ARSENAL VS LIVERPOOL: DERISK SELECTION, SPURS IS THE REAL FINAL

by .

Antonio Conte exited another cup, this time a semi-final against Chelsea, his side were utter, utter dross all game. No energy, no idea what they were doing, no real output.

That means they’ll show hard at the weekend and we’ll all be wondering how a team so bad can pull a performance out the bag so good just because it’s Arsenal.

Or… Arteta and the coaching gang might have a plan to take more than a point of a very average team bereft of ideas.

That does take me neatly into the game this evening. I really hope Arteta knows the most important thing for Arsenal fans this season is beating Spurs. I don’t care what happens tonight. It’s Liverpool over two legs and we know they are so desperate to win, they basically cheated to get out of playing us last week when we were in good form.

Arteta is going to have choices to make this evening. Dice to roll. I just hope he doesn’t take risks on players that are important to the season. Emile Smith Rowe is key to what we do, if he breaks, we’re in trouble. Tomi is THE MOST PRECIOUS of players, nothing hurts more than seeing his name of the team sheet, but at the same time, this is a League Cup no one cares about, and I’d rather live to fight another day with our first teamers… because we are not strong enough to make top 4 with the second-stringers. We saw that against Forest.

If there is a chance of losing a big name for Sunday, it’s just not worth it.

Granit Xhaka is different. He had COVID, I’m guessing his 7 days are done. He’ll be in the mixer and we need him next to Lokonga. That man is made of different stuff. So I’m not really that worried with him. But I think people are starting to see the reality with Granit, we’re better with him in the side, he’s very solid bar a few brain farts a season. Sambi needs experience next to him, he’s too young to carry a junior.

The big picture here is taking 4 points from the next two Premier League games. If we can manage that, Top 4 is game on. We have 2 games in February, we’ll have a little midseason break to bed in the new players, then we’ll be fresh and ready to hit the rest of the season VERY hard. 1 game a week is a huge advantage if the luck rides with you.

We could blow that in leg one against Liverpool if we rush players. It happened last season when we brought TP back early. That cost us big time. Let’s hope we’re not thinking similar things this evening.

Liverpool needs a lift. Klopp is under pressure. He needs a trophy, this is the earliest one he can take, but make no mistake… that team is stammering and he doesn’t have VVD to blame this season. It’s on him. Pep is taking him to the cleaners.

I’m saying that because it’s likely he’ll roll with the big guns. This evening might see us shithouse them with a 5 at the back jobby. Arteta needs to realise that Cedric is not very good and if he rolls him out against elite full-backs, we’ll be beaten before we leave the tunnel. Try something different. If we can escape Anfield with a draw, it’s game on in leg two and we can go for it with a fitter group of players.

We have seen a worse group of players at Arsenal beat better teams with 5 at the back. There is no shame in doing that at Anfield. NONE.

The key is not to get hammered like we have been recently. Super basic, but just don’t get railed. We need a resolute performance, everyone focused on the job, and we need to frustrate them. Liverpool were walked through over and over by Spurs a few weeks ago and as we all know, Conte’s Spurs are shite. We have power players who can make runs, we have talent that can find feet from distance… can we piece those bits together and make it count?

We’ll go big tonight with our starting 11, really, we can’t take a chance with Leno in a game like this, he’ll panic. We need to have Gabriel in the mixer because Rob ain’t it, and I suspect we might see Nuno on the bench in a game this big.

But who knows… just don’t break anyone. That’s all we ask. Spurs is all that matters. That’s the real Cup Final.

Ok, have fun in the comments. x

UPDATE: Odegaard, Tomi, Smith Rowe all out. GOOD. Arteta derisked it. I bet they’re all back this Sunday.

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Emiratesstroller

Dissenter

Agree with your comment about walking away from Arthur if he does not come in on loan.

I made the case previously that Chambers could play a defensive midfield role in absence of
Xhaka and Partey. He played that role in past and is probably the best short term solution.

However, DMF/CMF is one of two positions in starting eleven where Arsenal need to recruit
and that is a priority for next season.

Graham62

raptora

Of course you are 100% correct.
Unfortunately, Arteta sees him as a pivotal member of our team and a leader.
What more can I say?

