Well hello, my darlings… it’s Sunday; we’re playing Everton away from home; tell me why you shouldn’t be worried?
I can’t.
We should be panic-stricken.
Everton – is obviously a terrible outfit, but unfortunately, they’ve been underperforming their xG.
Yes, they have played mostly poor teams. But the people that are actually tuned in… you know, the folk that read the game purely on dataless vibes will tell you this… we could get smacked up.
Everton were handed their own backsides by Unai Emery in the first two games of the season, but since then, they’ve created a lot of good chances, they just haven’t finished. The have a new striker called Beto who used to work in a KFC – he’s on the PL site today basically saying he has no talent but he works hard. Can you think of a better headline to go out the morning of our game?
Going away to Goodison Park when you are Arsenal is the worst type of road trip. Everton willl multiply their effort, we’ll decide we’re shit, and it’ll be a horrible afternoon. Everton, under Mr Dyche, is basically a regen of BIG Sam Bolton from back in the day.
Team news is BRUTAL if your name is Aaron Ramsdale, the English keeper, fresh of an international cap, has been benched for David Raya. I didn’t think the debut would come this soon, but here we are. Aaron hasn’t showered himself in glory this season, it was only a matter of time, now let’s see what Raya has up his sleeve. I’m looking for more saves and better passing.
Eddie keeps his place, Fabio takes over from Haverts, and Big Gabi is BACK.
I like it. What you saying?
Why is a win important? Because every win is important this season if we want to go past 90 points. There are also positives happening at clubs we don’t like.
Spurs were losing to Sheff U, the worst team in the league, up until the 90th minute. But they recovered the game once gifted 15 minutes of injury time. Not cool. The super fun Aussie manager is proving out a reality of modern football > the only way to win with players in 2023 is by creating a great environment to work in. You can’t be a whopper these days. Conte and Jose failed with their managerial vision of misery and this Aussie with nothing more than relatable quips about the working class is crushing it.
We have them after PSV… buckle up.
Let’s talk United.
EtH… the literal last manager the Le Grove comments section BEGGED for circa 2017-23, is deeply in the mud. The man who put discipline first, seems to be struggling. He took the mayo from the kitchen, he decided to eviscerate a player with a mental health issues publicly, and he truly believed banging the table of standards was a good idea… after spending £175m on Antony and Casemiro.
… anyway, Welbz ended United yesterday. EtH, tactical genius, famed for LONG BALL TO RASHFORD thinking, fell to Roberto De Zerbi.
Erik ten Haag has been telling the media over and over again that he is the boss and two year in… it seems like that aggressive behavior is having ZERO impact on the players. Booed at halftime… booed at fulltime. Worst United start in 900 years. Let’s just hope it’s not over too soon. Biggest threat to the rest of the league is United hiring De Zerbi. In fact, let’s be clear, whoever fires their manager first will go for De Zerbi, and that will be a masterstroke.
Since he took over at Brighton they are:
- 1st in shots
- 1st in shot on target
- 3rd for touches in the opposing box
- 2nd for expected goals
- 2nd for possession
Liverpool, a team in a HUGE mess, beat Wolves. Let’s be clear: they weren’t amazing, and the luck went their way. Either way. they’re full of goals this season, and Klopp is still a beast of a manager.
Right now I’m watching Chelsea labor against Bournemouth. After spending a billion, Connor Gallagher is their captain, and Sterling is still their best player. It’s such a weird setup they have. Clearly there’s a lot of talent, at least on paper, but the whole thing looks a way off banging. Mudryk still does not look like the player we all dreamed of.
Right, that’s me done, gonna go and prepare mentally for the game. If you want to join us On The Whistle, save your place below.
How is it a downgrade to be starting keeper for your clubs first CL run in 6 years? (Assuming that is actually the case)
This is for a keeper who just over 2 years ago was playing consistently for teams that were getting relegated
If ramsdale can’t be happy with being a starter in the CL then his mind is not in the right place, because that’s the pinnacle of club football
Anyway everyone is just theorizing for now
Raya’s distribution is excellent. As others have said he had only one modest shot to save. You cannot make judgment on this performance.
Frankly we should be winning more easily against of this calibre than we did.
Yall keep battling over GK
Alls i know is raya brought some serious calmness to the side the likes of which we have not known in some time. Youcan only beat the team youre up against
Without Ramsdale and Havertz, we looked a much better team. Rice was excellent again and I thought White was very good too. Raya was calm and you could see it gave Arsenal a lot more confidence.
Everton will go down this time for sure but they still needed to get beat.
Best performance so far. 8/10.
Ramsdale is not starting on Wednesday. His next game will be Brentford in league cup.
