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
Dissenter
Who would be your top 3 picks for cmf alongside partey
“Andy1886 – I think the clue is when he says “away game against Leicester””
Possible mitigation except that six or seven of those that started today will not start in that game so no reason for them to tell them to (to quote EB) “Take it easy, we have tastier fish to fry’”
The away fans who spent good money and gave up their Sunday deserved that the team at least make an effort. Again, that team was more than good enough to win the game, their attitude sucked.
I will say I didn’t like the Tavares substitution one bit. Just wait until half-time and make the switch instead of humilating the player. Yes, other managers have done it but I still don’t like it. I didn’t like Nuno’s temper tantrum either particularly after clearly not coming to play. Still, which of our team did come out to play?
Union Iam sure they both played when Forest knocked us out of the cup 4 years ago!
** Unoni even
EB, see my last comment. If you think that MA told a mostly second string side to take it easy you’re losing the plot.
De jong
Rice
Bellingham
Camavinga
Pierre is a troll. Eddie is just another Ozil he uses to lull you into responding to his posts.
G8
Welbeck up front with willock and Elneny in midfield
MattB: Arteta continues to give us lackluster attack performances and can’t put an attack together that can beat a championship side. He is having an excellent result one game and the next gives us again a shitty performance by the team, that is the Arteta routine for 2 years and don’t give me the shit about winning the FA Cup. Even a blind hen sometimes finds a grain of corn.. How the fuck did he not do his homework and had to take off Tavares after just 34 minutes and replaced him by Tierney. He keeps on giving shit selections… Read more »
Arsenal out of FA Cup? Good riddance! I don’t care about FA cup or the League Cup. I just want Wednesday night football. Just want to shout in Song the glorious anthem: ….’UEFA, UEFA, UEFAaaaaaaaahhh champion’s league, for champion’s.’
However, Arteta should improve on players management. He should rotate more and keep the players fit for occasions like this. Some players were just to rusty and it showed.
Terraloon you prove my point. Tthere is no balance. 4 defenders, a goalkeeper and Laca. Forget experience it’s about balance and partnerships. Had Xhaka been fit, he would have played alongside Lokinga.
“champion’s league, for champion’s”
Except that it’s not. Maybe they should rewrite that part.
andy
“Again, that team was more than good enough to win the game, their attitude sucked.”
I agree. I saw very little bravery. Let Forest sit back and made no attempt to play through them. Apart from Saka nobody else seemed to take people on. Sometimes you have to look at players not excuse them. White shirts and a white flag performance.
Just goes to show how difficult it is to cultivate a potent attack.
Wenger could field nik B welbz Theo and vela and take that Forrest team apart
He could and did send out his youth team and they would annihilate the likes of this Forrest.
Off to the pub, need a drink! Or two!
Eddie’s value dropped by £10m after that shocker from him
Wiltshire is now a “ROY OF THE ROVERS CHARACTER”
Laughable to even suggest him.?
Not sure Odegaard is as useful as ESR against a deep defence. We need to add more variety to our game still.
Quote of the day for this game by Roy Keane: “Keane’s half-time take was that Mikel Arteta’s team looked like Real Madrid but played like a pub team. Nicely put but it was an arguable comparison. Even the Dog and Duck have the occasional strike on goal”. And for all those saying not interested in the FA Cup, 1st it brings in TV revenue and 2nd you can only select from the squad a few players per match. The rest are being paid excellent wages for what exactly? Plus Arsenal supporters will not be watching any possible future talents in… Read more »
“Jurgen Klopp says a Covid outbreak that led to the postponement of Liverpool’s Carabao Cup semi-final first leg at Arsenal had “a lot of false positives”.”
Fix!!
andy1886
Getting weepy for the away fans won’t wash, we are talking what is best for Arsenal.
The Club has a depleted squad with a huge work-load. And young players should be protected from over-playing, trying too hard. And it’s an unwise assumption that Arteta won’t be needing the less regular players in the near future.
