GAME DAY BLOG: PROPER EUROPEAN FOOTBALL STARTS TONIGHT

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Well hello my darlings, are we ready for some Arsenal goodness? I think we are.

The BIG night is finally here. I can hear the famous tune. Eurooooooopa da dah da da daaahhhhh!

The main meal has arrived piping hot after the Champions League starters. Unai Emery back on the couch with his comfort blanket. Mikel Arteta is out to avenge the competition that gave him the covid. OGS and Brenda ready to rep the Premier League. Antonio Conte’s stunning syrup back in the spotlight.

Arsenal needs a win tonight. Italy is the away leg for us. We need to score. We need a clean sheet. We need to impose ourselves on this competition like a VAR ref imposes on an Arsenal decision. Ruthless, standout, and maybe even a little unfair.

It sounds like we’ll see a pretty strong team. This is an extremely important backdoor to the Champions League. We can’t afford to go light in the name of rotation. It’s a cup run until the end of the season in all competitions.

Our big fear? Mikel pumping Willian in the media.

“What he is doing, the way he is training, the way he is working and the way he is pushing to give everything at the team, is what I demand. Whether he is more or less successful in the game is another matter. It will come, with the quality he has.”

My word nothing would stink out the pregame discourse worse than Arteta rehabbing Willian over Martinelli or Pepe.

He’s gonna do it though, isn’t he?

Let’s live in a dream world for a minute. A world that was focused on the future.

Wouldn’t it be nice to see Gabriel through the middle? Leading the line? Terrifying Benfica with his dogged pressing? I’d like that.

Imagine this. Arteta gives with Gabriel but takes with Willian. Betting that perhaps, Gabi joy will drown out Willian misery? Imagine if Willian scores… the joy of a goal, coupled with knowing that’ll secure him a 10 game run in the league.

Oh man, I am really not looking forward to seeing him on the team sheet.

Things I am hoping for.

  • Minutes for Balogun
  • Odegaard continuing to feel his way into the squad
  • Return of Pablo Mari or Cal Chambers
  • A continuation of our exciting performances in the league.

Just gonna leave a short one today because typing is real tough right now… before you leave, check out my first appearance with the guys from the Touchy Gooners Podcast. I am a big fan of their work, you should subscribe, and make sure you watch the below.

COME ON YOU GOONERS!

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azed

Anyone with a decent stream?

Radio Raheem

What’s happened to Arteta??? No Willian???

karim

Lol Mid, not wrong

izzo

Jesus Auba WTF was that!!! Hit it FFS!!! We have to start looking for a new striker come summer cause I’m not buying into Auba since he got his new contract.

Paddy+Gooner

Pepe so much better on the left

Gazzap

Christ I hope parteys back for the next game against benfica. This is painfully slow.

MidwestGun

Altoght now.. lets get a goal.. we should be winning this.

Mr Serge

No azed sorry

Winthorpe

MidwestGunFebruary 18, 2021 21:35:47
Pepe never looks anything but chilled to me.. Like he just woke up from a long Cheetos and bong hit session.

Yuh
And still looks better than Aubameyang

Northbanker

Who is this woman?
Is it Karen Carney? She sounds like a female Michael Owen
Her voice is driving me mad and no real insights either

Mr Serge

Yes Karen Carney so boring

Useroz

Jesus. 20+passes in own half

Paddy+Gooner

It’s gone very flat now

Danny

What’s happened to Arteta??? No Willian???
————-
There’s time, 2 more subs to go……

Useroz

…and ended up losing it

DUIFG

5 kins of dogs hit possession there

raptora

Kris,

Loool. I was glad they lost, but it wasn’t fair.

Paddy+Gooner

Has Martinelli touched the ball yet?

DUIFG

Mins of

Useroz

Not winning today is a poor performance. An away goal isn’t a win but we play like we have won

Anonymous Commentator

I just noticed arteta has taken 2 goalkeepers on the bench again.
Why does he do this?

Winthorpe

SWGFebruary 18, 2021 21:34:26
How is Auba’s confidence so shot after scoring a hat trick?!

