Morning all.
Could we have asked for more? Of course, we always want more but to give Norwich City a roasting on Boxing Day is good enough for me. Five goals too which which has done our goals tally no harm whatsoever.
Covid-19 forced Mikel Arteta to shuffle his defence with Ben White moving to right back and Rob Holding coming in to partner Gabriel. I read many a comment online about how Holding would be perfect for Newcastle Utd but the reality is, he’s fine just where he is. He’s a good, reliable defender who in my opinion, Arsenal need to keep hold of.
Mikel Arteta’s team we’re in control of the game from the moment Bukayo Saka gave us the lead. Kieran Tierney doubled our lead before Saka popped up with another from distance.A penalty awarded to, and converted by Alex Lacazette made it 4-0 before Emile Smith Rowe came off the bench to rub salt into the wounds of Norwich.
Of course there’ll be the “Norwich were rubbish” comments doing the rounds this morning but the Arsenal players still had a job to do and boy did they do it well. Our passing was crisp and quick, ours goals were good and if any Arsenal fan couldn’t enjoy what they saw then I guess they’re not for pleasing.
Admittedly, I’ve only seen extended highlights but I thoroughly enjoyed watching our young team play with a smile on their faces and enjoying themselves.
When one thinks of how young this team is, what they’re doing is pretty special. And they’re only going to get better together. Stronger both mentally and physically too. There’s still a way to go yet, areas to improve on but I think that will be solved as the transfer windows come and go.
Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka, Alex Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang are all too old in the tooth to change. Even Pepe isn’t going to suddenly change his style of football because he is what, and who he is. I mention them because I think over the next couple of seasons, they’ll have been replaced by younger and different versions of the players they are. Hopefully that makes sense.
With the Wolves fixture now cancelled, our next match is against Man City. I don’t expect us to beat them but only because Guardiola has a deep and very strong squad. But, if Arsenal give them a good game then that’ll do for me. We’re capable of beating them, of course we are because ultimately, it’ll be their best eleven against ours and with the fans behind Arsenal, who knows.
For now though, we head into the New Year in fourth place, six points clear of Toots in fifth although they have three games in hand. Having the points on the board already is better though, much better.
See you in the comments.
Morning Rico and all
Well put Rico, as you said toots have 3 games up there sleeve but the one thing in our favour is the pressure is on them and the other clubs to win so we don’t get too far ahead shame our next match is canceled.
Morning Geoff, all.
Yep, disappointed our game against Wolves is off, but it was inevitable really.
Just read a nice story, Leno and his wife knock on front door of a 9 year old boy with cancer and hand him a Christmas present. Well done Leno and your wife for making this little kids day
Lovely thing for Leno and his wife to do.
Just wondering with all this Covid going on, if it would be better for the premier league to cancel all matches for 2 weeks to let all teams recover. I understand it may not work in our favour but at the end of the day peoples health is more important
That’s what managers are pushing for I think.
Good day all.
Canaries well and truly plucked!!
Two great goals by Saka, a beautifully place one by Tierney a composed penalty by Lacazette and a fine poachers goal by ESR.
Who needs Aubameyang when we have Martinelli, what a great all-round performance both in attack and defence, only the width of an eyelash denied him a super goal.
Geoff, Covid is not going to go away in a couple of weeks. Until all players, staff and close families have been vaccinated there will continue to outbreaks and further postponements. A two week break will be like putting a sticking plaster on the Mohne dam (17 May 1943).
We’re certainly scoring more goals now.
Manure salvage a point with an equaliser on seventy minutes.
Lucky United.
Coutinho on loan seems to the favourite rumour on NewsNow, with Barca picking up most of his wages, could work if it’s only a loan? Is he represented by Joorabchin by any chance?
It’s going to be an interesting January window for Arsenal with us being 4th and looking set to seriously compete for a 4th place finish. Does KSE speculate again in order to get us back to the Promised Land or not and face the brickbats if we fail?
Bruno from Lyon is mentioned again.
Cicero as you said Covid will be around for along time yet, but I just thinking this way all players could go into a strict lockdown and all clubs can do a full cleaning of training and match day grounds then hopefully we can get a few catch up matches done.
In the last two seasons Coutinho has played in a total of 30 games in La Ligue many of them as a substitute. He missed the second half of last season with a serious knee injury. Even if Barca offered to pay his wages in full I wouldn’t touch him with a barge pole.
Morning all.
I hope we don’t go for Coutinho, he’d be another Willian imo. If he’s not good enough for Barcelona, he’s not good enough for Arsenal.
Although I don’t want Coutinho I am guessing if true that Arteta could be looking at it as a quick way of getting rid of Auba
I don’t think we need another attacking midfielder though, we need a DM imo.
Arteta was at Barca’s La Masia academy at the same time as Coutinho, they are old mates. Edu seems attracted to his fellow countrymen when it comes to transfer targets. I don’t like the the looks of the omens on this one.
The last thing we want is another Willian situation.
Perhaps as Geoff says though, if it means Auba goes to Barca, it’s not so bad. Plus the youngsters need experience with them. I’d rather we just gave Barca Aubameyang on the cheap though and go get a defensive midfielder.
New post up by the way
I’m not particularly in favour of signing Coutinho permanently, not leas5 because of the things Cicero says, mind you Overmars had a career ending injury before we eventually signed him from Ajax and he didn’t do bad, but I accept the reservations.
We did spend a record amount in the summer and we may only have a small amount to invest this January and it needs to be spent carefully, so I guess a short term loan or two would help bridge any gaps whilst the majority of our finance goes towards a striker and maybe a holding midfielder?