Hello all,
In this podcast we look back at a great result which puts us right back in the Champions League mix. Some outstanding personal performances and some gifts from the boys in blue (thank you very kindly btw). Oh and Arteta gets some credit for keeping their peckers up after a dismal run.
Pedantic George.
Positively Arsenal 
This was an excellent result and a great win but it was a strange performance from the team overall with some good performances and some poor ones as well.
Odegaard was poor with a touch of class, Ben White was more poor than good, Holding struggled first half before looking like a different player the later the game went and ol’ Tavares what have we done.
However the ever consistent Xhaka and Elneny partnership was excellent.
Again Mikel found players out of luck rather than judgement and Eddie was fantastic.
I was jumping round the room last night but in the cold light of day we are just as likely to lose any game at any time especially if they don’t leave half the pitch for us to run into.
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Some great observations. I also watched the players body language during and after the game and had similar thoughts about the togetherness of this team.
Xhaka was immense playing in midfield and showed leadership and skill. I have always liked Elneny he works hard and does the simple things well. Their experience as a pairing worked really well.
Chelsea were off their game for sure but the strike power looked energetic and hungry and ready to pounce and that has been so lacking.
Will be interesting if the Emperor returns.
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It would be good if he could and Cedric can go left back, we certainly need to find something to make us more stable at the back again.
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so David Ornstein is reporting that Arsenal are trying to sign Gabriel Jesus from Man City, he is 25, and has just a year left on his contract. Edu is said to have reached an agreement with his agents, but as of yet no fee agreed with Man City.
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Finally got a chance to listen to yet another good podcast.
Firstly I agree about the spirit in squad, we seem to be able to dig deep when we have has a series of bad defeats.
George is correct we started with a three but very quickly went to a four probably even before the 15 minutes he was estimating. Mikel even said after the game his team selection was based on not knowing how chelski was going to set up and so the personnel on the pitch would have to be flexible to cope with several systems.
I did think chelski were tired and obviously having to change it up a bit hampered them but this is one of the richest clubs in the world and is they can’t cope playing an average ARSENAL side who have to field a classroom full of kids on the bench then they must be shit for fucks sake. Anybody offering that one up for an excuse is a sure thing for Bedlam.
On them gifting us goals, sometimes you have to make the other side make mistakes that’s what the high press etc is about and Eddie scared the living daylights out of them
I said early in the season Auba couldn’t put that kind of pressure on a back line and Eddie should be there and it makes even less sense now with Laca.
Eddie was the best finisher at the club at the start of the season, was the best at the high press and forcing mistakes and also wins more in the air than Auba and Laca. The fact it has taken a falling out with Auba, Covid for Laca and few games to go before the end of the season for Mikel to give him a go is criminal.
Tavares is a terrible defender and is not particularly good going forward. He often goes past two defenders but has no final end product. Just watch him he never looks up before he crosses and that’s probably why so many of his passes go astray as well and that shot at the end of the game was so bad he should of been booked for timewasting.
The manure game is dangerous Ronaldo will want to score for his kid and the team will back him, they also have a massive lift now the new manager has been announced almost like a start of something special.
The other thing is we have just played three games very badly when the onus was on us to attack and one game where we had success by throwing the ball long and breaking quickly.
Which type of game do you think manure will play well it won’t be the second one. They will try a draw us on and break quickly and they have some fast forwards. They did manage to get behind Liverpool several times but had no one who could convert chances but of course Ronaldo is back. Testament to the healing powers of playing ARSENAL they have several other players back as well.
Oh and yes Xhaka and Elneny were excellent but we all knew that anyway.
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Ed, despite what Orstein or any of the media say no player or agent, of note, will come to any agreement with clubs who are not yet guaranteed CL football.
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Oh and Eddie is again a better finisher.
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Cedric back in as we return to the back four we finished the chelski game. Laca and Tommy on the bench meaning although Azeez is there Swanson is really the only true virgin in the match day squad COYG.
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Have that !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! COYG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Arsenal Ramsdale, Cedric Soares, White, Gabriel, Tavares, Elneny, Xhaka, Saka, Odegaard, Smith Rowe, Nketiah.