As i said , always better to be balanced when analysing a game and Eddie’s finishing was surprisingly poor for a player who has a ratio of a goal every 60 minures this season…never mind ,all strikers have off days , at least he didn’t keep giving the ball away…he did look a little lethargic but of course he did miss the man city game after contracting covid apparently, so there could be mitigating circumstances. Thats why i have no qualms about questioning what Martinelli did all game , not one word of criticism on here despite making only 10… Read more »
Ainsley’s debut: joins Mou to blow a 3-1 lead at home to Juve (who finished with 10 men) and lose 4-3. Nice
EB, so you’re just ignoring the fact that more than half of the team today weren’t first team regulars and without cup football will be kicking their heels during the next few weeks rather than admit your speculative comments were nonsense.
Felt very sorry for Lokonga & Patino been paired in a game like tonight’s
Andy
“False positives”??
Is that right?
If so, they conned everyone! I thought they had fiddled the injuries but this is shocking. They need to be thrown out, if proven. Disgraceful.
We really missed Dani Ceballos out there tonight
Losing to Forest is good for the team now! Not sure who is worse, the team, or the fans..
Arsenal played their best game of the season when Arteta had COVID against Man City. As soon as he returns, look what happens!
Andy, you’re right…!!
Klopp: “We thought we had a proper (Covid) outbreak last week and it showed up we had a lot of false positives actually, The only real positive case from the team was Trent Alexander-Arnold and all the rest were false positives.”
Absolutely disgraceful behaviour.
EB would never get away with saying that shit in the pub. Disrespecting the away fans like that.
We had a few false positives ourselves today.
AFCF – It isn’t going to happen but they should be sanctioned for that. If you get a positive you take further tests to back up the original result. You can’t tell me that they didn’t follow that up with a proper lab test and find out that they were false positives within 24 hours, it’s just not believable.
This comment will go missing. Sharp lesson for this young team to learn.
Our squad is terrible our first eleven is decent. Also Pedro there’s only 4 months left and then we will see if your hype of Arteta was all worth it. He’s got until the end of the season the team is so up and down it could go either way let’s see
Looks like you can’t play even if it’s shown to be a false positive so not a Liverpool problem. But that really is bonkers, what sort of clowns are running the show here?
I can understand people are trying to be positive and all, but going out of the cup this early by no mean is good for the club, not for the players and certainly not for the fans
But we move on..
It’s what’s called a false positive G8
It’s like saying we wanted to lose as we had a tricky away tie in the next round at Leicester – when it would have been at home.
Anyone seen any post match comments from Arteta?
Would really like to see him come out and say that performance was unacceptable.
Anybody thinking that we missed that ape xhaka is deluded, the sooner we get rid of him the better…
Andy … he did.
I have heard of false negatives but false positive cases in Covid testing ? Klopp is probably lying here
Knowing Arteta’s inability of handling spirited youngsters, after subbing Tavares, Arteta refused to acknowledge him, but one could sense Tavares was raging. He will be lucky to feature any time soon given his manager’s ruthlessness with those who act out.
And for all those who hoped Tavares has a future at AFC good luck with that knowing Arteta’s track record of handling little shits. Guen anyone?
Unoni now you talking
Ceballos, what a player lol
Could have easily won the game on his own
Thinking about it, Denis Suarez , sorely missed too
His control and vision 2nd to none!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSGeSwFivV0
Andy
AFCF – It isn’t going to happen but they should be sanctioned for that. If you get a positive you take further tests to back up the original result. You can’t tell me that they didn’t follow that up with a proper lab test and find out that they were false positives within 24 hours, it’s just not believable.
All PL players are tested by club doctors daily . Those tests are conducted prior to the players being allowed to engage in training.
Every 3/4 days the Premier League independently test the players
@Andy1886
In fairness Arteta did come out and apologize, he said it was unacceptable that performance
Invincible false positive!?
Are you Klopp in disguise? Lol
Those players had the wrong attitude today. They came out believing the game was already won. Yes I’m still not wholly convinced by Arteta, but I still blame the players more. Cedric’s played how many pro games, Patinho aside most of these players have played 150 plus pro games but their application today was disgusting
In every department Forest wanted it more.
Andy1886
I didn’t watch the game, but it seems Forest tried their utmost, and Arsenal didn’t.
