Happy Boxing day to you all! I hope you took things to suitably crazy levels yesterday, kept conversation non-Arsenal for at least two drinks, then spoiled the day with an aggressive debate over the merits of Arsene Wenger’s career.
I just hope the players feel fresher than I do…
Brighton is the late kick-off today. We head down to the south coast to chase an extremely important three points in a title race which has so far proved to be relentless if you have #Top4 goals. As Emery said, “we are going to play [with] full [commitment]… the same three points are in Brighton that are in Liverpool.” Important to remember that beating Spurs in the league was tragically wiped out by that horror result against Southampton away from home.
The manager sounds like he’s going for a full-throated line-up. When asked about fielding LT, who is on 4 bookings, he didn’t flinch.
“In my career, I never made these decisions,”
“We are going to play the next match in Brighton and we are going to play full – not with considered options or playing with more caution.
“I don’t know whether Torreira would even be able to play cautiously but I don’t want him to think about the possibility of a suspension for one yellow card.”
I think the decision to play LT will be more about having a shite defence. It would be a full-on disaster if we don’t have him available for the Liverpool game. But, I do understand the worry that we flunk a typically flat day for football, then nullify a potential win we might have against the Premier League favourites. This sort of decision really does show how skinny our squad is. We should be able to field an Elneny like object for this game and feel fairly confident we can deliver a result.
Rotation should be a consideration today, I think the players have looked tired and we’ve picked up a lot of injuries of late. Interesting that Emery dropped this comment as well.
“I was speaking with [Laurent] Koscielny about the possibility for him to play against Burnley and he said: ‘Not today’ – because he was very tired after two matches in a week and I decided for him not to be with the group. Koscielny said: ‘I’m not Mattéo! Mattéo is 19 and I’m 33 years old!’
“I am very happy with Mattéo and he is improving a lot. He gives a lot of moments with the combinations, the quality and the possibility to play with our style. He needs to continue his progress with us but I think he’s [still] very young.”
Great to hear that Matteo likes to play, but a sharp warning that players in their 30s cannot be relied on for 60 games. Amazing how quickly you can go from a pivotal figure to a creaky old man!
Brighton have lost 3 on the bounce, the last they won was against Palace. Also worth noting they haven’t won any of their last 9 league games on Boxing Day. They’re without Lewis Dunk, their best defender by quite a margin. The stats line up nicely for us, but ultimately, as we saw a couple of weeks ago, the old Arsenal always lurks in the wings.
Right, that’s me done, see you in the comments!
x
“I think Leno is overrated
I’m just not convinced about him as our jo1 ”
Yeah, we must replace it with Cech for tomorrow’s game.
(joke friday)
RIP Peter Hill-Wood. True Gooners come in all shapes and sizes.
PHW was a giant compared with the sleazebag who owns the club today. None of us will agree with everyting he did. But he was a footbal man who cared about Arsenal.
Kroenke is a greedy, slimy Yank who cares only about his own wealth and power.
*him
“who cares only about his own wealth and power.”
Now I understand why he loved arsène so much.
Steve
I’m not arguing whether Hill-Wood was deserving of criticism, or held contempt for the fans, but the man has just died. It’s crass to pass those remarks about him today of all days.
It’s your right to, but i think it’s poor form at best.
CC
Couldn’t agree more.
Will Kroenke receive the same respect from Arsenal fans when he passes on? I do hope so, although remembering when Malcolm Glazer passed there were some disgusting comments from some Man Utd fans.
Some people forget that whatever they perceive to be injustices against their football clubs these people were husbands, fathers etc and that supercedes anything else.
RIP Peter Hill Wood
Chris
The same type of comments you’ll inevitably get here once wenger breathes his last. I’ll guaranteee it
HL
Yes I’d go with cech tomorrow
100%
We were stronger with him behind an organised defence. Also no coincidence that since we lost holding our defence has crumbled. He was our best defender this year for me thou papa has grown into our side and adjusted very well.
To think we started the season with
6 centre halves
4 full backs
6 cmf
4 wide forwards (inc ozil and welbz) and
2/3 strikers I’d have said our squad was big enough to cope.
Yes we need more quality but we let two of our best footballers leave on a free (jack and santi) and letting Nelson go on loan Has turned out to be a negative decision.
