I spent last week back in England after two years out of the game due to the pandemic. Honestly, it was so good to be back. I knew it had been too long because I was oddly enamoured with people’s accents. I loved the little things, like not being able to get a haircut until after 3pm on a Saturday, or being strong-armed into destruction drinking by nearly everyone. I honestly can’t wait to be back at Christmas and take a few games in. I miss London man, I’m in pieces at my desk this morning stroking a box of PG Tips whispering ‘alright you facking melt’ quietly to myself.
The other nice thing about the trip? I am something of a good luck charm for Arteta’s career. He won his first game with my presence and he just pulled himself partially out of a hole this weekend.
I went back over his interviews. I don’t know what the ground zero situation looked like over the past two weeks, but it felt to me like some people at the club sat down with him and had a proper conversation. I might just be projecting what I’d liked to have happened.
Notable things:
Vibes: His demeanour was very different before the game. He’s back to selling a future we can buy into. There was no moping or feeling sorry for himself. There were no excuses, no disgruntlement at what had gone on, just a laser focus on clearly communicating with the fans what the plan is moving forward.
Content: I think his content has improved over the past couple of weeks. The main message I was getting from his pressers is that he’s happy with the talent, but more than that, he’s happy with the new characteristics of his squad. I’ve found that interesting. When he spoke of his new players, he spoke of their personality traits. Tomi was ‘all smiles with a desire to play’, Sambi Lokonga ‘was desperate to play despite a knock’, and Aaron Ramsdale ‘is a great energy, something different.’
Happy family: I think Arteta also went to great lengths to thank the wider staff for getting him through it. Moving up to manager can cloud your ego, we’ve all been there, you make director and you think you’re a GOD of the internet at first. Arteta is not a god, so throwing his weight around in August in press conferences like peak-Jose wouldn’t have gone down well. It read to me like maybe he’d been force-fed a bit of humble pie because he was very keen to stress that everyone had mucked in.
Have you ever seen those memes on the internet where there’s a bear hugging a dog with a caption like “This bear loves the dog” then an animal expert writes underneath “this is a dog tied to a bowl, the bear is about it eat him.” That could be me with these hack observations. They might not be true, but whatever went on, one thing is for sure: the players didn’t down tools on him. Sure, it wasn’t an A+ performance for the ages, but you could see the specifics of what we were trying to do. I thought we were very aggressive for most of the game, our players pressed far harder than they usually do, and our overall play was far more unpredictable. Ben White creates chances, has great passing, and uses his runs to create overloads. Sambi Lokonga, quite simply, is not Dani Ceballos. Tomiyasu gives us height defending longballs, he gives us an option outwide, and he can actually right back. Ramsdale can pass so playing out the back looks good. It didn’t work as a piece of art, but at the very least, you could see the component parts and how they’ll make us better.
Some of the criticism after the game did make for painful reading. People position themselves as elite analysts of the futbol but fail to understand that we’re putting humans out on the pitch. You put a bunch of people together in a new office and it takes a while to get going, it’s the same with footballers. Arteta gifted 4 players home debuts, only one of our back 5 remained the same from the previous two games, we started a brand new keeper, we ran a midfield pairing that had never played together, and we did that all in the first game after the international break.
I know we’re all dying for a blowout here, but once again, we have to accept that it’s going to take a bit of time to start firing on all cylinders.
The good news?
- We don’t have European football so the players can spend more time on the training ground
- We have specificity in the important positions, so if we can keep players fit, we’ll have a system that works
- We’ve played the two best teams in the country right now
I suspect the club will have a lot of attention on Spurs, who have been shite this season, because that’s an Arteta Cup Final. It’ll be very interesting to see what he does against Wimbledon this week in the league cup. For me, it’s not a rest day, it’s a ‘let’s work each other out’ game. It’s a practice game with a trophy attached to it. Certain players shouldn’t be risked, like Saka, Auba and ESR, but I’d really like to see a strong team out there so we can get some minutes in the legs.
This idea does run into challenges though. We have all these fantastic kids looking for minutes. Folarin Balogun scored for the U23s at the weekend. We’re all watching the Patino hype videos. These players need experience as well. There’s a balance… but the most important thing at the moment is the development of the first team and for the players to get to full match fitness.
