Hello all,
in this podcast Shotta tries to calm me down as I wax lyrical about the performance, team and Arteta.
If you missed the excellent review from Birdkamp yesterday, I suggest you go back and give it a read.
Pedantic George
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Positively Arsenal 
Cheers lads! One thing I was thinking of while you were discussing the game was the post match thoughts of Xhaka when the Spudniks beat us at the Coop, and he said that people were playing out of position, and not doing what they were told, this season there seems to be always an on-going dialogue with Arteta etc?
Anyway hes the Women doing the biz too.
COYG!
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or even “here’s the women doing the biz”.
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It is all a bit surreal the transformation in this squad. I agree that the strength of squad has steadily grown through the season and that is down to astute acquisitions and existing players being honed into the ways of Arteta.
Xhaka and Partey are beyond scores and bring so much to this team.
No mention of whether Arteta as a person is growing on you.
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“Even if it all goes wrong we still should enjoy every minute of it until it all goes wrong” George is 100% right when he said that.
At worst we should come second this season and that would be a fantastic achievement when you consider where we were.
I still don’t think we can say we are top so all the decisions in the last three seasons were correct.
There have been some massive cock ups along the way just look at how well Joe Willock and Emi Martinez are playing and the sale price we could of got for Pepe and Leno if we had sold them at the right time would of saved the club a fortune. It could of bought us another two players that could of seen us over the line at the end of the season.
If you add in all the old players we brought in project experience that was a disaster just think how much that cost us.
However anyone says Ozil and Auba didn’t tow the line the management of their departure was a disaster as well.
Old red nose regularly got rid of good players that stepped out of line but he made sure he got top wack for them.
Now we were able to start the season with the easiest run of fixtures I’ve ever seen in my football memory and that undoubtedly helped to install confidence and patterns of play that served us so well in some of the brilliant victories later in the season
We must also factor in the fact that chelski, Liverpool, manure and even the spuds all blew up at the start of the season and even money bags city are adapting to a new system.
Let’s not take anything away from Mikel, his staff and the squad they have been fantastic this season but let’s not pretend that everything that went before it was hunky dory.
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Ian, I believe we paid a heavy price , both financially and loss of experience(and potencial in Guendouzi) for the lack of gravitas Mikel had in his first job. Also he should have done better with the player he inherited. However, I did say at the time, the price would only be worth it if it worked, which I didn’t think it would, but it now appears it has worked. If United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs had been better, they would also have been taking points of each other and City. We are where we are and as they say “The proof of the pudding has been in the eating”
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https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/events/soul-bag/
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Nketiah’s ankle injury is worse than first feared and he will be out for another few weeks
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Updates to the Arsenal Board
Arsenal Media 15 Mar 2023
Emirates Stadium
We are pleased to announce Stan Kroenke and Josh Kroenke have become our Co-Chairs whilst Tim Lewis becomes our Executive Vice-Chair.
The appointments are a recognition of how our leadership structure has evolved over the past several seasons since Kroenke Sports & Entertainment assumed 100 per cent ownership of Arsenal Football Club in 2018.
Stan, Josh and Tim have worked together to drive our club forward and their appointments bring clarity to our structure that reflect their roles and responsibilities and will ensure we continue in our pursuit of progress and success.
Stan Kroenke said: “This is a simple evolution as part of us all driving Arsenal forward and further reaffirms our family’s long-standing commitment to this great club. Stability in football has never been more important as we move past the pandemic, and we believe this is the perfect time to formalise these roles.
“Our objectives and ambition will never waver – to field teams that compete for trophies at the highest level and lead our club in a way that inspires our passionate supporters around the world.
“Supported by our Director, Phil Harris, and together with our Executive Team and all our wonderful people, we have an incredible opportunity to build on the values and traditions of Arsenal Football Club.”
Copyright 2023 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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Matt Turner and Auston Trusty called up by the USA for the upcoming games, and the USA are in talks with Florian Balogun about playing for them too at senior level, he has in the past played for both the USA and England at youth level
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We obviously need to put out our strongest, or near on, team tonight if we want to progress.
I say if we want to progress because the next round fixtures provide a direct impact on our PL fixtures.
With our game against the saints being moved to Friday it gave us a slight advantage with rest before the city game.
However if we do play on the Thursday the saints game will be moved back to the Sunday only giving us a couple of days to prepare for city.
Tonight we are up against a very good side who our mix and match European side struggled against.
Tonight I think our first team will fair better and we will go through COYG.
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Came in late, does anyone know why Tomi came off?
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no1
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Saliba off injured too.
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HT. Arsenal 1 Sunday sport nix.
Arsenal look ok, but its going to need more goals to secure this one.
