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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AFC Forever

To be fair we have deserved this. Tempo and movement poor, and the players haven’t been brave enough. Eddies movement has been poor and we’ve had to bypass centre midfield areas which Forest have blocked well.

Batistuta

Probably just shift getting a striker and get at least 2 CMs this month

Habesha Gooner

Wow, Eddie has been terrible.

Guernsey+gun

Kola on hahaha what a joke club.

Avi

Oh by the way absolutely no chance for top 4 too if we don’t bring in a CF and CM this window.. Absolutely no chance

Guns of Hackney

At least no one got stabbed to death in London today.

Unoni

Nketiah really is poor.
I rate Pierre: he knows his football but he doesn’t have choose odd hills to die on. I don’t get the thing with Eddie

andy1886

Last few seconds and still ZERO urgency. Very very poor.

Samesong

Ally Mccoist is so funny.

Unoni

Avi

Don’t go over the top
This team is top four capable right now

Left Testicle

Foul throw sponsored by Hector Bellerin.

Guernsey+gun

A foul throw..say no more.

TeeCee

Dissenter will be here soon saying how good Eddie is and we’re all wrong

Bob N16

Unoni, Eddie hasn’t exactly massaged his transfer fee! Had to play, Balogun has Covid, Laca needed a rest.

Zacharse

Pretty blunted look today. Eddie? Cm? Their defense wasnt bothered by eddie or laca

Mr Serge

Pierre gets it wrong a bit willock nketia ozil all wank

Sid

The plan was to make the stabbers fall asleep

Benjamin

If you cant handle the “ distractions “ in the form of cup games, both domestic and in Europe, why would you want 4th place? Arteta just failed again!

Left Testicle

We didn’t deserve to go through.

izzo

Lokonga is 22. Why did we buy him again? He should be dominating being a midfielder at that age. Weird signing. Looks like he’s not ready for top flight.
At least games like this shows the likes of Leno, Cedric, Holding and Nketiah have no future with us.

MidwestGun

Well some of y’all wanted us to throw the Cup away… mission accomplished.

Really worried about our midfield..

Leftside

Can’t say Forest and their unsightly manager didn’t deserve that.

AFC Forever

Only saving grace is less games and it proves we need to spend money on central areas.

Duzie

Losing games in the dying moments is unacceptable.

This was a naive display.

Nigel Tufnel

Almost everyone below par.. we actually got worse in the second half.

I’m not too fussed. Concentrate on the league.

S Asoa

Kolasinac sub was idiocy, plus wasted time.

raptora

Outplayed by Not Forest.

Pedro prematurely ejaculating at the prospect of Conte and Spuds failing, earlier in the day on twitter, just so they progress and we bomb out of the competition…

Deserved I say.

Dissenter

TeeCee
You’re just one of the baying mob here is you think we lost because Eddie was poor

Did any Arsenal player show up today

Maybe Leno, all the rest were white

Manager and players.totally crap.

Have fun blaming Eddie.
I didn’t think he should be playing any games for us because he hasn’t signed an extension, I’ve made that point repeatedly.

Danny

Arteta……………cunt.

Unoni

ob N16January 9, 2022 19:01:21
Unoni, Eddie hasn’t exactly massaged his transfer fee! Had to play, Balogun has Covid, Laca needed a rest.

Bob
He’s gone from £8m to £5m there today. I’d not be offering £8m for that would you? I’d not be happy if arsenal were paying £8m for him. I really dont understand how he’s got so many admirers.

salparadisenyc

Shocking 90 for all involved, Eddie wretched up front the mid a shambles and Arteta wielding some pretty core subs out to his fullbacks to prove points. Especially in stoppage.

Deserved to exit.

Zacharse

They deserved it. Poor showing

Left Testicle

‘Maybe Leno, all the rest were white’
>>>>>>>>
Comment of the day that.

Avi

Unoni

No much quality in the squad for top4.. A couple of players missing and you see the team struggle badly even against a championship team

If no quality addition is made this window we could only hope United and Spurs continue to be shit to stand a chance for 4th I’m telling you

WengerEagle

Fuck me that was so dire from start to finish.

Created nothing, players all looked half asleep and in the 90th min of a Cup tie 1-0 down we had no urgency whatsoever, disgraceful carry on really.

Terraloon

Dissenter

1) Lack of squad depth
2) Lack of experience
3) Bigging up players who are even nowhere near close enough to top level
4)Not sending players out on loan so not gaining experience playing against men

Duzie

Take that 10 million offer for Nketiah. I don’t see him progressing here.

The scream for a couple of new midfielders couldn’t be louder.
Lokonga doesn’t really do much. I don’t understand the hype.