I’m weirdly looking forward to the away day at Burnley. It’ll be a roughhouse game and I want to see how this new defence stands up to a thug 90 minutes. I think we have more than enough to dispatch them and I really hope they can be the team we find our edge against.
Right, that’s me done for the day, see you in the comments… and please watch the videos below.
Morning
2
3
Tr4phy
Too late
OK 6
is as high as can go
DaMn dm
“Spurs, who have been shite this season”
Wow, if only we were as shite as Spurs
Art8ta
We have not really had a right back who can defend since Sagna, so Tommi can only be a big improvement to our defence on that side.
The best part of the win was ending the left hand bias….
Tierney crossing to ghosts doesn’t sit well with me
Regarding Spurs , let’s clean our own house before throwing stones on others please. Sports always teaches you to respect your opponents. Lest we forget that. Let’s get beyond them in the table before we start casting aspersions.
12
Henry Comeback
Madhu,
Agreed.
Let’s make sure that we won the NLD, before we start laughing at them. The best trash talk we can make is by smashing them on the pitch.
I am not so sure that Arsenal would have fared much better against a motivated Crystal Palace had we missed as many important players as Spurs did.
Crystal Palace seems to have a few talented, hungry players and PV4 is letting them express themselves.
What was good to see is the over the top balls from odegaard. Something we sorely missed since peak ozil. Just need to work on playing those same splitting balls on the ground as they would be more effective for Auba. Tomi was great and looks a good player. We should be starting partey and sambi in the next game. Depending on what we need it will be a coin between esr and odegaard and at some points esr on the left. Team will be rocking if we hit form and everyone gives 110%
Only one Pod i have listened to in a loong time.
Pepe puppy dogs had me on the floor 😂😂😂😂
Johnny had got quite a way with his words
First time this season we were able to play our NEAR first team.. Spurs had 4 missing, we had that for our first 3 games
Made, I think it’s acceptable to have a dig at the Spuds whenever!
Madhu
Good pod guys love listening to you. I hear you guys, Arsecast and Arsenal Vision as my share of Arsenal pods.
Valentin – I think we missed a trick on Edourd. Let’s hope Viera shows his managerial skills and can take over Arsenal sometime.
I’d be inclined to reserve judgment on Odsonne Edouard. I saw him play a few games for Celtic over the last few years and he was pish. It’s one thing banging them in against teams like Spurs(!), St Mirren and Hamilton Accies. Quite another thing against Liverpool, and Man City (notice I didn’t include us in that latter category…)
Marvellous post, Pedro. Every word hits the nail on the head. And much praise for the tolerant tone.
We have discussed ad infinitum the shortcomings of Arsenal’s midfield and in particular the lack of goals. Le Grove has been highly critical of the investments made this summer as well as the retention of Xhaka. My view is and has been in the last 2 years that Arsenal are reluctant to spend mega bucks in this department, because they have in their Academy 2 players in Patino and Azeez who in addition to Saka are considered medium to long term members of the first team. I have watched the clip of Patino scoring the goal against Man Utd U23s… Read more »
Edourd offers more in hold up play than Laca, and their shot convertion rates are similar
“”””My view is and has been in the last 2 years that Arsenal are reluctant to spend mega bucks in this department, because they have in their Academy 2 players in Patino and Azeez””””
Those 2 were 15yrd and 16 yrs two years ago. How much longer do we have to wait?
Valentin
Nailing your colour to the mast already.
Spurs were missing players so were we against Brentford. Why the passionate defense of the spuds.
Besides, they’ve not played an enjoyable game of football this season.
Pedro “The good news? We don’t have European football so the players can spend more time on the training ground” I would put that in the “bad news ” department , spending more time on the training ground i mean.. Under Arteta , we always look in danger of being over coached with little or no individuality or off the cuff movements.. So , the thought of the players having more time on the training ground feels me with dread. Our best football under Arteta was when he first arrived, as he readily admitted that he had little or no… Read more »
Good to finally put 3 points on the board. Hopefully it’s not another false dawn and Arteta doesn’t go back to trying to be a smart arse.
