Morning all.
First up, Arsenal’s general secretary David Miles has had a say on the contract situation with Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez.
Of course, we know talks are ongoing with certain players and certain contracts,’ Miles told BT Sport.
At the moment, things are looking pretty good in that way.
He also hinted that we could see a new face or two arrive next month when the transfer window opens:
Obviously that’s Arsene’s domain, and it’s in very safe hands. I know he’s already looking for opportunities to strengthen the squad.
Maybe that’s because Santi Cazorla is out for such a long time and of course, Mohammed Elneny will be off to the ACON’s. Could it be Julian Draxler or the Ajax midfielder Riechedly Bazoer who has been linked to us? If Miles is telling the truth and Arsene does sign one or two in January, it shows he’s serious about going for the league this season. Good!
December 26th, 2015, or Boxing Day as it’s better known here in England.
An evening kick-off against a Southampton team managed by Ronald Koeman were on an awful run of results and performances. By contrast, we had been enjoying a reasonably good year. No other club in the league had won as many points as we had had in 2015 and Arsene Wenger had that his team was “on the right train, heading the right way”. Ninety minutes later, he and his players headed home with nothing, having been thumped 4-0!
That train then stopped at the next station before crawling at slow speed as we beat Bournemouth, huffed and puffed a 1-0 victory over Newcastle but then, on a cold night at Anfield in the middle of January, it pretty much derailed.
There’s little doubt that the result against Southampton knocked the stuffing out of us as a victory that night would have seen us go top of the league. Instead, we drifted along and fell down to third and with too many points being dropped over the next few weeks/months, the chance of winning the league was long gone. The thought of the Totts winning it was unbearable, but like us, they royally cocked their chances up too and all of their own doing so when we eventually pipped them to second place, there was something to smile about. Something very small though.
Tonight we face a similar challenge against Everton away from home. They are having a run of dreadful results and their manager is the man who orchestrated that 4-0 defeat at St Mary’s and he’ll be out to repeat such a feat in order to get his side back on track. Did you know that Ronald Koeman has never lost a match against Arsene Wenger when playing at home? In fact the Frenchman’s record against him isn’t that good at all with Arsene coming out on top only twice in ten attempts – the other eight matches have produced four draws and four losses for Arsenal.
The starting eleven at St Mary’s was:
Cech, Koscielny, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Monreal, Campbell, Flamini, Walcott, Ozil, Ramsey, Giroud.
Not our strongest side by a long way but it should have been good enough to keep a Southampton team which was struggling, quiet. But no, we were really really poor. The way we have been playing recently, one would like to hope that those kind of performances are a thing of the past. Complacency has been mentioned recently by Arsene Wenger and it’s looking like he’s addressed it too.
We’ll be without Mustafi tonight which is a big loss but at least Gabriel has been playing and doing rather well and hopefully between him and Koscielny, they can keep Lukaku quiet. Cut out his supply and their life will be made easier. Ramsey too is ruled out of tonight’s match with a hamstring problem according to the BBC.
Having only played a couple of days ago and with Man City up next at the weekend, this one tonight could see a little bit of rotation. Ollie likes to score against the Toffees, so perhaps he’ll come in, maybe Perez too as Arsene Wenger needs to keep players fit and fresh over the festive period.
Tonight is a big test for this Arsenal side and it’s live on BT Sport at 7-45pm and Mark Clattenburg is in charge of this one.
Oh, and by the way, we drew Bayern Munich in the Champions League yesterday but that can wait, there’s a lot of Premier League football to be played before then and right now, that’s far more important..
Have a good day guys, only twelve more sleeps…..
1st
2nd
Morning rico, good posting. I preferred the first part about transfers, 2nd part has me worried, LOL.
3rd
It’s actually very odd Arsenal talking transfers in ADVANCE of a window. It’s usually hard enough once window opens to get optimistic messages.
Tro4phy
Morning Andrew, welcome Prince..
So did I as I was writing Andrew, the Koeman issue is slightly worrying… lol
I do wish Theo would keep quiet…. Do his talking on the pitch!
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OK now, as above posted 😉
That’s odd….
Evening rico & all,
If The Arsenal can beat Everton away, The Arsenal will win the Title IMO. I am with you rico as per your concerns about the pending fixture & AW has been known to be out coached at times. Koeman (who reminds me of Benny Hill) is an astute tactician & will be up for this one. If The Arsenal go there unprepared, and/or underestimate the Toffees, well it will stuff my day, maybe even my December!
COYRRR
……………..as as for Bayern! The Arse will beat them over the 2 legs.
Hi George, it’s certainly a big game tonight, should tell us a lot about this team…
Good morning Rico and all…
The old Arsenal would help Everton end their long winless streak; lets see what the new Arsenal does tonight…
A 2 goals win to the good guys tonight
Morning Ts, exactly re the old Arsenal. Let’s see if we are as mentally strong as we all believe we might be..
Good morning Rico
As you mention Koeman knows how to play against Arsene setup.Difference this time around i see this Everton team looks having Monreal syndrome in them.
