333 Comments

Big shout out to Guehi for his message on Jesus

Im not religious but fair play to him for standing up to the indoctrination

The premier league have just showed themselves up for the spineless hypocrites they are

Your league is shit compared with previous generations

Your pandering and money chasing has ruined the game

No armband or silly rainbow laces will change that

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Bigotry behind religion...well I for one am shocked.

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Also I might start saying this everyday till it catches on but Jurrien Timber is playing like the best fullback in the league. He's absolutely red hot

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The bloke at Edu's bbq agrees with you about Timber.

"Look, I won’t mince words. If it wasn’t clear already, I think we’ve got an understated superstar on our hands. His 1v1 defending makes him matchup-proof, and his game intelligence is at the highest level — evident in his subtle adaptations, communications, and observations.

Health permitting, I see no reason he can’t enter the conversation as the second-best right-back in the world, behind Trent Alexander-Arnold, who I consider to be a one-of-a-kind historical anomaly."

https://billycarpenter.substack.com/p/so-back?utm_source=post-banner&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=posts-open-in-app&triedRedirect=true

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I dunno if I'd agree with him on Trent Alexander. With all due respect he's suspect defensively.

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That's the same thing we said about Ben White though

The competition will be fierce when BW returns

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Yeah but we were saying that when Ben White had to contend with a crocked Tomiyasu. It's different with Timber. He's clearly better

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Conceding more goals through that side with out Ben white who was ace going forward too

Ben white the more rounded player but timber more pointed going forward

Both will her ample game time

Ben white was fucking imperious vs Liverpool at can this season

I’d say our standout cb performance of the season so far

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Yea but even thinking that makes me feel like I'm disrespecting BW who was very good until he started playing with injuries.

A fantastic problem to have though

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I don't recall anyone moaning when Jover was doing the same set piece magic for Man city.

There's definitely the Arsenal factor driving the whining about set pieces.

Our fanbase are the kings of social media banter so I guess more banter gets directed our way in return.

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I'll be honest sure when we're playing bad I'll be one of the first to complain and call Arteta Spanish Pulis but I'll never complain about how we are at set pieces and some of these cunts in the media calling us stoke and making snarky comments about Jover can eat a bag of dicks. Fuckers had absolutely no problem with the years of weakness we had at set pieces under Wenger.

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Martinelli has really been poor. It is time to drop him to the bench permanently. I am not much of a fan of Trossard starting but this is ridiculous now. He is offering nothing going forward. He had a chance to run at their defense a couple of times and he chose weak shots. He is playing scared.

His ability to run and work for his team isn't enough now. He used to be a threat. He used to beat players regularly and now they are leaving him one on one and it looks very bad. I think Sterling should be given a chance too.

If he doesn't improve till summer, I might look at selling it is almost a year now he hs been this poor.

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Exactly

Called this years ago with him and Hes got progressively worse

Just not enough ability in tight spaces

Hes a droid

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We pay him close to £200k weekly now, that will definitely make moving him out more difficult

I wanted to use this season to determine whether his 2022-2023 form was his baseline or just a purple patch. Now it's looking more likely that we were deceived by that purple patch.

The club doesn't disagree with us because they tried to sign the player Murdyk was supposed to be in 2023 and wanted to spend big on Niko Williams last summer.

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Told ya 😉

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I am really disappointed in him. He is my biggest disappointment lately. I really think he is playing with fear. It wasn't a purple patch because I saw it since he came in at 18. He used to go for it and wasn't predictable. He wasn't always in control but the agression in attack was there. Now he does that drag the ball thing he does annoys me so much. But I can't keep defending it even if the player is in there. We are at a point where we need to be ruthless. Get better or get moved on.

If we want to move on a player, we can too. And we might take a bit of financial hit. But we thought the same with Eddie and Ramsdale.

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I think Arteta killed his game

Over coached

Players like him can’t play in a strangled system like ours

He needs to be free

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I feel that way too. I think he was a klopp player than an Arteta or Pep player. I think he might kill it in a team that will allow him all the freedom.

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Just occurred to me that Jover just got a pay raise, when Mikel got his pay raise.

