A very quick post from me this morning as I am heading in for my first game of the MIKEL ARTETA ERA GET IN CAN’T WAIT WOOO #1 FAN OVER HERE WITH THE A4 BANNER SAYING #ARTETAIN!
I have no idea what to expect. The manager is dealing with something of an injury crisis, we could be missing a lot of players today. Tierney, Kola and Sokratis are certainly out. There are also doubts over Gabriel, Holding, Ceballos and Hector… there also might be questions over whether Xhaka plays if his mind is on the Hertha Berlin move.
The players he did have ready trained on the pitch yesterday. I like that. For no reason. If Emery had done it I’d have lodged a complaint with the local council, Arteta does it, I find it the sort of elite thinking a progressive young coach should be showcasing.
Chelsea are in a bit of a mess at the moment. They followed up a super defeat of Spurs with a shocking show against lowly Southampton. Some of their fans are predictably on his back, but I think the bleating will be ignored, Chelsea are building up with kids and shit performances are part of the deal there.
Arteta spoke about getting his players to think quicker and work harder off the ball. We saw a taste of that against Bournemouth, today, I hope that continues. I’m looking to see good structure, I’m hoping that against a really good counter-attacking team, we can concentrate, and I’m hoping the players put it in until the very end. Wouldn’t it be great to see us pressing for a second game in a row? I’m living for it.
I think we’re up against it today, it’s going to be hard to extract anything from the game, but at the moment, I’m just looking for progress as we build to a brighter future. A win would be exciting though, can’t say it hasn’t passed my mind.
It’s absolutely freezing out, so if you’re going, wrap up warm and hope the football on show gives us an added boost of warmth.
Right, that’s me out, see you at the game. xx
At least Chambers is flexing the knee, by far out better cb, good God, Mustafi to come and fuck things up
New manager gets served with Mustafi appetizer
🤣🤣
Passing much sharper so far. Ozil confident. Nelson been ok.
It seems Arteta has decided to take Pepe off the firing line to see how he reacts. That may prove top be good management.
Pepe really doesn’t look desperate when he comes on. He needs to play lime a man seeking to make a point.
AMN playing well. It has never been a problem of ability with him; the problem has been mentality, attitude, concentration, intent. If Arteta can get AMN’s head right, he could be a player.
Craig Pawson is letting a lot of Chelsea niggling fouls go unpunished.
Nelson is slow
Look at Fat Frank’s beer belly.
Lol
Bamford
I think there new manager needs to just let him know that he won’t have a place in midfield. Its right back or nothing.
Very good though. First to every ball passing between the lines is good. Chelsea on their 3 yellow I think
Ozil moving slick
Arteta is getting Ozil playing again? Ozil is winning second balls and out sprinting people.
Hope Pierre doesn’t;t read this.
Our defensive shape is quite good, definitely improved.
On a separate note, though, Reiss Nelson is not even close to good enough.
Jorghino being prepped
SAUCE!!
Guendouzi is the odd ball. Should be substituted. Arsenal back to playing instinctively. Guendouzi is confused back passer. Asks for ball instead of moving to correct location for movement of ball
Shows how well Arsenal are playing in that Lampard is looking to make a tactial sub already in their midfield
A lot of tactical Chelsea fouls going on.
Liking all these yellow cards for the Chavs
Chelc gone back to back 4 i think
Is Pedro already kissed Mikel on the sideline ??
Does the security stopped him ??
Proper derby this
Yh.
They have
Glad to see that Chambers was able to hobble back to the bench.
It would have been really annoying if we had to lose him to injury. May the god Apollo be kind to us…
….
I wouldn’t mind seeing Chelski getting a few more yellow cards.
Next, get a Chelski player red carded.
Probably Ozil’s best 30 min’s in an Arsenal shirt. Torreira playing brilliantly. Chelsea sub and change of formation 33 mins in says it all
Wow the cards are rattling up for Chelsea.
They ratteled
We need Guendouzi’s energy. I prefer his engine to Willock’s. I do expect that Guen wont finish the game because of his YC.
Guendouzi always coming inside nearly gets caught out. Torreira with the clearance
I knew Guen would be caught on the ball
Guendouzi what a twat
Think this substitution means Lampard will look to long passing and Jorginho to break our pressing. They’ll likely be looking to play in behind, to bypass midfield and play directly to forwards.
