Hi all.
In this Arsenal-Tottenham match review by @UncensoredArsenal, both Shotta and Blackburn George agree that a draw was a fair result in a match where both teams had major slices of luck that could have tipped the balance in either direction. The podcast concluded that Bukayo Saka was Arsenal’s MOTM mainly because of his contribution to the goals scored.
Blackburn George
Positively Arsenal 
I haven’t listened to the pod yet but if it really suggested Bakayo was MOTM then I think Shotta and George may have been smoking too much.
I have seen the same suggestion in lots of the media and couldn’t believe it.
While he is always dangerous, played a delightful ball to the back post for Jesus and scored both goals was he really MOTM.
By his own high standards I thought he was poor. We got the ball to him early several times and instead of taking udogie on he often waited for the second defender to get back and apart from one occasion came inside every time.
This was made worse by the fact Jesus was on the other side and was doing the same rather than Martinelli who always tries to take on his man.
He also gave the ball away alot and was defensively suspect.
I thought he was becoming a liability an should of been hooked fifteen minutes before he was.
Sometimes we need to look further than a few attacking involvements an look at a players full contribution.
It maybe a reflection of the the teams average performance that people were looking round for a MOTM
Personally I thought it should of gone to Zinchenko who was good defensively and brilliant in midfield.
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Ramsdale, Tomiyasu, White, Gabriel, Kiwior, Jorginho, Havertz, Smith Rowe, Nelson, Sagoe Jr, Nketiah.
Subs: Hein, Cedric, Sweet, Walters, Zinchenko, Elneny, Odegaard, Cozier-Duberry, Jesus
debut for Sagoe Jr, he is a 19 year old winger, mostly on the left
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Reiss Nelson makes it 1-0 to the Arsenal
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HT: Brentford 0-1 Arsenal
Nelson with the goal
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Zinchenko and Jesus on for White and Sagoe JR
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Elneny and Odegaard on for ESR and Nelson
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Cedric on for Nketiah
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FT: Brentford 0-1 Arsenal
Nelson with the goal that puts us in the next round, a hard fought win with the home side on top for a lot of the game, debut for Sagoe Jr, clean sheet for Ramsdale who made one great save. Elneny makes his comeback
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Also a ton up for ESR who ran the show in the first half.
Brentford only made two changes from their last premier League game, considering how difficult it is for second string sides to gel and find their rhythm this has to go down as a good result.
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Away to Ipswich in the next round
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No revised draw away to west ham
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arsenal away to west ham in the next round
man utd at home to newcastle
Bournemouth vs Liverpool
Chelsea vs Blackburn Rovers
Everton vs Burnley
Exeter City vs Middlesbrough
Mansfield Town vs Port Vale
Ipswich Town vs Fulham
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Although away clean sheets has been perfect so far this season our goals scored against teams from the bottom half was very poor last season.
The 3-0 win came at a time when Bournemouth were playing so poorly it seemed like a bad result.
Their new manager has a fantastic record against the top sides in la Liga so much so that with all this put together plus our injuries Lewis Jones, betting pundit from Sky, has tipped us to lose.
Personally I think we will win but I expect this game to be a lot more difficult than when we first looked at the fixture at the start of the season.
It’s difficult to know the line up because of the amount of injuries and the two games coming up before the interlul.
Whoever plays let’s hope they gel and come home with the points COYG.
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Good to see Elneny get a gentle reintroduction. Hoping to see regular minutes for Jorginho even after Rice & Partey are back.
Fine margins in the NLD as in most PL games and I don’t know much about such things but I felt it was a bad call to start Reya in that game for so many reasons.
I hope Saka is not rushed back. With all three wide forwards that were scaring the opponents injured I also hope ESR starts along with Nelson.
GJ can impress in the wide roles but he is an older player now and as with so many both midfielders & attackers I feel the central role is where they are best in their mid to late phases.
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I would be interested to watch the two Hale End gemstones start alongside one of the strikers tomorrow. Many heads went down after the NLD as many remembered how ridiculous it would be to stop a ridiculous entity like Abu Dhabi City.
It’ll be down to the midfield to set up the game and the goals as always and I am sure they can help with the goals.
A concern for many tomorrow will be that without a legendary Kante/Xhaka Swiss army pocket knife/a player good enough (I hope) to get away with a Vanilla Ice song or even sorry George a Partey alongside old J will the defence be able to stop the goals against?
COYG.
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I would be interested to watch the two Hale End gemstones start alongside one of the strikers tomorrow. Many heads went down after the NLD as many remembered how ridiculous it would be to stop a ridiculous entity like Abu Dhabi City.
It’ll be down to the midfield to set up the game and the goals as always and I am sure they can help with the goals.
A concern for many tomorrow will be that without a legendary Kante/Xhaka Swiss army pocket knife/a player good enough (I hope) to get away with a Vanilla Ice song or even sorry George a Partey alongside old J will the defence be able to stop the goals against?
COYG.
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Sorry for the double and very vague post! Bad tools etc.
< I meant to say that Arsenal are not favourites in the PL that I agree with Ian that the fans and more importantly I will enjoy more time for the academy players. It’s fun.
