Ok, so results didn’t go for us on Sunday. We’re very much up against it as far as the race for top 4 goes, but as we’ve seen in the past, form means little when everyone is shit, but one thing is for sure, results are going to matter.
Chelsea routed Everton. It was embarrassing how bad Carlo’s boys were. Tactically inept, slow, and lacking energy. Quite the opposite of the side that came to play us after 2 weeks rest (and lost, lol).
United beat City fairly comfortably. They sat back, happily let Pep’s team ping the ball around, then caught the fast lads on the counter. It was a horrible day for Ederson, he was beaten at the near post with a fairly soft yet spectacular Martial volley, then he blew the game late on with a terrible bit of distribution. At the highest level, you’ll be punished for being a doughnut, Ederson was that, triple glazed today.
So where does that leave us? In a bit of a tough spot. We either need to put a fallen giant to the sword, or take an over the knee spanking to breath life into a miserable Pep G season. Traditionally, we’ve been a gift for managers that are struggling, so I don’t hold out a lot of hope. The most we can hope for is that we give them a tough game… but if all City have to play for is the Champions League, there’s the potential their minds will be on the European game the week after. That insight is more hope than reality.
Still, what we can deduce from United’s two wins against them this season is that they don’t have a very good backline at the moment. Their keeper has lost his sparkle and their defensive structure does not deal well with pace. We have that in bundles if we want to play the counter-attacking game. Auba, Gabriel, Nelson, Saka and Pepe can all cause problems in a counter-attacking system. The concern is whether we have the defensive confidence to sit back and let City happen to us.
Still, we’ve dealt with United, we had good games against Chelsea, even with 10 men, and you can count on Arteta and his staff really going hard at this one. It’s a game with low expectations from the fans, but one they’ll want to use to prove to the country they were the right people to put in place at a massive club that wants to go back to the top.
Anyway, brief thoughts today. See you in the comments. x
Boom
2
4th
3
tro5hy
OGS doing double on Pep.
Lampard doing well too.
top 10
Pedro
I think City will take us, but it will not be a whipping.
Of course praying for a win
However, I am more interested in how we set and play. Of course the line up as well.
Guarantee that Ozil starts…
If Arteta does not unleash Gabby on City, im sure he must have banged his wife. No other reason
OGS is manager of the season. A true Scandinavian Thundergod.
Never mind.
St Totts day will be seen again this season.
Guns
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorena_Bernal
Ederson’s gaffes came a few days too soon. He should have saved at least one of those for us.
Three errors, with two of them leading to goals, is a lot in one game for a keeper of his stature. If that had been Leno…
Dani C need to be playing from here on out.
He has been showing a great work rate lately and great positioning
good guile, and trying to make thing happen.
No Guen for me… no thanks
I guessed before these results we would finish in Europa league positions and I think it’s going to come true. To be honest I didn’t think we deserved to finish in champions league positions with our season. Everyone has been poor but we have had an atrocious season by any standards. I just hope arteta has the sense to sell all underperforming players and get decent players. We still can fetch over a 100 mil from transfer fees of our players. With good scouting I think we could have decent players. Next season is the when the clock is going… Read more »
Well done to MU for giving Citeh a well-deserved thrashing!
We’ll see how tough city is on Wednesday night!
if Arteta starts Ozil at this rate, i highly doubt that he sells him.
Id keep Dani C if he continues like this.
Xhaka i hope leaves on his own…
Dan C and a real monster CB with pace and recovery would help us big time as well as a true AM
Unnai
Ozil and counter attacking is like oil and water
they do not mix at all.
That would be a disaster.
Bellerin I have serious reservations about as well…. he simply cannot go pace to pace anymore…
Id prefer AMN with his athleticism and quickness over Bell any day. Even Sok.
