Arsenal cruuuuuuuuuuised to an exceedingly simple win against a totally outclassed Sevilla FC. How can these young Arsenal men be acting out in the Champions League like they’re seasoned veterans?
We are not talking enough about how this rebooted Arsenal group of players are strangling sides like Homer Simpson on Bart before it was deemed uncool to strangle kids in cartoons last week.
Sevilla had one shot on target all game and that was their entire catalogue of attempts at our goal.
ONE SHOT.
This is the Champions League, those sorts of numbers shouldn’t be possible against quality sides known for European football. But look, this is a pattern. We might have lost against Newcastle at the weekend, but we had the richest side on the planet patting the floor trying to find scraps – they didn’t get a corner for an entire game.
This is a different Arsenal side defensively. We have more control, we have more physicality, we have players that feel more attuned to the type of football Mikel Arteta wants them to play.
William Saliba continues to look like the best centre-back in the world. He is a control master – he reads the game like a 30-year-old, but he has the superpowers of a prime VVD. He has all the tools you’d want in that position and he’s still a baby by centre-back standards.
Declan Rice is so good it’s getting boring writing about him – he is every inch a £105m. How many players that go for mega fees have their fans feeling like the deal represented value? Not many. The problem with going up against Declan is he’s everywhere. He’s not human, he’s a horror movie bad guy, you look over your shoulder, he’s not there, you turn back 2 seconds later and he’s savaging you. The only weakness in his game is you still feel there are levels to go… what’s going to happen when he starts shooting?
It was great to see both Bukayo and Martinelli have positive impacts on the game after being clogged up by the black and white deep block boys at the weekend. Martinelli was terrorising Sevilla all night long, constantly beating his man, and constantly getting into dangerous positions. Could the final ball be a little bit better with the cutbacks? Yeah. But he probably needs a striker to make those work more consistently. He still managed a glorious assist for Bukayo Saka who scored a very Bukayo goal.
Our OG Starboy also had a great game, he looked far more comfortable playing up against weaker fullbacks who let him run the game. The goal was great, so was the assist for Luther Van Tross. The injury wasn’t serious, according to Arteta, so let’s hope he’s in the starting 11 for the game this weekend.
There were some other notable performances.
Zinchenko, who has been training as a midfielder for parts of this week, showed up in the Jorginho role and did really well. The guy is an outrageous technician but he’s being outdefended this season. Maybe midfield as an 8 or a 6 could be the future for him? I certainly prefer him in advanced positions over Fabio Vieira.
David Raya kept a cleansheet.
Kai Havertz had a very good game again. Is he starting to find his feet? I think so. We’re also starting to learn what his game is about. I’m watching Granit Xhaka with more power and pace… and better at the one touch connective passing. Kai offers us a lot of hard work off the ball and eventually… he’s going to give us an edge in the opposition box with final passes and goals. He’s getting better, those that wrote him off, get ready to bow down to those that kept the faith.
Ok, that’s me done. Have urself a lovely day. Listen to the pod. See you later! x
Now let’s go for that all important 4th goal.
The one that really puts out Burnley from pushing any further.
Wow Saliba toying with dudes front of goal.. haha anyone else I would be like… I’m scared.
No idea who these commentators are in today’s game but they are having a blast. Talking about the karate kid and through out the game just asking random trivia questions to each other. First goal at the Emirates by Gilberto, 500th by arteta and 1000th by tross the boss !
Brilliant ! just that conceded goal stuffs my predictor – but it’s not about me!
We are going 2nd before Liverpool play.
Marti and Zinny partnership this half has been brilliant.
Come on Chelsea !
This one’s in the bag but we’re scraping wins here
No creativity
Another corner…trouble!
We’re attacking from the left like 85% of the time. Interesting.
Boss almos got far post
Make us happy again tomorrow
Raptora,
We went from the German beanpole to the Portuguese hobbit in the right 8. Kind of hard to stitch something together over there.
No way, Saka off…
Fabio red card…. wtf
To be honest, Odegaard and Partey are missing. And they were the major reasons we were creating a lot last season Partey breaks the lines early and Odegaard creates. Rice is a good player but he isn’t as good as Partey in making those breaking line passes early. Added to that our Xhaka replacement has been Havertz. We are doing okay all things considered.
great game from the BOSS
Vieira sent off
Raps you are so early.
Oh Lord..
What a stupid foul. It’s a bad challenge. What was he thinking?!
Man, why our squad players letting us down every game. FFS.
Indeed wtf????
Hopefully this is the end of this scrawny cvnt
Squeaky bum time now.
Moronic challenge.
Vieria dickhead get rid
This is what you get lashing out at the ref, we stand to lose every little favour we should be getting
Man, come on.
Close the game
a RED for that WTF?????