Swg

It’s not shot
He’s just shit

Radio Raheem

Our passing has been atrocious, no tempo no intensity.

We look happy with the 1-1

Paddy+Gooner

Tierney needs the minutes clearly

Useroz

Was it Tierney? Shocking cross

Gazzap

I’m really disappointed with Arsenal tonight. We’ve been about as shit as we can be with these players.

Winthorpe

NorthbankerFebruary 18, 2021 21:38:48
Who is this woman?
Is it Karen Carney? She sounds like a female Michael Owen
Her voice is driving me mad and no real insights either

She’s a dalek

Anonymous Commentator

Tierney rusty as fuck.

Useroz

Tierney has enough credits to do these occasionally

MidwestGun

Benfica in time wasting mode.

Dissenter

These games are won and lost by efficiency in front of goal.
We didn’t have that today.
Eddie Nkiettiah couldn’t have done any worse today, at least he doesn’t make 250k weekly.

izzo

Honestly I’m completely over Auba. How are you not burning with desire after scoring a hattrick in your last game. I’m sick to death of these lukewarm players we have. This guy is toast and isn’t helping us get anywhere in the future. If we were ruthless we’d be booting him out along with Willian.

raptora

After we lost to Olympiacos, I’m scared of every half decent team we meet in Europa. The Arteta effect.

Anonymous Commentator

The fact that xhaka is going to stay on for the whole game is a marker of how utterly tripe our midfield is considering the game he’s had.

Northbanker

Benfica playing for the draw

Useroz

3 times already tierney chose not to make a true ball to pepe who pointed and wanted it??

karim

Rap

A red card for Nani is always a good decision.

Zacharse

Reason odegaard so quiet is he’s constantly covering for bellerins fuckups lol

Useroz

Our passes are generally poor, led by xhaka, bellerin

DUIFG

Last 20.energy of back 5 has been ahite

Useroz

After we lost to Olympiacos, I’m scared of every half decent team we meet in Europa. The Arteta effect.

……
Arteta never learns

Gazzap

Negative, boring, no tempo, no ambition. Zzz

Northbanker

Izzo

Said last year we should cash in on Auba

We don’t need players in the their 30s

karim

Willian in, what’s the point ?

Dissenter

Atrocious passing since Cedric was subbed off
I know Tierney is rusty but it has to be said that he’s the worst Arsenal player on the field for the past 10 minutes.

Paddy+Gooner

Willian on. Order has been restored

SpanishDave

It’s like Wenger days when we played differently to our normal game and screwed up.
Too slow we played at their pace not ours

SWG

He just couldn’t help himself could he

MLC

William hahahahahah fuk

Danny

Here comes Willian! You can’t make this shit up, Arteta must get a cut everytime he plays.

Samir

Arteta too slow with the subs. We could of won that game!!
Poor management and poor game overall.

Useroz

William has to make an appearance..lollll

MidwestGun

Haha playing for the draw I guess.

Northbanker

Oh good so important that Willian gets more game time to ensure nothing happens up front

SpanishDave

Willian must have a contract clause to play every game

Winthorpe

Willian again

And you lot mocked cazorla and wilshere? Hahaha
Fools

Dissenter

Arteta and his Willian
😁😁😁😁

Expect Willian to get the last minute winner today

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣Willian is on

Jaroda

Way hay Arteta picks up his Willian appearance bonus!

azed

What’s an arsenal game without William making an appearance?

Useroz

Rubbish side passes

Gazzap

Tierney looks half the player he was!!

azed

Samir

Have you joined the ” Arteta out” gang?

Northbanker

This ball to hand shit rule reallly pisses me off

SWG

It’s just sooooo sloppy! Painful.. simple passes, time after time.

Anonymous Commentator

He put Willian on again.
He has 2 gk’s on the bench.
Took ceballos off instead of xhaka.
Cedric came off instead of bellerin.
Waited too long for subs.

Useroz

Should have won but Auba not on form…

karim

Another brilliant laser pass

JOEL

I have to agree with Gazzap…”Negative…boring….no tempo…no ambition”…I would like to add that these are the foundations laid down by Arteta and as long as he remains at the helm of a job that is way beyond his talents…then Arsenal will continue in this vein!!

