Morning all.
That kind of Mourinho style of football is nothing new. In some ways I suppose we should take it as a compliment because he knew that if his shoddy Toots team tried to have a go at us, we’d have been more of a threat. Instead, he did what he does best, suck the energy out of the opposition before giving it a last go towards the end.
For the footballing purists, it’s boring, especially when playing at home but when three points are what’s needed, anything goes.
I am disappointed and frustrated and really sorry for the boys first, because the way they played today and the personality they showed today, to come into this ground and show who we are, to nullify the opponents and press them high, forcing them to kick the ball long and defend in a low block. That’s exactly what we wanted to do. But obviously, if you give the two goals away that we have given against these players, it is very difficult to win a derby.
Arsenal really only have themselves to blame, just like when we played Brighton. Scored early, gift them an equaliser before conceding a shocker at the end. History repeating itself once more. Errors which I’d hoped we’d seen the last of, returned.
Michael Oliver had hardly enough time to remove his whistle from his mouth before Moura was afforded time and space to ping one at our goal. Thankfully, Martinez was awake and ready to make his first save. Ten minutes later, the same guy set up Kane, but again, Martinez made himself big, too big for Kane to lob.
Then came our only goal of the game. Aurier made a hash of his headed clearance and as Sissoko went for the ball, Granit Xhaka did too and came out the winner. The ball ended up with Lacazette who needed one touch before unleashing a rocket into the top corner. Sometimes that’s all he needs, this was one of those rare occasions. Xhaka’s involvement in the goal was clever. Not just the challenge but the way he continued his run, blocking off any opportunity for a Toots player to stop Lacazette.
I’d barely finished smiling before Sead Kolasinac dropper a howler with a shocking backwards pass towards Luiz, only Son was lurking. He nipped in, out did Luiz for pace which I know isn’t difficult, and that was that. 1-1.
Davies came close from a long long way out. Heck of a strike which the fingertips of Martinez pushed onto the woodwork. Pepe then came close to giving us the lead but his curling left footed shot just didn’t curl enough.
After the break Aubameyang, who had a quiet game overall hit the woodwork, Mustafi tried a spectacular overhead kick which he connected well with before Aubameyang saw another chance go begging.
Then came their corner.
With ten minutes to go, I thought we could have shut up shop. Save the point we had. AMN, Soares and Torreira were sitting on the bench. Willock too who could have brought a bit more height into the team. I know he’s not strong in the air but he can just get in the way. When Pepe went off, the pace of Nelson might have been a better replacement than Saka for this game. When Lacazette was clearly knackered, why not Saka on in his place with Aubameyang through the middle?
Our chances of competing in the Europa League are pretty much over, Three fixtures left, maximum points required in my opinion and then hope others crash. Liverpool come to The Emirates on Wednesday, we then go to Aston Villa on the 21st before the season ends just five days later with Watford making the short trip to our place. Sandwiched in between is a day out at Wembley for an FA Cup semi-final against Man City. A club who find out today if they’ve won their appeal against UEFA. If they do, then that’s Europa chances over for us I’m sure.
Unless we win the FA Cup of course although if yesterday’s performance is anything to go by, that’s very unlikely.
As Mikel said after the game.
I said before in the press conference that I believe he (Mourinho) always finds a way to win. When I give it to him I feel bad, but congratulations to them, they got the points today and we will move forwards.
See you in the comments guys….
Morning All, morning Rico, a well balanced post.
Mourinho has never lost at home to Arsenal, he rarely loses at home to teams that come onto his teams, it’s what he’s always done, but in time it all goes sour so I guess the only positive is that by losing we’ve helped to keep him in the Spurs’ job and that means, we all know, that he’ll eventually have a meltdown and it’ll all go wrong, so I look forward to that…
Morning Kev. Thanks.
Mikel’s subs confuse me and not just yesterday.
Totally agree re Mourinho, you just know a crash is around the corner. His style of football will only get him so far and Levy won’t put up with the boring game for long, nor will the Toots fans. Personally, I hope he stays there for a while.