Fedda

Arteta isn’t blind. Xhaka is a means to an end this season. Surely he will be upgraded in the summer. He might not be sold, but no way we do not bring in someone to slot in next to Partey. With Europe and cups next season we might still have use for him in the lesser games to give our main players a rest. Noone is defending Xhaka. But most people understand why he is playing. Facts are we are better with him in the side than without at the moment. His brainfart is a consequence we have to live… Read more »

Emiratesstroller

Xhaka may have a lot of characteristics, which have appealed to Wenger, Emery and Arteta, which explains why he has survived so long at Arsenal. However, the reality is that Arsenal is a young side and the experienced player at club need to be disciplined and set an example. Xhaka is making too many mistakes in “critical” areas of the pitch and his red cards, penalties, free kicks are costing us too many games. If you are going to make a foul as Paul Scholes frequently did then at least make it somewhere there are not going to be consequences… Read more »

InsideRight

Arsenal need to do a fitness assessment today and find a couple more players testing positive for Covid and get the Spuds game postponed. We’ve had problems in years gone by with shortages of players, but this is shocking. Between AFCON, Covid, and injuries we are threadbare. We can’t go into a NLD like that. The fixture deserves better.

Habesha Gooner

I think Arteta really values top level experience. That is why Xhaka plays. If not, based on form, Sambi would have ousted him before Xhaka came back from an injury. Sambi was growing in to the team. Now he has to start over again and regain form. And the impressive thing about Sambi is the more he plays the better he gets. Kind of Odegaard in a way. We are going to sign Arthur for the same reason. Arteta knows what a top midfielder looks like. He likes Xhaka because he thinks he is experienced and can do a decent… Read more »

Unoni

Stroller

I hope he lives up to that assessment
I would dearly love to have ESR Saka Balogun and Patino becoming top/world class players for arsenal but to have a technically proficient, deep lying, thinking midfielder come through our academy and take arsenal to the top after the false dawns of cesc and wilshere would give me an immense sense of joy

Unoni

Habesha
Leno was a liability the day he dropped the ball v Liverpool under emery in his first season.
He and Aubameyang were the two biggest problem played in our team at that point
Still, bringing in ESR and Odegaard was Arteta’s watershed moment. Reinstalling a creative heartbeat (which emery ripped out) haven’t looked back since. We just keep getting bette and better

Shaun

Gini Wijnaldum would do a job for us onloan and I would take him now loads of PL experience and ready to go , all action CM who would provide much better cover then Xhaka and would also work well with Partey , we need a quick fix .Wijnaldum would provide that and you would think he would be the quickest and easiest for Arsenal to complete

China1

What exactly is the value of xhaka’s experience? He makes the most immature, petulant and naive mistakes of any player in the squad. He makes them as often as he did the day he joined as well

This beneficial experience he brings is the saddest myth ever

China1

I’d Xhaka played exactly as he does now but his age was 18 everyone would say ‘yeah you can see he lacks experience. Too emotional, silly naive fouls. Puts his team under intense pressure with the frequent penalties and reds. He flirts with other clubs as soon as they show any interest. He tells his own fans to fuck off. It’s the behavior of a footballing youngster. Hie has absolutely nothing to teach the kids about anything. He’s more likely to fuck up than they are. He’s more likely to overreact than they are. He’s more likely to cost the… Read more »

Unoni

At this stage is just being in Wijnaldum and get Jack on a short term contract for rest of season and have them ready to go for Sunday. Give both a half alongside lakonga. I’m not sure we should be breaking up the back line for such an important game. Especially when they have looked so good this season. I’d go with a back 5 Put Jack and lakonga in the middle with wijnaldum coming on for wilshere 3 up front pick themselves If ESR or Odegaard are fit to play then play them alongside lakonga. Got to be back… Read more »

Emiratesstroller

I have never been a great fan of Nketiah primarily because he did not seem to have much movement or work ethic in his game. However, yesterday in the 25 minutes that he was on the pitch I saw more energy from him than in any other game he played previously. Frankly it was a shame that he had to be taken off so early. My instinct tells me that if he is not transferred in January and gets more game time in second half of season we may be surprised and he signs a new contract. I like Lacazette’s… Read more »

Unoni

China

It wasn’t a straight red. Jota’s stomach is only 2 feet off the ground

Just Another Customer

you can take Xhaka out of Albania, but you can’t take Albania out of the Xhaka

his hard man posturing is so cringy

Unoni

Stroller

This is true but if we had ESR and Odegaard available then we have runner around him. He does the donkey work so the others can shine. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to go out and get a player there he can do what he does but with pace power and goals but that ain’t happening until the summer and even then I’d keep laca for another year as his commitment is infectious. Look at how hard he worked last night to secure a clean sheet from the front. If auba is on the field we lose that.

