Good Morning .
We lost a narrow match away at Man City. You can talk about schedules, fatigue and whatnot, but it’s hard to be upbeat about going out. This wasn’t the League Cup, which you can always shrug off; no, the FA Cup is part of Arsenal’s identity.
Still, there are a few reasons not to go too far with a narrow defeat away at Man City, of all opponents. The first is that this was a horrible tie, against a team that has dominated English domestic football for half a decade.
They almost never lose at home, and picked something approaching their strongest team, even if a Man City first XI is theoretical, given all their rotation.
The other is that we made a lot of changes. Without injuries, I’d say that only four of the players who started would make our outright best XI, although that’s up for debate.
And yet we competed well. Cheered on by what sounded like a stadium full of Arsenal fans who occasionally broke into Blue Moon, we had the better of the first half. We carved out some minor chances, and enjoyed spells in which we kept finding all of the dangerous space and they looked blunt.
If you want more positivity, it’s that ITV will not cover another Arsenal match in 2022-23. Hopefully that will give you the warm glow you need to get you through the rest of this report.
I have no idea what formation Man City were playing in the first half. It looked like three at the back, with Rico Lewis playing as less of an inverted full-back than an all-out central midfielder.
Our defensive plan was to play with an even higher line and get as tight as possible to Haaland, who was their only direct threat in-behind.
I say “only”. We nullified him tonight, but his presence affects everything around him. When he’s dormant, it’s like there’s an immense celestial body that can only be observed by its gravitational pull.
Holding spent 45 frantic minutes in its orbit, in a battle that resembled a cartoon fight cloud, with fistfulls of shirts, a platinum bun and a toupee poking out of the dust. Once he got that yellow, few substitutions have been more inevitable.
At the other end, all of the space was opening up on our left flank, and Trossard was eating it up. He set up Tomiyasu for a strike, tested Ortega and later found Nketiah following a great run, Eddie couldn’t quite make the right contact.
At half-time, we were feeling good about things, knowing that Holding’s work was done, and that we had looked the more likely. Saliba came out, as expected, accompanied by Lokonga for Thomas Partey. Nobody wanted to see that. Please let this rib thing be bruising.
The bad vibes stalked us into the second half, and in those first 15 minutes things began to unravel. Sambi Lokonga deserves some sympathy. Being thrown onto the pitch cold against a reinvigorated Man City is a test most central midfielders would fail.
Just as everyone was starting to find their feet, Julián Álvarez slammed a long shot off Turner’s right post, City won the second ball, and Nathan Aké took advantage of our imbalance with a low, guided finish into the bottom corner with his weaker foot.
The minutes that followed the goal were our best of the half and we carved out our best chance. Xhaka’s cross from the corner of the area almost picked out Nketiah, but was diverted by the lightest brush from Dias’s studs.
We threw on our starters, but had lost momentum through a lack of midfield control, stuttering rhythm, and Man City’s maddening capacity to keep the ball and kill a game of football.
Clearly, Arsenal can still improve, and if there’s something we can learn from tonight’s opponents it’s in those dozens of anaesthetising jabs that put a game to bed.
Birdkamp
Positively Arsenal 
Cheers Birdy, thanks for the write up, not an easy thing when Arsenal lose! It will be interesting to see how we react to this game-personally I think we might come back much stronger and become even clearer of what we need to do. I think we will beat them in Feb.
COYG!
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An excellent review!
Yep the very mobile water buffalo they have up front will cause any CB, indeed any team, problems he is fantastic.
When we win well we shouldn’t get too carried away and we should treat this defeat the same.
Like Birdkamp says given the circumstances, playing our changed team against their first team in their den, this was a very good performance.
From the Start of the season we have all said that we were all worried about the replacements sitting on the bench and I think this was the first time I have thought we are starting to fill alot of those gaps.
Midfield is obviously a problem which is evident from Mikel’s unwillingness to make substitutions in the other games and the targets we have approached during this window.
I would have liked to see Trossard given a chance behind Eddie leaving Martinelli and Saka to create a very dangerous front four and really have gone for it but maybe Mikel it’s trying to give Vieira as many minutes as possible.
I said that it was strange that Partey was playing so well and then suddenly had such a poor game against manure and it looks like this rib problem has been with him for a while.
