It’s a TWO post kind of day.
Arsenal managed to convince the Premier League to have the Spurs game postponed.
This is a monstrous piece of work from Arsenal leadership, truly, a very powerful move.
One of the elements that I think confuses everyone is that we’re all looking at the one or two COVID cases and wondering how you can have a game canceled based on such low numbers.
Well, the Arsenal case wouldn’t go down like that.
I thought we looked naive calling out injuries and AFCON in the presser, but that was absolutely part of the mixer.
The Premier League has to look at actual cases. They have to consider players coming back from COVID being unfit (remember Gabriel last season?). Then they will look at the amount of games played by players that haven’t had much time off. Arsenal will then no doubt be flagging the names we have on the verge of injury.
Arsenal had one midfielder by the end of the Liverpool game. We’re on our 4th choice right back. Granit Xhaka is out for 3 games. Our squad is threadbare right now, you can’t deny it.
Then look at the players who have taken the load. Tomiyasu has a niggly injury, that could turn into a serious one if he’d played tomorrow. ESR is also carrying a knock, that could turn into a 3-month problem. Lose those two players, there’s no Liverpool and Burnley games. That impacts the Premier League because the calendar has to shift again.
In times like these, you have to look at people like Richard Garlick and wonder how big his role was in this. He was part of the team that pulled together the Premier League protocols for returning the training after a COVID outbreak. That’s a lawyer type on the frontline of the rules, if anyone was going to get this game canceled, it was him.
So onto the selfish bits: This is huge for Arsenal.
It means we can have a rattle at Liverpool this Thursday. We’ll have most of our players back in contention for the Burnley game at home next Sunday. Then we have 17 days off to prepare for our Phase 6 assault on the league.
By then, we should have signed a couple of players, everyone will have rested, there will be no Europe, and we’ll have a fully fit side to play Spurs in a game that could decide the Top 4 race. Is it annoying that Son will be back? Yes. But I really don’t think going away to Spurs with no midfield was a recipe for a high probability win.
So all in all, this is a good day for Arsenal. Given the context of our season, it’s a fair one. We dropped 9 points at the start of the season because no one understood how badly COVID rocks preparation. We had 9 players out for Brentford. I think moving one game is acceptable considering the massive advantages afforded to everyone else.
It’s also very amusing that the full force of the media + the Sky Sports Punditry mafia couldn’t shape a decision you knew they had an interest in shaping. You can pretend the media isn’t a bias affair, but everyone has eyes, and we can all see how different clubs get different treatment. Look at how Klopp evaded any real criticism for the fale/positives. Look at the way Sky talks to Rangnick because they smell blood. Look at how uninterested G Nev in COVID postponements when it works for his team.
Anyway, a superb result for Arsenal. Well done to everyone involved.
… we might even do a podcast a bit later to talk about it.
Boom
Good post
…and…
Tr4phy
Pedro
This was about the precedent that the league and FA have set this season. They have cancel,Ed games for AFCON and Covid absences already.
Nothing to do with Richard Garlick
It’s a murky and opaque process. They approved it because the didn’t want to look like idiots and invite criticisms for bias.
1st..
2nd
3rd.
4th
Exactly Diss. Neville’s an idiot and he showed it by saying change the rules NOW! You set rules at the beginning and you have to see them through, simples. The PL have kept saying it’s all about available numbers affected by a collective of Covid/Injuries/Afcon etc etc. It’s not right but it’s how they’ve done it so Neville, Spit the Scouse and Sky Sports can shove it. It’s a good thing for us because our first 11 is better than theirs. They also have a backlog of games to fit in which is also a bonus for us. But it… Read more »
The mass crying this afternoon is pathetic, they can slip in their tears for all I care. You’d think we have done this a few times like certain other clubs.
The mass crying this afternoon is pathetic, they can slip in their tears for all I care. You’d think we have done this a few times like certain other clubs.
