Sorry for being offline! Did you miss me? Of course you did. I spent the weekend in New York hanging with Matt from the podcast. A good time was had. But now, it’s time for focus. More daily content. More podcasts.
So how does that land lay?
It was a fairly decent weekend for Arsenal. United lost to Leicester. The game was exciting, the goals were outrageous, United look an absolute shambles. I cannot for the life of me understand why they went so hard for Ronaldo. An emotional decision that broke their hiring philosophy. Never re-sign your heroes. OGS’s side looks unbalanced and it’s quite staggering to see how £75m Jadon is totally bombing in the Premier League. He’ll come good, but again, shows how impressive Tomiyasu has been to just roll into a weaker squad and boss it against players like Son.
Here’s the narrative for the week.
Win our two games against two sides we SHOULD be winning against… and we’ll be in the top 4 for a hot second.
The narrative will then shift a degree in the favor of the project. Arteta will have shown he’s progressed the side. The early season blip will be fully wrapped in the context of: Covid outbreaks aren’t good for teams. Brentford is actually a proper team that Chelsea couldn’t manage more than one shot on target against (5 attempts in the whole game). European Champions are tough to beat when you are depleted.
Anything less than 6 points and questions linger.
This bullshit notion that we should breeze Palace and Villa is just that. People are living in 2004. The Premier League is so much stronger than it was 5 years ago. Palace and Villa are much better than they’ve ever been. We shouldn’t expect to breeze them… but, we should expect to win and we need to see a proper performance. Villa have lost two in a row against two struggling sides (Spurs and Wolves). Palace have been up and down, but they don’t have the defensive discipline they need to shut us down like Brighton did. Control Zaha and you are halfway there.
… here’s what will happen, both teams will spend at least the first 30 minutes pressing us the same way Brighton did. Last season, Leicester showed the way against us and we went into freefall because smaller teams worked out how to play against us.
Brighton dominated us because we bottled their press. We cannot afford to be weak when Palace abuse us tomorrow. If you break the press 2-3 times in the first 20minutes, the opposition will lose confidence, then the game opens up and they have to retreat. We didn’t do that against Brighton, we retreated, resorted to long balls, and invited wave after wave. Tomorrow, we need to show more confidence and we need to bring the energy of the Spurs game.
I’m interested to see what the changes are. I suspect Auba will start again, we have to start getting a turn out of him, no point in benching him for Lacazette. He’ll get more space tomorrow.
In midfield, I hope Sambi keeps his spot and I hope Partey brings confidence back into the mixer.
In the final third, we need to be decisive. ESR and Saka need to turn it on and Odegaard cannot get snuffed out like he did against Brighton.
The fans need to bring electricity to the Monday night occasion. The players need to give them something to be electrified about. The first 20mins are key. Get the fans onside, dominate Palace, make the chances count.
We need 6 points from these two games. Then we set the tone for our rivals this weekend.
Right, that’s me done, see you in the comments.
The ‘pressing problem’ is the least of our issues.. We need to score at least 2 goals. If Auba has another stinker we will be in trouble.
I talked on here about how overrated I felt Guendozi was and still hold that belief . But and here’s the but he was recruited by Arsenal and I find it hard to believe that those mad moments ( am I allowed to say that ) didn’t start after his transfer they surely had been evident albeit in his teenage years. Transfer teams elsewhere look deeper than just a players ability on the field surely that happened at Arsenal or is it another example of how poor things were. I hear rumours about a couple of players hopefully they are… Read more »
“”””NorthbankerOctober 18, 2021 08:08:14
When you have a cancer in your business then you need to cut it out,”””
Diet Pep fits this descrption, yet we have persisted with him
Nigel demands positivity, then starts frothing at the mouth
“You were probably one who was spewing bile about the kid.
You can pass judgement, but nobody else can about your pathetic life.”
Poor lad absolutely triggered.
