The debate is OVER.
Sambi Lokonga gets the nod in midfield. This is a huge year for him. We heard him bitching about playing time, the key tonight is to show he can make the most of it when it’s offered on a plate.
He’s going to partner Granit Xhaka. The major question is going to be whether he sits a little deeper and allow the Swiss to roam, or does he play in the more advanced role, swapping out where Granit has been playing.
The kid has talent, no doubt, but his 2022 has mostly seen him play with substandard or ‘not ready’ partners in midfield. He’s played with Big Mo, Odegaard, and Charlie Patino. I’m looking forward to seeing how he does with someone better.
Reality is, unless we sign Tielemans, there’s no #6 or #8 that is dropping into the side right away, the better bet is always going to be an internal solution like it was for left back.
Talking of left back, there’s no Zinchenko for the second game in a row, so we’re going to have to rely on Sambi and Xhaka picking up the progressive passing that has been lost by the Ukrainian and Partey.
Aston Villa have been utter shite all season, they look lost without Dean Smith, and their identity has come crashing down.
That said, this is Arsenal, they’ll be up for showing us a thing or two, so we need to manage complacency, and we have to respect that they have some really talented individuals that can do damage.
We also have to keep an eye on Emi Martinez dropping his annual masterclass against us.
This is a home game, if we win it, I believe this will go down as the best start in our history. Quite the pivot from last season.
Let’s see if we can do it.
We’ll be On The Whistle later, so come and join the party!
Holy shit…Matt Turner at Old Trafford is stuff of nightmares
I would have took him off straight away no point in trying to run off the injury when you have a ready made replacement that can slot right in and needs minutes
Can someone call Arteta now and tell him we can do 5 subs?!
Danny Ings makes me nervous.
Always seems to score against Arsenal
Vikingz steady on lad lol
Ugh.. Turner time .. Hopefully not a thing… today.. hahaha They throwing everything they got on .. now.
Y’all slating Arteta’s man management 5 games into the season …. if players are already breaking down, that’s not on him. We need to play our strongest teams in these games.
Almost 5 intense games for most players on (and off) the pitch… still no tactical subs huh?
We have to win this
Ozy tell me about it crazy stuff from some people
Ozy, you are looking at what’s right in front of you but you ain’t seeing it clearly. Why are our players dropping injured? Ordegard could have been subbed earlier but Arteta waited till Ordegard literally forced his own sub. Does he not know that sub slot is 5 now? Why does he find it difficult to sub?
Sambi played well.
Let’s revisit this conversation from week 7
We need to take our chances….more clinical..
There are always a few on the wind up.. I just ignore them.. Anyhow.. all these corners at the end. exactly what they want.. Killing me.
Exhaust all you have now till they are dead men walking from week 7and let’s see how we are gonna be getting results
Don’t give away free kicks
Oh but it’s a foul on keeper this time???
Have we replaced shad yet, seems to be a few muscle injuries starting to rear their ugly head
Ok now if Eddie score I have all the goal scorerers today for Arsenal.. should be a good payout. Let’s go.!
We’re inviting them on by defending so fucking deep….
Give to Eddie! hahaha ugh 5 mins injury time.
Was that not a trip? Where;s Var now?
How long left
4.5 minutes
Issak second goal just offside
Squeaky bum time, come on boys keep it cool
Go Eddie Go! sweet hold up.. ok 2.5 mins now.
Lokonga ain’t it.
Sambi lookin nervous
Ohhhhh that was the one Eddie.. oh well..
C’mon Eddie. Idiot taking that shot…we were 3 vs 3
Eddie should have kept the ball there
Surely that must be time
Eddie should have kept the ball there
..
TT was a good sub.. he has been solid.. cleaning it up.
3 fuxking points
3 PTS on the table! Let’s fkin go!!!!!
Yes, nice one
Villa offering nothing going forward, Gerrard has big problems and could be the next manager fired
3 great ones but injuries piling up now…
Arteta is going to break a lot of players this season with 80th minute subs. We get 5 ffs. There’s a reason for that.
