Hello and how are you?
Sunday the 11th of May will see the Mighty Cannon make our last trip north this season, this time to Merseyside and play against Liverpool FC. Kick off 4.30pm at Anfield.
Liverpool are champions and the Arsenal having made for the exit in the Champions League are now literally fighting for second in the PL, having been in that position for most of the season. This has the whiff of Crisp in the 1973 Grand National?
Aided slightly tonight by Man City (oddly) drawing against relegated Southampton, we shall wait to see the outcome( hopefully a draw) between Chelsea and Newcastle. Arsenal have been the kings of draws at the top end of the table and now we hope for others to do the same! If we would have won seven of the draws then this would be one heck of a show down, similar but not the same as ’89.
The points and positions are tight at the top, and Arsenal are going to have to dig deep after the bitter psychological cud that’s swilling around after the PSG game, and after this we face Newcastle. Lets hope revenge is served cold in these games and we can retain some dignity?
I think Liverpool will not lie back like they did last week against Chelsea, and will be up for this because we are ‘nasty Arsenal’ the team to hate, shame and gain victory over. And Anfield is usually a horror trip for us.
I think Newcastle will also feel sense of high esteem going into the game against us (more sulphurous guff on that next time) so I hope we can show some fight and get something out of these matches. I don’t expect it though, it feels like the whole season has collapsed and I’m sure half the players are looking forward to getting on the beach?
Our pals at Statto HQ have given Liverpool a 47.3% chance of winning and the poor old Guns only 26.6%. Grrr! to them! Probably fair enough though…that’s it until the one before the last.
Take care of yourselves,
Mills
Positively Arsenal 
so the in the know journos are all saying Arsenal have agreed a deal for midfielder Zubimendi, and that a deal for goalkeeper Joan Garcia is very close, and that we have made a bid for striker Gyokeres and that we are also looking at signing another left back, with Hato of Ajax the most likely.
Well at least there is a striker in there, which brings me to something that I seen someone else mention today,
Does anyone really believe that the Kronekes who have funded the signing of a goalkeeper each season, a left back each season and a midfielder each season that Arteta has been our manager, have refused him the signing of a striker. When you actually take a moment to think about that it really blows a hole in the narrative that its the board or owners that are holding Arteta back.
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well six points still needed to guarantee 2nd spot, and 4 points needed to be sure of CL spot(this is without me knowing who the other CL spot chasers have to play, I know some face other, and indeed we face Newcastle ourselves, so even a draw there would change the points we need for CL spot.
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Excellent Mills and follow up from Ed,
Busy today so simply COYG,
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Thanks Ian. COYG!
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Good start.
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2-2, nice come back for a, erm, draw! But mostly the better side until Merino sent off, a dang shame.
Tbh, at 2-0 I thought we would get hit for six, but soaked it up and came out for the better, Martinelli looked good in the second.
Bit of time to recover before the Toon come down.
COYG!
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ha ha ha, what was it I said the other day about the stupidity of Arteta in refusing to use Martinelli as a striker.
Oh and once again Arteta refuses to give Nwaneri any minutes, he brought on 3 left backs, no wonder he wants to sign another one this summer
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1 point needed for CL football, and 4 points needed for 2nd spot
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looks like Trossard out for our remaining games and Merino suspended for Newcastle next week
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also Rice missed today’s game with a hip injury which left him unable to train in recent days and he is a major doubt for the Newcastle game too
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that draw today means Arsenal have won half their EPL games this season, 18 from 36, so failing to win in the other 18, with 14 draws and 4 defeats, we have scored 66 goals, but let in 33.
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Strange game, pundits saying Liverpool were better in the first half and especially in the first twenty minutes but actually that was bollocks.
Both defences were woeful and so was the ref in the first half. We could easily of been two up before they threatened us. How Robertson got away with grabbing Saka by the neck and throwing him to the floor is beyond me. It was shown several times on sky and even if the officials missed it how was it not picked up by VAR? Pure corruption maybe, as it difficult to believe there is that level of incompetence. Partey pulled back on a breakaway, no booking. Salah pulled back, booking. There were several incidents all over the pitch where the ARSENAL players were getting treated differently from the home players and so it was no surprise we had a player sent off.
Finally proof that Mikel reads this blog, not only did he belatedly take up Ed’s suggestion of playing Martinelli through the middle but he even played a high line throwing caution to the wind in the second half even when we were down to ten men.
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Then there was the challenge by Konate on MLS where their ‘Goal’ was dissallowed to the massive dissapointment of the commentators (Beglin?) that should have been at least a yellow.
Our sending off, it looked like our player was pushed before he made the first challenge to me.