And City won their appeal. No great surprise.
I guess that the point is Rico, that these last few games that we’ve had since the re start and what it all means in the long term, will have emphasised to Arteta is that his coaching can only take error ridden players so far, in the end the errors re-emerge and it’ll cost us games.
I saw Mustafi going to ground and diving in before both the Vardy goal and what was almost a 3rd goal for Spurs yesterday, a leopard doesn’t change his spots. I saw Kolasinac playing a loose pass for Spurs’ equaliser, it wasn’t just under hit it almost went directly to Son, Luiz panicked and dropped off instead of challenging Son, it showed an inherent lack of confidence and technique by all our three defenders and that isn’t going to change even if Arteta can coach them for another year. The errors under stress are part of these players’ DNA, you can put lipstick on a pig but in the end it’s still a pig…
I thought that Arsenal played some great football in our last two games, we created a whole load of chances against Leicester but our forwards let us down, then against Tottenham we dominated but our defence failed and some of the blame is on Arteta, but he can only do so much with what he has.
He’ll have Mari and Saliba back next season but he needs more, he needs upgrades on what he has and the last two games have shown that clearly. Arteta will say the right things about some of our lesser players, telling everyone how happy he is with them, but he knows he has to move some of these guys on and he knows he needs to big them up in order to get some dough for them when we sell them. So don’t freak out if he bigs up Mustafi or Kolasinac, they’re not the future, he knows that I’m sure and he’ll move them on as soon as he can for as much as he can when he can, maybe this next transfer window?
No surprise at all Rico, Man City have too much clout
Hi Rico.. nice post… I’m soooo disappointed… I expected so much more! I’ve been told to calm down and that because we’re on a rebuild, not to expect too much… what!!!!??? Am I missing something?? This was the NLD… if they’re not up for that, well then God help us with every other bloody fixture!!
It’s painful to say the least……
Something similar went through my mind Kev and part of me now wonders if this is why certain players are being played when maybe they shouldn’t. It’s easy to see good in just a handful of games but longevity is key to our future and Mustafi and Kolasinac are proving they’re so inconsistent.
Whilst keeping Mustafi might seem wise, or at least it did to me. His recent headless chicken moments tells me I might have been a bit hasty. Kolasinac is just a liability full stop and Bellerin looks like he’s a player who’s had enough.
Ozil and Guendouzi on the other hand, already appear to be on their way.
Makes a mockery of FFP though Kev, but yes, Pep and City have far too much clout. Same with Barça, Real etc should the same ever involve them.
Hi Sue, thanks.
Couldn’t agree more. I didn’t see many of our lot battling like it was a NLD. Disgraceful really. I’m sure the lack of fans played its part but even so, where was the fight and determination for the red side of north London?
And people wonder why I’d rather Arsenal gave up on signing these overpriced, overpaid, overseas players.
I still maintain that our own worst enemy is ourselves . We are not good enough to control a lead .I am sure that Arteta can see that and I am sure that he will do his best to rectify it.
Work in progress from a not too poor starting position.
We have positives we just need to eradicate the negatives.
Hi Rico and All Just trying to find a positive Now that City have won their case and with a Champions league match coming up Pep may tell him players take it take it easy and don’t get heart the champions league means more than the FA cup.
Hi Geoff, I doubt it.
Eradicating the negatives is the hardest part..
We had enough great chances to win that game comfortably, so the attackers must take at least as much responsibility as the defenders, imo.
We miss too many reasonably easy shots that bite us on the bum.
Morning all.
It was disgraceful, Rico..we had 2 more days to prepare than they did, yet who was sluggish? Maureen must be sat there in hysterics!! Another easy 3 points against Arsenal… some things never change!
First thing at work, a scouser said to me “spurs have been awful lately”…. meltdown ensued… 🤣🤣
And then seeing MA say “sorry we couldn’t do it”… well why couldn’t you do it?? Adams, Wrighty and all our other legends would never have put in a performance like that, they’d have fought to the death…. but no, this lot are something else…play for the badge? Don’t make me laugh…they should hang their heads as far as I’m concerned… well bar Laca and Martinez…
I’m sorry, Rico, that loss hurt and I’m still really angry….