Everton were always energetic and physical but not this time around.Normally our form will guarantee a win but ……hey ..it is Arsene so i cannot be that confident.
Morning Alex, not always. AW has beaten him twice.. 😉
Morning Rico and all. We certainly need a decent result up there but we did last Christmas against Koeman’s under-performing Southampton too.
Morning Rico and all
I know you have no difficulty getting on here Rico but for me it’s become nearly impossible.
I get the adverts which is fine but every thime I come back to this page they reappear and then it says “oops something gone wrong on the Home Page”. Then I press Home Page again and it comes back.
I didn’t have a chance to coomment on the CL draw.if we played them right now we would have more than a good chance but my concern is Away goals as we don’t keep enough clean sheets at home. They will get a month off before we play them which might go for or against them.
Tonight Gabriel needs to be one ball and Kos yet again has another partner.Shame as Mustafi was beginning to look the business. 4 points today and City wouldn’t be bad.
Adam- the same lacklustre showing was displayed the season before when the saints had the current spuds manager as their manager.
If I was to make an excuse for AW I would say AW failed to react to his team’s performance because he was overwhelmed by the shear brilliance of Callum Chambers defensive ability… 🙂
Hi TS. These games are always difficult for us. Perhaps Callum will come back a better player though. 🙂
Afternoon all..
Morning Adam.. 😉
Kelsey, that problem for you should be over now as the popup has been removed…
Oscar is leaving Chelsea and going to China for £52 million… ?
1st
And the point is…???
27th.
Adam, you win the star prize…
No idea Kev.. it’s an lg thing….
No changes then..
Enjoy the game guys..
Night all.
A Lampard goal from Alexis . I will take it.
Twattenburg starting to ref to the crowd
Coleman does us again
Hated Koeman ever since the Graham Taylor debacle. Dirty bastard!
Twattenberg allowing them to tackle out of control. What’s the betting we get a player sent off?
Bad miss from Ozil…
This is dangerous
This game is open there will be chances but will we take one… I think iwobi could make a difference on this game.
Everton are the new stoke
This is dangerous
Don’t think we have much left in us tbh….
Fuck
Why on earth is ozil the man supposed to be on Williams. FS
Well that’s been coming.. I gotta say we started the game well but fucked about with to much tippy tappy bollocks…. wheels off for xmas…
physicality does for us again
Fucking hate teams like Everton who play like they are on drugs against us. Laid down and surrendered against Chelsea
Agreed kel. Too many players didn’t show up tonight.
Same old for me, these are the games that would prove we are contenders. Do we fancy it on a Tuesday night up north? Same old answer I’m afraid.
And if you can’t win, don’t lose. Sigh….
Foul on Sanchez in the box completed ignored
Should have been a pen at the end. Clattenburg you absolute c**t
I f*cking hate how we let teams push us over like we are freaking softies. Shitty display, we couldn’t complete two successful passes. Oh well, the honeymoon is over.
I looked at this game and the game v city as pivotal in the challenge for the PL. Unless we beat city now Chelsea will be imo 8pts clear by xmas…..
I think we lost more or less every 50/50 challenge.. I’ve said it for yrs a lack of sheer strength is a fucking problem for us.
It is the inept Manager that we have you should curse not viceversa.
The tactics that deploy when playing against us is always same.Suffocate Ozil or Santi and get physical and disrupt the rithm that we try to create.End off …..there he wins.
Walcot is a sprinter .Has nothing to do with football. He cost us the second time so far.At Manure and tonight.Decade of learning and playing regularly given chances after chances i could not believe how is still playing with Arsenal.There is no doubt in my mind that he is the symbol of the failure at the club.Obviously never expect from this inept manager to get anything to change.
Everton they want it more .Hungry passionate winning every second ball and they deserve it fully.
As per Koeman he knows exactly how to win against Wenger but definitely average manager .
Congratulation Everton.
Players like Ozil, Theo who pick which games to turn up and which ones to suited for them are the reason we’ll never win the league.
The home crowd built up the momentum and Clattenburg was never going to give a penalty for a trip. Even rape might have been debatable . Was Kos elbowed on the halfway by Lukaku before his booking ? Don’t know but truth be told agression won in the end , not foul play particularly just honest agression.
Bob, your 9.34 says it all.
Everton ought to be swabbed.
The corner leading up to winner was not a .corner should have been a goal kick
Well done Clattenburg
I see the begrudgers are out again in force tonite, I thought we were excellent for the first 20 minutes.
rico, sadly your post fell on deaf ears today !!! Well on Arsene’s anyway.
Marshall, I said it the other week, Ronald McDonald would have more impact than Ozil in certain games, I don’t have a problem giving him an extension and a nice little pay-rise as long as there’s something about “a little more consistency” included in the small print of his contract, don’t think that’s too much to ask for lol.
I feel sick. .
Missed opportunity. .Everton were there for the taking in the 1st 30 mins and we couldn’t captalize .
