League run starts with the Cup

by .

Come on guys, pull yourself together. Get out from under that Invincibles duvet, wipe the tears from your face, and gear yourself up for another restart to our jittery season.

The weekend was kind to us, it metaphorically lay on the bed with us and stroked our hair. Spurs lost to Wolves. Chelsea were lucky to pick up a draw against Bournemouth. United were OUTRAGEOUSLY lucky to get away with another VAR disasterclass in their Everton draw. Liverpool let us in with a sniff and LOST against Watford.

Let’s talk about that. If you can’t enjoy that as an Arsenal fan you’re a fucking weirdo. Can’t have all these dickheads out here telling fans they’re not elite for celebrating the continuity of the greatest Premier League record of all time. Nihilist football fans are an absolute scourge, we had to put up with that lot when they were trying to tear down passion as a staple requirement, they whine about the transfer window… I won’t have them willing Liverpool on.

Watford though. What a performance from Nigel Pearson’s team. They absolutely beasted Liverpool. They were VERY unlucky not to win by more. Liverpool were fucked, they have played at an outrageously high level all season. Though I will say this, I think they have fully taken advantage of everyone dropping off this year. It’ll be very interesting to see if they can maintain this next year.

Onto today. With the league opening up again, we have to take advantage. There’s no time for moping around and crying about the situation. The players need to pick themselves up, the manager needs to come armed with a good plan for this evening. The run in the league starts with a positive performance this evening. There’s so much on the line, this summer looks very different if we creep into the top 4. Arteta had this to say.

‘I think the damage caused by the club not being in the Champions League for the third season is really big,’

‘Financially the impact is enormous because the structure of this club is built to be in the Champions League and you can sustain that for one year or two, but then after you have to start making decisions.

‘So we will have to make decisions one way or the other depending on the scenario we find ourselves, whether we are in the Champions League, Europa League or nowhere near that.

‘And we’ll have a very clear plan of what we want to do and depending where we are we have to act like this.’

One of the worst decisions we made this season was to not pull the trigger on Emery before the international break. We should have had a plan in place for a replacement this summer, we all knew where it was going. If we’d gone before the break, Arteta would have had more time with the squad and we’d have been further along with our plan right now. I also suspect we’d have more points in the bag.

If we win our game in hand, we’ll go level with Spurs on points. We’d then be 5 points off 4th and 2 from 5th. I know it’s a massive long shot, but we have to be in the game of hope. It’s basically one game a week for the rest of the season, more time, less effort than some of those around us, and an opportunity to really attack that position and show the fans what we’re made of. This moment would be Arsene Wenger catnip back in the day, just when you thought you were out, he’d put on a run for the ages.

Again, a longshot at this point, but I’m sure Arteta is gunning for it behind the scenes. Our 5 league games are West Ham, Brighton, Southampton, Norwich and Wolves. We absolutely have to win all 5 of those to be within spitting distance heading into our final 5 which are a little more difficult… but if we build momentum, who knows? Spurs are all over the place, Liverpool will be dreaming of back-to-back Champions League finals, and I always fancy us against Leicester, even when they were winning the league.

So it’s a dream big last 10 games. The players have a lot to prove. The manager has the chance to turn sad faces into smiles. The fans have the chance at a little bit of joy in an otherwise miserable season.

The run starts tonight, let’s hope we see a proper cup performance from Arsenal. Ruthless, agressive with some goals.

Also, if you want some grim reading, take a look at this thread from the Swiss Ramble.


Last chance for you to listen to our podcast.

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CazOnARola

Freddie, The club will offer decent money. But because Saka has the number (assists etc) his agent will play hardball. That’s why i was okay with benching Martinelli. Most of these players need to be kept in check otherwise they end up getting their heads in their arses. Whenever someone refuses to sign a contract, they should be benched so that they can sulk there without show casing their talents to suitors. Its a different matter that some Saka is a very good player, the reason he has actual numbers is because of the way Arteta has structured his attacks.… Read more »

Nelson

Subs: Leno, Maitland-Niles, Holding, Xhaka, Ceballos, Pepe, Lacazette

Marc

bris

Sanllehi was DOF when we bought Martinelli and had nothing to do with the Sanchez debacle or Ozil’s contract.

