FINALLY, we’re back in the mixer and there are some tasty football games to sink our teeth into this weekend.
Spurs vs City today is the first of the thrillers. Someone is dropping points, maybe both teams. Hopefully, it’s Spurs.
Then we have Leicester vs Liverpool in a top of the table clash. Again, hoping it’s Leicester dropping points.
… and then obviously, the Arsenal take on Leeds in a flashback of yesteryears Super Sunday’s. Jimmy Floyd? Lee Bowyer? Mark Viduka? Oof… some names that make feel a bit queezy.
Mikel Arteta has a lot resting on this game. It’s not pivotal to his future, but it’s a huge test because fans are demanding to see that the club is on the up. There’s a lot of worry that we’re on the slide and it’s terminal. Nail a win against a side everyone seems to think is excellent and we’ll have a nice week.
My uncle is a massive Leeds United fan. I spoke to him yesterday and he has a lot more faith in Arsenal than most of us do. His take is that Arsenal will be wounded and Leeds can’t defend for shit. He’s hoping to score early and take a point. The game plan from Bielsa can only go one way. We’ve seen them ship 8 goals in two games. Surely there’s a clue in there somewhere.
I think we’re hoping that Arteta and his coaching staff have had plenty of time to stew on the conundrum that is our lack of attacking prowess. We’re hoping the team is as fired up as Dani Ceballos after a rogue ‘you mum’ joke flies at him. We want to see a reaction and see off the Villa game as an anomaly.
What we don’t want to see: Lacazette or Auba through the middle
What we do want to see: Big performances from big players and an attacking approach that yields more than two shots on target
Arteta was asked in the press conference if he was feeling a different type of pressure now fans are calling him Fraudteta on the Twitter.com. He answered like Arsene Wenger would. He said the loss last week really hurt him. He will firstly look at his own decisions and try to learn. Overall though, despite saying again that the road back to the top will be bumpy, he’s very optimistic about the future.
Arsenal fans want to know that the people at the club care and we want to know that our new coach who is learning the ropes is actually prepared to the learn the ropes. If nothing changes this weekend, then it’ll start to look like he’s just stubborn. If he changes things and it doesn’t work, it’ll look like he doesn’t know what he’s doing. The job is hard, because we are a long way from the top and fans don’t like to accept that.
The coach is staying positive, he wants more honeymoons, and he seems very confident that he’s taking us on the right journey.
The Leeds game is a great place to try and claw back some points and make a move on the table. Big teams are playing each other this weekend. Points will drop. We need to make them up against a team that will most certainly not be in the top 6 this season.
Should be a fun game. See you in the comments. Listen to the podcast if you haven’t. I added music and cleaned up the sound a bit!
There’s nothing wrong in being under pressure. It’s about how you cope and they seem to be riding this out fairly easily.
The goal was correctly ruled out. Jesus used his forearm to control the ball.
Come on I know it’s Spurs and Jose but credit where credit’s due.
‘Auba outscored Kane last season and the season beforeLet that sink in’
Auba still no match for either Kane or Son, it is plain and obvious.
Kane is definitely better than Auba sadly.
‘Kane is worth 40 mil maximum, will never play for a top club’ – name that tune
Kane & Son are 2 people
Buzzy
Spurs will need a bit of luck here not to concede as well as stout good defending which to be fair to them they have shown as well.
When you give up the game this much to your opponent lady luck needs to be on your side.
It’s called shithousery and I don’t like to see it but it’s probably the best way to beat Man City, Noble victory it will not be though.
Charlie
Do you not see Luiz getting extended?
Seems a pretty important dressing room figure between the youngsters and the Brazilian contingent and he’s still arguably our 2nd best CB.
@Pedro — The Leeds game are typically the games under Wenger we will go with a feeling of easily Winnable. Instead we all dread the feeling of hoping to not get Mauled by the crazy pressing and relentless running from the Leeds players.
Assuming Xakha – Dani – Willock start then the bets we can hope is a Draw – our levels have stooped really low and our identity lost forever.
Ishola,
Is a noble victory rewarded by 4 points?
Rich: “Our lack of creativity and cutting edge predates Arteta, I’m not convinced they’re coaching issues.”