Especially when others are injured / in need of more frequent rest & rotation.
Fingers crossed and looking forward to the team playing some of the good stuff & holding out for a clean sheet. Tommy on after 65 to close out a 0-2 lead put yer bets down. COYG.
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HT: Bournemouth 0-2 Arsenal
Saka and Odegaard (pen) with the goals
ref refusing to book any of the home players, how odd.
Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Rice, Odegaard, Havertz, Saka, Jesus, Nketiah.
Subs: Ramsdale, Smith Rowe, Kiwior, Tomiyasu, Trossard, Jorginho, Vieira, Nelson, Elneny.
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Kai Havertz scores his first Arsenal goal from a penalty won by Odegaard, 3-0 to the Arsenal
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Tommy on after the 65 minutes.
Not to close out a 0-2 but a 0-3 lead.
Nice to see the pens called and spread around the squad not peddling stats.
Great stuff.
Saka with a niggle probably happy not to take one of the pens. Can someone anyone substitute Saka now please?
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Yep. Saka off when he can no longer walk.
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0-4 Tommy on after 65, minutes for Nelson and ESR
Some of you may have noticed I’ve not been impressed why the physios but ignoring my groans on the fitness management that is a great result.
Especially when Pep’s City are not Invincible, a defeat at Wolves ending their perfect run since the start of the season.
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FT: Bournemouth 0-4 Arsenal
Saka, Odegaard (pen), Harvertz (pen), White with our goals, the bad news is that Saka was helped off injured near the end of the game.
man city and man utd both lost today, and liverpool play spurs this evening, so a good day overall for Arsenal
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Excellent display and after crapping myself that city might go unbeaten it feels like invincibles day
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Arsenal and spurs the only unbeaten sides left in the EPL with only 7 rounds of games played,
ref and var in the spurs v liverpool game should be sacked after that display
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Really early in the season and we see another really awful design by the crooks in PIGMOL pretending to use VAR.
Because of the cut of the grass this should of been a 2 second decision, you could of parked a bus between the attacker and defender it was that clear.
You can see why the Saudis want such corrupt officials over there.
We’ve seen Forrest robbed of a second European cup by match fixing, Juventus and now Barca found guilty of it.
Why anyone thinks it couldn’t happen over here is beyond me.
Wherever there is money there is corruption and the PL has the most money in the world.
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Hello all. Truly bizarre experience for me watching Liverpool and Utd fans rail against ref (and some media) bias or even corruption against them, with Chelsea fans chipping in,too. Always been of opinion that it would provide marvellous cover if there ever were a side who truly gets screwed by them-us, us, us- that there are fans of every other club on occasion insisting (incorrectly) it is they who get screwed and, of course, all fans of other clubs scoff at our own claims. Cherry on weird cake might be seeing our pens this year being presented as proof something is wrong/rotten.
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Personally of belief it was just a calamitous error with VAR. Though if it were us I would never accept that were case, and would see it as proof that, at the very least, they are hideously and hopelessly biased. I think prem/pgmol are currently being hammered by the consequences of their own actions: for about 20 years they have not been interested in developing the best referees they can, but in developing the best prem referees they can, ie those who will do the game as pgmol, representing the interests of those who hold sway over them, want them to. A few, like Oliver, can do that while also having the skills to switch to and excel at normal refereeing. Most can’t. The extra scrutiny with VAR, with the removal of the ‘only get one look from one angle’ plausible deniability, has exposed them massively.
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Arsenal Women lost their first league game of the season 1-0 to liverpool, a record attendance for a WSL game, near 60k at the Emirates today.
A poor performance from Arsenal, found it very tough to break down the low block and too many times our players looked to take a touch when the half chances needed to be hit first time, we also lacked any players who could dribble past a player or two to make an opening, it was all too slow, tippy tappy stuff, need the injured players back asap, especially Mead and Medima
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Sam Wallace
@SamWallaceTel
·
21h
PGMOL confirm that VAR Darren England thought the Luis Diaz goal had been given. His ‘check complete’ was made on that assumption – that the goal stood. In fact the opposite was the case & so ref Simon Hooper assumed ‘no goal’ was correct. A dismal night for VAR & PGMOL
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With City coming up I’m hoping for lots of rotation mid week but it’s probably not going to happen & after a 0-4 win in the PL i suppose I can’t be greedy.
Even if Saka is out will be interesting to see if Eddie and GJ rotate this week, or if both start against City.
I’d punt on Havertz to start at 8 against City, we’ll probably see him midweek. Havertz fouling after the kick on Saka wound up the opponents so much it helped lead to the penalties. Might earn him more credit with the crowd than the goal.
White to start both games, one of the CBs might get a breather midweek.
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Big crowd for the WSL game today, reports say the biggest ever in that league.
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Football fans across the board not impressed with the company of officials.
Shotta’s blog is a reference for them. Could be a simple error.
It is funny to consider that the MCC make the PL/FA look technophobic.
Was happy to see both pens given. Hopefully there’ll be some more and not a sudden weird drought.
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New podcast is up
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