Hello everyone, how the hell are you?
It’s a big day for supporters, or fans, or whatever the f*ck we are supposed to call ourselves these days, and it could be a good big day. If we beat our North London rivals we would likely find ourselves in 11th place and poised to leap into the top half of the table! Won’t that be a thrill for us all? Of course we have to win first, but we are at home, Spurs are on a bad run and we have won our last two games, so it really shouldn’t be beyond us.
The problem is that we have played 5 league games and we haven’t played a good game or beaten anyone placed above19th in the table. I think we can win, but we will have to play a lot better than we have up until now.
The main problem I see is that to hurt Spurs we have to both control and attack through our midfield, something Arteta seems to have little interest in doing. This in itself begs the question of who Arteta will play in midfield? Xhaka is available again so will he start? I know we have won our last 3 games without him, but Norwich, Burnley and Wimbledon could have been beaten with just about anyone, and realistically none of our midfielders even managed to stand out against such weak opponents. Personally I think it would be madness not to start Granit.
Partey seems to be fit(ish) and as we paid £50m for him I suppose he better start as well. There is an argument to say Sambi has done nothing to suggest he should be dropped, but I think he will make way.
The back 5 I expect is Ramsdale, the Emperor Hirohito, White, Gabriel amd KT. So thats 7 of 11 picked, all we have to do now is pick the front 4. (isn’t this fun?) I believe Aubameyang will play either from the left or through the middle, but he will play. 3 to go. Exciting, isn’t it?
I’m suck here though. I would play Odegaard, Lacazette and Pepe. But there is a decent case for ESR or Saka.
Now you see having listed all those players I’m making myself fell quite confident. I figure that’s the problem with us at the moment, our team play is much worse than the quality of our players. but that can change, and what better game to change it in than this one?
Ok, that’s it, if you want to listen to more of my nonsense give this a watch, and if you would be so kind subscribe to Shotta’s channel.
Enjoy the game. Pedantic George.
Positively Arsenal 
lots of dropped points by big clubs today, when was the last time we took advantage of these dropped points
LikeLike
I am petrified and excited for n equal measure.
I hope we don’t do a Joshua!
Arteta has been talking about how fantastic this player and that player has been in training but they need to be fantastic when it matters.
I think Saka starts and I hope Smith Rowe starts too but I suspect Pepe will be given the nod instead of Smith Rowe. I would be surprised if Sambi started instead of Xhaka. Xhaka has big fame experience and I think is one of the few leaders we have. So am going with Xhaka. Auba I think definitely starts. Didn’t see Laca making much of a case against Don’s.
LikeLike
I am petrified and excited for n equal measure.
I hope we don’t do a Joshua!
Arteta has been talking about how fantastic this player and that player has been in training but they need to be fantastic when it matters.
I think Saka starts and I hope Smith Rowe starts too but I suspect Pepe will be given the nod instead of Smith Rowe. I would be surprised if Sambi started instead of Xhaka. Xhaka has big fame experience and I think is one of the few leaders we have. So am going with Xhaka. Auba I think definitely starts. Didn’t see Laca making much of a case against Don’s.
LikeLike
We aren’t going for top four so points dropped by those clubs just aren’t relevant to us. In fact Villa and Everton are the sort of clubs we are aiming at so actually those results went against us, even Brentford getting a point may end up being a bad thing.
George you are getting madder by the day first suggesting Pepe should be in the side before anyone including Harry redknapps mother and second not realising eleventh is not top half because the PL only has 20 clubs.
By the way I do realize I get so many things wrong that the way I hammer Pepe he will go on to be a world beater one day.
Actually saying the spuds are on a bad run is wishful thinking, they had one bad game against palace and then after playing well against chelski first half were outplayed by a very good side second half of I think we need to remember that side had us beat after 20 minutes.
We on the other hand have recorded a very lucky win against a side that have now list six on the bounce and who no one else have had trouble with and then had to thank a wasteful Burnley side for not scoring three against us last week. Quite simply we are not on any sort of form.
