Our twenty first game of the PL season saw us play one of the top sides in the division and perform very well. It left us ninth with 31 points however all the teams above us have played less games apart from Manure and the three teams immediately below us could go above us with wins from their games in hand which would leave us in 12th. Not all teams will win games in hand of course and in an extremely game packed season points in the bag and being out the F.A. cup could work in our favour.
So, what should we asking ourselves and speculating on for the remaining 17 games? Well, the biggest question is does Mikel now know what type of football to play to get us both results and performance after his piece of luck against Chelsi saw his fortunes change and poor old fat Frank fail as he could have got his cards had he carried on playing the same tired team in the same tired style.
Who is our best eleven and does Mikel know? For me its Leno, Hector, Bob, Mari, Kieran, Granit, Partey, Saka, ESR, Joe and Laca. Obviously form changes and Martinelli and a few others will be seriously challenging that line up especially our new number ten who may turn out ok. There will be many who question my view that Joe should be in there, but football is a team game and I believe he gives more stability and balance to the side defensively and will chip in with goals more than the so-called flair players that are supposed to be in front of him in the pecking order(Willock is now on loan and so can’t be considered). The next big omission in that eleven is Aubameyang, well I have always thought he gives very little to the team apart from goals and as time has gone on that has become more and more apparent. Now he is not scoring he should be an impact player for the rest of the season with Laca and Eddie sharing the starting birth. I think most people know my views on Pepe, he is a day dreamer which makes him a liability and does not produce enough at the other end to warrant a gamble with his defensive frailties.
How will Mikel manage the battle of the number tens? From what I have read Odegaard wants to play for Real Madrid and there is little chance signing him on a permanent basis especially as we will not be in the Champions league next season unless we win the Europa Cup. While the emergence of Emile has shown how much we needed such a player, and he could not do it every game for the rest of the season pissing him off in his breakthrough season could prove disastrous for ARSENAL long term. If Mikel goes with Martin more often and then he goes back to RM or another CL side next season and Emile thinks he hasn’t been trusted, we could lose the pair of them and then we would be back to pre-chelski.
What should we do about the set piece coach? Defensively we do not seem bad although I did notice yesterday that the player, we have been leaving on the edge of the box at corners to chase down the second ball was missing sometimes. At the other end we have no potency, our free kicks are rarely on target and so we should be using a bit of imagination to get the best out of free kicks in dangerous positions and corners have got to be more varied to produce goals. The pile a million players round the keeper to give him COVID-19 ploy has never worked and should never be seen again. If the Set piece coach is not working, then they should get rid of him and reemploy Audrey the tea lady.
What do we do with the ex-Academy players for the rest of the season? So, its January the 31st and most of the players who have been in the squad are still here which is what I had hoped. As I alluded to at the start of this piece this is an incredibly competitive league this season and because of our bad start top six is probably beyond us in which case the use of the youngsters and the progression of the squad is vitally important for next season and beyond. I think the manager must make sure that players get game time with each other and not 100 miles away playing for cold balls utd. Obviously below that Edu must make sure the younger players loans are at the correct clubs to develop them in the way we want, and which will maximise the chance of the players integrate into our first team squad.
How good are we? Even after the performance yesterday and the run of the last seven PL games it is still difficult to tell how good we are. We seem to have improved defensively despite having to change personnel to often however going forward scoring does seem a problem with defenders, midfielders, and forwards all under scoring for their respective sections. I believe selection based on cohesion rather than individuals will cure this although I do have a nagging doubt that Mikel does like a “Name”.
All in all, although there are still some worries especially politically at the club there are also some cracks of optimism starting to appear so start thinking and enjoy the rest of the season.
(ed. This was written by seebs @arse_or_brain before transfer deadline day, thanks Ian)
Positively Arsenal 
COYG.
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Hey Seebs. Lovely work here. Your blog comments are usually brief but this well developed piece of work is in my opinion required reading. You’ve hit the nail on the head; the key to the future is your question:
“….does Mikel now know what type of football to play to get us both results and performance after his piece of luck against Chelsi saw his fortunes change and poor old fat Frank fail “?
Most people know my answer to the question but the next five games in February will be the evidence we need.
As our friend Shard explained in today’s match preview at Uncensored Mikel and Edu have been concerned with a “Game-Of-Thrones” purge of players who didn’t bend the knee like Ozil, Kola, Musti, Socrates, AMN and Joe Willock one shudders at the long term impact on the squad.
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Team: Leno, Bellerin, Holding, Luiz, Cedric, Partey, Xhaka, Pepe, Smith Rowe, Saka, Lacazette.