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gone to penalties
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Sporting taking the first penalty
scores
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Odegaard scores
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sporting score their second one
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Saka makes it 2-2
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ramsdale gets a hand to it but can’t keep it out, 3-2
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Trossard scores, their keeper got something on it, 3-3
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sporting with another good penalty, 4-3
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Martinelli with a poor penalty, and its advantage sporting
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Arsenal are out, fucking disaster in Europe once again
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Sorry, I just don’t really care this year about the Europa.
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just the 11 games left in our season now, Crystal Palace at home on Sunday the next game up
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Arteta says that it looks like a serious injury for Tomiyasu
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I think we had enough chances to seal it, but didn’t take them, but over both legs we didn’t seem to have enough will,lust or heart to be bovvered win? I didn’t see a side that was secondary, just a side that wasn’t really interested and was going through the motions?
I don’t mind going out, as long as it doesn’t affect us against the Smeagles. The Europa league seems on heck of a vast,sprawling drag until you reach the semis?
Not good for Tomi and losing Saliba didn’t help, and I hope Martinellis miss doesnt affect him too much, his confidence is a bit up and down this season.
Only positive was giving Jésus a run out again?
COYG!
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Can’t agree on going through the motions the amount of times players went to the crowd and made gestures to lift them suggests they really wanted a win.
Now to compound the tiredness and injuries we now find big Patrick has been sacked from Palace which could make Sundays game even more difficult
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Ok that’s fair enough Ian.
To me gesticulating to the crowd to get them to push them over the line could (perhaps) have been dealt with by a greater hunger, and taking the games a bit more seriously ( Im not sure anyone takes the EL seriously though?)and taking responsibility themselves, in the first and second legs we were at times complacent, but with an opportunities to win both games. I thought we would just win it 1 or 2-0 and now really show to much effort but Sporting are better than is apparent, they did get some good results in the CL…
Personally I thought in the first half they thought they could cruise it, although Sporting showed a bit more life towards the end of the half, with terrible corners not delivering.
But we saw a super goal from Sporting, although Im sure Ramsdale will get some crit for it.
Would have playing the first team sealed the game on( assuming they had a naturally more killer instinct? But of course squad rotation is important etc. Hindsight is not sight at all though. Should have done this or that,–should have gone to radio-rentals.
My own feeling is, even if its wank, is that this side could have quite easily beaten Sporting, but a whiff of hubris seemed to hang about both games, that smelt a bit like some of the thwarted flow we saw last year…
Anyway, nuts to what I think, its done, and better to moved on the Smeagles. Paddy going might help them or even make it worse…who can tell these days, not me, for sure.
COYG!
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Apart from the opener against Zurich who were in turmoil, the performances have been a bit off in the EL all season. Rotation counts for some of it surely, but I do wonder if MA musters the same kind of intensity compared to PL matches. The entire midfield was particularly sloppy yesterday. Maybe it’s some aspect of his approach that he can fix down the line, not sure.
Still, even though we stopped playing once we were ahead, yesterday was kind of ridiculous, with a once-in-a-lifetime goal as their first effort on target, and then all the heroics from their keeper.
I’d feel a lot better about it if we hadn’t lost two important defenders, and made Zinchenko, Martinelli, Xhaka and White (mostly) play 120 mins.
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When you lose games it’s easy to say players don’t want it but it’s really difficult to say.
Over the two legs Sporting were the better side than the two sides we put out. If both teams had been clinical then Sporting would still have won it and it wouldn’t of gone to extra time.
Again it’s hard to to say the midfield was sloppy when the whole team in both legs struggled to cope with Sportings tenacity.
If there was a sense of “not waiting it” then it has to come from the manager.
However much in the press you say he didn’t prioritise the league actually with team selections he absolutely did.
Going forward Palace is now a huge game to get the three and go into the interlull still ahead.
We then come back to play Leeds and the start of the run in.
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Good points, I love reading what other people have to say, as everyone sees the game in a different way, adding up to a picture of what happened, or an approximation as billions of events are happening.And to me thats the point of the blog (sharing).
Its always horrible when we lose, I dont know why but some games are easier to handle and others not? Personally I think UEFA should reduce the size of the CL, EL and have several other comps going on (EC type), and not have the dropping down systems, but to others maybe big comps are more exciting? I have no answers but in the 70s the European cup and UEFA /CWC cup seemed equally exciting?
Who knows, perhaps this team will do well in the CL next year ( assuming that we dont mess it up), and this year has been great so far, as the lads seemed to have gelled and worked together much better, so perhaps next they can rise to another challenge.
