That was a very pleasing win against a very generous Norwich team.
Both of Abameyang’s goals were gifts from the visitors. The first when he closed down Krul and pinched the ball from his toes. He took the ball by accident with his trailing leg, but hey, you have to buy a ticket if you want to win a raffle. His second came courtesy of a fine cross field pass into him in the box, by the Norwich centre forward, but he dispatched it ruthlessly, nice finish. In between times he provided an assist from which Xhaka(more on him later)lashed the ball in under Krul.
Cedric rounded the evening off with left foot screamer, and a very satisfactory evening it was, following on from the satisfaction of Saka signing a new long term deal in the afternoon. A great day all around.
The game itself showed us to be improved on what we’ve see since the restart, but, and I hate to use this cliche, it was only Norwich, They can’t buy a win and are comfortably the easiest team in the league to beat.
That said, Mustafi, Luiz, Sead, all had good games. Tierney and Hector look good at wingback/wide midfield and Ceballos had a decent game as well. And so to Xhaka.
Here is what Arteta had to say about our former, and real, captain after the game.
On whether Granit Xhaka has come full circle from his difficulties…
“Absolutely. He’s a player whose commitment goes beyond anything normal. He leaves every drop of blood on that football pitch every day and he does the same in training. For me, he’s a great example to any other team-mate, the way he looks after himself and lives his profession. I’m really happy that we could convince him to stay, give him another opportunity, learn from the mistake that he made and as well appreciate the player and the person that we have at the club, and support them. When someone has a difficult moment, we are right behind them. We can give them another chance.”
“happy that we could convince him to stay”
That was following the disgusting treatment from a large section of the fans, both in the stadium and on-line, when he quite rightly told them to F*CK OFF*, several times.
The current explanation from the idiots that couldn’t see what a great player he is, for him being very good and our most important player, is that he’s improved under Arteta. Frankly that is bollocks. He has always been very good, in fact statistically this is his worse season at the club.
I also saw this on twitter from our friend Ehab
Xhaka isn’t that flawed He lead the league in passing, passing accuracy, touches 3 out of 4 years, never lower than 3rd He made 6 errors leading to goals in 5 years, 4 of which he lost the ball after the final 3rd. He gave away 5 pens He is 3rd amongst CMs in tackles/blocks
Despite the evidence, and him being first choice in MF by 4 Arsenal managers, there are those still clinging to the wreckage of their sunken arguments. It seems these people would rather continue to look stupid, than admit that they were previously stupid.
So a reminder of some things I’ve said previously, I love a bit of “I told you so”
Positively Arsenal 
Is it safe?
LikeLike
The fuckwits who continually slag players to get a bit of attention will move on to someone else even though they keep being proved wrong and I include some of the blogs in that.
Anyway enough of people who don’t matter and on to people who do. It was an enjoyable win last night whoever your playing a 4-0 win in the PL is great to watch
It was a shame for Reiss that he had to be pulled for tactical reasons because I thought he was doing well. I hope Mustafi is ok after he also came off early. Good that Auba scored a couple, got his record and got the various monkeys off his back but that numskull keown gave him MOTM and he was never that.
All the team played well though even through the period when we were struggling after the break.
Saturday’s game will be alot harder, probably the hardest PL game we have remained so carrying momentum was important going into that game.
LikeLike
the hissyfit brigade have moved back to Bellerin, they have never forgiven him for calling them out
LikeLike
Thank you George for sticking up to Xhaka.. When you are right, you stick to your guns. No “shucking and jiving” like most bloggers and podcasters hoping to retain popularity among spineless, weak-kneed fans.
LikeLike
Last night was Arteta’s 20th as boss. We already won more games and got more clean sheets than we got in 26 previous games with Emery and Freddie and combined. Our much maligned defense conceded 18 goals in that 20 games compared to the 39 in previous 26.
Too early for a contract extension?
LikeLiked by 2 people
not only is Xhaka a fantastic player and leader, everything he does, he knows a good percentage of the PGMOL are just waiting for any chance to do him. He has to be very smart as well as brilliant
LikeLiked by 1 person
https://www.arsenal.com/news/catley-inside-story-my-transfer
LikeLike
Thanks for sticking up for Xhaka
Imagine adding Carzola to this mix.. hmmn
LikeLike
Isn’t it strange how your opinion can change very quickly. The other day I hated Mcbernie and thought he should of been sent off today I think he’s a top bloke and I’m glad he didn’t.
LikeLiked by 1 person
well a good week got a little better this evening, spurs lost away to sheffield utd, yeah i know that puts utd above us in the table, but it keeps us above spurs
also Hull beat Middlesboro to get out of the Championship relegation places, and were replaced by Stoke
oh and invincible liverpool are 3-0 down to man city at half time
LikeLike
Mikel Arteta says he is “very clear” about where he needs to strengthen his squad when the summer transfer window opens.
Our head coach was asked about where he wants to add players, the arrival of William Saliba and whether players could leave.
