Inhaaaaaaale… breath out… inhaaaaaale… CuuuuuuuKAAAAAAW… CuuuuuuKAAAAAW… channel that inner eagle you powerful beast. 🦅
Quite simply put, if you are not preparing mentally for this game to the sweet shrieks of eagles, can you call yourself elite?
Categorically, no.
Here is a video so you can prep.
Barclays Premier League Day is here. In a few hours, Arsenal will roll out for a season opener against Crystal Palace.
Patrick Vieira is no mug when it comes to coaching. He’s aged down the Palace squad, he’s brought some Wengerball to the Selhurst Park Turf, and he wants to kick on this season after making some shrewd summer signings. Paddy signs street footballers that entertain, he moves on those fancy Youtube comps we all like, Palace are going to be trouble this season.
… that said, word has it their preseason was a bit of a disaster because they went to Aus and loads of their players were anti-vaxxers. They only took TEN senior players there. So who knows, maybe we’ll be more fit, you can hide anti-vaxxers in the US no problem.
Last time we went to Palace, it was after an international break that Partey and Tierney went to, they promptly picked up injuries during the break and during the game and we were beaten quite badly in the first half. I’m not sure we deserved to lose over the 90, but we did, so there we are.
What is different this time?
Well, we’re still missing both our first-team fullbacks, but this time, we have much more capable back-ups. Ben White will slip in for Tomiyasu, he’s been really impressive there so far, but Zaha is a different ball game. At left back, we’ve got ELITE cover in Zinchenko. A player that knows the league, can play the system better than Tierney, and is more than ready to stake a claim.
Midfield will be Xhaka and Partey, same as last time, except one didn’t go out partey-ing after a World Cup qualification. Cut it however you like, those two together have a great connection, and they’ve been very impressive this preseason. They are extremely brave and I do think the more advanced Xhaka is starting to pay dividends. He’s contributing to the assist tally, he won’t be there all season, but he’s less exposed in more advanced positions, and he’s adding a bit of boldness to his passing. I think we all forget that you are never too old to improve at your craft.
Odegaard will captain and drop in as a #10.
The frontline we’re going with tonight will be very different. Saka will occupy the right, Martinelli will take up the left, and Gabriel Jesus will be playing through the middle.
I cannot tell you how different life is going to be this season. Even if we have a bad game tonight, what you won’t see is a freeze in the frontline. Finally, we have the specificity in every position we need.
We have 5 defenders who can play through a press and pick out Hollywood passes. We mostly had that last season, but if you don’t have runners, what’s the point in having longball specialists.
There’s more chaos in our forward line this season. Gabriel Jesus is a nightmare, he comes deep and he’s problematic, he goes wide and he’s a nightmare, he’s standing still and he can create something, in the box he’s ahead of everyone, this guy has changed the game. Last time we played Palace, we had Lacazette who lacked power, speed, and ability in front of goal.
The biggest shift we have tonight is winnertivity. Two players can make a huge difference on nights like tonight. Zinchenko and Jesus have done it consistently at the highest level. They understand patience, they know how to dig deep, and their experience will inspire the young kids around them.
Johnny made a great point on the Before the Whistle. I’d much rather Palace in the heat of August than on December 27th in the freezing rain.
Ideally, we don’t go a goal down this evening, I’d rather not test our abysmal record of clawing back, but I am less worried about that part of our make-up than I was last season.
Last season was the worst start imaginable, COVID and late business nearly killed this project before it started, this August is the chance to put some points on the board and make amends.
11 points from the next 5 games would be very, very good. 7 points from the next 3 would put us top 4 before the international break. That is where we need to be. I believe we can do it.
Before I leave.
I’m very excited about this season, as fans, we’ve been through a lot. Finally, it feels like there’s a bit of structure at Arsenal, a boatload of ambition, and we seem to have the right people driving the vision.
This season, we have to learn a few lessons from what happened last year:
There will be downs and they will feel very painful.
There will be long runs that will feel like we’re title contenders.
Key is not to get too carried away with the bad or the good times. We’ll be up there at the end of the season, then it’s a roll of the dice who has enough to kick it over the line.
Also… just remember that every team will have down moments.
It is easy to be there for the good times, but as you’ve seen from that documentary, our fanbase is most important to the players when we’re there for the bad times.
