Morning all.
I must have missed the big announcement from Arsenal about a new partnership with MG Motor UK. “It’s a “multi-year partnership that will see the UK car manufacturer become the club’s Official Automotive Partner. Celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, MG will support Arsenal’s men’s and women’s teams, and supporters will see their brand showcased at Emirates Stadium and Meadow Park.”
I quite like the fact that an English football club has partnered up with a UK company but then maybe I’m old fashioned. I’d quite like to see an old fashioned number 9 at the club too but the chances of that happening seem slim to none. Actually, just make that none.
The world of football went into meltdown yesterday after Jurgen Klopp announced he’s leaving Liverpool at the end of the season. The Daily Mail must have had twenty headlines about this which I think was/is rather excessive. I’m sure Liverpool fans are disappointed, shocked even but this is the nature of the game – players and managers come and go. Who knows, the next man who walks into Liverpool might to better than him. Not every managerial change has to be a disaster. Just because Arsene Wenger and Fergie left behind a lot of mess for the next man to sort out, it doesn’t mean it’s the same at every club. Mind you, I hope it goes horribly wrong for whoever replaces him.
I must admit, I’m more concerned about Arsenal and the how the next four months go. I don’t buy into this ‘all is rosy’ in north London because we’re into the fifth year of Mikel Arteta’s reign, the club has spent goodness knows how many millions of pounds on building a squad and yet the squad is still missing a proper striker, a fully fit and healthy central midfielder to go with Declan Rice and barring an FA Cup, we’ve won nothing. I’d also add in, unless we’re up against a team which allows us time and space, we struggle to win games. We struggle to break down an organised and disciplined defence.
Beating Crystal Palace 5-0 was great but they weren’t exactly in the best of shape. They’d already been on a dreadful run of results, they had a number of players either out injured or away on international duty and until David Raya played an early clearance to Gabriel Jesus, we’d not exactly been pelting shots at their goal. I know we were already 2-0 up by then thanks to two set-pieces but it took ah hour for us to breach the Palace defence through open play.
I’m guilty of rolling out the “it doesn’t matter when we score as long as we win” line but I think i’m wrong. It does matter, at least it does with the style of football we play in my opinion. Especially against a team which is hell bent on defending because as they go in search of an equaliser, the more gaps they’ll leave for us to exploit. We play out from the back, fine, but the speed, or rather lack of it, we play, doesn’t really threaten any opponents. In fact if we’re up against a high pressing team, it’s more likely to cause ourselves a problem than gain an advantage. Not because of the tactic of playing out from the back, but the execution of it. From the moment Raya is in possession of the ball, everything afterwards needs to be done with more urgency. Treat the ball like a hot potato, get it but get rid of it – it makes the opposition work harder. It creates openings.
This is of course just my opinion. Arsenal play some great football but it’s all a bit slow and steady and at times, painful to watch. The only comparison I can make really is like watching a baseline tennis player or a serve and volley player. Both are extremely good in their own right but give me a serve and volley game to watch every day of the week.
Catch up in the comments..
MG I think are owned by a Chinese company and all electric vehicles are made in China!
Still not a bad brand of car.
At last someone who agrees with me.
Our play is more often than not agonisingly slow. But Arteta has said it’s fault as he tells them to keep possession.
I am also pretty sure many a manager having spent £650m would have more than one lucky cup win under his belt by now.
Not replaced repeatedly injured Partey Tierney Tommi Elneny ESR
No striker
Players bought or existing not making the grade. Nketiah Nelson Marquinos Vieira Cedric Elneny Willian Jorginho Havertz Tavares Lokonga.
Poor management.
Really wavy, I was do sure they’re British…
Morning Rico and all,
Arteta has been quite lucky that the owners like him, I reckon he would have been sacked at most other club after they money he has spent.
I wonder how much longer Pep will hang around or will he leave before Man C answer the charge’s of breaking the FFP rules
A1m, I don’t think it’s always about replacing players, certainly not those you mention because injuries are part of the game. Managing their fitness is the key thing I think.
Morning Geoff, wasn’t there a five year plan, or process in place? Arteta is a huge part in that so to sack him would have be foolish imo. We’ve improved no end both on the pitch and off if during his time but perhaps his inexperience shines through in certain areas.
Former Arsenal youngster Gavin Hoyte playing for Maidstone.
MG an iconic brand,not much British about it any more though.
It will be interesting how Liverpool do for the rest of the season. They could be re-energised,I couldn’t stand Klopp but you have to respect what he’s done,still the last non Bayern Munich to win the league in Germany I think. Ironic he might be replaced by Xabi Alonso currently top( with Xhaka in the team)
As you say Rico,I’m more interested in what Arsenal do for the rest of the season.
Maidstone have just scored a beauty.
“Serve and volley!” You really are ancient Rico!
