Good Morning one and all.
This afternoon at 7.15 P.M. we take on Leicester at the home of football in a pay-per-view game. A blog could be written just on the rights and wrongs of this latest scam, but that’s for another day perhaps, and certainly for a more interested blogger.
In a season that seems to be throwing up odd results as a matter of course, it’s hard to predict how this encounter will go.
Brendan will bring his teeth and depleted team to Arsenal in the knowledge that it’s been 27 encounters since The Foxes last beat us on our own patch. Vardy has been injured so may not start, and Soyuncu, Ndidi, and Pereira are out. Arteta has his own problems, injury-wise, we seem to be down to the bare bones for centre-backs with only Luiz and Gabriel fit. Despite the shortage I expect him to persevere with 3 at the back and again use our best left back as a CB. I can’t see him deviating from our safety-first approach today, or any other day for that matter. The days of swash and buckel are well behind us.
I hope to see a Partey/Xhaka axis, but that’s not a given either as Arteta might want to see it operating against some little Irish fellows first.
It also seems that Willian is a doubt, we can but hope (read into that what you will).
For all his flaws, Brendan does like to play an open and attractive game of football, so hopefully we might join in, but I won’t hold my breath.
Given how bad some of the competition for a top 4 finish have been, so far, we must make hay while the Autumn sun shines. Let’s hope for 3 valuable points and a decent game of football, surely that’s not too much to ask?
Enjoy your day, friends, and stay safe.
Pedantic George.
Positively Arsenal 
Oh Mandy – that is so on the money. Seen that game so many times under AW. Plus ca change et quelque la meme chose.
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paul he didn’t lose him, the guy outpaced him, simple as. That we had 3 of our back 4 stranded up the field, suggests that the process we have to trust is still some way off yet, but that alright cos we have not sacrificed our attacking play for our great defensive improvement.
Pepe and Lacazetted both looked like their confidence is shot. Ceballos performance reminds us whey Real Madrid have sent him out on loan for two seasons now. Thank God he is still good enough to mean we don’t even need Mesut in our 25
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That so called tackle by fofana was a full blooded kick on Sakas Achilles. The cunt needs his knee cap snapped. Totally deliberate assault on a young talented England player should have been red. Sick of football under these corrupt cunts
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Man. After seeing the improved play in the first half we reverted to the usual rubbish in the second.
I think Leicester dropped a little deeper in the second half though so our only attacking threat of the first half which was balls over the top of the defence was beheaded. Coupled with David Luis going off.
Sad that we are relying on our CBs to create and our midfield to defend. We had 3 holding midfielders in front of 2 CBs today. At home. Pathetic. Like we are scared of the opposition.
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If we sack Arteta and appoint Sean Dyche, the PGMOL might give us a fair deal, like they do for some reason in the FA Cop.
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What happened to attack is the best form of defense?
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ha ha ha, under Emery last season we had 2pts more after six games than we have this season, also had scored 11 goals compared to our 8 this season, yes we had conceded 10 compared to the 7 this season. Trust the process.
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Saw 25 mins or so of the first half on a dodgy stream. We had all the ball and a couple of great chances. Totally in controll and when you consider the disallowed goal it would have been nothing less than we deserved to have been two up at half time. Except we weren’t and sometimes that happens. But the falling off of ideas and energy and confidence in the 2nd half (which unlike Victorian children was heard but not seen) was alarming. The moment Vardy came on LCFC felt they would win, Arsenal knew they would lose. I know a team game is not about one player, but Arsenal don’t have that player at the moment. For a golden spell in the summer Auba would have been viewed like that, but he’s running a bit tepid right now. Ozil would surely make a difference but not that much I suspect. We just don’t seem to have anyone who has the ability or the confidence to take the game by the scruff of the neck.
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we had 11 efforts on goal in the first half, we had 1 in the second half
Aubameyang has now gone 5 league games without a goal, for the first time since 2014, surely our fan base will blame that on the comfort of his massive contract
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It is all a bit corporate tinkerman, not the thing to spark emotion.