Crimson

I wonder what would of happened if we signed Kante instead of Xhaka. Which was possible. The 5 years would of turned out so different. No regrets

China1

Unoni spare me the apologies. He’s been doing this whole career

raptora

Don: “Reinstalling a creative heartbeat (which emery ripped out)” What a garbage comment. Emery had very little say in transfers. He was outranked by Sanllehi, Mislintat and Edu. Emery’s main targets were Zaha, Partey, Nkunku, Maguire and Nzonzy. Instead he got the likes of Pepe, Torreira and Sokratis. He lost Ramsey, Koscielny, Monreal – all leaders he would have preferred to keep or replaced adequately by natural leaders as well. And he also lost Iwobi and Welbeck who were quality bench option which freed space for Saka and Willock I guess. Let’s not try to rewrite history like he wanted… Read more »

Emiratesstroller

Unoni

Agreed

I don’t see Arsenal signing a new striker in this window unless Aubameyang or Lacazette leave the club.

For all the noise about Arsenal making a mega bucks signing in January the finances suggest otherwise. Arsenal have spent in this financial year around £130 Million NET. That
would be a realistic spend for our club in our current financial situation and not playing
in Europe.

If we qualify for Europe in the Summer I can see us investing £150 million next season and
buying a couple of quality players in CMF and CF positions.

Unoni

Raptora

He chose not to give Jack and Santi the new contracts
He chose to omit ozil and Ramsey from the team after two games
He chose to cut out Mkhitaryan and sell iwobi without replacing any of them.
He had say on what type of player he wanted and in which position.

Revisionism at its worst

Unoni

Stroller

Yes that would be sensible.
Go big on one player in each position who can step into the first 11 and create a new dynamic for the team.

Unoni

We signed Pepe,” Emery explained to The Guardian this week. “He’s a good player but we didn’t know his character and he needs time, patience. I favoured someone who knew the league and wouldn’t need to adapt.” Emery wanted Zaha. “[Wilfried] Zaha won games on his own: Tottenham, Manchester City, us. Incredible performances,” he continued. “I told them: ‘This is the player I know and want.’ I met Zaha and he wanted to come. The club decided Pepe was one for the future. I said: ‘Yes, but we need to win now and this lad wins games.’ He beat us… Read more »

Karsa

PSG have said they won’t do a loan for Wijnaldum.

Why would Laca sign a 1 year deal?

Wishful thinkers on le Grove.

Unoni

Karsa
He’s on £180k pw
You think he’s getting that anywhere else?
He’s at arsenal and part of a great project
You think he’s going to a bigger club or a more promising project? It’s back to France or a team like Sevilla or Villarreal on £100k pw for him after this
1 year extensions were good enough for bergkamp and Pires
Why not Lacazette?

Karsa

Unoni

No, but he will get a huge signing on fee wherever he moves for free.

Unoni

Karsa.

How much would he get? How much is a 31 year old laca worth to a semi decent team in France or Spain? £5m? £7m?
Can’t be any more than that surely

raptora

Don: “He chose not to give Jack and Santi the new contracts He chose to omit ozil and Ramsey from the team after two games He chose to cut out Mkhitaryan and sell iwobi without replacing any of them. He had say on what type of player he wanted and in which position.” I just prove you that he had no say in Arsenal transfers yet you spit bollocks like he decided which players to leave and which to stay. ‘Ramsey’s injury, when he was at his best, had a big influence: he conveyed positivity, so much energy. And playing… Read more »

Tee

“Wijnaldum would provide that and you would think he would be the quickest and easiest for Arsenal to complete”

PSG isn’t entertaining any offer for him

Karsa

Unoni.

He’ll get a goodly sum. Quite a bit more than if he postpones it for a further year and is too old for that 3 year deal he’s after.