The agenda driven Neville & Carragher will be gutted.Now we have time to prepare.Just like the scousers in the first leg.The spuds won’t be facing a very depleted Arsenal side.They’ll be gutted.Hopefully we’ll have some returnees this week & prepare fire & brimstone for the dippers & Burnley.Maybe even 1 or 2 shiny new additions.Here’s hoping.
Newcastle got games called off mainly due to injuries after the draw with Man Utd.
One or two with covid.
Wolves getting the Arsenal game off then having a full strength team at Old Trafford.
Liverpool certainly ‘getting away with one’ the Arsenal game off.
I could list many more examples. Hasenhuttl spoke well yesterday he blamed the PL for leaving the door open to questionable call off’s and he is correct.
Newcastle fans behaving like their team is relevant lol..can’t wait for Watford to nick this lol
My bet is that Richard Garlick used the threat of non-compliance (because of detrimental effect of overplaying youngsters health-wise and career-wise) to swing the decision Arsenal’s way.
Tomorrow is my birthday, I was looking so forward to this game and had Monday booked off work and all 🙁 But its for the best, to many players out and I dont give a fig about Son. He plaid when we beet the scum at Emirates earlier in the season. He may be their best player but he is not enough to make up for how shit the rest of them are.
Why is my previous post not showing ?
Tomorrow is my birthday and I was so looking forward to the game, booked Monday off work and all 🙁 But its for the best as we dont have the players at the moment. As for Son, I dont give a fcuk, He played at the emirates when we beat them and he isn’t enough to make up for how shite the rest of them are.
I give up…
How poor are the sides at the bottom of the table?
Norwich if they win today 13 pts from 21 games and in touching distance of safety.
Any other year a team would be bottom and cut well adrift of 17th place and safety.
Where is bankz for the trophy?
Maximan is what Niko Poopoo should have been
Game should have been played. Arteta got us in this mess by loaning out our best cb, centre mid to marseille then amn to roma
Joao Pedro what a header. 1/1
What a free kick by James Ward-Prowse.
Its great news for us and just might have prevented our season going into meltdown with players being overplayed and getting injured.
With all the money in the world, Newcastle go and sign the donkey Wood to get them out of trouble, just laughable.
Southhampton just hit the crossbar.
Test post to see if i can finally post
Deleting tr4phy run? Fix!
Boooo
test post to see if i can 2
With all the money in the world, Eddie how goes to sign that donkey Wood as a striker to get them out of trouble. What a waste.
Everton have won 1 game in their last 13
They are crap …how did they beat us?
Juventus want partey in exchange for Arthur.
Fucking lols. Change would be a fine thing. God loves a tryer.
The cheek of them
Chelsea have made a £35m bid for de Jong apparently but Barca want £50m
Why the fuck don’t we just go and throw £55m on the table now and try to nick him?
He would totally transform out team. All we would need then is a new striker in the summer and this team is title capable
Chelsea have big £35m for de Jong apparently but Barca want £50m
Why don’t we just lodge a bid of £55m now?
He would totally transform our team
Truly world class and exactly what this team needs
Please arsenal make this wish come true
Why don’t we just lodge a bid of £55m
Why don’t we put money down for him
Truly world class. He would totally transform our team
He’s exactly who we should be in for
Test to see if I am banned
Good news ….if true “William Saliba and Matteo Guendouzi look set to return to Arsenal at the end of the season, with Marseille reportedly banned from buying players for the next two transfer windows. According to L’Equipe, the French giants have been hit with a two-window transfer ban due to the ongoing investigation into Pape Gueye’s move from Watford in 2020. Gueye joined the Hornets in the summer of that year on a free transfer from Le Havre, but was sold to Marseille just 17 hours later. While the midfielder has been suspended for four months, Marseille have reportedly been… Read more »
The tyrannical covid rules and guidelines are coming back to bite their makers.