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https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ElM1d6OXIAIyiIs?format=jpg&name=900×900
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so Xhaka is meant to have hindered the keeper, PGMOL will be real proud of their guys tonight
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ElM1d6OXIAIyiIs?format=jpg&name=900×900
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Where’s the CREATIVITY oh he’s sitting at home watching telly!
One of my lads said there was a stat about Gabriel making the most passes in PL well I can see why, we seem to think our CBs are the only ones that can make things happen.
Is there no scoreboard in the stadium anymore does nobody tell the players we were 1-0 down. It reminded me of the Simpsons episode where they are taking the piss out of football for being boring CB passes to the midfield, midfield passes to the CB and on and on and on.
Ceballos does more u-turns than Boris Johnson and he even beats players so he can pass it backwards truly awful.
It would be interesting to find out what percentage of our passing is either sideways or backwards and when you combine that with the missing out of midfield every single time to go over the top it gets really boring.
Auba Laca and Pepe cannot win balls in the air so as the game goes on it’s a waste of time throwing it up there.
Having said that had we not been cheated out of a goal early on Leicester whole game plan would have been thrown out the window but there you go.
Leicester haven’t beaten us at home since 1736 and so Mikel must be glad there are no fans in the stadium because our lot would of booed him off for sure.
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fuck me, six league games into the season and Arteta is talking about fatigue affecting performance, this despite the squad being so large that we could not find place for Ozil or Sokratis in it, seems we have lots of players listed who Arteta does not trust to play
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Auba’s a funny sort of player: magnificent goal scorer but not even a Number 9’s arsehole. Would be great in an old-fashioned 442 alongside a hefty target-man type. Needs to be running on to the ball but also has predatory fox in the box instincts. Giroud is better than Lacazette but good though he was was always 10 goals a season short of what was needed. I had high hopes for Welbeck but injury did for him. Nketiah is too small though has great awareness. Martinelli might be the answer if he has maintained his pace after injury. At the moment we lack a good in the air forward so have to play 2D rather than 3D football in the final third.
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An improvement on the last game. 4 shots on target.
I suggest you do not look at the ratings given on the BBC sport website.
All of our players apart from 2, less than 4, and the highest of those 2 was 4.4, whilst every Leicester player is above 7.
In contrast, I expect to see ratings in the 7s and 8s on the various blogs that give them.
At least Emery had 22 games.
We have now lost our last 3.
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yeah Ian, as I watched long ball after long ball lead to only LCFC getting possession, I could not but muse as to how the hell Arteta thought we had at CF, as there was no way in hell Lacazette or indeed any of the forwards we played tonight, were ever going to be favorites to win the high ball. I said near the end of last season, that I was not surprised to see us linked in the transfer rumors with several old style CF’s, as under Arteta we do play a lot of ball of the long and high variety, almost as if Mikel has not noticed that we don’t have a Giroud up there anymore.
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Martinelli might well eventually be the answer Foreverheady. Know he is young and inexperienced, but We Really could have done with him today
Arteta needs a little work on his new Partey based formation it seems
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If they are fatigued at this stage it is probably down to one of many things (or maybe a combination)
Not training hard enough
Training too hard
Lacking the adrenalin input from the crowd
Lacing the adrenalin input from the coach
The weird lockdown then rapid and congested end to last season and too quick start to this one
Whatever Covid bubble restrictions they are under
Covid limiting their access to a compliant pool of eager totty.
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well foreverheady, Martinelli will be an interesting one, if only to see if Arteta actually plays him more than he did pre injury, our manager for all his praise for the young guys, actually rarely starts any of them in the EPL or any of the big games. Saka the only youth who has forced his way into the starting 11. Martinelli, Nelson, Willock, Saliba starting under Arteta are as rare as hens teeth.
