Arteta squirms over press quotes + TIME FOR HALE-ENDERS TO SHINE!

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What’s that you can hear? It’s Arsenal’s Safe Space Thursday™ brought to you in association with Europa League.

NO ONE CAN HURT YOU THERE.

We head to Ireland for a game against Dundalk. I can’t wait. We’re going to see free-flowing football, intricate goals, shots on target, balls into the final third, the passes will be on the ground all game. It’ll be a feast of football and I can’t wait.

Mikel said he’s going to take some of the kids over.

Will Balogun land a start? I hope so.

We’ll certainly see AMN, Eddie, and ESR. We MIGHT even see Miguel Azeez. Might be too early for Patino, but you never know what sort of madness the gaffer might drop after he’s been well and truly told by the fans this week (just kidding).

Tonight won’t mean much in the grand scheme of things, but you know what, who fucking cares? Just give me a 4-0 win to keep me breathing until Burnley smash us at the weekend.

What are we looking for? Signs of life. A clear plan. A little bit of joy.

My hope is that the Hale-Enders smell blood in the water. They need to sense their chance is coming soon, and they need to be extra motivated to put the dossers in the first team to bed. I’ve spoken about that AMN interview all week, because it said to me the young players gossip about the senior players not putting in a shift. Water cooler gossip about how much better you are than the person above you only matters if you eat the chance when it arrives.

We need the kids to show us the way. Arteta needs to prove out what a future with young creative players with athletic profiles could look like. He needs to take every opportunity he can to put a bit of confidence back in the project. Dundalk away is probably the best place to start.

I’ve watched all of Arteta’s press conferences since he joined and the show he put on yesterday was very interesting. He was grilled a little bit and put in situations he struggled to fight his way out of. There were two notable moments he tried to back out of.

The first was being asked about his DAZN Spain statement regarding the need for 5-6 new players to get to a 4-3-3. He really squirmed because he knew he’d fucked up there. He tried to make out he needed some sort of specificity, but he poorly tried to insinuate he could evolve players and he might have some of them in reserve. Super awkward. Everyone knows he needs new players, but you can’t really say that at the start of December if you want a turn out of the bums you’re currently trying to motivate to put their boots on.

He was then asked if the senior players in the league were letting him down. Again, you know he wanted to say OF COURSE THEY ARE, but he tried to smooth his way out by saying he wouldn’t pick the seniors if they were letting him down, and, by the way, he wanted everyone to be reminded he gives the kids games in cup finals and important games.

Not his finest performance. He looked very uncomfortable, usually, he’s very chipper. It’s all getting a bit twitchy. I’d imagine he’s very hurt by how quickly the fans turned this month and how fast the players he pumped have gone down the shitter. Still, no time to feel sorry for yourself, time to get this show BACK on the road.

10 good games in a row and all is forgotten.

He needs that 10 games to start from now. A huge ask, but all the good managers have the stardust to make it happen. Does Mikel? I hope so. I want to go back into the comments section on my own site this year. SO FFS MIKEL PULL IT TOGETHER MAN.

A short one today, but before I go…

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718 Comments
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MidwestGun

That pitch looks like a herd of wild buffalo have been grazing on it for a few weeks.

Montana Gooner

Rugby players are pretty much like a herd of buffalo.

Useroz

Good intercept Esr and good cut back too

Montana Gooner

ESR came to play today.

MidwestGun

Haha Montana.. yeah but how do you explain the watering holes in front of the goals?

Left Testicle

What’s the difference between a buffalo and a bison?
You can’t wash your face in a buffalo.

Valentin

Terraloon,

Willian is not yet a UK citizen.
Willian applied in 2019, he pass the cultural test in February 2020 and can now become a citizenship. He is not yet a citizenship and need to stay a UK resident to avoid having to restart the process from scratch.
https://www.chelsea-news.co/2020/02/willian-passes-british-citizenship-test-future-still-air/

Danny

Marc
Yeah it looks too big to be Dundalk’s stadium.

Dissenter

Left side
Don’t rule out the 5-incher.
It depends on the controller

Danny

Eddie 1-0

Useroz

1 UP. EDDIE

Montana Gooner

Mid, looks like every American pitch in the 80s and 90s that I was forced to play on. Just ignore the yard lines and the base lines, kids. Ours are the yellow ones.