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I think they're still negotiating Diss, I thought it was already done as well. From that Jover article:

"Arsenal are in the final stages of extending the contracts of Mikel Arteta’s backroom staff. Jover and his colleagues are expected to join the manager in receiving extensions until 2027, along with a significant pay rise."

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Thanks for the update

Mikel shouldn't have signed his own deal until his assistants deals were agreed.

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I misread article, I thought all our staff contracts were still being negotiated including Arteta's, but I understand now and I agree, why weren't all these contracts done at once?

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Imagine-- extending a manager's staff-- and he decides not to stay on.

From The Athletic piece jwl referred to--

"Jover knows however that he is valued at Arsenal — by Arteta especially. After the manager signed his deal in September, the club set about negotiating renewals with his support staff. The resignation of sporting director Edu has not derailed those talks — the baton was picked up by managing director Richard Garlick, and the club are now confident of finalising agreements with the likes of Jover, Carlos Cuesta, Miguel Molina and Albert Stuivenberg."

Here's a link to the piece: https://archive.is/dcpJU

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What are you on about?

I'm saying the manager should have used his own deal to leverage his staff getting the same wage increases that was offered to him.

I think you're misdirecting the .. "Imagine extending a manager's staff-- and he decides not to stay on" to me. I never implied Jover wasn't treasured.

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The order of things. Arteta's deal was always being signed first.

Implied or implicit-- how would you know minimum terms weren't guaranteed by Garlick and KSE?

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What I do know is that the manager's deal was done with fanfare before the deals of his assistants were agreed upon, which is not a great thing for leadership.

Now you're BSing about "minimum terms" when we know for certain that no deals are agreed yet.

Had Mikel said, now that we've agreed my deal I won't formally sign it until you extend the same terms of increment to my staff, they wouldn't still be wrangling about the coaching staff deals.

As you can see, the manager is only as good as his assistants.

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I’m going to make lots of money by bottling the tears of Yawnited fans who are calling into shitesports talking about “…by the way, Arsenal-stoke are a disgrace-they are a set piece team”

Yawnited tear-juice, rich in vitamins and whiny minerals

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That narrative has really kicked up a gear today. I'm loving it.

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I found myself respecting Arteta more last season when it was astutely observed that every time we have a set-piece, Arteta leaves the technical area for Jover.

It’s not because Jober does any real time coaching in these situations, most of the set-piece work is done on the training pitches - setpieces are pretty much routine based honed from repetitive drills.

Arteta does everything to not stand in the way of the accolades that the Jover deserves.

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Yes I noticed the same. Arteta standing down and letting him go up seems primarily for the visuals and I really genuinely respect that. Which manager elevates one of their back room staff to openly be top dog several times a match? Absolutely no one. But Jover deserves it and I think Arteta doesn’t only want to give him the credit he deserves but also let him enjoy that feeling as a way to keep him loyal. It’s win win

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Jeorge Bird -

"Junichi Inamoto has announced his retirement aged 45. He was the last remaining player who represented Arsenal at Highbury who was still playing."

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Wooow can’t believe he’s still playing!! He joined us in what 99???

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The Athletic -

"How much is set-piece coach Nico Jover worth to Arsenal?

Arsenal’s two goals on Wednesday mean they have now scored 22 times from corners since the start of last season — more than any other Premier League team across that period. Ten of those goals have opened the scoring. So often, set pieces are what allow Arsenal to break the game open.

How do you begin to quantify Jover’s contribution? If a player had contributed directly to that many crucial goals, what would their market value be? Even with a healthy pay bump, Jover could be considered cheap at the price."

https://archive.ph/dcpJU

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https://x.com/aliladiere/status/1864589327189098958

Just wanted to share this here 😂😂😂

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That has to be one of the worst man U performances I have ever witnessed live. No ambition no drive, just wait for a chance. We hardly have them any timber was great, Kiwior did really well with some lovely passes and that midfield of ours is not getting out muscled. Martinelli continues to be an enigma my son said to me last night. That's his ceiling he is never going to get better than that is he?

Nope is the answer. He needs to be replaced IMO and we need another striker for sure and considering we collect left backs and defenders in general the bench looked threadbare of them.

