Arsenal vs Luton away. We haven’t won in 10 games. A 4o year record. We last won the year I was born! That’s a scary stat, people.
I was drinking victory beers last night until I read it. Now I’m nervous.
Are we about to get pummelled by a club yet to hit their rhythm this season?
I have my doubts.
This is a pretty strong line-up. The changes aren’t that significant, but they’re enough to shape how we play.
Kiwior gives rest to Zinchenko who is injury prone… this is the biggest change because we don’t have enough data on the Polish defender to know how he’ll play.
Ben White in for Tomiyasu might be forced, but it makes sense, and he’s a BIG player for us. No loss of quality.
Then you have Kai Havertz back in after three games in which he scored last week.
The front three is a lethal group of players. Luton should be worried. If we play the same as we did against Wolves, we’ll smash them.
The only concern I have is complacency. Do we think we’re too good to show up at Kenilworth Road? Are our babies impacted by 40 years’ worth of history? Is the Liverpool game in their heads – THEY DREW?
I’d say no based on the form we’ve shown over the last 2 weeks. We look focused, we haven’t been complacent, and we’re moving through the gears.
My hope is we can score a couple of goals early and kill them so we can make subs. These dreams are often silly. Chances are the afternoon will be harder than we imagined, and the result will be closer than we dreamed.
Whatever the performance, this is a must-win. You have to rack up points when your rivals drop them. We have to go away from home against Aston Villa this weekend with some confidence because that’ll be a rough game.
Ok, jump in the comments right now and enjoy yourself. Also, let us know what you thought of the shorter podcast below!
x
Agree Habesha so many duty’s a captain takes on beyond being ” the hard man ” on the pitch. I’m quite happy with dynamic of this side, and its never die mentality. We’ve got quite a few leaders in this group, that last drive for goal was epic, killing all the opposition tweets with it’s final push.
So much anger when that win in, bathe in it.
Rich most people said there were no guarantees rice would hit the ground running There weren’t and never are with any signings. Caiceido cost more and started dreadfully at Chelsea. Thankfully rice was good on day 1 and brilliant ever since. No one can ever guarantee that would happen tho. Sancho was a beast before going to Utd and looking shit. Torres was a beast before going to Chelsea and looking shit. Shevchenko the same. Very many good players don’t hit the ground running and some never work out at all. If you assumed rice would be our best player… Read more »
As Ode vs Rice captain debate, I prefer rice too but stripping Ode of the armband would be a very negative move and completely unnecessary.
Rice doesn’t need the armband to be a leader – that’s already well demonstrated.
As for the winning goal, Rice doesn’t score that if there isn’t a *perfect* 96th minute cross to run onto. Who in such a clutch moment showed up with that perfect cross? It was a Norwegian fella…
Arteta is going to be banned from the touchline when we visit Anfield, it’s written in the stars…
It’s almost as if the PGMOL was so gutted we nicked it at the end that the referee was probably told to book him over the intercom direct from Stockley Park, ‘have some of that Mikel and there’s more on the way’…
Pedro will you ever fix this website?
Painful trying to read with it while the page jumps around because of the poorly implemented ads – at least on iPhone. It’s been months. I enjoy reading the comments but can’t as it’s far too annoying. Maybe in 2024 one can hope eh
As long as we win, tonight match my fav type of game, proper rollercoaster of emotions but finish with joy.
Plus one Max. Dreadful since the ads. I’ve switched off so many times when enjoying reading through because the ads kept reloading and throwing the page up and down. It’s utter shit.
Nobody who valued their site would permit somebody to pull their pants down and lay such a huge stinking turd in their place.
Luteo
I don’t recall that, have to imagine the tension is because Wenger Eagle is definitely in the LG starting XI of posters.
Beauty of Le Grove is at some point everyone has a shit hot take, even Rich. I say fuck it lets bask in glory of winning in the final breath of game.
Yes the adverts suck but everyone’s got to feed their kids, nut up.
Sal
Agree completely. leadership has different sides. Odegaard is the elegant calmer leader. And he is a professional. And you can be a leader without the armband too. As china said you cant strip a captain of the armband. it is uneeded negativity.
I don’t know if everyone phone/tablet different but when I come to le grove a little black x appears after 5-10 seconds at bottom of screen when I come into comment section, close that x and ads disappear, or they do for me at least.
you cant strip the captain out of someone who is a natural captain nor give them an armband. leadership is natural to them
Going to say the obvious, Raya was horrible and it’s not the first time either. Given his experience, expectations are and remain that he should not be the abject liability that he is showing himself to be. Give Luton credit, but Raya gifted them more than Santa ever would.
I have that little x too, I use firefox browser
Havertz was best we’ve seen of him tonight, those runs he’s making into box playing more forward proving quite effective. Literally dragged 2x defenders with him and had keeper marking him on Jesus header who was unmarked.