Now let’s imagine that Arteta told his players to try their utmost and they won, that Saka scored the winning goal but hobbled off inured and was out for the rest of the season. And Arsenal missed out on a top 6 place.
That is why I think Arteta won’t be over-fussed by losing the game. Losing players was a bigger fear.
Lokonga does need an experienced player next to him. If he’s your senior midfielder… we have a problem.. Also appears a little lightweight. Gotta bulk up son. The Tavares sub was bad because we needed someone with energy to allow us to bring on Tierney later, there were enough subs, but we didn’t have any quality on the bench. What good are 5 subs if you don’t have anyone good to bring in. Thursday, Saka and Martinelli shouldn’t get near the pitch, play children if necessary. Give the week off to anybody we want to use for Spurs. It’s a… Read more »
Thanks Guys, fair play to him then, that’s exactly the right approach, collective responsibility for a poor performance.
The one thing is,I suppose, if Spurs had lost, many of us would be pointing out that it gives them an advantage in the race for 4th,just as many of us didn’t want to see them out of that European competition. So if we apply that logic to ourselves there is a consolation prize. That is different from saying that we wanted or intended to lose today. We didn’t. And the performance was very disheartening. My problem with Arteta’s Arsenal is the level to which we remain reliant on Saka and ESR. They are two players gifted to him from… Read more »
EB – Probably not wise to comment if you didn’t watch the game. Funnily enough the one player that did actually make an effort was Saka, and he was the most fouled, all of which kinda makes your theory seem a bit unlikely.
Eddy this Eddy that .
The ball comes over for him to simply head in, he jumps and shoulders it away to the corner post.
Some hero that.
Useless.
There is so many overpaid rubbish players in our club, that’s the problem.
No matter the team we should have won today. Only patino, and lokonga can be excused. No one can see our line up and say we wouldn’t have a shot on target.
WELP
VERY BAD
Really weird that Arteta has been blocking transfers for AMN when AMN wanted clarity if he’s going to play at all or not, he is considered something like 4th or 5th choice in CM and 3rd or 4th choice in RB for month after month. Then the moment he is actually needed, we let him go. To play RB in Roma. When he was about to make more minutes in January than in the first 5 months of the campaign combined. It’s just so weird. Like Arteta is sabotaging himself. To show how bad the situation is and be given… Read more »
Craig burley:
“They wore white shirts, and they played like tottenham.”
Its a big fat ASS, an Arteta Shit Show that is what it is. Like I said earlier why put a LB on that you have to hook after 35 minutes because he is being hounded by Spence. Putting KT on barely improved the situation. Did he actually analyze his opposition and drew up a strategy and team selection based on that or did he just think we are Arsenal and they will fear us and we will win the game. Waiting for Arteta’s contract to expire and a capable manager being brought in. He just should be happy that… Read more »
Djed Spence should be on our radar.
raptora
I agree.
It’s very strange to say the least.
Raptora, serious talent ID questions need to be raised if you think Arteta is wrong to want better midfield backup than AMN.
Honestly man, even Sam A told him to give up the dream.
Pedro
Shouldn’t Arteta have kept AMN until that midfielder’s transfer was done.
I mean we started with Lokonga who’s rusty and Patino, who’s earning his first start for the seniors.
It felt a bit like Brentford when Arteta seemed like he was trying to send a message.
Arteta :when asked about why Tavares was yanked off?
“I just did it to try to improve the performance of the team”
He was hoping to remind the team the performance wasn’t god but it didn’t make any difference because There was no reaction from the team and Tierney certainly didn’t offer much when he came on.
Mikel is a fast learner, so he;s probably not going to try removing a player so early who;s was undoubtedly rusty and needed to grow into the game.
The entire team was as bad as Tavares and nothing that Mikel tried.came off today.
Diss,
He rolled the dice. Most wanted to see Patino. Sambi was rusty.
Play AMN who wanted out? Hardly the intuitive correct decision there.
We were just shit today. No one player saves that game.