You mean the 2016/17 when we scored 77 goals or the 2017/18 – 74 goals, or the 2018/19 – 73 goals?
In fact 2019/20’s 56 goals scored was our worst goal tally since 1995/96. Well on course for breaking more records.
Mental how people think Auba continued to be played out of positions in favour of players less talented and unlike last season is away from the danger areas and still think Arteta needs more time… He’s been here 11 months.
He doesn’t need more time, he needs to throw out his bedroom wall full of player tactics and actually sort out the simple basic stuff first.
Without Auba we’d probably have cemented ourselves as a mid table team by now.
No Buzzy.
But if Spurs win and get the 3 points they will know they shithoused the result.
It’s called shithouse for a reason.
Mourhino has better players to play the system Arteta is trying to implement at Arsenal; -Two speedy full backs -a real mobile and athletic midfleld, -a plethora of players that can play as attacking midfielder Two truly world class strikers who can also drop deep to create. Like I said before, it Mourhino doesn’t go loco, he will put Spits in a position to truly contend for the title this season. It;s a bizzare season, similar to 2015-2016 because no team is really that much better than the rest. Pepe looks washed out at city and Liverpool can’t get two… Read more »
Weagle I think it’s depends on a few things, Saliba, the movement of others out the door, our general transfer plans and if we see a partner for Gabriel as a priority this summer etc. I can see a one-year deal, but I could also see a coaching role. Depends if Luiz sees himself wanting to continue, or if he wants to return to Benfica for a few years to milk it. But what’s for sure is the only ones I’d bank on are Gabriel, Mari, and Saliba. The rest can leave the building as far as I’m concerned. Maybe… Read more »
* Like I said before, if Mourhino doesn’t go loco, he will put Spuds in a position to truly contend for the title this season
Pretty much nobody beats City by going toe to toe with them though and actually outplaying them. Against pretty much every opponent they will outplay, create the bulk of the chances and dominate the ball.
Their achilles heel has always been being susceptible to pace on the break/fast counter attacks isolating their defenders who Laporte aside are mostly poor 1 vs 1.
Think of some spectacular City defeats between Leicester this season, Lyon last year, Liverpool and Spurs CL exits. All teams that fit that description.
Rich
Why is that Brighton can put up a better performance against Villa than we can?
Do you genuinely believe our squad is worse than theirs?
Sky putting up the average positions of players in the first half.
Not one of the Spuddies is in the oppositions half.
Dissenter
“a real mobile and athletic midfleld,”
I’ll give you Sissoko but NDombele?
Hilarious how De Bruyne left him for dead in that first half play
I haven’t seen anywhere near enough of Mari to call him a shit signing, I don’t know what run of games you lot have seen ahead of me….
Auba has had the best conversion rate in Europe for last 5 years or something.
He’s been feeding off scraps playing LW for us and still has an exceptional goalscoring record for us. (Reached 50 in the least amount of games for Arsenal).
Kane and Auba two different type of strikers. If you need more of a complete forward Kane is the better option. If you need a lethal goalscorer who you only need to score goals for and not much else then Auba is by far the better option.
Shithousing a result would be if they were under meaningful threat comprising of close chances and jammyness. Till now I’d just call it good tactics. Let’s see how it unfolds. I would love to be proven wrong trust me.
And before anyone pipes up about Stones, it’s Barkley all over again. Will take him slinking off to a Villa for 15 mil and playing well before you’re up in arms that he’s a mile better than what we have.
Stones is a flawed player, but a super ball-playing centre half. He’s 26 years old, and Arteta knows him inside out. Could easily see it happening.
Upamecano being subbed off at HT in a losing performance to Frankfurt for none other than big Willi Orban.
Marko? You seeing this shit? Get on the blower ASAP to Julian.
Ishola
So Ndombele is no longer a mobile and athletic midfldler?
CC,
So you defend the acquisition of Mari because a year from now we’d be losing 3 CBs and we’ll be angling towards selling another 2. You’re saying that we might lose 5 defenders next summer, so we bought a defender this summer? And it makes perfect sense for you when: 1. we could have sold CBs this summer or 2. buy a defender IF we actually lose 5 defenders next summer. We have 8 CBs for a full season. You cannot defend that.