Canada dropped vaccine mandates for truck drivers after pressure from industry
The decision to postpone like most such decisions this season was BS. Nobody forced us to loan out AMN and Balogun at the start of the window. No one forced Xhaka to get a red card and why can’t we have a few teenagers on the bench and be done with it? And before anyone says I’m just criticism g arsenal I said exactly the same shit about liverpool last time. Do other clubs get treated better than us when pulling this nonsense? Yes. Is that unfair? Yes. But we should not be celebrating this as it’s still BS and… Read more »
A 2-window transfer ban has been placed on Marseille. This implies saliba and guen will be back to their parent club at the end of the Ligue in season.
We should be all over for James Ward Prowse . He is absolutely what we need in a DM , PL ready , Set Piece specialist , Passing , Playmaking , Good defensive awareness . Alongside Partey we’d be dominant . Lokonga and Patino then can take their time. And use Xhaka less and less.
Martinez let one in.
Emi Martinez’s star just dimmed
That’s was hilarious
Ha ha ha Martinez slips balls between his legs
Greatest bloomer of 2022
Good game at Villa Park
‘ A 2-window transfer ban has been placed on Marseille. This implies saliba and guen will be back to their parent club at the end of the Ligue in season’
The Guendouzi transfer was done last season.
Marseille have effectively signed him for all intents and purposes- obligation to buy.
Lol. Howler from Emi
Pierre
” William Saliba and Matteo Guendouzi look set to return to Arsenal at the end of the season, with Marseille reportedly banned from buying players for the next two transfer windows.”
What about the elephant still in the room?.
Guy went to great lenghts to buy White and give him No 4 for finality too.
If the returnees play, it will expose Fraudeta to no mean extent, specifically after we had a midfield of Xhaka as the star
Maybe Villa will buy Leno.
Martinez is a good GK they all make mistakes.
But like Willock I believe he’s played his best football during the ‘no crowd,less pressure’ era.
Whoaaaaa Peds… the rare 2 poster day… Nice work. Feels like a throwback to the good old days of Le Grove.
Anyhow… yep Emi not doing us any favors.. Picked a bad day to make a massive error.
Martinez is a quality keeper. He’ll bounce back from that. The problem is he did it against utd. I can see this season panning out as a two horse race for 4th,no disrespect to West ham, every disrespect to spuds. Second result I look for every week is utd’s, reminds me of Wenger’s 1st decade,though the prize is significantly different.
ManU play a lot better without Renaldo and Rashford. They’re lucky both are injured. And of course Mguire as sub helps.
The good news, they’ll be back soon, the old man is not brave enough to drop them.
Guendouzi’s contract with Arsenal ends in June 2022
Why do people just repeat crap from the media.
He’s not coming back to Arsenal either way.
Pedro, Le grove regs.
Pretty sure Chelsea when on a transfer ban had a loan with option to buy player top my head no google Kovavic that they were able to keep?
Marseille may also still be able to buy Guendouzt if that rule is still the same?
Dissenter.
His contract expires in June 2023. Forget the media why do you talk crap.
Gerrard has ruined Villa..can’t string two passes together
The salty tears from the Spurs fans about the postponement is hilarious!
Fuck spuds!
“Game should have been played. Arteta got us in this mess by loaning out our best cb, centre mid to marseille then amn to roma”
Who is this weird best cb of ours that is on loan? Saliba?
Lol. On what basis is he our best cb when he is yet to play consecutive games for us
Hard for me to predict what will happen at the end of season with loans and in the summer.. So much depends on what happens this season and where we finish in the League and whether we land any targets this January. Would be surprised if Matty G was back but Saliba I think will get a look we may even change our formation, is my prediction.
Son and Xhaka will be back for the rearranged fixture. Spuds fans should shut up and consider themselves very lucky.
The reason I think Matty G will not be back is Arteta has mentioned several times recently he likes the team chemistry we have right now.
Dissenter with egg on the face there. Lol
Another Dissenter moment, hilarious
Meh… I give Diss a yellow card…. He likes to go in 2 footed hard but he kept the studs down …. as he didn’t mention any Le Grove names. Unfortunately his google data let him down so his challenge was late and he missed the ball.