Chelsea revert to a traditional back four .
Nelson and Guen are slow compared to Chelsea players.
Nelson wrong decisions .
Lacazette is so slow man.
Reiss looks lively
Arts pep talk worked..
Keep it tight for half time.
Need another goal
“Our defensive shape is quite good, definitely improved.”
Can’t watch the game, but judging by the comments, it seems that we are playing Saucy football at last!!
Pray that Mustardi or Luiz don’t fucked this up…
Guendouzi is really daft, what’s with the getting caught on the ball and the constant pulling back!!!?? He’s daft player
Martinelli is built for this type of game with his pace and aggression. Hopefully he gets some minutes in the second half.
Get tj on for laca half time
Confidence shot.
We haven’t won a home game since the first week of October yet some were happy with just a “performance”
“Next, get a Chelski player red carded.”
Unfortunately, we can’t count on Xhaka today!! Lol
Dirty chavs..
Talking of red cards, Guen got away with one for pulling back Abraham.
I hope Arteta has a quiet word with him at half time. We can’t afford to be one man down for this game.
They’re back in the game. Pepay needed to relieve pressure and counter. Either for young Nelson or Lacazette
“Dirty” is a much too nice word to describe them.
That change in formation has goes Chelsea
‘We haven’t won a home game since the first week of October yet some were happy with just a “performance”’
A team struggling for months is finally putting a good show against our rival and is up by 1 goal but we are not supposed to get excited ?
Everyone putting in a shift this half. Terrific to see.
We’d be out of sight with Calvert-Lewin..
Ozil been majestic.
Very important to get to halftime as is
Same song
Agreeed..
He won’t last 90 tho..
TR7
Actually my comment was directed at your ilk.
You were happy with a performance that wasn’t tethered to results. No amount of squirminess can undo that opinion that you expressed several times.
Arteta wants to win…you were happy with ‘performances’
An Arsenal win over Chelski on my daughter’s baptism day. What a wonderful Sunday this could turn into!
Martinelli is built for this type of game with his pace and aggression. Hopefully he gets some minutes in the second half.
Marinelli is injured.
Leon’s goal kick is bad. No where close to a teammate.
We should have scored another goal before let them being back in the game…
Good structure, good organization, good game-plan for that first 45 minutes. Well done by Arteta. The question will be whether this group of players can hold on against a superior group of players in the second half.
Claver
I read that Martinelli was being assessed before the game so he must have made an improvement, maybe today is too early for him
This is from there Arsenal website.
“Gabriel Martinelli
Last Updated: December 29
An update from our medical team on Saturday, December 28, said:
“Tight left hamstring. Being assessed ahead of Chelsea (h).”
Last Game – December 21, 2019: Everton 0 – 0 Arsenal”
Good Performances lead to a habit of winning. That gives us a culture and belief of success leading to trophies.
That leads to great eras.
Best half of football in ages!
@Guns : you are aware that there will be a second half, do you ?
Guendouzi needs to be pulled off ASAP. It’s hard to imagine there wont be a red card in this game with so many players on YCs.
He’s extremely fortunate to still be on the field.
Has to be said we’ve been excellent. Huge credit to Ozil he’s playing brilliantly it doesn’t excuse his absolutely awfulness though these last few years. Torreira has been man of the match though. This is why he was/is so highly rated. He’s tenaciously nipping at opponents heels his positioning is good and his passing is very clean and positive between the lines. Promising stuff imagine what Mikel can do with better players.
that first half worth the suffering endured due to the uncertainty within the team
Movng the ball so much quicker and playing Torrriera in his correct position. It’s rocket science !
Very good half. Tactically spot on. Pressed when we should and we were compact when we should. Like I said, Chelsea are a counter attack team and Arteta is making them be creative to get through our compact side. I also like the fact there seems to be pair communication. When someone presses another sits and drops into the space left which was not happening before. A constant criticism I had of Emery was how the players were too far apart. Neville picked up on this today saying the players are ‘close’, ‘tight’, ‘near’ a ‘swarm or red shirts’. That… Read more »
Very impressive first half.
@Jamie : if Arteta has enough sauce to make Ozil great again (fuck me!! Lol), I will have to apologize to Pedro, but I will be delighted to do it.