The journey is always better than the destination. Enjoy the feeling of being underdogs. Eat up those predictions tables that have us behind Spurs this season. Take names and numbers of the people that doubted The Arsenal.
Right, that’s me done.
We will be ON THE WHISTLE at 10pm BRITISH time this evening.
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1st?
2nd
3rd
Trophy
4th
3rd
4th
Ar5enal
hahah CaliGooner, perfect
Our performance in this game will be good indicator of how we have improved or not facing high intensity games
Almost swept the top 5.
CAW CAW
JESUS TAKE THE WHEEEEEEELLLLLLL
PREDICTION:
2 FOR THE PINK
1 FOR THE STINK (PALACE)
COME ON YOU GUNNERS
Olise out of today’s game that’s great news
Here’s a fun stat from pre season
Saliba played 282 minutes and conceded 0 goals
90 mins and a clean sheet against palace? Do eeeet
Tf is the deal with these ads..the damn as at the bottom is shaking my screen everytime i scroll down
Serge, Olise did not play in April either lol
China,
Nice stat on Saliba, but wouldn’t it be basically the same stat for White and Gabs who played beside him, give or take a few minutes?
The guy just has to walk onto the pitch and grovers are kneeling to him.
My hope hope is that Saliba will be great for us for many years… and I really like his look so far… but the ultras should love all our defenders equally.
And I’ve already said, I won’t be moaning and kicking at him if he makes some mistakes, I’m pretty certain the quality is there.
Clean sheet …yes!
Wicked Willy,
I don’t understand the Chelsea mess, but I think you’re right that they’re only going to dig a deeper money hole.
I would love to have a list of the players they are paying, (and wage numbers)…
I expected American owners to come in with a tight business plan, and it looks the opposite.
A guy like this will lose interest eventually when he sees how hard the competition is. Especially when the red numbers get larger with little success.
I’ll stick to my prediction, eventually Chelsea drop from top 4 and later top 6 without Roman.
Rich “Saka, Odegaard + Martinelli, look like players who are about to bang, and go supernova….We’ve been through the teething + shitting the bed stage, they need to step up over the course of this season, and produce the type of end product we’ll need to get closer to the top.” I could see improvement as well but to the extent that you are putting out that is entering the perfect scenario realm to me. And we all know things don’t fall absolutely perfectly a lot of the time don’t we. One player can overachieve for one season. one player… Read more »
I would be very happy with steady progress from 2 of the 3 (Saka, Marti, Øde) in goal contribution stats, hoping one of them will really break out. Many people predicting that from Martinelli.
Steady progress from Saka and Øde would be beautiful. Keep in mind, all 3 of them have excellent work rate that they maintain for long periods, and are good pressers. This is why Saka gets so many minutes from Southgate, for example.
This is a big reason for optimism about the team in general.
Quite crazy that we have only beaten Palace once in the last 8. A real bogey side for us nowadays.
william saliba is what a clean sheet looks like personified. come on you gunners
Very thankful for the return of PL footy again. I tend to tune out during the summer window slightly, had a busy time of it work wise which adds to that but now no excuses, I am plugged back in 100% I look at the squad we have now, and with another addition hopefully in midfield, I am certainly looking at top four as a very attainable goal. I would also see a very deep run in the EL and perhaps a domestic cup as extremely important. Tonight will be hard, I am confident we will see an improved performance… Read more »
ESR is just as talented as Saka and Martinelli. Some people seemed to have written him off physically which is quite shocking for a 22 yo player with a total of zero serious injuries. No one seems to think about how ESR is forced by the manager to tweak his game to a totally new position because the teacher’s pet is ahead of him in his favorite role. How he was used in less meaningfull games just to sit on the bench for most of the EPL after the month of November. He’s a super talent that got benched for… Read more »
Our forward line will bang providing they stay fit, I’m confident of that. Arteta is going to have to rotate and use the subs bench much more astutely than he has up until now, it’s been an area of weakness with him. Our outfield players shouldn’t be making more than 40-45 starts, particularly if they’re regular starters for their national teams. I remember Liverpool throwing away the title in 2013/14, scoring 100+ league goals with Suarez, Sterling + Sturridge. We haven’t yet got the squad to sustain it, but I’ve got a strong feeling that we’re capable of scoring a… Read more »
raptora
“No one seems to think about how ESR is forced by the manager to tweak his game to a totally new position”
I’ve always said he is a CAM but others argue that he is just as good or if not better playing from a wider position.
