Hello and how are you?
Sunday the 18th of May sees the last game for the Mighty Cannon at the Emirates barracks this season and our visitors are the boys from the Toon, as we play Newcastle United. Kick off is at 4.40pm western European time.
Well, like you I’m hoping we won’t go 10 ply in this one. It looked against Liverpool that we might utterly collapse and let in six, but the lads came out grabbed hold of some dignity and got back in it, and perhaps could have won it at the end? The kings of the draw.
I’m sure having won the League Cup, and desperate for a stats facts and figures finish for the history books, the Geordies will be feeling very confident about their trip down south. I’m not so sure Arsenal will be willing partners in that configuration, there’s plenty of fight left in the Gun yet. A draw?
Yet this season it felt good (etc) that Newcastle and Palace won the pots instead of the same old same olds, of course like any biased fan I would have been irritated by a loss if it had been us in the final, but we don’t seem good enough to get to one at the moment. Must have felt good for both Palace and Newcastle fans to win, and they deserve it, and at the same time surely it can only do the game good as a whole?
Statto HQ phoned through to say that we have a 48.2% chance of winning and Newcastle 25.8%.
That’s it, see you next week for the grand finale against the Sotonists. COYG!
Take care of yourselves,
Mills
Positively Arsenal 
Normally, historically the magpies have hated their trips to London especially when they come to us. As we have all seen this season this heavily money backed squad are a different animal.
Of course if we are on our game we will win but where as in the past we could canter to a win at half pace that is no longer the case.
It would have been nice to have secured second place and playing a crap team, so we could relax, enjoy ourselves and see some youth players and say goodbye to those moving on.
Unfortunately we are not in that place and the first eleven will be needed to perform well for most of the 90 odd minutes they on display today.
Mikel doesn’t usually play players for emotional reasons anyway so maybe it doesn’t matter.
The weather forecast suggests that between four and six will be the best time of the day and the ARSENAL should be entertaining in beautiful sunshine and from my memories that’s when we’re at our best.
I would love to see the Odegaard, Saka partnership back to their best and the whole team at their clinical best.
I am quite positive today and am looking forward to the flying Reds COYG.
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Arsenal: Raya, White, Saliba, Kiwior, Lewis-Skelly, Partey, Rice, Odegaard, Saka, Martinelli, Trossard.
Subs: Neto, Calafiori, Tierney, Zinchenko, Jorginho, Henry-Francis, Nwaneri, Sterling, Havertz
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Isak not in the Newcastle squad
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Saliba off injured, replaced by Calafiori
its been a poor performance so far from Arsenal, nothing going forward, slow in midfield, and hanging on in defence
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Riceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee makes it 1-0 to the Arsenal, his 9th goal of the season
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We plan to invest to get behind winning and doing better next season. We’re delighted we have our sporting director, Andrea, who will play an important role in this. He is part of a unified and strong team, supported by the board, who are crystal clear on exactly what we need to do and the way in which we want to do it. The right way. The Arsenal way.
Ultimately, we all want the same thing. We’re as hungry for success as you are and that goes for everyone who works for the club.
Josh Kroenke
Co-Chair Arsenal FC
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the Rice goal
https://x.com/i/status/1924144692909760600
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Havertz come on for Saka, about 15 minutes left
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Arteta got booked or kicking a ball onto the pitch so play had to stop, he will serve a touchline ban in next weeks game at Southampton
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Tierney on for Trossard
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Odegaard off, Jorginho on
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Tierney and Jorginho get their last games for Arsenal at the Emirates,
no minutes for Nwaneri once again today
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FT: Arsenal 1-0 Newcastle
Rice with the goal that gets us the points that means we have CL football next season and we are in pole position for 2nd spot for the 3rd year in a row
not a good performance, even if a bit better in the second half
simon hooper is a pgmol clown
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A very important win. It almost gives us second place and cuts out the narrative of Newcastle having the Indian sign over us.
However the game was awful. Awful officiating and we could only be described as controlled but certainly not entertaining.
The most animated I got was because of the big fat ref, who I’m sorry, there is no way can pass a bleep test.