Subs: Runarsson, Gabriel, Ceballos, Odegaard, Willian, Aubameyang, Chambers, Elneny, Martinelli.
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as i predicted yesterday Nketiah out of the squad with PEA back,
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Wolves. Patricio, Boly, Coady, Kilman, Semedo, Moutinho, Neves, Neto, Traore, Podence, Willian Jose.
Subs: Ruddy, Hoever, Silva, Gibbs-White, Vitinha, Dendoncker, Richards, Otasowie.
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Granit Xhaka’s 200th Arsenal game
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Saka goal ruled out for offside, Lacca was a few inches offside before setting the goal up
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Ozil made his debut for Fenerbahce today in their away win
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pepeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee brilliant goal
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Whats up folks!
my dude Pepe with an amazing solo effort!
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solo goal, that is!
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no more than we deserve for our play so far, hit the woodwork twice, goal disallowed and a good penalty shout turned down
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Partey booked
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ah for fucks sake 1-1
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david luiz sent off and a penalty which is scored
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harsh red there.
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pgmol is as corrupt as fuck, there is no doubt what so ever after that sending off
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a game we have totally dominated and should be about 4 up, is 1-1 and us wrongly down to ten men, the PGMOL Game Managers are a disgrace.
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PGMOL stitch up, Luiz is a very easy target for them
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you can tell by david luiz’s reaction and refusal to leave the field that he knows it should not be a red card.
laughable to see David Walton say that its a penalty and a red cos “David Luiz has a history of this sort of thing”, it shows the PGMOL mob have their agendas
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yes mandy, perter walton basically admitted it with his comments there
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Gabriel on for lacazette
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we are now behind, fuck it to hell
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If only we had someone at the club with the knowledge or desire to take this on
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long range shot through partey’s legs and in off the post, fuck the pgmol
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it won’t happen Mandy, its been going on for nye on 20 years and the club has done nothing about it, why would they start now
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Why would they indeed. Ref really tilting things now, he was desperate to give that red ,
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Being a super agent club seems to have advantages for Wolves, but we didn’t even get that right under Raul!
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Pepe off and Aubameyang on
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leno sent off
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the pgmol is bent
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The attacker kicks Luiz’s knee and then dives,
What happened to VAR?
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runarsson on for partey
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We make it so easy for them sometimes
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Classic attacker’s ploy to slow down in the box, so the defender bumps into him.
WE saw it many years ago in the Champions League against Liverpool, when we were beating them and in the last minute one of their players was in the box, going away from the goal with Luzhny behind him and then stopped, so Luzhny bumped into him, penalty.
That got them draw they needed to go through.
Typical cheating.
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Isn’t runarson a goalie?
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I’ve just seen that Leno has been sent off as well. Is this a joke?
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Leno had a brain freeze unfortunately.
But this game is a statement from the PGMOL, don’t even think about sailing too close to the top places.
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FT: PGMOL 2-1 the nine men
we played our best football of the season in the first 45 minutes and then the pgmol game managers hit back and sent off David Luiz for a wolves player studs hitting his knee, and they scored a penalty.
in the second half the pgmol took an early lead but still could not dominate the game till they were able to send off leno for handball outside the area.
we now sit 10th, and could go as low as 12th after this round of games if results go against us.
Leno and David Luiz both miss the Aston villa game this weekend.
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Arteta needs to really blow a fuse in his after game presser at the PGMOL, but I will be shocked if he does.
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you what will be the icing on the cake, the FA overturning the David Luiz red card
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I say the david luiz red may be overturned cos under the rules its only a red card if that foul was deliberate, now I’ve seen it about ten times, I do not see how it can be called deliberate.
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Where we are, the title of this blog post. Well, where we are seems to be in exactly the same place as we were under Arsene: at times totally at the mercy of the officiating. I think there will be a massive response to this from the players, who will be rightly angry.
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The club as a whole need to blow a fuse at the PGMOL, they have enough evidence. But I don’t see anyone there who could or would do it. They should, the PGMOL could cost the owners money
We will see this time and time again in the future as this team develop, get better and threaten those who must not be threatened. This club are up against at least four protected clubs, Leicester, Utd, Spurs, probably Chelsea and one more out of our league in terms of ability and finance. They. Teams like wolves with their interesting ownership finance and agent model.
All I would say of our team, they could do with losing some of this naivety ,I know some believe this club have lost its values, but others are far more cynical
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imagine we actually have arsenal fans blaming David Luiz for being sent off.
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And I didn’t even mention Liverpool amongst the protected!
How silly of me
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Definitely a red card offence there, Mandy!
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