I’m not saying he can walk on water but let’s not give people credit or blame for things they didn’t do / weren’t involved in.

salparadisenyc

Decent bit of rotation tonight and we get to see Mari for the first time.

Habesha Gooner

Seriously Sokratis at rb again? I don’t rate amn at right back that much but he is definitely a better option than Sokratis. Other than that Very good lineup.

TR7

Freddie We should lose close to £25M due to an early exit from Europa. We should incur additional player amortization cost of close to £20M if we take in to account our net player spend last summer. If we finish 7th/8th, we will get less from tv revenue this year compared to last year. We had to pay severance fee to Unai Emery too. I can’t guess by how much should our wage bill go down but unlikely it’s close to £25M to £30M. One would assume Pepe, Luiz etc. are paid good money, not much less than the likes… Read more »

Marc

Don’t want to be that guy but I think Arteta’s fucking up in not giving Saka a rest tonight.

Freddie Ljungberg

Decent XI apart from Sok as Rb, would rather have seen AMN there. Where has he disappeared to?

Too bad Saka can’t get a break but until Tierney and Soares is back he’s our only option there.

Nelson

AMN must have done something seriously wrong to get binned.

Ishola70

If AMN can’t get ahead of Sokratis at RB then he is done.

Fairly Used Gunner

“One of the worst decisions we made this season was to not pull the trigger on Emery before the international break.”

‘Results’ so far hasn’t proved that decision to be an hindsight. And could we please alley to the side Wenger, Emery, Gazidis, Brexit, Trump or whoever caused our downward spiral? The focus is on Arteta now, the past is history, apportioning blames on Emery won’t secure us points.

Marc

Yeah we could have played AMN at LB – he’s not a patch on Saka but we’re playing a League One team.

Marko

Your expertise already way off.> $3 billion+ in overrun costs (ESPN) > Kroenke footing the whole bill, Inglewood not You said 4 billion over budget but sure my expertise is off. Inglewood definitely footing some of the bill given the events already confirmed. Whether it’s through tax payers money or tax incentives they’re definitely contributing. Either way at no point has anyone contributed anything other than speculation to it being connected to Arsenal’s cash reserves. Like I said before we’ve always had them even as far back to Highbury we just love sitting on piles of cash. Probably why Stan… Read more »

Northbanker

Pedro

Game in hand is I believe away at Man City

Just saying !

COYG

Freddie Ljungberg

Tr7

we let go of 900k worth of players in weekly wages, 17 in total, 11 senior players.Pepe is on 140k and Luiz on 125k. Tierney, Ceballos, Martinelli well under 100k each. Can’t be bothered doing the numbers but 25-30 seems reasonable.

Yes we paid off Emery but the year before we paid off Wenger so that is probably breaking even at worst.

Still can’t find where the 50m is coming from?
40m more in sponsorship, the EL loss is covered by the cut in the wage bill. We’ll see though.

CazOnARola

Ishola,
AMN probably doesn’t want to play RB, Arteta might be telling him to show him what he can do in his preferred position in training and earn his chance in Thai position.

Arteta maybe going AMN realizes that he is better off as a RB

CazOnARola

Maybe hoping AMN realizes*

Ishola70

AMN will probably be sold off.

A player that doesn’t really convince in any of his positions.

Shame because when he came on the scene right at the very beginning he looked like he had a little bit about him.

But he has disappointed since that really early stage we saw him.

Marc

I can see AMN being sold in the summer – with the English premium we could pick up £20 odd million for him. A good price for a player who doesn’t seem to have a position let alone a place in the team.