Asoa. What is your malfunction? You just wrote the most stupid comment of the week. You know it looks like you only want the worst outcomes for Arsenal in all events. Everybody knows Saliba will be back, and are excited to see him integrated, me included. You want some problems with Guendouzi (who I think is a good player).. just to have drama. Are you anti Ben White, because you’re anti Arteta? I’d bet anything you were a Ramsdale hater before he played for us. This team has a good attitude and spirit… and cretins on blogs will have no… Read more »
How jammy is United though? Absolutely shit all season and somehow still 3points shy of 4th, almost like a conspiracy of all those vested in football to make them finish 4th
“Dissenter with egg on the face there. Lol”
lol yet again.
Martinez always pumped up when playing against us but absolutely bending over now for Utd with an absolute gift, smh
It will be interesting to see how this affects the Guendouzi deal.
Will it be void, and with him having a good season, allow us to deal him somewhere else for a better price?
Or will it be allowed because it was already agreed pre- ban?
No affect on Saliba that I can imagine. His loan ends anyway.
Same goes for Spurs… shit every time I see them but relight up there
Tee,
It’s really interesting that “our best cb” hasn’t played a minute in England either.
Chavs are trying to recall a loan player and we should be doing the same with Guendouzi, we’re just awfully so short in CM right now and I’m not convinced we’ll be signing a player better than him in this poverty window, I also rate him higher than the braindead Xhaka
Chris,
“The salty tears from the Spurs fans about the postponement is hilarious!”
Have you read the embarrassing statement spurs official put out?
They look so desperate to have played us on 2 days rest, without Saka, EsR, Tomiyasu, Ødegaard, Xhaka banned and no replacement yet….
They should’ve just kept their mouths shut about the decision. Makes them look really weak.
They owned themselves.
Good to see AFC finally play their get out of jail free card… now get some players in!
Still can’t believe we lost to Everton and United this season! especially Everton! I will never understand what really happened there, could eventually cost us top4
We have to absolutely beat the Spuds to make up for those shockers
Guendouzi signed a four year contract in 2018, with an option for another year
Arsenal opted to activate that extra year in 2021 when we sent him to Marseille, so year his contract does expire in 2023
Yea, Dissenter did made a mistake. I wonder why that’s causing flag waving.
Dissenter don’t refer to yourself in the third person, you’re not The Rock 😉
Dissenters main point is completely valid. Guendouzi isn’t going to play for Arteta again, no matter what happens with Marseille.
I’d be shocked to be wrong about that. ….as others have said, team chemistry is huge now. I still love him as a player though. I hated Arteta for not giving him a second chance, because our midfield was trash even back then.
In hindsight, I think clearing out some troublesome personalities may have been the right thing.
I didn’t think Digne would walk into the villa team
I rate Matt Target t more highly.
Guendouzi could have been managed better though, How come since he left he’s been called up to the French National team and delivering top notch performances with no fuss? Also he’s better than Lokonga
Utd have so many game winners it’s ridiculous,feels like it’s wrong actually. Greenwood,Rashford,Ronaldo ,Fernandes, Cavani, Lindegard, Sancho,, Martial,Mata, Van de Beek,Pogba. They only need one or two of them to hit a purple patch and they can take 4th place despite their porous defence. We can’t afford any more glorious defeats or battling draws and we definitely can’t survive Goodison Park performances again.
Or we could pin our hopes on that porous defence…….. come on villa.
White is a better centre half than Mings
2/2
Get in!! 2 all.
Hahahahahhahahahahahahahhah
ManU collapsing
Fuck Guendouzi
He’s never putting an arsenal shirt on again.
Get rid of him ozil leno auba and all of a sudden the team morale is high and we are digging out great performances every single week
Jacob Ramsey is a superb player. I have said it before. But he is so talented. The kid is fantastic.
Gerrard is a daft cunt for not starting coutinho…United have been so lucky with both their goals coming from villa mistakes
Every time I watch Villa that Ramsey lad has a stormer.
Get in villa
So purée was right. Countinho looking a master stroke
Who was it that said gerrard had Villa looking shit? Freak gk slip up or it would be a Villa win