, how much did that PR cost Raul? And latterly even up till this week insisting that Guendouzi should be starting ahead of Xhaka. Cretins, in’t they?
Anyway fuck the Arsenal holes, the Prince has returned as The King.
My friends called Arteta The Prince of the Park for his quality and not least his Machiavellian tendencies when he played for us. All the people celebrating a return of the dark arts must’ve ignored the Arsenal 2011-15. It was predictable that Xhaka and other CMs would be coached by the Master in how to win free kicks when pressed and how to foul when required – then they were not previously paying attention! It was entirely predictable that Xhaka wiupd play like this under Arteta. Arteta was hardly running about the park like Usain Bolt in his early thirties, perhaps the people who forgot they say Ramsey and Ozil snag three cups in four years forgot that too? couldn’t have picked a better coach for Granit or Matteo, never mind the Football eh?
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Test!
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George, I finally managed to re-login in to WordPress.
A lot has happened in just over a month!
But until it did probably best I kept my rants on Raul the Clown over on Shotts’ blog, didn’t want to bore everyone too much with that as I appreciate not everyone thought the same as me about what was going on behind closed doors, about who was telling Emery who to pick etc. briefing the press against players who are legends etc obviously the person making the Football calls at Arsenal Football Club for those 18 months doesn’t even know how to kick a Football!
Most enjoyable for me was the experience of watching the Arsenal Media content for the first time in months and realising nthat the directors and editors all wanted to show Raul in a bad light. Subtly, but it was there. Hehe.
So, we can speculate that Edu & Vinai had some support from many at the club and we can appreciate how they got their man in in spite of Raul’s glum face at Arteta’s first press conference. my heart bleeds for him.
The parable of our times: a dishonest and incompetent management consultant leeching off the sweat of more gifted souls, the last 18 months at The Arsenal could’ve been a movie directed by Oliver Stone and called The Damned Arsenal.
Which it makes it so, so, so fitting to achieve the result last night against The Damned United, who damned themselves decades ago by choosing “Pashun and Grit” over Clough and then again when they exposed themselves for Risdale and Scudamore’s financial gain (or theft?).
I have had zero sympathy for Leeds or their fans for some inexplicable reason! Couldn’t have happened to a nicer club.
Bielsa has a lot of work to do.
But if I may on the subject of Guendouzi: how did it take our Uber blaggers 12 months to comment on the Football? I like the kid but as everyone can see after the his last two appearances he’s benefitting from some coaching! he’s been playing better then in recent months yet only now they critique? How predictable.
If there was one benefit from the nightmare/horror story it was the nasty people who exposed themselves. First with the risible “Ramsey and Ozil can’t play together” meme, then latterly even up till this week insisting that Guendouzi should be starting ahead of Xhaka.
How could anyone who ever watched Arteta play imagine that he’d conclude Guendouzi is ready to start at over Xhaka just yet?
Fortunately the Prince has returned as The King.
My friends called Arteta The Prince of the Park for his quality and not least his Machiavellian tendencies when he played for us. All the people celebrating a return of the dark arts must’ve ignored the Arsenal 2011-15. It was predictable that Xhaka and other CMs would be coached by the Master in how to win free kicks when pressed and how to foul when required – then they were not previously paying attention! It was entirely predictable that Xhaka would play like this under Arteta. Arteta was hardly runni nag about the park like Usain Bolt in his early thirties…never mind the Football eh?
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Test what?
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Ben Sheaf has extended his loan with Doncaster Rovers till end of the season
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George at 5.17
Testing what happened to the comment I sent at about quarter to five and which appeared at 5:15! The internet is allowed to lag every now and then, I don’t blame anyone!
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Thanks Rich,
Hope things worked out better for your aunt in the end and that you were able to help the situation.
Best wishes to all readers and writers at PA, wishing all a happy and healthy 2020!
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< I can blame myself. Was failing to use my wordpress login correctly…
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Cheers Fins. It did work out. Hard work but got there in end and saved her over grand and half.
Unbelievably, she’s already on to her next crisis, real doozy involving couple of fuck up users who, unlike her, are not nice people. I’m just grateful it came after a nice Christmas and I got an Arsenal back I’m enjoying watching to help keep the old spirits up.