Buzzy
It’s not a case of being proven wrong.
We all know that Man City can succumb to shithouse tactics.
Arteta did it to him in the FA Cup.
Shithousing its called.
‘If you need more of a complete forward Kane is the better option. If you need a lethal goalscorer who you only need to score goals for and not much else then Auba is by far the better option.’
Except Kane is every bit as good a goalscorer as Auba is. Their scoring stats are close to identical in fact since Auba has arrived.
Dissenter
“So Ndombele is no longer a mobile and athletic midfldler?”
Not all round no.
He can build up a head of steam when he is running on the ball at times but off the ball suspect and that includes pace wise.
Auba is a quality player and we are fortunate to have him.
What is unfortunate is that Mikel see’s him more as an inside forward who should absolutely be tracking back hard…
It’s not that Mari is a shit signing, just feels a bit unnecessary.
We have 5 CM in the entire squad and not one CAM and 8 CB’s.
Even if it’s just 5m or whatever he cost he’s now stuck on the wagebill too.
City really look toothless and sterile. Tempo of their game nowhere close to what they are capable of playing at, little to no directness in their game. Too early to call but I don’t see them winning the league.
Mari was pointless
I get the loan at the time, it was cheap and worthy of a trial but to sign him permanently when he did nothing of nite in that loan was utter madness.
The two times he played he looked scared , like he didn’t belong. The few minutes he played against city after project restart commenced he was twitchy and uncertain. I thought his injury was very ****. , yet we extended the deal, only to seek to get Gabriel 2 month’s afterwards
Ishola, I bet you blamed Mayweather for shithousing Pacquiao a few years back
First you say that buying Aubameyang when we had Lacazette was a mistake, then you say how buying a 8th CB makes perfect sense.
Gabriel’s transfer is exactly what we did when we bought Aubameyang. You seize an opportunity to substantially upgrade on a position, and you take it. Then you are supposed to sell the weaker player and it’s how you become a better team.
Mari doesn’t make us better, he’s just another body when we have as many Central Backs for 2 normal teams.
We as a team were at our lowest point in decades and who did we hire to get us out of this tricky period that could break us for the next 10 years if things go badly? A novice.
Honestly, 8 CBs seems appropriate of our decision making process in recruitment.
It’s been well over a season now, is it not fair to say that City are going backwards at this stage? Pep has likely taken them as far as he is capable, incredible domestically but still found wanting in Europe.
This Spurs team are going to rip us a new arsehole
City need to get Aguero and Sterling on.
Wenger Eagle
I think Kane is the better striker because he’s the better all round footballer.
Auba can’t hold up the ball or play with his back turned away from goal. Auba can’t operate in some roles effectively but Kane can.
Kane scores ALL types of goals. He was even the best crosser of the ball in the English squad to the 2016 Europe’s.
TBM
It’s hard to see past that at the moment. We’ll go defensive create fuck all and still get caught on the break.
City are working on bringing Messi… Then we’re going to see a resurgence of the number 10 role in modern football as Pep looks to build a solid base behind him and allow him to be free in the middle.
Then City will once again play beautiful free scoring football and we’ll still be arguing over why our LWB is leaving us for City and why Arteta still needs more time.
Mahrez has been absolute toilet today – expect a bid for him in Jan as City go for DS.
Bernardo Silva has got lovely feet but he is not direct at all. Always seems to be moving in an arc kind of shape, needs to be more direct for him to be more effective.
“He was even the best crosser of the ball in the English squad to the 2016 Europe’s.”
If only we had Kane crossing the ball from the left flank instead of Auba..
Sane was a class above for City, they really have missed him since the injury/sale.
City should have signed Zaha or Maximin
They’ve missed David Silva more…
Bale still to come on later.
Kane is playing a Bergkamp esque creator role in this Mourinho set up.
Arteta could never..