As crap as it is to go out the F.A.cup given our squad it might work out better for our league and European aspirations.
So let’s not feel despondent and look forward to a battle with the toffees
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…interesting situ with Caicedo?
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Thanks Mills and Ian.
Yeah, not so easy, this one. Personally the big test in terms of writing a report will be a game in which we just don’t show up! Not looking forward to that when it comes.
More questions than answers about our upcoming clashes vs City? Reassuring that we’ve got a lot more to bring to the table, and there isn’t too much they can learn from how we approached this.
Guardiola was saying that we went man-to-man across the pitch. I never spend much time looking at structural stuff—I’m just following the ball most of the time.
We’ve got good cover almost everywhere now, except CM. Well, Elneny is normally a good sub, and I think ESR is being lined up to maybe rotate with Xhaka in that left 8 spot in the future.
Fair to say we could really do with someone.
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I think we maybe would have got our man normally but we’re now running out of time and all the cards are with Brighton.
Spend a fortune and win the league and it’s worth it come second or worse and you’ve lost the gamble in the short term at least.
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I feel Arsenal last night showed the rest of the league how to handle Haaland, don’t give him an inch, be as Martin Keown said a couple of weeks ago, stay touch tight, once you give him a few yards of room he is in, as his massive goal record this season proves, so in his face defending is the only way.
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Charlie Patino scored a well taken goal today in Blackpool’s loss to Southampton, AMN was subbed off for the winners
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one report suggesting Partey will be fit for the Everton game next Saturday
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Chuba Akpom, anyone remember him, well he is currently in the best form of his senior career, he is leading scorer in the Championship with 14 goals for 3rd placed Middlesbrough. He is now 27 years old, and its nice that after 9 clubs he finally seems to be getting somewhere close to the levels that were once expected of him. He played 4 games in the EPL for Arsenal, and 12 in all competitions.
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Great read once again. I am not sure how I feel especially as I have seen teams progress in the cup today and reflect on our previous cup runs and glories.
However up next is Everton, bounce back or not we should win and hopefully Spurs have learnt from us how to keep City quiet.
I can’t pretend that I am not anxious though.
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Thank you BK
Last season, last December I hugely enjoyed the record goal scoring run and the big victory at Stamford bridge etc. The memories kept me going during the pre-Zinchenko famine when Xhaka was removed from the midfield and the team wilted.
I’m still floating upon the clouds after the perfect week. Beating Tottenham at WHL. Utd playing an extra game and having their best player suspended as the opponents equalised in the last minute. then beating Utd in the last minute.
Does it ever get better then that?
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Mo had a good performance during that amazing game beating Chelsea as did Eddie.
When Eddie scored twice at the bridge against the Petro club it seems that Arteta was as excited as many of us even if it took him a little longer to start Eddie ahead of lacazette then we would have liked. The injury to Mo is as big a blow to the squad as any other.
So the club are trying to buy a midfielder and how rich is it to now witness in front of the entire world the gaslighting twerps of a decade ago now roll out the same reasoning that they attacked upon these pages & elsewhere:
Of not overpaying with silly silly money as the Gunners are not a Petro club. Ah who could have imagined that these frauds were frauds all along? laughing at the record and brazen hypocrisy of the translucent click baiters was more then enough to offset any sad feelings from the defeat.
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Thaks Birdy – great work. I made this comment on the previous post just as your one went up.
I felt strangely indifferent to the match, and even more so when we went with the rotated side: at times it seemed more like a pre-season friendly where the main objective was to try out new combinations and patterns of play. In fairness, I only had one eye on the screen as I was meant to be doing something else, so only really saw 5 minutes out of every 15. We had chances to win the game, but they had more of them, and although I was quite pleased to see that at times we were trying to play football the main take away for me was the way we seemed to stop them playing the way they no doubt would have preferred to play. It was a shame to lose, but I think both teams will take positives out of the game, but also maybe a couple of slight negatives. I would like to think that in future seasons we might have a strong enough squad to take every match and every competition equally seriously.
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Arsenal Women beat Leeds Utd Women 9-0 in the Women’s FA cup today, the team included Katie McCabe who in recent days Arsenal turned down a £250K bid from Chelsea for.