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Despite all, Im glad we came out with a win, NC were pretty confident they could come and be the first team to beat us in four games in a season, and 2nd looks good on the cv (etc) which I hope we get next week.
Hope the Arsenal Women do the biz this week, and give us something to cheers about.
COYG!
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suspect I’m not the only one happy to leave this season behind. Some moments of great joy but the only real consistent quality has been the outstanding pre-match posts by Mills.
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well the win today means 1 point needed at this time to be certain of 2nd spot, but even if we lose to southampton next week, man city will have to win their two games and also have a ten goal difference swing, not impossible but if Arsenal can’t get at least a draw to a southampton side that has only won 2 games all season and only have 12 points then we probably don’t deserve 2nd
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now just a little thought on what we need for next season to win the big trophies,
an awful lot of the team looks to be first choice,
we are almost certain to have Raya as our goalie, unless Joan Garcia is signed and can usurp him, then its one of Timber or White for right back, Saliba and Gabriel nailed on for CB pairing, Lewis-Skelly or Calafiori for left back
Odegaard and Rice take two of the midfield spots, Saka is first pick all day every day.
The big question is where will Havertz play, midfield or CF, I suspect a lot of both.
So I’ve just named 12/13 players in what looks likely to cover 9 certain starting spots, with two quality back up defenders, and Havertz who is midfield/striker rotator.
The in the know journos all saying Zubimendi will be joining, so that would be our midfield 3 nailed on, Gyokeres might be the CF we sign, for me he is likely and that would also see it easier to give Kai a lot of starts too. That leaves only the left wide player spot, it does seem Martinelli is not going to be first choice next season, Arteta has not been able to develop him over the last two seasons, which is damning
So summer business might be another first choice keeper, I do question if Raya is the really top notch keeper who wins you leagues and CL’s, and I don’t know a damn thing about Garcia. Zubimendi would surely see Partey replaced and take that question mark away from the club, Gyokeres or whoever up top and a quality wide left signing would mean no more excuses for lack of real attacking purpose
Raya(Garcia)
Timber(White) Saliba, Gabriel, MLS(Calafiori)
Odegaard, Zubimendi, Rice
Saka, Gyokeres, new wide left
with Havertz, Kiwior if he stays, if not new CB will need to be signed, rumors have it we will sign 2 back up CB’s and another left back, Lokonga is returning cos he couldn’t stay fit enough to convince Seville to sign him, Vieira might be coming back too, but I think we will do what we can to offload him. Jesus and Tomiyasu likely here for next season as they won’t be fit enough to be sold this summer.
What of Nwaneri, he has been completely frozen out of game time in the last month, no game time again today.
Max Dowman is said to be set to be part of the first team squad for preseason games at the very least, he is still only 15 but has been training on a regular basis with the first team, would his inclusion spell an exit for Nwaneri
Neto and Sterling loans end so they will leave, Tierney and Jorginho have agreed bosman deals with new clubs, Partey is out of contract but there are contrasting rumors about new contract offer from Arsenal. Tavares is leaving.
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16 year old defender Callan Hamill, who is eset to join Arsenal in the summer, made his senior debut for St. Johnstone today, he came on as a sub with ten minutes to play.
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Kiwior has done fantastically well since becoming a regular in the side and this highlights the difference between coming in for the odd match or on as a sub and getting a regular run in the side.
We have a lot of versatile players but the numbers and depth of squad is very low. Taking Stirling and selling or loaning the entire last seasons fringe was obviously a mistake.
The club hierarchy must make representations to the league and PIGMOL to get a more consistent decision when it comes to us and the mistakes must be highlighted.
Next seasons new law of only the Captain allowed to speak to the ref cannot be only applied to ARSENAL before dying away as the season goes on.
Yesterday, serial fowler, Dan Burn argued with the ref pointing a finger at him in an obvious show of decent and then threw the ball directly at the ARSENAL player on the ground. He didn’t get booked for either, even though the particular fat ref has the second highest booking rate in the current PIGMOL crop.
If that was an ARSENAL player it would be reasonable to assume a booking or a sending off would of ensued.
It is clear that nowadays you cannot win the league with eleven players as Villa did many moons ago. To win the league we must have a brilliant interchangeable squad and Mikel must learn both rotation and the art of substitutions.
