Hello Positives.
A good win and more importantly, a decent performance against Brentford has lifted the spirits and keeps us in contention for the top 4 trophy. Sadly Spurs and United also won, so the status quo is maintained. In this podcast we admire how the 3 sections of the team, Defence, Midfield and attack are functioning well as units, but the team play overall is still lagging behind.
The role of the much maligned Lacazette is considered and we discuss how we should not be doing anything as a fanbase, to make the job more difficult for Arteta of any of the players.
Pedantic George.
Positively Arsenal 
Saka getting wholesale praise across the board but we’ve seen him run games like that for over a year now so this PR makes me nervous hahaha fingers crossed the club gets top four as they need to keep Saka and also the others too though we can be sure some at the club are keen to cash in on the windfall…
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Our full backs were both poor today and they weren’t helpful by the CBs today. The team as a whole did work incredibly hard off the ball especially the front three and MO who I thought were all excellent.
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I see Martinelli’s goal should not have been scored, as Arteta committed a foul by throwing the ball to Saka, as Arteta was out of his technical area so game should have been stopped and MA booked
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We claimed another big three points in the race for a top-four place as we beat Watford 3-2 on Sunday.
Afterwards Mikel Arteta faced the media and discussed the performance, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Alex Lacazette and more.
Read on for a full transcript:
on if he gets an assist for the third goal…
I don’t know. But if it helped the team a little bit to get what we wanted, that’s exactly what we need. Everybody can contribute somehow and I had the opportunity to do that, so it’s good
on the performance being clinical but not always controlled…
I saw that in the first minute of the game – we could have been 1-0 down. We were really good going forward and we had all the right intention and the energy to do it. We scored three magnificent goals but we didn’t have the same energy and commitment defensively. When that happens, to win a game from home, you’re going to suffer. That’s why we suffered today – because defensively we didn’t have the right structure. We didn’t detect with enough urgency the moments where they could activate certain spaces that we knew. That’s why we suffered. We conceded two and we could have conceded another one or two.
on what he puts that down to…
I don’t know. Thinking sometimes that ‘yeah, I have the space and this is really good and controlling the game’ but they were not. I’m really happy that we won the game and there are a lot of positive things to take on, but that’s not going to be enough.
on looking angry after Arsenal’s second goal…
Because I didn’t like how we were controlling the game. We were allowing spaces against the team who, if we kept allowing that, we were going to suffer. I knew that. We had to put that right and we did it for certain periods. Then in the last 25 minutes, we lost it again. We have to show that maturity, understanding and capacity to control the game how we wanted to. At 3-1, after, we had to make 300,000 passes in the opposition half and when they have the right moment to come at us, then we can attack them. We didn’t do that. The game was open and you had the feeling that the game was open right until the end.
on who impressed him today…
You know I don’t like to highlight players. I think you could see the contribution on the goals – who was involved. They were key, but it’s about the team. Sometimes when you don’t have enough to win the match, it’s about what they have between them that gives you an edge to somehow win the match. This is what I like. I like the team.
on the understanding between Saka and Odegaard…
I think it’s between them. The way the game flows, the way we attack, how we adapt our positions relating to each other, how we move the ball. The speed of the movement, the timing if it is much better, the position that we get, the threat and the sense of having the capacity to create the chances that we have done is much better and we have to keep developing that.
on if we’re seeing the benefit of the time in Dubai…
Probably. It can be one thing. It can be that we are playing together and constantly for longer periods which is very much needed so the understanding is better, they trust each other better, they understand when to do what in relation to what the opponent is doing so it’s good. The more they play together the better they will understand each other, simple.
on if Saka is now playing at top gear…
I think Bukayo had an experience in the summer that not a lot of players would ever have and I think it was great for his career because the football world showed how much they like him and how much they respect him. That’s another thing you get much more than that in football apart from winning trophies, so I think that was a big boost for him to realise in difficult moments that people are going to give him support and the club did exactly the same as his team mates. Then it’s about leaving him that space. What he is already doing is phenomenal and he needs that room, you know? Don’t read too much, do what you do. Football is his priority in life and you can see that every day in training and he needs to continue to behave and live the way that he is doing.
on Lacazette’s contribution to the team…
He will still not be happy in that dressing room because he wants to score, but a lot of the things he does for the team are phenomenal.
on if our tough experiences this season have helped us…
I always believed that if you understand those difficult moments like a sign to do something with your life or to understand better the purpose why you are where you are, I think they can help you a lot and this is what I try to do when I have a problem. When I have a situation, try to understand that it’s happening for a reason, not because it’s me and everything happens to me, it happens for a reason and what are you going to do about it and that’s the way I try to approach it.
