Hello any positive gooners that are left.
In this podcast Shotta and I chat about our cup exit and look at the gap between us, them and Chelsea, never mind the gap to City. Optimism flickered for a while but it’s fading as quickly as it appeared. We are back to paint by numbers football and no chances.
Pedantic George
Positively Arsenal 
Cheers lads. For me, a top pod. COYG!
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Arsenal currently down to 7th in the table
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maybe the gap is only as big cos we have sabotaged our own squad, with some strange loan deals out.
on the topic of loans out, as most here might know, I’m not a big fan of Guendouzi, but I’ve seen nothing from Sambi Lokonga so far to suggest he is as good, let alone better. Have any of you seen what the fuss is about him.
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Tomorrow we face Burnley, with both first choice CM’s, Xhaka and Partey suspended, and 3 other CM’s out on loan, Torreira, AMN and Guendouzi, which means we are likely to start with one recognized CM, in Sambi, and an out of position partner, someone make it make sense
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afcstuff
@afcstuff
·
4h
Granit Xhaka on criticism of Arsenal over postponement: “It’s nothing new for me. Every time this football club does something, everyone has to say something. I love the comment from Micah Richards, what he said about it. So thanks, Micah, for the comment. I love it.” [Sky] #afc
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brooke norton-cuffy made his debut for lincoln today as a sub
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Report – Cozier-Duberry among scorers and Sousa debuts as Arsenal U18s thrash Chelsea
by jeorge bird
U18 Premier League
Arsenal 4 (Edwards 21, Sagoe Jr 32, Ibrahim 75, Cozier-Duberry 80) Chelsea 0
Arsenal U18s secured an impressive 4-0 victory at home to Chelsea today, with Amario Cozier-Duberry among the scorers.
The young Gunners were without Henry Jeffcott, Taylor Foran and Amani Richards, but Lino Sousa, who recently joined from West Bromwich Albion, received his first call-up as he was named on the bench. Elian Quesada-Thorn, meanwhile, made his first start of the season. Bradley Ibrahim filled in at centre-back.
Mitchell
Sweet-Robinson–Ibrahim-Quamina
Bandeira-Edwards
Cozier Duberry-Sagoe Jr-Quesada Thorn
Edwards
Subs: Sousa (for Quesada-Thorn, 61), Gaspar (for Robinson, 74), Roberts (for Vigar, 81). Not used: Kovacevic, Gower.
Ronnie Stutter, who was at Arsenal as a schoolboy, was on the bench for Chelsea.
Arsenal took the lead in the 21st minute, with the prolific Edwards finding the net.
Charles Sagoe Jr made it 2-0 before half-time after being set up by James Sweet, who has now made eight assists this season.
Just after the hour mark Sousa entered the fray for his debut as he replaced Quesada-Thorn, and Luigi Gaspar was later brought on.
Arsenal continued to impress and Bradley Ibrahim got his first goal at this level before Cozier-Duberry completed the scoring.
Although Arsenal’s form has been inconsistent recently and they remain in sixth place in the table, this was an impressive victory which offers encouragement for the future.
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afcstuff
@afcstuff
·
6h
Arsenal are planning to travel to Dubai for a warm-weather training camp during the two-week Premier League break. The club have also scheduled a friendly back on English soil a few days before their season resumes away to Wolves on Thursday, February 10. [@TheAthleticUK
] #afc
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It seems that the Venerable Saint Thomas has got away scot-free from any of the sorts of criticism that Xhaka received the week before,
That is even though Xhaka was trying to prevent and did prevent a goal-scoring opportunity and St. Thomas simply made 2 unnecessary and reckless tackles within minutes of each other.
Had we been seeing regular great performances from him I might accept the giving of some slack here, but as the opposite is true, why the generosity?
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but jjgsol Thomas looks the part in the minds of those idiots
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Eduardo. Is that not the problem?
We are constantly being bombarded about how wonderful St. Thomas is, and yet no one, and I mean no one has seen anything that remotely suggests that there is any truth in that and yet they still prattle on about how he is the one.
One site had an article and a series of blogs about who should join him as first choice central midfielders, whilst ignoring the fact that he has shown us no reason to believe that he should be even 2nd choice let alone first.