Blanco played the perfect ball there.
@TheLegendaryDB10: That guy you are calling the “meekest” provided the all-important assist via a cross. No cross, no gosl.
Everybody loves Rice – but don’t denigrate Odegaard to make your point. I agree with you Rice will eventually be captain – but not yet.
tps://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-12830201/Arsenal-boss-Mikel-Arteta-booked-celebrating-Declan-Rices-97th-minute-winner-Luton-banned-touchline-Saturdays-game-Aston-Villa.html
I watched the video and am like, seriously he got yellow carded for that? What a complete joke. Pgmol trying to be vindictive for a genuinely happy moment… is not a good look at all.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-12830201/Arsenal-boss-Mikel-Arteta-booked-celebrating-Declan-Rices-97th-minute-winner-Luton-banned-touchline-Saturdays-game-Aston-Villa.html
oops there is the link.
#midwestern…on what sideline there’s fkn none at Kenilworth…so where else can u celebrate…agree pgmol cunts
Yep… one foot slightly over the line.. apparently, deemed “on the pitch”. Amazing they could see that.. but couldn’t see whether the ball was over the line or not with slow motion capture in the Newcastle match.
@MidwestGun: Zhey zee vot zhey vant to zee.
What a great F’N WIN! Watched the game on delay, did not look at score all day. Went up like I thought, conceded like I did not, went behind, and I could not believe it, came roaring back and felt we could nick it, time rolled on in injury time, and was screaming at the tv for the MEN to push forward, and on that last kick of the game, Rice with a dagger! Damn, what a great win. Midget field, Orcs away, always a tough out. Just no quit in the team. Raya with mistakes, who does Mikel go… Read more »
I genuinely don’t care who plays in goal but this situation is farcical and completely self inflicted. There is literally no difference between the Raya of this season and the Ramsdale of last season. Its a complete drain on mental resources.
We’ve now played all the bottom half teams, 5 home and 5 away, and have 28/30 points… Averaging 2.8 points per game. We’ve played only 5/9 top half teams… and have 8/15 points. 3 home and 2 away…. Averaging just 1.6 points per game. Our next 4 fixtures to the halfway stage.. Are all against top half teams: Villa Away Brighton Home Liverpool Away West Ham Home Villa have won 13 successive home games since we beat them last season… They have City at home tomorrow night, before we go there on Saturday. We haven’t won at Anfield since 2012.… Read more »
Brighton 13 times*
Enough already about this “give Rice the armband now” campaign. He doesn’t need it to be the leader that he is. There are some here complaining that Arteta has humiliated Ramsdale who would be happy to have the current captain “demoted” today if they had their way. Give it a rest folks. The great Pele never captained Santos or Brazil.
Enough already about this “give Rice the armband now” campaign. He doesn’t need it to be the leader that he is. There are some here complaining that Arteta has humiliated Ramsdale who would be happy to have the current captain “demoted” today if they had their way. And for what? Give it a rest folks. The great Pele never captained Santos or Brazil.
We looked like title winners because we dug ourselves out of a terrible situation, that is the good news bot most of the talk will be about Raya and his lack of confidence and letting 2 goals in. If a GK with outstretched arms gets out jumped by a forward he doesn’t belong between the posts. Raya makes a mistake in every game. After the 2nd goal went in all of Arteta’s talk about substituting GKs was put to the test, if there ever was a time to substitute Raya, this was it. According to Arteta there was another number… Read more »
Great win. But Raya not good enough to be our no 1
Need to find.a keeper over 6 2 who can distribute and strong enough to not be bullied
Rich,
“There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics”
Do care about that crap right now.
Get on board man, AFC can do it!
Keep our guys upright and we can be competitive.
Mikel has beaten all those coaches mate.
Do Not care mate.
Give it a rest!!
Marti dad was sat in away end tonight, great game/stadium for him to watch his son live.
this keeper disaster is all Tets, and it’s a shame because in other areas he’s done so well but this is all on him. As Pedro said in the Pod, at Brentford Raya was a force. Klopp called him out as their extra central defender. His shot stopping was very good. Seaman said in the Pod with Kandella that he didn’t like having a peer as a number 2, he wanted to know he was the main man. Lehmann said if he was in this situation he would try and fuck with the other guys head. If you put that… Read more »
Keeper ain’t costing us league.
Defense will either win or win us the league.
Mike being to smart for himself.
Now he is stuck in the GK situation he created
We need both of these fools this season though. Make decisions in summer
‘ Seaman said in the Pod with Kandella that he didn’t like having a peer as a number 2, he wanted to know he was the main man.’
There is no footballer in any position on the planet who enjoys not having guarantees about a starting 11 spot apart from players who are happy to be squad players.
All serious players want to play and have assurances bar none
Very strange that keepers should need to be mollycoddled and have no competition whilst it’s dog eat dog within the squad for literally every other position
Guns,
Is this “the” moment AFC turn it around?
