Morning all.
For me, it was really special. I can never forget him – he’s the one that gave me my debut.Obviously you can see all the work put in to get to that stage. He gave me that moment and gave me a lot of confidence as well. He gave me so many more appearances so I’m always grateful to him. I’m really happy for him. Every time we play against him, I always try and say hello to him and say thank you as well. He was a really nice man and a really nice coach as well and I enjoyed my time under him.
It was great, it was a phenomenal camp in every sense,” he said. “We worked really hard on things that we wanted to do, and we recharged our batteries. The context and the change in environment in beautiful weather helped, and the togetherness and the moments that we shared together were great. We feel fully recharged. – Mikel Arteta
The winter break in the sunshine is now a distant memory. Today it’s back down to business as Crystal Palace make the short trip across town for a lunchtime kickoff.
Palace had been on an awful run of results, so much so there were stories in the back pages suggesting Roy Hodgson was heading for the sack. Just one win in 12 fixtures before beating Brentford in their last fixture. Palace haven’t lost at The Emirates for a while so it’s about time that changed.
Jordan Ayew is at the Africa Cup of Nations, Michael Olise and Joel Ward are out injured, as is Cheick Doucoure and Rob Holding although the latter wouldn’t be permitted to play anyway.
Gabriel Jesus (photographed in training) and Oleksandr Zinchenko are doubts, Mo Elneny and Takehiro Tomiyasu are away on international duty. Interestingly, thes no mention of Thomas Partey being ruled out through injury or being fit to return.
What can we expect from Palace?
Adrian Clarke, writing in the official matchday programme: From a tactical perspective Hodgson tries not to complicate matters, opting for a straightforward 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 most weeks. He did switch to a defensive 5-4-1 away to Manchester City, and the players looked very comfortable in that set-up designed to stifle space inside their own defensive third and counter-attack with quality, using Jean-Philippe Mateta to hold the ball up. When facing the toughest opponents, Palace are usually content to sit behind the ball and keep a disciplined shape. They average just a 42 per cent share of possession and are happy to play on the break, and from the turnovers they create, Hodgson’s side like to get the ball forward quickly to their front three using long diagonal passes from central defenders Joachim Andersen [above] and Marc Guehi.
Inside their own half the Eagles are usually very aggressive, making the second-highest number of tackles so far this term. Their centre-back partnership is excellent, and in central midfield they are abrasive opponents that stifle the rhythm of their opponents. This ensures they limit shots on their own goal, and only ourselves and Manchester City have had to make fewer saves than the Eagles. However Hodgson will be incredibly frustrated that his team have scored from just one set piece so far this term – the lowest return of all 20 top-flight teams, while one big reason behind their poor form of late has been their wayward finishing, with a shot conversion rate of 14 per cent ranking them 16th in the division.
That last paragraph suggests it could be another frustrating 90 odd minutes for Mikel Arteta’s players if there’s little or no change to the way they play. As many of us here have suggested, do things the same just quicker and be more ruthless in front of goal.
Arsenal need to up the anti. Go at Palace from the off, don’t give them the chance to settle into defensive mode. Get an early goal and then take them to the cleaners.
Catch up in the comments…
Morning Rico and all.
Personally I don’t think Saka would have been given the chance under Arteta, if anythink he may have been put out on loan.
As for Emery I feel he was used as a scape goat and the board allways wanted Arteta to replace Wenger but he wasn’t available straight away so they selected Emery to stop all the protest by fans and to shut them up untill Arteta could sign. Just my opinion
Morning Geoff.
Emery, right manager, wrong board I think. He inherited a lot of sulky players too which thankfully, this current board and manager has got rid of.
Good morning Rico, I can’t quite get myself to believe that a week or so of warm weather training will transform us into strong Premiership title challengers. The same problems won’t have been washed away by the Dubai sunshine. Fitness issues with two of our big name players, Jesus and Zinchenko, the lack of clinical finishing with the entirety of our midfield and attacking players and the anxiety so evident in the back line, which seems to stem from the erratic behaviour of our regularly starting ‘keeper.
Arteta admits, in an interview with the Daily Telegraph, that he does not know why his team have suffered a mid-winter collapse in each of his three seasons as manager. Nor, he admits, does he know what to do about it.
A convincing win against a wobbling Palace this lunchtime is absolutely vital if Arteta is going to sweep aside the gradually growing tide of discontent among the fans.
It really is time for him and all of his squad to stand up and be counted.
Morning Rico/all
You’re probably right about Saka,what a player he is,he’s looked tired recently(like a few others) Hopefully they all are back refreshed and ready for Crystal Palace. We have a game Tuesday so maybe anyone 50/50 will be on the subs bench today.