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on the possible Caicedo transfer, well the brighton manager today said again that they want to keep him and would need to keep him if they are to push for a european place, but that he understands why the player wants to go to a massive club now.
if we do sign him my main concern is how will the lad react if say Real Madrid or Barcelona or Bayern etc want him in a year or so. Of course that might never happen and as long as we get over paid by the amount or more that we seem to be willing to over pay for him now then would it be a bad thing,
reports suggest that the player Arteta wants is Real Soceidad’s defensive midfielder Martín Zubimendi and its a deal that could easily be done as he has a buy out clause of some €60M, but the stumbling block is that the player does not want to be transferred midseason, so unless we can change his mind then this deal can not be done. Some reports suggest the reason he does not want to move now is that Barcelona have hinted they would be interested in signing him in the summer, but can’t afford to do the deal at this time.
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Must say although I don’t rate the guy, Sambi Lokonga, is getting a raw deal from the loudmouths in the fan base, yeah he was awful on the city goal, but was not the only one, and it did look like our captain Martin odegaard had a real go at him for his defensive faults just before end of the game, which actually might explain why the lad quickly made his way to the dressing room after the game and did not go with the rest of the squad to applaud the travelling fans, but the usual suspects, (so many of whom are trust the process mob), are acting like the lad couldn’t kick snow off a rope, and was not a 24 passes out of 24 attempts v city.
For me there was too much hype over him when we signed him, like so many new signings, fans fooled themselves into believing he was as good as they hoped he would be, and did not judge him on his actual performances, he was being mooted for man of the match awards, when his performances were average, so now when his performances are still average, and the shiny new toy sheen has worn off, these same fans are going over the top complaining about him.
i do think that the all or nothing doc did him no favors, the clip where he complains to nketiah about not getting picked turned a lot of idiots against him.
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Tottenham’s former Head of Emerging Talent, Chris Perkins, is set to move to Arsenal
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50 hours of the transfer window left, what ins or outs do people on here expect or want
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With Balogun seemingly doing so well I can’t see us wanting to buy another striker unless it’s a loan to cover for Nketiah. We have enough fiddly attacking midfielders. The priority seems to remain to add a robust defensive midfielder who is basically oven-ready.
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Marquinhos set for Norwich loan move
Arsenal forward Marquinhos is travelling to Norwich today to finalise a loan move.
The deal is a straight loan with no option to buy. The 19 year-old joined from Sao Paulo in the summer and has made six appearances in all competitions, scoring once.
All parties are confident a deal will be done before the deadline.
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Old gravel face Dyche has been named Everton manager, were going to get kicked to fuck Saturday.
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If a club like Brighton buy a player for £10m and sell that player for £80m a few months later, are they liable for Capital Gains Tax?
And with regard to Dyche and Everton and our game on Saturday, I imagined something like that happening a few weeks ago!
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David Ornstein
@David_Ornstein
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1h
🚨 EXCL: Arsenal Women make world-record offer to sign Alessia Russo from Man Utd. With no breakthrough in new contract talks (current deal ends this summer), #AWFC have submitted huge bid for 23yo England striker. Not accepted yet @TheAthleticFC
#MUWomen
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Ornstein says Arsenal are in talks to sign Jorginho from Chelsea, only at initial stages so far, and might depend on CFC signing that Argie midfielder. Jorginho who is 31 is out of contract in summer, I see many noisy Arsenal fans going a bit ape shit over this possible move, they have their hearts set on Caicedo but that seems to have run into brick wall, so my way of looking at it is, Jorginho is better than no one, and he is not being bought to replace Partey or Xhaka as a first choice player, he is being bought to replace Elneny and Lokonga and but for the Elneny injury we wouldn’t be buying him at all
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oh and i do laugh that so many of the trust the process guys are the ones complaining about the possible signing of Jorginho
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Omar Rekik has returned to Arsenal from Sparta Rotterdam and looks to be set to join Wigan on loan for the rest of the season
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Strange going to Wigan as they don’t currently have a manager. Obviously we have a good relationship with the club as Azeez is already there.
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Arsenal’s women have been drawn away to chelsea women in the fa womens cup fifth round
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Colchester United have signed goalkeeper Tom Smith on loan from Arsenal for the rest of the season.
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Weston McKennie has joined leeds
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Matt Smith is a target for several Championship clubs and also German side Augsburg, the FA Cup winner could move tomorrow.
