Good morning all.
Before we get into my deep tactical analysis of our game against Mr. Emery’s villains, a moments thought on the loss of the great Denis Law, who has passed ages 84. Some player he was.
We have another home game against a good team that has taken too many points off of us since Emery took charge. This really is a tricky fixture given our injury list and problems putting the ball in the net. We should of course win, but it’s by no means a shoe-in.
As I predicted, the win against Spurs has massively lifted the previously depressed mood, as it should. We really should have ran away with that game, but won by a single goal, so the nerves were jangling right up until the final whistle. That mood could be scuppered if Emery gets the better of Arteta, the “Arteta Out ” boys would jizz themselves.
Given the talk of Saliba’s hamstring injury and Sterling’s unimpressive outing , my team prediction is Raya; Timber, Kiwior , Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly; Odegaard, Partey, Rice; Martinelli, Havertz, Trossard. By the way, I’m hugely impressed by Lewis-Skelly, it might be early doors, but I’m calling him for an Englans call up before he gets the key to the door.
Well that’s about all I have, all we can do is keep pushing and hope Liverpool faulter, it’s unlikely, but we would be kicking ourselves if they do and we are not in a position to capitalise.
Pedantic George.
Positively Arsenal 
Thanks George. I also rate LS, long may he do the business!
Hoping for a nice routine win today. COYG!
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After the win over the spuds, Myles Lewis Skelly has been getting plaudits from all corners. Sky are saying although his total minutes are small, % wise his stats are right up there. 96% pass accuracy, that’s above all PL CB,’s (who normally dominate the PA stats) and comes top for duels won as well.If we look at midfielders who broke into the team at full back obviously little B comes to mind straight away. However maybe the player who reminds us more of MLS is Michael Thomas and he didn’t do too bad. In fact one of his early games was the derby at the shit hole, second leg in the Littlewoods cup where like MLS he made a big difference.Normally we would assume that once he has established himself on the team he will revert to his natural midfield position. Nowadays the inverted full back will play in midfield anyway and so he may well stay at left back.It is quite amazing that after all the talk of Nwaneri being the new hero from the academy that MLS is the player digging his feet into the team.
Today another win will propel the feel good factor right up there and will make the penalty shoot out and the nightmare night to a distant memory.
Villa are a good side but their away from has been poor. Their capital form is poor and they have been a little bit found out this season.
Again this game is up to how we play. We play well and we should win. I say should because of Kavanaugh, a ref who really doesn’t like us.
However over the years we are used to beating the officials and the opposition COYG.
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Raya, Partey, Timber, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly, Merino, Rice, Odegaard, Trossard, Martinelli, Havertz.
Subs: Neto, Tierney, Zinchenko, Kiwior, Kacurri, Jorginho, Butler-Oyedeji, Kabia, Sterling.
Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Mings, Maatsen, Onana, Kamara, Rogers, Tielemans, Ramsey Watkins
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liverpool win 2-0 away at Brentford, both goals coming in stoppage time, but they had something like 38 shots, and its something that they have to be admired for and something Arteta could learn a lesson from, you have a much better chance of scoring the more shots you take, and especially if its in the high 20’s or 30’s, liverpool just keep shooting.
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former Arsenal Academy player Donyell Malen is in the subs for Aston Villa today so that brings me on to those that I recall playing for both teams, well Martinez is in goal for Villa today, I’m sure most here will know Martin Keown, Paul Merson and David Platt(he once played a while in goal for villa v arsenal and I think kept a clean sheet) played for both, and then there was a real goalie Jimmy Rimmer, & Alex Copley in the 70’s/80’s,
some will have forgotten that Robert Pires played for Villa for a season, and cult hero Calum Chambers was at both clubs, as was the next dennis bergkamp, Henri Lansbury, and the man who probably still has Drogba in his nightmares Phillipe Senderous had a spell at Villa, and one of our Title Winning goalies Stuart Taylor was at villa before winning more titles at man city, has ever a man done so little to win so much
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Arsenal U21’s lost 6-3 away to Fulham U21’s today, we gave debuts at this level to schoolboy Maalik Hashi with another schoolboy Saurap Sampang an unused sub.
Arsenal U18’s are currently 1-0 up v QPR in the FA Youth Cup, with 15 year old Max Dowman making his cup debut, and Harriman-Annous scoring our early goal
Arsenal U18 FA Youth Cup team v QPR: Porter, Julienne, Onyekachukwu, Clarke, Sweet, Ibrahim, Copley, Casey, Dowman, Harriman-Annous, O’Neill. Subs: Ranson, Salmon, Chapman, Murisa, Marciniak, Zecevic John, Oyetunde.
Sam Chapman and Daniel Oyetunde are amongst the substitutes for the U18s having also been on the bench for the U21s against Fulham
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updates suggest Arsenal U18’s are holding on a bit at them moment with QPR going close a number of times
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QPR level
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Martinez saves from Martinelli
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HT: Arsenal U18’s 1-1 QPR U18’s
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Martinelliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 1-0 to the Arsenal
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HT: Arsenal 1-0 Aston Villa
Martinelli with our goal, both sides have had a chance or two
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Goal. Arsenal 1 QPR 2. Emmerson Sutton with his second goal of the game puts QPR ahead in the youth cup
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Goal. Arsenal 2 QPR 2. Max Dowman equalises for Arsenal on his cup debut
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Havertzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz makes it 2-0 to the Arsenal, Trossard with assists for both goals
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fucks sake own goal off merino, 2-1, totally against the run of play
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villa hit the post, need to steady ourselves
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Emery booked this half, Arteta was booked in the first half
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still 2-2 in the youth cup with 9 minutes of stoppage time to be played
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for fucks sake throwing this away, 2-2 watkins, terrible defending,
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20 minutes left to get the win, went negative at 2-0 up and let them back into it, now we are on the ropes
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going to extra time in the youth game
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Sterling on for Martinelli, no surprise that Arteta just does a like for like sub when we need to win a game, he never adds bodies to the attack, far too risk averse
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for fucks sake VAR rule out an Arsenal goal for handball, it was never handball, PGMOL are a shower of cheating cunts
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Arsenal U18’s go 3-2 up, Zecevic John taps home from Casey’s cross, lucky for them the PGMOL are not there to cheat them out of the goal
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fucking missing good chances too, we shot ourselves in the foot big time today and then got screwed over by the pgmol northern mafia
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FT: Arsenal 2-2 PGMOL Northern Mafia
Disgraceful match fixing by the PGMOL, its beyond a joke, as Adrian Clarke said they couldn’t wait to rule it out, and no image shown yet of how they decided it was handball, video so far looks like it hit his midrift and Havertz also claims it was off his body not his hand.