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Without wishing to ignite a very old discussion and sending Mills too far down the time/space continuum rabbit hole I got a very bad feeling from yesterday’s game – or rather a chilling sense that our luck had turned. There’s a great episode of the Phil Silvers Show – Bilkos’ Perfect Day – which sees Bilko benefit from outrageous good fortune: the showers turn warm just as he showers, his supervisor catches him working when he had mainly been idling etc. For one day he has the Midas Touch, and emboldened gets together a large stake to place on the day’s big race, safe in the knowledge he can’t lose. Except the race is in a different US time zone and all too late he realises his money is at the mercy of tomorrow – by which time the wheel has turned.
We’ve been lucky recently – last minute equalisers and winners, great saves, relatively injury free most matches. But the 46 yard speculative punt that looped over Ramsdale before catching the bar’s underside struck me as a Bilko moment, backed up almost immediately as it was by extraordinary heroics from their keeper and then two toin-coss losses before the shoot-out.
Yes, the more you practise the luckier you get, but the ball will still bounce unpredictably, players will still be somehow just in the wrong – or right – place. The fickle finger will have its day, and the PGMOL casino’s double Zero will continue to tilt the odds.
I very much doubt the capricious Madam will have had enough with us by Sunday – especially as I now recall that when I got back from work yesterday I sat in the wrong chair to watch the end of extra-time.
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test
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‘This post was written by foreverheady, who wasnt able (for some reason-bad luck-lol?) to post it this afternoon, and has asked me to do a cutnpaste job in hope of getting it on the forum. COYG!
Without wishing to ignite a very old discussion and sending Mills too far down the time/space continuum rabbit hole I got a very bad feeling from yesterday’s game – or rather a chilling sense that our luck had turned. There’s a great episode of the Phil Silvers Show – Bilkos’ Perfect Day – which sees Bilko benefit from outrageous good fortune: the showers turn warm just as he showers, his supervisor catches him working when he had mainly been idling etc. For one day he has the Midas Touch, and emboldened gets together a large stake to place on the day’s big race, safe in the knowledge he can’t lose. Except the race is in a different US time zone and all too late he realises his money is at the mercy of tomorrow – by which time the wheel has turned.
We’ve been lucky recently – last minute equalisers and winners, great saves, relatively injury free most matches. But the 46 yard speculative punt that looped over Ramsdale before catching the bar’s underside struck me as a Bilko moment, backed up almost immediately as it was by extraordinary heroics from their keeper and then two toin-coss losses before the shoot-out.
Yes, the more you practise the luckier you get, but the ball will still bounce unpredictably, players will still be somehow just in the wrong – or right – place. The fickle finger will have its day, and the PGMOL casino’s double Zero will continue to tilt the odds.
I very much doubt the capricious Madam will have had enough with us by Sunday – especially as I now recall that when I got back from work yesterday I sat in the wrong chair to watch the end of extra-time.’ FH
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Patrick Vieira sacked by Crystal Palace, Roy Hodgson said to be in talks with them over taking the job. Will we face Palace with a new manager boost or a palace with a no manager slump.
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Marquinhos got a straight red card for this but has had it overturned
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Florian Balogun who the USA are trying to get to declare for them, has been included in the England U21 squad as has Emile Smith-Rowe
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Sniper
@clockendsniper
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13h
Arsenal’s last win at the Emirates against Crystal Palace was in April 2018. Since then we’ve drawn 3 and lost 1.
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Impossible to predict the impact of a loss on penalties. I am more concerned with the injuries and players having to play extra time then the result? European football was always a good example of why City are the favourites this season. Is fair speculation that many fans have only dared to hope the team might be in with a shout in the closing stages of the season.
Was hoping for a Steve Bruce tribute act from Viera although last season the palace performance in this fixture had people speculating on him returning as a coach in the future. Impossible to predict the impact on the palace team. Possible to predict some things and Home fixtures have less of a tilt they might as well introduce away goals for some teams (is just a hilarious joke I also hope in my dreams for a top performance from the official officials).
Nketiah would be useful but Gabriel Jesus on the bench is not a poor option.
COYG
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No new manager will be in place until after Sundays game but unfortunately the players might still be out to impress.
Palace haven’t had a win in ten games and haven’t scored in their last three.
In actual fact their XG is the lowest in the league, however their defence is fifth best in the league in that time and despite playing villa, Brentford, Liverpool, manure twice, chelusa, Brighton twice, Newcastle and city.
The other thing to note is despite that really hard run of fixtures they haven’t lost by more than one goal with only manure managing to score twice in a 2-1 win.
Included in that run was five draws which actually makes the whole thing sound a lot better.
In that analysis you would think palace have made the wrong choice by sacking Patrick and if he was popular within the dressing room could make the situation a lot worse.
We do know their defence won’t go bad overnight but hopefully their baron goalscoring run will continue too.
With all the energy we expended the other night we really don’t need a tight game.
This is a game where we really do need to score early, two nil up by half time with a really boring second half with no goal mouth action would be great.