No-one is saying he is woeful wider are they or worthless he has had some good matches playing away from CAM.
It’s just that CAM looks his natural position.
Rap Nobody is writing off Smith Rowe, he’s an exceptional talent. But having concerns about his fitness this calendar year is reasonable, he wasn’t training consistently throughout the second half of last season, and he’s now missed most of pre-season. The idea Odegaard + Martinelli can each play 60 games this season stands up to no real type of scrutiny, and if we play with both our full backs tucking into midfield in possession, then Smith Rowe can certainly play on the inside left as well. There’s going to be plenty of games to spread around if we want to… Read more »
edgy
https://twitter.com/DavidOrnsteinn/status/1488117851005362177?s=20&t=D5C1LPIZXcCgt1XDxD_Viw
Zacharse
Now that’s funny 😄
raptora ‘No one seems to think about how ESR is forced by the manager to tweak his game to a totally new position because the teacher’s pet is ahead of him in his favorite role. How he was used in less meaningful games just to sit on the bench for most of the EPL after the month of November.” With the benefit of hindsight, Odegaard was and is good enough to start in that position ahead of ESR. You can make an easy argument that Arteta needs to rotate them more often but Ode’s form and potential makes that difficult.… Read more »
aged well huh tt
i’m wanting to take ‘imminent’ tielmans rumors more seriously but i can’t bring myself to do it, seems like it may be a case of whoever is still to come into the squad, they probably won’t be doing it until the last week
Odegaard doesn’t get in ahead of ESR because of his dribbling. ESR is just as good as Odegaard in that respect. ESR can also be seen as more dangerously offensively than Odegaard from the CAM position. ESR can also combine in tight areas offensively in the last third as good as Odegaard. Why Odegaard gets in ahead of ESR is that he plays more with his head up than ESR is more aware of the wider scope than ESR and he has a more varied passing range than ESR. And that’s from someone who doesn’t necessarily think that Odegaard is… Read more »
My goodness people are absolutely obsessed with Tielemans.
If you missed out earlier, you can join the FPL I run – https://fantasy.premierleague.com/leagues/auto-join/0r2hme
Great post Pedro!!!
Here we go…!!!!
Can we start the match already , feels like ages ago we played our last match . Word of caution , in losing Gallagher Viera has actually found in pre season that Eberechi Eze looks good in there ,having seen in preseason the lad looks qualiteee . It’d be wise to pay attention to him tonight.
Diss Nice to see you turn into a full convert. I love Odegaard + Smith Rowe, I’ve got a slight preference for Odegaard centrally, but we’re certainly going to need both to play roughly 40 games this season, we’re blessed whichever one of them gets the nod. Obviously it won’t work out like this, but something like this would be ideal: Odegaard 40 starts right 8 Smith Rowe 20 starts right 8 Martinelli 40 starts left wing. Smith Rowe 20 starts left wing. Xhaka/Tielemans 35 starts left 8 Vieira 25 starts left 8 Saka 40 starts right wing Pepe 20… Read more »
Raptora, You wrote a lot of words when you could have just shortened it to … – Arteta’s fault ESR is always less than peak fitness to play 90 minutes. In the system we’re implementing, work rate is huge. He’d get the same treatment if he played under Guardiola. I guess playing on the wing is causing him to get gassed at 65 minutes when he starts. Looks to me like he’s been used sparingly to keep him productive. No mention from you of the goals he’s been able to supply from that position that he’s “forced to play”. Wouldn’t… Read more »
“My goodness people are absolutely obsessed with Tielemans.”
That’s unnecessarily condescending isn’t it? Mostly people are simply obsessed with getting another CM in to bolster our weakest area of the pitch.
Only 3 hours… Can’t wait..must admit that I am expecting us to score like 3+ goals and win comfortable.. Just can’t help it, love this optimistic feeling
Rich
Can you just remind us again how many players we need .