We are a joke off a club, It’s all comes from the Top, The owners don’t give a flying fuck about winning, Everybody at Arsenal is on easy street, It is a total shambles and will not change as long as Kroneke is the owners, This humoring us with a few signings here and there is not enough, We need a winning Mentality instilled on the club.
COMPLETE REGIME CHANGE, NOTHING LESS.
Pedro
‘ Play AMN who wanted out? Hardly the intuitive correct decision there’
He’s been playing Eddie who’s refused to sign an extension despite all entreaties from the manager.
AMN shouldn’t have been released until his replacement was in. He didn’t even play today at Roma.
Tavares reaction wasn’t so bad. Any player happy to be subbed off in those circumstances needs to be ditched.
Today’s game was just so odd.
Every single player was completely shit, but not just having a bad day kind of shit, more like I’ve completely forgotten how to do this kind of shit. Even Saka was unrecognisable.
And when Laca came on, he was passing to the opposition and shanking every ball like he was on acid.
One to forget. Best to drop a shit show in this game than the one next Sunday. Fuck the cups. This season is about the EPL I think. Gaining ground. Building confidence. Ready for the seasons to come.
People talking about the massive drop off between our starting 11 and our bench warmers as the reason for this result but I don’t buy that This team should be able to quite easily dispatch a lower league opponent. Everyone just had a shit game on the same day (not justifying it but it’s the truth) We’ve seen most of those players look good against good PL opposition, it’s not like one would expect this level of them. If the game was replayed tomorrow you’d still expect a comfortable arsenal win. We just shat the bed. It’s annoying tho because… Read more »
There was a spell when we were saying Tavares looked better than Tierney early this season
Saka is top class and on the form of his life
Sambi has looked like he could be a starting 11 player before injuries and covid
Eddie has done well this season when given any chances
Etc etc etc
That this result is indicative of these players’ level is false. The players are much better than that so no excuses
ESPN-FC put it in perspective. Craig B: Arsenal’s mindset was we just need to show up on the pitch and we will win the game. Shaka H: Arsenal’s white kit was nice, but nothing else about their game was nice. Craig B: Someone posted Arsenal put on the white shirts and played like the Sp*ds. OUCH The fact is the team & staff wasn’t mentally ready for Nottingham just like they weren’t ready for Brentford also a Championship team 1st game in the EPL game as a newly promoted team. The whole team reflected the arrogance of Arteta and the… Read more »
Opinions not agreeing with Pedro get deleted and posting will be disabled.
so the no excuses for who? Just tell us arteta is shit and get it over with.
Saka needs rest. The fatigue is telling on him. We could have another Wilshere situation here.
Raul
No excuses for any of them. The players let themselves down and the manager had failed to get them up for the game
A big L on all fronts.
What’s your beef anyway
Diss
AMN played right back today!!!! He played all 90 mins.
Don’t too bothered by dropping out. Looks like the city loss had a bigger impact than we thought. Mike needs to get the boys back to their motivated self for the PL run in.
We can’t have another collapse. 4th place this season will be more than enough. The league cup would be nice but no need to go all in for that.
We are still building and will see such set backs. Hope it gets ironed out soon though.
On a side note, now that AMN has left, who is coming in ? Any ideas anyone?
This is my problem with Arteta. He has reduced games for ESR which is in the short term the correct decision but Saka gets no rest??? Just roll the dice again in the carabao cup and play the under 23s leave the starting 11 and bench out of it. These results happen when he has a team full of all the demotivated fringe players that should be looking for new clubs.
Nelson
Thanks man, I read he was unused
Losing was not an issue for me, but the way we lost and the poor performances particularly White and Holding at the back and especially Arteta. Let’s look at the real issue that Pedro is trolling over: our midfield! The MF should have been sorted out in the summer TW, but Arteta knew best spending £50+m on White who looked anything but a £20m player yesterday. Lakonga needs a loan, as does Tavares who should play with the under 23s for the rest of the season first, Patino needs loans. Some here and me complained bitterly post Xmas- all season… Read more »
I’ve been backing Arteta for a while. When we continue to play well I’ll continue to enjoy it.
These things will happen, and the negative hater guys will get off w@nking over the misery.