Fortunately none of that matters on derby day and although I think as a team they are better than us I still believe that on the day we can win. If I’m honest that’s more heart than head but still.
LikeLike
Instance 2014@1252
Valid points there.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Positively Arsenal.
LikeLike
Good morning everyone, let’s hope it’s a good afternoon.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Just read the post again and it says poised to go top half so it’s me that’s getting madder by the day… Well if you think I’m mad you should see me, he he
LikeLike
Am going for a Win, Lose or Draw to either side. That is how much confidence I have. Based on recent history, still confident not more than one goal will separate each team.
Hope you all had a decent link to the YouTube with George and Ehab. That should make our views as clear as mud.
LikeLike
Given that most of the support have been in recent agreement with George and Shotts long before the elite blaggers jumped ship i’m probably wrong but I feel that Arteta needs a result in front of the home fans in this Home NLD more then a win in a cup final!
COYG
LikeLike
Team: Ramsdale, Tomiyasu, Gabriel, White, Tierney, Xhaka, Partey, Odegaard, Saka, Smith Rowe, Aubameyang.
Subs: Leno, Lacazette, Maitland-Niles, Holding, Cedric, Pepe, Tavares, Lokonga, Martinelli
LikeLike
Lloris, Tanganga, Sanchez, Dier, Reguilon, Hojbjerg, Ndombele, Moura, Alli, Son, Kane.
Subs: Gollini, Romero, Gil, Royal, Rodon, Lo Celso, Skipp, Davies, Scarlett
LikeLike
Xhaka can! He’s back!
LikeLike
shall we have a prediction how many yellow to red card challenges he lets go that Spuds make before Granit gets one for his first slightly mistimed tackle?
LikeLiked by 1 person
HT: Arsenal 3-0 Spurs
Smith-Rowe, Aubameyang, Saka with our goals, the best 45 minutes of play under Arteta by some distance.
LikeLike
spurs make two changes for the second half
LikeLike
What a first half.
I started off eating a burger to mask my anxiety
When the second goal went in I was wolfing a third a burger in delight.
Then Saka scored and I was chortling with a full mouthful of sweet potato fries and swigging down a Fanta!!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
VAR checking for a penalty to AFC
LikeLike
no penalty
LikeLike
VAR now checking for a penalty to spurs – no penalty
LikeLike
spurs getting at us now, need to kill this game off
LikeLike
we might need to bring on sambi in midfield for one of our forward players to match up with spurs numbers there.
LikeLike
saka and xhaka both getting treatment
LikeLike
spurs score, with about 12 minutes left
LikeLike
xhaka injured
LikeLike
it seems like a very bad knee injury to xhaka
LikeLike
Xhaka hobbles off, Sambi on
LikeLike
Saka off Maitland-Niles on
Tavares on for Smith-Rowe
LikeLike
5 minutes of stoppage time to be played
LikeLike
Ramsdale with a great save
LikeLike
FT: Arsenal 3-1 Spurs
Smith-Rowe, Aubameyang and Saka with our goals, a fully deserved win, only downside was an injury to Xhaka that looked bad enough
LikeLike
Damn that injury to Xhaka let’s hope its not bad. But at least we now have players like Sambi who can step in.
A thrilling first half and though we sat back in the second half, a thoroughly deserved win.
LikeLike
1st half: fried chicken and boiled spuds. 2nd should have been dessert of white cake and champagne, but 3-1 will do.
aftv will be happy that Xhaka got booted off. Plus twitter will state: The Spuds beat the champions, we beat the Spuds so we must be the champions.
But first half was excellent and hope we see more of it, I didnt expect it, but was glad.
COYG!
LikeLike
I know Smith Rowe got man of the match which he thoroughly deserved. But my vote goes to Tomiyasu what a superb defender. Looks like we have Sagna mark two
LikeLiked by 1 person
Might be wrong but I think Arteta picked the five behind the striker that produced the best football last season at the first opportunity this season with Xhaka returning today and Saka fully fit now and that’s encouraging.
