… and we’re back

by .

Here we are, back together, ready to indulge in some peak-Barclays viewing today.

So what can we expect away at Manchester City?

A tough game. Sorry to be very obvious here, but Manchester City are hurting at the moment and they really need to impose themselves back on the league.

First game back can go either way. It’s an advantage in one sense, because teams have only had a couple of training sessions to crack the code. The fact that they don’t have KDB and a striker of note is also a big win for us.

Arteta has his side on better paper form, but really, we haven’t blown a game out the park so far this season. This would be a nice one to execute a sound plan really well.

Again, I wouldn’t be expecting us to express ourselves. We’re going to take our chances on the break, we’ll test their centre backs, and we’ll try and play very patiently.

The key is always defence. If David Luiz starts, you’ll know within 6 minutes which one showed up. We can’t have it be the Luiz who came on last time and had one of the worst performances of the season. We need the towering leader of a defender that took us to an FA Cup final win.

It’ll also be interesting to see how tempted the manager is to use Thomas Partey. Suspicion says it’s too early and he’ll go with Xhaka and Ceballos. Hopefully, he’ll see some minutes off the bench.

Nicolas Pepe, on form, could be interesting today. He lit up the last game with his energy and quick passing. Question is, does the manager really trust him? If we’re to have any sort of free-flowing football this year, it’ll likely have to include him. We know he has it in him to be world-class, we just don’t see it often enough.

I don’t have lot to offer today, but we’ll be back with a podcast and a match report tomorrow.

ENJOY THE GAME HAVE YOUR SAY BELOW! x

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grooveydaddy

1st

grooveydaddy

And

grooveydaddy

The

Upstate Gooner

Boom

grooveydaddy

Tr4phy

Kesses+gunner

Tro4phy

grooveydaddy

Damn you,UG!

Upstate Gooner

Not today, boys 🙂

Kesses+gunner

Ooh my top 6

Leftfootcurler

I think it would be xhaka-elneny who start.
Let’s see

OreO

Where is everyone?

Upstate Gooner

Nothing about Everton/Pool game, Pedro? Still think we made a smart choice passing on Ancelotti and rolling with your golden boy Arteta?

Leftfootcurler

Personally I would put Partey in directly.
Yes he hasn’t had much training with this squad but unless there are fitness issues he should play.
His quality will have a bigger impact on the game than other options despite not yet learning about Arteta’s patterns of play and his team mates’s attributes yet.

Would go with Elneny-Partey myself.

Upstate Gooner

Xhaka/Elneny – LOL. We could’ve had Allan/Doucoure instead. And a proper manager. Everton are a decent keeper away from actually challenging for the title, IMHO. Arsenal? We still need three more players. And a clear identity.

Luteo Guenreira

If Torreira who was never getting game time with us is fit enough to start for Atleti…..granted we’re in the big bad Prem but Partey should be starting right away.

Marc

Luteo

It’s not as if our midfield is turning up with the quality of a peak Vieira / Petit CM.

Sid

We have a clear identity – its called hipster park the bus

Marc

Has there been any news on Tierney?

Upstate Gooner

LOL. Indeed, Sid, indeed. Thing is, I don’t mind parking the bus against proper attacking/pressing sides. But if we play like we did against Sheffield United, especially in the first half, it’s gonna be a long season.

China1

I don’t normally follow the women’s PL but let’s take a moment to admire this stat

Arsenal ladies this season

Played 4
Points 12
GD 20 <—-SAVAGE LOL

Upstate Gooner

I would still rather take the game to the big boys, like Everton did against Pool today.

China1

The best part is they either got 4 clean sheets and scored 20 goals which is frankly nuts – or they conceded in which case scored even more LOL

Arsenal ladies are savage. Gotta be rolling with the old ‘everyone has asthma and needs an inhaler’ or all of them were midgets but on a constant supply of growth steroids trick

Bamford10

Sid

“hipster park the bus”

That’s actually pretty funny.

Upstate

Wow, here I thought you were just a blinkered Ozil fan-boy. Turns out you intend to be an Arteta-is-not-a-real-manager antagonist of Pete’s here. Interesting direction to take.

grooveydaddy

China

They lost 4-1 to Chelsea in a cup game.

Also lost to Man City I believe? ?

Receding Hairline

Pedro we didn’t “beat” Liverpool 3 out of 4 times. 2 of those games ended in regulation time draws and went straight to penalties. One was in the charity shield, the other in a cup many don’t mind seeing scrapped.