Setting out a plan the week before a game and sticking to it no matter what happens cannot win you games and so game management has to be learnt by the manager and the team.
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Our Captain has had a really poor season. Yes, his injury has certainly stopped him finishing the season well but really he hasn’t done well all this term.
I am absolutely sure Mikel and Berta will not sell Martin, but I do think it’s a bit of a gamble thinking his form will definitely return next season.
It reminds me a bit of when we kept Leno instead of Emi. I am not suggesting we have a ready made replacement number ten within the club (although we do have players who could do the role in the future including Saka). However, as with Leno, Odegaard will command a large price right now and someone like Eze would be cheaper and have more potential and longevity.
Sometimes in football management you have to be brave to progress and not being brave cost a fortune with Emi so I certainly think it’s something we should consider.
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Jurrian Timber is to undergo minor surgery on his ankle
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ian its laughable to see Arteta extol the qualities “he always knew” kiwior had, and not one journo asked him then why didn’t he rotate him in and it might have stopped Gabriel getting his hamstring injury.
I agree with you that Arteta has to learn to rotate and use subs better, but he is 5 and a half years in the job and shows no sign at all that he has improved in this department, in fact i would say he has become far more resistant to resting any of our better players. And we know he has to be forced to use the youth, but we are told once again today that 15 year old Max Dowman will be a full part of the first team squad next season, and that he will be going on the preseason tour.
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Unfortunately Ed I agree with every word of your post. Kiwior was surplus to requirements after he was due to replace Gabriel a couple of seasons ago, but Gabriel fought his way back into the side so he couldn’t be sold.
I think Mikel didn’t understand the affect Gabriel had on the rest of the squad especially Saliba.
Like Nwaneri, Max is being advanced so he signs for us and doesn’t follow others in leaving to sign professional forms. He will be slowed down once he has signed.
Mikel has always trusted those he has signed rather than youth but unfortunately unless you are city or Chelsea to buy a whole squad is near impossible.
With lots of players leaving, Josh is not going to be able to buy quality players to upgrade the first eleven, replace the squad players who are going and increase the size of the squad.
My suspicion is there will players who will remain who Mikel really won’t want to use unless there are mass injuries and will not be part of rotation.
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So the spuds have made the nightmare come true and won a trophy. Despite the early celebration of St Totterings day this is a real headfuck.
The small silver lining, if that is ever possible with the spuds winning anything, is that they are probably a lesser threat to us long term than manure and this will hurt manure big.
Manure have the money and profile to challenge for the league in a few years so this setback has to be good for us.
I’m obviously trying to make myself feel better writing the above when really I have been trained to love it when spurs lose and hate it when they win since I was a small child.
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So the spuds have made the nightmare come true and won a trophy. Despite the early celebration of St Totterings day this is a real headfuck.
The small silver lining, if that is ever possible with the spuds winning anything, is that they are probably a lesser threat to us long term than manure and this will hurt manure big.
Manure have the money and profile to challenge for the league in a few years so this setback has to be good for us.
I’m obviously trying to make myself feel better writing the above when really I have been trained to love it when spurs lose and hate it when they win since I was a small child.
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So the spuds have made the nightmare come true and won a trophy. Despite the early celebration of St Totterings day this is a real headfuck.
The small silver lining, if that is ever possible with the spuds winning anything, is that they are probably a lesser threat to us long term than manure and this will hurt manure big.
Manure have the money and profile to challenge for the league in a few years so this setback has to be good for us.
I’m obviously trying to make myself feel better writing the above when really I have been trained to love it when spurs lose and hate it when they win since I was a small child.
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Our ex academy player the JET who was projected by Arsene as being a big star at ARSENAL but had to leave after breaking into the first team. The rumour on his quick exit was about behaviour and gang involvement.
He has been arrested and charged with bringing a large amount of cannabis into the country.
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Our ex academy player the JET who was projected by Arsene as being a big star at ARSENAL but had to leave after breaking into the first team. The rumour on his quick exit was about behaviour and gang involvement.
He has been arrested and charged with bringing a large amount of cannabis into the country.
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The Last Post is up.
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