Welcome to Monday. I’m back at work. So are you. Life is shit and miserable.
Still, at least we can bask in the mini-glow of a decent run of three wins.
Chelsea fans? They are probably not feeling so good right now. Frank Lampard started the season badly and was called a fraud, then he had his team firing and he was lauded as the real deal, now he’s back on fraud watch because Chelsea lost again.
The hammer normally drops at Chelsea. Their owner has no time for sympathy or feelings of nostalgia. Though I will say, nearly every manager has had fans calling for their head this season. Ole G had United sniffing around Poch, now they’re apparently going to win the league. Jose was the king for a bit, then he dipped and Spurs fans were crying about their savagely bad football, now he’s somewhere in the middle. Carlo has had it. Nuno is getting it. It’s hard to make rash decisions when there are 10 points between 1st and 12th.
Arsenal has a very important three games coming up. We play Newcastle in the FA Cup, which is a back door to Europe, so we need to take it seriously again. Then we have two 6 pointers against Newcastle and Crystal Palace in the league. All three games are at home. Really, it’s essential we win all three.
In the league, Wolves and Everton are playing + Spurs and Villa. Adding three points moves us closer or further past a rival in the first weekend.
The weekend after Villa and Everton play. United and Everton. Leicester and Southampton.
Our Premier League games are on the easier side. We simply have to make them count. Palace have been all over the place this season, we know they can damage us, but if we’re on form, we should have enough. Newcastle are a really bland team, but they are capable of parking the bus and nicking draws. The shit teams are more often than not the problem. We need to find a way.
The two key games that’ll shape our season big-time are at the end of the month. If we can head into the Southampton and United games on wave of confidence, and deliver, then we’ll be in the running for top 4 this season. If we sputter into those games, and our top 4 hopes rest on them, I’m not sure we’ll have enough.
Southampton has a ghastly run of fixtures heading into our game facing Liverpool, Leicester, and Leeds. United has an extra game squeezed in and one less day of rest before we play.
People have been comparing Arteta’s December escape from hell to the sort of thing Wenger used to do. Say what you will, but Emery didn’t stop the rot from Jan 2019 until he was sacked.
The true Wenger signature move wasn’t escaping bad runs, it was looking well and truly out of the #Top4Trophy race, then delivering it against the odds.
I don’t want to start hyping people about the idea, because it feels a bit lost in this terrible season, but we do have some things Wenger had going for him.
LIKE A NEW SIGNING
An absolute Wenger classic. After he’d crushed his players before December by overplaying his faves, our best players would come back to fitness around the end of January. Those players had a forced break, they were fresh, and they could drive us when others in the race were leggy.
Arteta has his marquee signing from the summer coming back into the side. We’ve had him for 2.5 games. If he comes back ready, he’ll be immense for a side that needs his qualities. Gabriel Martinelli might not be scoring goals yet, but his impact on the backend of this season could be very much like the one Anelka had but on a less grandiose level. We’ve also discovered a young talent in Smith Rowe. He’s fit, he’s hungry and he doesn’t have the weight of half a season in his legs.
AN ACTUAL SIGNING
Can we really look past Andrey Arshavin as the ultimate #Top4Saviour? The little Russian landed in the Premier League and set it alight until he discovered North London takeaways. He arrived saying ‘I AM GOONER’, we all fell in love with him, and he helped us smash top 4 with 9 assists and 6 goals in 15 or so games.
Arsenal needs to make a smart January signing. We are desperate for a creative solution that fits the profile of what Arteta needs. The signing cannot be a glamour name for the sake of it. It needs to be someone that knows the league, can run, that is looking to shop window themselves. KSE shouldn’t be wasting the little money we have on perm signings that’ll come at a premium and stink of panic.
FALLING UP THE STAIRS
Wenger always found a way in the end. It might not have been pretty, but he always found a formula that let him scrape by. Whether it was that legendary back 5 that took us to the Champions League final, the discovery that Coquelin and Santi were quite good, or Mikel and Aaron… there was always a way.
