HELLO I AM BACK.
A sorry mess of a week. I was peeling a potato and a peeled one of my best typing fingers. Not a good look. Though I did realise through the process that the peeler works down the potato… and back up. Did you know that? I did not.
Less about my injured finger, more about Arsenal, I hear you, I hear you.
Thomas Partey is out again. The Ghanaian superstar is struggling once again with injury. I don’t think he’s managed 3 games in a row for us this season, which is pretty devastating considering he barely missed a game during his entire term at Atleti.
A lot of people are asking questions of our medical team. I think that’s a huge miss. The player, for me, is struggling to adapt to a new league, I think there’s some bad luck in there, and you also have to consider what a horrible year it’s been to be in the Premier League. Too many games, too little training, total abuse of the talent that entertains us by the governing bodies.
Most teams are struggling with injury problems this season. We tend to minimise our own issues as impactful on the overall football, but sympathise with others. Our injuries this season have been detrimental to our form and position in the league.
Look at Liverpool. They’ve fallen off a cliff. They’ve lost 6 in 10. That’s terrible for a team that looked invincible last season. Lose a few key players, drop a couple of big points, lose one of the best keepers in the world to Karius form and it all falls apart.
Arsenal hasn’t had their best midfielder all season, and arguably, we’ve not had our best striker in the right frame of mind since August. You have to search for reasons why those problems are occurring, but the problems certainly give you some mitigating circumstances that are hard to avoid.
If we beat Leeds tomorrow, we’ll be 6 point off Liverpool. I know we’re not making a go at the Premier League table, but that’s kind of nuts at this stage of the season considering they’re 4th.
Beating Leeds is going to be tough now. Very tough. Thomas Partey is THE RESISTANCE when it comes to pressing. Granit Xhaka is… well, let’s be kind here… really not very good against high octane sides that’ll apply pressure to his every move and see his weaknesses as an opportunity.
The manager can either risk it and hope our midfield works under the stress or he’s going to look at other options.
There was an early picture of Martin Odegaard and Dani Ceballos sitting on balls talking to Arteta. Dani Ceballos doesn’t have buckets of pace, but he can certainly move with the ball. Martin Odegaard is more than capable of playing in a double pivot. He’s press resistant and he has sexy abilities when it comes to fastballs zipped in behind pace. We saw that with one of his passes to Nicolas Pepe last week that the Ivorian should have done better with.
We saw every available combo last time Partey was out and it was very, very miserable for a long time. I think we need to play against Leeds United, I don’t think we can afford the risk of having a midfield that doesn’t have any legs or energy to deal with their attack.
I’m not quite sure what we’re going to do in attack. Leeds can be got at if you can beat the press. Their centre backs are susceptible to being stretched on the break and they aren’t very good at defending setpieces. Auba looked really poor when he came on against Villa, but he’s our talisman. Willian shouldn’t be in the squad. We really need energy in our front three and we need to give Leeds something to worry about tomorrow.
Arteta has to show up with a solution. The three points here are the difference between a decent run in the next few games and an absolute disaster of an order of magnitude I don’t want to contemplate. I don’t have the sympathy to give for another bad run. Let’s work with what we have, take strategic risks, and try something interesting… because we really, really need to move on from the last two games and take advantage of other teams dropping points. I know it’s an ambitious thought, but wouldn’t it be nice to see a full 90 of good football after a week on the training ground?
A little bit of contract talk. Arteta is confident Arsenal are going to keep Flo Balogun.
“I’m still very positive that Flo is going to stay with us and it’s what we’re trying to do as a club, and it’s what I’m trying to do as a manager,”
“As far as I know from last week again, the player wants to be here. So, so far I’m positive.”
I don’t know how the sell is going down, but it’s clear there is a path for him at Arsenal. He’s a teenager. Lacazette will be gone this summer. Flo will be 22 when Auba’s contract ends. I’m not sure Eddie is going to be here much past the summer. He will land chances, I’m just not sure holding the club to ransom for minutes is the right way to go about it.
Going to Germany would probably work out for him as well, but really, does he want to go to another league and watch his mates he grew up with smashing it in a superior league? I have no idea tbh, but it would be a smart decision to stay with a club in transition. If he was an established 9 at 22 years old, that’d be kind of spectacular. Doing it in Germany? Not so much. Impressive, but the path to glory is here.
There’s also some talk that we’re chasing down Sporting forward Tiago Tomas. I take any rumour out of Portugal with a huge grain of PR, but he looks decent and I’d be game for Arsenal signing any young talent that looks like they could blow up into a future mega sale. The striker moves a little like a cross between Lewandowski and Auba. I wonder if we’re going to be in the market for £20m 18 years olds this summer considering the climate, if we are, then it’s a good time to find them with the football world reeling financially.