I am firmly of the belief that blogging has become so irrelevant that there is really no point.
This is the only site I look at most days. I also look occasionally at another site that has excellent lead articles but then a lot of nonsense from the participants.
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of course its the problem jjsol, many made their mind up that Partey was world class and the sun shone out of his ass, and no matter how poor he plays their view remains, its the polar opposite of how they view xhaka. Look these idiots don’t know the difference in a deep lying play maker and a defensive midfielder, that they think they are infallible in their judgement of a player make them all the more laughable
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today in the EPL I seen two challenges that resulted in yellow cards, well one was given as a red but after VAR check the Wolves guys red was changed to a yellow, and armstrong of southampton got a yellow v city, that I have to say if any Arsenal player, and most certainly xhaka, both would have been straight reds, with the commentators backing the decisions to the hilt, but in both cases today, they were all for the lenient stance of the ref and VAR. The way the PGMOL operates will never change cos the media totally support this uneven handling of the rules of the game.
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The gap was always there it’s just because we went on a fortunate run of playing teams who were out of form or out of players you tend to look good.
Having said that I don’t use are back where we were and I have still upgraded our finishing position from eighth to sixth, as George said in yet another good podcast is the truth lies in the middle between desperation and optimism.
The loans are ridiculous and this is not a hindsight thing as we all said before Ainsley went we would be short in midfield.
Ed, while I agree at the moment Sambi is not a player you would imagine would light up the league technically he looks very good and looks a very good passer of the ball. I did think against Liverpool in the first leg he was the worst player on the park and we were almost playing with nine men at times.
The other thing I find quite strange is (I wonder how Ed and Fins feel about this) chelski have been winning the youth League for twenty years since the Russian came in and ploughed loads of money in but no-one made it to the first team since their youngsters have come through (after the transfer ban) their youth teams seem to be having really bad results.
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To pick up on one observation from the podcast. Living on this constant roller coaster of results and performances I console myself by thinking that players and others that know about football seem to see a good manager in Arteta. We now have reports that he will be offered a new contract sooner rather than later to stop City sniffing around. Really?
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That is true BB and a very good point. We always say top managers know more than us mere fan pundits. Especially as we don’t know what goes on behind closed doors.
The trouble is if you have been watching different successful and unsuccessful managers for years you tend to have an idea which category they fall into.
There have been lots of mistakes over the last couple of seasons and it is difficult to know whether the blame lies with Mikel, Edu, Josh or an amalgamation of all of them and the board.
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Can’t see it being anything but difficult this afternoon. They will be aggressive and push the boundaries, we will end up with injuries, cards and ten men. I think Arteta is a good manager and has the makings of a really interesting team, but neither he nor team are good enough to overcome clear bias week in week out: even Arsene struggled against licensed thuggery and one-sided officiating.
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ian I do think Chelsea are not hoovering up as many of the best youths now as they did a few years ago, city are getting more of them, Arsenal are in on the act too, and of course its very possible that the agents have realized that its not great for the kids career to go to CFC, and be loaned out for years on end till CFC can get a fee for them.
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Arsenal Team: Ramsdale, Tierney, White, Gabriel, Holding, Saka, Odegaard, Smith Rowe, Lokonga, Lacazette, Martinelli
Subs: Leno, Tavares, Chambers, Nketiah, Alebiousu, Biereth, Oulad M’hand, Hutchinson, Patino
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looking at the subs, I predict that regardless of score, or injuries the 3 subs Arteta will use are Tavares, Chambers and Nketiah, well that is if he uses 3 subs at all
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Burnely Team: Pope, Pieters, Tarkowski, Mee, Roberts, McNeil, Brownhill, Westwood, Lennon, Rodriguez, Vydra
Subs: Hennessey, Lowton, Cork, Gudmundsson, Stephens, Collins, Bardsley, Long, Thomas
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so Arteta fucked up on Thursday selecting Tomiyasu, without the lad having done any training due to injury for a few weeks, and now our right back is going to be out for a few weeks, we are not allowing him to join up with Japan for their forthcoming games due to his injury. Arteta’s claims that he had no choice but to pick Tomi on Thursday are crap and a real fuck up
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And if he hadn’t picked him for a semi-final then it would have been easy to criticise him for that as well….
