WE LOVE YOU FREDDIE

by .

via @Arsenal Instagram

The man might not have red hair in 2019, but damn, I love him as much as when he did. The classy Swede delivered a fantastic win against West Ham. The first time we’ve come back from a half-time losing position in 8 years. It wasn’t perfect, but it showed that the players respect the manager and it showed that contrary to popular opinion, we have good players.

Freddie shook up his starting 11 with some big decisions. Martinelli started, Luiz saw the bench, Pepe played out wide right, Torreira started again. The changes had nearly zero effect on the first-half performance. I was so bad, it Gooners calling helplines up and down the country. Truly awful. No confidence, mistakes all over the pitch, and a real lack of ‘give a fuck’ from key senior players. We even had the cheek to go a goal down after Xhaka failed to put his head on the line.

Second half was a different gravy. Arsenal came to play. Mesut Ozil set Kola off on the overlap, the Bosnian slipped a clever low ball into Martinelli, the Brazilian made up the yardage and made no mistake with a clean finish on his Premier League debut. Dedicated to Big Unai, king of the overlap, RIP.

Arsenal kicked into gear, the passing improved, West Ham were put on the backfoot. The second goal didn’t take long, Auba linked up nicely with Pepe, back heeling into his path, the Ivorian was given all the time in the world to cut inside and unleash 3 months of fury on a fizzing top corner shot. Arjen Pepe, amirite?

The third goal came courtesy of Pepe returning the favour, he dinked a lovely chip to Auba who fashioned a volley that clunked over their keeper. Has Auba move on from Lacazette, has he found a new younger bro? Maybe… maybe.

Freddie chalked 3 away points and cleared West Ham’s stadium by 80minutes. Perfect.

Now, it’s clear there were still a lot of problems. We created next to nothing despite dominating possession, we still had to rely on some good keeping, there were some bad senior performances, but look… we won, the players looked like they cared, no one crashed Freddie.

Think about how hard the Swede has had it. He took over from a manager that couldn’t speak English, didn’t have a vision for the football, and had tried and failed to kill senior players. Emery exited with 9 backroom staff, Freddie’s only hire has been Per Mertesacker. He’s propping up the whole thing and he’s doing it with a serious amount of class.

I love how he speaks in the press. There’s no ego there, he puts all the credit with the players. He’s calm, almost Wenger like. His eloquent prose is like waterfall yoga music with noise-cancelling headphones on a plane for of children. He has sauce, that’s for sure.

Whatever happens, when the club do hire a new manager, I hope they don’t forget what Freddie brought to a very messy situation. I am hugely impressed.

The real shame? He has to play City next, then embark on a horrible run.

That said, it’s important to counter some of the misery when it comes to our squad. It’s way better than people are making out. We have people that can score, our front three is electric, we have one of the best French kids in the world, we were 2 points off 3rd last year. There’s plenty to work with for a new coach.

Hopefully, Freddie can hand over a squad that’s found a bit of swagger. We’ll see. Europa first, then a massive game at the weekend.

Right, see you in the comments BUT LISTEN TO THE PODCAST. x

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habesha gooner

Unless he becomes injured I am willing to bet Martinelli will become a top player. The question is whether we are gonna be up to the level of ambition he is gonna show. Players with attitude like his rarely fail.

Graham62

Kay Boss

What have you ascertained after 3 games that tells you FL should not be at the helm on a permanent basis?

Just curious.

Un na naai

I’d take £38m for Bellerin. Great money for a hit and miss full back. Shame as when he’s fit and firing he’s ok but we can do better.
I actually prefer AMN at full back. More creative and better on the ball. If we use our full backs like city or Liverpool and get our cmf players to drop in with centre halves as full backs push up I’d say AMN and Tierney on either side could be a revelation

Globalgunner

AMN: More creative and better on the ball!. Ive heard it all now.This is why judges in courts dont always trust eye witness reports. There are opinions and then there are delusions

AMN. is a dopey lump who cant believe his luck that someone would pay hm 20k per month to drag his fickle ares around a pitch at 1/4 speed for 90 mins.

He wouldnt be worth 10m on the open market. No takers in the EPL for sure

Un na naai

Global

He was joint top for assists before he was dropped. His cross fit the Newcastle goal was a thing of beauty
He also seems to link well with Pepe.

So yeah I 100% stand by it.

DigitalBob

Un – Agreed I think AMN has alot of potential. He’s missing a bit of belief and some positional sense but he’s a potential quality RB for sure.

Davey

AMN is shite, come on you know.

KAY Boss

Graham I know u love Freddie but I’m not convinced by his tactical display for now. I’ll prefer a substantive coach (a better one of course) so Freddie takes his time to learn the trade. Maybe then, he might have matured in the job. Too many mistakes to continue with him on the basis of our position now especially since he’s been in/around the team for sometime now.

Guns of Hackney

Ancelotti incoming. Oh Lordy. This would be another absolutely shit decision.

Bojangles

For a change, I’m going to throw my lot in with Un Na. I feel AMN is better than Bellerin, I actually said that at the start of the season. I prefer him going forward over Bell and there’s not a gulf between them defensively.

Davey

The is no gulf between them defensively because they are both piss poor defensively but I would still take Bellend over the stoned one.

Un na naai

Davey

There seems to be a problem with certain arsenal “fans” in that you find a scale goat and run with it, ignoring all of the positive contributions of said scape goat. I see a young man learning anew position in a team devoid of confidence. Most of the time playing beside Mustafi and behind Mkhitaryan. It’s a baptism of fire. He’s beat and tidy in the ball and rarely gives it away and while he lapses sometimes I still see more effort to get back and make a tackle than any of our other 3 full backs.

Un na naai

Neat and tidy

Davey

I see what I see if anyone thinks AMN has promise as F/B you are deluded.

habesha gooner

Damn, am I the only one that sees AMN for what he is? He has got talent but his attitude is really poor. He plays like he is a champions league, World cup and premier league winner already and he doesn’t have to work hard or prove himself to anyone. He thinks he has made it. For me he will play most of his career in lower premier league team or in the championship. A lazy player who can’t concentrate is not what we need as a right back.

Danny S

AMN is no better or worse than Bellerin.

Difference is bel is probably on double the wages and will fetch a decent fee, and we can buy a decent RB and keep AMN as an understudy.

Un na naai

New post

Siddharth14

Arsenal are making the same mistake they did when they hired Emery. All this interviewing a lot of candidates and being thorough is just absolving an executive from accountability. It is just a circus and perfectly sums up everything that is wrong at the club. The Manager should be shortlisted by Edu and recommended to the board of directors and then approved by Kroenke. I fail to understand how Vinai and Huss are contributing to the recruitment process when they have no experience of club management. The fact that we are interviewing a long list of candidates tells us that… Read more »

Thorough

Granit Xhaka
Concussion. Sustained strike to the head from the ball during West Ham United (a). Will miss Standard Liege (a) and Man City (h) and will be managed as per concussion protocols.

Best news I’ve heard all week.

Aussie Gooner

Not all club owners are shite like ours. Look at Leicester. Their fans adore the owners, even after the tragic death of the patriarch, Vichai, the family haven’t skipped a beat with their input into the club and local community. I doubt Stan even watches our matches across the pond on live stream – probably gets a lackey to watch the games and file a condensed report!

guest man aka WW

I really respect the brilliant “pundits” on here. These guys said Ramsey and oxlade were shit. It really makes me laugh.
AMN is a good footballer but like all our defenders suffers from poor coaching as a unit. “pundits” see a few mistakes and jump and scream “shite”.