on the top-four race…
To be fair, I don’t like to look at the table a lot because we have games in hand, we’re going to play different fixtures and I know the objective and it’s only one, to try and improve tomorrow on what we’ve done today and go into the next match and that’s it. I cannot control results and I cannot predict which matches we are going to win, draw or lose, it’s impossible. If I start to do that I think we’re going to lose focus in what we want to do.
on if Lacazette is playing his best football for us…
I think he’s had really good moments in terms of goal-scoring records, probably better than what he’s doing right now, but for what we ask of him and for what I ask of him and the contribution that I need from him, I think he’s doing really, really well.
on if he wants to keep Lacazette…
It is the case. I said to you, at the end of the season where we know where we are, we’ll sit down with those three players and between all of us, we’ll decide what we do to move forward.
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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Ian today seemed like a contest for Tavares I don’t know why he’s a rookie in this league but he seemed a good prospect and he enjoyed such chaotic games earlier in the season.
Some additional defensive concerns but nothing we didn’t already know, hopefully the Emperor is back for the better opponents. I would like to see Saliba but that seems unlikely now.
The GD continues to creep up and there’s the big positive no one can ignore (goals!) alas the plundits are now starting to give serious praise (agent talk yikes) to the brilliant young quartet available to Arteta behind his strikers and I’ll include Pepe as a striker there hehe.
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Sorry to puts dampener on everything but we aren’t going to catch chelski unless they take a real stroll in the league and concentrate on the cups.
We have the most difficult run in facing everyone in the top seven bar city. We also face the Saint away which is not a lucky place for us and play Newcastle who are one of the form teams at the moment.
I think 73 points will get fourth but even that looks difficult. We are sitting pretty at the moment but how many points will we get from Liverpool, chelski, manure, spuds and hammers.
Anybody watching the manure game yesterday can forget about them playing that badly against us.
Spuds and hammers will be full pelt London derbies and chelski can beat anyone we certainly won’t be favourites.
I certainly don’t think it’s impossible to get good points from these games but we have a threadbare squad and a few more injury and we could implode.
At the moment it’s great see everyone else struggling but the bend has yet to unwind.
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Balogun scored his first goal for Middlesbrough tongiht in their 4-1 defeat to sheffield utd
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Jeorge Bird
@jeorgebird
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8h
Arsenal U23s’ Premier League Cup game away to Middlesbrough will be live on http://arsenal.com tomorrow – 6pm kick off.
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Dan Critchlow
@afcDW
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1m
Arsenal u23s about to take on a penalty shootout after a 1-1 draw in their last-16 Premier League Cup tie with Middlesbrough.
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Have any of you guys seen the film: The Shadow In My Eye (Skyggen i mit øje) what did you think of it?
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Arsenal lose 4-3 on penalties, Ogungbo had our first penalty saved, and Hutchinson had our last one saved. Swanson, Flores and Azeez scored theirs
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Well finally Roman has his assets frozen, a few weeks late and obviously after he shouldn’t have been allowed to money launder in the first place.
The problem is he is a Tory favourite, which is why they have taken so long, and they will keep finding “special” status until he is eventually allowed to sell the club and come back and buy another one as soon as a conservative government thinks the dust has settled.
It is quite fitting that our russian sympathizing prime minister is called Alexander Boris, how we never see that one coming is beyond me.
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Just guessing but looking at the track record with race going back, what are the odds that a lot of Tory MPs are Chelsea fans?
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First, I’d like to say hello to Blackburn George, Shotta, Finsbury and all the old guys who were here years ago.
We all knew it would happen and it finally did. After 20 years, Chelsea got fecked for taking oligarch money and now they’re going to go back to being the mid table side they were before their club was doped up with blood money. I dedicate this post to all the Wenger out cunts who wanted us to splash the cash and became outright traitorous during that most unfortunate era. I would also like to dedicate this post to the Chelsea arseholes who were kissing pound notes and carrying on as if they were god’s gift when Abramovich arrived. Fuck Chelsea, fuck Abramovich and Slava Ukraini.
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Ian it’s always good to read your thoughts on the footy.
The gap to Chelsea in just one point less then the gap between Villa in 9th and Brentford who are 15th.
No chance.
Looks like it’s going to be a brawl for 4th between 4-7 in the league as they come off the bend and onto the final straight.
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Martinelli called up to the senior Brazil squad
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The spuds must be favourites for fourth when you look at everyone’s run in and each team’s potential best and worst performance.
Chelski will not go back to a mid-table club anytime soon. The club has been pumped with billions of cash all the way through and it’s going to be sold on the cheap. The new buyer will have money to spend and they will stay top three unless manure get hold of a top top manager and director of football.
I can’t see ARSENAL or the spuds getting anywhere near them anytime soon.
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New post is up
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