#SIC
90 mins in a game micko… 😉
The midfield, is very physically weakened with Iwobi (who went badly) and with Ozil (produced little and was affected by the failed goal).
I know Kel, I feel like we were cheated !
Can someone pass Kk the sick bucket please.
We’ve been spoiled over recent wks with the boys playing well and we’re certainly a decent team.
We cant win them all i suppose and defeat is never nice but games like tonight (physical) we have been getting turned over time and time again over the yrs.
I think that is what has most fans a little pissed off just lack that physical fight again..
Beat city and we’re back on track… 🙂
Didn’t watch it but kept getting scores @ work. Media footie blackout for me till the Northern Chavs match. I feel flat 🙁
Disappointing, but we were going to lose eventually…
The team seemed jaded, a bit more rotation may have helped, starting Perez instead of Walcott perhaps, and what’s the point of bringing on Giroud and not tossing a few crosses into the box, after all two crosses led to the two Everton goals. Maybe our players were tired in the head as well?
This defeat doesn’t have to be the end of our league challenge, but defeat at City could pretty much scupper it, even this early as Chelsea look relentless…
Hopefully this will be a kick up the arse and we will go on another long unbeaten run! Clattenburg was dire but not as dire as Wenger’s Arsenal, hopefully we’ve only got 5 months left under his leadership!
Got to beat City now, really do….
The net is filled with the “toldya so” mob and its great to see.
I mean, if Arsenal weren’t losing, I’m not sure how these “fans” could find the strength to go on.
Heaven forbid we ever get outplayed lol.
Of course, none of these experts will simply have the grace to say Everton were terrific, it just had to be “we were shit”.
Damn, we have some fine supporters..
It’s really embarrassing to see the lack of class plenty of our fans show in defeat.
Suddenly, Ozil should be sold by the same dickheads who 24 hours ago were telling Arsenal to pay him his 300k a week.
Yep, fickle doesn’t even begin to describe them.
Morning all.
Pretty much on the money there Scott. That’s another reason why I put myself on a media ban 🙂
I don’t think Everton were terrific at all, Arsenal should of come away with something from this game. Their fans really got behind them and Everton responded well….
Ho hum, let’s beat city now!!
This paragraph sums it up for me.
Wenger’s men have failed to keep a clean sheet in 11 successive games, and the Frenchman must address that if they are to challenge for a first league title since 2004
Again the lack of physical strength shows and I am afraid both The Ox and Walcott continue to disapoint.You can’t have players like ths who turn it on once in every 6 or 7 games and with those two especially I don’t think anyone can argue against that.With regards to Iwobi isn’t AW asking a bit too much from him a youngster of limited experience.
I don’t regard myself as a fickle fan and even though we have been on a long unbeaten run one has to admit lady luck has been on our side on more than one occasion.
Everton had a 12th man when we let them back into the game and that of course was the crowd something we have always lacked for Home games.
Why do most blogs get three times as many comments when we lose than when we win.Because most of us can see through the predictability of Wenger and get frustrated because we support the club.
There must be some knock on effect with the Ozil & Sanchez contract situation……
Morning you all….
I thought Everton were average, we weren’t even that….
Terrible result and performance imo…
Lee I hope that is the kick up the ass we needed to push on and try and win this title.
God forbid any fan being frustrated at wengers Arsenal faltering yet again when we have the chance to go top, and living up to the label of (bottlers) for more than a decade, so fickle they are.. 😉
City is beatable no doubt, their backline is shit atm so let’s hope we tear through it. If we don’t and we fall 8 or 9pts behind then I’m sure we’ll return to winning ways against WBA on boxing day when the pressure is off and we’re pretending to be title challengers.
Bad Morning all .
I know we have to lose or draw at some time, but I feel sick and only the other top 6 losing tonight will make me happy !……..is that too much to ask for !………come on Santa, sort it out or I will nuke Lapland !
Good morning Rico and all…..
That run of winning we all knew that it will end but not in this way.
Why is that a team like Everton that was in a downfall all in a sudden found strength to win against the team that was in form ?
Everton full of purpose and desire to win specially after one goal down.
Arsenal not winning tackles or second ball.Means less desire to win.
Wenger……..ah……the less i speak the better.
Gŕrrrrrrrrr
Morning Rico and all. Shocking performance with little evidence of any self-motivation. Once again there are big questions that will be answered on Sunday.
Morning Alex and Adam.
Why does AW moan about a side being physical, stand up and match them I say. Perhaps we would if he allowed his players to do so…
Agree fully wit that Rico and Ozil in my opinion is not a player suited for this type of game.Mourinho Koeman and others know how to disable him by symply using aggressive but honest tackles.
Question is Arsene does not change anything and the result favours the opponent always.
Add to it the fraud player but truly sprinter Wallnut and it is very much expected.
Remember the goal at oldtoilet Wallnut trolling arou around around and Mata scores.
Yesterday bit different scenario …mugged by their winger and let them cross the ball.
New post up guys.