Morning all.
Well that wasn’t a bad weekend for Arsenal was it?
- Utd – 1 point gained.
- Liverpool – 2 points dropped.
- Totts – 2 points dropped.
- Chelsea – 1 point gained.
- Man City – 2 points dropped.
- Arsenal – 3 points won against a very good Bournemouth and a club which beat us twice last season.
What made the dropped points at Craven Cottage and The Etihad more enjoyable for me was the timing of Chelsea and Fulham’s equaliser as both were in the dying seconds of additional time. Totts too conceded very late. It matters not how those goals were scored but my goodness, Fulham’s was a cracker.
Six points clear at the top of the table is a good place for Arsenal to be in January but there is a long way to go in this season yet.
The next challenge for Mikel Arteta’s players is to beat Liverpool on Thursday night at The Emirates.
The night before we play our game though, Man City play Brighton at The Etihad, Bournemouth face Totts and Aston Villa take on Crystal Palace at Villa Park. Fulham play too, at home against Chelsea and Man Utd go up against Burnley at Turf Moor. By the time we kick off on Thursday, our six point lead could be cut to three, which is why my chickens aren’t for counting.
The conundrum for Mikel Arteta on Thursday is who starts. Does he go for pace up front from the start or does he go back to what seems to be his preferred starting eleven? Ask him and he’d probably say he doesn’t have a preferred starting eleven because he values all of his players but I think he’d be fibbing. Raya, Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Hincapie, Zubimendi, Rice, Odegaard, Trossard, Saka and Gyokeres would in my opinion be his preferred lineup although if Havertz had been fit, I’m not convinced he wouldn’t get the nod over our Swedish striker. I personally don’t think there’s much between our left backs although I’ve really enjoyed watching Hincapie of late as his mindset seems to be defend first, attack second. I’ve certainly yet to see him pop up in the centre or right of midfield.
Even if Arteta goes with the above eleven, our remaining squad is going to be very strong. Eze, Madueke, Martinelli, Norgaard, White, Nwaneri, Jesus, Lewis-Skelly, Merino and Kepa. Maybe even Havertz too. Arteta will be free to use any five of those players, all of whom would walk into many other Premier League clubs first team.
Hopefully the players who featured at the weekend will be enjoying 2/3 days of rest or gentle training so they are in tip top form for Thursday because as poor as Liverpool’s results have been, they will come to The Emirates with only one thing in mind. To beat us.
Catch up in the comments.
Amorin sacked .!
Amorim sacked…
Oops, should have refreshed the page Potter.
I think both he and Maresca wanted the sack…
Good manager’s in basket cases , maybe they will swap. Frying pan into the fire.
I wanted Amorin to stay,it will be interesting who they get,getting says Mckenna at Ipswich favourite. I have a good mate who is an Ipswich fan,they love him there.
A swap would be hilarious really although it seems Rosenior is about to join Chelsea.
Me too Limey, lead them towards relegation lol
According to David Ornstein, Darren Fletcher will take charge on an interim basis with his first game being away at Burnley on Wednesday night. A permanent appointment is likely to wait until the summer.
Smilla Holmberg joins Arsenal from Hammarby.
At international level, Smilla made her senior debut against Italy in the UEFA Women’s Nations League group stage in May 2025 before being named in Sweden’s squad for the UEFA European Women’s Championship in the summer of 2025. Smilla played three times as Sweden reached the quarter-finals of the competition, and now has nine international caps and one goal to her name.
“It’s always been my dream to play for Arsenal,” said Smilla. “This is a very special moment for me and my family, but it’s also about joining a club with the highest standards and a strong winning culture. I’m excited to start this new chapter, to continue developing my game in a demanding environment and to compete at the highest level. My ambitions align with the club’s and I want to help win silverware here.”
Director of Women’s Football Clare Wheatley said: “We’re delighted to bring Smilla to Arsenal. She’s one of the most exciting young full-backs in Europe and has shown real composure and maturity already in her professional career. Congratulations to Smilla and her family on this special achievement.”
Head Coach Renée Slegers said: “We’re thrilled to welcome Smilla to the club. She’s a very talented young defender who brings versatility and athleticism, with so much potential for development. I’m looking forward to working with her as we aim for more trophies together.”
Smilla will wear the No.31 jersey here at Arsenal.
United is pathetic. Why fire Amorin now? The ship is sinking regardless, so why not wait till the summer? It can’t be salvage now. To think last month he was the manager of the month. Lol. Where are the talking heads who were singing his praises. More reason to love Arsenal. Possibly going to next season, Chelsea, MU, City and Newcastle will all have new managers.
Hopefully all needing a very long transitional period.
G’day Rico and all.
No surprise about Amorin after what he said yesterday. No club could fail to react to such blatant disrespect by it’s manager head coach.
I must say that if I were a club owner looking for new head coach Amorin would be far, far down my priority list.
Good news about our new fullback, a young woman with skill and pace as well as much potential.