We need Gabby no matter what
Don: “He’s doing a better job than any of his predecessors post fergie.” Van Gaal wins 52.43% 2014/15 – 4th 2015/16 – 5th + FA Cup Mouninho wins 58.33; 2016/17 6th + League Cup and Europa Cup; 2017/18 2nd Soskjaer wins 52.00% 2018/19 6th 2019/20 5th* You are well aware Mouninho won 2 (3 if you count Community Shield) trophies with them and finished 2nd in the league. Solskjaer is sitting on 5th with 45 pts in 29 games. 37 points off of 1st. Even if he wins all of their 9 games left, which they won’t, he’ll be on… Read more »
Un na
The trouble is that Guendozi is a headless chicken he may be bigger in body mass but his footballing brain is not PL size.
If City have the same amount of possession as they did today they will win easily.
Utd have far more technically astute players and were able to withstand the City onslaught. The likes of Guendozi will be caught out ball watching.
Guns
You seriously want to give Real Madrid 25 – 30 m for Ceballos?
Ishola
Not that much… we can nickle and dime them for about 18-20 i hope!
Well I don’t think Ceballos is really got the sauce Guns.
It’s a case again of a player being over-rated because the rest of the central midfield options being so dodgy.
Ceballos has had enough time to really impress since the start of his loan and really he hasn’t done that overall.
Of course if he had really impressed Real Madrid would have wanted silly money for him or would persevere with him back in Madrid so it was a situation you can’t win with.
Arsenal can do better than Ceballos.
People bigging up United on an Arsenal blog. Never thought I’d see theday. So they beat City.. Its a derby anything can happen.
F Ole and United.
I don’t think Arsenal buy Ceballos.
I don’t think it’s on.
If Arsenal do buy Ceballos we should be asking why Real Madrid are giving him to us on the cheap.
Red light right there.
AMN and energy just don’t mix. Hence why he’s benched…
United have been on their rebuilding journey for a while now, at least since Mourinho/OGS got there. It’s bound to pay off at some point for them. But suggesting that they’re now ready to mount a serious challenge for the title next season is a bit of a stretch. Post-Ferggie/Moyes, they tried to buy their way to success but that didn’t work. What they’re trying to do now is to bring in young and hungry players who truly want to stay at United and grow with the club. Having one of the players from the old generation as manager really… Read more »
Rodney King
“It’s exactly what we should be doing ourselves. Arteta may have to consider doing British-core 2.0.”
If that means no more snail registas I’m all for it.
@Ishola
The Swiss are well-known for taking their time to build high quality timepieces. I’m not surprised to learn that they have slow registas as they seem to take their time with everything, including making chocolate and diamond-studded jewelry.
Are we still talking about football? 😂
Rodney
“in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love – they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock and Granit Xhaka”
UN “””Untied look more of a threat now than at any time since fergie left That’s my opinion”””” And its 100% accurate opinion. OGS fine work as been very much gone under the radar. I predict Manchester City after this season wont finish above Manchester United for the next 25 years. Where City are crumbling – United are on the cusp of greatness again. Their upturn in form has coincided with this Fernandes chap. Who reminds me of our Rambo- scandalously dumped by the Fat Spiv- with his late runs into the box and scoring vital goals. Talking of Rambo… Read more »
Ramsey has an assist as well to go along with his goal.
Pierre
“I always believed Ramsey and Giroud were hindering our progress but unless their replacements are better and just as important, suit the style or philosophy of the manager , then you may as well stick with what you have.”
Who are you and what have you done with the real Pierre?
3 words – ” Get back Ramsey”. That’ll be on your gravestone.
I think we’ll have an announcement tomorrow saying matches are to be played behind closed doors for the next month or so.
I wonder what they’ll do re showing matches on TV.
Un
The government announced on Friday they were meeting with sporting official etc to discuss what measures can be taken.
I’m just looking at what’s going on in Italy etc.
Ramsey’s disastrous debut season continues apace.
Why what’s happened?
Overmars
Haha.It must have been an imposter.
Rambo balling on 1100 minutes.
Laca to atletico rumors popping up
Again… what do we think? Also, mikhi back next season??? What are his wages? Shouldnt we be getting rid of?
Marc
Ramsey must of scored a goal .
That puts him on par with willock this season with 4 goals .
Zach, we can but dream
Pedro / Zach
Don’t suppose we could turn it into a swap move for one of their CM’s?
Marc
“I think we’ll have an announcement tomorrow saying matches are to be played behind closed doors for the next month or so.”