Habesha Gooner

Not happy with that. Arteta some how needs to find a way out poor games tolerable. When we are shit, we are very shit. Like very very poor. I am annoyed. We needed the cup to play our fringe players and keep them sharp. No more games for them from now on I guess.

Samir

The players should be embarrassed. Not one player gave 100% today.
Cedric
Eddie
Holding
Lokonga
Were especially terrible.
Good night all!

salparadisenyc

Next move, take that Tottenham strip and burn it.

Dissenter

We have these horrible games in us,
How do you go from almost beating city to be so poor today.

Blame individual players but he took off, Tavares early…no difference
He took off the youngster, no change at all

There’s too much yo-yo in our performances

GD

This is all on Arteta … Nketiah has no business wearing the jersey. Should’ve played Martinelli @ striker if anything.
Really stupid decision .. hope that little squirrel never wears the cannon again

Unoni

AMN looks the superior midfield option going by this display. Think too many creamed over lakonga a little too quickly. He may well improve but AMN has been our third best central midfield player this season. In fact outside of the city game I’d say AMN has been better than partey when selected in the middle thus far.

Aaron

AFC are the highlight of this round of the FA Cup!

No chance creation, and looked like a bunch of strangers on the pitch today, and why not, they were.

Better get our stuff together as we have pool 2X and spuds, lose that run and our Mojo will be sinking fast..

Dang that was a bit of nothingness.

Benjamin

Concentrate on the league? Why? So we can get our usual spanking in Europe again next year? Arteta messed up again!

Globalgunner

Knocked out y a ZZTop wanna be. Artetaball all over again

Gazzap

Arteta can’t blame Tavares. Tavares was better off out of it.

WengerEagle

Our CM is absolutely pathetic once you remove Partey from it.

Graham

Lost every match we played this year.

Artetaout

Let’s hope Eddie Howe parts ways with Newcastle soon

Mr Serge

Diss it was not just Eddie’s fault but he was as shocking as the rest of them
He is not the answer not enough quality to play for us he needs selling asap

raptora

I don’t really care for anything else but top 4 this season, so I’m perfectly fine with dropping out of the club.

But the way we played today… Oh god, so so bad. A showing like this really makes me think twice if we can run the distance in the top 4 battle.

Dissenter

Terraloon
We were playing a champions team,
This team was good enough to compete, no we didn’t even compete.

Also there’s a lot of dishonesty here.
People talking about players we are missing and leaving out Xhaka

rollen

Good old Arsenal.
Tets strikes back!

Leedsgunner

They deserved it, we didn’t.

Left Testicle

The kit was white for surrender.

David.D

I knew this would be a tricky fucking game even before today.
Just horrible horrible game where we didn’t fucking turn up.
Dickheads.
Sort of game if you’re not on it you will fucking get turned over.

Time Up

Holding, Tavares, Cedric and Eddie had a lower league performance. Made the Forest’s donkeys look like complete footballers.

Duzie

How many losses so far?

You could tell that AirPod Albert was responsible for that showing against Man City and not Arteta. How did we go from attacking to not knowing what to do versus Forest?

We would have to focus on finishing 4th and winning the league cup – if we could.

IQ

The team lacked any physical presence and got bullied. Cedric is the softest right back you will ever see. And the midfield was no different and the same can be said for Eddie who didn’t do anything.

Leftside

We’re also not fit about purpose away from home but no need to go too ott

Mr Serge

.
GrahamJanuary 9, 2022 19:06:58
Lost every match we played this year.Artetaout

Pathetic comment lol what a plum you are

Harv

Forest want their kit back….

AFC Forever

Xhaka and Partey protect us and at the same time move the ball quickly. Lokinga is a prospect but not ready yet hence Artetas comments about buying a CM. He will have learned he was right. This performance in central areas may force us to do everything to bring at least one top player in. Covid and injuries expose the squad but we all knew that.

englandsbest

A half-hearted display apparently. Hate to lose but given the circumstances, the drain on resources, perhaps a blessing in disguise.

Dissenter

We are still in the semifinal of another cup competition and can use the Anfield game to make a statement.

Unoni

Wilshere on a short term and a laca one year deal looking more and more sensible

Wardo

Let’s all go negative

Gutted bout the result

We just don’t have depth but I still think arteta is good

MidwestGun

It just shows we have a squad of about 17 players and thats about it.. if you count Leno, ESR, Loko, Tavares and Pepe as squad. And we see how Loko and Tavares need stability around them.

Disappointing… as hell. Not the end of the world but not good with Afcon.

DaveB666

Laughing at Spurs second team earlier needing to be bailed out and then we get served up this?