More snow overnight and this morning, I cleared the drive and defrosted the car half an hour ago, my wife needs it to get to the charity shop she volunteers for this afternoon, now it’s started to snow again.
Mourinho was the architect, be successful domestically, get a job in England on an inflated wage, do a year or 18 months then insult the owners and get a nice pay-off.
Afternoon Gooners/Rico
It’s cold but sunny in deepest Essex, a clear blue sky.
Afternoon Cicero, yep, just why I think he was asking for the sack. Why else would a manager do that. Life in the PL isn’t as easy as some managers think.
Afternoon Kev, beautiful sunny day here too after a sharp frost..
Cold and icy here , we had a flood warning and salt surges this week and the surface water has frozen over. In the mean time the main roads are clear but unless things change I am not looking forward to a return journey on Thursday in the early morning.
It seems that it’s open season on managers at the moment the Celtic loss to Rangers was probably the last straw but Amorin looks to have made a bolt for the door as he realised that he was being undermined similarily to Maresca at Chelsea .
Both are arguing that they joined as managers but their club owners want to stick their oars in .
Two unhappy ships.
We do have a buffer albeit a small one but all we can do is keep picking up points and live in the hope that our rivals continue to sporadically drop theirs. As we go through the rest of the season we are on the down hill slope 18 games to go in the league with 5 against fellow top six sides . We as much as we would like a cup or two must realise that we can not afford slip ups in any form if we want to be top at the end .
City like us have 5 top six sides to play ending at the end of the season at home to Aston Villa.
I think that Man City will spend big this month in an attempt to try and arrest their current dip in form but they seem to me to have lost their usual swagger, for now at least.
It’ll be interesting to see if Newcastle can knock them out of the League Cup and how that’ll affect them if they do?
Our team and coaching staff look calm and composed under pressure regardless of what is thrown at us, we aren’t arrogant like Man City or entitled like Liverpool but there is a degree of relentlessness and resilience about the way this squad goes about things.
We don’t overdue the celebrations anymore when we win and Arteta is far more composed on the sidelines – or as composed as he can be – it’s a case of onto the next one and the next after that.
When we slipped up after Sunderland and then Chelsea the usual muppets in the MSM began digging up that old narrative about Arsenal bottling it after we see Man City in our rearview mirror but instead Man City, it seems, are bottling it.
Yeah that’s right we’re seeing Man City bottling it but you can be sure that no MSM muppet will describe it like that and can you begin to imagine the fall out if Brighton actually get a result at Wastelands on Wednesday?
Just read that Forest is looking at sacking Edu as they are not happy with who he got them to buy
Hello Rico and house guests.
Isn’t it great to see The Arsenal where we all know they belong, and as Kev points out above, with professionalism and serene calmness.
Cards on the table, Rico, I didn’t rate Arteta when we signed him from Everton (as a replacement for Fabregas in 2011), and I was completely against his appointment as manager.
And I don’t think any other elite club in world football would wait six years with a £1b for a title. Most give a manager two years, so as Arsenal fans, the Kroenke’s have forced a patience on us that those elite clubs fans never have to tolerate.
For a club of Arsenal’s stature, 22 years is a long time to wait for a title.
As an aside, all our big six rivals have won more than us (except Spuds, although our covid FA Cup only got Europa Lge qualification, Spuds winning it got them CL qualification), in the time Arteta has been at Arsenal.
I also think the quality of the PL this year is poor, but we can only beat who is in front of us.
Great win against Unai’s resurgent Villa, I’d love a similar statement win against Liverpool, because they are the standard bearers.
With a fair wind and a bit of luck on the injury front, it feels like our patience will finally be rewarded.
And credit to Mikel Arteta for piecing this jigsaw together, but did it really have to take so long and cost an absolute fortune to get us here?
Dec Rice, Big Gabby (CB) and Jurien Timber are immense and surely in the running for POTY.
History has taught us about arrogance and complacency, but from this position and the squad depth now at our disposal, with 18 games left, surely it’s ours to lose.
Morning Alan.
You weren’t alone as I too thought Arteta was a crazy appointment. A novice in his first managerial job at Arsenal. A recipe for disaster I thought.
I totally understand where you are coming from re money spent and lack of trophies but I see things quite differently. It’s only now that we have what I would call a proper squad with at least two very good players in every position. Bearing in mind the injuries we’ve suffered over the last few seasons, perhaps we’ve done well to maintain life in the CL which has been crucial to having the finances needed back in the summer.
Maybe I sound biased but I’m glad we as a club don’t give up on managers as quickly as other clubs because they all need time, support and a plan. Arsenal clearly had that with Arteta and as much as it’s taken longer than we all probably hoped, I think we are in a really good place.
I think the PL is as tough this year as it has been. The so called big clubs might not be doing so well but a lot of that imo is down to other clubs catching up. No game these days is a forgone conclusion unlike a few years ago.
New post up.