Taylor being Taylor. Despise the weasel
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It all works out perfectly.
perfect season for PGMOL and Liverpool.
They won they league and PGMOL will not face further accusations from Liverpool. I
t will all be forgotten like the many “errors” made by PGMOL season after season.
All that is needed now is months of cover up articles on what a genius Slott is.
perfect.
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Arsenal will be wearing next season’s home kit for the Newcastle game on Sunday
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Arsenal offered Chelsea £1.25m for England U18 goalkeeper Freddy Bernal(16). Chelsea rejected the bid
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Arsenal have not lost in any of the 45 games in which Martinelli has scored, 37 wins and 8 draws
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When I was a kid, kit announcements were very exciting. Nowadays they are just blah.
The unveilings are bigger and more high profile but because of the repetition and frequency they usually fall flat.
Obviously you can only make so many small changes which is why things like blue entering the first team kit and some of the replacement kits looking more like they come from the shitehole and not the red side of London.
Home and away kits were the only ones on show, the third kit would be something the kit man would throw together in emergencies.
The famous Gold (yellow) jersey was originally an emergency kit for the 1950 final and because of it being “lucky” is was adopted for decades. The lucky shirt has been absent for a while and that is why we haven’t won anything for the last few seasons.
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So the media are saying Mikel will be given a massive warchest this summer. They are suggesting £100, million plus player sales.
The suggestion is we have already done the Martin Zubimendi deal at around £50 mil and Viktor Gyokeres or Sesco at around £60 mil
Also Dean Huijsen is being mentioned at £50 mil and we are already need a replacement for Neto and were being linked with the left back at Ajax as Ed, said the other day.
Nico Williams is another that apparently we are very interested in.
So exactly what player sales are going add up to fund that amount of expenditure, without seriously damaging the first team.
I know funding can be spread over several seasons but that still means big names will have to go unless we can persuade the Saudi’s to spend big.
We know we struggled with numbers this season and unless we miraculously have an injured season we will struggle again next season.
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sales could be Zinchenko, Kiwior, Lokonga, Tavares, Vieira, Trossard, Hein, and maybe Nwaneri
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I don’t think we will sell Nwaneri or Kiwior and Trossard is reported to have a new deal in front of him.
Even if we did sell all those players it doesn’t add up to much.
I think the big sales are likely to come at the end of next season with the likes of Saliba and Raya.
The player I think is the easiest to replace and would still command a big fee this summer would be Odegaard but Mikel would never be up for that.
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selling Nwaneri an 18yr does not make sense.
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Dean Huijsen now apparently in talks with Real Madrid. Although that means we miss out on a player, it also means it’s more likely Saliba and Kiwior will stay and sign new deals.
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Arsenal had an open training session yesterday and Kai Havertz took a full part in it. Rice and Trossard both involved too
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tonight’s EPL results
Aston Villa 2-0 Spurs
Chelsea 1-0 Man Utd
so basically a draw is all Arsenal need for CL football, our GD is so good that a point would mean we’d get CL even if others level on points with us, we still need 4 points to be sure of 2nd spot,
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by the way man utd have not won back to back EPL games this season
Spurs have lost 25 games across all competitions, equaling their record for most losses in a season from 91/92, they still have two games to play so its still on for them.
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spurs have lost 21 EPL games so far this season, man utd have lost 18
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66 points is still not guaranteed to get Champions League football for next season and yet manure or the spuds could qualify with 38/39
Obviously I am no lover of either club so can be accused of bias, however I seriously believe it’s an embarrassment to the Premier League and the Champions League itself, that teams that have performed so badly and yet get qualification on a revised format Europa League that was probably the worst quality ever.
While I understand the idea that a team from a country who would normally find CL league qualification difficult, can be rewarded. The idea was certainly never to reward failure.
When the new CL format was thought about and introduced, this was obviously not thought about.
I would imagine in the coming seasons this will be corrected and crap clubs, with some of the worst teams in their recent history, will not be allowed this loop hole.
Remember when they allowed second place teams in the Champions League and everyone said it had been devalued. Well now the value must be that of a currency of a country with 1000% inflation.
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Fantastic that Eddie and Matt both win F.A. cup winners medals. I’m chuffed for them especially my favourite Eddie.
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Recently I mentioned Arsenal’s serious interest in signing Shamrock Rovers U16 player Victor Ozhianvuna, well last night seemingly in the warm up for the League of Ireland game v Waterford FC the lad was racially abused by a Waterford fan, the Gardai have been notified and an investigation is underway. Shamrock Rovers won the game 3-1 to go top of the league. 16 year old Michael Noonan was one of their scorers, he is also of interest to Arsenal, but Man City are in for him too
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sent a short preview over PG. COYG!
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Its up
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