So, next season, out of Europe for the first time in however long…. some think it’ll do us good… but I worry that we won’t get back into it…..
I don’t think it’s always as simple as that Scott.
Rico, agreed, but fans do often find it simple enough to blame the defenders 🙂
Sue, we just need the City accountancy team to allow Stan to spend your, then their legal team to help save us on a technicality lol
😂😂😂 failing that, Scott, I’ll just pop to the local donkey sanctuary… pretty sure I’ll find some new signings in there 🤣
I understand stats are not every thing to take into account but I have just looked up Aubameyang stats on the premier league site and shows that he has missed 38 big chances of scoring and a shooting accuracy of 46 percent or 0.63 goals per match this is not good enough for a main striker.
Geoff, players make mistakes and that’s fine, but I just think we do notice the obvious defenders errors more than those up front.
An error either way costs us a goal so really, there’s no difference imo.
Rico.. the league one play off final is tonight… Oxford v Wycombe…. that’ll do me, need a few days off of the PL 😆 Although I seriously doubt I’ll be tuning in on Wednesday!!
Lets face it financial fair play is a joke.Always has been & always will be.Money talks.And if you have a shed load of it whether it be on yen,rubies or oil.Youre the Piper & fifa & uefa dance to your tune.As regards to Europe.money aside.Its no great loss.In fact my belief is it will benefit us.It will prob take at least one more year & min of two to three windows to lose the deadwood & aquire what we need.Im at piece with that.
Where my comment🧐if you’re inviting people to ngo to the trouble of posting at least post it.wheter you agree or otherwise,hey?
I know there is a load of rubbish on it but in Arsenal news now some one is explaining how the money loan from Stan Kroenke will be used and going by them it does not look good for the transfer season coming up
Hi Geoff… 38 big chances – that’s shocking!
It’s funny how sometimes he makes scoring look so easy….
But on here Scott, they’re not.
Wind your neck in Uwot, your comment went into moderation for some reason. There’s only me doing this thing you know…
No need to apologise Sue, I get it, honest.
Hi Scott it’s like all sports the defenders all way cop it but the strikers seem to get away with too much.
When had Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp others teams defenders were scared of them were as now I Don’t believe other teams are worried about any of our strikers
My money is on Wycombe Sue. 😂
😂 mine is too!!
Geoff, they were absolute legends, but they also had some sensational players around them as well.
I’m going for Oxford.
Might sound familiar Kev, but Oxford usually choke on the big games.
I hope you’re right Kev 😄 whichever team I want to win atm the opposite seems to happen, hence why I said Wycombe 🤪
Geoff, other clubs aren’t afraid of Arsenal. Period.
They can’t wait to play us!!!
Rico that’s what i’m saying now matter who we play or were we play them no one is afraid to play us even the teams on the bottom of the ladder believe they can beat us
Bloody hell, Kelly Preston (Mrs Travolta) has died 😱
M. City can play in the Champions League!
It’s official.
G’day all, thanks for the post Rico, if this comment goes into moderation I won’t complain..honest. 😉
It was a sloppy pass by Kolascinac made worse by Luiz’s lack of pace and the knowledge that to foul Song would most probably result in a penalty and a red card. He was left to hang out to dry and got a soaking.
Kolascinac is usually looking over his shoulder for the pass, which he takes on his right foot and shifts the ball to his left foot by which time he is facing his own goal and has no awareness of where his team mates are so he reverts to his default action which is to return the ball from to place from whence it came.
I actually think that the shift to a back three is the right way to go…but why not use three recognised centre backs instead of two and a left back. It’s not as if we don’t have a couple sitting on the bench, Holding and Sokratis.
I also think that Holding would be infinitely better than Kolascinac, he’s a lot steadier and knows when to put the ball into row Z and when to pick a forward pass.