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no foreverheady as tomi was out injured, that Arteta claimed he had no option but to pick Tomi cos he had no one else to play right back was bullshit, as White could have played there, as he done a few games ago, and as it looks like he will do again today.
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I wonder how many of the people who excoriated Arsenal for requesting the NLD postponement will look at today’s bench & say, “Now I understand why they couldn’t play last week.”
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None of the opposition fans or pundits
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Nigel ” I only got two left feet” Winterburn played very well on the right for several games when first coming into the ARSENAL side while George was trying to get rid of Kenny Samson (Graham not Blackburn). Of course Lauren was converted from a midfielder to a brilliant full back by Arsene.
Arsene also converted both cashley hole and Hector from wingers to full backs.
The history of football has seen thousands of examples of this the idea of Mikel not having an option is absolute bollox.
It was just a gamble that went very wrong, as was the playing Partey and loaning Ainsley.
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we got away with an awful mistake from Ramsdale at a corner, totally mispunched
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odegaard and lacca go very close to scoring in the same attack
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one of these days Tierney is going to find a team mate with one of his crosses
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westwood gets a yellow, it was a possible red
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brownhill yellow carded
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westwood with a clear yellow card challenge and of course no second yellow, pgmol are a disgrace
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HT: Arsenal 0-0 Burnely
loads of possession but where’s the beef
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this is dire stuff
we should bring on Biereth and at least then we would have a CF to aim the ball at
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lacca misses an open goal after a great run by ESR, keeper had come out to ESR to narrow the angle, he laid it back to lacca but his toe poke shot goes wide of an empty net
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12 minutes to go and we make our first sub, Nketiah on for ESR
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running out of time here
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11 corners and I don’t think we’ve won one of them
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FT: 0-0
what a waste of time that was, sterile performance, artetaball at its finest
and of course Arteta refused to use his subs to try and change things, the man is so risk averse its beyond a joke
Burnley bottom of the league, one win all season, and we fail to test their keeper, when a win would have put us in the top 4. Arteta can spout his bullshit about non negotiables till he is blue in the face, but far too often under him we have seen this sterile toothless football and no action from him on the sideline expect his antics for the cameras, arguing with anyone that will listen, and doing his traffic controller routine too.
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its a good job we are so good at attacking that we have been able to bin Aubameyang,
The only first team goal we have scored in January was Saka v Man City, we have failed to score in our last four games, which has seen us knocked out of two cups and fail to get into the top 4, Arteteball my arse
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Orbinho
@Orbinho
· 8m
Arsenal fired in 25 crosses today – just two found a team-mate. Probably not the best tactic against Burnley
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What surprises me is that anyone might be surprised at yet another poor performance with no creativity.
Not that I watched the game, but 0 0 at home to the bottom team really says it all.
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Arteta on whether Aubameyang will train with the team in Dubai:
“We’ll see the situation. I don’t know.”
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Harvey Downes
@HarveyDownes92
·
5h
Burnley are on a run of 111 Premier League games without having a player sent off, since Robbie Brady saw red against Huddersfield in January 2019. To put that into context, the next longest run in the division is Chelsea, who have gone 20 games without having a player sent off.
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Mikel Arteta cut a frustrated figure when he faced the media after our goalless draw with Burnley on Sunday.
The boss was asked about our performance, Takehiro Tomiyasu’s fitness, his plans for the rest of the transfer window and more.
Read on for a full transcript:
on Tomiyasu’s absence, and how serious his injury is…
Well, Tomiyasu had an injury and we didn’t have anybody to play in that position against Liverpool. He really wanted to push, he tried and he played the 90 minutes, and he felt it again. So he will be out for a couple of weeks.
on whether it’s crucial that he stays in England (during his injury)…
Right now he needs to recover, his only focus has to be to have the best possible treatment. To look after himself, and try to be available for us as quickly as he can.
on how long it will take for his injury to heal…
He will be out for a few weeks.