Ive watched the build up to the goal again and its just wow.
just wow
Alright Arteta’s skills are starting to be tested now with midweek CL games and an improved Sp*ds NLD on the weekend. We will see how he handles that schedule.
Scraped by with a 1:0 win when Villa beat Everton 4:0 does that make Emery a better manager?
“Scraped by with a 1:0 win when Villa beat Everton 4:0 does that make Emery a better manager?”
The ignorance on this blog just baffles me sometimes.
The Martinelli injury isn’t great. Another one gone for a chunk. Eddie was shite. Jesus moaned. We don’t have the firepower and that’s a problem. Only 9 goals scored so far. This was always a problem. No goal scorer.
Also, Saka was terrible again. He’s a passenger this season.
It’s time to swap Jesus for Eddie. Ultimately this position needs an upgrade but that isn’t happening until the Summer.
Whatever your agenda, having Trossard, Vieira and Raya come in and play well after some lackluster performances by who they replaced in the recent games is exactly what Arteta is aiming for vis a vis competition.
Hopefully Martinelli post recovery, Havertz and Rambo will be chomping at the bit to reclaim their places, either taking them by merit or pushing their replacements to up their performance.
Here’s my two cents on the ESR matter
Looking back at ode and Viera, both were very mediocre when they first came. Games and time made them better. Kai is getting the minutes to get better, so why not ESR?
Either use ESR and get him up to speed in terms of match fitness or sell him. Same debacle of rejecting a good chunk of fee when the player is hot to sell for a lot less when the player is cold and out of form.
We have a habit of selling all the players at the wrong time ozil wanted out, Turkish league was gonna pay, we rejected it, only to terminate his contract. Same with auba and laca. Now same with pepe. All a waste of money.
the game played as if it was scripted beforehand, but we struggled to create, Eddie was nowhere to be seen, except for the offside. Fabio has brilliant passes in his arsenal, but is not imposing.. David
Raya calms my nerves and Trossard has a golden touch. MA surprised us all but the team won so
onto the next game!!
GOH – Saka was terrible – apart from of course the assist that broke the deadlock. No Saka on the pitch no assist likely 0-0 or as likely some sort of miserable defeat.
Saka away against limited sides is going to get clumped all over the place. His interaction is going to be limited when we ourselves cannot be expansive. He did exactly what was needed
China1 -I’d disagree on Ramsdale . If he’s been given signals that the England spot is on offer but Arteta is effectively demoting him. I’d be off in the January window. No point hanging around I’d say. That’d be my view
8 touch Eddie, pleased we won but you play the worst team in the division and your centre forward has 8 touches in 60 mins of football! Just wait for the Eddie fan club backlash the lad is not good enough for Arsenal.
Does everyone remember when woj was binned off? He was 23/24
He had lessons that needed learning and maybe the no1 spot was a bit too soon. He learned and then succeeded Buffon as juventus no1 for a decade
Ramsdale can do that at arsenal
He’s still very young and has so much to learn. Maybe he won’t. But he’s clearly a very talented lad that’s lost a bit of confidence and I’m sure raya coming in will ignite his furry side a bit more
He’s not put a foot wrong this season and has been dumped into it by his team mates an awful lot
It will happen to raya too this season and I hope we are as consistent with him when that happens as we have been with Ramsdale
I liked what I saw from raya yesterday’
I think he will be no1 this season. I prefer a commanding confident keeper. But it’s not over for Ramsdale after one decent game when he wasn’t tested
Ramsdale will get his chances to shine but he needs to calm down now and start to command his area
I think Raya will eventually become the no 1. No club spends $ 30M+ on a back up keeper.
There’s a bit of a Spanish speaking link up going on here as well . I think Ramsdale has big decisions to make. Shame as I really like the lad
Tr7
Chelsea have
United will have done once onana is binned
But I don’t think Arteta would
I think he’s been looking at why the defence is so leaky and has decided Ramsdale isn’t quite ready to command his defence
Personally I feel midfield and defence give away clangers more than Ramsdale himself but his inability to command his area with authority will hold back a side that’s challenging for honours. I think he will learn and become a top keeper but you can see the calm emitted by raya yesterday
The guy is chill personified. But let’s see how he copes over the season
Ramsdale looked a snip for £30m in year one
Un
I never rated Ramsdale because he is a bag of nerves and his style of goalkeeping is very haphazard. He can make spectacular saves one week and have an absolute mare next week.
I want my GK to be calm, commanding and consistent even if he is not a great shot stopper. Raya fits the mold.
Tr7
Woj used to be the same
Most young keepers are more erratic
I remember Paul Robinson being unusually calm in his early 20s but outside of that nobody apart form casiallas and Buffon
The same rationale that Fabio played here or that Eddie played ahead of Gabriel Jesus. I haven’t had a single question on why Gabriel hasn’t started – he has won more trophies including me in that dressing room but they don’t [ask why]. It is something that historically is done like this but I cannot have two players in this position and not play them. David has tremendous qualities like Aaron has and Karl has, but we have to use them and it is like this.