Jamie

“Don: Reinstalling a creative heartbeat (which emery ripped out)” Wenger chose not to offer extensions to all the players Don gets wet for while he was busy tanking his final season in charge. Santi, Wilshere, Welbeck, Ramsey all had 18 months left on their deals while Wenger was still in the building. Santi plays in Qatar – hadn’t kicked a ball in 2 years when he was released, was lucky to be fit enough to play at any level post-achilles operations. Wilshere couldn’t get regular game time at West Ham 1 goal zero assists in 3 appearances over 2 years… Read more »

Karsa

Anyway it’s widely reported that Laca has already turned down a 1 year deal. I’d imagine he knows how much a variety of deals are worth to him.

TheLegendaryDB10

Great answer/username/film

raptora

‘Juventus are ready to make an offer for Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang after losing Federico Chiesa to a season-ending injury.’

What the eff. I didn’t know Chiesa got a serious injury. Now they might actually go for Auba as they need goals with that allergic-to-goals Morata and no Chiesa. Or they’ll go hard for Vlahovic.

Jamie

Correction:

Wilshere zero goals 1 assist in 18 EPL appearances over 2 years at West Ham. Even worse than I thought.

raptora

Nkunku from PSG to RB Leipzig in 2019 for £11m must be one of the best transfers in current times.

19 goals, 26 assists and 13 MotM awards in 60 Bundesliga games.

His Fbref is sooo freakin good.
https://fbref.com/en/players/7c56da38/Christopher-Nkunku

He’s currently the 8th highest valued AM in the world.
We could have had him for peanuts in 2018 and 2019.

Bill

Is it my imagination or is Klopp struggling not to laugh at the complete load of bollocks he’s talking about the false positive results of lateral ow tests. LTFs are 99.75% accurate. So that means 1 in 400 test results are wrong . So to have two wrong tests in same testing period for LFC is 1 in 159,000+, but there were several false positives. So the odds increase hugely from this already infinitesimal small chance. There is no chance that there were any false positive. Also note how he talks about the “rules” not the tests. Yes, very funny… Read more »

raptora

Bill,
I never bought into Klopp’s charisma. I’ve no idea what other people see in him to call him likeable. He’s an ironic person, his celebrations are unsportsmanlike, and he’s never ever wrong. He is so smug, he always thinks he’s the smartest person in the room.

I’m not pro Arteta but he isn’t someone I’m ashamed of. I like him more than I like Klopp for sure.

Of course, as managers the most important thing is how good they are in their job, but I still have an opinion on how they present themselves in front of the cameras.

Sid

Klopp is Not likeable because he is managing our rivals,
if he was on our team being smug, smartest in the room, unsportsmanship is what you want in your manager

Mr Serge

sid is right we would love him if was acting like that our club

James

I think we all know that Granit would always have needed upgrading for Arsenal to kick-on to the next level of prgoress and we are seeing that now. He’s solid but has only ever been average with many obvious limitations. I don’t blame Arteta for playing him last night – our options are so limited at the moment and feels like a hands tied situation Afcon is unavoidable and affects other teams too… we probably would have lost last night if facing Mane and Salah – they’re arguably the best in the league (even world at times) Few teams have… Read more »

Jonnygunner

Not at Sid,you and support the same club,but I think you’re a twat. A complete twat. You get off on being controversial.
You always pop up with great frequency after a shitty performance,rarely after a win.

James

Regarding our current midfield, it does feel like a crisis situation, no doubt! But…ultimately I would rather for the sake of progress play promising youngsters such as Patino than moan about limited average players such as Elneny and Xhaka not being available. Those guys cannot be relied upon to win us games at the top level, as has been proven over and over again. Arsenal are progressing – that is clear to me It’s also clear that not every problem can be solved in one window. Last summer we spent a lot to fix some glaring problems and have had… Read more »

Sid

An Arsenal twat is better than a regular twat

Im telling you for free!

raptora

James, Balanced opinion especially the last sentence. It’s up for grabs but it could go either way. We need to use and abuse the problems that other teams – Manure in crisis again and changed managers, Spurs in crisis and changed managers, even Chelsea have looked very vulnerable and not in a good place. West Ham cannot be our direct competitors, we should be much better than them with all due respect. Our team is young but the manager has been here for over 2 years now, he has gotten INCREDIBLE support from our owners and the directors. Almost everything… Read more »

Gonsterous

Whenever the window opens, we always have priorities that are ahead of selling xhaka. It’s one of the main reasons, he’s survived this long.

