ROTATION WITH A SPRINKLING OF FIRST TEAM FOR FA CUP

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FA CUP 3rd ROUND DAY!

The best cup competition in the world kicks off today, we have ourselves a lovely trip to the River Trent to take on the storied Nottingham Forest. Arguably one of the best club names in the game.

What do we expect from them? A big attempt at a performance. They are smack bang in the middle of the Championship, they’ve won their last 3, their players will be looking to shine brightly whilst the whole of the UK is watching on ITV a bit later.

Arsenal will be playing a very young side because there’s no choice. COVID issues, knocks, and some big games coming up will mean heavy rotation. When you have to heavily rotate, you can’t guarantee you’ll maintain performance, so we have to be prepared for the evening to be tough.

Rumours have it that Biereth, Salah, Hutchinson, and Patino will be on the bus. BIG rumours that the conductor of the 2022 hype train, Charlie Patino, could actually make his first start for the club. That would be special, he has everyone at Arsenal buzzing about his talent, and he even has his own song with the fans. I don’t think we’ve been more sure about a second coming since Jack Wilshere.

Outside that, who knows what the team will look like, but my assumption is it’s going to be all about the fringe players. Bernd Leno, Holding, Soares, Tavares at the back. Midfield will probably have to be Patino and Lokonga for the minutes. But somewhere along the line there’s going to have to be some first-teamers you’d rather keep fresh. The Smith, Odegaard, and maybe Benny Blanco spring to mind.

Personally, I’m looking for the same thing I always do during heavy rotation periods. All 11 players dropping performances like they want to be considered for the Spurs and Liverpool games. Healthy squads create the feeling that everyone could start. Unhealthy squads see these games as an imposition. As I said many times last season, players like David Luiz used to think they were above games like this, so they’d not show up. In healthy squads, they all go there to do the business.

IN OTHER NEWS

Ainsley made his move over to Roma to play under the delightful Jose Mourinho. I don’t really have much to say on this outside, I REALLY HOPE HE DOES WELL. It never worked out for Ains, the killer blow to his career was saying no to the right-back role which could have been lucrative for him. Still, going to Rome could be good. That league lacks power, so he’ll have a leg up on the intensity. If he’s playing well, he’ll have to up his concentration. All things he’s young enough to manage.

We’ve been linked to some midfielder in Brazil. Those rumours really do nothing for me. Their league makes Italy look intense, so it’s really hard to work out which players you can bring from over there that would make it here.

Midfield is such an interesting position to recruit for. We need a body for the now, but really, only for emergency reasons. So who are they going to buy cover for? And is it cover, or someone that can challenge Xhaka and Partey next season? Or, will they look for a midfielder that does something different to the other two. Someone that is more of a specialist for certain types of games? Is Arsenal building out two squads of players that do that same things, or are they building out a chessboard of pieces that can cover off the different types of games we struggle in?

Who knows, but if Arteta is to be believed, we’ll find out in the next 3 weeks.

Right, that’s me done, have fun in the comments x

 

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Sid

Against a championship side soares and tavares at fb , lokonga and Patino at Midfield should be enough for atleast free flowing football.

Sid

It less about winning but more about the style of football which has been a common occurence under Diet Pep.

Guns of SF

agreed Sid
spot on

Tony

‘Does give hope that we will improve in windows ahead though’ Many of us have been doing that since 2008. I mean 30 months and we get 5th? Emery did that in his first season. Granted he was punching above his weight, but that’s what managers do to put up their best fight. Right now Xhaka is our main MF leader and he’s got Omicron leaving 2 kids to fill in who badly need loans until ESR’s knock clears up and Ode. Bad squad planning from Arteta & Edu. Yesterday, we had a kid (Lakonga) looking after the kid; Patino… Read more »

Tony

Amen Sid.

Berg10kamp

Andy1886
Cunning plan by Mikel to ensure he gets the CM and Striker that he asked for this January.

This is exactly it right here. FA Cup is not a priority this season as our squad is simply too thin to play this much games and Arteta kno2s we don’t have a B team that an carry the weight. He will now make his case for Jan and the summer.

Tony

Looking forward to the WC where this year’s World Cup will be held from late-November to mid-December, do we just lose players like with the Afcon? I assume we do, because with the Qatar World Cup being staged at the end of 2022 meaning it will cause major disruptions to the next Premier League campaign. So we’re going to likely lose: ESR SAKA ODE Partey Xhaka if still here. Ramsdale/Leno Tomi May have missed some, but the manager is going to need to do some squad thinking now and for the summer. I know other clubs will be similarly affected,… Read more »

Mb

Tbh, I would take top 4 in place of FA Cup.

Tony

‘This is exactly it right here. FA Cup is not a priority this season as our squad is simply too thin to play this much games’

Why? Extremely poor squad management. Simple!

