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A New Dawn In Norwich City

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Good day all. It’s back to Premier League action for Arsenal with a trip to Carrow Road this afternoon for their clash against Norwich City; Freddie Ljungberg’s first game as interim coach following the sacking of Unai Emery. Whilst the Canaries come into this game on the back of an excellent 2-0 win at Everton; their first in eight league games.
Ensuing a run of two wins from 11 league games and none in our last seven (all competitions), Emery’s dismissal and provisional handing of the reins to Freddie didn’t came as too much of a surprise. As the club now starts the process to find the Spaniard’s potential long-term successor, the club legend has a shot to showcase what he can do with what still remains a very talented squad.
With our recent run leaving us eight points off 4th-placed Chelsea, Freddie’s immediate priority will be to get the Gunners returning to winning ways. For this he will need the buy-in from all players as well as his support staff to help the team moving onwards and upwards. Because a united response is crucial if we are to maintain any hopes of a top-four finish.
The next three games, today’s followed by Brighton and West Ham, are a decent looking run to build up a good bounce ahead of a very tricky festive schedule.
Norwich started their return to the topflight with two wins from their opening five games, including the prized scalp of Pep Guardiola’s star-studded Man City squad. Then it went downhill as they picked up a mere one point in seven matches; a miserable run that saw them concede 16 goals and scoring just two in reply. So Daniel Farke will be hoping for his sides clean sheet win at Goodison Park to be a step in the right direction to kickstart their bid for PL survival.
Team News
David Luiz and Shkodran Mustafi picked up knocks midweek and will have their fitness assessed ahead of the game, with Hector Bellerìn also being monitored.
Prediction
Freddie had very little time with the players to get his ideas across, so for now it will just be about a return to basics with a focus on looking to address any ongoing issues. Being an unknown also brings an air of the unpredictable that can be used as an initial advantage in pursuit to ‘steady the ship’.
All things considered, both teams will be desperate for a win which could lead to a very open-game… so expect goals at both end. Here’s hoping for the “new manager bounce” to be on our side and maximum points to move within five points of top-four. COYG
— @LaboGoon
24 Comments

No Quick Fix By Freddie As Interim Coach

In this latest edition of the Uncensored podcast, yours truly and Blackburn George conclude that so much damage has been done to Arsenal over the past 18 months, on and off the field, that there is no quick fix by Freddie as interim head coach. We urge cautious enthusiasm.

Here are some of the issues we discuss:

  • How Raul Sanllehi will affect Freddie’s appointment?
  • What must Freddie do to improve performances?
  • What are his chances of getting the job full-time?

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Goodbye Emery, What Now?

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A very good morning one and all.

After last night absolutely abysmal display, who would have thought we would be calling it a good morning? But good morning it is.

I was going to do a match review , pap on about our awful form, lack of style and the worst run of results since 1992,but no need, Things have changed, Unai Emery and all of his staff have been sacked. “Don Raul” and his gang of gimps have finally been forced to pull the trigger. The inevitable has happened, but these executives have a lot to answer for. Not a single one of them comes out of this smelling of roses. In the celebration that Emery has gone, we must not lose sight of the total incompetence displayed my these carpetbaggers.

Now the discussion moves on to who come next?

We all have the chance to display our total expertise in selecting and appointing a successor.

The usual names will be thrown into ring.

Allegri

Ancelotti

Benitez

Pochettino

Rodgers

Vieira

Arteta

Nuno Espírito Santo

Henry

and so on.

We will all be sure we know who it should be and also who it shouldn’t be.

Let’s look for a moment what we would like. We need a coach that has a vision, an attacking philosophy that matches our established brand, that the players will respect and give 100% to, great communication skills, is universally respected, fluent linguist , in other words, someone like Arsene Wenger. Of course it can’t be Arsene, that ship has sailed and he won’t be seen again at the club, in any capacity. The problem is there is no one that matches that profile. All of them will have some of those qualities but none will have them all.

