Hi everyone.
We are back and so is the football.
All the talk is about our injuries, and once again the fans are divided. Mikel lovers say it’s just pure bad luck, while his detractors blame bad squad management and heavy workload due to other injuries. Theb more you have, the more the work load, the more you are likely to get. Sod’s law and all that?
Now me, I have no idea why we are in the crisis, but I suspect it’s a combination of bothe side of the argument? But as ever, there is no room for that pesky nuance n our world.
The available player are all Mikel can use and he will just have to get on with it and look for the best solution, that’s his job. However, I can’t accept the old “no excuses” nonsense that’s knocking about on social media. Of course it’s an excuse / It was an excuse when it happened to Arsene, so why would I deny it to Arteta?
The team more or less picks itself, such are the lack of options and nailed on starters, what remains to be is is if Mikel can formulate a game plan that uses our limited resources in an effective way.
We should still have enough to win today and limp on to our next battle.
Whatever your feelings about our manage and his team, despite all our injury problems, red card debacles and dodgy officiating, we stand second in the league and are going well in The Champions League, so him and them are doing something right.
That/s all for now folks.
Pedantic George.
Positively Arsenal 
Raya, Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly, Partey, Rice, Odegaard, Nwaneri, Sterling, Trossard.
Subs: Neto, Calafiori, Zinchenko, Tierney, Kiwior, White, Jorginho, Merino, Butler-Oyedeji.
We are missing several forwards so Arteta puts 5 defenders and 2 CM on the bench, with only one young forward included. Says everything about Arteta and his hierarchy of selection
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I have little doubt that if Tomiyasu was available that Butler-Oyedeji wouldn’t even be on the bench
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As Mikel said other players need to step up with goals at the moment. I would say this particularly applies to Odegaard. The Captain is very technically gifted and quite simply does not score enough for such a talent. Today it doesn’t matter who, we just need a result COYG.
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half time 0-0
tepid stuff, none of the senior players have stepped up at all, odegaard has been useless, sterling been completely off it too, Nwaneri the only bright spark in our team today, this really does not bode well, but we have five full backs we can bring on to inspire us in the second half, whoopee
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Merino on for the very disappointing Sterling
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former arsenal academy player mavadidi comes on for leicester
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Partey and MLS off
Jorginho and Calafiori on
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Merinoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo makes it 1-0 to the arsenal
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Merinoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo makes it 2-0 to the Arsenal
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Tierney on for Trossard
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FT: Leicester City 0-2 Arsenal
super sub Merino with our two goals to put us 4pts off top, Nwaneri our stand out player, Sterling was awful, others well below par too, but a win is a win is a win.
our u18’s won 5-2 away at southampton, Dan Casey with a hattrick
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From my seat mostly a bit of grind, however Merino does the biz and one we go!
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Top substitutions by a manager clearly not happy with a point, nor I suspect with a rather leaden performance from many senior players. Forgive me for being cynical, but I find it harder to imagine Havertz scoring that opener given the game situation than Merino who looked very positive. What a shame to see Sterling so off the form that he once had: hope springs eternal but I still sense that one goal could make all the difference confidence wise, but at the moment he looks a long way off the pace.
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not sure whether he’s just a crowd pleaser but I feel we are a more dynamic side with Califieri in it. Would love to hear all your thoughts on him, and how you would use him and MLS over the next several games.
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That was a poor performance. Leicester are one of the poorest sides in the division and we barely laid a glove on them until the final ten minutes.
Not sure Calofiori would make a difference from the start.
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I would not mind seeing MLS put to the left 8 role with Calafiori behind him at left back
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Dan Casey who is a midfielder with his hattrick today has 12 goals in 11 league games for the U18’s, can’t be long before he steps up to the U21’s
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Chido Obi-Martin made his first team debut for Man Utd today v Spurs as a late sub.
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Ayden Heaven was also on the bench, an absolute crying shame.
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the vitriol aimed at these two youths online by arsenal supporters is a disgrace.
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Fortunately I blocked a lot of the Arse hole keyboard warriors years ago so I haven’t seen any of it.
The ironic thing is that history has shown us Mikel absolutely will not play youth players unless he is forced to.
His favouritism for in brought players rather than performance or potential has been there for all to see for years.
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Feyenoord getting through on a bad night for Italian teams. If Juventus go out tonight then we’re definitely going Dutch.
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Monlouis to leave ARSENAL
Monlouis has made more appearances for Arsenal U21s than any other player in the past decade and has frequently captained the team.
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Tomiyasu has had a knee operation, on the knee he injured last summer. He will not be back till well into next season. What an absolute madness it was to give him a contract extension last year.
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reports doing the rounds that Roberto Firmino has asked to leave and negotiates termination with Al-Ahli; and that Arsenal are interested in taking him on as a free agent, but not actually sure if this is within EPL rules, as he was not a free agent during the transfer window. Anyone know what the situation or rules on such a move are.
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FT: Aston Villa 2-2 Liverpool
liverpool 8pts clear at the top of the EPL with a game extra played, Malen hit the post in the last few seconds of the game.
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So we are definitely going Dutch with the CL draw on Friday. Most people would have us down as favourites whichever side we play. After that the expected draw would be Atletico Madrid or Bayer Leverkusen in the next round.
So no Barca, Real, Liverpool, Bayern or Inter until at least the semis. I can’t remember the last time we had such a favourable draw.
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Feyenoord are in the process of appointing Robin Van Rat as their new head coach, the former man utd striker is currently in charge of Heerenveen
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The Athletic | Football
@TheAthleticFC
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Arsenal have agreed a deal to sign St Johnstone youngster Callan Hamill. A six-figure package plus add-ons has been agreed, and the 15-year-old is set to officially join the club on July 1.
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New post is up
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