Steve is a grade A wanker
Would never have the balls to say something like that face to face with a relative of someone who’d passed. Disgusting.
I still need to watch the Brighton second half, but I think some people are overreacting a little regarding where we are and what Emery has (or has not) accomplished thus far. Yes, we have a long ways to go, but we are stuttering at the moment because of injuries and an inadequate squad, not because of Unai Emery or Stan Kroenke. Replace Lichtensteiner, Koscielny and Ozil in the XI on Wednesday and we win that match easily, IMO.
That said, tomorrow could get very ugly if Emery does not get his selection right. Liverpool are quick, and they pass and attack quickly; Emery needs to go young, IMO. The older and slower we are, the more trouble we will be in. AMN and Medley should get starts, IMO, despite their inexperience. Ramsey should start as well; we need running and battle. Ozil should be left out, I think.
Start medley at Anfield? On what premise exactly…
Odd that an “inadequate squad” can’t be levelled at the feet of Emery or Stan. Who takes the cake with that one?
The team spirit plays a big part in a football team. MANU is another example of that. Our honeymoon period with Emery is over now. It is time to sit back and evaluate how Emery manages the team. Emery has his favorite players, Guen and Iwobi. They are still quite inexperienced compare to other star players. Emery has stamped his authority on three star players; Laca, Ozil and Ramsey. For me, life is a two ways street. If you are bad to an employee, don’t expect them to do the best for you. I am not surprise to see Pogba… Read more »
Dissenter “I thought paying 55 million for him was rather silly considering we had Laca who was scoring goals for fun in Ligue un.” Right, but Lacazette was in the middle of an eight game drought (in which he had a total of seven shots and no goals) when we signed Aubameyang, so the latter’s signing actually did make sense at that time, which was why there was no massive outcry here against that signing. I agree with those who think it doesn’t make a lot of sense for us to have both Laca and Auba, and I agree that… Read more »
Joe “This is great article. Sums up posters like Pierre etc to the” “As for the poor performance yesterday, I put it down to fatigue and injuries, which are linked. That’s the reason why we witnessed so many passes going astray, the physical drop off and ensuing inability to dominate. Why aren’t more chances being created? Because we had no ball playing defenders, so the midfield had to come deep to retrieve possession leaving too much space ahead of them.” I would have thought the article would mention that a possibility of why the players are so fatigued is because… Read more »
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Charlie The principal blame for the state of the squad lies with Arsene Wenger. Secondly, if we needed to spend more (or differently) this summer, then some blame also lies with Emery, Mislintat and Sanllehi for thinking too highly of the existing players or some of the players we signed. As for Stan Kroenke, he’s not a football guy, so unless the men above come to him and say, “Stan, we need to spend £100m more than our revenues alone allow for,” I don’t see how he can be expected to determine this himself. Not to mention he purchased a… Read more »
Funny enough I think Ozil will be needed against Pool. Yeah I know I know…. We will need a lot of guile to unlock that Liverpool defence and if Rambo is in and be convinced to play a disciplined role (Yeah I am on a roll) then no reason why Ozil can’t lift his game against Pool. We will need quality in the final 3rd and will need to be clinical with our chances, since its bleeding obvious we can’t defend for shyte, we might as well go for it with a positive selection. No one is expecting us to… Read more »
What exactly is Emery doing with Lacazette?
Can’t fathom it out.
Last week I highlighted it may be down to Lacazette not being 100% fit. However, it seems I was wrong. I see things in Lacazette that Aubameyang can’t offer us. I want to see the two of them starting together tomorrow. With both of them on the pitch, it gives us a very slim chance of upsetting the odds.
“The principal blame for the state of the squad lies with Arsene Wenger. Secondly, if we needed to spend more (or differently) this summer, then some blame also lies with Emery, Mislintat and Sanllehi for thinking too highly of the existing players or some of the players we signed. As for Stan Kroenke, he’s not a football guy,“ Just have a look at the sequence of blame/deflection you take for those mentioned. “Principal blame”:Wenger “IF we needed to spend more”: Sven, Emery etc “He’s not a football guy”: Stan Really hard to take what you say seriously at all. How… Read more »