Good morning one and all.
It’s been a while, how are yaaaa?
The Arsenal make the trip up the M6 to Anfield with our fan base brim full of confidence that not having lost since game day 3 has bestowed upon them. There is a genuine feeling that a corner has been turned and the future, and present, is a big paradise full of points and goals. If we win today, we go above Liverpool and in all likelihood, into the top 4. Seriously, if you have watched both teams play this season, that would be a miraculous outcome. But miracle or not, them is the facts, and no matter how unlikely, or how we have managed it, that would be a great platform to go forward from.
For me there is no doubt we have improved of late. We have a very good squad of mainly young players, Arteta seems to be making more right decisions and luck is favouring us, so why not be excited about it? Why not make hay while the sun shines? I believe this young team will improve, gel and develop a more pleasing playing style, when Xhaka returns it will give us more control and ball progression, every addition we made in the summer looks like a good buy. At this moment in time it does look a lot more positive.
It appears that we will be (excluding Xhaka) at full strength and Liverpool will be considerably weakened by injuries, good, it’s about time, for years it was us missing big players at important times. I hope we can take advantage of this today and come away with a positive result. We all want a win, but a draw would be a tremendous result also.
The club has been running a tremendous top class PR campaign recently, we can swallow it and be happy, for the next few hours at least.
Here is the Youtube game review for anyone interested,
Enjoy the game and have a great day.
Pedantic George.
Positively Arsenal 
I suspect Arteta is going for what he considers to be fairly elite young players, who are not cheap.
I am sure stabilising the defence has been part of Artetas plan, works sometimes, but not in the second half today, or in games earlier in the season.
I bet we start creating more chances when Xhaka returns, nobody else in our MF gets the ball forward like he does. That aside, Auba still does not look right, but maybe difficult in such a game . And where is Pepe?
This season will not be defined by games like today, they are currently out of this teams league, and whatever anyone says, relative youth and inexperience plays a significant part in that, whatever they cost, money does not equate to experience.
We will not compete with City Liverpool or Chelsea over this season, how on Earth could we.
Might sound depressing compared to the glory days, of that comparison is fair, but for now, like it or not, it’s the rest we are up against and how this team should be measured against. In that context , so far at least, Arteta is probably in a very safe place
LikeLike
As for Auba, was very surprised to hear Artetas recent quotes, something along the lines of – he is transmitting leadership like never before- he is the bloody captain FFS, that just sounded strange to me. Could you imagine someone having to say that about Adams, or Paddy?
I just wonder auba thinks being part of a young player development project at this stage of his career is just getting him down no matter how he might try, I suspect if a CL club were to come in for him , they would find a deal . Not having a go at him, just wonder if he is completely content , of he isn’t I genuinely hope he finds it . Money helps but it isn’t everything
LikeLike
Rosicky @7.14 “ Artetas Arsenal thrashed at Annfield.
So do we continue with Trust the process version?
Fair point , but I dont remember you making similar comments when Wengers teams were thrashed at Anfield?
LikeLike
Mandy @ 216
Fair enough Wenger teams also faced some humiliated defeats at Anfield Old Trafford Chelsea but Wenger teams never sat back. He set the team to attack the opposition
even away from home and even against bigger teams bar a few times. On the contrary Arteta sets the team with the defence first approach even at home and against smaller teams. This is his 3rd season at Arsenal and we are watching dire football even at the Emirates & even after spending 300 million we are no way near the weakest of Wenger squads.
Imagine Wenger spending 300 million he would have stormed the league year in year out.
·
I thought the whole reason people wanted Wenger out was b/c “top 4 wasn’t good enough” & that AFC had to be “more ambitious.” Yet somehow people have accepted one of the most uncreative/attacking sides & defend them with every excuse under the sun. It makes absolutely no sense.
LikeLiked by 1 person
At times yesterday it felt as if we were playng with 7 men: against that team and as the match panned out the front two and the midfield two were largely anonymous – which of course put added pressure on all the rest. I’m not sure you can blame the coach for that, but I did wonder what Martinelli, Odegaard, Elneny and Maitland-Niles must have been thinking.
LikeLike
I think our players are good enough to challenge for places 4 – 6, although the lack of attacking threat will make that touch and go. I think I can see the way Arteta wants the side to play (variations on a theme of Man City) and I understand all the talk about it being a young side with great potential. I can see that. But I can also see that there are no game-changers in the team: no players to win the midfield, no attackers to frighten defences. And that makes me wonder what the owners want, and what Arsenal is all about.