“First you say that buying Aubameyang when we had Lacazette was a mistake, then you say how buying a 8th CB makes perfect sense.“ One cost 56 mil and the other cost 4. The two scenarios aren’t the same, one has significant influence on the makeup of the first XI now and beyond meanwhile the other gave us scope to sell this past summer (which we tried and failed to do), but also protects us longer term when we have 3 senior defenders exiting the building for free. Auba was bought as a starter, Mari was not. Such a reductive… Read more »
TR7
Agree. City have collected wide midfielders in Bernardo, Mahrez, Foden but they really do lack that outside direct threat that Sane gave them along with Sterling.
All a bit one-paced as outstanding on the ball as they are.
Just look at what Kane did there, such a complete striker.
City keeper been really poor on both goals.
City need to get their heads out of their arses right now if they want any hope of getting something out of this.
Yeah, I’ve noticed how Mourinho has shaped Kane into a mini Bergkamp too Chris.
Boys and girls, Jose is back!!
Super sub from Mourinho
As I said earlier this is a huge match. I said if spurs win they could end up winning the league…
I stand by that statement they have very smartly assembled a terrific squad full of pace power and scoring prowess. They can smash teams and also shithouse a win mourinho style.
This maybe the year the scum win the league
“juice or sauce is the question”
we’ll know soon enough, all the squad nonsense could turn on him if he ain’t careful.
pissed on the fly, pissed on pepe, pissing on auba, pissing on niles, letting ceballos’ inner twat run amok, terrorising the youts. letting laca hang himself to the detriment of a few.
so many questions need answers, he’s a smarty pants though, so we’ll See:
32% possession at home, 3 shots on goal vs City’s 67% possession and 17 shots on goal.
And it’s 2-0 to Spurs, lol.
Weird how Ederson repeated the exact same error from earlier. What was he thinking?
Pep at fault for not playing Sterling whatever the reason is. He’s the only player in their team at the moment that can score over 20 goals besides Aguero.
No way will we beat those yid cunts . And the worse thing is the wankers look like they could win the league 😭😭. Said it before I’ll say it again, pep’s style of football has been found out, so god knows why Arteta wants to play like city
Said on here a while back though that Man City seemed to be at the end of the road with Pep.
@raptura
Sterling probably broke the non-negotiables…
Kane can’t run as fast as others so Mourinho uses him to lay off passes.
Man City goalie is poor, comes out and doesn’t commit.
I can honestly see the Spud’s getting a win in both of their 2 matches after tonight, will more than likely leave us 10 points off them.
Pep just signed two more years
It pains me to say this but Spurs are miles ahead of us at the moment. I see us losing 4-1 to them in a couple of weeks.
2-0 the bastards are up. But can see Spores were effective defensively although City threw the tub and the baby as well. Looks like Jose had a point to make
No Charlie,
Tell me that Gabriel was a mistake since we had 7 other Central Backs at the time. How it made no sense spending almost 30m. How it was poor strategy when our team had other needs.
Also Pep is being found out he inherited an amazing team of player the bones/foundations of which were founded by mancini. Pep is great manager so for a couple of years he took them to a slightly higher level recording points season but he can’t maintain it and for all the money he has he has assembled a squad which lacks power purpose and leaders. City are flashy but so very fragile mentality wise.
TYAG
“so god knows why Arteta wants to play like city”
He doesn’t play like Man City though.
Man City pass and dominate right up to the opponents penalty area.
When did Arteta do that at Arsenal?
Some passing deep between defenders isn’t Pep ball.
City are definitely going to bid for Saka end of the year.
Why have Aguero on the bench if you’re not going to use him.
Raptora That’s stat padding In the league: 2019/20 56 goals 2018/19 51 goals 2017/18 73 goals In terms of shots, shots on goals, and chance creation, we’ve been sliding for 3-4 seasons now. Ozil is finished, Alexis started to slide, we lost Cazorla, Ramsey, Iwobi, who are all technical players. We replaced with Torreira, Guendouzi who were inexperienced. Aubameyang needs technicians around him, and isn’t a high output player. We wasted £50million on Lacazette, who was a downgrade on Giroud, We lost Mkhitaryan and Ramsey, and replaced with Saka and Ceballos. Ceballos was 23 and Saka 18, in the immediate… Read more »
“No Charlie, Tell me that Gabriel was a mistake since we had 7 other Central Backs at the time. How it made no sense spending almost 30m. How it was poor strategy when our team had other needs.“ Literally everyone wanted a CB, it was one of the priorities of the squad because of all the players we had the best was veteran David Luiz. Another apples to oranges comparison. Explain how that’s the same as spending 56 mil on a CF 4 months after spending 45 mil on….a CF? In fact fuck that, tell me that Ozil was justified… Read more »
WE
Sane was exiles from the 1st team by Pep, Pep never fancied him which was bizarre as he looked like he was becoming the top tier of talent in that side with kdb, sterling.
