Hello all, hope you are all keeping well and safe. It’s a difficult time for everyone and football seems such an irrelevance, but life goes on, boredom sets in and we tend to retreat to safe ground. So here I am , writing an irrelevant blog about a long irrelevant player. Irony knows no bounds.

Yesterday I noticed that Arseblog had released a podcast featuring Cesc Fabregas, our former El Captain. Now under normal circumstances ,I doubt I would have bothered to listen, but these are not normal circumstances, and I dug in.

I have to be honest, and say I though it was a very good and interesting podcast. Arseblog asked all the questions he should have and Fabregas answered them all, there were the odd occasions that Arseblog attempted to get Cesc to be critical of Arsene, a bait Cesc, to his credit, refused to take, but in general, it was a fine podcast.

So the question I ask myself is did my  opinion of Cesc change? The answer is yes, it did. However, not because I learned anything new. In fact everything he said about his leaving just confirmed what I had believed to be true at the time.

To be clear, Fabregas forced his way out, and let the club, his teammates the fans and Arsene down. He was selfish and ungrateful, he was a snake!

However, what did change is how I now feel about it.

He was our captain and best player, but he was just 24 years old. He had shouldered a great deal in the final 2 or 3 years and being just 24 that is a lot to ask of anyone. I believe he thought we were not in a position, especially financially, to win the big trophies, whether he stayed or not. I genuinely believe that had he though he could have made the difference, he would have stayed. I 100% believe he loved the club and Arsene, but Barca was calling. It’s easy for any of us to say we would have remained loyal, but unless you could walk in his shoes, with his head on, I’m not so sure.

The pain I felt, and the pain most fans felt, was so extreme because the boy meant so much to the club and us. He meant so much to us because he had given us so much, and there is nothing worse than a scorned lover. Well I was a lover, I was scorned and I became bitter and hateful towards him. He got the brunt of me being unable to cope with his loss.

What he gave from the age of 16, and for 8 years was special. He was a joy to watch and a credit to himself and his profession. All that he gave, all that he was, should not be forgotten because we think he should have considered us rather than himself.

There is a debate going on twitter as to who was best at their peak, Cesc or Ozil? And it’s a close one, that’s how good he was.

I am grateful to Arseblog and Cesc for that podcast. Not because I learned anything about Cesc, but because I learned my feelings towards him were about the way I dealt with, and processed,  his leaving and not actually with him leaving.

Was he a Snake? Yes, he was. But for 8 years he was a prince, our prince. Now I’m happy to remember those glorious 8 years and accept he made a selfish choice at just 24 years old.

Arsenal will be looking to put the disappointment of the Europa League exit behind them as they now turn attention to the FA Cup, playing Portsmouth at Fratton Park in a last-16 encounter.

The Gunners have done well since Mikel Arteta’s arrival, recently turning promising performances that previously got us draws into decent results. So the task now is to move on from the Olympiakos setback and continue that progression on the domestic front.

Arsenal, of course, the most successful club in FA Cup history, are favourites to beat the League One side but with the added importance of this now our only shot at silverware, Arteta will certainly try to go all the way. First, we need to get pass Pompey and history suggest we should do just that as they haven’t beaten the Gunners in any competition since March 1958.

However, Portsmouth will be up for this game and their captain Tom Naylor has also warned that the Fratton Park faithful brings a certain atmosphere we might not be used to.

Well, while that remain matter of opinion a quick glance at their wiki page tells that they are on a decent run on their own patch; a 19-match unbeaten streak all season, including 10 wins from their 10 games (all competitions). That certainly gives their fans something to crow about.

They come into this match on the back of a 3-0 win to move within three off the top-two on the League One table, with a match in hand over second-placed Rotherham United. In five home games last month they scored 14 goals with only three in reply. So if anything, we do have to keep our wits about us.

Team news

Arteta may have initially been tempted to make wholesale changes, but the Europa result means that he is more likely to name a stronger side.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who instead of given the night off, could play some part, with Eddie Nkeitah still favoured to lead the attack with Gabriel Martinelli up top with him.

Granit Xhaka played each minute of each game since the turn of the year and do need a breather, with Lucas Torreira given a start.

Shkodran Mustafi is an injury doubt, so this is a good opportunity to hand Pablo Mari, who have build up his fitness with the u23’s, his debut.

Prediction

Portsmouth are on an incredible run, especially in home comforts, and will certainly fancy themselves. So this will be no easy game for Arsenal following the trauma from Thursday night.