Subs: Leno, Lacazette, Holding, Tomiyasu, Pepe, Lokonga, Martinelli, Azeez, Swanson
Man Utd De Gea, Dalot, Lindelof, Varane, Telles, Matic, McTominay, Sancho, Fernandes, Elanga, Ronaldo.
Subs: Henderson, Bailly, Jones, Maguire, Mata, Rashford, Lingard, Wan-Bissaka, Garnacho.
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NUNO TAVARES OPENS THE SCORING 1-0 to the Arsenal
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Goal oh yes Nuno what the fuck do I know
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Arsenal struggline, utd getting at us too easily
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Nketiah really should have scored there, hit it straight at the keeper
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Eddie scores but is ruled offside, but now checking for a penalty in build up to offside goal
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Nice! COYG! Should have been a red?
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Penalty
Saka 2-0
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Grrr! Leaky Arsenal (again).
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ah for fucks sake that is some woeful defending, Ronaldo fires in
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HT: Arsenal 2-1 Man Utd
Tavares and a Saka penalty put us 2 up, but soft defending allowed Ronaldo to pull one back. We have been very shaky in defense, Cedric having a hard time, as are Gabriel and even Ramsdale. Look like we have more goals in us, but so do utd
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penalty to utd, tavares with the foul, fucking stupid cunt handled the ball needlessly
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phew!!!!!!!!!!
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fernandez hits the post with the spot kick and it goes wide, lucky lucky arsenal
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Arteta needs to make some changes, we aint winning this if we don’t improve things soon
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ronaldo goal ruled out for offside, it was mm’s off, we are so open at the back its unreal, get tomiyasu and holding on, do fucking something arteta
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XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKKKKKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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xhakaaaaaaaaaaaaaa 3-1, moments after getting booked xhaka scores a great goal
martinelli came on earlier for esr,
still think we need to bring on tomiyasu and holding to shore up the backline
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Holding on for Saka
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Tomiyasu on for cedric
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5 games left and 7pts gets us no lower than 5th, and five wins would mean no lower than 4th
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Turning point def the ManUres missing the pen and then Xhak blasting it in. They were getting the better of us at that point.
Makes you lament the recent lost points…
Luton fans ” I bloody hate that Xhaka”
Luton fans ” I bloody love that Xhaka”…to be continued
COYG!
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FT: Arsenal 3-1 Man Utd
Tavares, Saka (pen) and Xhaka with the goals that move us up to 4th, but it was chaotic at times, all over the place at the back too often.
Saka went off with an injury, we really have to hope its not going to see him miss games
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yeah mills, if we had even picked up 4 or 5 pts from those 3 games we would be cantering to top 4
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have to ask why Eleney was frozen out of the team till this week, when he is clearly better than Sambi.
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Great strike from the skipper.
Nketiah offside?
Some luck at both ends but the Gunners were the better team.
Great result.
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Eds the mind boggles at the inability to use Elneny it really is mildly mad especially as he played so well in his last spell for Arteta.
Elneny is a good footballer and it’s been poor football management to not use him. But we’ve seen plenty of such calls in recent times. Too many, therefore I hope no one is offended by our observations of this idiocy.
Having someone of Elneny’s quality available when Partey had a niggle after the international break means the manager really is to blame for Partey getting a big injury, again. Playing Elneny off Xhaka & Partey would keep them all fresh. Simples.
Hopefully Arteta will start to listen to the physios one day and not grow up to be a complete clone of Maureen.
The spirit in the camp has remained good because of characters like Elneny being in the squad.
COYG
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Totally agree about Elneny and yes how many times will Mikel stumble across the right decision in the end after trying everything else.
Surely fans can’t give him credit for getting the answer correct after getting 10 attempts at the question, even 10 year olds would get there quicker.
Tavares was awful today, in 50 years I’m trying to remember a player making so many mistakes and still complete the 90 minutes but after giving away a goal, a penalty, another pen that wasn’t given, give the ball away a thousand times and generally get roasted he scored a goal so I suppose we forget everything else.