Adrian Clarke considering that as possibly the best performance under Arteta.
those combinations all over the pitch were only new from the back, Ødegaard I think same as many an astute signing he’s got the technique to play with the Hale End stars.
Might have to change the line up if Xhaka is out which is a shame as his performance today is one of many highlights.
COYG
LikeLike
LikeLike
Arsenal Women 5 Manchester City 0. Miedema, Little 2, McCabe, Williamson. Great day in North London.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Gurjit
@GurjitAFC
·
1h
Arteta on Xhaka’s injury: “Unfortunately he got an injury & I’m pretty worried because it doesn’t look very positive at the moment”
LikeLike
The day after the Sunday, its great to wake up with a smile on the face and a bounce. My son had a great time lording over his mates on the way to school, and he was just bursting with pride, telling everyone who great we were.
And we were sublime in the first 45 minutes to an hour. What was gratifying all our new signings were on the pitch after the game ended. This is truly a new Arsenal in the making. However the pinnacle of that performance was having two Hale end boys dominating the game, scoring goals and tearing the spuds apart. Saka and Smith Rowe are no longer just prospects for the future they are the real deal. it may just be that Arteta is now on the cusp of creating an incredibly talented Arsenal side. The other pleasing thing is that we now have a bench that can make a difference. There are options when you look at the bench. And there is still the likes of Martinelli to come in as well.
As for Arteta- I am not in the Arteta out brigade, but I am not convinced that he is the coach that will take us to the next level. he is a decent coach but I think hes had it too easy in his coaching path. I think he needed to go through managing smaller teams where he could experiment and forge a philosophy. Arsenal is not the place to tinker and experiment. That being said now that he has a core of the team settling down perhaps that will ease the pressure of him. Yesterday I thought he reverted to type in the second half. He didnt make the subs until he was forced to and the team sat back to early allowing spurs to push up. at 3-0 it is tempting to play safe but go for the killer fourth goal and its done and dusted. Instead it went to 3-1 and in the back of your mind you were thinking ooh hope we dont get a freak show.
Ramsdale – special mention to the lad. Was brilliant and that late save was fantastic.
I have to say that was Auba of the old- he fully knew that there was no where to hide in such a crucial game. And boy did he turn up!
Brighton will be a different test to spurs. They play good football and in Bissouma have a wonderful talent. They will knock it about and play short sweet passes, and I think having Sambi in this game will be a bonus as he is more mobile.
Upwards and onwards
LikeLike
Excellent 1st half. 2nd I guess you could say we were justified in mostly defending what we had (though a 4th would have crushed them and taken away their energy to try get back into it)
That Granit injury though…really fear for him, and would be bad news for us. Seemed pretty obvious to me that his role was/is vital in us playing well.
LikeLike
Rich,
There is a reason Xhaka gets the Viera treatment from the media and fans of Arsenal like that cloggging cart horse (and that’s just as a coach!) Gary Neville
It’s obvious to all in football that Granit is a top level player we’ve seen him play better in the same role in numerous contests save one when opposite the much lauded Jorginho.
There is a reason the Chief Arsenal Blagger was calling for him to be dropped on Friday before he destroyed Spurs in that first half whilst ignoring statements from the likes of Partey that he dreamed of his partnership with Xhaka before he arrived at the club:
These Arsenal blaggers, these Chiefs, they know sweet F.A. about the Footy! As evidentially and objectively recorded. By their own words. Last week. Hehe. The Plonkers.
LikeLike
I see we have now gone from Arteta being one of the best young coaches in the world/UK, to a great coach, to being a decent coach.
I always thought that the job of a coach is to coach the players to improve their game, and for a manager to manage them to do the same.
Yet, in his 20 months as coach/manager, his teams have produced some of the worst and dire displays since the good old days of Billy Wright and Terry Neil and yet, in their times the teams produced more than the occasional good displays for whole games, not just one half or other.
Apart from the victory against Chel$ki last year, and the first half yesterday, the feature of Arteta’s teams have been dire, unwatchable football with very little, if anything, to get excited about.