Arteta has been mainlining Old Players, the street equivalent of cooking up dishwasher cubes. He’s been slipped something new though, that’s HUNGRY TALENT, the high is hopefully addicting, and maybe he’ll keep doing it now he understands the error of his ways.
The system he has now works. Hunger, energy, with technicians built for the vision. We need to remember how we fell up the stairs and stick with it, even if there are inevitable bumps in the road.
EXITING HELL
Final one, generally, Wenger would have his nightmare in November, or February. That’d be it then for the season. We had ours through October, November, and December. There’s a chance we might have knocked it out of the system. Sure, we’ll lose games, but the hope is the worst of our bad runs might be over.
All of the above is a big fantasy. We could get done by an Andy Carroll 93rd minute header, followed by Zaha reminding us why he’s the boss in the Ivorian national team. Us Arsenal fans NEVER learn not to touch the extremely painful HOPE button, but fuck it… it’s the first Monday of the year, no one wants to be reading warnings, so have a great day, listen to my podcast RIGHT NOW, then I’ll see you in the comments.
Do we know guys does Salina have good pace as Holding and Mari are not the quickest. Would be good to have to pacey centre backs
*Saliba f**k auto correction
@ John,
Good one!
I think the under 11s would keep Willian out of the starting 11 😉
And Xhaka’s spot would be at risk too
So the lock down measures have now been announced.
Sporting Measures
1. EPL can continue.
2. All Amateur Sport including Golf and Tennis will stop. Pierre has my sympathy.
3. Gyms must all close
4. You can do your exercise, but hopefully fewer people will go to Hampstead Heath. The
numbers in recent weeks have been horrendous.
Wow good people of Le G never thought my post about Ozil and feeding school kids would lead to such a debate. Seriously love you guys. Each other’s opinion is a valid one and you all have broardend my limited knowledge on economics and politics to name just 2 topics.. This is freedom of speech at its best and btw Ozil and his team never announced he was doing what he was doing publically to garner favour. Whatever his reasons or how much it actually cost him or not it’s still a bloody good thing to do. Peace
Living by a beauty spot as your local spot for exersize has become difficult to keep your distance. I was on the beach the weekend after Christmas and it was like walking down Wembley way
Yeah Saliba is quick for his size and likes to play a high line. Also good with his feet.
Basically all the scouting reports have nothing but glowing reviews.. which is why the way Arsenal has handled him is bizarre as hell.. especially given what we paid for a 19 yr old kid. We were buying a player near starting in the PL not a loan out prospect.
@ET
On this trajectory, I would not be surprised if there is a lockdown 4 down the road.
They should take the bull by the horns
Living by a beauty spot as your local spot for exersize has become difficult to keep your distance.
>>>>>>>>
Luckily I live in a shit hole. 🙂
Midwest
it’s down to arteta and a personality issue.
sometimes managers come in and just hate specific personalities in the team for no reason.
I think salib’s insta post to guendouzi highlighted this and its got nothing to do with footballing reasons and saliba not being ready.
Left, so sorry my friend lol
With Tier-4 until mid Feb, how long before we see Footie being suspended?
London-
Could be Matty G related.. I don’t know.. Arteta really has a hard on for Matty G. There must be more to the story we all don’t know. Training ground meltdown.. with words you cant take back or something similar.
Wow I totally forgot Shaqiri played for Pool. And there he is replacing Ox.
Jordan Henderson is Pool’s CB. LOL!
Left – I agree with the sentiment on Saliba but it seems clear he needs to get some real game time and it will do him no good to be thrust into our defence at the moment. Mustafi is out in the summer assuming Arteta doesnt have another brain freeze by offering him a new contract again.
I hope similarly that he and Gabriel our choice CBs with Mari and Holding as back up. That could be a very
Northbanker, yes that potentially be a good 4
*could be
Though I think Holding needs to play regularly to get to his best level. Like most players I guess
‘ sometimes managers come in and just hate specific personalities in the team for no reason.’
London gunner maybe a life changing event like losing both your parents has affected him more than is been alluded to. Some people can deal with it/manage it more than other. Bravado on line isn’t making me think otherwise.
So we have to pay for the government’s failure to build and provide more bed spaces for the rising population.We have the lowest number of beds per head of population in Europe.