Big summer ahead. Matteo G is going to fetch decent money, Dino Mavrapanos continues to impress, some of our loan signings will find homes and we have a few Hale-Enders that’ll fetch a pretty penny.
FINALLY. Arteta and his family recieving death threats? It’s grim. If you put a video on Twitter that has a copyright infringement, you are suspended fast, if you do it twice, you lose your account. Call me optimistic, but there must be an algorithm that can detect ‘I WANT TO KILL YOUR FAMILY.’
There has to be some accountability at these platforms at some point. Football Twitter is disgusting at times. The public comments on Instagram are beyond disgraceful as a standard. Racism, homophobia, and violence just seem to be part of the discourse if you have more than a 1000 followers on these places.
Sad thing about all of this, the people that do it really want the moment of attention that comes with being called out. These people are cowards. They have no power in their real lives. The internet is an opportunity to feel important for a moment. What a pathetic way to live, but, that is 2021 for you.
Right, BIG game tomorrow, let’s see a big result!
See you in the comments. x
Half time and haven’t even shown the overruled penalty. Barely even mentioned it
KrisFebruary 14, 2021 17:31:00
Winthorpe,
I know, but Sancho was valued at 100M plus just a few months ago.
No one thought Saka would reach that level so fast.
I bet if we tried to sell him in the summer, we’d get 100M easily.
What a phenomenal talent.Together with Fabregas the best talent we’ve had in 15 years!
Kris
Yeah, he’s been a dream and a shining example to the rest of hale end on what can be done with the right attitude. He’s such a level headed young lad. I adore him
Maybe Auba can score a hat-trick today
Globalgunner
May we never see Willian again in this team. Back to Brazil with him
Hear, hear!!!
Couple of months ago, Gambon was here and I was telling him Saka potentially the best teenager in the world and he was playing it down by saying we Arsenal supporter hype up our young players.
I remember in one of the first game I saw Saka play, I was impressed by his balance when running with the ball. G Neville said in the same game, this young player the best 17 year old I’ve seen since CR7.
Talked about the Dortmund model the other time. Having a lot of creative players and wingers behind Auba that allows him score a lot. This is the model
Michelin star sauce for the first half.
Pedro will be purring for this game’s post.
What an absolute pleasure the first half was to watch.
Hope for more of the same.
I’m tempted to say rest Saka now for benfica, he’s done his work for today.
I also want to see how the dynamic of the team changes for this game without saka on. Lots of information to be gotten today, now to see if arteta is interested in learning anything new about this team from this game.
DissenterFebruary 14, 2021 17:31:53
Yea Odegaard will do whatever he can do till May and then fuck off back to Madrid.
That why I think it’s a waste if time, a 6 month loan makes no sense to me. Had it been a longer loan, then that will be meaningful.
Booooooo. Down with dissenter
Tony and whoever is in the box saying
CB loses his upper body and pushes Saka. Saka going down too easily as the contact is made. Therefore its not a penalty.
Why does the narrative change when it’s us?
Let’s get another 3 to make up some GD
Cmon boys
Don’t want to be clever after the fact but didn’t like the chat take saka to lb, he is our best player, you play him where he will hurt people, cedric can do the job for now
Diss would take Højbjerg on a 6 month loan no question.
Dissenter
Or he’ll find joy here and stay, was very close to joining originally.
When it clicks, its clicks.
What I love about saka is he isn’t a flash wanker like sancho. Isn’t too nice like nketiah.
Hes talented and focused but keeps his head down.
He takes a whacking these days and doesn’t shy away from the ball.
Anonymous
Dead right. Get Saka off and Pepe on. 100% the right call.
I’d take ESR off soon too
Leeds manager doing Emery with 2 subs at half time.
Now would be a good time to have given Balogun and Azeez minutes if they were on the bench
4
JamieFebruary 14, 2021 17:33:57
Diss would take Højbjerg on a 6 month loan no question.
😂 😂
Jamie’s on fire.
Real Madrid said they would sell Cebs to us for $25 mill.. not sure he is worth that though.
Hattrick Auba!!!!!!!
Smith rowe you friggin beauty.
TonyFebruary 14, 2021 17:34:50
Now would be a good time to have given Balogun and Azeez minutes if they were on the bench
Great shout
Hat trick!
ESR to Auba header
Noooo
I’ve missed it
On the toilet
Great hat trick
Get in Auba!!!!!!!!