However, Arteta has since done a great job putting his arm around the shoulders of our players, to lift their spirits. So now it is for them to reciprocate that faith he got in them.

With this a potential banana skin we could be in for an entertaining night, with the Gunners doing just enough to hand Pompey their first home defeat of the season. COYG!

— @LaboGoon

Good morning to anyone with the stomach to be reading blogs today.

That was a deflating game and result on every level. No one, player or coach came out of that well, with the exception of the much maligned Shkodran Mustafi. Ironic eh? That’s not to say all the players were bad, some were ok without being good, but some were well below what we expect of them. The fact that the team and players did not play well, opens the door for hindsight experts to be critical of Arteta’s team selection, However, when I saw the team I thought that it was the strongest line up he could have put out and I was happy that he was fielding a team to make sure we progressed in what was a massively important competition for the club.

We started off slow, I suspect looking to control the ball and dominate possession in an attempt play a low risk game. Clearly that was not the result. The play was ponderous and risk averse, in short, boring, right up until the moment that they scored. They scored from a corner that was defended so badly, it beggars belief. After that we picked up the pace and dominated play. That’s not to say we played well, just a bit quicker.

Pepe, who has been in and out of the team under Arteta has shown some improvement in recent weeks, but last night he had a shocker. His decision making was as bad as I’ve seen it, he dawdled on the ball, often receiving it and just stopping still, giving the opposition an eternity to get into position and also crowd him out. I lost count of the number of times Ozil overlapped him and got into good space in their left-back position, just for Pepe to ignore the easy pass to him, dally on the ball or set off on a dribble into traffic. He has the quickest feet and the slowest brain, He dazzles with some dribbles, but the end result is so poor he may as well dribble down the tunnel with the ball. He is clearly very skilled on the ball, but I fear no amount of coaching will quicken his brain waves. Ozil himself was ineffective. I wondered why he spent so much time deep and wide on the right, rather in the central 10 position, I suspect it was so he could make the fore mentioned runs, but whatever it was, it didn’t work.

In the fullback positions while Saka had his moments, Hector did not, it was telling that he was the first to be hooked. It seems to me that Mikel is from the Arsene school of substitutions, in that he likes the players that start to make the adjustments required, rather than him tinker, of course the hindsight experts are given a open goal if this doesn’t work, and last night it didn’t work at all.

The end of the game literally couldn’t have been worse. Aubameyang had produced a late moment of magic  that should have seen us progress but a series of calamities saw us find a way to shoot our collective feet off. A reluctance to clear the ball, culminated in Leno gifting a corner in the 120th minute, a corner we conceded from , with Luiz appearing to just leave the ball . What a F. up. Then, to top it all, in the 2 minutes of added time, Aubameyang missed the sitter of all sitters.

It was a night to forget, all the recent positive vibes were drained away, and we are left , once again, in an emotional slump. Any European football next year looks a long shot, let alone Champions League. Arteta has a big job to lift these players over the coming weeks. We can help by putting this setback behind us as quickly as possible. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but swallow it we must.

Arsenal host Olympiakos at the Emirates Stadium this evening for the second leg of their last-32 Europa League tie, with the hosts holding a 1-0 advantage thanks to Alexandre Lacazette’s late strike in the first leg.

The Gunners will be in high-spirits following a run of positive results, more so after three wins on-the-bounce from the last three to now have extended our unbeaten run to 10-matches across all competitions since the turn of the year.

Mikel Arteta can certainly be pleased with how the players have responded to him to have a defined playing style. But he will also be well aware that the hard work only starts now as we head towards the business end of this campaign.

With the Europa still our best route to secure qualification for next season’s Champions League we may go with a strong lineup, especially with a relatively favourable FA Cup tie at League One side Portsmouth on Monday night, to not risk leaving things to chance against the Greek Super League’s finest.

Pedro Martins has already did a lot of tough talking to put the home side on notice and is very confident about his teams chances to overturn the 1-0 deficit: “This is Olympiakos and you will see that in London. I believe in this team […]. I believe we can win at Arsenal.”

Following their loss to Arsenal last Thursday, their only defeat from their last 19 matches in all competitions, they beat PAOK in a top-of-the-table league match over the weekend, to make it four wins from their last five matches in all competitions, and it’s on the back of that they head into London.

However, the visitors got a rep for being poor travellers outside Greece; having lost 10 of their last 11 abroad in European competition, excluding qualifiers. So they will have to do something special if they want to turn this tie around. That being said; the last time they visited the Emirates was on the 29 September 2015 and they ran out 3-2 winners. A similar result would see them advance to the last-16 at our expense.