Managers end up thinking he will be a valuable back up to have with his experience and when the window closes, we start seeing the hindrance of xhaka.

Nelson

“West Ham cannot be our direct competitors, we should be much better than them with all due respect.”
________________________________________________________________________________

The problem is that we have a time bomb known as Xhaka.

Time Up

Not defending Xhaka, but if that was Maguire it would at best be yellow.

I’ve seen worse tackles like stamping on Tomiyesu head and Evans being the last man with pulling Auba with not even yellow. The only reason Xhaka was sent off because he was Xhaka.

I don’t like the guy but I’ve seen twice as bad tackles with not even yellow, Kane anyone?

Unoni

Jamie

We’ve done this to death
Fact is he removed 6 attacking mids and replaced with Suarez
Why are people still carrying water for emery when it’s clear that both his successor and his predecessor are superior arsenal managers?

Unoni

James

Good post. Very measured and spot on

Unoni

Bill

It’s called duper’s delight. Happens a lot in politics.

Unoni

Jamie

Also, assists aren’t the only measure of a successful creative central midfield player. How many assists did scholes and pirlo get per season? The last pass is not always the most important in any given passage of play leading to a goal scoring opportunity

Markymark

Xhaka gives refs reasons to send him off . In a slower league a fair bit of his lack of pace and positional recovery would probably be not so prominent so I’m thinking Italy would suit him down the ground. I gather he had issues in Germany according to one poster which surprised me as their league is surprisingly crash bang whallop so I’d assume he’d survive their as well

Markymark

Just to add I think Xhaka is definitely the kind of guy who’d take one for the team and I’m assuming he’s popular because of that . Sometimes you’ve got to let a situation ride out and live to fight another day. I’m not sure if various managers have ever worked with him on that . A lot of his issues appear to be reckless play when he’s one on one with a forward . Sometimes you’ve just got to let that play out. Forward still has to slot it past the keeper

Time Up

We need foreign refs to not listen to the media. The media all agree when an Arsenal player sent off since Wenger days. Our ex Arsenal boys in the media always s quiet and nice. The ex victims players always questioning the ref for any decision against Liverpool.

I remember that cunt TAA almost breaking Saka leg with not even yellow!. I can give you 10 tackles in the league this year worse than Xhaka tackle, and with not even yellow card!.

G

”What we have seen over the past few months is other than white, the new young players performances are regressing”

Don’t agree.. both were brought for the future and both have showed the potental..

Time Up

Anyway, we’ve 11 fit first team player (not from under 23) players. We could call the game off on Sunday. The minimum requirement is 13.

Call it off. I know the Spud without Son, but if we play Eddie or Auba away against decent PL team is like playing with 10 men.

G

And what a but White has been .. defending good, not great at mo,, but range of passing is quality.. with 1 pass will hit Laca.. 1 way of breaking the press

raptora

Can’t believe that so many Arsenal fans argued with the decision. It’s a high foot to the chest of an opponent, 0 contact with the ball, he is absolutely aware that Jota is running behind him as he drops a look at him earlier in the situation, he’s absolutely reckless and has zero control over the situation as the ball is very far away from him and he is aware that he’s taking a chance, and also he’s the last man in the defence. What exactly is the mitigating circumstance in here? He literally said he’s sorry and many of… Read more »

The Bard

James that’s a sensible post but unfortunately it’s not applicable to football today. Its a short term business. The days of a Wenger or Ferguson are long gone.angers have to produce the goods. Its true we are progressing who knows what will happen next season. Maybe we have to sell Saka because he’s had a mega offer or ESR or Untd buy a new team. Our best bet is 4th place this season and it got a whole lot harder last night because we had to play with 10 men for much of the game and have the Spuds at… Read more »

raptora

New post.

Negative Nigel

Well the way things are shaping up.Well be getting Jack shit this window.If Juve want us to buy Melo permanently they’re taking the piss.But then that’s what Italian clubs do.cos they ain’t got a pot to piss in.But they’ll do their best to get Auba for peanuts.Just watch.Melo a no no & PSG won’t let winaljum out on loan.That’s it then. Vlahovic & his agents taking the piss.( Italian clubs again) why bother?
Lets hope Sunday is postponed.Just heard Chris Kavanagh reffing.Nuff said.

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