Jim+furnell

Eddie poaches, Mari looking very classy, Chambers passing backwards

Montana Gooner

I’ve got a delay. Spoiler alert

The+Godfather

Good finish by Eddie.
Poachers goal

MidwestGun

NIce!!!! Pierre’s second favorite player with a goal.

Dissenter

Arteta’s selections don’t point towards any discernable pattern of progression.
It’s like he just does Eeny, meeny, miny, moe to decide who starts after Nkettiah’s name is put forward.

Nelson

That is a joke CB. Kick the ball right at Eddie in front of him. Ha! Ha!

bacaryisgod

Nice goal Eddie.

John Munoz

Eddie gets a ton of stick in here but that was a clever finish under pressure from the last defender and the goalie. Good shit.

MidwestGun

Mid, looks like every American pitch in the 80s and 90s that I was forced to play on.
______
I was actually thinking the same thing.. I once played a match on a pitch that had so much water in front of the goal the ball would stop and spin when it hit the muddy patch.

raptora

Good finish vs a pub team that literally passed the ball to him.

Montana Gooner

The best was when half of the pitch was part of the baseball infield.

I like Eddie. My frustration with him is he doesn’t seem to be adding on the other parts of his game. He has good instincts.

TheLegendaryDB10

I can’t be quick enough between finishing at 6pm and switching laptop.

Good to see us 1 up so early but then again, we are talking Dundalk here.

The+Godfather

Really hope I don’t jinx him but Rúnarsson looks so much more comfortable on his feet than Leno. . Look at MustAfi, what a BlunderPuss!

Montana Gooner

*to not on

raptora

What a shot by Elneny!

Danny

So why can’t Elneny shoot like that in the league?

Useroz

2 up enemy

Super 26 yards out!

The+Godfather

@Raptora,

Cmon dude I’m not a fan of Eddie either but that was a clever finish.
He anticipated and stole the ball under pressure chipped the goalie.
Give the man credit when it’s due.

Frost

“Eddie gets a ton of stick in here but that was a clever finish under pressure from the last defender and the goalie. Good shit.”

He’s shit. For a club like arsenal. God finish tho.

Nelson

Mo can score from 25 yard out!

Montana Gooner

Hell yeah Mo

John Munoz

Lol what a rocket by Mo. Great hit.

MidwestGun

That was a fuckin blast and a half.. dude should definitely be starting for us in PL..

The+Godfather

What a goal by Big Mo.

Montana Gooner

ESR with the “assist” created space with his take on

Venga, Dani

MO

The+Godfather

I was just about to say why don’t these guys shoot more and he thumps it home !
Please Arteta let him PLAY ON SUNDAY!

Useroz

“why can’t Elneny shoot like that in the league?

How often Elleny camps around the opposition 18 yard box? Besides he’s busy side and back passing in our own half!

Karsa

Good finish vs a pub team that literally passed the ball to him.

You mean he charged down a clearance.

bacaryisgod

Elneny proving Salah was right to put him on his Dream Team XI with Allison, Van Dijk, Terry, A.Cole, Totti etc!

Useroz

Rubbish shot from pepe

Venga, Dani

Can we somehow hypnotize our players and convince them that Sunday is a Europa League game? Dont we have some sports shrink on payroll?

Marc

I don’t know why any of you would want Elneny to start in the PL when you can have Xhaka start and then be mates with the opposition at full time.

Nelson

Pepe! I expect better than that.

curse

haven’t seen xhaka do that for a while…

salparadisenyc

Pepe w/ a 9 iron.

Montana Gooner

Pepe the model of consistency

Useroz

Great build up though. Esr n Amn

Shit. 1 conceded. Good shot but keeper should do better

John Munoz

This team has energy and movement and show better chemistry than our prem starting 11.

The+Godfather

What a build up by ESR and AMN and a perfect goal ruined by a poor, wild finish by the 72 million waste of space

TheLegendaryDB10

Well had to go get a beer and Mo scores. Is it a case of I leave the room Arsenal scores?

Pfft now I get to see Dundalk score.