TR7

You can’t say you are starting off with a clean slate and give Xhaka/Mustafi a run of games but freeze out AMN.

Ernest Reed

Mario takes a Walk, Un. Solid guitar playing in the Spanish Guitar sense. After that: Tempest, Air, Dance of Spring. Plenty to listen to, he can bring it.

Leftside

AMN and Holding don’t seem to be fancied at all or haven’t had much of a look in in this regime.

Pierre

Habesha “Seriously Sokratis at rb again? I don’t rate amn at right back that much but he is definitely a better option than Sokratis.” I haven’t seen a lot of Portsmouth but I would imagine Arteta has picked sokratis for his ability in the air more than anything, especially at dead ball situations. We would be woefully weak in the air otherwise with Torreira and Guendouzi in midfield,neither can head a ball. Nelson , Saka, martinelli are not much use either for defending dead ball so I can fully understand sokratis selection. Hopefully this team can put in a similar… Read more »

CazOnARola

Guys we need to stop worrying about the funds unless you actually have the clubs official accounts. There are so many tricks (should say business flexibilities) that ppl use when writing accounts. I hope everyone knows you can carry forward losses/profits based on receivables /payables, many times upto a year or more depending on industry, country etc. Add to that club can also claim amortization of assets and post a loss. In theory you bring forward cost for purchasing of assets to claim s loss as well. Unless we have the official accounts and the numbers, the discussion is absolutely… Read more »

Ernest Reed

“You can’t say you are starting off with a clean slate and give Xhaka/Mustafi a run of games but freeze out AMN.”

Either AMN is not putting effort into practices or he has done something seriously wrong to run a foul of Arteta, TR7

Marko

No complaints about the team. Absolutely love how he’s in no way shape or form keen on AMN. Gives me hope that he’s off in the summer

Champagne Charlie

“You can’t say you are starting off with a clean slate and give Xhaka/Mustafi a run of games but freeze out AMN.“ This link to match days needs severed. Arteta is examining the squad on a day-to-day basis and the judgements being made are largely down to training, attitude, and daily involvements with staff. He said the moment he arrived that he was here to challenge the culture, and that there were non-negotiables. Guendouzi got slapped in Dubai, Ceballos in Jan, and if AMN isn’t walking the line then he won’t get games. That simple. Nothing to do with ‘but… Read more »

Champagne Charlie

“You can’t say you are starting off with a clean slate and give Xhaka/Mustafi a run of games but freeze out AMN.“ This link to match days needs severed. Arteta is examining the squad on a day-to-day basis and the judgements being made are largely down to training, attitude, and daily involvements with staff. He said the moment he arrived that he was here to challenge the culture, and that there were non-negotiables. Guendouzi got slapped in Dubai, Ceballos in Jan, and if AMN isn’t walking the line then he won’t get games. That simple. Nothing to do with ‘but… Read more »

Ernest Reed

“Guys we need to stop worrying about the funds unless you actually have the clubs official accounts.” Based on the MO of KSE, all teams owned by them are built to function on self-sustainable models. They do not appear to be doing anything out of character with their Arsenal investment. What does make Arsenal unique though is that the model of transfer fees is unique to non-North American practices. In North American sports its usually player/talent exchanges and Free Agency is the only real time you would invest financially without compensation in return. Equally, most sports in North America no… Read more »

azed

Pedro

If we don’t make the CL this year, I feel Stan just might be inclined to sell if the right offer came in.

The only reason I believe this is because the EPL and Europe in general are not like sports in the US where everything is a closed loop and no matter how lax you are, you will still survive.

Ernest Reed

“If we don’t make the CL this year, I feel Stan just might be inclined to sell if the right offer came in.”

Highly and remotely doubtful, Azed. KSE do not willingly part with their sports teams. The only exception has been the folding of a league (Arena Football comes to mind). KSE is in the Sports and Entertainment business, they are not selling a prized asset such as Arsenal.