We don’t usually start great hopefully today we do coyg
Pierre You certainly need reminding, because you keep having mental breakdowns every time one of your favourites doesn’t start, you’re beyond clueless…. You spent the whole of the second half of last season whinging that Smith Rowe wasn’t starting. Even after I posted you links of our press conferences confirming him being in and out of training, and a link of an interview he did with England under 21, where he confirmed it himself. You were still convinced there was some type of crazy conspiracy going on….. You were talking about it the other day, in spite of the fact… Read more »
Luteo “That’s unnecessarily condescending isn’t it? Mostly people are simply obsessed with getting another CM in to bolster our weakest area of the pitch.” The whole point is that Tielemans isn’t going to be as effective at CM as Partey is. If you think he is a good replacement for Partey in that position you are kidding yourself. Tielemans could be handy as another 8. He is better offensively than as an all round midfielder. But we’ve got enough 8s. Another thing is it’s just staring at you blindly in the face that we have Elneny and Lokonga. I dont… Read more »
Would have been nice to have Tomiyasu available against Zaha. Just trust him more at RB against Wilf than White. Hope we can match their physicality or play around it.
Tielemans will sign, we don’t need him to win tonight
I like Palace, love their collection of attacking players, Ebwoie, Olise, Eze, Zaha, Edouard nice group. Think they ll be my second team this season to watch. But tonight we must give them the big brother treatment.
Naija, agree.
Im definitely not writing ESR off…… one of my favorite players.. However, it is undeniable. his body is his own worst enemy.. He is the only one not able to train today.. says it all really. He has to be micro managed to the point it doesn’t make it feasible for him to play the 10 role.. because that position needs consistency and time with all the other players to build combo relationships. ESR is a better goal scorer then Ode so.. of course he will still be valuable as a option providing he can get back to fitness. Big… Read more »
There’s no one better with running with ball at full speed, than ESR
That”s why I think the coaches were tempted with trying him on the wings.
The lad runs with the ball taped to his feet
Pedro
If Tielemans is recruited it will be after next week’s home game against Leicester.
Hopefully by then we will have sorted out most of the remaining departures.
Rich “You certainly need reminding, because you keep having mental breakdowns every time one of your favourites doesn’t start, you’re beyond clueless….You were talking about it the other day, in spite of the fact smith rowe had virtually no pre-season to get up to speed, and it’s pretty obvious we’re going to have to gradually integrate him back in slowly as a result” You are correct , i was discussing smith rowe and this is what I said, so hardly having a mental breakdown if Eddie or ESR don’t start . “I’m not sure i can see Arteta dropping Odegaard… Read more »
Dissenter
Martinelli is really good at that too, running with the ball taped to his feet. Gotta love all these riches we have going into the season.
The cool thing about ESR’s situation is that unlike Wilshere, we can ease him back in.
Haha interesting thing about Rich and Pierre is they are quite similar in their views and observations. I ve often read either one’s post and mistook it for the other, thats how similar their posts can be sometimes.
Yet they can seem to get along 😄
Random thought but Tielemans and Zinchenko in ,midfield could be a thing should he sign and Partey is not available or needs rested. Tielemans wouldn’t have been my first option..as cm . but rather him then Melo. who the media obssessively links with us.
Just hope Xhaka channels his inner Zizou today …shots have been falling to him a lot this preseason with Marti and Jesus taking up defenders ahead of him.
Lets f$#@ing go boys
I’m 100% in agreement with Juergen Klopp in regards WC scheduling.
It’s farcical!
COYG!!
3-1 win!
Miswest.
I’ve a feeling Xhaka will score tonight.
I’m going 2- nil to the Arsenal. Jesus and Marti on the scoresheet.
Palace : 1
The Arsenal : 3
I’m thinking a 0-2 win today.
Goal in each half. Jesus and Saka.
Great minds Middy.
Afraid that the defence will disapoint us. Rams and White are not at the level we tought a year ago. Hope I am wrong.
Cali-
Well inebriated minds at least… haha USA network starting the new season hype in 20 mins..
COYG, we have a good squad this year, let’s make a statement tonight beat Palace and put some doubts in other teams heads. Liverpool and City have done this in previous seasons and have the game 70 % won before they even step out on the pitch
4 nil to The Arsenal
Match is on sky showcase for free tonight for anyone with sky 😁
Looking forward to the jousts between Saliba and the Palace attackers, including Zaha
I’m going Palace 0, the Arsenal 3. Love the post Pedro – cannot remember being this excited before a season since maybe the mid 2000’s.