I could go through all of them and say why I don’t like that particular one, or why I like some more than others, but seriously, who  cares? The problem is I would actually trust my judgement more that the chancers that will make the decision, and that isn’t because I have a clue, just that they don’t.

Anyway, i’ll just say my preference would be to be bold and go for Mikel Arteta.

32 Comments

Arsenal vs Eintracht Frankfurt match preview

D1UXZukWsAEv4y8Good day all. It’s the penultimate round of Europa League group fixtures this evening with Arsenal hosting Eintracht Frankfurt at the Emirates Stadium in a contest that is key to the progress of both sides.
The Gunners need at least one win from their last two group games to ensure they go into the Europa ’round of 32′ as Group F leaders. Coming into this match on the back of a six-game winless run across all competitions one can sense Unai Emery would rather get the job done tonight. Not that it would lift much of the ill-feeling towards him, but just for self-preservation.
This has been a season of tumult and strife for the Arsenal. For a while the ‘cup games’ offered respite, but since Nicolas Pépé scored that pair of match-winning free-kicks versus Guimarães back in October we haven’t got a sniff; resulting in calls for Emery to exit the dugout only growing louder each day. With the big talk around the water cooler that he’s a goner, I sincerely hope that when he does take his final trudge back down the Emirates tunnel it is to applause and not a chorus of boos.
Eintracht Frankfurt had a great Europa run last season, not quite this time though with them needing all kind of permutations to advance to the knockout rounds. Any points they can get tonight would be a huge boost ahead of their final group clash at home to Guimarães in two-weeks.
They are not in good form at the moment, losing their last three matches (all competitions) on the bounce, but with Emery saying: “some teams come here [Emirates] and they are fearless against us”, we can be we sure their coach Adi Hütter’s ears perked up, thinking we are there for the taking. Incidentally the last time they won a match was the 5-1 razing of Bayern Munich; leading to Niko Kovac’s dismissal. A similar result here could see Emery meet the same fate.
Make no mistake, with the players Arsenal got there is no mitigation for this position we found ourselves in, and that is not even an exaggeration. The question however is will we start turning our season around with the Spaniard… or without?
Team news
Dani Ceballos has been ruled out for a few weeks with injury and there are doubts over the fitness of Sead Kolasinac, Bukayo Saka and Rob Holding; with the three unlikely to be risked.
The last time these two sides met the Londoners ran out comfortable 3-0 winners. With a very raucous crowd expected at the Emirates this evening Emery will be desperate for a similar result. So we could see him selecting a very strong matchday XI to purpose in a better performance than recent outings.
— @LaboGoon
43 Comments

Only When Arsenal Fans Boycott The Emirates

Empty Emirates Stadium

Raul Sanllehi will take no action to replace Unai Emery until fans begin to boycott the Emirates Stadium and refuse to purchase Arsenal merchandise. That is the considered view of Blackburn George (@arseblagger) and yours truly in this the November 24th edition of the Uncensored Arsenal Podcast. Almost every big twitter account, blogger and YouTuber are now convinced that Emery must go. But even after drawing 2-2 with Southampton, the 19th team in the league, Raul is determined to hang unto Emery. Why?

Similarly he is determined to keep the legendary David O’Leary, who is a real football-man, off the Board. So much so that that Sir Chips Keswick, who is chairman, and Lord Harris, director, are reportedly willing to quit because of feeling they are merely being treated as figureheads. How are the two connected?

We give our explanation to this and many other related issues in the podcast. Feel free to give us your feedback in the Comments section of the blog.

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26 Comments

Saints Debacle.

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Good morning all.

I was about to sit down an attempt to write a blog about the horror show that was Arsenal yesterday, and is Arsenal every week, when I saw that my old Ally Shotta had done one. Having read it I realised I couldn’t improve on it, so I suggest you read this.

Arsenal 7th In Table and Heading Lower

then nip over and discuss it in his comments section.

Shotta and I will be doing a podcast latter today and it will be available on both sites.

Speak latter.