Habesha Gooner

Pierre. Even so It is limiting to have Sokratis at rb. It means we haven’t got an Attacking edge that side. It’s a lowly championship team. I would hope we are going to impose our game on them. And Luiz and Mari are there for defending set pieces.

Marko

You have no idea how Stan’s finances work, so aggressively making out you do when you didn’t even know the stadium costs were overrunning is rich. I mean it sounds like you have even less of a clue but it’s alright for you to make really inaccuracate and often outlandish claims because it’s your blog. I said Inglewood and sponsorship deals will be footing some of the bill as well as the chargers sharing the stadium that’s what it sounds like is happening meanwhile you make a vague claim about Arsenal and it’s cash reserves being used in some way.… Read more »

TR7

Reed/Charlie

We can only guess what transpired behind the scene which led to AMN being sidelined but in case of Guen we know for sure there was a bust up and yet he rightly got a chance again to prove himself. Ceballos requested Real to cancel his loan midway, got a chance to play within days of making the request.

Marko

Also pretty much every stadium goes over budget these days. Anyway should be a nice stadium old Stan is about to have. The Olympic games a wrestle mania the Superbowl

Chris

“ Portsmouth have not beaten Arsenal in any competition since winning a league match 5-4 in March 1958, drawing eight and losing 13 since then.”

UTA, enjoy the game guys.

Pierre

Habesha
What you will find is that if Portsmouth use the high press and stop us passing out from the back , our keeper will use sokratis as the out ball as I believe we may get bullied( without protection) if any high balls are played up to our front 3 .

I expect our keeper to hit any long(ish ) balls out to our right side for sokratis to compete for and flick on for Nelson.

Marko

AMN did play initially though and I remember he cost us a victory and then just stop being picked. I like that it gives me hope that Mikel does have a ruthless nature and doesn’t care about players feelings.in saying that it doesn’t explain Lacazette and Özil playing so much given how much they’ve underperformed

jwl

And it’s Arsenal,
Arsenal FC,
We’re by far the greatest team,
The world has ever seen…

MidwestGun

Sup Ladies? Fa Cup night.. Still has something about it.. Even if I don’t care that much about it anymore. Still have lots of good memories. Should be loud tonight.

Love to see Eddie and Marti get goals

Nelson

Hi there Mid!

TheLegendaryDB10

Come on The Arsenal!!!!

MidwestGun

Camera angle looks like you are right on the pitch.. Got to love small stadiums.

MidwestGun

Hi Nelson.

Danny

Camera angle is awful.

azed

“KSE do not willingly part with their sports teams.”

Ernest
I know that but Sports in the US is totally different from Sports in the rest of the world.
There’s really no punishment for finishing last in the MLS or NBA and with a few trades and the right draft picks, a poor team can compete. This is totally different in Europe as the more you drift away from the top, the harder it is to get back.

Champagne Charlie

TR7

All I’m saying is I’ve no issues with omissions inside two months, and trust that what’s been suggested is being delivered behind the scenes.

The summer window will illuminate the tales of the second half of the season ultimately. Will be very interesting to see who we are willing to let go etc.

TheLegendaryDB10

Was naturally very disappointed by how we dropped out of the EL.

Totally understand that we will have some off moments, just didn’t expect it to actually happen during a key game.

Now we have another cup game to make up a little from that crap Thursday night.

Come on The Arsenal!

MidwestGun

I like it Danny… hahaaha kind of feel likes I’m playing left back..It is a bit close though to see the whole pitch.

Nelson

Mari’s long pass is not bad.

Danny

MidwestGun
Seems like the cameraman/director has corrected the problem down our right.

MidwestGun

Oh yeah right back.. would be more accurate. Chances both ways so far.

Mike Dean is the ref? ugh..

Champagne Charlie

Mike Dean just has one of those faces doesn’t he? Another 90 mins ahead with me desperately hoping he’s victim of a full blooded volley.