Interesting to read people on here giving Tottenham the benefit of the doubt after losing to Palace because they were missing 4 players. Same people gave us no such leeway when we lost to the two best teams in the league without several players.
On reflection, the loss to Brentford was the really bad one. Hopefully we win the next couple including the one against the scums next door.
No sympathy with Spurs. Iam more inclined to look at internally and fix our issues. When we meet spurs we might well be 3 points from them if results go in our favour.
Fire, Only in your mind was congratulating PV4 for a job well done is a passionate defense of Spurs. Nailing my colour to the last of reality and objectivity. I am delighted that Crystal Palace smashed Spurs, but let not kid ourselves that we are miles better off than them. You seems to confuse acknowledging other teams issues with undermining Arsenal. Instead of concentrate on Spurs, Let make sure that Arsenal win games. Against Brentford the only two missing players who would have made the starting 11 were Partey and Aubameyang. You could argue that Arteta would have started Ødegaard… Read more »
Was at the game on Saturday and not really buying into the “hype”. We played Norwich, regardless of whether you are in transition, or whether we need to trust the process, I repeat, we played Norwich, who were unlucky to not equalise at the end. (Arise Sir Cedric – literally) Apparently we had 30 shots? ask anybody when they were leaving if it felt like they had just seen a 30 shot game and nobody would have believed you. We had a few good moments…..against Norwich. We were pretty frail defensively and a more clinical team would have scored at… Read more »
Foxy “We have not really had a right back who can defend since Sagna, so Tommi can only be a big improvement to our defence on that side” Yes. I mirror what a lot of people have said on Arsenal comment sections because I too was impressed with the new signings. The fans in the stadium were right behind the players and that’s going to be important going forward because toxicity is bad for performance. It was noisy and where I was seated there was a lot of encouragement for the young players. The minimum requirement is that you see… Read more »
To be really honest , I want to see this team given a run in PL ( The ones who started at Norwich) . No changing and chopping . Until the Spurs game
If you’re going to excuse pitiful losses on the premise that ‘they were to the best teams in the league’, then showcase the same restrained emotion for the victories over ‘the worst team in the league’ .
Sorry, victory singular as in the one win with one goal scored in 360 minutes of football.
Valentin “I am not so sure that Arsenal would have fared much better against a motivated Crystal Palace had we missed as many important players as Spurs did” It’s not that I disagree with you, I don’t – but you don’t make the same allowances for Arsenal. Nobody on here does for the obvious reasons. We have fielded makeshift teams every game this season due to Covid and injuries, that is a fact. You said: “Against Norwich, we had a near complete team and we struggled to really open them up. Lots of attempts at goal but very few clear… Read more »
Tierney seems to have regressed, everything Diet Pep touches turns to dust
Valentin
First, nobody in his right senses would claim we are better than Spurs at this Moment in time. While we are not better than them, I don’t think they are better than us either.
Secondly, you acknowledge other clubs issues but never do same for Arsenal. You must be a super fan.
Your last paragraph about the Norwich game… Prove me wrong by finding an excuse or a mitigating circumstances for our hanging on for dear life. I’m patiently waiting
Since Diet Pep touched le groves supreme leaaders heart, his rationality has turned to dust
@Emiratesstroller
Do you know if Patino is on a professional contract and if so how long is it?
We have spent more than Spurs, our players are better, the difference is the manager
Underrated Coq “…then showcase the same restrained emotion for the victories over ‘the worst team in the league’ . Firstly, we beat Norwich with a makeshift team and debutants who had not played together before. Every time we win a game the same thing happens, the win is discredited. I cannot remember us winning a game without 99% on here being upset or passing it off as some kind of lucky or freak event. Truly bizarre. Secondly, accusing Norwich of being the ‘worst team in the league’ because they have lost to Man City, Liverpool and Leicester is quite something.… Read more »
Excuses, excuses and excuses.
Arteta has butchered the start of the season , like he butchered the Villarreal away leg with his tactics.
Already x 7 points of the of the top 4 places.
