TITLE PRESSURE COOKER: CAN ARSENAL MANAGE EMOTIONS?

FINAL UNITED PREVIEW BEFORE THE BIG GAME AND A LIVE SHOW THIS EVENING!

Wednesday night football felt like it was a bigger thing back in the day. I guess European football expansion kind of killed the classic 8pm game. But we’re back tonight… this game is absolutely huge… and I’m excited about what’s to come.

Amorin is saying the things you expect to hear from a coach who has a very similar undertaking at United as Arteta had when he picked up a 12th-placed Arsenal team.

"It's important to be brave. When I say brave, it’s not pressing all the time higher. It’s not the same. You have to understand the moments of the game. We need to have the ball, that is a key point. We want to have the ball, we want also to dominate some moments of the game because we know that in these matches it’s hard to control all the game. If I have to say something, we have to be brave and we have to control the game."

This comment is key. Bravery is something that is going to take a while to instill in his players. Arteta realized there was a lack of bravery when we lost to United at St. James’ Park in that battle for the top 4. It’s being up for the fight, it’s playing out the back under a man for man system. It’s being decisive in moments when it’s easier to look backwards. It takes a lot of time to build it into a team… especially one that doesn’t have the component pieces to do that job.

Think back to some of the cataclysmic mistakes we watched in the first two seasons under Arteta. We were looking at the unforced error numbers wondering if it’d ever come good under Mikel. The answer was new players and the answer for Amorin will be the same. He doesn’t have the legs in his system to play his game and he doesn’t have the right attitude make-up in his squad to extract what he needs for that team to be in the top 4. My big question is this: Do United fans understand how hard the job is at United? Everyone *thinks* they have the stomach for a process jobs, very few can handle it. Arsenal fans didn’t have the stomach. They did have a good leadership team who had the tenacity to gut it out. My suspicion is United now has the vision and experience to do the same… but there will still be questions over the manager. Being young, eloquent and handsome doesn’t mean you’re Arteta. Just look at the difference between Jose Mourinho and wannabe AVB.

If a culture has been rotten for 10 years, there’s no coach on the planet who can fix that without time, money, and some real pain. United have a mature management team now that’ll give him all those things.

The fear for Arsenal is that United has a far stronger base of talent than Arteta inherited. Rashford would be a top 3 forward in the world if he was focused like Saka. Fernandes is an output machine. They have a lot of very experienced heads who have played at a high level. Sure, they won’t have Mainoo and Martinez this evening, but Nous Mazraoui and Ugarte coming in to fill the gaps isn’t exactly Cal Chambers and Mo Elneny getting the call.

We are in new manager bounce territory. Arteta should expect the very best of all the players out there. It will be a tough game.

What should they fear? The best side in the Premier League this season turning up in the mood to rampage like lunatics in front of a home crowd baying for blood. Everyone will want to be in that starting 11, the team will be bristling to dominate, and I would think our players are probably fitter and stronger for the full 90 if this Amorin comment is anything to go by.

“You have to know that some players might have to be out of the pitch in 60 minutes, 70 minutes so it’s really hard at this moment. Everything is a test but Arsenal are… I know it’s not easy for [a] Manchester United [head coach] to say, but they are in a different point of their team. They are in a different moment."

Predictably, Mikel Arteta is not giving anything away in terms of who is fit and who is not. It’s his weapon of mass distraction. I think he’ll be leaning into all sorts of games over the next month to keep oppo researchers guessing. My hope is Arteta is NOT over-cooking players in training, because we’re going to need our players fresh as can be heading into these nights. Heavy legs is a standard in December, Arteta shouldn’t be adding to that. The last thing we need is to lose more bodies during this period like we did last week. It’s great that he’s finally accepting you need to include the full squad during these runs, I just hope it’s a full squad that is in peak condition.

Our ideal midfield against United is Declan, Partey, and Odegaard. With the missing fullbacks of United, you’d probably be looking at Gabi Martinelli and Saka. Though the scoring streak of Trossard cannot be ignored at this point. Has Martinelli been sat down because he’s not delivering? Maybe. But that’s harsh commentary after his goal at Sporting Lisbon.

It would be dreamy to have Calafiori and Timber around for the evening. Those are our two best at this point and the idea of Zinchenko facing up Rashford gives me some very cold sweats.

United will be most dangerous in transition - fast, powerful forwards, trying to catch us on the break. I’m not sure that’s been too much of a problem for us this season. Man-to-man has been our issue, but I don’t think United have the chops to do that away from home with so many of their key players missing. Even if they had a full compliment of players available, they don’t have it in them to keep that going for longer than 15 mins. No pace, low T energy, it’s not going to be that type of game for long if Amorin tries it.

I want to see Arsenal go into destruction mode early so I can have a nice afternoon, but I sense this might be a war of attrition. United won’t want to give anything away and they’ll probably imagine a world where they won’t get many chances so patience and good defending is the order of the day. They have players who can kill you. They don’t need 17 chances.

Arsenal needs to play with control. We can’t let the emotion of the title race lead us to making rash decisions. We also have killers in our team and we’re fitter and stronger.

Can’t wait to see how this one plays out.

Just before I close out, David Ornstein has linked us to Zubimendi this summer. My demand that Arsenal sign him was clearly heard by the hierarchy. This move makes all the sense in the world. The player will know people when he joins, we’re being heavily linked with their departing Sporting Director. There’s the basque connection. He’s already said no to Liverpool, no way he’s going to City, Arsenal is where he’s needed and where he’ll thrive. No way we miss out on him.

Ok, final plug for this event tonight.

LIVE EVENT - Brooklyn, Fancy Free

The bar that Matt Kandela watches games in has kindly agreed to let us host a live podcast after the game. It’ll be free entry. The show will be intimate and raw. We have no idea how it’ll pan out. But we think it’ll be fun. So if you’re in New York and you like Le Grove or The AOP. Come down with some friends and have a good time with us this evening. Game starts at 315. We’re on right after. If you’re a member, you get to join the show. Hopefully, we can nail the sounds, and we don’t get Spurs fans protesting us.

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