We don’t have enough nurses and the nightingale hospitals are empty.
But we must forsake our jobs and family life to save the NHs.
Unreal
wilko
then he would be going on compationate leave and wrapped in cotton wall not loaned to a team where he is likely to be a starter and be playing lots of minutes.
would you guys go for ox on loan for 6 months.
You’re not on compassionate leave for 6
Months London.
They missed his window for a loan in the summer and he was too fucked up to be called in to the main squads in place of more established and senior players.
Not that hard to grasp but suppose it is if you’re always looking for a negative.
Do we know for certain that Arteta has clashed personalities with Saliba?
wilko
I back the manager and called for arteta to have more time do hardly negative. I just know that in business personalities get in the way of logical decision making.
doesn’t mean arteta should be sacked or is shit in other areas but I do think its a weakness he needs to iron out. You need ego to be a top manager they all do but he should use that ego and direct it in the right way not take it out on what many expert belive is a top of the top tier young talent.
I think we ran our course on Ox. I hope we aren’t just looking at loan deals to be honest.. I don’t think Loanees ever really give us much. Unless it’s a loan with a buy option. As long as we have basically fucked ourselves this season lets build for the future.
Still remembering Andrey scoring 4 against Pool. What a player, huge impact upon his arrival. Wenger worked his magic back then, constantly telling the press he was too small and physically weak for the premier league before going and sign him
Loved Arshavin and then also was hugely disappointed in the long run.. Bit like Ozil.
Shame he chucked him out on the left wing though, don’t think we got the best out of him in the following seasons
Southampton have the look of Leicester City.. the year they won the League… winning matches they have no business winning.
Ah the Champions League run. My heart stings every time I think about that final. What if we took off Hleb instead of Pires? What if Henry buried one of those one on ones he had? What if Lehman didn’t get a red card?
Sal please no, that still hurts
No Idea how Soton won that one… Smoke and mirrors. ….Hasenhuttl crying like a baby.
Southampton deserved that, defended well and could have nicked another goal.
mid
Could this be Manchester United year?
So are we still thinking Southampton will be one of our easy games?
London-
God.. I hope not.. I wonder what would be worse.. Manc U winning the League or Pool repeating back to back.
There’s only one team winning the league this season and it’s not United or liverpool
Mid,. Only one thing worse than either of those two winiing is the spuds winning
John G._
My mind doesn’t even go there. 😀
Another Leicester City Champions year?
Could well turn out something like that
John, I know mate 😞.
City got a decent run coming up in the league. Brighton, Palace, Villa, WBA, Sheffield Utd, Burnley before Liverpool at Anfield. They could be sitting comfortably at top heading into that game.
The thing is we are still just 9 points behind top 4 (assuming that ManCity win at least one of their two games in hand).
Everybody seems to drop points whenever they look like reaching the top.
The best thing that came out of the team meeting with Arteta is not some players having the to call him about his favouritism but them telling him that his constant screaming of instructions by the sideline was distracting. He seems to have taken that on board.
His constant screeching was driving me nuts.
For the last three games, no more:
DANY, DANY, PASS THE BALL TO XHAKA.
Make what you will of Fofana’s tweet on Saliba “he’s finally free”. That’s the second time I can recall that he has felt ‘trapped’ at arsenal, considering his tweets with guendouzi earlier in the season. “Hahaha, I’m sending well wishes to the brother that was locked up like me.” As well as that awkward chat between Saliba and Laca being quizzed on French players who have played for Arsenal, and Laca said ‘Saliba’, to which he replied along the lines of ‘I haven’t played, I’m not an arsenal player’ And people are trying to tell me Guen and Saliba are… Read more »
Val what’s all this team meeting stuff? Did the squad pick their own formation overruling Arteta as well?😂😂
Valentin, Arteta has been shouting from the touchlines for the last 3 games.
Dude for real. Disgraceful thing what Arteta did to Saliba. Can’t remember for a worse thing an Arsenal manager has done to any of our players in my time.
Talk Nketiah could be on his way out
£15-£20mill
Wolves + Brighton apparently interested.