 

125 Comments

Arsenal vs Southampton

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We are back from the FIFA break, within the cusps of winter and starting the long-haul towards New Years Day.
Good day all. It’s a battle between two under-fire coaches at the Emirates Stadium as Arsenal takes on Southampton.
12 Premier League games in, a cursory glance at the table and seeing the Gunners 6th-placed would have some thinking, “well, that’s not calamitous”. However, Liverpool are off in the distance, we are eight points off 4th-placed Man City, have won just two of our last 10 matches and none of our last four. With performances epitomising that Unai Emery have us nowhere near the required level to get back in the Champions League spots.
Be that is it may, he does have the backing of one Raul Sanllehi, who no doubt bank on a turnaround in fortunes in an auspicious run (on paper at least) versus So’ton, Norwich, Brighton and West Ham, in hopes of getting fans back onside as well as gather steam ahead of the more trickier festive fixtures versus Man City, Everton, Bournemouth, Chelsea and Man United.
On the face of it, such thinking is practical because for that would have been the idea had a new man replaced Emery. However, there lack confidence from many that Emery has it in him to make the necessary adjustments to get our top-four challenge back on track. Because, if rumours are true that he has been given a month to save his job, our run of poor results continue the fall-out would be significant as any new man would be taking over as we are about to navigate our way through a run of tricky fixtures.
Either way, if you look to restore lost confidence the teams you would probably want to play next are those 19th and 20th on the table. What could go wrong?
Ralph Hasenhuttl’s Saints side got so many issues; winless in their last seven (D1, L6), the PL’s worst defense and barely a third of the season gone already appear to be involved in a relegation scrap. He will be well aware if he doesn’t turn it around soon, he would be out of a job by Christmas.
Three points would lift them out the relegation zone though, so we can expect them making their presence felt. They played well in a 2-1 defeat away at Mancity in recent weeks and took them quite deep, so no doubt they will be looking for a similar approach as well as adding a bit of spice. Hasenhuttl did say in his pre-match presser his boys “must go back to being a nasty team” if they want to salvage their season. So if we fail to keep them on the backfoot, they could see that as an invitation to make this game more open than we would like.
Team News
Dani Ceballos is out injured till end of December, while Sead Kolasinac and Nicolas Pépé faces late assessments for minor issues. Everyone else, including Granit Xhaka whose “mindset has improved” per Emery, are available for selection.
Prediction
Usually when Arsenal goes up against 19th-placed one would think “banker”, but with so much on the line and both sides desperate for points, it’s hard to ignore the eeriness of this being “must win”.
Given our patchy form all season, Emery will be under pressure to give the Emirates faithful a commanding performance to ease some of the ill-feeling towards him. And with the Saints all out of sorts and without an away win against us in over three decades… this is one I suspect the Gunners to get all three points from, albeit not without an element of concern.
— @LaboGoon
71 Comments

Arsenal Prediction – 10th In the League

In this edition of the Uncensored Arsenal podcast, yours truly and the Arseblagger, Blackburn George, predict what was previously unthinkable; that on current form, under manager Unai Emery, Arsenal is likely to come 10th in the Premier League. In analyzing the club’s poor performance versus Leicester as part of a 19 game trend, we see no light at the end of the tunnel until and unless the club hierarchy make a change in management.

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63 Comments

Atrocious Arsenal Breaks Our Hearts. Again

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Here we go again, another day another load of tripe. Twelve games in and we are 8 points off , not the top, but 4th place, and 4th are City, they won’t be staying there for long.

It’s the worst return after 12 games for 37 years. “WE’VE GOT OUR ARSENAL BACK”

I believe that every single player that Emery has gotten his coaching through to, has gotten worse. Every player looks to be worse than we know them to be. It’s terrible.

Of the game itself, we were comprehensively outplayed. Our center-mid of Torreira and Guendouzi were shocking. The hype over Matteo makes me giggle, what exactly are people impressed with? He plays football like a Jack Russell herding Sheep. Lucas looks lost, he chases the ball like the same Jack Russell might do. No control in MF, no protection to the defence and absolutely no creativity.