That will have little or no effect on Arsenal as most of the season ticket holders can’t be arsed to turn up and when they do, they arrive ten minutes late and then decide to get a coffee or a beer ten minute before half time and then arrive back ten minute into the 2nd half , and finally they decide to leave ten minutes early.
Pierre, plenty of noise this weekend from where I was listening
Can’t blame folk for not showing in the current climate
Pierre
Ah that explains why I spend most of the matches surrounded by empty seats – and there was me thinking it’s because no one likes me!
On a serious note can someone explain to me why someone would go out to get a drink 5 minutes before the half time whistle and then decide to return to their seat as the entire stadium is trying to get a drink / make the gents?
What sort of fucking idiot can’t wait 3 minutes.
“”””Pierre, plenty of noise this weekend from where I was listening”””” Probably eminating from the West Ham United end. Pierre is RIGHT! Arsenal fans at The Emirates in particular are as wretched as the current team. The fans seem more interested in stuffing their faces with junk food and guzzling watered down beer. And the moaning! Crikey no club supporters moan like Arsenals. What they did do Eboue- utterly despicable. Such a likeable chap too. As for the Manchester City league cup final. Just because Wenger didn’t win a bloody final for once. Arsenal fans sulking,skulking and walking out with… Read more »
Arsenal fans were unreal for Chelsea and United.
What I like about Manure is that they defend with 10 men. Once City advanced the ball into Manure’s half, they were facing two banks of 5. They ran out of ideas to break through.
What I like about Utd is absolutely nothing.
British core United, yet they’ve only stopped being shit after they got Bruno Fernandez in. Goal scored by Martial and their most expensive player is Pogba.
Laca for partey and i’m not complaining. I do think the youngster gueye is who the more likely candidate is.
Thought the two players the spanish journalist mentioned would turn out to be cocku and gueye… i wouldnt complain esp if its another europa season. Speculation for sure, but that would lay groundwork for a return to cl. Realistically, even if we snuck into 5th we would get our asses handed to us in cl at the moment
Maybe the partey thing is a few seasons out…
Un na nai
Why in the world would you have AMN playing midefield against city when he can’t convince Arteta to start him over sokratis at RB?
Against city I just hope we don’t get a spanking and lose confidence for the other matches, 2-0 or less and I would be fine with it as long as we show fight on thr pitch.
OGS did show some tactical nous this game though with no traditional forward as the focal point. The United we saw today are completely changed from the one we faced.
Rocky
I disagree UTD have by and large played very well against the big teams.
The small teams is where UTD have struggled this season…
I have seen us heavily linked with getting Willian on a free next season. He’s a very very good player in my opinion and would provide a decent bit of PL experience in the team, but for me we should stick with the kids, Nelson, Saka, Martinelli and Smith-Rowe as all have the potential to be top quality. Willian would be 32 by the start of the new season, demand a minimum 2 year deal and a hefty wage to compensate for Arsenal not paying a transfer fee. If Ozil and Mhkitaryan (both turning 32 next season) are still around,… Read more »
A high energy midfield is what is needed to beat man c, either of Ceb, dozi, willock with Dozi most advanced.
If we play the Xhakalson to left CB, that predictability and lack of energy will be punished.
I can see the cadre of Arteta fanboys is trying to pre empt things
You heard it here 1st!
“Arteta may have to consider doing British-core 2.0.” A bad idea IMO a) we can’t afford to buy the best British talent as most of the genuinely good ones are too expensive or would rather go to a club in a better state b) virtually no top team has more than 1 or 2 players from their own academy in their starting lineups as the chance of exactly their academy (among hundreds of them) producing so many top talents is very low to say the least. Look at the famed academies of Barca and Real – how many top talents… Read more »
For the City game I think Gabi has to start. Need to learn from the Nuno and OGS blueprint . Both have done a double on City this season. Tight defence and quick counters. Thats how you beat City unless you are Norwich and want to beat them at their own game. Bellerin— Luiz— Mari/Mustafi—- Tierney ——————-Xhaka———- ——Guen——————-Ceballos Pepe/Nelson—–Auba——- Gabi This should be the starting lineup. Hit them on the counter in the first half. Their defence is not solid. Without Laporte they struggle. Mendy/ Zinchenko not good defenders, Theres always a mistake in Stones/ Otamendi , Fernaninho cant catch… Read more »
Second half when they tire due to the no. of games they’ve been playing*
Not with you on Bellerin. He wasn’t great before his injury, now he’s a liability. Would also prefer Willock or even give AMN a try in mid over Guen. Don’t really have options mf to be honest, doubt Xhaka would be a starter if we did.