Really had to laugh at Arteta’s fatigue comment, as whose fault is that, could we not have played AMN for example, in the EL game on Thursday, we brought on a sub in the last minute of injury time on Thursday too, and on the subject of subs, many are now hankering for the good old days when Wenger would bring on subs at 70 minutes, as our Mikel seems to want to wait till the 80th and beyond, only injury forced ones come earlier.
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so does Arteta not really rate Pepe, I fear the guy’s confidence is being hit big time by not being first choice.
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All too confusing for me now. Time for bed and work in the morning. The only silver lining is that I don’t feel personally violated in the way that Wenger losses made me feel.
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so with David Luiz injured, and Holding plus Mari both also injured, we are almost certain to see Mustafi start v Dundalk on Thursday, but can we afford to play Gabriel again, surely if Arteta is talking about fatigue in the team, Gabriel would be prime candidate for it, as he has played a lot of our games, but if we leave him out, who plays with Mustafi, will it be Tierney, or Kolasinac, maybe even both of them if we go with 3 CB’s, there is the option of using Elneney or Xhaka in a 3. Saliba is not registered for EL.
Ballard, McGuiness, Clarke and Medley are all out on loan too.
Sokratis like Ozil was not registered
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Lucky it’s Dundalk, Mustafi looked unfit.
Ozil is one thing, but wonder about the wisdom of casting Sok aside with all these injuries at the start of the season, he might not be a sweeper but he’s a decent defender, and he’s had decent players in his pocket.
Some sympathy with our players in that it must be difficult when they know they are being cheated out of games, and that’s not going to change next weekend either.
But the reality is, this club are in a big transition , and one the owners have handled extremely badly, From top to bottom I suspect primarily due to the fact they relied on Wenger, and to a lesser extent Ivan for years, and when it came to it, they didn’t have a clue. Arteta, edu, or whoever is going to need a long time
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We were awful in the 2nd but I do think this is a harsh loss. My real issue remains Ozil. Omitting Ozil entirely has to be one of the dumbest thing Arsenal could have done. The players are going to start questioning the manager and the club at large. How do you build team moral by sitting your best (I think) and certainly most accomplished player?
Surely the players can tell that there is not a creative force in the team. It happened under Emery when he would sit Ramsey and Ozil likewise.
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Unfortunately Ozil is gone, for whatever reason. But until we can start breaking down teams playing this type of block, this team will struggle. Dani should be doing more, so should Pepe, perhaps worth giving Nelson a go, or someone like AMN who runs at opponents.
But I still think had the officials on the pitch and in VAR done their jobs, we would have won this game, perhaps won it well.
Arteta will now know what he is up against with the PGMOL, should he have forgotten from his playing days. More of the same at Old Trafford….not sure who the ref will be, or if it has been announced, but Riley will pick an old fave for this, Taylor Atkinson or Dean would be my guess, one as ref and another in VAR.
I hope Arteta will eventually turn things around, but whatever anyone thinks, he is now our only hope, he is on a long deal, they won’t sack another manager, and even if they did, I Absolutely dread to think who they would bring in
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Not seen apart from their goal. Left me wondering a few things.
Are we slightly in no man’s land in terms of identity? It’s pretty clear we have become a more defensive, cautious team and yet, boy, that goal looked like one a defensive team would be appalled to concede.
More concerning, are we going to be, pound for pound ,even more vulnerable to pgmol ,and the ‘bad luck’ we have on big decisions, while playing in a more cautious fashion than we were as an attacking team, in the process badly undermining hopes of trying to put strong defence in place before adding more attacking threat.
You need results/points to get the time, confidence, momentum, etc to build, and if most of our games are tight, and an overwhelming percentage of big calls go against us…not good at all.
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The decision to omit Mesut might yet yield a mutiny. Dimwitedness at the highest level (of NATO alliance) destroying a team assembled around its best player.
Watch this space.
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..while “young” MIKEL the failer thinks he can manage it all.
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