I doubt things will go much different for them Limey as apparently, the players were told about Klopp back in November.
Justin Hoyte, that is a blast from the past…
Not at all Anthony.. I’d be careful though if that’s you in the avatar 😉😉
Arsenal my fellow HH’ers hadn’t been a serious contender for the League since when – yeah, Leicester won it.
In that time Arsenal had become a bit of a laughing stock, the Emirates was about 40% empty for home games in many of late Wenger matches in his last two seasons. The atmosphere was poisonous at the Ems meanwhile planes were flying over away grounds saying Wenger Out etc.
I remember very well how the fans felt after being humiliated at Wembley by Man City in the League Cup final, I was there and how they dished out another 3-0 defeat at the Emirates a few days later, I was there again. Man City loved playing Arsenal at that time – they’re not so keen anymore!
Recency bias is coming into play a little too much of late methinks?
Then there was the 18 months of Emery, nice guy but can you all remember those wide open spaces, you know, where the Arsenal midfield used to be as the opposition blitzed through us as we conceded record attempts on our goal. That was at a time when losing 5-0 at Anfield was a regular occurrence.
Man City loved playing the Emery Arsenal. Chelsea also, who could forget Baku, Ozil, Mustafi, Kolasinac, Leichsteiner, Sokratis, it was a good old fashioned shit-show.
So casting your mind back to where we’ve come from is very enlightening as if can often give you some perspective about where we are now…
Man City don’t take us for granted anymore, two successive seasons escaping from Anfield unbeaten, you’d have to go back 20 years to when that last happened.
Arsenal as title contenders doesn’t engender a chuckle from our adversaries anymore.
Champions League football for the first time since Fabregas was a Gunner.
None of this happens overnight, none of it is a given, it takes a long time to solve the issues we had as a club, the malaise in the dressing room, players thinking they’re bigger than the club, contracts running out remember them.
Arsenal was a mess when Arteta took over, I don’t forget where we’ve come from to where we are now!
I was only suggesting we pass the ball a bit quicker Kev… 😜
Ha ha ha,
Ok Rico, I’ve calmed down now.
😄
Phew Kev… lol
M G Motors U K Ltd is wholly owned by the largest automobile manufacturers in China. They have announce plans to build a new facility in Europe to manufacture the M G range of cars, so far no decision has been made on where in Europe that will be.
At least the less well paid squad members will probably get a new, or ex demo, car on the cheap. 😉
Yes, the Chinese are a bit dodgy, that’s why so many of our top businessmen and politicians are in bed with them.
Kev,
Fantastic comment!
We were losing relevance, slipping into mediocrity and with an ugly dressing room and board room – we were in real danger. We could more easily have dropped from Europa league level to mid table rather than challenging for titles and being 4th favourites to win the champions league…
See how many years Liverpool toiled at that level, and now they lose the one man that made them very special again… I expect this to be like every other time a great manager left a club. Same as Ferguson… they’ll think they can keep at a similar level… but there is no way to replace a manager who is that influential.
I think our fans are already spoiled by the excellent football we play.. even when we drop points we usually outplay the opponents.
All football fans are impatient… but this is big business and our owners are well experienced with big rebuild projects in other sports, and showing patience in the process.
They also understand about spending big to win big.
I don’t think it’s about impatience at all Nigel but just watching us play and having an opinion. If we all said everything was great then we might as well all give up and go home.
There are flaws at Arsenal, just like there is at every club but at Arsenal, which is the only club I care about, it’s about improving on what’s already been improved.
I think sometimes people can take observations as criticisms when they’re not. Arsenal have weaknesses, rotation, injuries, speed of play, a keeper conundrum, shot to goal ration – just to name a few.
Yes, our squad and football is miles better than when Arteta took over, just as the club is miles better since the Kroenke family took full ownership and the board changed…
But, we should always be looking at how to improve further.
Nigel, thanks for your support, I guess that I’m spending too much time on Le Grove and becoming more prickly after reading so much bollocks from the reactionary types on there, they make you feel more defensive against perceived, unfair and plainly dumb criticism of the manager/club, but me and Rico are old pals, even if I’m much older and she never misses a chance to remind me of that fact, I know that Rico doesn’t criticise for the sake of it, she’s a proper supporter.
Rico, you do have a point about the slowness of our build up, but I think that has come about as a reaction to last season and when we ran out of gas.
I think that some of our insistence on control over fast attacking is because the manager wants to approach the second half of the season as Man City often do and come on strong when it counts over the next four months. I suppose we’ll see over the forthcoming weeks if it works or not?
Rico, I didn’t say I would sack him, but how many clubs have said they are rebuilding or have a 3 year plan only to too sack their manager 2 years later, yes we have improved but, at the same time we don’t have much silverware to show for it.