I am all for bigging up the work Arteta is doing but this beat Liverpool 3 out of 4 times thing doesn’t exactly tell the whole story.

Marc

“If that were Arsenal (who have beaten Liverpool 3 out of the last 4 times)”

League Cup couple of weeks ago and at home in the PL late last season – what was the other one?

Marc

Has forgotten about the Charity Shield.

It’s not a real Trophy.

China1

Receding we did beat Liverpool in those games lol

Since when do penalties not count????

Liverpool couldn’t beat us over regular time in those games and were inferior in penalties.

If losing at penalty shootouts doesn’t count does that mean England haven’t yet been knocked out of most international competitions??? Lol

crimson
Luteo Guenreira

Ugh people from upstate New York are the worst though. Basically Kentuckians masquerading as New Yorkers.

Receding Hairline

As for Everton getting out shot against Liverpool well that is expected when u don’t camp in your own half. They both created 3 big chances and the shots that count, the ones on target was 5-8. Not exactly shocking against a team many call “the best in Europe” when we play them.

Marc

Pedro

“Marc, Community Shield, League (1 win/1 loss), League Cup…”

August seems a long time ago.

Receding Hairline

China yes same way Liverpool couldn’t beat Everton over 90, difference is it didn’t go straight to penalties and we were out shot in all four games.

So mocking Everton for getting out shot is kind of weird.

China1

I’d love to know if we asked the Germans after they beat us on penalties at euro 96 if they felt the win didn’t really count because it wasn’t won in normal time

Also watch the long interview Klopp have after the league cup defeat and tell me he didn’t care. He was incredibly disappointed and openly so.

There’s plenty of room for arteta to improve us, but his record against Liverpool is brilliant.

China1

Receding being out shot alone isn’t a serious measure of a match.

As well, that’s a league game, ofc there were no penalties. What’s not to get?

Upstate Gooner

All I know is that we got our arses handed to us in the only game this season when we came against a decent side. If Villa and Everton can get a result, why can’t we? I guess let’s wait and see how we fair today. Can we do a Leicester and score 5? Surely we can with such stellar squad and manager.

Receding Hairline

Pedro the last time we “beat” Liverpool they had 56% possession, 16 shots on our goal and created 3 big chances to our zero.

China1

Receding the rules of knockout competitions and there to be seen and fair for both teams. If you can’t beat a team over 90 minutes and lose in penalties, you need to take the L because it’s completely legitimate. It’s really that simple

prvhc

Kepa with another blinder…..
Chelsea are going to be a great watch this season with that attack and defence

China1

Yes receding and Wengers arsenal circa 10 years ago would frequently have similar or better stats and come away with draws and defeats from games because we didn’t actually score enough goals to win – which is how you win games.

There are no trophies for number of shots.

Receding Hairline

China I should be asking you that question. Anyways if being out shot isn’t a true measure of the game why is it being presented as evidence Everton were lucky.

Which team do you think performed better against Liverpool? Arsenal or Everton? Let’s not mention Villa who actually beat them in the 90.

raptora

Truth be told Arsenal we were one good strike from Lacazette to grabbing a point at Anfield with their best 11 squad with Alisson and VvD in the team. Alisson and VvD injury is basically what was the difference maker for Liverpool between a 4th place and an EPL winners.

Receding Hairline

“There are no trophies for number of shots ”

Yes which is why I wasn’t the one who brought up the number of shots faced. Keep up

China1

I didn’t watch the game so I don’t know who outplayed who. But simply taking shots is just a stat it doesn’t tell you if you played well.

GunnerDNA

Pepe needs to be in the starting lineup today, there should be no excuse for another terrible Arsenal performance.

Receding Hairline

Lampard is responsible for all Kepa’s blunders going forward. He must not play him, he now has an option.

Just like I will be pissed off of Tierney isn’t available and Kolasinac is allowed on the team bus.

Sid

Arteta fanboys talking about Oziltologists is a case of pot and kettle

Im telling you for free!

China1

And receding it doesn’t address my point – we ‘outplayed my teams in every stat (apart from goals) relentlessly for most of a decade after the invincibles and half the time it meant fuck all because we didn’t win enough games.

Unless you would say all those games we dominated but didn’t win (literally 80% of all games we dropped points in back in the day) also didn’t count?

Pierre

James i like , he has excellent technique , is intelligent, a great weight of pass , can make himself half a yard of space with a drop of the shoulder, a cultured left foot , never looks rushed , a nice deception in his passing, 9 times out of ten will make the correct choice and he has a manager that trusts him….