Obviously with no injuries as well, although a couple of knocks that mean key players can’t go away on international duty but are ready for the Leeds game would be ok.
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Palace have been good under Viera. Unlucky to lose the opener. Perhaps there is some logic, reasons, but I hope this decision backfires. Starting Sunday.
Unfortunate if Saliba is out after Tommy. prefer to not see Holding against Zaha as the double cup winner only struggles against the quickest.
Maybe there will be some good in getting some bad luck rubbed off in the Europa.
And it wasn’t a final! The real cup finals start now. Only about a dozen of them to win should be easy heh. From a defeat that wasn’t a final Ramsdale has been anointed as Safe Hands II The Son of Seaman. Safe to say this team even after the extra time minutes can beat Palace. COYG.
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spurs manager Conte: “They are used to it here. They don’t play for something important.
They don’t want to play under pressure, under stress. It is easy in this way. Tottenham story is this for 20 years.
There is the owner but they never won something….why”?
he is right. Spurs haven’t won a league title in over 60 years, over 30 years since fa cup win 15 years since league cup win. 39 years since European trophy, Why do media act like they are something special. 13 clubs have won the league since they last did,
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reports in France say William Saliba is out for several weeks with a back problem
with Tomiyasu also out for some time, it leaves us with few options on the right side of our defense, Rob Holding at CB, likely comes in for Saliba, but we now have no experienced cover for Ben White at right back, so we may hope we don’t suffer any more injuries in our defence, the untried Ruell Walters is probably the next in line from the youths to play right back
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Well here we go again! Its been a long time since I looked forward to games as I have this season, you too?
Personally I think the sting of going out on pens( not really being successfully beaten)will give us a bit of inspiration today.
Im not sure that Paddys departure will give the Smeagles an uplift like the arrival of leaver Dyche at Everton. But I do expect them to dig in and Zaha is always a threat, but I think we are a powerful unit that will want to bounce back. I hope we go for the kill like last week at Fulham.
I hope Rob can rise up to the occasion( assuming hes on today) and keep a cool head and here’s hoping we can go into the boring break with an extra three points today.
Its going to be tough in the run in, with super pressure, and all teams twelfth and under in the relegation zone ( I cant recall anything like it before, you?) looking to stay up and having to play, City, Livercrutches, and Chelsea who will all rise to the occasion, means no fun in the spring sun,but as long as we keep chipping away, don’t look to much over the shoulders or listen in to speculative gossip, all things are possible! Get them blinkers on!
What do you think? I think you stink? I think therefore I am? But what if you don’t think, then you therefore arent? Think more, speak little and write less. Probably right.
COYG!
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Sounds like Conte is trying to get sacked and get out of there. Quite a bizarre press conference, he was obviously annoyed , but calculated with it. Perhaps he knows Poch is a done deal, or something similar.
But a lot of those players are his buys so he can’t be exonerated as much as he would like.
But you are correct Eduardo, the media thing with Tottenham is one of this league’s enduring mysteries, and it probably does them no favours either.
They could still make the CL, but if not, Kane will only be staying under huge duress, if he stays at all .
Whatever the issues, AC is doing terrible damage to the clubs and owners reputation.
If I were a neutral, would suggest he just go if he’s that unhappy, without the scorched earth policy , but I’m not and this saga is quite amusing
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Write more, Mills, write more. I’ve limbered up for the game with a few highlights from past palatial wins, courtesy of the Arsenal website: any one of them would do nicely this afternoon. You’d like to think (or at least I would) that missing a first choice central defender isn’t such a bind for a game like today’s: if we’re relying on a lock-out from Salibriel then the front lot won’t have done their proper job. Having said that, it would be good to see our third Gabriel slaking his goal drought before easing our way to a comfortable one. Experience over hope probably means that whatever else happens it won’t be easy: somehow these things never are. It’s a shame its not on UK telly though, and I wonder why not. It’l have to be the commentary on the Arsenal player for me, which did well enough last time with Nelson’s trafalgar moment saving the day.
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It’s interesting Mandy, but also worrying in a way. What if Levy thinks to hell with it and sells out to any of the bottomless wallets sniffing round the manure pile – that maybe wouldn’t be so good from a North London perspective. As it stands, a win for us would see the Gap grow to 20 points with a remaining 30 to play for, which is a fair turn round from the last few seasons.
What appens to Arry will be interesting. You can’t knock his record, even with all those soft ones he’s converted. But is he the ‘hard done by’ one, poorly served by his feckless side despite his heroics, or is he the tone setter, scared to win, as his penalty against France last World Cup, his decision to play in an open team mate during the Euros, might suggest?
And if he was tempted to do a Sol Campbell, who would welcome him, who despair?
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Levy can’t sell out to anyone it’s Lewis who funds and owns the Totterings
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