Man United, Man City, Liverpool & Chelsea .
All who happen to be in the CL this week( $$$$)
Arsenal meanwhile can twiddle their thumbs all week and wait for Burnley!
ps. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES LET ARTETA & ROUND NEAR PATINO.
This boy can play. And he can score a goal or too.
DM, Spurs HAVE been shite. They were just extremely lucky until Saturday, akin to our unbeaten run under Emery. Just watch and see how they drop out of the top 6 again this year. Pedro, I think the player we need to protect ARE Saka and ESR, but a 3rd one would def. be Partey, not Auba. At this point, I don’t think Laca can be much worse than Auba. But overall, you’re right to be happy about our signings, they look good and Aaron is already someone who transmits a similar energy to Martinez unlike the scared and disinterested… Read more »
AFC Forever,
” I cannot remember us winning a game without 99% on here being upset or passing it off as some kind of lucky or freak event. Truly bizarre.”
I don’t see you here when Arsenal lose. Pretty sure I’m not the first to have noted this.
Are you sure you’re a AFC Forever fan? I think you are a fair-weather fan, at least that’s what your behavior indicates.
We need some that Brit/Rom/Chinese tennis player at the club.
She wins. She does her job.
TT – I believe he’s contracted to summer 2023 after signing 1st contract age 17
stroller,
Patino will be 18 in a month.
At his age Fabregas was already one of the league’s better midfielders. If he reaches 90% of Fabregas’s quality, it will be great, but let’s not hyperbolize too soon.
Kris “But overall, you’re right to be happy about our signings, they look good and Aaron is already someone who transmits a similar energy to Martinez unlike the scared and disinterested Leno” Yes agree. Any fan wants to see their players showing they care and I cant say that has always been the case with some of the older players. Your point about Leno looking disinterested is spot on. I suspect thats why they bought a first choice replacement in Ramsdale and spent big, as opposed to buying a second choice ‘keeper. I’m excited about the young players, we will… Read more »
Kris
”””’Patino will be 18 in a month.
At his age Fabregas was already one of the league’s better midfielders”””’
Management.
A.Wenger would already have blooded Patino. Gave him and the punters a taste.
Arteta would rather wait to see if Elneny will blossom into Pirlo.
The club just gave Arteta the vote of confidence and our DoF stated publicly there are no goals set for him other than hoping to keep the squad fit. What’s not to like if you’re a manger of a big club sitting bottom of the table, so maybe that’s why Arteta seemed more relaxed. There’s a reason everyone said we would beat Norwich — some even predicting lopsided scores— because they are a club without a single identifiable strength but many weaknesses, including a terrible keeper and blanks firing front line. Conversely, the same posters are hesitant to predict we’ll… Read more »
” I cannot remember us winning a game without 99% on here being upset or passing it off as some kind of lucky or freak event. Truly bizarre.”
Someone actually typed this and pressed send?
I’m a whiney git when we lose. I’ve no confidence in Arteta. But the performance was an improvement against a team fighting for their lives. We won and I’m happier. It was always likely to be a raggy arse win and so it proved. But it was a win. It will give the lads some confidence, it will see them more dogged and determined to beat Burnley, and if we do, confidence will grow and things will settle. Great to see Take looking solid on the right, great to see Partey getting back in the swing of things and really… Read more »
CG
We need some that Brit/Rom/Chinese tennis player at the club.
She wins. She does her job.
Vivianne Miedema would be able to good job upfront for us .
“Firstly, we beat Norwich with a makeshift team and debutants who had not played together before. “
Three new field players, two of which have been with the club for months, while the entire front line of Pepe, Ode, Saka, and Auba all too familiar.
Hardly a bunch of strangers thrown in together at moments notice.
AFC forever.
Norwich had lost their last 13 premier league games to an aggregate score of 34-2 (now 14 and 35-2).
Not farfetched to call them worst team in the league.