Glad you’re alright.
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Enjoyed watching Utd get destroyed first half. Mightily impressive football from City. Disappointed it didn’t yield absolute horror scoreline for Utd. Felt like it could well have, especially if Sterling hadn’t been uncharacteristically off it or Aguero was there to feast.
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Amazing how little dirt Utd attempted in that first half though. A derby, let’s not forget, but only a fraction of the aggression and spite, fair and foul, they typically produce against us, and profit from, at least at OT.
They did get dirtier second half, all coward stuff, like pushing player into keeper from behind, wild lunge at Mahrez…but still think it’s hard to explain why they didn’t fly into them from off as they do with us there.
That Williams kid, who I noticed wanted nothing to do with physical stuff with Walker, is horribly likely to cause someone a bad one at some point. 10 or so games into career and it’s very obvious. I won’t look forward to him lining up against us for that reason.
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And of course they all now know that as long as your shoe lace grazes the ball you can pretty much do as you please scissor wise in your follow through (with Arsenal Players especially of course) or just be done with it and go full Rojo with two feet.
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markyb
Spoke to someone on twitter this week who attends pretty much all our youth team games, including ones not open to public, and has done for goodness knows how many years, he confirmed our youth teams get way more injuries from tackles/fouls/contact than opponents, and that, in his opinion, refs treat us very differently.
Odd thing is, he’s one of those who generally bristle at any suggestion refs can massively influence results with bad decisions. But anyway, all I wanted from him was confirmation my impression was right that opponents injure us at youth level far more than we do them. He’d know better than almost anyone having watched 100’s of games firsthand.
Last weekend in two games for instance , three had to be subbed off and one was down for long spell of treatment
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It’s how the gits get promoted.
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Spurs Liverpool at weekend. Come on then…what result do you want?
Likelihood is of course Liverpool win, more pressure on Mou, little boost for us in table…but I’m desperate to see Pool lose a game this year and there’s only a handful of games where there’s much chance of it.
A bind.
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In an attempt to redeem his embarrassing himself, Danny Murphy is now suggesting Xhaka is wasting his time at Arsenal and would fit in like a glove at Liverpool, with his passing range and lethal left boot.
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markyb
Very plausible, even if in roundabout way. Old Hackett still real upset about Xhaka the other night.
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Labogoon
Seriously? That’s pretty incredible given how much he was on his case other night.
Remembered afterwards that couple weeks ago Murphy claimed Arteta was a talented player who could be intimidated a bit physically. Again makes you wonder how that – false anyway, I’m sure- can be a weakness and yet being aggressive can also be a weakness.
Of course, though, Murphy doesn’t deserve serious analysis, especially not when comes to us.
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Murphy is a joke and should be treated as such, the other night when his co commentator said we had scored more goals from set pieces than anyone else this season he said “really that does surprise me”. Firstly showing he doesn’t do his homework on games he is working on and secondly showing he is a fuckwit who bases his opinion on a whim and not hard facts.
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Stillrich was that John Williamson you was talking to
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Rich 2.45, all day long, a Spurs win, (just this time, plenty of other games this season for Jose to mess up) with Liverpool having two sent off, VAR decisions going against them, bad luck throughout the game, a winning goal against them bouncing off two of their defenders and a post, Mane, Firmino and Salah missing a series of sitters, several yellows, shaken confidence, exhaustion finally starts to tell
Of course hell freezes over before that lot happens, but my wishes anyway
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Ianspace
Yeah. I was surprised he said what he did about refs/injuries, as thought he was resolutely in camp who think acknowledging that stuff equals looking for excuses.
Noticed people before though who, while admitting we might have been very hard done by in game on huge decisions, refuse to believe it made crucial impact on outcome. Game is 90 minute! types. Never really understood that attitude but must have its advantages I suppose.
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Mandy
Ha. Same here. Just couldn’t bring myself to say it but, well, I want Liverpool to lose that game (any game, every game).
Combination of how strong they are, and how pgmol are likely to get kinder and kinder to them closer it gets, has me worried.
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Agree Rich, yes they are a good side, but they are getting other things in their favour, like Leicester did a few years ago
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