Also what’s he waiting for with Vieira?
Sweet!!! 15 pts … in 5 games. perfect. Martinelli was my motm today.. Dude was everywhere got the winner.
COYG – what a start!!!!
Lets get a couple of guys in tomorrow and smash it this season!!
Deserved win despite Ramsdale error
Fuck that was uncomfortable. But 3 points in the bag. Now if West Ham could just finish the job…
Come on Hammers. !!!!
Fantastic team. I don’t think we have the depth and experience yet to make a serious run for the title but we’re close. Top 4 is the absolute minimum and it’s very doable this year.
Martinelli is something special, huh?
Need to put more of our chances away though
Liverpool drawing would be good also, leave them quite a bit of catching up to do
OOOOOO JUICY
wonder what mikel whispered to the 4th official before going into the tunnel. seemed to elicit a chuckle
GET IN 5 wins from 5!
We made an easy job unnecessarily difficult.
Gotta take them chances when they are handed to ya
and the gaffer needs to work on making changes earlier.
Either way great three points.
We March on.
Probably something like, God they are dirty fuc###s
Sami Lakonga was superb today…
Great win, Tets need to sub players earlier than 80th min+ though, alot of players will be finished come christmas if he doesnt.
Figured he learned the lesson last season
Spicy bunch of tackles in that, pretty shocking refereeing performance overall.
McGinn so god damn naughty.
Lucky Villa are dogshit as we squandered far too much.
Hope Ødegaard ok after the studs up on ankle.
Was ode ok ?
We need to find a way to turn our dominance into more goals. Saka looks like he needs a rest. Arteta should consider starting Eddie on RW.
Great win, great pressing, intensity etc but a lot of the time we seemed to lack cohesion and definitely missing Partey and Zin. Lokonga unfortunately is not our answer to Partey cover seemed a spectator for much of the game, best when we are going forward but definitely not a DM
1. Villa had no business being in that game- we have room for improvement
2. Mikel has to take advantage of 5 subs! Thoight Villa gained some momentum from our tired legs.
Ex-cel-lent!!!
Pleased to see that the 3 points are in the bag once again!!!
This is setting us up nicely for our game vs Manure.
It would be great if we could now smash Manure on Sunday. A bit of payback for that horrendous 8-2 defeat many moons ago would be nice!!!
Excellent performance, wasted lots of chances, but that’s ok
Sambi had a good game is a big plus
Martinez saved couple and flapped couple lol..
I thought villa goal was lucky because it wasnt a corner on the first place
Martinelle MOM
Manure next
Great 3 pts but game should never have been that close . Got to learn to stop overplaying a bit in the opponents box
Yep Loko was good… Really we should have smashed them like 6-1 but.. not gonna complain about 5 wins in a row. We responded again to giving up a needless goal.
Don’t know what game u were watching foxy but thought lakonga played really well
Also a reminder that we shouldnt really be neglecting that midfield position we have refused to sign any player in
Best Arsenal team for 10 years. Jesus is a monster! Wrighty and Henry rolled into one. Avoid too many injuries and we are top 4, (at least), and a cup!
Top notch! This team has a dynamic and strength we have been missing for years
I don’t know how lokonga intends making it in football the way he plays, he has no business playing against man utd. Xhaka as a snail is enough worry, no need having two snails in the midfield against united
Sambi got nervous towards the end though and Eddie is too desperate for goal he could’ve square it to either side instead of blasting
Happy with the start to the season and previous Arsenal teams would have probably drawn this game but a few observations..
Saka has regressed badly. I don’t even know what he does well. Loses the ball way to much and nowhere near create enough..
Gabriel has moments of stupidity.
Martinelli is feast or famine.
Arteta needs to rotate better.
Mr Serge
He looked upset coming off, think it was McGinn who left one on him?…
Sal
pretty shocking refereeing performance overall.