I am a really young manager, I have only had three and a half years in the job and I have few regrets. It was on two occasions, that after 60 minutes and at 85 minutes in two games in this period I could have changed the keeper in that moment, and I didn’t do it. I didn’t have the courage to do it, but I am able to take a winger or a striker and put a central defender at the back to make a back five and hold that result. We drew those games and I was so unhappy.
Someone is going to do it, and it’ll be strange and you’ll ask why, but tell me why not? If you have all the qualities in another goalkeeper to do something, or if something is happening and you want to change the momentum, then do it. It is a regret that I have and now my feeling is to get everybody engaged in the team that they have to play, regardless of the competition – this is my message.
Man still thinking about trossards goal
What a beauty, really
The speed of thought, quickness in his feet, the subtlety of the implementation and the fact it was on his left (I know he’s two footed but still), the. Look at the actual quality of the finish banging in off the post. Unstoppable and absolutely magic finish. TH14 would’ve been proud of that one. Absolutely world class goal
Un yeah I actually really like those comments from Arteta and I agree with him in principle
People are making way too much out of the keeper situation
Ramsdale will be unhappy and be off in January if he isn’t nailed on starter for every game?
Really?
What if he starts half the games in a team that competes on multiple fronts? Is that worse than starting every week for a mid or lower table team that competes for nothing just so you can HOPEFULLY get some caps for England?
Not for me, sorry. As arteta said, Jesus was also on the bench today. No tears from him. Eddie has usually been on the bench. No such tears. Trossard? No tears. Vieira? None. Kai sucked it up and did well when he came on.
This idea that keepers should be a protected species makes no sense. Would you guys rather we had turner instead, then if first choice broke his fingers we’d have turner for 3 months instead?
The same people who complained that turner wasn’t a good enough back up are probably the same people unhappy that we have two quality keepers now
If ramsdale trains well, gets given plenty of games (for example cup and CL, or league games here and there etc) but can’t bare the thought of playing less than 90% of matches then he’s mentally weak because it means he lacks confidence in his ability to force his way into playing every week through form alone
It’s in Aaron’s hands. If he wants to play every game, blow Raya out the water in training and your next few matches and Raya will get dropped.
If you don’t think you can do that then you’re not really worthy of the #1.
And this is not me shitting on Rams because I rate him higher than most and don’t assume he’s unable to handle the competition as many on here do. I actually think he’s gonna have a good season dovetailing with Raya and arsenal will be all the better for it.
Rather than being terrified of having a player who doesn’t like being on the bench.
No one does, aside from el Neny types who know they only make up numbers.
Quality outfield players start games on the bench at big clubs every single week. Apparently only keepers are so weak as to need protecting from competition.
I don’t buy it.
Great to have two good keepers
Regarding GK, iam not sure there is anything to worry. We have two very good GKs in Rams and Raya they will share games and learn from each other. Look at Brighton they are setting the trend. Steele played 3 games and Verbruggen 2 and it didn’t make any difference to the way they played. Raya looked unflappable and commands his area. Rams saved important points last season has started this season well. There is nothing to worry about the GK position. Infact it’s one position that we don’t need to worry. We are well stocked with quality and a very rare luxury to have such keepers.
Also there are no guarantees that by going to another club ramsdale gets to be England #1
He’s been a really good keeper for us on balance but last season many people would make a case for pope. Pickford as well isn’t elite at club level but is a big player for England usually.
Nothing is guaranteed in football except that which you can control which is your own performance. If you want to be unstoppable, play that level most of the time. If you’re not able to, focus hard on improving or accept you’re not worthy and don’t complain or get upset about it if the best man won
Let’s be clear here, Raya has been brought in as excellent competition but he isn’t peak Buffon on Neuer is he? If ramsdale (hypothetically) doesn’t feel he can reliably displace a player who isn’t even a nailed on starter for his country then what would that say about him? Unless I’m mistaken Raya has managed to start only two international friendlies by the age of 28. 0 competitive starts for Spain. Why would ramsdale think this player is beyond him if he thinks he’s good enough to be in contention for England who are better than Spain anyway?
If he wants to be England #1 then there’s no better way to do that then put Raya in your pocket and prove you’re the best keeper at arsenal.
‘I couldn’t compete with not even a nailed on starter for Spain… please pick me for England #1’ is hardly a good sale imo
Arsenal’s field tilt:
vs Everton 83.8%
vs United 81.2%
vs Fulham 90.4%
vs Palace 50.4%
vs Forrest 82.8%
Absolute dominance so far.
Courtesy of Twitter…