Riyadh Mahrez vs Xhakalson, there can only be one winner
Im telling you this for free!
Unless AMN gets his attitude right he wont get game time and I’m completely with Arteta on this one. He needs to lay down a marker . When players like Ozil , Auba , Pepe are down to learning , behaving and doing the dirty bits on training and in games whats it with Ainsley. Not like he is a sure fire starter in midfield for England who’s been told to play RB at Arsenal. That leaves Sokratis and Bellerin. And up against Sterling, I think Id rather go with Bellerin. I chose Guen because defensively he is better than… Read more »
Wasn’t the last time we won at Man City when the players decided what tactics to play, worth a shot if all else fails?
In all seriousness, with the best of preparations, we will do extremely well to get anything out of the game on Wednesday.
Chris
You need to be a bit more confident and get behind your team.
You are ruining the blog with your negativity…
Just taking a pragmatic view is all.
I have been largely positive about things since Arteta took over. We are still a long way from seeing the finished article of his team and that isn’t complaining, just a reality.
Wednesday may be a bridge too far at this stage but it will be intriguing to see how we do against a team that will be wounded from yesterday.
Chris
Wasnt arteta in that squad?
Or was it the year after he left?
Zacharse
Pretty sure he didn’t play that day, wasn’t it the Coquelin/Cazorla axis around that time? Cazorla had one of his best games in the shirt if I remember right.
Wasn’t the last time we won at Man City when the players decided what tactics to play, worth a shot if all else fails?
What a masterclass from santi it was!! Santi will 1 leg would probably be better than any player in our current midfield.
This match against Man City will certainly tell us a lot about Arteta for sure. He has to use all his inside knowledge of City + there is a blueprint to defeat them Utd & Wolves have shown . Plus is he flexible enough to use that type of info and play accordingly. Intriguing match for all . Win and we are 5 pts off Chelsea.
Rocky
I remember another in which Arteta scored a screamer . 1-0 to us . against City.
Peps problem is that he refuses to acknowledge his own mistakes. Keeps playing Fernandinho as a CB when he has the mindet but not the physical attributes to play the role. It will be his downfall
Are people there beginning to panic buy at the supermarkets?
It’s crazy here. All stores are out of rice and instant noodles. Not that I buy those things, well not the noodles anyway.
I remember the one rosiky turned city players inside out
Arsenal will finish 7th.
Perish any thoughts of a top six finish.
On the positive side Arsenal are becoming increasingly difficult to beat. Our single loss in January was against Olympiacos in final minute of game. Is the football entertaining to watch? Frankly the answer is no and has been the case under Emery we have been outplayed on a number of occasions including our game on Saturday against West Ham. We know by now that our squad is not particularly strong. That is particularly the case in both defence and midfield. That is also coupled with having a lot of inexperienced players. Most clubs in EPL play with perhaps one or… Read more »
Emirates
Its looking increasingly likely that Lacazette is gonna be the one thats sold . There was a rumor that he asked Griezmann about his house .
.
.
Your thoughts on Lautaro Martinez if we have to sell one of them ?
Bellerin has been playing with a torn groin muscle and on pain killers according to Ornstein. Not sure how smart that is but it explains his lousy form maybe.
Gives hope that it’s just a temporary dip and not the end for him.
If we keep Auba and sell Laca we don’t need a replacement. Just move Martinelli into the middle and use Nketiah as 3rd choice striker.
Really hope it’s true, the squeezing in of Laca by any means has been holding us back for too long.
We may have to buy another LW to compete with Saka though if that happens. Unless we have another youngster coming trough, if not Said Benrahma for 15m would fit the budget nicely.