I thought Ozil had a good game, but Lacazette and Aubameyang were poor, especially Lacazette. We played three centre backs, and did we look more solid? No, there were just more of them.

Everytime Guendouzi got the ball he appeared,to me at least, to set the play off back towards Leno. We then tried to play it about at the back ,until the pressure told and someone lumped it.

If Emery stays much longer I think top 8 will be beyond us.

It’s football Jim, but not  as we know it.

The performance and the result was so predictable that it’s not even funny. There is no silver lining, no light at the end of the tunnel and no joy in watching this team play football.

I’ll see you again after the next game and I will say the same thing all over again. Bellerin, Tierney and Holding were supposed to make the difference, well they haven’t, and won’t. So what have we left to think might make “the difference”? Who are we pinning our hopes on now? Which injured player can we claim will come in and save us?

It’s an absolute mess. And do you know what? It could get worse. It feels like the end of the line, but I fear there is more line to come.

Good Ebening.

 

56 Comments

Arsenal vs Leicester: Winter Is Coming

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This is it. Arsenal’s most important game of the season, or at least the most pivotal in Unai Emery’s tenure as the head coach.
Good day everybody. Arsenal is at the King Power Stadium this evening to play against Premier League high-flyers Leicester City.
It’s been a tale of fire and ice for these two sides this campaign. Under Brendan Rodgers the Foxes started with back-to-back draws, but got progressively better since. After 11 games they got the league’s best defense, conceded a mere eight goals, and only Man City has scored more than their 27. The Gunners kicked off with two wins in two, then we lost our way recording just two wins in our last nine league games. The last few weeks has been a real struggle as it appear to be such a toil to create or score from open play. We also unable to hold on to leads, drawing our last four games in all competitions from winning positions.
The mood around the club is not particularly great and it is unlikely that a win will even improve that. Defeat will certainly make Emery’s position untenable with a fanbase that now knows they just need to make a loud enough noise.
He will be well aware that he’s at a crucial juncture and if he got any hopes of getting the fans back onside, he has to get out of his comfort zone and deliver, because if we go to the international break nine points off of top-four, we risk being dragged out of that race.
Bear with me: last season about this time we were 3rd on the log, two points off the leaders and in the midst of a 22-game unbeaten run. There was a real buzz around the club as many cheered: “we got our Arsenal back”. There were concerns, which were ignored, then December arrived and things went awry. Now we’re in a worse off position and once again winter is coming; with fixtures congested and unforgiving as ever. Woe is me.
I honestly think this inter-break is something we all need right now. So much has happened these last few week, or not, as far as results are concerned. The issues with Granit Xhaka being stripped of the captaincy, the “friction” between Emery and Mesut Özil and with games coming thick and fast the players and coaching staff hardly had time to catch a breath.
The management team and coaching staff could use the two weeks to sit down and take stock of our season thus far and assess where it is they intend this team to go; with clear thought. There should also be enough honesty, assuming Emery stays on, to say that we do support you but the existing way of doing things is not helping to get the best out of a very talented squad, something has to change if we want to finish inside the top-four.
During tough times you can’t just shrug your shoulders in the hope that things will sort itself out.
Rodgers is doing a fine job up at Leicester and his side is 3rd on the log for a reason. On Arsenal’s last two trips to the KP we got beaten with an aggregate score of 6-1, and no doubt they must feel confident of inflicting even more issues on Emery.
Team News
Dani Ceballos is the only injury concern and Emery said Xhaka is unavailable. Hector Bellerin, who was rested midweek, could be in line for a league start.
Prediction
Phew! How do I even say this? Nine out of ten times when 3rd play 5th you’d usually favour the team higher on the table, and I suppose today shouldn’t be any different. Compared to the Gunners… the Foxes are just on another level defensively and in attack. However, I don’t think they will have it all their way because there are a lot of pride in this Arsenal side and it could be a good game. May the better team over the 90 minutes win. COYG
— @LaboGoon