There was nothing in that channel; no “malice” and no force behind it
Michael Oliver was too happy] to bring out the card , licked his lips and gave it
that was a piss poor challenge..no intent utter BOLLOCKS!
* There was nothing in that challenge
Can’t complain to be honest. He had no attempt to play the ball. If you can’t contribute then don’t get sent off FFS.
Diss
He absolutely was.
That red is totsl bollocks.
PGMOL do love us after that (beautiful) statement!!
Intent or “malice” is irrelevant. It’s about whether he endangered the opponent. Putting your studs on someone’s knee in a challenge qualifies.
No malice only because he weighs about 100 lbs but that was a poor poor challenge.
Let’s hold on, pleeeeeaaase!
Perhaps Vieira wouldn’t have been sent off if his name was Kovacic…
Won’t miss him
Would sub in Kiwior and go 3 at the back to see it out.
Marti.. just cramps.. I think. Hopefully Brazil don’t beast him.
Unfortunate Viera !! He needed to make an impression here, he must be gutted.
We are really getting to our last bones of the squad here. We really need Jesus, Odegaard, and ESR to come back fit.
GunnerWomble
Unfortunately, being a Gooner is enough to get you sent out for no real reason whatsoever.
With any other team, violent conduct against us is OK.
Was that challenge worse than Kovacic’s tackle on Ode’s Achilles/ankle …FROM BEHIND
Then we were told ‘lack of malice’ matters
Comprehende
It’s the same referee, ain’t it?
Michael Oliver saw that Kovacic tackle better than he saw this one
Should have applied the same standard
There was malice with Guimares, tho
SMH
Eddie and Nelson not doing enough in defending at all, also not an outlet?!
Dissenter
It is a red. But I wouldn’t give Michael Oliver the benefit of the doubt in any way. This guy sent off Martinelli with two yellows with in the same phase of play. Had been really shit against us when he gets to ref these games.
Dissenter
This is too much common sense I am afraid here.
Nketiah = championship
Would love a Luton goal right now.
Captain Jorginho is a smart player.
thatl do..
Dissenter,
Well, whoever told you that malice, or lack thereof, matters is wrong. It doesn’t. Just read the rule book, it’s unambiguous.
Kovacic not getting sent off was just another scandalously bad ref decision. Vieira’s challenge is 100% a red card. That doesn’t change because he’s our player.
There’s a real axis of average developing in the vacated left #8 role Xhaka left behind. Quite incredible we’ve not managed to improve on Granit fucking Xhaka with any real authority.
We should really be looking at upgrading our CF options but with Partey falling apart and none of Havertz, Vieira, ESR wanting to announce themselves as a starter, it’s hard to argue with the desire to add a player like Douglas Luiz.
He must be looking at us thinking he’d comfortably start.
None of the above look like this in CM: https://x.com/rl_comps/status/1723003670554390846?s=46&t=kX5MOSw74fHSUeJjWqv6nA
I think Oliver, the idiot, gave foul for us when it was Kiwior the reason Jorginho screamed and collapsed to the ground.
Kiwior trying to kill Jorginho the way Abou Diaby did with Terry back in the days
That’s a clear red. Can’t believe I pined for viera. But thanks to him and havertz to have kept the game competitive.
Wow I didn’t expect so much blood.
Well we’ve won this one!!!!
V nice performance by the team against a well organised team attempting to throttle us.
Lol Oliver. Just guesses his decisions and hope it goes right.
Looks like Jorgi got spiked in the head … that had to hurt.
Ee made a meal og that
Pyramid Pirlo on for the bloodied Jorgi.
Zinchenko looked good today in midfield. It’s only Burnley so we can’t make a definitive judgement on him but he is worth a try there for a few matches as an experiment.
Lol at the ball on the ref’s head !
Big Gabby, Saliba, Rice are beastly in these man down situations.. so wasn’t too concerned..
Great start to the weekend.. Go Chelsea! still makes me nauseous rooting for them. though..
Back above the spuds in the table. The natural order of things restored.
Very nice win. It wasn’t routine but it was mostly calm.
Vieira’s brain fart didn’t cost us. I don’t think we’ve suffered any injuries, mostly minimal issues so that’s a plus.
We are okay. Still need a good creative 8 and one good foroward, not necessarily a striker. A level over trossard.
And great win by The Arsenal vs a very determined Burnley.
Fantastic 3 points before yet another fucking boring International break.
A win is a win. You can’t take it for granted. Hope Chelsea do something for us tomorrow.
Mind the gap Spuds
For all their poor form, Inited are 6 points behind us. Really amazing how they have managed to jammy to wins and get that close.