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Won’t happen, but Xhaka really should be player of the season. In fact, he should be a lot of things at this club.
What a week he’s had , but his performances stretch far beyond that
As for Tavares, he needs more time and experience, we have seen other over excitable full backs who are dangerous going forward, but need more at the back. Need to stick by him, not sure of the alternatives, Xhaka needs to play in MF where he sits imperious, and looks like Saka could be injured, unless of course Tomy/ Cedric can play on that side.
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well on Elneny and Nketiah both getting a look in at last, once again I seen Arteta put team selection down to how players perform in training. If this is how he picks players then he is only asking for trouble. Of course its important that players train well, even play well in training, but the one overriding factor should be how the perform in matches, and on that note we have seen time and again Arteta seems to ignore that little matter. I could list many off form players who kept getting picked, but I think yee all know the list as good as I do.
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Tavares is not yet good going forward. Today he never got past the full back, he has never crossed well because he doesn’t look up and his passing is terrible.
Because sometimes he can dribble past a player or two people think he can become a world beater but he has so much wrong with his game at the moment it’s going to take a long time. At the moment there is nothing wrong with us developing him within the club but he is not our best option at left back even without Keiran being injured. We have five games to go in pursuit of top four and he is a liability.
He shouldn’t of completed the 90 minutes today and the fact he did is worrying. He could quite literally cost us top four and if it is his mistakes that cost us that won’t be his fault it will be Mikel who is putting his head in the noose.
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well fuck me Arsenal are not first game on MOTD, thought it was bad enough that we did not start first on Wednesday, think we were third on that night, but to not be first tonight is just nonsense.
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ian many also think that Martinelli will be world class cos like Tavares he can beat a man or two, then seldom make anything from it.
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Ed, yes Martinelli is still raw but he is light years in front of Tavares. He is probably better defensively than ESR as well.
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a great day for Hector Bellerin too, firstly his side Real Betis won the Copa Del Ray 5-4 on penalties, after the game with Valencia ended 1-1, and to make his day even better Forest Green Rovers, who he has shares in, won promotion to League One for the first time.
oh not forgetting Arsenal beating Man Utd just to give him more to smile about
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Feels like Arteta stumbled across our best midfield pairing,and finally finally giving Eddie a run in the team by accident.
The rest of the season may be hard to watch but fingers crossed.
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For me yesterday, the scything of Tomi by Roni was a blood boiler. Ron seemed like a has-been, the giant who has fallen, a cynical egoist whose side cant get it it together, and who were beaten by the oddest Arsenal team Ive witnessed (odd in that such an often incoherent unit could easily be third).Yellow was all that could have been given but for cynicism he deserved a red (imo).
Thing is, Ron brings a lot, to the world game, and sure it was a tough week for him, but Tomi pissed on him at that moment…and Ron seemed spoilt and petty, just like the whole ManUre set up?
Tavares is too much of a liability, just like Santos was?
What an odd season, the three recent losses were just bizarre considering the commitment before the “break”, then we play wild-eyed Chelsea and ManUre who somehow gift us the games. Who knows what next? Thrashed by Nucarshole or dirty Leeds?
Got to feel for aftv though-what if Luton go up, will their ‘loyalties’ be tested?
“no I dont have to feel for them at all”.
COYG!
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I never thought we’d beat Man U yesterday. Had imagined all sorts of reasons why, and certainly hadn’t factored in a penalty for us. Always good to see Xhaka discombobulating those that booed. I enjoyed an article by Amy Lawrence in The Athletic about it all.
But what an annoying club we are. After Southampton I’d decided I didn’t need to worry any more and could forget about it all until August. Now every waking moment is consumed with West Ham, Leeds and that lot.
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Great to see the Women’s team win just a shame chelski managed a result even after getting a player sent off after only 30 minutes.
I guess that just shows how shit Tottenham are.
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Tim I make it a rule of mine never to read anything by Amy Lawrence after she slagged Arsene so relentlessly.
Never Forget those who helped to drive our most successful manager in our history out of the club.
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