442 Comments

Arsenal and Arteta had better be careful with Ethan Nwaneri. He ain’t no Smiling Boy Next Door lad like Saka. From what I’ve heard about the kid is that while not cocky and toxically arrogant, he’s apparently not too happy sitting and waiting his turn. This kid is an alpha and this will be for interesting viewing on how he us used going forward

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He's 17 and getting to play in PL and CL with his boyhood club and his best mate since he was 7. I reckon he'll be pretty happy about the way things are going!

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Are you speaking from Bob the hopeful fan perspective or from an ambitious young lad’s point of view

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Can't we get anyone on loan from the MLS. Or are we so good that we can't get a player from there to cover for two months before saka returns. Jon Duran I think came from MLS. The way I see it, nwaneri is a cover for both saka and odegaard. Yes he's done well, but arsenal fans get easily carried away.

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I look back at points dropped vs Brighton and City.

And then add Fulham, Everton and Liverpool.

Ughhh, we should easily be topping the table for real.

Don’t know how we will overcome this Liverpool team who look

pretty solid while our squad numbers keep getting tested.

Just curious, Is Tomiyasu out for the season?

Why is he still on the books at Arsenal?

Get rid of please

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Very difficult to sell an injured player!

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I think Jonathon David is available for free this summer so might be available on the cheap in Jan. There was a lot of talk about him previously and I saw him being linked to Liverpool

Would he improve our starting 11?

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Oh not David, better options out there at least IMO

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I think we’ve won 9 and drawn 2 in our last 11 games in all comps. Safe to say the ugly draws vs Fulham and Everton thankfully seem to be behind us.

January is a difficult month.

Some bug league games with Villa spurs and wolves

FA cup vs Utd

Carabou cup vs Newcastle

CL (arguably less important right now) vs girona

Arteta will have done really well if we can come out of January unscathed in terms of keeping the pressure on pool and staying in the cups.

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This from AFC Monty on twitter. I'm not a fan of xG in general but this is stark

https://x.com/AFC_Monty_/status/1874556054727463172

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Those chances are not the only chances we conceded in those games. And with how good Arsenal's defence is, most of the chances we concede are low-probability chances.

The biggest problem I have with XG is that it's just an average probability. That means some players are above it while some are below.

I'd expect Salah to score from a particular position more often than an attacker in the Championship.

Two seasons ago, Arsenal attackers performed above XG (Martinelli & Odegaard especially). I didn't see Arsenal fans saying we were lucky that season. But now the only thing we hear is how unlucky we are.

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Unless I’m confused about it 0.06xG means out of 16.6 tries on goal in similar situation you’d expect to score once.

Now, maybe the reason you’re not a fan of xG stat is because like me, you’d expect Mbeumo score at a higher clip given 16.6 tries.

It’s a bullshit stat for nerds.

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And I’m not getting ahead of myself in saying he has more technical and physical abilities than Saka at the same age. His first step, touch and ability on the ball is remarkable. Arteta needs to take the hand brake off for real

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I hope he learns not to hold on to the ball longer than necessary. That ability to know when to pass after dribbling will take him to the next level.

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It’s not usually a problem for him but there was a sequence when he went by about three to four players and spurned and easy pass and eventually lost the ball.

Totally outta character

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That's the one.

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Ethan Nwaneri is such a legitimate talent and it’s time Arteta stops holding him back. If he was given the platform to perform like Emery gave to Saka and Martinelli he would be even miles ahead of where he is. It’s time to take off the training wheels and let this kid free

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With Mikel, he has to be forced to start playing him more. Saka's injury has opened the door for him to step up to the plate. My thing is, just don't overcook him. He should share minutes with Martinelli and Sterling especially in the tougher games.

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Well I think the focus should be on not under cooking him rather than overcooking him … for the sake of the team. Lad is a unit and hungry … don’t kill his drive and frustrate him. I’d rather have subbed Martinelli than him

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A statement win. We're in this title race til the end.

All the yammering in the press that Liverpool have it sewn up is ridiculous- season's only half way through ffs.

And I'm just beginning to think that against the odds, this could be arsenal's year.

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I have felt that way from the beginning and nothing that has happened has changed that. People expect their team to win every game and that other teams have blips but not theirs - or the other way around. The team that will win it all will experience pain and twists, just like all the others...

Feel free to disagree, and while doing so regale us with how you saw Ipswich and Fulham beating Chelsea, just when they were about to overtake Liverpool.

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I think it would be a mistake to overlook getting another attacker in Jan. Great win but lets not get blinders on. A proper striker on loan, or another attacking Mid would help

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6dEdited

Agreed, and another defender other than Kiwior, Zinc or White. In the following 3 windows..

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Free Palestine an god bless my country of Ireland. 🇮🇪. God bless - Cyril.

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Cyril, it's good to free Palestine, but let me give you an advice.

Travel to Syria, Jordan, Iraq, or Iran (where the evil Israel can't touch you). If you have a wife, take her along, and live there for a year.

Go enjoy the paradise in the middle east and see how Israel is destroying the world.

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Free the hostages first Cyril.

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Can you show me how it’s done Sid?… then I can show you compassion.

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Happy new year everyone

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6dEdited

”Gabby (Jesus) this turn around in form, 6 goals in 4 matches, what’s changed?”

“I won’t say exactly but at a certain point of this season I got told to stay humble and I listened”

_______________________

Wow! This is what I call roasted!

He owned him like the little bitch that he is.

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Well done boys!

A pool loss against Utd and a follow-up win at Brighton will spoil me with hope... Again..