A quality footballer.

Receding Hairline

Speak for yourself Pedro, I don’t irritate people unless you count as more than one person.

You jumped in with shots faced as way to devalue Everton’s performance without checking to see how we fared in that department when we played them. If the realization we didn’t fare better irritates you that’s on you not me.

Sid

“Sharper finishing” would see Laca be better than Auba LOL

Upstate Gooner

Nick a result? No KdB. No Jesus and probably no Aguero. One of the worst defenses in the league. We should be beating this City side at least by 3-1. And serious questions should be asked of Arteta if we get nothing from this game, and especially if the performance will be as bland as it was against Sheffield United.

Receding Hairline

China at this point you are basically arguing with yourself.

Bamford10

Someone on Twitter is saying Aubameyang not in the squad.

Bamford10

*is

Calypso

Marc
“Has forgotten about the Charity Shield.It’s not a real Trophy.”

Do you think the League Cup and FA Cup are real trophies with so many teams making changes

Upstate Gooner

Ugh people from upstate New York are the worst though. Basically Kentuckians masquerading as New Yorkers.

Thanks, Luteo, I had a chuckle.

Marc

I said last season that the teams we were competing with all had issues. This season it seems even more the case.

Have a feeling it’s going to be a really strange season with a lot of surprises thrown up.

Upstate Gooner

Stop, with the away from home crap, Pedro. It makes no difference whatsoever without fans in the stands.

GunnerDNA

Pedro,

“GunnerDNA, no excuse for a bad performance against one of the best teams in the world away from home?”

You seems to know everything so why did you miss the reports on the City players who aren’t available? Is Liecester and Leeds better team than City? Every comment you think will question MA actions you take offence to it, what’s your problem?

Leftfootcurler

Pierre

James is a world class player.

Would have wanted him at Arsenal myself if he had a good fitness record

Bamford10

Receding

So you know, you don’t irritate me at all. The opposite. You are one of the more reasonable, fair-minded, civil and grounded posters here. Keep doing your thing.

Nelson

Arsenal: Leno, Bellerin, Holding, Gabriel, Tierney, Saka, Xhaka, Ceballos, Willian, Aubameyang, Pepe.

Subs: Runarsson, Luiz, Maitland-Niles, Elneny, Partey, Nketiah, Lacazette

Bamford10

Interesting. Holding, Gabriel & Tierney the three CB’s.

Frost

Xhaka aside. Love that formation. Arteta is learning.

Willian Auba Pepe front 3.

With young Saka in to do what young Saka does. Let’s hit em!

Marc

Interesting line up – would have loved to see Partey start but didn’t expect it.

I do need to ask thought Pedro – if AMN isn’t used for matches like this why did we turn down 20 odd million for him earlier in the season?

Upstate Gooner

against a manager everyone likes and rates.

LOL. Who’s everyone, Pedro?

Calypso

Partey should walk right in the side not benched.

raptora

Oshit. We are starting with Auba down the middle. If we don’t do well I hope it’s not going to be a “I told you that Auba through the middle doesn’t work” strat from Arteta.

https://twitter.com/Arsenal/status/1317488032195497984

Our best team with the exception of Xhaka out and Partey in.

Receding Hairline

Aguero starts, now I’m worried. Was hoping for that pretender Gabriel Jesus. Good thing Aguero is rusty.

Sofa score thinks Pepe is playing CF.

Havyn

Why did we buy Soares who’s not even on the bench if you question AMN on the bench

Leftfootcurler

Arteta playing Willian-auba-pepe is interesting.

Both Arteta and Emery avoided playing “functional” front 3s because in this squad such a front 3 lacks goals.

How improved Pepe is, would be interesting to see.
He clearly needs to bulk up more but his positioning and his runs would be interesting to see

GunnerDNA

At least he managed to stumble on the right selection for the front 3 but the 3-4-3 formation is just terrible

Marc

Pedro

Negotiate a higher fee then.

Havyn

Aguero is coming out of injury. Not fully matvh fit so relax

raptora

AMN, first choice, rested for the top priority game vs Rapid Vienna.

Luteo Guenreira

Arteta obviously trying to kill Auba’s value by playing him in a position he’s not accustomed to.

raptora

Wolves had a 15m offer turned down. It was obvious the deal was going to close at 20m, you always lowball your first offer. Arteta straight away cancelled their approach, told them AMN is not for sale and they bought another guy. If we wanted to, we’d have 20m in the bank. It’s clear as day.

Vickingz

No way we are winning this match

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