Liverpool now 6pts ahead with a game in hand,
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the only video of the disallowed goal I’ve seen looks like it hit Havertz in the stomach, and it seems VAR took 12 seconds to rule it out, maybe they have other angles not shown yet but this really feels like pgmol match fixing once again
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the u18’s is now 3-3, sutton with his hattrick i think, not long left, might be going to penalties
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Youth Cup Game gone to penalties
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one thing I don’t understand about putting Partey at right back, which weakens the defense and the midfield, why has Arteta not even once put Gabriel at right CB and Kiwior left CB and leave midfield unchanged, what is his obsession with Partey at right back
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Casey misses but Porter then saves theirs
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Dowman scores and Porter saves again
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Marciniak scores QPR score 2-1
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Zecevic John scores QPR score 3-2
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Oyetunde scores and Arsenal win and will face Fulham in the next round
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https://x.com/i/status/1880704671519801832
is this handball or not
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Partey playing at right back has never worked, that’s three seasons now I think.
Kiwior might as well not be at the club and actually that goes for the full backs at the club as well.
Realistically Mikel didn’t trust any of his bench today which is extremely worrying. Partey and Havertz left as last man to head the ball away is ridiculous. The cross for the second goal entered the six yard box and so Raya is at fault for not claiming that as well.
If Chelsea are paying all of Stirlings wages they’re still getting the better end of the deal and to think he is a better threat than Martinelli is madness.
However this wasn’t about individual errors or performances this was all about game management and although I’m not Mikel out, today was all on him.
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once again Arteta accepted the draw, we changed nothing to try and win the game, there was no throwing on an extra forward or throwing a CB up front, it was replace one wide player with another out of form wide player, and that was it, no tactical change, no tempo change, just keep plodding along hoping for something to drop well for us. Arteta is so full of himself that he clearly believes that his tactics are the only way, so nothing is done to deviate from those tactics. 8 draws in 22 games and we have by and large just meandered to each of those 8 draws. Not once did we do anything tactically different to try and win it, can’t be risking a defeat by going for the win now can we mr arteta
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and now for the worrying news, Saliba is to undergo tests tomorrow to see the extent of his injury, Arteta said it was a concern that he might be out a while. That usually means a month or two when it comes to our players
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laughably Calafiori who was said to be in contention to play v Man Utd is still not fit enough to be in the match day squad
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Arsenal have played 9 EPL games since the start of December,
5 wins, 4 draws
once again draws are killing our season, add in that this month we have gone out of the FA Cup after another draw, and lost 2-0 at home in first leg of CC semi final and it shows we are on iffy form,
I say it again Arteta accepts draws, he won’t risk the loss chasing the win. Can any of you remember a single game where we have gone gung ho trying to turn a draw into a win under arteta.
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Even stranger was Mikel’s comments after the game. He said it was amazing performance considering the amount of games we have played recently and including the 120 + minutes v Utd.
That is an amazing statement after a game in which he used just one sub and that was after 80 minutes. That was after the opposition scored their first goal after 60 minutes.
ARSENAL were one of the major players in pushing through the policy of extra subs and yet we don’t use them, absolutely crazy.
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1 win in the six EPL games we have started Partey at Right Back, but its all right as Arteta says its not a problem
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12 points dropped from winning positions so far this season
22 points dropped in total
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https://x.com/i/status/1880707023656173699
another angle of the handball incident, what you guys think
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yeah Kai was twisting away from the ball and it hit him in the midriff.
If VAR was correct all the time then fans wouldn’t be so against it. It was brought in to get decisions right but time and time again it doesn’t. Unfortunately that’s exactly what PIGMOL want.
They were dragged kicking and screaming to use technology and they know the more they get wrong the more the fans will hate it. Most football fans are ignorant and blame technology instead of the monkeys using it.
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Mikel has to thank the spuds for continuing to be so shit. Imagine them doing well, the amount of pressure on our manager then would massive.
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sky put up a stat today for Arsenal against the top half and against the bottom half teams so far this season
Top Half
P11, W1 D7 L2 Pts13
Bottom Half
P11, W10 D1 L0 Pts31
Everton is the bottom half team that we failed to beat. And like most of the draws we have had this season, and in reality in all of Arteta’s time here, we accepted the draw, changed nothing tactically, never a charge of the light brigade, risk averse. The draws are killing us, we could very well go the rest of the EPL season unbeaten but draw 7 or 8 of them and miss out on the title despite only 2 defeats, but the PR machine would tell us that its a better achievement than the invincibles, like the did last season.
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Arsenal are 6pts behind liverpool, and now 6pts ahead of Man City, which is more likely, AFC overhaul Liverpool, or Man City overhaul Arsenal.
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