As for lehmann wanting to play mind games with his #2 if he felt threatened
That demonstrates 2 things:
1) proactive ownership of the situation to try and increase his chances over the #2
2) that he’s not a team player if he’d rather his competition do badly at the expense of the team
Aaron not sure,
I did not see the game but highlights only, was at work, unlike the lucky UK folks
lol
The next run of games like Rich said will be tough, the real litmus test
Lehmann is a nutter
Yeah I mean I wouldn’t expect a nice answer from lehmann lol
Dude was a fruitcake
Amazing in the CL final run season tho
One needs a nutter to command the box, instead of watching the ball go past you because one did not have the courage nor the ability to go and get it! Think of Ospina giving up that goal standing on his line on a corner and no one touched it.
“Dude was a fruitcake ”
Said dude actually peed on the pitch.
Truly madshit qualities. Great stopper during that amazing run,
Really weird all the keepers for the big teams seem to be dropping howlers together.
Ederson on the weekend. Raya. And of course the great Oanana
I am ambivalent about Raya as long as we are winning.
Raya seems to be a tactical head itch that Arteta had to scratch.
What a few days of PL
Liverpool 4-3 Fulham
City 3-3 Spuds
Chelsea 3-2 Brighton
Luton 3-4 Arsenal
Raya needs to be benched a little
Pseudo yeah the PL has been bonkers this season
By far the most entertaining season in living memory for me
Teams are taking absolute lumps out of each other every week. The number of bland matches this season is tiny compared with even recent PL seasons
70% have any combination of the below
-loads of goals
-red cards
-hugely controversial (wrong lol) decisions by officials/var
-late equalizers/winners
-upsets for big teams
Some games have all of them lol.
Right now the PL is taking entertaining to another universe
Add to the above that matches are played at a crazy high tempo with good atmospheres in the stadia and it’s a perfect storm of entertainment
Even the boring teams to watch like Utd are entertaining because of what goes on in the games (even tho their play style is bland as hell)
Lehmann was perfect for the invincibles. Fit in perfectly.
Everyone kept each other in check.
Wasnt he the tax collector or some shit like that?
That Lehmann piss during the match was done during a champions league match at that
And not one person in attendance would’ve been surprised knowing Jens
His nickname was Mad Jens for a reason
Declan Rice. Wow!! He’s been amazing. But I’d have to say though. And it’s surely my take, has been since before he was signed… 105m is too much for any player no matter how good they play in a game. AND I would still have preferred to sign Caicedo. It has always been about the style of play for me. Not that Caicedo is the better player hands down but he’s the one that suited how we played last season. But Declan has been gold. We may have lost our fluency and changed style of play from last season with… Read more »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xHLdfCIbiY
Re Toni’s injury Very disappointing but ofc not surprising. We know he’s going to miss chunks of every season. His fragility is his one clear weakness but it’s an obvious one This means we’re down to barebones now in Dec Starting back 4 is fine but I guess we’ve only got kiwior and Cedric left standing to rotate/come in for any injuries. This is exactly why I didn’t support us doing the Tierney charity loan after timber got injured. If he was on the bench at least we’d have that extra body (when he’s fit). If zinchenko who is also… Read more »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH-PR0cf4pg
lol
If zinchenko and a CB go down I am guessing it would be Kiwior LB and White CB with Cedric RB.
But I dunno how well we will do with those two at FB
Need a defender and a mid in January, we have too many guys whom are injury prone
or call the youngsters up!
i love the youth, let them come
Raya is discombobulated by Arteta asking him to do things he not used to as keeper and he has shite coach to help him learn new role.
I’ve lost track but has benni blanco been injured past few matches or was he benched because tomi doing better? Anyway benni has had a bit of rest and hopefully he can stay fit for a while.
Somewhat off topic I know, but on looks alone, were the EPL’s hottest two managers on display last night?
Second striker like performances from Havertz, playing with Jesus. They were combining well yesterday.
Jwl Benny was injured
But I do think tomi’s form gave Mikel food for thought
But since Ben is back now and Tomi is injured it’s a simple switch back
Lol at all these rival mugs that are complaining of too many stoppage time winners. They hate us and I love it.
I heard Tomi’s injury prognosis is 4-6 weeks out. Maybe he won’t be ready for Japan’s Asian Cup games starting on Jan 14. Either way, he’s out for the foreseeable. Three full games and in the 4th he got injured. Prolly gonna be back in February.
New post.
We should have kept Martinelli, Unai, Giroud.and ..even Adebayor? Just too keen too offload rather than persist, Artera is ok ..but unfortunately only a second class strategist and that loses points.. As usual we will do ok until January then the rot will set in yet again .. as it appeared to do up at Luton. Eventually .City and Pool and will be above us ..sure we have the best two players in the league Dec and Saka. but fot how long will they hang about. ?