Anyway 7 points now I have a feeling Everton will roll them at the weekend and we get revenge on Fulham. COYG

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I thought they looked quite good

You can see what Hes trying to do there already

I think they are going to be a huge threat soon

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Thought they played well in the first half. But it wasn't going to last.

Amorim was quoted in the run up to the match, decrying United's lack of fitness, to play his preferred high-pressing style-- for as long as he'd like.

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Not if you listen to their deluded,entitled,hate filled fans( talkshite)we battered them 2nd half.They had one effort on target.First half one effort,wide.( & that was due to a kiwior error,though he had a very solid match)An XG of nearly 3 & there’s an XG of less than 0.30 tells you all you need to know.

It’s such a pleasure to listen to their pain.Especially when they lose to us.It kills em.😂

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Would be gross negligence to not upgrade our LW and ST positions next summer

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And then it was 7……. Gone from being a Liverpool are rolling it. To it’s all to play for in one week. Got to love the media. Good win for us without hitting the heights. Players got out of that game in one piece as well which is a bonus as you never know when a UTD player will wildly swing out. For Arteta that’s 4 on the trot against UTD which is an Arsenal managed record. Great stuff

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It's insulting when players like Isak do the things dey do weekly and we hear a poster say Haverts is top 5 CF in the world.

Unai and Pep got much needed wins yesterday as well lol. Men have they been in a rot! Villa tumbled down to 12th before yesterday's game. Everton also getting a 4-0 win for the first time in 4 years? I'm surprised they are still in the PL honestly

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We have scored 13 in our previous 3 games. What the hell are you watching lad

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Nothing else matters other than we won yesterday against United. Wasn't a vintage performance but a clear win nonetheless. Just like I expected. Liverpool's Kelleher was our biggest hero yesterday leaving that floating ball only for Schaar to equalise back post. Onto Fulham. Not talking about titles. Just lukewarm. At this point, I'm more excited about the Carling cup

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There is one set piece blind spot which even the King Jover seems to have tho - kick offs

Whyyyyyy from every kick off do we play the ball back to the keeper who in turn just hoofs it long???

I’ve been desperately trying to work out what the objective is with this one and I’m yet to see it adding any value at all

Half the time we lose the ball outright. A third of the time it ends up going for a throw in just past the halfway line. The remaining time Havertz or whoever wins the header and it goes backwards to a midfielder near the halfway line…

I’ve never once seen it achieve any clear goal like catch a team cold and win a corner kick or create a chance or anything. Given how it usually ends with us just losing the ball or at best keeping it with minimal advantage gained, surely keeping the ball from kick off makes far more sense?

We spend all this time coaching Raya to play one twos with CBs rather than hoof it long, but every kick off we turn into Peter Kay shouting ‘about iiiiit’ like the old John smiths beer advert

Drives me mad lol

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‘Have iiiiit’…..

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It's a 'field-tilt' tactic. If we pin the oppo into their end-- for the first action-- we may win the ball back and possibly score quickly. If not, it's almost assured-- the oppo will not score on us-- early in that half.

We are controlling the first segment of a half-- by decree.

Not necessarily a fan of it-- but do grasp what Mikel is dictating-- by eliminating the first 2-3 minutes of one half from contention-- unless it's Arsenal who have advantage.

Winning-- by whatever margins available.

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I don’t think that makes any sense tho

I can’t recall it resulting in a single goal from a first, second, third, frankly even fifth action after kick off. We just give the ball away usually

Secondly it doesn’t help you control the first segment of the first half. There’s no lasting benefit or impact. Even if we get lucky and win a throw in halfway in their half (literally best case scenario, usually we don’t) 100% of the time, nothing comes of it and within a few seconds we turn the ball over or end up passing backwards anyway. No lasting impact whatsoever

At least if you have the ball (by keeping it from kick off) you can some ability to control what happens next. By just hoofing it out near the wing - to wingers who aren’t particularly good in the air, nor big, we are getting absolutely zero value out of this tactic

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I think Jover needs to adapt the kick off tactic slightly so that rather than fishing for a mid half throw in, we should be fishing for a corner/throw in near there. Then there’s significant strategic benefit if it works even 1/4 times which is better than the bag o nothing we’re getting from kick off consistently since start of last season

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