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Everton have been trying to sign gallagher from cfc, but the player does not want to join them, newcastle were interested in him but cfc not willing to sell to the toon, so they are looking to sell jorginho, who has only six months left on his contract
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No kidding, Jorginho’s one of my favourite non-Arsenal players of the last 7 or 8 years. Misunderstood by Chelsea fans, and incompatible with every system since Sarri left. It’s just a shame we didn’t get him sooner.
First, you hope he’s still got something left in the engine, and second we’ve got to air out that Chelsea stench. He could be permanently tainted!
If he’s in OK shape then he’s another one who can come on late, bring confidence and personality, and turn a game into a passing exercise.
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That should be “in the tank”. Whatever, sloppy writing is what will distinguish us from AI bots in a few years!
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Well, as long as he doesnt turn out like the last signings from Chelsea, and does the biz thats ok.
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Think Jorginho is a good signing for the short term, premier league ready, knows how to win and a great passer of the ball.
He can cover both Partey and Xhaka also Kiwior can play CDM.
Kiwior and Jorginho as back up midfield options?
Surprised no one has moved for Amrabat this window.
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If he’s as good as Luiz was for us I’ll be well happy, Willian less so.
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Mohamed Elneny has a significant injury to his right knee, and its also rumored that AFC will extend his contract by a year
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Arsenal confirm the signing of Jorginho
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The Manchester Grunt ranked the new midfielder as one of the top 5 players just last year (not top 5 midfielder but overall footballer).
That was a bit ridiculous for the lesser Xhaka in my ignorant eyes.
ut there is no doubt this is a smart almost wengeresque deal to pick up the European cup, league title and FA cup winning midfielder (Euro with Italy too?).
Probably not he player he was when the hated ones won the CL recently but yes no doubt about it: good player.
If he was misunderstood by the grunts who follow sad blue Fulham then I would suggest swerving the content of the expert arse blaggers who spent five years slagging off Xhaka off (because they do not know Football. Apparently).
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Cedric expected to join Fulham and Lokongo set to sign for Crystal Palace on loan too
former Arsenal youth player omari hutchinson has gone on loan to WBA from Chelsea
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Jorginho in his signing interview on arsenal.com said this was not the first time Arteta tried to sign him, and it wasn’t his decision not to sign, it was just circumstances at those time
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Good short term signing but strange Sambi going to Palace. Even with Kiowr it still looks to leave us short in midfield.
We have had many seasons of promise spoiled because of injury when we didn’t have money to spend that now the investment is there the squad is still light.
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so number wise in midfield we are a player down now, eleney injured and lokonga gone on loan, Jorginho signed, it seems odd, but as was clear so far this season, Arteta was very reluctant to use Lokonga, and we can expect he will use Jorginho a fair bit
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Arsenal Women’s team failed with a deadline day move for Man Utd Womens England striker Alessia Russo, they had world record bid of around £400K turned down yesterday and went back in today with a bid thought to be around £500K, but utd turned it down. Russon is out of contract in the summer, so it might not be that long before she becomes a gooner
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Serious question: if Arsenal had signed the Brighton midfielder seemingly everyone was going on about for £90m, would he have been an automatic starter? If not, how happy would he have been? If so, what would that have meant for Xhaka or Partey given so much of our success this season has been down to them? I’m not convinced that Arsenal are ever that interested in a player when so much of the alleged transfer is played out in the public gaze.
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Sounds reasonable to me Tim.
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19 year old Arsenal defender Taylor Foran has joined Hartlepool United on loan
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Arsenal squad for rest of the season – several of the players can play in more than one position so a little bit of scope there. As things stand Elneny is a doubt for the rest of the season, Jesus is out for another month or so, and Neslon is expected back within weeks too. So the 24 players listed is currently down to 21 and that is including the 3 keepers, so barring anymore injuries and till Jesus and Nelson are back, our 20 man EPL match day squad picks itself
GK: Ramsdale, Turner, Hein
RB: White, Tomiyasu
LB: Zinchenko, Tierney
CB: Saliba, Gabriel, Holding, Kiwior
M: Partey, Xhaka, Jorginho, Odegaard, Vieira, Smith-Rowe, Elneny
RW: Saka, Neslon
LW: Martinelli, Trossard
S: Jesus, Nketiah
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