You guys will miss out on the good times, which far outnumber days like today.
At the moment Arsenal’s mindset for teams below them is, we just need to show up on the pitch and we will win the game. The fact is the team & staff wasn’t mentally ready for Nottingham just like they weren’t ready for Brentford also a Championship team 1st game in the EPL game as a newly promoted team.
The whole team reflected the arrogance of Arteta and the sooner he is replaced the better.
“I’ve been backing Arteta for a while”
That’s where you lost me, Nigel.
Did you expect applause? Are we to be in wonder of your insight into Arteta’s future?
Maybe you should change your Monika to ‘Mystic Tuffers’.
What you deem to be haters are just being factual on what they witnessed last night.
What is your starry prediction to the Bin Dipper’s game, oh brown nosed, wise one.
Is it even a surprise knowing Xhaka’s stand on Vaccines that he had another infection . Twice ! since september . And we risk our whole season on him .
Saka has been raised on soul food ( fufu, gbegiri, amala), theres No chance of him breaking down like Wilshere whos diet was fish and chips.
What you deem to be haters are just being factual on what they witnessed last night. What is your starry prediction to the Bin Dipper’s game, oh brown nosed, wise one.
Tony is on the piss
Someone explain why athletes with asymptomatic covid19 cant play,
when athletes with common cold have played sports without a problem
Sid because asymptomatic doesn’t mean not contagious
In the dressing room with your team mates, being close when you celebrate a goal etc, any unrelated and innocuous cough or sneeze etc is still able to spread it. Don’t need to feel like shit to do that either. I noticed I sneeze a few times a day for no reason other than my nose gets easily irritated. If I had covid I would definitely have given it to a number of people even if I didn’t have symptoms
How long will Don last here? Shorter than AFCON.
You can take this to the bank!
About ANM looks like that boat has sailed largely because of earlier Arteta man management. He has to keep his word. But ANM is not the solution to the midfield, we need better and with bigger attention limit. So maybe we hope we get the better person, and notfuck up improving defense, by buying another defender in case Saliba wants to come back and show what we missed and how we fucked up.
Lots of ” fucks” in there. Oops
There are no excuses for yesterday’s result and performance, which was insipid. It should not be forgotten that five starting eleven regulars in recent games played for the bulk of the match ie White, Tierney, Odegaard, Martinelli and Saka and none exactly excelled. The only player on the pitch who could not be faulted for his performance was Leno who made two decent saves and was not to blame for the goal. I am not going to blame Patino for his performance, because frankly he got virtually no support from the rest of team, but is clearly not ready to… Read more »
All the way with you Tony
“Losing was not an issue for me, but the way we lost and the poor performances particularly White and Holding at the back and especially Arteta. ”
Only hope your long explanatory did not flow down the ducks in the Blog backs
Tony. If we finish 5th will that be a successful season?
S Asoa I’m working on the abridged version of writing, just not quite there yet.
Problem is the shorter versions would only be understood by those who understand football and management principles.
You think I’d be better off doing bullet points?
Steg, does coming 2nd work for you when you had the tools to do the job and money to buy new tools?
It doesn’t for me.
30 months is enough time to achieve 4th.
How long are you happy to wait, Steg?
Tony –
1. I don’t think he had the tools for the job when he took over. Too much deadwood in the squad, still is in reality
2. its not 30 months though is it. started in Dec 2019 so 24 months
3. I’ll wait till the end of this season and think that with the money spent now and the surgery done on the squad, 5th or 6th is the minimum requirement. I’d possibly throw him a 6 month bone if we finished 7th, got into Europe AND won the League cup.
If one works on the sad assumption that the club only got the purchase of KT Partey Gabriel and Martinelli and the promotion of Saka and ESR correct for the 4 years before Boxing Day 2000 – and that everything that wenger did for his last year or so and everything that Emery and early arteta did re players was dismal – then it all makes sense. We had a totally shite squad come last august. We added 4 good players to the 8 good ones that we had and we now have 12 good players. We did have Auba… Read more »
Wenger would change entire 11 for cup games and still have decent football whether we lose or win.