Top 4 you say Pedro? Think not on today’s showing.

Second string are worse than second rate, first teamers couldn’t really be arsed.

Congrats to Forest – they totally deserved it.

Duzie

Heck, Holding is not part of the plans going forward. All the games he’s played this season have left us too open at the back. No willingness to tackle, wastes time in releasing the ball.

We all had our fears about the drop in performance when one or two key players were out, and right were we.

Left Testicle

We are still in the semifinal of another cup competition and can use the Anfield game to make a statement.
>>>>>>>>>>
The only statement we made today was about knife crime.

WengerEagle

Mourinho’s Roma go from 3-1 up to 4-3 down in less than 10 mins over in Italy, wow.

Left Testicle

Stop with the Wilshere talk. No. Just no.

Soham

Whats gonna be the scoreline at Anfield if this is the state if affairs ?

WengerEagle

3 goals in 7 mins.

Dissenter

The emptiness of the midfield also highlights some of the pointed decisions we chose to make last summer.

We knew Partey was going to go to AFCON and should have factored that before we decided to splurge £50 million on the central defense

Mr Serge

It’s the usual lot that will call for MA head after a loss
People that do not know what they are talking about foolish internet trolling at its best
Yes we were shocking today but let’s not get carried away

AFC Forever

Dixie

“You could tell that AirPod Albert was responsible for that showing against Man City and not Arteta. How did we go from attacking to not knowing what to do versus Forest?”

Some of you really do know nothing about football. Arteta has nothing to do with wins only losses is pathetic. I suppose it was Arteta and not Eddie who misused that sitter? Perhaps he infected everyone with Covid?

AFC Forever

Duzie not Dixie ffs.

Berg10kamp

Forest deserve the win but we deserved a penalty for the pull on white and whatvwas up with the back pass?

LegendMaxqq

Mr Serge, Pierre loves a bromance with shit players.

Time Up

Not even one shot on target. Thanks Eddie.

Avi

This was always going to happen. People had been saying for weeks we’d be ****ed in January if Xhaka got injured or caught Covid and it happened. You’re not going to win games without a midfield.

Lokonga and Patino are still miles away from the level needed tbf

Unoni

Cor

People going a little over the top. I think some of you were always a little unrealistic in your ratings of young players like Tavares, lakonga and Nketiah.
Mark my words, the two things this team needs now is an attacking focal point and a technical leader in the middle of the pitch. Someone to guide and regulate Odegaard ESR and Saka

Berg10kamp

We haven’t been very good against deep blocks and today we had no midfield. Poor display but players to name, they just didn’t have an edge today.

Guernsey+gun

Im amazed city aren’t in for Cedric , what a player. Theres some cunt on here who licked Wenger’s ring who told me I was over reacting when we signed him. Clueless verbose cunt, knows who he is.

Dissenter

AFC
Seems you need a muzzle on you😂
Why are you reacting to every bone that’s been dropped to provoke
Some statements are just misplaced humor but you seem to take everything so seriously.

IQ

Eddie is only playing for himself and not the team. He has no business playing at all.

Unoni

eft TesticleJanuary 9, 2022 19:11:16
Stop with the Wilshere talk. No. Just no

Left
Best in training apparently. Can’t be any worse than what was out there today. Sign him up I say

Avi

Go all out for Vlahovic and Bruno Gumareas of Lyon now to genuinely stand a chance for top4

Anything short of 4th now has been a poor season for me

Unoni

IQJanuary 9, 2022 19:14:28
Eddie is only playing for himself and not the team.

That would be fine if he didn’t rely on team mates so heavily

Avi

How poor is Nketiah tho? Goodness me

Dissenter

Unomi=Unai Na= Don
There’s only one poster with this unshakeable obsession with Wilshere.

CG

Forest 1 Arsenal.0.

White kit, white flag raised.

Duzie

AFC

Tell yourself the truth. That performance was unlike Arteta. The real Arteta is what we saw today, the other day at Anfield and Goodison too.

I’m sorry, I don’t but into the hype. That’s my opinion.

Avi

Unoni aka Don/Una nanaii welcome back btw

Batistuta

Oh and goodness me please can we just focus on the football and leave out all the social justice distractions.

White kit was an abomination too

MidwestGun

I say get Edu away from the charcoal briquettes and get him working the smartphone. Need a midfielder…. asap.

AFC Forever

Dissenter

Fuck off mate. You do this every time. You’re one of those snide types who make little digs at people which is childish. You spend half your time getting everything wrong, the rest hoping Arsenal lose. While some of us hurt you start your games enjoying every minute.

Samesong

Wilshere on a short term and a laca one year deal looking more and more sensible

Don is back!