Guns of SF

Fa cup win is EL right?

I think any cup loss is terrible. They all have value and help the fans stay happy.
To discard any cup is just wrong…

Of course top 4 is the goal but winning the FA cup got us EL right?

Guns of SF

what is left the carabao cup right?

Tony

Against the Bin Dippers Thursday night 1st leg.

Don’t worry, Guns, it’s probably another non prioritised competition fur us, right Berg10kamp?

Guns of SF

what gets me is that the EPL cannot enforce or choses not to enforce vaccines for al players. Am I wrong here? I get you can get Covid being vaccinated but the EPL needs to enforce their asset does not lose value or integrity and also of course $$$ have all players mask up when not on the pitch, take more stringent precautions, and make sure all players are for sure vaccinated! The amount of players getting Covid is utterly ridiculous. These are professionals, who need to take more than the average joe precautions. It just show incompetence at the… Read more »

Sid

GSF, the reason we have a high number of players with covid is because they are tested more than the general population, (google what the inventor of the PCR test Kary Mullis has to say about it)

masks and vaccines have nothing to do with it.

Guns of SF

Sid, really? if they are tested more, that means by deduction also if the general pop is tested more then they will also test positive? So infection rates are actually depressed and lower than what they actually are? That makes no sense. The players are infected and spreading and contracting COVID due to lack of mask wearing at the practices, hygeine, etc. If players are vaccinated it helps but its the other factors, – social distancing, masking, washing hands, etc… These are pros who are running around sweating and breathing on their teammates etc. Does EPL have a vaccine mandate… Read more »

Tony

Fair enough, Steg. Can’t say I agree with you, but I understand your thinking.

Invincibles

Tony

The premier League won’t take place during the World Cup

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/59253994.amp

Tony

Thanks Invincible’s I thought about it the other day and then this morning. I hadn’t really looked much on the Internet, so thanks for the link.

Terraloon

To y Why? Extremely poor squad management. Simple! Yes poor squad management but underpinning that was poor squad and of course poor man management.. Time after team clubs have done well up to Christmas but club after club start to fade from 1/1 on but this season 4 senior players are not going to be available for around a month. Those 4 players should have been played to exhaustion, and yes I include Aba in that. The fact that ESR and Tomi weren’t anywhere near the squad yesterday tells a story. Tomi it seems was fully rested and ESR from… Read more »

Bob N16

Tony,

PL stops on 12th Nov and recommences on 26th December for WC. All top teams will be equally affected.

Were Liverpool last season guilty of bad squad building which in turn lead to them nearly missing out on CL football?

Tony

That sums things up perfectly Terraloon.

Terraloon

Guns The amount of players getting Covid is utterly ridiculous. These are professionals, who need to take more than the average joe precautions. It just show incompetence at the player level, and league level. Sid does to a degree have a point but I think you seriously underestimate the COVID protocols that are in place in the PL. For instance before training every day the players and support staff are tested and aren’t allowed into the training facilities until the result comes through. Twice a week the PL test over 10k PL players and support staff. First team training facilities… Read more »

China1

Our squad is too thin to play this many games? Come on not really We play one game a week for most of the season. We play lower league teams in the FA cup and league cup. Hardly a brutal test of squad strength. Our bench and best youth players are more than capable of putting a team like forest in their place. We should be beating them by 2-3 goals with the team we fielded yesterday The team played shit yesterday but we don’t need to be so reactive so as to assume after one shit game all those… Read more »

Shaun

“It’s just so weird. Like Arteta is sabotaging himself. To show how bad the situation is and be given money to spend.” why do you think that’s weird ? lego head is not about Arsenal it is about himself, Every time Arsenal start doling well the mask slips an the arrogance shines through but do not be fooled as Arsenal is only his training ground . Most Arsenal fans with a brain realize it will take lego head five years and at least 300-400million spend to get Arsenal challenging regularly .The AMN loan move is just dumb as fuck or… Read more »

Terraloon

China

“Our bench and best youth players are more than capable of putting a team like forest in their place.”

Clearly not.

Many of the squad players such as Holding, Mari, Soares, Nketiah, Chambers& Tavares are Championship standard and most of the youth have no idea what it’s like to play against the hardened pros that ply their trade in the second tier

China1

Saka is the perfect case in point

If he’s tired (very possible) that lands on arteta for playing him in every game when we have had Pepe sitting on the bench all season. Is Pepe as good? Hell no. But he’s good enough to give Saka a rest sometimes when he needs one. But the club refused to play him and prefer to beast saka instead

China1

Terra be serious Holding and Mari kept a whole bunch of clean sheets last season in the PL. are they title winning first 11 players? No. But they’re easily PL quality. Tavares was being talked of as an awesome signing at the start of the season. He’s had a few consecutive bad games and now he’s a championship player. Chambers is another who is far from elite but a PL level player. Eddie has been good this season apart from yesterday People are judging these players levels based on the last 90 minutes and acting like we’ve never seen them… Read more »

China1

Wenger used to smash lower pl teams….***

Mb

Did someone mention Guen 👀

Mb

China1

Wenger won’t shout on the touchline to confuse those kids.

