Good morning all.
Today is going to be a battle between two camps that both want their owners out. It could be a struggle as they have more experience than us. If there were fans in the stadium there would be bedsheets and A4 everywhere. Not that either Stan or Mike could care less, but at least it would give us something to look forward to, because the football is less interesting. Both clubs, 11th and 17th in the league, with squads that are way better than their league positions would suggest, have basically nothing to play for.
The interest in the game for Arsenal comes from the selections that will be made ahead of Thursday’s second leg against Villarreal. Does Arteta rotate big time? Does he play the eleven that could start that game and hope to get some rhythm? Does he rest vital players or play them because without them there is a risk of yet another embarrassing defeat that could shake our confidence even further? Do we use it like a training game and a fitness exercise for players chasing fitness?
When anyone is critical of Arteta, the stock response from his champions is usually “he won us the FA cup”, but even this last straw get out of jail card has an ever diminishing shelf life. However, a “EUROPEAN TROPHY”, as they describe the cup for second rate teams, will give the manager and his defenders some more breathing space and the £ that come with entry into the european competition for good teams will help us going forward.
I really can’t remember the last time I didn’t watch an Arsenal game, and I’ll likely end up watching this one, but it won’t be live, because the snooker final interests me more. And that that is the case is very sad. That’s what it’s come too.
So enjoy the game, or snooker, or whatever you choose to do this afternoon.
Pedantic George.
Positively Arsenal 
To be honest, I have a funeral to attend which starts at the same time as this game and I was tempted to give my dead acquaintance a long farewell. But I can’t avoid the car crash at Arsenal and watching the fans pretend it is the owner’s fault and not the new driver he put in charge who is far less competent and experienced than the old geezer who drove for 22 years.
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Stan and Mike…yes.
An article in the Daily Heil reporting today that Arsenal have effectively been for sale for a couple of years now, but nobody has made the right bid, dubious source though, as we know.
Arteta might yet win a European trophy, personally doubt it, and if he does, he can be very thankful he was up against Emery last week, a less inhibited, cautious manager would have completely killed us off and deservedly so with what Arteta tried to do mid week.
Whatever happens this season, I am sure Arteta will remain, he’s lucky for the patience he will be shown. Most clubs with any semblance of ambition, he would be in trouble without a win in Europe, if he achieves that, he KSE will promote him from Head Coach to Supreme Leader, with more titles than Idi Amin back in the day, along with a 15 year deal.
No idea what happens today, way to many key players missing for a non flexible manager like Arteta to cope with .
Just lucky Geordie legend and super sub Joe Willock isn’t playing
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Two really good questions George: football or snooker, protect players from injury or go for a dress rehearsal? Were it me making the call I’d go dress rehearsal and racing from Newmarket.
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Ryan, Bellerin, Gabriel, Luiz, Elneny, Xhaka, Ceballos, Odegaard, Willian, Martinelli, Aubameyang.
Subs: Leno, Saka, Cedric, Partey, Pepe, Chambers, Mari, Nketiah, Smith Rowe.
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Dubravka, Clark, Fernandez, Dummett, Ritchie, S. Longstaff, Shelvey, Murphy, Almiron, Saint-Maximin, Wilson.
Subs: Gillespie, M. Longstaff, Schar, Joelinton, Gayle, Lewis, Hendrick, Krafth, Anderson.
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Good to see Bellerin back in
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imagine my shock when I seen Ceballos in the starting line up as I read an article yesterday by Kevin Campbell where he stated Ceballos would never play for Arsenal again, as his sending off on Thursday was the last straw for Arteta and that it was a non negotiable too far for Ceballos and that he was finished at AFC.
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yes mandy good to see Bellerin back, but I think we know that no matter how well he plays he won’t play on Thursday.
Also what has happened to great signing Cedric, once again it looks like our midfield will be deprived of the talents of Xhaka with him at left back again
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Strange line up again, surely Granite is vital so shouldn’t be playing today and Eddie is on the bench yet again it looks like he won’t play Thursday like I say strange but I don’t really understand this manager.