A few on here were annoyed that Everton will survive this season as well because there are a few worse teams. In fact, Dyche will comfortably position Everton way above the safety zone. He inherited a physical team with not much quality. That’s his bread and butter and it shows.
Vieira didn’t cost us in this game, but he misses the next three and his invention from the bench might be required and we don’t have it.
When you’re on the fringes you simply cannot afford to make brainless contributions like that. Playing indifferent is one thing, being a liability that isn’t challenging starters as hoped is a very precarious position to hold.
Best of luck to Havertz on his date tonight.
I’ll say it again. Hopefully today’s the last match that the scrawny kid has played for us. An insult to the legendary name of Vieira
As much as we are dissatisfied about this or that player etc. we’ve got 27 points from 12 games.
That’s 3 short of the Invincibles at ame stage.
Boring 1-0 every week will do me as long as we’re top in May.
I read that Smith-Rowe might return after this international break. Fabio will not be needed if that’s the case.
Partey might be back before New year’s for our visit to Andfield on December 23.
Exactly conteta. Stupid from viera. It wasn’t even a bad game like Newcastle-Arsenal. There was no need
Solid win. That’s what we need week in week out.
Solid performances racking up the points.
Viera mistimed his tackle. I don’t think he was deliberately being reckless. A deserved red for sure but I wouldn’t call him a liability at least not in terms of discipline. It’s just that he blew away yet another opportunity and a red card pushes his further down the pecking order.
Agreed. Needless and very rash foul by Viera.
Now he is also out on a 3 match ban.
We really are having one hiccup of a season.
I am dropping my expectations for this season. Too much going against us.
But I just know that it is all going to blow up next season.
Timber will prove to be the key to this.
Our VVD moment if you will. 🙂
Oyarzabal is a player I like and he’s finally in form after a bad ACL injury. Zubimendi also scored today.
TR7
It was a completely unnecessary attempt at a tackle, nothing clever about it at all. If it was Havertz you’d have thrown the book at him.
Those guys can’t afford to do things like that right now.
Mikel
Not defending Viera at all. I think Arteta will probably sell him come end of the season and I don’t think anybody will miss him. Merely suggesting there was no malice in his tackle, mistimed it completely is all.
As for Harvertz, you willing to give him time ? I mean I hope against hope that he will eventually come good but apart from some defensive/attacking bit in the air his game has been totally off.
And if any one is wondering what my expectations are: it’s simply to win some trophies playing the most attractive football that will get everyone’s attention.
Always has been.
.
Being able to crow how much we are the best team in the world playing the best and most outrageous football ever is something I will relish.
Our club was built on this philosophy since it’s inception. Playing the best football honestly.
Arteta knows this. I wouldn’t be surprised if he has read up our history. There is no coincidence why Arteta is our manager. He wants us back up the top with amazing football.
We are slowly getting there.
❤️ The Arsenal.
Newcastle looking ripe for a bit of a post CL upset at Bournemouth…
TR7
Willing to give Kai time as much as I’m willing to give any new player time, but after a dozen matches he’s underwhelmed.
Thought it would be a relative cakewalk to replace Xhaka with someone better suited but we’ve taken a step back there on current evidence.
Fabrizio Romano says Douglas Luiz is our top target for Jan, do you rate him?
Please forgive me people, on the PL highlights on YouTube I clicked on the Wolves game first so I could see this Bergkamp esque goal that everyone has been going on about (and to see Spurs suffer!!)
Yeah it weren’t half bad (the goal!) but not in DB10s league.
Now on to our game!
Blimey did we play Burnley today or Watford
Very brave from Leonfor the goal. Hope he’s alright. Keep him up front.
Scrappy goal to give away but they happen. We responded well almost immediately.
Sumptuous finish from
Zinchenko.
Vieira red was deserved but harsh to call him an idiot, just mistimed that’s all, not malicious.
Now for ANOTHER INTERLULL, brilliant!
Mikel
I will be honest these days I barely manage to watch Arsenal games. Haven’t watched any game which doesn’t involve Arsenal. So I have no view on Luiz.
This Semenyo fella ain’t it…
TR7
Yeah I’ve not seen much of him either in truth. Hope everything is well with you mate, we’re decent again so that’s something at least for when you do get to tune in.
I was surprised to see some one called Ibrahim in our bench, I have not come across that name before and check on you tube, man the way his legs move and his play style reminded me of our great Vieira !! I hope he will progress to become our first team player soon. It so sad how few of this guys come through to become successful professional players, given how talented they look on the eye.
Douglas Luiz would be a quality addition but he won’t come cheap. He’s a starter for a Villa team who are on the up and has been called up the Brazil squad for the Interlull. Plus, Good Ebening probably feels like he has a score to settle, if only against Pedro. I’d be surprised sub-60/70m tbh, especially in January unless he properly kicks up a stink.