Nelson

Reiss tracks back.

R.S.P.C.Arsenal

Once we settle I expect a comfortable win
40

Nelson

I don’t like Eddie’s back pass.

R.S.P.C.Arsenal

Nelson

Massive game for reiss

MidwestGun

Papa Sok… is going to have his work cut out for him.

Nelson

The kids are playing with a high temple

MidwestGun

Oh damn.. LT looked like he twisted something.

TheBayingMob

Oh man, that’s the last thing we need …

Danny

Torreira injured, every fuckin” match we seem to lose someone.

azed

Torriera in some serious pain.

MidwestGun

Stretcher.

Champagne Charlie

Not nice to see Torreira like that, looks a serious one.

Ishola70

Filth.

Gut cut little Torriera in two.

Leftside

Ffs man

R.S.P.C.Arsenal

Dirty Portsmouth cunt

He’s out for a year at least

salparadisenyc

Mike fucking Dean.

R.S.P.C.Arsenal

Murder these cunts with goals…

Ernest Reed

“Mike Dean just has one of those faces doesn’t he? ”

The shifty-eyed weasel look, Charlie?

Ishola70

The fucker purposely went through the man there after winning the ball.

TheBayingMob

I wouldn’t surprised if LT’s ankle got broken there, that or some serious ligament damage …

Nelson

Torr didn’t protect himself. He should have seen the tackle coming from the side. Just give up the ball.

Champagne Charlie

The one and same Ernest.

Maybe he’s a genuinely decent bloke but he looks like a prick.

Marko

Shame we’ve a real lack of quality and numbers in CM we didn’t need that injury

Nelson

Good play from Martinelli

MidwestGun

Nice pass… Papa Sok… Full on 40 yarder. Looks like the plan is get Saka the ball.

Nelson

Will this be our starting 11 for next season????

Ishola70

Yeah Martinelli skinning them there

Champagne Charlie

It was a dirty tackle/follow through, don’t care what Jenas is flapping about in commentary, but he’s certainly not a robust player and spends an inordinate amount of time getting bodied.

Like a year 7 trying to play with the year 11’s at times.

R.S.P.C.Arsenal

I know the player by got the ball but
He recklessly went in for it taking man an ball.
And no card

G

People go on about Chelsea homegrown youngsters..
Martenelli.. Sakha.. Willock.. Reiss.. Eddie..
Balogun
I know martenelli not homegrown but will be a legend

MidwestGun

Could be… starting 11 if we don’t spend any money. Although I’m not convinced Danny Cebs will be here. Pepe is a starter I think. Tierney should get healthy at some point.

Nelson

Eddie! Should shoot instead of carry the ball sideways. You the ST!

Champagne Charlie

Cedric must be fancying his chances as he gets fitter. Could use his physical profile at RB

Nelson

Martinelli is fast.

Danny

G
March 2, 2020 20:10:05
————-
Eddie came from Chelsea……..

Nelson

PapaSok is very slow. Even slower than Bellerin.

Marko

Christ this is shite. Doesn’t help that the ref is a cunt

Matt

Sokratis is a nightmare waiting to happen at right back.

Edu me a favour

Jenas is as annoying on commentary as Owen – as of that wasn’t a bad tackle on Torreira – yeh he got the ball but it’s still a rash challenge that’s caused what looks like a serious injury

Nelson

The cross was a bit behind Martinelli.

MidwestGun

Yeah Papa Sok at RB isn’t good defensively. Kind of like one of those broken Greek statues you see in travel brochures. Although the statue might be more mobile.

Whoa…nice run by Nelson… just a bit too far behind Marti and too hard.

Ishola70

Not comfortable.

Pompey sccum causing some problems

Matt

When the ball gets near our box, we are all chasing it like a bunch of under 7’s leaving two Portsmouth players free all the time.

Left Testicle

Struggling against League One Pompey.