This is a comment from Arseblog’s live blog tonight: “This ref is very generous to Villa this evening”. It really sounded like Villa should have had a few more yellows and Kamara should have had 2 yellows and therefore sent off. The tackle on Ødegaard sounded awful and deserved a yellow.
It’s making me wonder what the reffereeing will be like when we play Manure on Sunday.
Last minute bid for Tielemans – please…….
“The tackle on Ødegaard sounded awful and deserved a yellow.”
I thought McGinn got a yellow for the tackle
He’s a dirty player, that one
Meanwhile Balogun is scoring a goal every 80 minutes in France. 3 in 4 appearances
Hope we’re working to fix that broken boiler!
Odegaard just got a knock, they took him off as a precaution
Nothing Ice and 24 hr rest won’t solve.
9 points clear of Liverpool, who would have thought it, Man City again show us the level of finishing we need to attain, that’s the major difference because we should have killed Villa 1st half and strolled through the 2nd half.
Eddie was brilliant when he came on, ran down the clock, kept it simple and Lokonga, what a solid performance. Ramsdale fouled for their goal, ignored by VAR but that’s normal for our officials.
There’s gonna be some bruises but we’ll be fine at OT.
I only get one sub a week in my fantasy football team and I still make more than Arteta
West Ham ffs
What a chance
Great result,terrible refereeing-penalty when Saka was picked up and dumped,obstruction on Ramsdale and studs over the ball tackle.
Subs should have been earlier,Eddie looked good as did Sambi.
Hopefully full team ready for Man Utd.
Some of you would be far better off not posting while you’re watching the game
Only just read some of your comments – talk about over-reacting
Just Another CustomerAugust 31, 2022 21:35:22
Sambi got nervous towards the end though and Eddie is too desperate for goal he could’ve square it to either side instead of blasting
Inexperience on both counts there
Diss
Sorry that was Jesus who was fouled and at that time was his second foul. Not sure who he had fouled first time around.
Are some people really calling out Sambi? What were they watching? He didn’t put a foot wrong today, except that one ball he mis-kicked and hoofed towards the end
NorthbankerAugust 31, 2022 21:42:05
Some of you would be far better off not posting while you’re watching the gameOnly just read some of your comments – talk about over-reacting
Literally the screaming woman behind the Goal at Highbury every time the ball went near our goal
Even seamen said that at the beggining that would have put him off
West hammmmm
Those officials looked to me like they were trying to tilt that game.
How can VAR allow their goal, their pen, and their persistent fouling?
Well played Arsenal for getting a win , thoroughly deserved, hope MO is ok, and AR, whatever was up with him
Sambi was amazing. He became a little anonymous in the last 10-15 but jesus its his first start. He was excellent today
Sambi was excellent tonight.
The Scum hanging on for a point that OG gave them. Fucking gash
The officiating was horrific. Everytime we fouled Villa in transition we were booked. They didnt get booked once for similar offenses. Didnt think their goal should have stood either – also came from a shot that ramsdale didnt even get a touch on but was called a corner anyway.
Man, I haven’t posted on here for a while.
We need 3-4 more players, but I’d happily take 2. A CDM to cover and possibly replace Partey. And a RW, to give a very tired Saka a much needed break.
Hopefully we get those over the line by tomorrow, as it’s vitally important for our season.
Ben I could well be wrong but it was not what Sambi did wrong but what he didn’t do. Seemed to be following the game rather than making the play with interceptions and !one splitting passes.
Good win but we made hard work out of what should’ve been a routine 3-0/4-0 win. Villa are low on confidence at the moment.
XG: Arsenal (2.96) 2-1 (0.36) Aston Villa
That was a 3-0 performance.
Really hard to understand why Sambi was being criticised. It seems to be based on the concept that if we were away to Man City he wouldn’t get that time and space
Well I think you can say for any team and any player
I am not sure that the Saka Odegaard partnership really works on the right with both being drift inside left footers and White not being an overlapping fullback.. He seemed best with ESR and Cedric or Tomi at FB