If it happens?
Hopefully we can tie down Balogun.
30m pound player being locked in the reserves for doing nothing wrong is a joke of a decision.
Pedro
I’m going to have to side with Val on this one despite how much that hurts my soul. Arteta has been screaming much less during games in the last few games, thankfully, was annoying as fuck and can only imagine how distracting and annoying it would have been for the players to be micro managed like that.
Rich
For real? Snap their hands off. Might convince Balogun to stay as well.
No point persisting with the clearly less talented bunch of Willock, Eddie, Nelson (although I think he can make it if he gets his act together) when we have a new wave of talented youngsters coming up. They can’t all make it and this way we make some good money too so we can improve the first XI.
Would add AMN to that list of players we should sell too, although he’s a couple of years older, far too sloppy to be a starter for us. Decent cover as wing back but if we get an offer for 20m+ then sell. Gotta make the english premium work in our favour for once.
Rap, I agree mate. It’s such a bizarre decision. We should have been utilising him instead of Luiz and Mustafi, who both aren’t up to standard and both are heading off at the end of the season (? I could be wrong with mustafis contract). The fact he got no playing time in Europa or the cups is a proper noggin scratcher. Also my 2 cents on Ozil is that I can’t believe people think Ozil will give 100% to Arteta considering this whole episode. Ozil is a twat, he couldn’t give 2 shits anymore. Well he hasn’t really for… Read more »
Freddie,
The worst part considering hindsight and how little he has played, as well as the fact most would have taken money for him at last 2 tw, why did we not take the 20 odd mill for AMN?
It seems like praising Ozil got him sidelined? I obviously don’t know what happened. Like surely he didn’t do much wrong on the training pitch to go from playing big matches and having a good impact on the game, to doing jack shit and not getting proper minutes after having a 20 mil move for him rejected.
Goober
Yeah I don’t get it. Some here still sees AMN as this great player that would transform our midfield if he just got a chance but he’s sloppier than Xhaka in his play ffs, it would be a disaster.
If we took the 20m offered last summer and brought in Szobozslai or Buendia then like many were calling for our season so far could have looked very different.
Freddie, I am glad that I am not the only one who spotted that. He still scream, but it is more general instructions rather than specific “X, X, Pass the ball to Y”. I always thought that those were counter productive. If that was the pass that the player intended to do anyway, he had to register the instruction and therefore that slowed him down. If it was not the pass that the player intended to do, maybe the original pass was the better choice but even if it was not now the opposition know where the ball is going… Read more »
Freddie that’s exactly it. Our squad building has been sooo shit for soooo long. But why when offers were coming in, with the team not being even ‘top 4 quality’ to some; and having a lack of funds; and having a bloated squad, why did we not sell some of the players who were actually going to make us money that we had solid bids for which could have bought in one or two quality players we desperately needed. Kola sok, mustafi, Luiz, Ozil, Ceballos are all players who aren’t going to make us a cent leaving on frees or… Read more »
“There is no way players would have been able to execute the 2nd goal against WestBrom by following Arteta touchline instructions.”
Haha I mean Spanish is a quick language but even in Spanish he couldn’t talk faster than that play 😂.
He needs to just chill and trust his work on the training ground. If that goal is anything to go by he is slowly getting to where we will be playing a lot better football.
Pierre “And there lies the problem with the obsessives, as they lose all sense of perspective.” This is quite ironic, considering you can’t deal with the fact Ozil has 6 goals and 4 assists since the start of 2018/19 season; and definitely can’t understand that bringing him back now would mean Arteta and the club has caved into allowing a petulant brat to get away with doing shit all for the team over a few seasons and making it all about himself. He’s not a team player anymore. He’s a self indulged gamer making an absolute killing taking this club… Read more »
Goal.com had an article on lacazette and his contract situation with Auba as the main picture.
Dumbasses
What a day at LG.
Pierre (as usual) kicking off the Özil debate (just joking.) Özil is a part of our past, not our future. Forget him.
Rich (as usual) starting a political shitstorm. Stick to football Rich, you are at least interesting to read on the topic. It’s obvious to me that England’s decline began with the closures of the workhouses and poorhouses. They kept the poor off the streets and out of sight of the delicate English roses. Bring them back I say.