Kev, you could be right and obviously, I hope you are. I don’t think the World Cup helped last season either, as we had so many players away. The temperature etc took its toll imo.
I didn’t realise so many fans are disgruntled but then I don’t read the comments on LG, just Pedro’s posts which are very upbeat.
Geoff, that’s possibly because the clubs plan isn’t in fact going to plan whereas at Arsenal, it’s so clear that things have vastly improved since December 2019. Unless we know what goals Arteta has been set, we’ve no idea if he’s on the right track or not.
We’re back in the Champions League, unless we have an absolute nightmare second half of the season, we stand a good chance of CL football again. We need that to keep building a stronger, better and deeper squad imo.
Morning Rico, Pedro is continually being attacked for being an Arteta/club apologist, it’s astonishing how crazy some do-called fans are, if I was inside the industry I’d stay away from social media, a lot of it is toxic, I never knew how bad if was because I stayed away from it but there are some very disturbed people out there.
There are many ways to judge a football club Geoff and silverware is one of them, but it’s not the only one and silverware can also camouflage internal decline at a club so I wouldn’t just use a few tin pots or the lack of as a test as to to how healthy and functioning properly a football club is…
It was great Rico to see Big Gabby have his second goal against Palace reinstated, apparently the club appealed against the initial decision and someone at the Premier League saw, on the back of some media criticism, how mean spirited the first decision had been and did the right thing.
I’m glad that Arsenal are becoming more belligerent with the football authorities and not meekly accepting every dictate they send down.
It’s a bit chilly out here in Essex but some blue sky is peeking through and it might eventually be a nice day.
Off to City Airport soon to meet my public.
Kev as I said I not calling for Arteta to be sacked, the last thing we need is to be like some clubs that change their manager every 2 years, all I am saying is that Arteta could have easily been sacked if he was at a different club,
Morning Kev, I’m glad I don’t read further then. lol
Just watched England beat India.. brilliant
That’s good re the goal Kev, I thought it was ridiculous to take it from him.
Ok Geoff, I must have misinterpreted what you wrote – and yes, you are right, at a Chelsea for example I don’t think that Arteta survives.
Fortunately we have good owners, owners who have installed some good people to run the club, they’ve been patient, a lot more patient than me, I was wrong about them and so glad that Usmanov has long gone.
Rico, what a great result, J.R.Hartley is one hell of a spinner, as well as being so knowledgeable about fly-fishing.
I think it’s important that the big Test countries play 5 tests, I’m not keen on 3 or 4 test series’s.
I don’t think that England vs West Indies has the same gravitas when we only play 3 match test series.
India are top dog atm so ( big match up with them is going to be just what test cricket needs.
Ha ha Kev, I watched a lot of it today and never thought we’d rip through India in the fashion we did. Brilliant. If you e not seen it, check out Ben Stokes run out.. amazing really.
And then the Daily Express comes up with 2 and 2 makes 5.
Mikel Arteta ‘tells friends he wants to terminate Arsenal contract and club may agree’
Kev, I was in the Usmanov camp as I didn’t see Kroenke really do anthink for the club, other than recieveing money from Wenger, but in the last few years I don’t think anyone including myself, can not say Stan hasn’t put money back into the club, it’s been more a case of how we used it.
Must be very quite on the football front when people talk about the cricket.😊
Good old Daily Express…..
The Daily Mail too. He’s off to Barcelona apparently 😉
A fine win for Arsenal Women two nil away to Liverpool and Viv Miedema scored the first, she’s back and looking good. 😀
Rico just read that story too about Arteta looking at leaving for Barcelona,
it must be a very slow day for the transfer market, I can’t see that happening, maybe in 2 year but not this year.
The same % of internet morons exist on legrove as on Twitter in general. Angry, bitter, impatient… it’s not a majority, but it’s far too many.
I follow many big accounts on twitter that are generally upbeat, hopeful, and fair minded.
If you look at the replies to their tweets, there’s a lot of bitter, childish responses.
Yes Nigel, I’d imagine that a lot of ‘the usual idiots’ on LG will be rejoicing at the prospect of Arteta leaving, it’s shameful and quite worrying and you may well ask why it’s something I worry about?
Well these people get to vote in elections…
That’s what is worrying!!!
You can just imagine the editors and/or creators of these newspapers/ online platforms and their teeny tiny brains going like clockwork at the prospect of all the clicks they can garner from the many imaginary stories they can create regarding Arteta and Barcelona.
I mean one media outlet has already linked Klopp to Barcelona!!!
Didn’t he say only yesterday that he wants to have a year off as he’s exhausted – and there you have it, those media morons are linking him to a thankless job that would probably put him into a psychiatric hospital.
It would make you laugh if you didn’t suspect that a whole host of dummies out there would soak up that crap…
Morning guys
New post up.