on where we struggled to break down the Burnley defence…
Well the way we started the game, it was slow and we didn’t play forward enough and didn’t have enough urgency. Probably because of Thursday, it could be one of the reasons. Afterwards we picked the game up and started to get better, and certainly the second half was completely different. We were much more dynamic, we had more penetration, we played forward and we had better positions to (threaten them) in behind and the width, in many situations. We created a number of situations, shots, crosses. But to win this match you need to have a different level of quality, and we lacked that today. With the amount of situations we generated, you need a spark, and someone has to win you the game, if you want to be on top.
on whether our attacking position at the end left us exposed on the counter…
It it’s one of the risks that you have, because the game becomes more unpredictable the moment you start to throw boys (up) there, and with the way Burnley play with all of their second-balls. Yes we had to maintain our discipline, but at the same time we had to risks because we wanted to win the game.
on if we need new signings to challenge for the top four…
It’s what we planned, but the market is difficult, it’s complicated. We knew that, but it’s a lot to manage and we have to make the right decisions with players that we believe are going to really help us and try to bring in ones that can take us to the next level.
on if he expects incomings before the deadline…
Well, we are certainly trying, but I don’t know if we’re going to be able to do it. Let’s see, it’s not only our intention, but a lot of facts that are needed to happen.
on if our goal drought affects Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s future…
We have scored a lot of goals recently, but it’s true in the last four games we haven’t done it. Today, again, it’s not about the situation you are able to create, but the quality of the execution and the number of shots that you need to put on target to beat teams like Burnley.
on if this was a missed opportunity to get into the top four…
It was a great chance and we wanted to take that opportunity after missing to get in that final, which was a disappointment because we really wanted to play there and today we had an opportunity to do it. I didn’t see that desire right from the beginning, but I certainly saw it in the second half, but we lack that quality that you need to put the games to bed and to have that knife when you are there to do it, like we missed against Liverpool as well when we had them.
on if players should have been signed sooner in the window…
I think that’s the dream of every manager, to have them in the team on the first day, but it isn’t realistic and in this window as well, the history of this window, a lot of them happen right at the end.
on our plans in the mid-season break…
We’re going to go away, we’re going to have a training camp all together in a different environment, reunite, refocus and let’s have a good go because there’s still a lot to play for.
on where we’re going for the training camp…
Dubai.
on the players looking tired at the end of the game…
I don’t know, I saw them try right to the last minute. They’re really tired, we know in the last four weeks that we had a really demanding and challenging situation because we didn’t have enough players, some players have been sick, injured, trying to bring them back, trying to expose them onto pitches when they’re not ready, but I cannot fault how they tried, they certainly need some days off, but then we need to go back again and bring players back and start to work and start winning matches.
on whether Aubameyang will go to Dubai…
We will see what the situation is.
on how important it is to get the right people in the door…
Players that come here have to be able to take us to the next level. We already have a level, and we want to see much better standards than we already have, and that is how we’re going to recruit.
on Lokonga’s performance…
I think he is growing, he is playing better and better. I think he had a really good game the other day against Liverpool, his understanding of the game, he is managing the physicality much better, he is maturing. It’s a lot to ask. When we signed him, the expectation that we had for him in the first year was to start adapting but he has had to play many more minutes than we expected and the kid is trying his best, and I think he’s doing pretty well.
on him being animated with the fourth official on the touchline…
It was about showing a bit of passion. Obviously we are animated and live in the game, they are part of the industry so I expect someone when we speak to them to show some emotion because they are part of this. We are not selling newspapers here, we are just being part of the game and when you talk to him that has to flow and that energy has to exist there because we are playing to win football matches.
Copyright 2022 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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Poor performance with a thin squad, and looks like no strikers coming in to save us, it seems the one MA reportedly wants, wants Juve.
Yet again, an opponent stays on the pitch with fouls our players see red for, Burnley have a fraction of the red cards Artetas team have picked up, on the evidence of today and other games I have seen, very hard to justify that
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Eduardo @ 7.47, just seen that post , that run without a red for Burnley is absolutely incredible, what are these refs on?
Tilting things for Liverpool as we saw today and in most games they play, (unless Harry Kane is involved) is one thing, however despicable, but where on earth do Burnley fit into the scheme of things for such protection?
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arsenal women scored late to get a draw away at man city women
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mandy you must remember that until this season the entire burnely match day squad was white, and nearly entirely english, and seen as good old northern team, then ask yourself where they refs are from and what their demographic is
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