Morning all.
Yesterday’s results went quite well for Arsenal until Liverpool played Leicester in the evening game. Man City had drawn at home with Everton, Nottingham Forest beat Totts and then Fulham, who’d been trailing in their match against Chelsea since the 16th minute, sprung a late surprise by scoring twice to nick all three points. Utd lost again too and to make matters better worse for them, Bruno Fernandes was sent off. Liverpool went behind early in their game but went on to win with relative ease.
Today it’s Arsenal against second from bottom in the table, Ipswich. Ipswich have won just two fixtures so far this season, both of which were away from home. In November they beat Totts 2-1 and earlier this month, they repeated the scoreline against Wolves.
Arsenal’s Adrian Clarke, writing in the official matchday programme:
Ipswich have used a 4-2-3-1 in every match barring their 4-1 defeat at Manchester City when McKenna used a 5-4-1, so it may be under consideration to repeat that ploy. They like to play fast, adventurous football, and that attitude has helped them score in six of their eight away games. The Suffolk outfit want to pass out short from the back and move the ball through the lines, but they average just 43% possession, the third lowest in the Premier League. This means they have to counter a lot, and they are good at it. From 12 fast break shots they have scored four times this season as they press and counter-press with enthusiasm.
Full-back Leif Davis [above] is always looking to put a quality delivery into the danger zone, and among top-flight defenders he leads the way for chances created (36), and big chances created (10). His buccaneering style is symptomatic of Ipswich’s attacking nature.
McKenna’s men are fast starters, scoring first in eight of their matches, but converting those leads into three-point hauls has been a serious problem, giving up 15 points from winning positions. Individual errors have cost them several goals, and opponents are creating lots of chances against them, with just one clean sheet registered.
Ipswich are without their captain Sam Morsey who is suspended. Massimo Luongo Is a doubt but George Hirst and Axel Tuanzebe are ruled out. Chiedozie Ogbene is out for the rest of the season.
Arsenal are without Ben White, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Raheem Sterling and Bukayo Saka.
Both Jurrien Timber and Gabriel Jesus are one booking away from a one match ban.
It’ll be interesting to see how Mikel Arteta tries to solve our right hand side in the absence of Bukayo Saka.
We have to look internally at what we have and be creative, do a very good exercise again. How can we mould the squad? How can we adapt to the circumstances and be different? We cannot pretend to be the same. We’re going to have to be different and try to find the best way to do it and be very competitive and win a lot of games. – Mikel Arteta.
The obvious choice seems to be Gabriel Martinelli but he might just be bold enough to start Ethan Nwaneri. The midfield is bursting with options as all four of Mikel Merino, Jorginho, Declan Rice and Thomas Partey are fit. Oleksandr Zinchenko is expected to return to the squad this evening too so even our defensive options are improving. It’s just in attack we’re lacking really although the current form of Gabriel Jesus has been an unexpected pleasure to watch.
Whilst I’m not suggesting Ipswich will make this easy for Mikel Arteta’s players but this is the kind of fixture Arsenal should be winning. Ideally, we’ll score an early goal or two, put the result to bed by halftime and then the manager can make the five changes he has available to him. Either that or we battle hard for a 1-0 victory.
Catch up in the comments…
Morning Rico and all, there is no excuses if we lose tonight, if anything we should be looking at improving our +goal to keep the pressure on Liverpool.
Good morning Rico.
Ipswich are not a team to be taken lightly, I remember the headline prior to the 1978 FA Cup Final. “IPSWHO?” They beat us one nil, embarrassing!
This evening we may get to see how could a coach Arteta is. Without Saka he must find a way to change tactics and so ameliorate the loss of his star player.
The defence virtually picks itself, Raya, Timber, Saliba, Gabriel and Lewis Skelly. Our two strongest midfielders are Rice and Merino, add in Odegaard and we have a very good balance. The front three present a conundrum, Martinelli right? Trossard left? Jesus or Havertz in the middle? Who knows? I don’t! 😉
Morning Geoff, Cicero.
I think the message before every game should be “do not take them lightly” as every club can cause any other a problem on the right/wrong day.
Didn’t we sign Paul Marriner and Brian Talbot from Ipswich post FA Cup final?
I believe you’re right Rico, much good it did us. 😕
Hope everyone had a good Christmas, sore my sisters house today it survived the bush fires but the people down the end of her street lost just about everything,
Not long until the mid season break and at the moment we need it so a few injured plays can get back to playing.
Some things don’t change Cicero…
Good to hear that re your sister Geoff, lucky by the sounds of it.
There’s no winter break this season though..
My Mistake I thought we had a 2 week break for some reason, must of been think of international matches.
Thanks Rico
As much as Nwaneri starting on the right is a tempting thought, Martinelli for me is the right choice. Maybe when we’re 4 or 5 up in the 80th minute try young Ethan out.
We had one last year Geoff but they decided it would be a good idea to remove it. Ridiculous imo.
Bigden, Martinelli for me too..
test
Test received Potter.
Problems potter?
Good afternoon one and all, bush fires down under! That puts things into perspective, bonza for your skin and blister Geoff.
Not sure why certain folks are worried about Ipswich, yeah I get the respect opponents vibe but come on people, our glorious Gunners will put the farmers market boys to the sword.
BigDen that makes perfect sense to me, no need to overcomplicate things, let’s get the three pints and then worry about the January Window…
Hooray for Rico, a month of rumours and millions of blog ideas, fill ya boots Ric. 😄
Ok, today is about getting in the kitchen and cooking up a storm with the Christmas/Boxing day leftovers. Enjoy 😋
Three pints, now there’s a mistype made in heaven – cheers 🍻
Ha ha Kev, what about dry January? lol
Dry January Rico – I’ve never heard of it… 😉
Me neither Kev but it’s a thing apparently. I think Lee told us about it. 😂
Depending on the state of the game, I would like to see Martin Odegaard subbed as early as possible. I don’t think he has fully recovered from his injury and is being asked to do too much. I think he is at risk of further injury. I suspect that Saka was also overplayed and when tiredness creeps in injury soon follows. Hamstring injuries take a long time to heal, no matter how desperately we need him on the pitch he must not be rushed back.
Dry January? I’m all for it! I have some lovely dry white wine and I stick to London Dry Gin. I will, however, forego Dry Sherry. Scotch and Dry Ginger is acceptable. 😉
Very good Cicero..
Hopefully we’ll get ourselves into a position where more than just Odegaard gets a break.
Lee and no alcohol, that’s a bit of a stretch Rico. 😁
Very much so Kev.. 😂
Arsenal: Raya, Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly, Rice, Havertz, Odegaard, Martinelli, Trossard, Jesus.
Subs: Neto, Zinchenko, Tierney, Kiwior, Calafiori, Jorginho, Partey, Merino, Nwaneri.
This team reminds me of when we faced Villa (I think) last season with just one defence minded midfielder.
Odegaard is having a bit of a stinker.
Drab old game with half a dozen tractors parked in the Ipswich penalty area..
Two shots on target, one goal.
It’s like watching paint dry. This is hard to watch.
can we get any slower
Three points, but just proves we lack a lot without Saka. That’s why 70% of time every move we’ve played it out right to him. Need a Kudus quickly.
One goal, clean sheet, three points, up to second in the league. That will do nicely.
Good night all.
Good result, boring game.
Still, a win is a win I guess.
Let’s hope the transfer team are ready for the sales….
Night guys.
Glad we won concidering the players last few day cellibrateing Christmas, however the score line a bit too close for my likeing against a team struggleing to win,