Tom “Three new field players, two of which have been with the club for months, while the entire front line of Pepe, Ode, Saka, and Auba all too familiar. Hardly a bunch of strangers thrown in together at moments notice.” The fact you actually typed this, let alone believe it, speaks volumes. Go have a chat with Valentin, he thinks Spurs missing a couple of players made a world of difference and was why Spuds were thrashed by Palace. Could be quite a conversation that one; two great minds trying to fathom out how missing players or playing a makeshift… Read more »
“Firstly, we beat Norwich with a makeshift team and debutants who had not played together before. “
When we scored the winning goal on 66 minutes the only two debutants were our new £55m CB, who’s a RR of a player apparently, and the keeper.
Everyone else knows one another very well from last season.
After Saturday’s performance, we just might win the league after all.
Massive 1-0 win against the mighty Norwich.
DS
“”Vivianne Miedema would be able to good job upfront for us “””
Vivianne Westwood would get game time up front for us.
Bloody barren aint we.
I follow all these games, on my bank of screens in my office.
Liverpool, yesterday for an hour, were playing a different sport compared to us at the weekend.
That tennis lass, 100% superstar.
No wonder , why the Brits are claiming her.
Tom, KT only constant in back 5 this season, TT new, Gabriel just back from injury, never played with White before – 1st game of the season, White home debut new CB partner, new GK. Lokonga and AMN never played together before. Why bother with nuance when it doesn’t suit your state of mind/ agenda? It’s so easy to write excuses, excuses, excuses….. With that back 5 and Partey joining Lokonga, that’s effectively a new defence and midfield. Sure Partey, Gabriel and KT are not new players but their partnerships on the pitch are new and will improve with time,… Read more »
Banks
“ After Saturday’s performance, we just might win the league after all.
Massive 1-0 win against the mighty Norwich. “
Another first from Banks ( ref : guy before DM was born to Troph4ey )
Cape should fit all the Precocious Elated(Ejaculators)
I think both Saka and ESR need to learn to shot like a striker. Currently they try to hit the ball as hard as possible. A good good scorer is aware of where the goal is and can place the ball low to the corner of the goal. It takes skill and practice to shoot the ball low and hard.
AFC, I don’t give a shit about the Spurs or your ridiculous assertion that anyone on here ever thought they would win the league having won their first three games. Just as Weagle said yesterday some of your comments are absolutely shameless, and because you’re “super positive “ ( have at it, by all means) but rather because you pull shit out of thin air (your back side more like it) to score some imaginary points. If there’s anything that’s been constant about Arteta for the last 20 months, it’s the chopping and changing of the starting Xl regardless whether… Read more »
And what is the lame excuse when the new players had 12 days to practice together ? What is the novelty we talking about ?
Just excuses and alibis for Dumbterta
Tom “When we scored the winning goal on 66 minutes the only two debutants were our new £55m CB, who’s a RR of a player apparently, and the keeper.” Jesus. Are you being serious or on a wind up? I’ve read some naive stuff and that’s up there. I’ve been coaching for years and let me tell you something for nothing mate, it takes time to build a team. When players aren’t used to playing with each other they lack that ”instinct’ within the team framework – things like knowing who will make runs, drop etc. Partnerships won’t be developed… Read more »
Too much emphasis on passes in this side, slowly passing the ball around the field. Everything is too slow and easy to defend against, and even our better players will not improve under Arteta and his coaching staff so I expect a very long season.
Imagine putting this club on a back burner so that an inexperienced manager can learn his trade at our expense.
ES: “He looks on par with Fabregas at the same age and it will not surprise me that he will be playing in the first team at some point this season” Patino is a great talent, no doubt. But by the time that Cesc turned 18 he had played in 50 games for us, including 33 EPL games in 1 season. And he was shockingly good. Patino, with 0 EPL games so far, could become a fantastic player. But let’s put one foot in front of the other. The sad part of no Europa League is that the young players… Read more »
Even if Auba can recapture form from a few seasons ago it won’t be enough, Laca and Pepe won’t score us enough goals and the rest of the side are impotent in front of goal. Goals win games, not silly meaningless passes and crosses from Tierney into nobody in the box.
AFC, except we’re not having this conversation two months into Arteta’s reign are we.
During 20 months in charge he hasn’t been able to show any semblance of free flowing attacking football against anyone no matter the line up.