The fact that he won an FA Cup final by parking the bus luckily preventing Chel$ki from scoring is not indicative of good coaching or management, but simply good luck.
In addition, those who excuse his lack of coaching evidence by saying that Wenger left him with an entire team of misfits and idiots, are a million miles from the truth.
He left behind one of the best midfielders in the world and one of the best strikers in the world and a team full of established and current internationals.
We have seen the dog’s dinner that both Emery and Arteta had made of the players that they inherited, and yet, now, with a team full of inexperienced young players bought for large amounts from around the world, who play one half of the game against an even more dire team, all of a sudden, Arteta has become a decent coach again and will, no doubt, be elevated to the status of “great” coach if we get some sort of result against Brighton.
Remember, when Torreira came, everyone raved about how great he was. Where is he now, after Emery got his hands on him (figuratively speaking, of course)?
It may very well be that, as I’ve seen some bloggist suggest, a substantial reason why the team played so well in the first half yesterday was that the crowd was there making a noise and the players were unable to hear Arteta’s bullying from the sidelines. So the increased standard in their play was nothing whatsoever to do with his coaching but the fact that they were able to ignore it
The problem with blogging is that anyone can do so that the communal dreamworld and rose-tinted glasses appears to be more rampant.
I will reserve my judgement as to how the team are progressing if I see similar displays in forthcoming games.
If that happens, and I should be delighted I would regard it as being not that Arteta’s coaching methods have been shown to be successful, but simply that he has realised that they are nothing of the sort and has had to change them
LikeLike
Do you guys think the clubs who ask for safe seating applications will get approved, and will it sweep through the stadiums over a short period of time or will it be slowly brought in?
Will there be problems with it sooner or later?
LikeLike
Well that was an unhoped for, but not entirely unexpected, result. Lovely to see the pace and movement in the first half, and even lovelier to see the joy it brought the players and fans. Adams and Keown both very positive afterwards, and as George said earlier, praise due to the manager for keeping the players positive at a time when it would have been easier to be otherwise.
LikeLike
Jigsol at 236
I agree to your points that it is too early to say that we are now on the upward. Remember it was a derby and the spuds are extremely poor recently. They lost to Palace by 3 goals as well. Even Emery beat spuds scoring 5.Lets wait & see how season progresses.
LikeLike
Emile Smith Rowe is an excitig player, and I like the way he injects pace. I’ve got a hazy memory of him scoring a bit of a wonder goal a few years ago on some pre-season tour, and thinking then that he looked a prospect. I’m always interested in young players who immediately make a mark when they first start polaying up a level.
LikeLike
Foreverheady
Pretty sure that was against Simeone’s lot, Emery’s first year. Scored a few lovely goals for youth teams as well. Lot of small and medium injuries for couple of years after that.
Been a real joy for me seeing him make it.
Good video of him was around a while back of excellent performance against Chelsea in fa youth cup final. Painful defeat with them winning 7-1 over two legs.
Tried to console myself at time that it’s more about how your best 2-5 players develop at youth level as opposed to strength of team. Advantage us by a nose I reckon given Saka and Smith Rowe, as well as Danny Ballard were in team. They had Reece James, Hudson Odoi, Gallagher, kid who went to Russia recently for 15 mill, Guehi
LikeLiked by 1 person
a very good win to continue our winning run, so much so that the PGMOL have rolled out their big guns for our game v Brighton this weekend
Dan Critchlow
@afcDW
·
8h
Officials for Brighton vs Arsenal:
Referee: Jonathan Moss. Assistants: Marc Perry, Timothy Wood. Fourth official: John Brooks.
VAR: Chris Kavanagh. Assistant VAR: James Mainwaring.
LikeLike
uefa have dropped all charged and fines against the super league clubs, not sure but seen a report EPL have had to drop their fines to the six too
LikeLike
reports that Xhaka is out for 6-8 weeks, there is a photo of him in a full leg brace
LikeLike