Montana Gooner

Well that was unfortunate

The+Godfather

Damn 1-2

Jim+furnell

Emi . . . .

Nelson

The shot was stoppable.

Marc

Arteta you are shit

Valentin

Bad defending from Pablo Mari and bad goalkeeping from Runnar.

Useroz

Pepe should have buried the shot….

Thats the diff between 3 nil and 2 1

MidwestGun

Some shit defending back to reality…

curse

Amn esm interplay top notch.

bacaryisgod

The Hale End group are raw but they have chemistry. Smith-Rowe might prove to be the biggest asset of them all, Saka included.

The+Godfather

Great strike but Rúnarsson has to stop that .
Vicious strike but the height was there to make the save

Danny

The bloke who scored their goal is English.

Marc

bac

I’ve liked the look of ESR for a few years – just need him to shake off the injury problems.

curse

went straight through the keeper. shame

TheLegendaryDB10

Re Mo and his long shots. I seem to remember that he had a good long shot on him when we first bought him. But that got suppressed by AW and his “let’s walk the ball in the net” philosophy.

Nelson

I like the exchange between AMN and ESR. Eddie not so much.

Useroz

Pepe looks so shit

JP

Pepe seems like one of those players who turns up at your 5-a-side and no-one can touch him but has actually never played 11-a-side.

Dissenter

Runnar was signed with the good ole contact system.
The goal keeping coach was the one who brought him in. He earned 6000 weekly at Dijon, then we signed him and put him on 40k weekly.

Useroz

Eddie hasn’t link up play in him, demonstrated during the 26″

Gazzap

Don’t see the need for Willock to play so deep when we have 3 centre backs. Unnecessarily negative.

Jim+furnell

Pepe is shit even at this level

John Munoz

I’m reluctant to give up on Pepe. I feel like there’s a player in there somewhere.

Useroz

It’s a 50/50. Not a yellow.

Montana Gooner

Willock was just sloppy there and caused that whole thing.

MidwestGun

Runnardude like I said earlier looks like every Keeper I see everywhere playing at University, not seeing anything very remarkable about him at all.

Guns of SF

The players do not like playing for Arteta.
This need not be said explicitly but its clear that his methods, personality and man management has already alienated most of the entire team.

He needs to go. We lose to Burnley, I think Edu needs to find his testicles and fire Arteta

Useroz

Pepe is shit even at this level”

Sad isn’t it?

Nelson

Joe likes to carry the ball too much. I prefer Mo, AMN and ESR.

Useroz

Dun is League 1 or lower half Championship level

TheLegendaryDB10

Mid

All they saw was a cheap buy. Very Arsenal.

And indeed very Arsenal to put him on a wage packet that litterally does not match his skill level (which is crap).

curse

Joe’s yellow an absolute nonsense.

ref with the monkey behavior

Useroz

Soares shot v close. Just wide

Nelson

Cedric’s cross/shot looks good.

Left Testicle

I’ve been impressed with Cedric’s throw-in.

Useroz

I rather see how Balogun would do, than Eddie

MidwestGun

Of course the Dundalk Keeper looks like every beer league keeper everywhere.. You know that dude is buying rounds after the match.

Nelson

I think Bellerin will need to say more good things about Arteta on the media to keep his spot.

Paulinho

Pepe is supposed to be brilliant without Bellerin sabotaging him isn’t he? At least that was the pearler proposed the other week.

Montana Gooner

I’ll give Pepe the benefit of the doubt with this pitch.

Raulishuss

God Val always looks for the tiniest excuse to bring out his “I told you runnar is shit and Mari is shit” cape

Montana Gooner

Ainsley having a rough patch

Montana Gooner

Nice hit tho

Nelson

AMN wants to score from 30 yards out.

Danny

Niles shoots on target from 30 yards out, so again like with Elneny, why don’t we do this every match?

bacaryisgod

Valentin

The primary error on their goal was made by Pepe’s half-hearted challenge in the build-up. I love Pepe but we’re getting the half-assed version today.

I can’t wait for Mustafi to be off in the summer. It’s got to the point where I just can’t stand to see his face.

Useroz

Where’s Pepe’s acceleration gone??