We been brilliant without the ball
Boom…. Hat trick!!! Hat’s off boys!!!!
We want 3 each half. Cmon
Hat trick lol
What a pass from ESR
Great olay ESR
We want 5, we want 5 !!!
What a pass from Rowe
Auba is back?
I don’t wanna jinx it.
Very good performance.
Hatrick for Aubamayang, how we’ve missed him. This will do him good. We look really fluid, that’s what ball players do. Now we need to manage the game, not get too excited.
Roaary best not to show that replay again. Was shameful attempt to coin the ref. The refs need to be stronger to get those rubbishes off the game. Maguire earlier also
Arteta has done a good job of keeping Ceballos hot even though he wasn’t playing.
We want more, we want more
Auba making up for it all today. Put that shit in a bottle and save me some for future games.
Good save leno
If that’s a shot from ESR it’s a terrible shot!! I’d like to think that’s a cross.
4-0
Leeds are a well done steak
The touches from the creative 3 behind auba are just brilliant. Brilliant from the lads today.
Sub everyone off! Protect ESR and Saka!
Lovely goal, great game
Oh God help us with Pedro today. He will gloat about the future until may now lol.
ESR was a chip . Cross to Auba
Saka needs to stop shitting on them before he gets a red card for such brutality
But what a fucking assist from ESR. His first touch was awesome, then the balance then the cross. Exceptional
Right. It is all about no injuries and keeping the right players fresh for Thursday. Those being Saka and odergaard.
ESR!!! Fucking excellent pass!!!
And very nice ‘tap in’ header by Auba. 😉
Put Gabi on. Let him find his form.
There zee a little bit of fear factor today
Pedro can talk his jive when we win, I just want the results to keep coming.
What a save by Leno.
Best keeper in the world after Emi.
Hopefully we do not put the handbrake on now..lets go for 7 today ! COYG
Well our next two League matches are Man. C and LC so not much time for gloating.. We needed this so bad.. was getting ugly again.
Oddegaard has 17 months left on his real contract they will not say he is available but if we offer circa 30m he is gettable
Leeds will still keep going the way they always do so we could rack up a nice score line here hopefully!
Gabi size and shape is a monster .
Agree put martinelli on now
Please please please don’t put Willian on Arteta.
“And very nice ‘tap in’ header by Auba. 😉”
Exactly. Something something Ozil is stunning.
Allioski subbed off after getting humiliated by our Starboy all night.
Win next 6 matches in a row, and top4 is gettable.
Protect Saka please, he has done his work for the day, we have the game won.
Saka has built up good strength
If you see Luiz has all the room to carry the ball to their box, their defense has to be wide open.
That cunt Alioski off, I bet he’s not looking forward to playing us now.
Everyone wants to get forward now.. get on the scoresheet. We look more like Leeds then Leeds.
What comes after a hat-trick… Quadfest?
Luiz box to box midfield internal solution.
Gabriel is a monster cb
If I was Odegaard Id warm groin up and practice shooting and passing with my left leg…amazing player who can be world class if hes santi like dexterous
Artetas backward thinking would rather have Elneny on than Martinelli
A smart coach would rest Saka now.
If Odegaard stays he could be our second coming of DB10. Just has that calmness and assurance on the ball of Bergkamp.
4 – 0
It’s over, blow the final whistle!
Maybe ESR also.
If odergaard is £30m I would buy him in a heart beat. Surely worth more than that?!
Sorry my rum was behind that comment..i obviously meant the right leg
Guess Arteta needed to fall bum first into an old brick Shithouse to realise how it is done.
He learns only after fortuitous mistakes.
All the time he used to leave one man up front to put in the 50 wayward crosses in approximate direction
Gazzap with 17months left of his contract ?
Shit. Sooner or mater
Nelson,
“A smart coach would rest Saka now.“
You’re asking too much of Arteta now.
If you stick partey and tierney in this 11 man that is some starting 11 we potentially have.
Bollocks
4-4 is on. Smh.
EMI would have saved that 😃😃
All started when we let them shoot to begin with
Screwing up our goal diff…
Luiz lost the header.
What’s a Martinelli?
Willian will be coming on shortly
Good header from them, poor from us
This is where the fake noise recordings are pretty crap.
The Emirates would be abuzz with chants right now!!
“AND IT’S ARRRSEEEENAL, …………. ARSENAL FC”!!!
Why Willian ffs
Willian is definitely coming on, Arteta can’t help himself
Sleep walking shit from Luiz.
FUXK SAKE
WILLIAN THE GREAT COMING ON
Willian 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Tets my guy