The Bard
As I posted yesterday Arsenal have got on paper a lot of decent strikers capable of scoring double digit goals but sadly they have been misfiring in last 2-3 seasons.
My guess is that over next couple of transfer windows Arsenal will cut their losses in this department and offload players and probably focus most of their recruitment and investment in this department of team.
Emiratesstroller
Until we address the problem of why they are misfiring or out of form or lack confidence or whatever the issue is , the new recruitment wont have any effect . See how Chelsea has struggled historically with great strikers and now even Lukaku has gone 4 games without scoring.
I’ve been wondering for quite a while if it would make sense to play 442. Our wingers are quite defensive anyway, and it might help us to keep the ball higher up the pitch. Might also get a lot more out of Auba if he had Laca alongside to do the “dirty work” of a CF.
Never been convinced the move away from 442 was wise – the last truly decent side we had, over 12 years ago, played 442 up until RVP and Eduardo got injured and we were forced into 451.
Palace are nothing special up front
I agree with this to extent. My only worry is their physicality. They have Eduard and that Chelsea player on loan with Zaha and Benteke. A decent combination if you give them time and space.
Viera tactics tonight will probably be to bully us. Force us to make mistakes. But if we ar on our game tonight. We should beat them. 2-1 Arsenal
Divine
For me the likes of Chelsea are able to carry a misfiring player and grind out results against decent teams whereas as things stand it’s almost certain that clubs that carry a threat such as Palace will have to score a minimum of two goals. The likes of Norwich, Burnley and yes even Brighton didn’t hurt Arsenal but I don’t think they are decent teams they are teams that Arsenal should be brushing aside
Samesong
Think people are underestimating Palaces potential. Not you I hasten to add
You mention Benteke and you are right if, and he isn’t often, on his game, he is a beast and very very good in the air .I think that they will score at least one tonight
Gallagher has an incredible engine and will pop up in dangerous positions and most of their squad remained at home during the International break which makes a tremendous difference
Teraloon
October 18, 2021 10:44:50
100%
We beat them 3-1 in May (End of season). but have drawn our previous last 3 games with them.
I got a feeling ESR will score tonight. Probably my favourite player in the team at the moment.
Samesong
Patrick Vs Palace are a million miles away from Hodgsons Palace.
They have far more youth and energy.
I mentioned earlier Gallagher but take a look tonight at Gheui he is a true talent and like you I see a decent player in Eduard
I have a feeling that neither Tierney nor Partey will start tonight strange yes but both are very fragile and probably having both played two international games probably will have to sit either this one or the Villa game that and the fact that Arteta will have to go strong v Leeds the following Tuesday
Yeah Gallagher plays with no fear.
Tyrick Mitchell young decent player too.
PV4 is coming home.
Just for tonight I hope he leaves with his tail between his legs.
Diet Pep will be trembling when PV4 stares him in the eyes.
A cold sweat will trickle down his spin, into where the good lord split him
Terraloon
I was referring to Emirates point that there will be more recruitment in the ST department , the team we have right now should be able to defeat the likes of Palace / Villa .
Sid
He will be trembling if he is standing at the urinals with PV4 on one side and TH14 on the other.
PV4 will crack his whip
Diet Pep will weep
then Henry dusts his broom
Diet Pep will be in gloom
Hoping Newcastle comes with a good bid for Pepe in January.
I’m optimistic about tonight’s game.
Hoping MBS needs a a saucy and generational manager at Newcastle
“As I posted yesterday Arsenal have got on paper a lot of decent strikers capable of scoring double digit goals but sadly they have been misfiring in last 2-3 seasons. My guess is that over next couple of transfer windows Arsenal will cut their losses in this department and offload players and probably focus most of their recruitment and investment in this department of team.” Goals from midfield are equally important and our midfielders have been misfiring as well. Partey, Xhaka, Odegaard, Saka, and ESR have a combined PL output of goals and assists equal to that of a certain… Read more »
Tom
Nail on head in terms of the importance of goals from midfield.