Team News

Arsenal’s win against Everton came at a cost with Sead Kolašinac forced off the field with a shoulder injury that could keep him out for quite some time. Kieran Tierney is back in training though, but only expected to make his return on Monday night at Fratton Park.

Lacazette stayed on the bench on Sunday against the Toffees, so he should be fresh to lead the attack.

Lucas Torreira and Mesut Özil, who didn’t make the flight to Greece, are both available for selection, as is Sokratis who picked up a knock late in that match.

Prediction

The Gunners will be looking to keep the current momentum going in front of the Emirates faithful and will certainly feel upbeat after last week’s result. Although a slim lead, it will allow them some comfort to dictate the pace of the game, sit a bit deeper than usual to allow the Greeks coming at them, which in turn will give them chances on the break. Certainly a game Granit Xhaka can thrive in with those stunning lobs over the top. Ergo I predict a hard-fought close win for the home side. COYG!

@LaboGoon

Good morning positive gooners.

Well that was good, bad  but never ugly. It was a great game of football involving two teams both trying to win the game. Much credit should also go to Everton, who also had both good and bad moments.

Let’s start with the bad and get it out of the way. We conceded two goals from set pieces with some old fashioned Arsenal defending. Much has been made of the set up for the first, specifically  the gap left between Mustafi and Luiz, but for me, if Sead hadn’t been sucked into dropping back as the kick was about to be taken, all the Everton players would have been offside. For the second, there was a bit of panic from players trying to clear the ball, and Leno didn’t cover himself in glory, but I think he was also unlucky, he tried to make himself big, but the shot became a scuff that dribbled under him. He would likely have saved a decent strike.

Another bad was Saka and his last half hour performance. He lost the ball frequently in dangerous positions. We shouldn’t forget that Arteta had left him out because he was gassed, he came on and for almost an hour he was magnificent, so it should be no surprise that he was the one that appeared to suffer most physically. I feel that there were a lot of players running out of gas, but he just, at his young age, suffered the most.

The good though, much outweighs the bad. Although Everton will feel, and rightly so, that they did enough to get something from the game, the way we held on was fantastic. We got three points because when almost every player was dead on their feet, they dug deeper and deeper , and gave every drop of everything.

Then there’s Leno, having made a bit of a gaff on the stroke of halftime, he was unbelievable in that final quarter.

Having gone a goal down in under a minute, we wrestled control and were well on top for the next hour. To a man, all of them played well. Again we saw Ozil benefit from two technical players , Ceballos and Xhaka, being with him and around him, all three were impressive, but Ozil stood out. Personally I though we lost a lot when he came off, but we have to accept his gifts might be less important when it’s a back to the walls situation, all be it that it becomes more “backs to the wall” when he goes off.

Aubameyang was given MOTM, for his two great finishes and his tireless running, he was great, but Eddy and Pepe played their part as well.

For many reasons it was an Arsenal performance that we can be proud of. After three games in a week, to play an in form team that has had two weeks to prepare, suffer two setbacks and still out play them for a good hour, then come away with the points? Great stuff!

Arsenal is hosting Everton at the Emirates Stadium this evening for their Premier League clash; with both teams on relatively good runs-of-form at the moment.

The Gunners come into this match on the back of a nine-match unbeaten run in all competitions, whilst the Toffees have just one defeat in their last 11 league outings (W6, D4) to give them a two-point advantage over us in the league standings.

Since taking over the reins at the Emirates Mikel Arteta has made Arsenal a difficult side to beat. Our defenders, who were much derided for their inability to keep clean sheets prior to his arrival and even labelled “uncoachable” by Gary Neville, have really stepped up, and at a time we are missing quite a few through injury.

We went from a team not knowing where their next clean-sheet is coming from to having five in nine matches since the turn of the year, including three on the bounce in our last three matches.

This give credence to the opinion that we have a talented group of players who were either just under-performing or lacking the right guidance in recent times. And with the Arsenal faithful now starting to feel hopeful about their progression under Arteta’s care, concerns about his “lack of experience” has all but fade away.

Our attack still need to improve though, as too often their lack of finishing seems to undercut the efforts of our defence. That’s why it was so good to see Alexandre Lacazette ending his goal drought to score in successive games. If we can get a good spread of goals amongst our attackers, we should have a good chance to qualify for one of the European competitions next season.

Everton head to the Emirates in decent form, however, north London hasn’t been an easy place for the Toffees with their last victory away at the Gunners all the way back in January 1996. Something Carlo Ancelotti will no doubt hope to change.