Just about everything is in place: tradition and history, world-wide name, top London stadium, great training facilities. The basis of a very good team.
But I can’t see anything much changing until we find (and buy) at least two world-class players. And I can’t see us doing that, so we’ll end up hoping for small incremental advances while remaining vulnerable to regular set-backs.
LikeLike
Rosicky, doubt some of those who wanted Wenger out had or have any idea what they want .
What isn’t in doubt, as you say,, Wenger set out his teams to attack.
Sadly, I fear he is a dying breed the game now seems to be about pressing, counter attacking, and complicated Latin sounding positional philosophies, Arteta, like most seems to buy into these. Unfortunately, against mature, more experiences, or better exponents, this team gets found out. I suspect Arteta needs more and different players to really get on top of these philosophies, Xhaka would help, so might a fit Partey, suspect he will need different strikers, Auba especially just doesn’t seem suited to some of this.
Arteta doesn’t have the bravery, the luxury, the kudos , the players ( no Cazorla, Rosicky, Wilshere ) types in the squad to enact a Wenger attacking strategy, nor we can suspect does he have the inclination. The nearest I at least can see to Wengerball might be city at times, but they have the resources and a manager who knows he is not getting sacked, we have a manager starting out in his career.
There are plenty of teams who score a load of goals, Chelsea, Liverpool , even Palace but they are ultimately custom designed counter attacking teams with decent defences , we are not there yet, though fully expect to finish above Palace.
I miss Wengers style and hope one day, that style of play will return, but ultimately, even Wenger started getting found out by sometimes lesser , but effective at counter attacking teams, for every Liverpool , Chelsea, City thrashing, there was a depressing , sometimes ref assisted loss away to a West Brom, Stoke, Villa, Bolton Palace etc which sadly gave those with an agenda fodder to make a noise against Wenger.
Whatever Wenger had, Arteta doesn’t have the luxury or the players
I suspect more of the same, probably a gradual improvement, a finish somewhere in the top 6, some impressive results where we can inflict early blitzes and not go behind, probably a couple more depressing thrashings , and a new more custom fitted striker in the summer
LikeLiked by 2 people
Unless we improve dramatically(the underlying stats are horrendous) we have no chance of top 6.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mandy
Nice to know you miss Wenger ball like many of us here at PA and Uncensored Arsenal.
But you did not got my point. I was referring to the fact that on one hand we miss Wengerball and on the other we have gone backwards as a club both on & off the field. Even after spending loads of money we are not in the run for top4. The idiot fans who criticzed Wenger for finishing top4 for 20 consecutive years are now praising Arteta for finishing 8th playing dire football.
Also consider the fact that we have no European football this season so we should be performing better than Wenger’s teams who never had the luxury of bigger squads and had to play European football besides the league throughout his reign at the club.
Keeping Arsenal a profitable club is another feather in Wenger’s cap. Not too many people would agree to my point but Wenger’s model of staying within the clubs resources is the only successful model a club should be run. Remember AFC was among the top5/6 clubs of Europe during Wengers era in terms of finances and fan following.
I am
we are now out of top 10.
LikeLiked by 1 person
**I am sure we are out of top 10**
LikeLike
I wonder people hail clubs like City and Chelsea as successful clubs who actually buy success rather than achieving success the right way.
Apart from Arsenal Probably United and Liverpool could qualify for achieving success the right way by spending from what they earn.
LikeLike
“Where is pepe?” He is on the bench which is his absolute maximum position.
I have thought after some of our wins people have gone over the top so after one second half spanking I’m certainly not going to go to far the other way.
I think we do need to look at some yesterday’s game in perspective with the rest of the season.
Some of the things we learnt or rather were confirmed at A field.
1 we have a very very very good keeper.
2 our CB pairing while not bad are not world beaters and are certainly being made to look better by the keeper.
3 partey is not anywhere near a world class midfielder, is injury prone and other players on form can challenge or replace him
4 Tavares has lots of potential but doesn’t look when crossing the ball going forward and looks very suspect defensively. In fact both of our young full backs are naive when up against top quality opposition.
5 our 2nd and 3rd best players are ESR and Saka and if they don’t fire we struggle.
6 our Captain and first choice striker is on the way down in his career and is also defensively naive.