Wenger did it regularly with bench warmers and third stringers in cups.
“It’ll be very interesting to see what he does against Wimbledon this week in the league cup. “
That’s up there with the post WBA comment that “We will still get beaten by City on Sunday”
Can your ITK sources at the club not get you one of the top secret fixture lists.
Raptora,
“The sad part of no Europa League is that the young players will have drastically less chances to showcase their skills.”
Last season when we had Europa League, Arteta hardly used it to blood young academy players. I also doubt that against Wimbledon in the League CUp we will see a lot of academy players.
I think it’s better to just offload most of the youngsters on loan for the rest of the season, once the window opens in January
It’s safe to assume that Arteta wont be playing them this season. We have no Europe and he has a lot of new players that need to be integrated into the squaD.
The likes of Patino need more than a few minutes here and there, they need to play regularly. That’s the systrejkm Chelsea pursue and it’s paying off massively. This U-23 business isn’t improving most players.
I suspect the club will have a lot of attention on Spurs, who have been shite this season,”
But says in same breath ” be patient ” with Arsenal.
AFC forever
” The fact I am having to explain this to you is probably why you think football is just putting 11 names on a piece of paper and how anyone can manage.”
Tom is from across the pond, which explains a lot
“If we don’t improve, daggers should be justifiably sharpened. There are a lot of posters on here who won’t get behind the team until Arteta is gone. Their daggers are already plunging incessantly into the still living, body of Arteta.“
That’s very dramatic, Bob.
For the life of me I can’t figure out why some posters would want Arteta gone.
The Wimbledon game is an interesting one. As our players haven’t had the chance to play together, that would be a good opportunity to get minutes together. Partey needs a run out, we have missed him and he needs to gain match fitness. The back 5 played together for the first time Saturday and as most of us know, building a centre back partnership takes time but is crucial. Tomiyasu has been with us less than a week, so he also needs minutes in the team. So I wouldn’t be surprised to see most of them start. I would play… Read more »
Pierre, what did you think of the Tanganga tackle on Zaha ?
Raptora, I am all in favour of using young academy players, but we have to accept that some as talented as they may be are not physically ready to play against grown-up men. It is making them a disservice than believing that because they are technically brilliant they would be able to repeat the same form at senior level. Look Eddie, it has taken him extra training sessions with Willock and St Maximin during the summer to shift the skinny scrawny body. Now with proper upper body strength, he looked sharp during the preseason. I would not want Patino to… Read more »
Dissenter.
Yes, agree with you.
Tanganga should have been sent off three times this season
The new approach ot letting the game flow will lead to lots of broken bones and busted knees/ankles.
I think that Tanganga should have been send off in the first incident. A yellow card for the rugby tackle and another for unsavoury dispute with Zaha.
You may even argue that his rugby tackle was deliberately removing a goal scoring opportunity and his tackle should have been a straight red. David Luiz received a red card for a lot less.
It seems the league wants to market itself on the basis if these drama moments, like the burst up after the Zaha “tackle”.
Patino and Azeez should be kept as far away as possible from Diet Pep,
they should be sent to Marseille
The Euro exposed the incompetence of the PGMOL referees. No more hiding behind the law to blame bad officialdom. Letting the game does not mean to let every minor infractions go unpunished. It means play the advantage and then if it is warranted punish later with a yellow card. It also means that if no advantage accrued, do not be afraid to go back to the initial fouls. But here we have no advantage play and no yellow cards just a public show of stern lecture or interruption of a clear advantage to give a yellow card. Talking about card,… Read more »
The Pascal Struijk tackle on Harvey Elliott didn’t look a red.
Unfortunate that Elliott dislocated his ankle, not nice. Same injury Wilshire suffered when Paddy Mcnair missed the ball by miles and Mike Dean didn’t even give a foul!!! That was pre VAR but you have to wonder about the consistency of some of these decisions. I’m not sure you can send someone off because the injury is a bad one IF the foul wasn’t deliberate or out of control. On the fence but seems harsh.