ES
“Arsenal need to recruit in June two or three equivalent players if we are to progress. The priority should be STARTING X1 replacements and not squad players.”
The fans should be demanding a couple of signings at CM.
Once Ceballos goes back to Spain the options and numbers at CM are pathetic. Xhaka, Guendouzi, Torreira. Not even counting Willock because he has hardly shown in the real top level matches.
And as you say we want to see first team signings at CM.
No more skipping this area with loans.
Looks like veganism has ended bell’s career
Looks like veganism has ended bell’s career
Maybe he can become a comdian like our fellow GOH.
Look at the options Arsenal had for midfield in season 2014/15 Now some here were crocks or coming to the end of their careers but just take a look at the difference for options in midfield compared to now. Flamini, Coquelin, Wilshere, Cazorla, Ramsey, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Arteta, Diaby, Ozil, Rosicky. And you had a few youth midfielders as back-up options such as we see with Willock now. Now look at these midfield options today. Torreira, Xhaka, Guendouzi, Ceballos (loanee), Willock, Ozil. And people wonder why Arsenal don’t qualify for the CL anymore. The difference in options there are startling and frightening.… Read more »
unfortunately we don’t have much hope of top four or five as we don’t have an engine room our midfield is the poorest in the top ten, none of them including ceballos are any good or fit for purpose, questions are beginning to be asked why persist with nketia and Laca when neither are as good as Auba through the middle , why waste the left on Auba when we have better options for the left wing and for the love of god get rid of xhaka and get two CM’S AS SOON AS POSSIBLE THE MIDFIELD IS POOR POOR… Read more »
Sort this shit out.
CM signings in the summer or this club is cheating on the fans.
Ishola
Yes, the number and options in midfield are shocking. To be fair we had it filled with crocks and aging weak players before on combined astronomical wages.
Think it was a case of we had to take 1 step back ( trimming the wage bill) so we can take 2 steps forward this summer after saving some cash. Still have Ozils wages holding us back, that’s 3-4 top young midfielders right there.
Freddie Ljungberg “To be fair we had it filled with crocks and aging weak players before on combined astronomical wages.” Freddie there was still know how and experience for the midfield though which can be important and because of the greater number of options it meant these players could be rotated. Flamini could still put in a shift when required as could Rosicky. Wilshere could be handy when available. And players like Ramsey, Cazorla and even the Ox are above what we have now. Ozil was less of a wet sponge then as compared to now. Arsenal also had about… Read more »
Ishola
I’m not disputing that.
Still think it was the right decision to let all of them go when we did.
No way we were ever going to be able to move forward with that bloated wage bill weighing us down.
Yes we lost a lot of experience and we’re paying for that now on the pitch but what was the alternative? Let them all stay and we’d had even less money to rebuild the squad with.
Unreal how much dross crocks and samey players we have collected over the years.
Don
As Freddie said there were quite a few that were ageing or crocks and did need to be replaced but fucking hell we didn’t expect there to be no replacements for them even if they were being criticised at times then.
The midfield today is like a fucking ghost town compared to 4 years go.
we should really have made more of an effort for Bruno Guimaraes especially now our only average cm torriea is now out for the rest of the season , just think we are going to find it really difficult to win any game now
This is the song for Arsenal’s midfield of 2019/20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W7aBM_gx8Y
“Do you remember the good old days before the Ghost Town”
“People getting angry”
As ‘bad’ as City is at the moment we don’t appear to be able to do what Manure did that is fast pacy attack, counter or not. For me , the starting 11 play like a bunch of geriatrics reminiscing good old days on a Sunday! Take manure’ added time goal for instance. Do you honestly one of ours would even take the shot first time, let alone hitting the target?? Remotely, if Martinelli plays, he may. If that’s PEPE, he’d control the ball and mug around with it for another 5 to 10 seconds while the whole City cavalry… Read more »
honestly *believe*
This United love is in weird are some of you Bamford in disguise?
Un – that’s bizarre, you are including players. That have retired through injury or are still injured. Ramsay is about to be sold .
All those players went due to serious injury issues . They couldn’t be kept fit that’s why they were sold