7 our young manager is still very naive and although he may become a very good manager one day is still a long way off.
8 Liverpools front three are probably the best in the PL and are a very good team and our team should not be judged just on one game in their back yard.
9 Edu shouldn’t of sold Mezut and lots of quality players and it is costing a fortune to correct that mistake.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Rocksteady – is missing Wengerball
@ShardGooner
·
8h
You can’t judge Arsenal in a loss to Liverpool, you can’t judge them in the first 3 games of the season, you can’t judge them on lucky draws against Brighton and Palace, nor on narrow wins. You can only judge them on the Spurs and Villa games.
LikeLike
Vivianne Miedema has today become the first player in FAWSL history to score against every team she’s faced after she scored to give Arsenal Women the lead in their 2-0 away win over Man Utd Women
LikeLike
rumor doing the rounds that Arsenal have agreed to let Elneny leave for free in January.
this comes a few days after his agent said that a new contract was all but agreed last season till Elneny spoke out about Palestine, and that the club then stopped contract talks.
LikeLike
the way I see it Arteta has got his priorities wrong, he is a negative coach, he sees defense as the main objective, only this last week he was fulsome in his praise for his Captain, Aubameyang, not for his goals contribution, nor assists, or his general creative play, no, what impressed him about our main striker was his work rate at closing down opponents and being our first line of defense.
Arteta needs to be told that clean sheets, or conceding few goals should be the icing on the cake. But that the cake is scoring goals.
Simply put a clean sheet only guarantees you a point, and you have no chance of getting 3 points in any game if you don’t score. So scoring should be the main objective, not a byline.
Take a look at the league tables over the years, the top 4’s main common denominator is that they by and large will have at least 3 of the top scoring teams in it, often all 4. But on many occasions only 2 of the best defenses.
We play Newcastle next weekend, a team we normally brush aside at home, often scoring lots of goals against, but i have no faith that we will score lots against them next week, or that we will even create lots of chances against them. I laugh when I see people talk about Artetaball as if its something akin to Wengerball, when it is the polar opposite. Where Wenger would be delighted to win a game 4-2, Arteta would prefer a 1-0 win,
Odegaard was our big attacking signing of the summer, and he currently can’t get in the team, its suggested this is cos Lacazette is better defensively. You know I miss the days when we talked about the great attacking play of our forwards, and not how much effort they put into being our first line of defense.
plus with all this defending is a damn bad sign that our goalie is prime candidate for our man of the match most weeks. Something doesn’t add up.
LikeLike
This season is a very strange season and we are massively benefiting for the indiscretions of virtually everyone.
Next week we win at home to Newcastle and the rest of the teams around us are had to call so who knows what the position will be after 13 games, well we will be fifth but how bunched up the rest are is anyone’s guess.
If the Mo stories are true then same old mistakes yet again.
LikeLike
not sure how legit it is, but reports claim Ainsley Maitland-Niles’s girlfriend tweeted a dig at Arteta’s non selection of AMN (man of the match in the watford game she claimed),
this could be the lad finished under Arteta, we might see some bad attitude rumors shortly
LikeLike
ah but ian it will be for footballing reasons, and not his off field views.
LikeLike
ian what if we fail to beat the Toon, and those around us win, we then go into two fixtures that we normally struggle in, Man Utd away and Everton away.
LikeLike
It is possible we could lose all three games but with Newcastle in only the second week with a Covid manager, Everton with injuries and the worst form in the league and manure with a caretaker manager and number 2 to a sacked manager the bookies would put us as the favourites to win all three.
We might be boring but we are more stable than all three teams.
LikeLike
LikeLike
And her a Tottenham girl!
LikeLike
Full time. Blackburn 2 Arsenal 3. Balogun’s late winner ensures Arsenal U23s go top of Premier League 2 despite Norton-Cuffy’s red card.
LikeLike
The Arsenal goals were scored by Biereth, and Hutchinson to put us 2-0 up, but Norton-Cuffy was sent off and Blackburn got back into the game, and got level with a penalty when U23 debut boy Awe gave away a penalty shortly after coming on, but Balogun got a late winner to put AFC back on top of the PL2 table
LikeLike
The media is full of coverage and video of the spat between MA and Klopp but video of the Mane/Tomi incident seems totally absent. Wonder why?
LikeLike
New post is up
LikeLike