Whilst defence remains an ongoing issue for the Italian, as their wins mainly comes from them having to outscore the opposition, there’s no doubt about their improvement since the days of fluttering above the drop zone under Marco Silva. Their leading goal scorers Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison, with 20 goals and four assists between them, even caught the eye of some Europe’s top clubs.

Team News

Mesut Özil, Hector Bellerìn and Lucas Torreira all missed the trip to Greece but are expected to return; the former two to the starting lineup, the latter on the bench as Dani Ceballos continue his midfield partnership with Granit Xhaka.

The front-three could be the dream team of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Nicolas Pépé and Alexandre Lacazette, with the latter leading the attack.

Sead Kolasinac could replace Bukayo Saka, for some rotation to give the young ‘un a rest ahead of more games to come. Pablo Mari may be named on the bench, with Cédric Soares and Sokratis missing out.

Prediction

The last time these teams met the match ended 0-0 as both coaches watched on from stands, but Ancelotti will fancy his teams chances this time round.

However, Everton’s good form is mostly at home with them somewhat inconsistent on the road. If you add their miserable history away to Arsenal, it certainly doesn’t look for the visitors. Ergo I think the Gunners may just edge this one, even if it could turn out being a very competitive match. COYG!

@LaboGoon

Arsenal return to Europa League action with a trip to Greece, taking on Olympiakos at the Karaiskakis Stadium for the 1st leg of their last-32 tie. Mikel Arteta, of course, will oversee his first game on the continental scene.

The Gunners go into this match on the back of an eight-match unbeaten run across all competitions since the turn of the year. Even though half ended in draws, the Gunners will still be in high-spirits following their 4-0 second half razing of Newcastle United in a league encounter this past Sunday.

However, Arteta does not shy away from saying the players still have a long way to go to meet his expectations, while also recognising that they’re moving in the right direction. The progress they have made is something we can all be proud of because it implies that the Spaniards message is filtering through.

We have reached this ’round of 32′ as group F winners, however, with a mixed bag of results. After winning the opening three group games, we went winless in each of their last three (D2, L1). So no doubt Arteta will be hoping we hit some consistency to continue the progression as he targets success in the Cup competitions.

Meanwhile, Olympiakos play their first game in this season’s Europa, after being bumped down from the Champions League. They come into this match on the back of a comfortable 4-0 win themselves this past weekend on the domestic front and will be full of confidence.

Pedro Martins’ side is on a great run of form at the moment, in fact the last time they lost a match was on the 26th November against Tottenham in the CL. They are unbeaten after 24 matches in the Greek Super League (W18, D6); boasting a formidable goalscoring record of 50 league goals with only nine in reply.

They lead PAOK by two points and play them this coming weekend. So while that match will likely take priority with them targeting domestic success, we shouldn’t make the mistake of thinking they won’t try advance to the next round of the Europa at our expense. Arteta made no bones about seeing them as tough opponents:

“Papa [Sokratis] has made us even more aware of that, if we had any doubts… He knows everything about Olympiacos, about the country, about the type of fans that we are going to find here.

“I’ve been very aware from the games that I’ve watched about them and their passion, their quality and the atmosphere that we are going to have to be playing in tomorrow. So yes, it’s a difficult trip away from home and we’re going to expect a tough game and we’ve prepared for the game knowing that it’s going to be a difficult challenge.”

Team news

Of the notable absentees from the travelling party are Lucas Torreira, who misses out through illness, and Mesut Özil, him and his wife are expecting their first child – congratulations to Mr and Mrs Özil.

With the Europa providing an alternative route into next season’s Champions League Arteta could have a selection dilemma – does he rotate or pick the strongest XI from those available?

There have been some impressive performance of late though and some on the fringes that have really put their hands up. So whomever gets selected we can be sure deserves it.

Having ended his goal drought on Sunday, Alexandre Lacazette is likely to lead the attack with Eddie Nketiah dropping to the bench.

Mattéo Guendouzi made the flight and could come in the side with Dani Ceballos, who excelled on his return, likely to retain his place with Özil at home.

At the back Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Sead Kolasinac are all in line for recalls, with new signings Pablo Mari also available for selection, while Arteta expect Cédric Soares to step up his recovery in the coming days.

Prediction

The Gunners are favourites to make it through over two legs. However, with home advantage the Greeks will be tough to beat and if we make more than a few changes to the lineup we could find ourselves in for a long night.

Be that as it may, we can expect a hard-fought and very entertaining game with both sides giving it their all. COYG!

@LaboGoon