Hello and how are you? Sunday 12th of January sees the Mighty Cannon host our old rivals of another era, Manchester United in the 3rd round of the FA Cup, kick off 3.00pm (western European time).

Well, here we go again! I’m hoping that we can slough off the skin of frustration that came out of the 70% possession, 24 shots, 11 corner kicks, 3 French hens, but only 1 shot on target first leg of the Carabao semi-final. I’m hoping Kai doesn’t think too much when he has a chance to score from a header, and I’m sorry to see that old problem rise again (as it was when he first came) also I’m hoping that Martinelli doesn’t panic when he has a shooting chance. Its easy to be the hindsight, advice-giving, non-playing guru though. Thankfully I’m not the guru or good at giving advice. What a nightmare that would be…

I read that Newcastle ‘outclassed’ Arsenal in that game, personally I’m a bit sceptical about that, certainly they took their few chances and we didn’t, and they parked the bus, throwing man after man in desperation to block all they could and it worked. On another day we might have hit them for four or more. But we didn’t. Bad day at the physics lab! However the tie isn’t over yet and the landscape of football will be different for good or bad when the 2nd leg gets under way. 

We might not be favourites, but that too, might go our way, hubris might be the undoing of Newcastle yet? There is one question that’s niggling me, is Isak a bit overrated? Of course judging by which scale, but it is a question worth asking. We are so missing up front that the idea of anyone can be a bit tempting?

Perhaps, and maybe it is only perhaps, if the shuffle and seaweed-scrape of the Brighton game with its preposterous penalty decision might have gone our way then who knows how we might have ventured in the semi-final? Newcastle had their tails up going into that game as we sometimes do and sometimes don’t. But that’s be the main problem of our team this season? However, scenario-speculation is a sure heck of a waste of time?

Even though this sites called Positively Arsenal I’m not some Pollyanna character, although I’m sure Pollyanna had a good life and good mental health, but I haven’t given up hope yet in that game. Sorry, there’s nothing I can do, I support Arsenal, and my version of that is a bit simplistic and dippy really, even if 3-0 down I still think we can do it, I know what it makes me, but that’s the way it is. When the second Newcastle goal went in, I still urged our boys on to hopefully get a goal to keep us in the tie and will still go into the 2nd leg believing we can do it, even if they get an early goal which I’m sure will be their aim, like.

Ok, enough of that crap, so its onto our old enemy ManUre. And in the cup. Oh brother, why them and now? Their draw against Liverpool probably has invigorated them, and despite us being grateful for the dropping of a couple of Scouse points, they will make the trip down south with a little gleam in the eye. Well fork that! Who do you think you are the milkman?  

The  Mighty Cannon has been given a 58.7% chance of winning according to stat HQ AI, whilst thems from Old Toilet are only on a 17.5% chance. I’m sure United have looked endlessly at the Newcastle game and will try to use it as a blue print for beating us. But watch out Madchester, that was the first time we’ve lost since Villa came and did the business last April, and we are sore , we want revenge and we don’t like you. Grrr! You hear me?

“what that? I can’t quite hear you”

The cup might not be what it was, but then what is? Anyhow, by the time Sunday comes, I’m sure Arteta and the lads will be pumped up and ready to rumble. If not then we are going to need some mega-vitamins to get over the grumbles when facing the Spuds. I was going to get into a big rant about a racist ManUre fan I worked with years a go, but I’m saving that one, the worlds negative enough without me digging up old graves and us examining the rotting corpses together. Pfui!

Well that’s it, lots of bits and pieces that I’m sure have made you feel like going off and listening to your old Del La Soul records instead of reading this. Yodel-eh-e-oh!

Even so, here’s to a great game for us and lucky horses! 

COYG and keep on keepin’ on!

Mills

I have pinched a post from Eduardo.

I see lots of online ire aimed at Martinelli and Havertz for our lack of scoring, or should I say for our lack of scoring from the one or two chances we create per game that Arteta is so keen to claim should win us all games. Predictively, the bloggers and twitteratti have decided that if we upgrade on these two we will dominate all competitions for years to come. Well see a few flaws in this theory.

1. We can upgrade big time on these two but who is going to create the chances for their replacements, we predominately play down the right, Saka’s numbers are fantastic, not because he is lethal, but rather he gets enough chances to miss lots of them and still score or assist with enough to see him above criticism, maybe if we actually create for the left side and the middle the volume of play Saka gets on the right then Martinelli and Havertz would have Saka type stats, or at least a lot nearer?
2. So not only a change in where we attack on the pitch, but how, because in case you didn’t notice, it was not Martinelli and Havertz that missed our big chances v Everton, or in recent weeks, yes Martinelli has had a number of half chances, but they by and large they were not clear cut gilt edge chances, if you want to see who missed those sort of chances look no further than our captain, Martin Odegaard. However, he is a big fan favorite so is above blame or even the ire of the fan base. But that is besides the point here, which is our game plan is attack down the right, Saka does Saka things, and the main spare man in the middle who gets free shots is Odegaard. He has fluffed his lines in recent weeks. So we need to not only share out which side of the pitch we attack from, but also who big openings fall to besides Saka. Odegaard alone is not a great idea.
3. Basically carrying on from that, our biggest chance v Everton was the Odegaard shot from middle of the area, well I see Havertz get blasted for “where the hell is he, why isn’t he in the middle on the end of things? Well that big chance came about because Havertz dragged the Everton defender 35 or 40 yards from goal, he then played a great ball in-between 2 more everton defenders for Saka to run on to, he did Saka things beating 2 men before playing the ball to the free man Odegaard in the middle of the area, our captain missed, but that chance does not come if Havertz stays in and around the area looking to get on the end of the attack. So Havertz getting involved in the build up is both a strength and a weakness, a strength in that it helps create the opening, but a weakness because Havertz is the striker and you want your best chances falling to your striker.
4. Arteta said after the game he wants more players who have magic moments, that sounds brilliant, but when in the same interview he says that the reason we did not speed up our attacks v Everton and did not add extra players to our attack to try and make the breakthrough was because if you speed up or commit extra bodies to the attack you in both cases increase the chances of losing the ball and getting caught on the counter, so you see its safety first, as I said after the game, Arteta is very willing to accept dropped points, he is afraid of defeats, he’ll take the 6 draws we have over taking risks of defeat and turning 3 of those draws into wins at the cost of turning the other 3 draws into defeats, even though it would mean having 3 extra points, but it would have us sit with 5 defeats, and for him 0 draws and 5 defeats is unacceptable, but 6 draws and 2 defeats is acceptable.
5. So to sum up, higher quality players will of course improve us, but it would also have to be aligned to not only a change in where we attack from, but also what is expected from our forwards, how can we expect our forwards to be fresh and alert for scoring when their first job is to track back 70 or 80 yards all the time. Do we want our striker on the end of chances or do we want him to be a big part of the build up. The biggest change and one that I think is furthest from Arteta’s mind is becoming an attack orientated team that create a bucket load of chances, which puts extra men in attack, which takes risks, or a team like now that is reliant on scoring first, have to take that one or two half chances that come along against teams that sit back, higher quality players in attack might see more of those chances taken, a couple more players capable of magic moments would certainly improve us, but how many magic moment players do we need to add to become a team that wins leagues and Champions Leagues.