Useroz

Benfica’s coach looks a nutter

Sorry guys but Arteta ball isn’t for me. Far too slow, too many wasted passes backwards and sideways. Really really boring, sorry

Dissenter

If Willian was a cat he would be long gone by now
He’s had more that 9 chances that he didn’t merit.

Northbanker

How the hell did Athens ever become a ‘home’ ground?

Useroz

Poor game though an away goal

LeMassiveCoq

Please tell me this Turkish ref is not reffing in Athens next week?

Winthorpe

And yet again our £55m 350k pw “captain” turns up and seals a vital win for arsenal
Oh wait
Oh no
That’s not it
He went missing again
Auba has cost us the game.
Why am I the onky one to call this shit before it becomes a problem?

Paddy+Gooner

Well that was pretty shit really. Auba could have had three

Gazzap

Awful game. That’s 90 minutes I’ll never get back. It was that bad.

MidwestGun

I can see why Arteta started with same lineup.. bunch of players out of sync.came on late but it didn’t pay off with enough goals in first half.
So now basically we just kicked our Europa League progress down the road.. at least we got an away goal.

Nelson

This game is highlighted by Auba missing all those chances.

zacharse

what the fuck did i just watch

izzo

Hilarious anyone thought we would win Europa. With the decent teams left we don’t stand a chance.

Anonymous Commentator

Arteta was poor today, frightened manager with no ambition, game was there for the taking.

Chris

Let’s look at it clinically. 1-1 ‘away’ against a dangerous opponent who admittedly didn’t look that sharp. We have the ‘away’ goal and had the measure of them most of the game. Yes we should have won had we been more clinical but I feel that shows how much we have improved in recent weeks in our general play. We are in a good place to go through to the next round, on to the next one.

Dissenter

Arteta’s in-game management is shoddy
Was he seeking a draw here.
Benfica have the advantage now because every goal they score against us next week will have more weight.

Winthorpe

Anonymous CommentatorFebruary 18, 2021 21:51:25
He put Willian on again.
He has 2 gk’s on the bench.
Took ceballos off instead of xhaka.

Ac

Yeah
That was our problem
Xakha
Where do you people come from? How do you convince yourselves you know what you’re watching?

SWG

Also.. 2 keepers in the squad and no room for Balogun? Is he injured? I think this could be the actual final straw if not injured. Or maybe his future elsewhere has been decided already

The Godfather

What pictures does Chaka have off Arsenal coaches to keep getting time on the field.
He is a thorough scrub

Jim Lahey

The last 20 minutes of that game was some of the worst football I have ever witnessed.
If I ever have to watch Gabriel, Xhaka and Luiz passing the ball around to each other ever again I think I will be physically sick.

Paddy+Gooner

Benfica probably will score next week, so we’ll have to score at least 2

Anonymous Commentator

Winthrop
There is no way you’re about to defend that horror show from xhaka.
There’s just no way.
Ceballos was twice the player he was for that match and he got taken off when the win was still in sight.

The Godfather

I can’t watch Granit Chacrap in an Arsenal uni any more. No wonder Henry turned off the television when he saw him captain the team

Winthorpe

Never a penalty
This Turkish ref is corrupt
🤢

Radio Raheem

Has Arteta ever taken Auba off?
That must be a milestone.

Dissenter

I don’t see us beating Benfica next week in Greece.
It’s probably going to be a scored drawn and that favors Benfica

Chris

Benfica hardly crashed a thing other than want we have to them and scored from a penalty. Not sure why anyone is convinced they will definitely score next week.

TheLegendaryDB10

We had some really good moments in the 1st half, decent ones in the second. We missed opportunities to score when we should have.

Will that bite us back in the arse?

If we were going to the Emirates? I would have said yes!

Away in Greece? I am not so sure. But I hope we do.

Aasim

How bad was our passing game today. Bellerin, Saka, esr, KT, all horrible. And auba was also completely off. The whole vibe of the team also looked off. Weird

SpanishDave

Has anybody known a game where three goalies have been needed?
Exactly