Unfortunately, I think the equaliser rattled our defenders and Mustafi just went to pieces, all the good work he has put in during the last couple of games went up in smoke and he reverted to type.
I think the most we can hope for is a single point on Wednesday, Saturday’s game could be embarrassing and the fallout from that could destroy any confidence the team has left thus making the two remaining fixtures quite difficult.
This season is set to be our worst in the Premiership era.
https://mobile.twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/1282561270173097984
A sobering read…
Come on JM, catch up…. 😀
My son plays CB, they led 3-2 yesterday with 10 minutes to go and every time he won the ball in that period, he belted the crap out of it.
Why, I asked him?
Safety first, and to waste some time was his answer.
14 year old and he knows better than guys earning 100k a week, though If Arteta or any manager is telling them to play it out under ANY circumstances, then I’m the dumbest football fan on this planet lol
It’s suicidal.
I say it every week and I’m still yet to see how the reward outweighs the risk.
Defenders defend.
Let them.
Sign him up, Scott 😁
Mislintat, now at newly promoted Stuttgart..is eyeing up a move for Mavropanos…reckon he’ll want to pay peanuts… and we’ll oblige?!
I’ve heard that it’s only a loan Sue, apparently Stuttgart has about €5m to spend in the transfer window and they’re looking for loans and free transfers…
Sounds a bit like Arsenal really… 😉
A year in the Bundesliga will only increase Mavropanos’ value and he’s under contract to us until 2023, so there’s no rush to move him on.
He probably won’t play for Arsenal next season so a loan seems a good move for him and Arsenal and then in 12 months time the transfer market will have recovered and we should be able to get a good fee for him?
Elneny is not joining Besiktas it seems after all but he’s under contract to Arsenal until 2022 so we could still loan him out for another year.
Smith Rowe, Olayinka and John Jules now have a chance to get into the squad, especially if money is going to be non existent to spend as we won’t be in europe. If Edu and Raul can do some horse trading for Guendouzi and either Lacazette or Aubameyang then we could still get Partey I suppose? Not getting into europe might mean having to sell a player or two more than Arteta would ideally want, it’ll depend on the player and money offered.
😄 it does indeed, Kev!!
Afternoon all. Mustafi’s so so late dive at the ball/player, after it had gone, reminded me of Nistelrooy’s attempt to avoid getting kicked by Viera. About 10 miles away and stupid!
Terribly sad about Mrs T Sue, far too young….
Afternoon guys.
Ha ha Cicero, good to hear.
Heartbreak for Oxford, Rico, we were right 😉
Cazorla scored yet again tonight, losing 2-1 to Monreal’s Real Sociedad though…
Sad breaking news – a body has been found in the search for missing Glee actress Naya Rivera… I loved Glee (was such a Gleek 😄) That’s number 3 now…. beginning to think that programme is cursed…. RIP 😢
D. Luiz is very slow and playing with 3 defenders, playing as central, destabilizes the entire defense.
The first goal was a disaster but I also think Arsenal are trying to start the whole game with Luiz. (Mourinho in the 2nd half “prevented” the ball from passing through Luiz and Arsenal won in possession of the ball, but on few goal occasions, got tired and allowed the Totts, to Mourinho, to wait for the height to give the “lunge” ” Final).
In my opinion, we didn’t play badly. A fatal error right after the goal does not allow us to judge what the game would be like from then on. Responding to some comments: playing with 3 defenders, the left defender has to be a player who preferably plays with his left foot. It can never be Holding.
So, in principle, it would be Mari who would be making that position. It has other characteristics than Kolasinac. Mustafi started to play badly in the 2nd half because Luiz started to want to look for the ball, to position himself and to leave huge “holes” in the defense. Then he doesn’t recover, he’s slow and follows the plays with his eyes. We cannot forget the age that he has and the number of games that Arsenal has had. (Someone could have reminded Mourinho that Arsenal had more games played in this period and with more overhead than the Totts, so Mourinho would not come with the argument that even had time to rest). For me, the main busilius of the defense is here: we want a player who can, with some reliability, start building the game from behind and at the same time be a strong defensive “foundation” in the central zone.