SpongeBob loves to be prefect, maintaining social order and keeping others in line
Valentin “The Euro exposed the incompetence of the PGMOL referees. No more hiding behind the law to blame bad officialdom” Yes. A former head of PGMOL, Hackett, warned this would happen under Riley’s leadership. I read an article somewhere about how they select the referees and it was damning. They don’t select them nationally, they tend to be selected from the merit tables for Northern Counties. The reason for that is because they ‘claim’ the game in the North is more robust and physical play is tolerated more. Hackett said they concentrate training in those regions. According to FA &… Read more »
Val
I think that Tanganga should have been send off in the first incident. A yellow card for the rugby tackle and another for unsavoury dispute with Zaha.
—————————————————————————————————-
It was not a rugby tackle. He pushed Zaha down without holding on him After that, he just stood still while Zaha grasped him with both hands and kept yelling at him. But the 2nd yellow was stupid. He got the Xhaks moment and dived in without hitting the ball.
Agree AFC, I think it’s safe to say if he hadn’t been badly injured he wouldn’t have got a red. Clumsy challenge, just about a yellow.
We were awful, but winning the game gave me strength to rewatch it again Tierney was god awful, blind crosses, hitting the first defender, all afternoon. Odegaard was another average joe (no idea what fans see in him), TT was the only positive, we may have finally gotten a decent RB. Hes got pace and likes to press from the front (hope this doesnt cause us problems against better oppositions) AMN was another waste of space in the middle All this against the worst side in the league Mikel still doesnt have a game plan to take us from one… Read more »
against Wimbledon this week in the league cup
—————
Next week Pete……..
Bob, yes it’s always difficult when a player gets hurt like that; but to me the decision should be based on the tackle and not the injury suffered. You get dangerous tackles that don’t injure a player, just how it is.
Nelson, Tanganga elbow made contact with Zaha’s throat. In rugby that would have been not just a penalty because high tackle (anything above the arm pit) are banned. Make contact with the throat and it is at a minimum a yellow card and a citation. He was not a poor guy assaulted by Zaha, he deliberately insulted a player (which just enrage him even more) and then try to block him (look at how he locks Zaha’s arms) from complaining further. At a minimum he was a willing participant in the dispute, so a yellow card for that would not… Read more »
AFC, where do you predict Arsenal finish the season and what league position would be unacceptable to you come May?
Gon
Odegaard was another average joe (no idea what fans see in him),
_________________________________________________________________
Odegaard is a play maker. For him to be effective, he needs to build up chemistry with our two fast attackers, Auba and Pepe. I talked about how Manure executes this long pass from Pogba to Fernandes. This can open up the defense in no time.
Tanganga pole-axed Zaja
He used both elbows and forearms to knock him down like he was playing in the Sunday leagues. That “tackle” will elicit a melee in any league.
That wa a red card in itself. Tangmange was upset that the whistle wasn’t blown for a spurs player and just stopped playing football.
Emiratestroller ‘Le Grove has been highly critical of the investments made this summer as well as the retention of Xhaka’. Generalize much? The response to our summer activity has been balanced. Most fans like most of the players signedif not the price paid for a couple of them. Most of us wanted Xhaka gone but not at a laughable price. The best of all worlds is if Sambi can cement a CM role alongside Partey and we’ll have Xhaka as a back-up and for Cup games. There’s been very little criticism of Sambi, Tomiyasu and Tavares. Most of the criticism… Read more »
Val
I agree that it was a yellow card. The way Zaha responded also earned him a yellow.
Valentin, not elbow but rather both hands/wrists which he thrusted into Zaha’s face…….an open field tackle with both hand to the face to retaliate ( let’s not kid ourselves that he wasn’t) for CP failing to put the ball out after what Tottenham players thought was a foul on Lucas Moura just seconds earlier.
The whole time he’s talking to the ref Tanganga and Kane are pointing to the Moura incident to justify his actions.
Odegaard is a slight upgrade on what we have – not hard when you consider his competition. But, in a team devoid of goals and goal scorers, someone in his position needs to be getting between 5 – 10 goals a season, which I can say with confidence, he will not do.
CG
Don’t forget both finalists were actually Canadian-born. Pretty impressive for a country that doesn’t have much pedigree in the sport.