Fingers crossed.

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6dEdited

Tom saying my most idiotic take re Ode is that he cost us their goal is an all timer low IQ. Who takes the biggest blame for the goal, Tom? I'm all ears.

Tom says "If losing possession on a risky line splitting pass in the offensive third lead automatically to a goal, there would be 100 goals scored in the EPL each weekend."

You should realize Brentford was undergoing a counter attack, Partey superbly took the ball away from Wissa, we weren't positioned well and there was a big distance between our players, Odegaard asked Saliba to pass him, then tried, as you call it a "line splitting" pass.

There were about 7 Brentford players behind the intended receiver of the "line splitting pass". It was a low gain, big risk move and making that pass was of so little importance compared to what eventually happened and our team was caught with their pants down.

Not only that, but Odegaard could have tried to take the ball away from the opponent, but instead he backed off and let all the space in the world where Damsgard carried the ball and found the right pass towards mega form Mbeumo.

1 on 1 is every winger's wet dream. Saka, Salah, Vinicius, Mbappe, everyone would be licking their lips at the idea of finding themselves in a 1v1 inside of the penalty box. Mbeumo finished with aplomb.

I'm asking, who takes the biggest blame for the goal, Tom? You know Pep and Arteta are ripping their hairs at the sight of one of their players making that unforced error that Ode did but to you it wasn't the reason we conceded? Okay, then nobody is ever to blame but the keeper for not saving the shot. Or not even him, cause directly unless it was an own goal, a player can't directly be blamed for a goal. According to you that is.

Btw, Ode made the pass about a fart's distance of the center of the pitch, quite far from what you call "the offensive third".

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Seems your dislike of Odegaard is personal. Chill it.

He was at fault for the goal, okay? There, done.

Everyone makes mistakes, and it was his turn today. Thankfully, it wasn't terminal for Arsenal.

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Yes Raptora doesn’t like Odegaard and I’m a big supporter of him but something is missing from Ode’s game. He is taking even more touches and not rewarding players for running into space.

Maybe it’s the new baby

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"He was at fault for the goal, okay? There, done."

That's literally what I said. That he cost us the goal we conceded. And it was branded as my most idiotic take by Tom. It's good.

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I would say your take isn't idiotic but everything is not about Odegaard, Raps. I think that's the issue people are having. We have yet to lose since he came back .. even without Saka.. and your on here ripping him on the daily like he stole your lunch money and punched you in the face.

Sure it was a bad pass that got cut out but it wasn't the worst pass I have seen . Partey had a chance to stop that counter attack watch it again, so did Cala who got turned inside out and Raya got beat near post on a shot that didn't look all that powerful, plenty of blame to go around on that one.

https://youtu.be/nbD_bumrlN0

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Midwest, did you just say Partey had a chance to stop the counter but failed? Look at your own clip. You’ve gotta be kidding me. He just stopped Mbuemo on a break and gave the ball to Ode who gave it away immediately. He had to protect the middle runner and not chase after the Mbuemo who had two players to contend with.

Cmon men

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The middle runner was the one who had the ball literally two feet away from Partey.. he could have made a tactical foul… I did watch the replay about 8 times .. I guess you did not. Odegaard could have made a tactical foul as well immediately but was behind the ball carrier. My guess is neither did it because it was very early in the game and neither wanted to be on a yellow and there was still over half the pitch to get to the goal.. in myopinion if you want to assign complete blame which you shouldn’t as it was a team screw up Calafiori was terrible.

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Clearly you have no idea what you’re watching my friend. Calafiori could have done better but talk to your keeper who doesn’t know that he’s small and can’t position himself correctly … but back to Partey, so you wanted him to tactically foul when he had two teammates ahead of the play ?

You must have learned the game by reading a textbook LMAO 🤣🤣🤣

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What in God’s name are you talking about ..? I was merely saying that Partey was in position (as it shows in the tape) to make a play he elected not to take that risk. I said originally in the comment.. Raya did poorly… your actually proving my point to Raps which was the goal was not all on Odegaard. Clearly you have no reading comprehension skills. And no I didn’t want them to make a bad tactical foul .. I actually said i believe Ode and Partey elected not to on that situation early in the game. I played football at a pretty high level .. That’s how I learned the game .. got a full ride scholarship to play in college and played 2 years professionally after that. You? what’s your resume? besides snide laughing emoji dude? Guessing not much.

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🤣🤣🤣

You’re a certified clown twisting yourself in knots. Talking about comprehension, it’s not my fault you have diarrhea of the mouth and constipation of the brain. Look at what you put down clown.

I merely responded to the trash you emitted.

You can be in your feelings all you want but it doesn’t take away from the fact that you know nothing about the game.

Engage your tiny brain before typing and you won’t be fact checked

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Partey had no chance at all.

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"We have yet to lose since he came back"

We've lost 3 games all season. One because of a red card against Bournemouth, and two consecutive games away to Newcastle and Inter in that horror run of Liverpool, Newcastle, Inter, Chelsea one after the other. We had a lot of missing players as well.

Odegaard is in bad form but you know "We have yet to lose since he came back". Long may it continue winning regardless of his showing (which was bad yesterday and of late).

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It is idiotic, except your tolerance for stupidity is much higher than mine and you’re a gentleman.

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It completely slipped my mind that Arsenal played today. Hope the performance was great. Seeing a lot of praise for Partey. long may it continue.

Happy new year everyone.

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It was arguably one of the three best performances this season so far, performance-wise.

The last forty minutes was a masterclass on how to see a win out.

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