I know le grove has a hard on for marhrez the hipsters choice of player but Sane for my mind is just more devastating and impactful.
WE
Repeatedly said here that for me Sane was the best player at City in the season they reached 100 points. In fact I would say he was player of the year in the league for me. I don’t get certain decisions of Pep – choosing average Jesus ahead of Kun, offloading Sane, hoarding these wide playmakers who don’t score, making Stones a regular when anyone with an eye could tell he wasn’t good enough. He really is eccentric and weird in some aspects of his management.
London Gunner
You can’t diminish what Pep achieved domestically for a couple of years, he ascended them to new heights that the PL had never seen before. Liverpool finished as runners up with 97 points, unheard of.
But I agree that he has been found out, I think that he’s such an intense personality that his players grow tired of him after a while. Works great until that happens but he burned out at Barca and at Bayern by the end.
Lol Raptora is chatting utter shit. We have been crying out loud for a CB of the calibre of gabriel for years nows and he is been probably our best player this season. Are mistake wasn’t bringing in him but not getting rid of the deadwood CB’s.
City without Kompany and Silva has really weakened them.
Don’t forget that we lost to this City minus De Bruyne..Spurs are miles above us
@london gunner
I agree with you in regards to Sane
Rich
If they are supposed to be goals scored in the PL you’re looking at the wrong column.
Until we get a creative mid who scores we are not going anywhere.
Wenger then Ozil have ruined our club and held us back financially.
Yeah London and TR7 I’m with you both on Sane, have always been a massive fan and preferred him to even Sterling.
More powerful and a better striker of the ball for me, at least before the injury.
The sad thing now is that it’s a case whether Spurs actually fail in regards Arsenal finishing above them.
It’s so clear they have the better overall squad of players.
But this has been the case for a long enough time now.
How the fuck did we get into this position, Being poorly run,
As poor as we are at times ,have a funny feeling we will do Spurs ,we seem to work that way .
Which will be amusing
Lol Pogba not included in OGS squad, probably because Pogba was slagging him off in the media. TBH aside from a very world cup he is quite the overrated player. He is what a tab instagram baller.
@SpanishDave
Until we get a new manager we’re not going anywhere
LG, learn to read. I’m defending both Auba and Gabriel’s buys. We upgraded massively in both occasions. Charlie is arguing that buying Auba was a mistake, cause we had Lacazette, but somehow doesn’t apply the same thing for Gabriel. We had a CF when we bought Aubameyang, we had defenders when we bought Gabriel. If you need to upgrade, you just buy. Charlie still thinks that Lacazette is a better forward than Aubameyang is the end line after being proven wrong time and time again. Went as far to saying that Lacazette is just out of form at the moment.… Read more »
@Thank you and goodnight
We’re going down until then…
People are over rating the Spud’s squad and giving Arteta excuses with ours.
We have enough quality to be doing better.
@London gunner
I’ve always said that pogba is massively overrated. I remember having an argument on here with someone who tried to tell me pogba was a better player than Viera.
Raptora
Again proving your ability to grasp what’s being said is painfully lacking.
It’s all dead simple for you, if a player is world class you buy them irrespective of what’s needed in the team. Elite stuff, that’s why we’re the attacking marvel we see today.
City were at their absolute best when Toure was on song. Easily one of the best mids ever to grace the PL for me. Pep fell out with him too.
Marc
Spurs have the better overall squad than Arsenal and this has been the case for several seasons. More progressive squad.
Very painful but there it is.
Games needed to score 50 goals for Arsenal:
Lacazette – 50 goals, 129 games
Aubameyang – 50 goals, 78 games
End of topic.
Nothing like a couple of hundred million to fix Pep being found out.