Anyway it’s all about the team so COYG.
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will not be surprised if Xhaka gets injured today, its the sort of thing that happens when a key player is needlessly picked in game like today
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great run by Bellerin in the build up to that Elneny goal
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xhaka rightly booked
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HT: 1-0 to the Arsenal
Elneny with the goal in a game we have completely dominated. Really should have pressed home our advantage in that half
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FT: Newcastle 0-2 Arsenal
Elneny and Aubameyang with our goals, dominated the game, and fully deserved win, back up to 9th
the bad news, David Luiz went off with a hamstring injury
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Man Utd fans making a show of themselves at Old Trafford today, like so many of our lot, a shower of attention seeking twats
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seems the Utd v LFC game has been postponed
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Yes agree Bellerín won’t play against Villarreal Eduardo , completely perplexing , much more of a threat going forward than other options
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A pretty good performance, Elneny didn’t put a foot wrong, chased all day and capped it with a goal.
Ryan showing he looks more confident and competent than Leno.
Martinelli proving to the world that picking Pepe over him, even before that beautiful cross, is act of shear lunacy.
Hector proving he is the best right back at the club and it’s always good to pick a right back to play right back, I know that’s sounds obvious but for some it’s not
Xhaka is Xhaka and forever more will be so, again when he doesn’t wear the armband we know the lunatics are about. They say politics and sport doesn’t match well apparently it does when choosing our Captain.
Ceballos was still rubbish even amongst a good performance and even though Auba saved himself a bit with the goal you could say that about him as well.
Pepe gave us all a good laugh when he jumped for a ball coming out of the air and he completely missed it and it just bounced in front of him (send in the clowns moment).
My last mention would be for the much berated Willian who had a decent game and buzzed around everywhere and looked a threat injecting pace into attacks that looked to have gone flat. His performance was certainly a positive.
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but ian we were told only yesterday by Arteta that Martinelli has not been getting game time cos he unbalances the team.
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we now have so called Arsenal fans looking to follow the example of the utd fans today and to try and get our EL semi final second leg game stopped, and they still actually claim to be Gooners,
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Mikel Arteta was a happy man following our win over Newcastle United.
We produced a professional performance to bounce back from Thursday’s defeat at Villarreal and build confidence ahead of this week’s Europa League semi-final second leg at Emirates Stadium.
Here’s every word from the boss’ post-match press conference:
on it being the perfect afternoon…
Apart from David’s injuries. That’s all we wanted, to keep the team fresh, give players with the right attitude the chance to play this game and then be able to just focus on today. I think we had a really strong performance from the beginning. We dominated the game and we got the three points that we needed, which helps for Thursday as well.
on David Luiz’s injury…
We don’t know. He felt something in his hamstring so it’s not good news. He’s put in such a shift to be back with the team for the last few weeks after the knee surgery. It’s a real shame.
on whether any of his eight changes have made a case to start on Thursday…
Yes, some of them had some strong performances but they’ve been preparing really well all the time. They deserve the chance and let’s think about it. We’ll assume everybody is fit on Thursday and then we can make the right decision.
on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang playing 78 minutes and scoring…
We thought that he wasn’t going to manage that. On Thursday, and the day before, he was struggling and he could only manage to play 10 or 15 minutes but the day afterwards he was starting to feel better. It’s good to see that he was fine today, he performed well and scored a goal too. It’s a real positive.
on Mohamed Elneny’s first Premier League goal…
It was a good one and an important one. You could see the reaction of his team-mates. He’s a really popular guy in the dressing room and he totally deserves everything he gets because he’s a fantastic player and person to work with.
on Gabriel Martinelli…
I think they all played really well and Gabi is improving every week. He’s taking his minutes in the right way and he’s developing the way we all believe he can. Today he had an assist, which was an important moment, and he had some good moments off the left – and also trying to play as a No 9 as well.