Luiz is not.
Cazorla has been fantastic!
Basaksehir (Turkey), club supported and helped by President Erdogan, it was good that you were interested in Ozil … and they will play in the Champions League. For now, they are at an advantage in the tie with United.
Former Premier League referee Keith Hackett was left “gobsmacked” to see Leicester star Jamie Vardy avoid a red card for kicking Shkodran Mustafi during the 1-1 draw with Arsenal last week.
Referee Chris Kavanagh appeared not to spot the incident, however, as Vardy went unpunished and eventually netted the equaliser for the Foxes in the 84th minute of the clash.
While VAR did not intervene to punish Vardy, it was called upon later in the game, leading to Arsenal attacker Eddie Nketiah being dismissed in the second period, just four minutes after he came off the bench.
The inconsistency infuriated manager Mikel Arteta, who told reporters after the match: “If [Nketiah] can be a red card then Leicester has to play with 10 men after 42 minutes – that has to be a red card as well.
And the Spaniard was not the only one perplexed by the decision to let Vardy stay in the game, as Hackett said it proves there is a crisis of leadership in the Professional Game Match Officials Board, which is responsible for setting and improving refereeing standards across English football.
“Let me make it quite clear Jamie Vardy should have been sent off,” the 76-year-old said to Football Insider.
“That was a very clear and deliberate act, in my opinion he knew what he was doing.
“I was absolutely gobsmacked that VAR didn’t intervene, my phone started buzzing after that. I had Mark Halsey on the phone saying: ‘How can that not be a red card?’.
“I just couldn’t believe it, he’s had a look at where the player is and he’s whacked him with his boot!
“I’m getting inundated with emails asking why is the standard of refereeing in England declining so badly, let me tell you this: it’s through lack of leadership and lack of firm management.
“You can quote me on this, the PGMOL is being run like Butlin’s holiday camp!”
Check out Goal’
The Saints left it late, very late!! It isn’t only us with shoddy (or non existent!!) defending of set pieces then!!
Actually Butlin’s holiday camps were very successful and well run back in the day so I prefer to say that Reilly couldn’t run a whelk stall. 😉
Good night folks and for you guys down-under, g’day mates.
3 years ago today Sean and his mate had the training session with Welbz, Theo, Merts and Rambo here in Sydney.
The day I thought a Merts was a born coach 🙂
The lads journey continues., but he will have those memories forever.
Hi Scott what great memories he will have hope you got some nice photos to go with them; you and your wife must so proud of him hope he he makes it.
But don’t send him to arsenal he seems to be too smart for us he knows that in the last 5 minutes just kick the ball as long as you can away from their goal and hope the strikers get on to it were our back line like to look for a player close to their goal who has 3 players against him and pass it to him LOL
Hahahahaha Geoff.
He’s getting every chance to make it, so it comes down to him being good enough and continuing the hard work.
He lives for the game which is a start.
Not just Arsenal, but it does amaze me when we see just ridiculous errors made by professional players at times, and not even when they’re under pressure.
Just basic skill errors.
Butlins at Broadstairs in Kent and Bognor Regis in Sussex (although it might have been Hampshire back in the 1960’s) were two very fine holiday camps Cicero, red coats and all.
Everybody got on it seemed back in those days, James Bond played by Sean Connery was all the rage, the common enemy was Russia (that hasn’t changed) we still had corrupt politicians and ex politicians, just like we have today with David Cameron and George Osborne on the Board of Haiwei, civil rights was an issue in the U.S. lefties were causing unrest, mainly in the Unions, today it’s at Universities. Back then it was woman’s rights, today it’s gender equality, whatever that means. I can’t keep up…
Just several stories that Man city may be interested in Guendouzi and we may be interested in in man city play John Stones Does any one know any thing about john stones and would it be worth us trying to do a straight swap
Hi-de-hi…… 😂
New post up now