Mb

Seriously it looks foolish. If you have to shout for 90min during the game, what tf was going on in training?

Habesha Gooner

Last night was both on Arteta and the players. They should have at least a decent motivation to play these games. Forrest wanted it much more. And that’s not okay. One game a week for the rest of the season means we have a big advantage when it comes to the league. But backups will not have any games for 6 months. Some of them deserve it but some are kids we needed to play to get them to be sharp. Now we really have to get top 4. And signings are neccessary for long term but after these next… Read more »

The Bard

I dont think yesterday should be a,surprise. We don’t have the depth and quality of player to ride out any of our 1st X1 going missing. While we sit 4th I suggest this is a rather inflated position. We are still a midtable side in view. Whether that means Arteta is good enough remains to be seen.

Kayana

Sid is by Far the most realistic and rational poster in this forum. Wouldn’t mind having a cold one with Sid as we discuss various global issues.

Buzzy

We are not even truly 4th. Sides have game in hands and one loss could see us move down to even 7th or 8th.

Unoni

Terra

Come on!! Championship level?
This team was poorly balanced and played the wrong tactics to bets utilize the personnel selected.
One of my main gripes is that we don’t shoot enough, especially when we clearly aren’t finding our way to goal with what we had out yesterday with whatever plan A was

Mb

Was there even a plan A?

Samesong

Forest stuck it on us from the first whistle. We were not prepared mentally or physically for yesterday’s battle with that team we put out.

Sid

Thank you Kayana, the feeling is mutual

GSF
“It is important to note that detecting viral material by PCR does not indicate that the virus is fully intact and infectious, i.e. able to cause infection in other people. The isolation of infectious virus from positive individuals requires virus culture methods. These methods can only be conducted in laboratories with specialist containment facilities and are time consuming and complex.”

Major_Jeneral

After just 1 game, the Arsenal fan base expect Jed Spence to be on Arsenal radar.

You saw him in 1 game ffs.

How is he quality after 1 game? Like seriously?

Samesong

After just 1 game, the Arsenal fan base expect Jed Spence to be on Arsenal radar.

Lol so true.

Spanishdave

Arteta is learning anything, and certainly is not a fast learner.
The team was badly set up with too many secondary players in key positions.
The game showed how bad the squad is. Saka had nobody to work with, Martinelli just ran around on the left like a headless chicken. We were slow moving the ball forwards and there was little movement off the ball.
All down to the coaching staff.
We hav’nt turned any corners yet

Leedsgunner

Let’s have not delude ourselves in thinking we had a second string out there yesterday- apart from the midfield had first string players in the defence and in the attack.

We were 3/4 strong and we were horrible.

Leedsgunner

*Let’s not…

Unoni

Mb Maybe plan a was to have thee backup look inept so as to gain leverage with funds in the market? I doubt it but you never know. When our system clearly suits a no9 to bounce off then why would you use Nkwtiah who offers the opposite, all while knowing his mind is on a move elsewhere. The fact is that this game matters very little in the grand scheme of our seasons goals though and it will be our performance vs spurs and then Burnley that I’m more concerned with. Was yesterday a disappointing performance? Yes. Does it… Read more »

Samesong

I assure you Arteta will be pissed off this morning going out of the cup like that.

Mr Serge

I don’t get people on here that say Arteta lost on purpose to get money to buy players, he is a professional and a competitor nobody throws a game to prove a point grow up seriously

Mr Serge

KayanaJanuary 10, 2022 09:02:47
Sid is by Far the most realistic and rational poster in this forum. Wouldn’t mind having a cold one with Sid as we discuss various global issues.

Where the fuck have you been the last 20 years to come up with that assumption Guantanamo bay ?. FML

Leedsgunner

Pedro

I can’t believe you’re stand up for Holding.

Decent professional but he should have been head and shoulders yesterday amongst our back ups.

He still looked like a back up.

Holding was only brought in as a vanity project by Wenger to prove that he too could pluck a defender out of obscurity in the EFL – his answer to John Stones…

He should have been sold when Newcastle offered £15m a few years back.

Sid

@Serge, cant we all just get along?

Samesong

I can’t believe you’re stand up for Holding.

There was a moment in the game where I thought Woody the wood pecker ran past him.