on Martinelli’s playing time…
Just look at how much he’s played in the last few years. Then how much he’s played with me when he’s available. Then we can discuss that. It’s what happens. This debate is always happening when you don’t win. If it’s not him, it will be someone else. If it’s not Gabi, it will be Lacazette, Willian or Pepe. It’s part of it.
on whether he sees Martinelli as a No 9 in the long-term…
Time will tell but I would like to develop him in both positions because I think he’s got the potential to do both.
on Kieran Tierney and Alex Lacazette’s availability on Thursday…
They haven’t trained with the team yet so I think they’re unlikely to be.
on whether Aubameyang is the ‘right connection’ for Martinelli…
Yeah it is a connection. Having Granit behind him helps him in a way because he’s more in the line, in the last line on the left where he is more comfortable. With Kieran it’s a little bit different. Those relationships are ones we have to built. If there are any doubts, I love Gabi so much. More than all of you together!
on Reiss Nelson…
With Reiss, I would like to give him more. He’s a boy who tries really hard, he trains every day, he wants to do extra all the time. It’s very difficult at the moment with the players we have to be able to fit him in. I feel sorry that we don’t have other competitions to use him in, because he deserves more. He doesn’t play more and that’ my fault.
on whether that was the perfect preparation for Thursday…
Yes because we had a strong and a very convincing performance. We scored two goals, we kept a clean sheet, won the points, and had some really strong individual performances too. The only downside is the one with David because we know how important he is to us. I think we lost him today.
on not just focusing on Thursday’s game…
That was the biggest part of the preparation today. We were away in Spain because we believe it was the right way to prepare for the game today, to give them the right rest, and then mentally as you said it was important to focus on today. We had to pick the right players to play and perform like they did. I think the message got across really clearly.
on whether we can still qualify for Europe via the league…
I don’t know. Mathematically it’s possible but it’s out of our hands. We don’t have much to say apart from winning football matches.
Copyright 2021 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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this little bit from Arteta -” give players with the right attitude the chance to play this game”
but I thought all the bad eggs were drummed out of the club in January, seems not as he is implying some not getting game time due to wrong attitude
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I hope the Met Police are better prepared for the attention seeking fans this coming Thursday
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I’ve seen a couple of tweets suggesting Szczesny is on his way back. Could that be anything more than a rumour?
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foreverheady it would be good if he was to return, but from what I see its all based on the agent of the AC Milan goalie, trying to engineer a move for his client to Juventus, which would mean Sczcsney leaving Juve, add in Leno’s mistake last week and you have a story.
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I see Thierry Henry has been doing PR for the Daniel Ek takeover bid on MNF, the biggest worry from what he had to say is that they have held talks with the AST to get them on side, and even implied that they might have someone on the Board. Do we really want an owner that would have a rep on our board from any group that would appoint Tim Payton as their head man. I know I certainly don’t.
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https://www.rte.ie/archives/2019/0319/1037333-gunner-niall-quinn/
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Could be worse, if Ek was able to buy KSE out , and went completely populist, he might put Robbie on the board
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jeez mandy I’m not even sure that Robbie is worse than Tim, but then again Robin would not get on the board if they are looking for an arsenal fan, he is a luton fan
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As with managers you have to be careful what you wish for.
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Robbies a Luton fan! Oh well. Guess he will be happy with Luton consolidating their position in the Championship after some difficult years
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I mean it makes perfect sense.
Surely an owner who is famous for paying skilled artisans peanuts will know how to turn an Odengaard into an Ozil.
& to complete the pattern and to follow Newton’s laws of conservation, to turn:
Lots of Gold into a smelly Turd.
(Take your pick from “Ozil and Ramsey can’t play together” and other such fermented droppings from the PR lickspittles)
Though we’ve all become masters of that last topic watching the degradation of the Arsenal and and off the pitch these past three years.
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Henry, great player. One of the greatest. Shit ex-player.
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Podcast is up
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