In their #UncensoredArsenal review of Arsenal vs Burnley Blackburn George and Shotta express mixed emotions over the manner the Gunners went about securing their victory. It was good to gain the points needed to stay second in the tables but, with the far superior squad, Arsenal resorted to the negative, retrograde tactics reminiscent of Sam Allardyce and Tony Pulis; maintain a strong defense and rely on set plays to win the game. Will this be sufficient to win the title?
121 comments on “Functional Arsenal Is The Norm Now.”
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Positively Arsenal 
Nketiah and Trossard on for Jesus and Martinelli
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Havertz makes it 2-0 to the Arsenal
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ESR and Nelson on for Havertz and Saka
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Declan Viera Rice
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Full time, 2-0 win for Arsenal takes us back to top of the table with liverpool playing utd later, Aston Villa currently 2nd in the table
on a side note, Ruell Walters was an unused sub for us today, that was the 15th time he was named a sub for our first team in a competitive game and still hasn’t made his debut
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A 2-0 win against Brighton would normally be a good win especially win all of the stats coming in the game however this 2-0 win showed some very worrying signs for the season ahead.
Having played so well in moving the ball through midfield and dominating the game we just went cohesive in the final third making the wrong decisions or simply being to greedy.
Mikel didn’t see this and once again didn’t see fit to change the personnel. When we did score he once again decided to be over cautious and sit back against a side that always finds a way to score and rely on counter attacks despite being notoriously bad at them.
In the end Brighton did get their chance but fortunately fluffed their lines when the goal was gapping.
In the end the subs did come on and they were involved in the build up for the second goal to much relief.
The goal coming far to late to give us a comfortable afternoon and if we repeat this performance later in the season then the drop we experienced in the last two seasons will happen once again.
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I see we are being heavily linked with a January move for Ivan Toney, somewhere in the region of £60m with £20M in add ons, so I had a quick look at a youtube highlights reel for him, and he really doesn’t look like a striker for a top club, in fact he looks clumsy, the sort of guy who wouldn’t be rated at all if he wasn’t big.
we are also being linked with a move for aston villa midfielder douglas luiz, a£100M fee is being mooted
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Apparently Villa are not willing to sell Luiz especially not in January.
Take away I.T.’s pens and his record is not as good as Eddies.
I think Solanke is a better striker than Toney anyway but again not available in the upcoming window.
I also believe in the short term we don’t need a striker as we have several players who can play the role.
Owing to the propensity to injury of our defensive midfielders I think that should be our priority. It would also allow Declan to go further forward and cause even more havoc in opposition defences.
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Aston Villa play Sheffield Utd this evening and if they win they go top of the league
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These big games over Christmas definitely won’t decide the title but they do give a massive indication on how well teams cope in big pressure situations. That is what will matter in a run in that looks the closest, with the most teams involved for years.
City still look the most likely to produce a consecutive winning run that will see them over the line but we are definitely in the mix.
The problem for us is so far the two big away games at, Newcastle and Villa, we lost
To be true title contenders we need a statement away victory to give us confidence in the most difficult of run ins we have had for years.
Going to city, spuds, manure, Brighton and Wolves in the last ten games is ridiculously hard and we will need some invincible belief to carry us through.
This match could give us just that iron for our bollocks in those final games.
On paper liverpool at home have been brilliant but not of all of their performances haved matched the results.
We know they have some fantastic players but so do we and as a team I think we are better.
We will have to be careful of the counter attack as they are lightening on the break.
Apart from them we also have to be mindful of the ref being influenced by the partisan crowd especially after Jürgen delivered the message not that he wanted a better atmosphere, but he wanted the crowd to help the team by influencing the officials.
Mikel wanted dominance and we have the ability to do that but even when we have dominated we have been wasteful in front of goal.
If we are dominant and clinical today we will be top for Christmas and have confidence for those away games to come COYG.
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Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Rice, Havertz, Odegaard, Saka, Jesus, Martinelli
Subs: Ramsdale, Smith Rowe, Nketiah, Kiwior, Soares, Trossard, Nelson, Elneny, Jorginho
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Jeorge Bird
@jeorgebird
Ceadach O’Neill, who played for Arsenal U17s at the Flamengo Adidas Cup in Brazil, is on the bench for Linfield’s first-team against Coleraine tonight.
It seems like the highly-rated 15-year-old was playing for Arsenal as a trialist.
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on Ceadach O’Neill, the Belfast Telegraph recently reported that Arsenal have offered £240K for him and that he is destined for Arsenal
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so seeing as we had the lead but failed to win at Anfield tonight who riled up the crowd and got LFC the draw, probably that Xhaka guy again
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Normally when a manager says the draw was a very fair result it means his team has been lucky.
On this occasion both managers being happy with the draw and praising the football suggest not only the respect each had for the quality of the other side but the realisation that the result was really up in the air and they were both happy with the final whistle.
Compare this to the dross manure served up the week before and you know where the teams lie in the pursuit of topping the table at the end of the year.
Yes city are still favourites and they would have been chuffed with the result but they wouldn’t of been pleased with the quality on show.
Personally I think both ARSENAL and Liverpool are just a little bit away from being champions but I don’t think there is much in it.
I said before the game this would show how prepared we will be for the away games later in the season and I think it showed with a few tweaks we can points where ever we travel.
Our full backs still struggle against fast tricky wingers, Jesus doesn’t provide an outball when we are under pressure and both Kai and Martin are just not strong enough in the tackle but we are close to the real deal.
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Arsenal are said to have informed Ipswich that they will trigger the buy back clause in the Harry Clarke deal, and now its up to the player to decide if he wants to leave a starting spot with promotion chasing ipswich for a squad role at Arsenal, he normally plays right back for ipswich but can play CB and in midfield. He got the run around yesterday against leeds where the speed and trickery of summerville caused him no end of problems. Maybe his mind was on his impending decision.
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for me if Arsenal are to win the league or CL this season we will need to bring in a few quality players in January, and also need a lot of luck in regards to injuries and returning players from injury.
there is also the goalkeeper question, can we win the league with Raya as first choice, far too often we concede from the only shot on target we face, like yesterday, you win league when the keeper wins you games you should have lost, Seaman, Lehman, Lukic and Wilson all done it in my time supporting Arsenal, especially Seaman and I still think Ramsdale has better shot stopping ability than Raya, but it seems Arteta values the kicking ability of Raya over saving shots.
As I said above I think we need more quality added to the squad, we are being linked with several strikers, mostly Ivan Toney and Victor Osimhen, I watched a youtube of Toney and he did not impress me at all, and last week I watched osimhen in a CL game and again I was very disappointed in what I saw, like Toney he was just big and awkward, both look a throw back to what used to be a dime a dozen CF’s of yester year, but i’m sure Arteta and our scouts have more about them than I do
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for any of you that have not already seen the five part documentary on Arsenal.com, Step by Step, can I recommend you have a look, its about the recovery from ACL injuries by Beth Mead and Vivienne Medima,
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HAPPY Christmas all positivsters
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Merry Christmas to All the Positives.
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New post is finally up. Merry Xmas everyone who celebrates it.
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