Sip your coffee. Take a bite of your cruelty-free avocado toast. Breath.
It’s going to be ok.
Arsenal drew a game. It was a poor result. But these things happen with developing teams. In fact, they happen at the absolute highest level, Manchester City also drew a game that has opened up the title race again.
The Top 4 Trophy is going to be very difficult this season, there are a batch of teams competing for the honour of Champions League football and we are right in the mixer.
Arsenal blew a huge chance in the race for #Top4 with a performance you could only really class as complacent.
We didn’t show up for the first half, we went for it in the second half, we blew all our big chances.
It was a bad point.
Burnley are the oldest team in the league, they had one game under their belt in January, Pieters was coughing up lungs in the first half, but we couldn’t break them down.
We know what Burnley will do against us. They sit deep, the cut off the midfield passing lanes, the break up play with fouls. Arteta didn’t have a meticulous plan to bury them and the team he rolled out with didn’t have the fight they had for City or Liverpool. That’s a focus issue and that is on the manager.
There are some big games in the race for top four this weekend.
United are having a good go at West Ham right now.
Lucky Spurs are going to get another crack at the fragile Thomas Tuchel operation tomorrow.
That means there’s no other option on the table for Arsenal, we have to beat Burnley at home.
January has been poor results wise, but really, the only true shocker was our second string against Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup. The rest of the games don’t sit in ‘OH MY GOD’ category. 75% of our games came against top 2 sides. We played incredibly well against City and lost in the margins. We did really well against Liverpool at Anfield with 10 men. We lost the second leg because we didn’t have enough fit players, but remember, we reduced Liverpool to 3 shots on target, 2 went in. No shame again. 3 reds in those games as well.
It’s quite hard to really do justice to what happened last night because there are so many elements that didn’t really work in our favour.
At the highest possible level, accept this: Klopp and Liverpool shithoused the rules for COVID, it was cheating, and they got away with it. You have to salute it, there will be no consequences, no ‘morally bankrupt Liverpool’ tweets, it’ll just be brushed under the carpet. Would it have changed the outcome? Probably not, but don’t let what they did pass you by, it was shocking behaviour that worked for them. The in-game equivalent of Fabinho getting no cards for 6 fouls and Partey getting sent off for 2 fouls.
So the truth came out in the wash, Liverpool had the Arsenal game called off based on erroneous tests, and they didn’t update the authorities when the mistake was discovered.
Did you check in on the pearl-clutching journalists who had an issue with Arsenal at the weekend?
I did.
Crickets. The exESPN guy, The Mirror person, The Telegraph journo. Nowt to say on this one.
What do we make of that?
We’re back baby.
Hating the Arsenal is good for the follower count once again.
Things are NOT looking good for Auba. Man has shamed his nation with his elitist behaviour. The partying pre-AFCON, the COVID likely because of the partying, and the strong rumours from Gabonese media that the player got totes wasted and had a fight with security at the team hotel when he brought babes back.
Not cool.
Still, goals are the prime currency in football, so hopefully someone comes in with a deal for him this January. CBS is reporting that there’s an offer from Saudi to take over his contract. That’d be epic, though a little sad, because that really is a retirement deal.
The great nation of Coromos delivered us the December Christmas present we all asked for — they knocked out Ghana in a spectacular giant-killing for the ages, which means Thomas Partey, barring anything weird, should be back in England very shortly.
I don’t know whether he will be fit for the Burnley game, but to be honest, it’s not like anyone else will be. I just hope he’s not sad about the early exit because if we’re getting peak Partey back, we are dancing in the streets.
Arsenal vs Liverpool is on, which means a number of big journos are going to have to find those newspaper website clicks somewhere else this week. Martin Odegaard is passing those lateral flows like he connecting the midfield with attack. Well. Not sure if that last sentence worked, but you saw the ambition of it, and that’s what matters. I’m interested to see who we roll with, the good news is that those extra few days should have an impact on our player’s legs. We can have a crack at them.
In transfer news, we’ve ripped up Kola’s deal. He’s the last of the bad eggs out of the club. Somehow, he’s managed to land a move to Marseille. I don’t know how they sold that to their fans, but who cares, he’s gone, we can move on, and we’ll NEVER have to see him rolled on as a center-back again.
There are also strong rumours that we’re going to move Elneny out of the club, Fenerbache have come knocking, Mesut has clearly put in a good word, that would be a great deal for us if we can get more than £16 in fee.
I have absolutely no idea what we’re doing with our midfield with regards to signings. The Melo deal is off, we’re not being loudly linked with anyone, unless bringing players back from loan and hoping Patino/Azeez grow up real fast is the solution. It’s a little worrying… but you would guess that if we’re moving out players, we have a plan that doesn’t look like we’re smacking ourselves in the face.
The Vlahovic rumours are moving into ‘dangerously boring’ territory. The Italian press keep saying he doesn’t want Arsenal, if that’s the case, the story is dead. No way Edu is on the phone begging him to join. The worry is that, yet again, there are no alternatives being linked. Not that being linked is the be-all and end-all, but usually, there’s a bit of smoke.
Only one recognised striker for the rest of the season is a bit shit. That one striker is 29 and leaving in the summer. Eddie is playing like it’s May 31st already. Even more worrying if Auba has heart problems. Not sure many men with kids would risk their life over football. So let’s hope the issue isn’t that bad. Even then… Auba isn’t exactly suitable, is he?
Thomas Tuchel, 2014 Le Grove dreamboat, 2021s ‘ARSENAL LACK AMBITION FOR NOT SIGNING THIS PERFECT HUMAN’ is in a bit of a crisis at Chelsea. They drew against Brighton, no shame there, but a shame when you are slumming it in 3rd for an Abramovich team. If Arsenal win their 3 games in hand, which is ambitious speculation in the name of gloating, we’d go level points with them. Quite something, wouldn’t you say?
Just think about this: How many of the ‘elite’ things that happened this summer at other clubs… that some of our fans used to slam our ambition… have come good?
Tuchel? Nah.
Varane or Kounde over White? Nah
Onana over Ramsdale? Nah
Lukaku?
Grealish?
Jadon?
Emerson Royal?
Auoar?
Just because it feels sexy, doesn’t mean it’ll be sexy.
Put that quote in my obituary.
Right, short post today. Have a nice evening. x
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