Gg
“Why was Partey bought at the very last second.”
I read that Arteta wanted Aouar. Only at the 11 hour he gave up and settled on Partey.
Yeah Nelson, this is why promoting Arteta to edus level was a joke.
We need tech director who has the balls to make the tough decisions, in an appropriate time frame and also a head coach who isn’t going to be a proper bitch about players someone else bought him.
Now that they are both on the same level playing field, we got stitched up with 1, not selling players Arteta wanted to coach to greatness, And 2, too much time spent not being able to agree on what’s needed.
I get that the head coach should at least have a say on incomings and outgoings. But it should be tech director pulling the trigger and aligning those players with ‘arsenal values’ and the project they want to build on long term.
I think Partey will end up being a better buy than Aouar.
This fella never seemed that keen on joining us. Is happy where he is at.
Wants Zidane most likely so forget him.
TP will come good. Put a proper DM or B2b with him and we will do much better than the backwards passing CM we have.
Valentin
Agreed, the barking of orders from the sideline was part of the issue in the beginning. Along with his rigid ridiculous game plans.
Ive been saying this from day one, let the players imrpovise. Let them have freedom in training to get to know one another and develop chemistry.
The kids have it… those guys have been with each other for years.
ESR and Saka combine well. They know where the other will be and how they like to recieve the ball.
We cannot match Citeh financially so we can’t expect to have every position filled with top quality players. Someone like Elneny if fine for cm ATM. He’s a hardworking pro who gives 110% every game, he’s shown he can work well with Thomas. He’s not a long term prospect and if we get an offer for him in Jan, then sell, otherwise he’ll do a job for us till summer.
Bo
Reports in Turkey had claimed that Besiktas want to make a permanent move for Elneny and are readying a bid of €7m
Arteta wants to keep him.
Nelson
I read that report myself and posted it on the blog yesterday but this morning I saw that it was just a rumour, that no offer was on the table.
whatever we can do to rid of El neny please do it.
This guy is great as a sub only, when we are comfortably leading
His displays of late are terrible. He is scared, back passes, offers nothing in attack or even defense. He sits way too far back. He is almost another CB the way he plays.
A nice guy yes but now what we need. if any team is offering $ take it…. time to start the rebuild now
‘Gotta make the English premium work in our favour for once’
We made about 70-75m on Ox and Iwobi. Granted iwobi’s passport is Nigerian but he’s a home grown academy player who is as English as anyone else we’ve had
Realistically both players combined were worth no more than 40m
That was a killing!
Xhaka should go before el Neny. El Neny is not good enough to be starting 11 but he’s a cheap and cheerful squad player. Xhaka is a worse player, higher wages, bad attitude and higher market value
If you’re going to flog a CM, flog Xhaka, replace with quality and drop el Neny to be a squad player where he belongs
I’d sell chaka, the teachers pet first. Followed by mustardi.
I think the players are more United, hence why ozil has a lot of support, sadly the manager can’t bin everyone who’s against him, so he has to pick and choose, and he chose the youngsters.
Saliba needs to be put in the team, if I had to choose between a proven prospect and a rumoured generational coach (sauce), I know who I want.
Pedro Read the blog post, and I feel like I need to warn you not to get too optimistic. My brother who is a chelsea fan was gloating after a few wins, how he felt chelsea can go undefeated and win the league, next thing he knows, couple of losses, sitting in 6th with the managers head on the chopping board. Arteta failed to win for a long time, that time will come again soon. I don’t buy that he’s figured anything out, everything happened by luck for him. The luiz debacle, gabriel and martinelli back and ready, along with… Read more »
There are those Arteta supporters who said that we should trust Arteta’s judgement that Saliba is not good enough to start. But we all know how good is Arteta’s evaluation of talent. He has started Kola multiple times as one of the three CB’s. He has also started Rúnarsson as our GK.
Gonsterous
You could say the same for Ole as well then . Luck only factors in when youre winning ? What about bad luck with red cards and injuries then. I think a fair assessment of him can be done at the end of season . What he acheives ( Europa , Fa cup and PL top6 ) .