Dissenter
Do you dissent with people just for the sake of it ? I said my focus would be on quality of our performance and if we perform well, results will follow. Today we have played well for 45 minutes and have been rewarded with a goal. If we had played poorly and still managed to be a goal up, it wouldn’t have mattered much in the large picture.
I still can’t believe I had to defend torreira against half of you lot for the last 6 months
He’s a DM. Play him at DM in a reasonable system like we did at the start of last season and just like that he looks like one of our best players
Lampard proved he is astute too with that mid first half change. Putting an extra man in the midfield did swing the balance away from us.
Lets see how Arteta reacts to that.
Very positive. The hunger with the pressing of Chelsea has been so good so far. Shame though that Chambers went off. You could see the partnership going on there with Chambers and Luiz. Chambers was front foot forward very positive and looking to win the ball early and Luiz was dropping off behind him. An actual plan seen now with the CBs defending. We haven’t seen it so much though since Mustafi has come on. I’ll tell you now this team doesn’t miss Xhaka at all. The team are quicker overall without him and shame on those that keep putting… Read more »
Encouraging first half! I like the way we’re pressing and moving the ball about much quicker.
I’m disappointed for chambers. He started well and made the goal!
Aubameyang with a faultless first half. Absolutely great performance.
Less said about lacazette the better. He and Guendouzi haven’t been great.
Chelsea have ditched the stupid back three though so we have more of a game on our hands but absolutely great half of football
China
Torreira has been pressing all over the pitch again.
He’s been pressing high again. And deeper.
If anything he’s a pressing CM at this stage.
The question will be whether this group of players can hold on against a superior group of players in the second half.
You are not an Arsenal fan. You have your own personal petty shit at the forefront always
Laca needs a bit of luck to score I tell you
He’s on such a bad run of goalscoring form and nothing is going right for him in the box. He needs a random fluke to take the weight off his shoulders
A deflection in off his ass wrongly chalked under his name would do the trick lol
I’d very surprised if Arsenal manage to hold on and win the game.
Haaland joining Dortmund in January. They’re just ahead of the curve honestly
Starting the second half on the front foot I can see us scoring early.
http://zoneland90.blogspot.com/p/afc-2.html?m=1
.
too long since our last great 1H performance …but finally
laca can’t miss those anymore in the 2H
guen on a yellow needs to mind his own biz n b more focus
otherwise a perfect home 1H
Sup ladies? Very sweet start to the Arteta home manager career. Look a lot more solid, quicker play. Have to say Ozil and LT are really putting in a shift so far.
Can they maintain it.
Really hope Chambers isn’t a season ender.. Feel horrible for him.
Diss-
Martinelli is not on the bench. So don’t think you will see him in second half. Only impact player on bench is Pepe really.
China1,
Lacazette for Arsenal has always been a shite goalscorer.
Why do you think we bought Auba
Marko
Actually, what I said there is an obvious matter of fact and it’s precisely what every objective, impartial observer of this match will be saying and thinking.
You just have animus towards me. That’s your problem, not mine.
Dissenter
I’m actually not overly concerned he’s out today.
He’s a Fantastic option for the united game.
I want to see how Arteta uses Pepe.
Looks like Pedro could be right about Arteta.
2nd game in first week and a really good performance from us.
Good to see Ozil putting in a decent first half.
Pepe could shine with early ball quick counters .
‘@Guns : you are aware that there will be a second half, do you ?’
You too are aware we just won first half though.
Same again to add consistency- something we’ve lacked for a long time.
Blog really was better without Bamford.
Th sideshow bobs are now booked
I’ll tell you now this team doesn’t miss Xhaka at all. The team are quicker overall without him and shame on those that keep putting Xhaka still on a pedestal and peddling out his passing stats. This is the case even if Chelsea get back in the game Very true. Has to be said that stat about passing out and by passing positions coined by a former Leverkusen player was totally on show that first half. The amount of time it happened in the first half was huge. But this is Arsenal and we have to be diligent for 90… Read more »
Luiz what the hell is he doing?
Encouraging….seems we are not playing tippy tappy near our own goal and giving Chelsea some ash pickings as we’ve done before…
We will be fortunate to keep a clean sheet though.
Need another goal at least.
What did Bamford do again?
Is he eating first born babies raw ….or just rendering his opinion like everyone else?
Based on our recent history, it’;s not unArsenal to be skeptical about whether we can hold unto a win in the second half.
You don’t like his posts, then ignore him.