Ish
You’re a bit of a whinger aren’t ya
When did I even remotely bring up Tielemans as a Partey replacement or equivalent? Doubt anyone thinks Youri will come in and take us to the league title. But more CMs means we are in the process of trying to move on from Xhaka and Elneny with better players. Why are you so pissy about that.
Wonder if they have made Var any better this season? I’m going with … probably not
Middy
Mike Dean’s in charge now, that’s all you need to know.
Nothing wrong with the technology just the knobs looking at it
Need to do something with looking at offsides under the microscope for sure
Let’s hope that come thd end of the season we can tell all those ex professionals coming out of the woodwork saying Arsenal are bottlers to go fck themselves
The dreaded offside by a ball sac hair ……. rule. you mean. Using a lne drawn across a video screen with a fat finger.
Graham62
I still find it hard to credit that Qatar WC will actually happen. Maybe it’s a bad dream from which we’ll all awaken. Or if not, maybe a super heatwave will melt the stadiums. Or perhaps all the players catch contagious diseases. Or more likely Vlad Putin decides the people out there need a special cleansing op.
Zero surprises in the starting lineup which is good.
Englandsbest, think I would rather watch the World Cup than your last alternative 🤔
Ok, I found another reason to be optimistic about our chances this season. The Qatar World Cup is going to be a major factor. Premier League Pre World-Cup: August 5th-November 13th World Cup: November 21st-December 18th Premier League Post-World Cup:: December 26th-May 28th 1) We have a decent group of first-team contenders (Tierney, Odegaard, Zinchenko, ESR, Nketiah) who will get full rest and a few back-ups, if they are all at the club, who will also be fully rested (Elneny, Holding, Pepe, Vieira, Nelson, Marquinhos, AMN) 2) Players that will likely be knocked out at the group stage from the… Read more »
VAR is going to be trialled electronically in CL this season. Take human bullshit out of it and make it fast.
Ramsdale, White, Big Gab, Saliba, saka, Partey, xhaka, zinchenko, martinelli, odegaard, jesus
Jesus that bench is oof
Expecting a hard fought 1-1 draw today. Even if that’s on the pessimistic side for this match, I’m much more optimistic about the overall season.
Well B.i.g. when the USA and Iran in a rare international partnership team up to knock England out of the group stages … Saka should be fine.. 😀
Score draw written all over it!!
Bacary
Thats pretty much how I feel too, less optimistic for this game but more optimistic for our season in general. These palace guys are a kind of bogey team for us. Hopefully not today
We are not some exotic team, we have too many fighters in our squad these days
Avoiding red cards are one of my main fears.
New season,
New hopes,
Here’s to hoping for more ups than downs
To Partey scoring a screamer,
To Jesus & Mohamed scoring in the same game,
To all gooners across the world to smile every day they step out of their homes
To all the posters here being awesome as they’ve always been here on the blog…. y’all are family,
To Pedro’s new born being out lucky charm😇
COYG!!
COYG!!
Getting long term injuries.. with our buzzsaw high press.. is my biggest fear. But if it’s working … I don’t think it matters what Crystal Palace’s gameplan is. We shall see if we carry it over from the preseason, though.
Partey to score
gotta say I’m a little anxious about palace, gotta be the blackest team around…
We tend to struggle when a team is more athletic than us, hope our system and technical level can overcome this.
up the arse!!
4-0 to the Arsenal. No messing.
Palace away is a difficult game, particularly in a late kick off underneath the lights.
No one wanted to hear it at the start of last season, but there were legitimate reasons for our terrible start.
Can’t say I’m feeling as forgiving this season, our bench could certainly be stronger, but I certainly expect this starting eleven to show up with a good performance.
First 35 minutes are going to be vital, need to silence/demoralise the home crowd.
We neee to start aggressively…none of that lets wait till we are behind bollocks
Limited intellect as usual from the new Tielemans detractor…
Tielemans (if he comes) would not be considered a Partey back up.. but he could be handy in a different midfield set up.
His through balls from deep are magnificent, and he can tackle and press.
He would be a different type of alternative if we buy him, mainly an 8 though.
Yessssssss hear we are my friends. Could not be more excited for a new season.
Let’s do it!
Up the arse!