China
“We made about 70-75m on Ox and Iwobi. Granted iwobi’s passport is Nigerian but he’s a home grown academy player who is as English as anyone else we’ve hadRealistically both players combined were worth no more than 40m”
You’re right. So we’ll have to make the english premium work in our favour for thrice? Doesn’t have the same ring to it though. Get rid of AMN and Eddie for 40m and we’d be laughing all the way to the bank.
Divine Sherlock
Many managers don’t win any trophies at the end of the season, that’s not a barometer for how good a manager is. That’s just an assessment of the season and the team.
A manager is assessed more than just trophies, it’s why poch and bielsa are highly rated. They haven’t won anything in England but people still know how good they are. Arteta on the other hand has won a FA cup but can he be categorized as being better tHan the above two?
El Neny and xhaka need to be gone.
I think we can do a lot better- it is not that hard to replace these with better
Fergie could make average players work hard and give it their all and he won CL with lesser players. Pep on the other hand, needs 11 world class players to win the PL. Pep is a good manager but he wins games because his team is good, rather than his tactics and management.
Fergie
Management 80%
Players 20%
Pep
Management 30%
Players 70%
That’s the influence the manager has on the team. The numbers are just a rough guide, I’m not claiming that it’s picked from a website.
Gonsterous
Highly rated or not , Do you think Poch will survive if doesnt win anything at PSG ?
Gonsterous
Fergie won the CL with Ronaldo , Scholes , Ferdinand , Rooney , Van Der Sar , Ryan Giggs and Vidic in the team . Only a fool would call them lesser players.
Poch has some weird 18 month contract
Goes to show how serious PSG is …. they dont over pay or over commit
Fergies CL winning team was quality but it also had a handful of extremely average players making frequent/weekly appearances. O’Shea, fletcher, Anderson etc were all some way off that level but they never dropped the ball as a team
But the last PL fergie won was a pretty average team. Lost of quality players on their last legs, some genuinely average players in and around the team – but he still won the league. Fucking RVP…
I think Arsenal should sign me up on loan for the next 6 months, I have a cooked back and won’t be match fit for most of it though 😂😂
Gotta love Kimmy kalstrom.
I mean that’s only fair isn’t it??
I’m definitely left wing and played CB DM most of my career
As in a cheap left wing alternative **
Anyway the point about pep stands. He dominated with Barca, sure, but he had the best club team likely of all time. Getting xavi, iniesta, Messi, Henry and chums to dominate is hardly rocket science
Fucking RVP indeed China!
It’s funny though, his message upon leaving should have been the catalyst for a managerial change. But alas Wenger was running the shop and didn’t give 2 shits.
Goober we’ve surely signed worse
I think you’ve done enough to make the bench at least!
Fucking pep signing cesc..
He had xavi and iniesta. Signing cesc was just a Barca flex
Fucking bastards
I sure won’t be complaining if Barca does another classic flex and throw money at us for Bellerin just because he’s a former la masia player
Let’s be honest, that’s the only reason they’re interested
“I’m definitely left wing and played CB DM most of my career”
Funny Goober it’s always sounded like you are a one man company beer tasting aficionado.
Were you ever sober enough to play? lol
I love Barca for that aspet. They are highly impractical when it comes to these things. Anyone with a hint of Barca DNA makes them pee their pants, cry, spend tons of money and declare their undying love for the team…
Complete basket cases….
Take Bell please…. pay us 20 plus and just take him
As a player I am a horrible cross between xhaka and ozil I have the speed, turning circle of xhaka. Zero flair or trickery to boot and I’m not press resistant in the slightest unless I pass backwards I’m also lazy with no stamina and don’t run unless really necessary (ozil) and can sometimes (often) vanish against tough opposition. But if i have time to look up and turn I will play an absolutely savage through ball if I have runners and movement ahead of me In games where I get pressed I’m a real shitter. in games where I’m… Read more »
Dont worry China,
Tony and I are speed merchants and flat track bullies.
We will finish your killer through ball any time…
LG team of the year – the three of us!