This is what he told the media:
on whether he is interested in Thomas Partey…
I cannot talk about being interested in any players that are playing in any team that is not ours, sorry.
on what he needs to strengthen in the window…
I’m very clear. I have a very clear plan and the specificity of the players, the positions and squad balance that we need to compete with the rest of the top teams in the country.
on William Saliba…
As you know, both clubs had some conversations, at the moment they haven’t reached any agreement for him to be able to play in the final. At the end of the day he is our player and we want the best for him. We want to protect him and we want him in the best possible condition for us as well when he joins us but it is something that is being dealt with at club level.
on moving any centre-backs on in the summer…
We will see because Pablo won’t be available to start the season and Callum won’t be available to start the season. We have nine games left until the end of the season, a lot of things can happen. William has had a lot of issues this season with injuries as well so he has not been a stable player in that sense so let’s wait and see. At the moment we’re going to have options and we will consider the situation with what is best to do in the future but we don’t have much stability at the moment.
on having to sell players in order to bring players in…
Again, we don’t know how the market is going to be. Obviously we are putting different plans together to see what we are going to be able to do. At the moment the uncertainty is still big as well, the way we are going to finish the season will dictate a lot of things financially as well so we have to be a bit patient and see what happens.
on will we see smaller transfer spend in the summer…
We have seen different things, the way Chelsea is dealing with the market is different to the rest at the moment. Bayern Munich as well have been really aggressive so I don’t know. If you ask me we cannot be a team that has to sell his best player to try to bring in and improve our squad, that’s for sure.
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.
LikeLike
There was some mitigation for the poor start as many here reflected not least the demands of the congested crisis fixture list, which started with four away games the first against a refreshened city squad recovered from the usual fatigue and niggles of a premier league season.
And the loss of Xhaka after 8 mins. Huge loss for this team.
He can have sticky feet. Yes. But if he’d have been in the squad as an option ahead of Flamini the season before he arrived…
I can’t understand how people forget his performance against the champions in a glorious perhaps the club’s best ever cup final. All the Gunners were so good that day the score line flattered the losers. Xhaka is a better player now. Their loss I suppose. Though the shifting and squirming and slithering into critical comments on Matteo from some blaggers simply highlights how useless their comments on the football are when we recall the rookie starting week after week in the PL over a fit Ramsey. Jokers.
LikeLike
< last paragraph is a reference to the redundancy of those who commented that “Özil and Ramsey can’t play together” after winning three cups in four years. If that’s what they said to excuse Ramsey being dropped I’m not sure there’s much value in the rest of the content including that on Xhaka?
I’m just appreciating the work Arteta is doing so far.
The real deal.
Some said things would improve with Edu after the previous degradation & mismanagement last season and beyond. Certainly he must have been involved in the chess game / shenanigans that eventually saw Arteta arrive and we all saw his reaction to that appointment compared to some others.
COYG
LikeLike
fins there is no hope for many re Xhaka, they will never admit to how good he is. Only today I seen someone claim, and have many agree, that Espanyol’s Marc Roca, is better than Xhaka in every way. In case you don’t know who Roca is, which I am one, I looked up wiki, and he is 23 years old, has played 98 games for Espanyol and scored 3 goals, and was capped at U21 level by Spain
LikeLike
I Arteta was asked about selling some of our CB’s this summer, and he basically said that we have to remember that Mari and Chambers will not be fit for the start of next season, and that Saliba had injury problems this season, so we don’t have as many CB’s as some seem to think.
Mustafi, David Luiz, Holding, Sokratis is what we have available at the moment, and this has seen us use Kolasinac at CB in recent games, but the hissy fit brigade want us to sell four or five of our CB’s
LikeLike
you know many of the Arsenal fanbase really should have been Liverpool supporters, as they are outraged by everything but embarrassed by nothing they do themselves
LikeLike
jesus that women who is doing commentary for MOTD on the Bournmouth v NEwcastle game from last night, sounds more fake than the crowd noise. She is so forced
LikeLike
Martinelli signs new deal absolutely brilliant bigger than Auba
LikeLike
Gabriel Martinelli has signed a new long-term contract, securing his future with the club.
It comes just 48 hours after fellow teenager Bukayo Saka agreed a new long-term deal with us.
Martinelli – who put pen to paper exactly a year to the day since joining us – has scored 10 goals in 26 appearances for us this season since joining from Ituano last summer.
The Brazil Under-23 international began his Arsenal career by scoring on his debut on our USA pre-season tour last summer against Colorado Rapids.
He scored his first Premier League goal in our 3-1 win over West Ham United in December and has become the first teenager to score 10 goals in a single season for us since Nicolas Anelka more than 20 years ago.
Head coach Mikel Arteta said: “I am very happy that Gabi has signed a new contract with us. He is a very talented young player and he has impressed us with his performances, attitude and work-rate. We are looking forward to getting him back to full fitness and to watching his development at our club.”
Everyone at Arsenal would like to congratulate Gabi on his new contract.
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.
LikeLike
I see Ainsley Maitland-Niles has given an interview and admitted he was late to a training session but that this is now in the past, he also stated that its false to claim he would not play right back, he said in fact he would play in goal if selected and it meant him getting to play.
LikeLiked by 1 person
any of you see the scam of Wigan Athletic going into administration, seems it all a big betting scam by their former owner and pals. they only got a new owner a week before being put into administration, meaning a 12 pt deduction which will put them bottom of the championship
LikeLike
Great news this week, two Extremely talented youngsters signed up, seems another has got away, but glass half full and all that
LikeLike
Wigan….if that stuff is really true, and let’s face it, the whole thing is odd, pretty much makes those running the EFL irrelevant as a governing body for allowing such things and not protecting their clubs from criminals. Footballisfixed becomes reality
LikeLiked by 1 person
Common Labo hurry up
LikeLike
but mandy they passed the “fit and proper” test
LikeLike
Labo is here
LikeLike
Arteta on Ozil “There is always a place for a player of his quality,”
LikeLike