Mr Serge

Leeds holding is 4th choice CB and also English so part of the HG quota we can’t get rid of him especially as chambers and AMN are being moved on

Leedsgunner

*standing up for

Mr Serge

SidJanuary 10, 2022 10:10:20
@Serge, cant we all just get along?

Sid with the olive branch, well I never, of course we can I will endeavour to be nice, it’s just you got my back up in the summer when you called me a diet pep fanboy for months on end

Leedsgunner

Mr Serge

Fair point!

NORG

Yesterday Arteta’s sauce was thick lumpy gravy whilst Steve Cooper served up a robust sauce that smothered the opposition. Its back to cookery school for Arteta.

Mr Serge

Leeds I do agree he is not good enough against some prem opposition but against phorest he should be dominant the whole team is at fault yesterday
Don’t rate Eddie at all or soares and patino is not ready for 1 st team action,
Ode saka martinelli should have done better that team yesterday should have won by 2 or 3

Sid

My apologies Serge, nothing personal, its like when Le groves supreme leader uses ‘Emerysta’

Cant we all get along is rhetorical, everyone should feel free to air their grievance, criticize the status quo.

Samesong

Funny thing about yesterday is after they scored there looked like an Aubameyang lookalike in the Forest stands.

Terraloon

Unoni Yep Championship level. Far far too many are vastly over rating many of the players particularly many of those that played yesterday. There are several things that elevate a player from being a championship player to one who is able to perform at PL level one of which is being able to perform at that higher level consistently. Mari and Cedric for instance probably wouldn’t have gotten close to that Forest team yesterday and in Cook they had a CD who read the game and imposed himself.Cook can’t get near a starting berth at Bournemouth nowadays Tavares we were… Read more »

Unoni

Mr serge

For the record, I wasn’t suggesting that rather saying I thought it unlikely

Unoni

Terra I’m not sure I rate Tavares yet myself as from what I have seen he is very gung ho, but does have skill on the ball. Ramsey was gung ho also and he too left gaping holes but I wouldn’t use positional indiscipline as a definitive example of a player being championship level Holding is a premier league defender but requires a run of games to reach his stride and white is an international defender. Mari and holding played very well together last season and contributed to several clean sheets, some against the top sides. Do we need better… Read more »

Unoni

Lakonga I’m not sure on yet either. Lacks the personality to stamp his authority on matches without an older head at this stage. Paddy was dominating the best players in the world already at 22 but that’s an impossibly high bar to set.
Things are still far better than we thought they’d be 2-3 months ago though so let’s not get too irate. I’m happy with the current trajectory, all things considered

BacaryisGod

Pedro I like the idea of YouGov polls on the site but there are a few problems with this last one.Please take this as constructive criticism from someone that has actually done significant work in this field. 1. Any polling expert will tell you that if you put a photo of the subject of the poll above the question, it will likely lead to emotional shifts in the responses. That’s why you see so many unflattering g images of candidates in negative political ads. This smiling, relaxed photo of Arteta looks almost designed to make the respondent feel favourably towards… Read more »

BacaryisGod

*Ramsdale not Ramsey (unless we bring in Rambo on loan this window!)

BacaryisGod

As for the game yesterday, the overreaction I’m seeing isn’t about the team’s performance which was clearly dreadful but towards some of the individuals. Some players need to be surrounded by quality in order to shine. Holding, and Lokonga are currently two examples of this. Partey and Xhaka’s absence had a severe impact on both of them and I’m sure Holding would have done better with Tomi at RB. Maybe the best example of this in Arsenal’s history is Stephen Hughes who showed real moments of quality as a teenager playing with Vieira and Bergkamp but who showed his true… Read more »

BacaryisGod

Damn, I slipped into Tony levels of long-winded posts😂

Tony

Nah, you need more practice Bacary, but you’re getting there.

Tony

Just read we were offering Dustan Vlahovic £68m with £300, 000 a week for a 21 year old untested in the PL. Moot point now because he turned us down until ,the summer. Probably waiting to see if we make 4th this season. Unsurprisingly, nothing reported on a MF having a bid made for. Zacharse, I understand you’ve adopted Pedro’s Artetaitis: I haven’t & neither would I condemn Emery as a bum or a moron, which is what you called Emery. I supported Emery though I didn’t want him to replace Wenger. My choices we’re in keeping with most here.… Read more »

Tony

‘Were Liverpool last season guilty of bad squad building which in turn lead to them nearly missing out on CL football?’ I’d say they were, Bob. Naturally, I don’t follow their TW plans, but they needed better in case of injuries to key defensive players. I would put that down to the owners not coming up with the necessary funds. Klopp doesn’t seem his happy go lucky self these days because his squad is aging up top and will be hard to replace Mane and Salah in a couple of years or sooner. I wouldn’t be surprised if next season… Read more »

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