We need to be much better than the last 2 games,I thought we were good against West Ham,apart from the finishing.
No excuses,COYG
A first chance to get a look at our (maybe) new striker this evening when Ivan Toney is expected to start his first game, since being banned for betting irregularities, against Nottingham Forest.
Morning Cicero, Limey.
I’m sceptical too for the reasons you suggest however, what gives me hope is that last season these players were scoring goals. Form can dip but they’re still top players who perhaps just need that lucky break to get going again.
I agree about Emery, he was always a good manager. His problem was that Wenger left him with a dysfunctional squad who either couldn’t play, didn’t want to play or wanted to play somewhere else. When you look at his players, most of them couldn’t be sold and ended their contracts on loan – Mustafi. Bellerin, Torriera, Ramsey, Gwen Dozey, Maitland-Niles, Ozil, Aubameyang to name a few. He also didn’t have a proper Director of Football until Edu arrived – he didn’t stand a chance.
No excuses today, a win is essential.
Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Rice, Odegaard, Havertz, Saka, Jesus, Trossard.
Interesting, Walters on the Sub’s bench.
The only reason why I can see the club go overseas for a holiday is to to stop the players and Arteta from reading negative stories about them from the media and fans.
Pleased for Walters…
Let’s hope Arteta is able to bring him on..
Arsenal Portugal is in the Emirates today.
come on Arsenal!
Geoff, social media is world-wide. There’s no getting away from it.
Fans in good voice
That’s the start we wanted, afternoon all
Excellent Gabriel
Determined header.
What a beautiful header, finishing with a goal
Great header by Gabriel, is he our new striker? One nil.
Gabriel started his career as a striker 😂
Jesus should be cutting inside the defender for that Saka cross..
Is it just me or is Ben White a bit slow throwing the ball back into play.
Another for Gabriel…
Geoff, near the end of a game, I reckon he would be booked amount of time he’s taken. Then he threw it out!
That’s the start we needed, let’s hope for more in the second half
This is a better stat than those of late. Shots on goal 8, on target 2, goals 2.
There’s very little movement when White is taking throw-ins. Our players need to be a bit smarter losing their defenders.
I too think White will be booked at some stage for his throw ins but the players need to give him more options and quicker
Brilliant from Raya to Trossard..
Great play for our 3 rd goal, but wish Jesus and Saka would stay on there feet instead of going to ground too easily
They’re being fouled Geoff. My gripe is the exaggeration when they go over, especially Jesus.
ESR on for 20 mins.. good
Great goal by Trossard,of course the Forest game is 10 days away. A clean sheet would be deserved.
Back to Dubai then 😂
Few sloppy passes, starting to creep in
2 identical goals in 2 minutes, well deserved win,
Is the first game in a while were nobody got a a card, not because of the score line, I reckon the ref had a good game.
Excellent result, couldn’t have kicked the year off with a better result in the league..
As Mr. Punch says, That’s the want to do it! 🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔
Want? WANT? Way!!!
Good night all, it’s 1:30 am in oz
Two lovely strikes from Martinelli.
Gabriel my motm..
tsamima mina eh eh
wakawaka eh eh
65 million down the drain
Smith Rowe should start the game .
That was more like it.
All 5 goals well taken( I thought VAR would rule some out)
Ref was so biased,but that’s every game.
The Trossard goal was a thing of beauty,I thought he had a good game.The 2 goals from Martinelli were brilliantly simple,good to see us being direct,and using his pace. He must be a nightmare for defenders coming off the bench.
I’m not a fan of Raya but he had one of his best games,he noticeably grew in confidence.
Kai Havertz continues to frustrate,he runs around a lot,and had a few nice touches but come on,he never remotely looks like scoring.
The defence looked solid,a good day. Another mini break coming up.
Did anyone notice George Graham in the crowd ? Still looks good,he must be over 80.
Here’s a surprise Zinchenko played the full ninety minutes.
Arsenal Women beat Everton 2 – 1.🔔🔔
He was sitting alongside Kenny Sansom.
It was a good job Raya made that one great save as it was his cockup which started it.
Agree re ESR, he’s got to start games soon, surely? Such a waste of talent. His movement is forwards, not sideways or backwards.
Also, what on earth was Zinchenko doing out on the right wing at times?
Ivan Toney has a goal for Brentford and a yellow card.
Daft as it seems we can only surmise that Zinchenko is playing to Arteta’s instructions Rico.
That’s what worries me Cicero. 😜
Limey this was not exactly a game for Havertz profile. He’s more an option to break down tight defenses, packed boxes. This was not that type of game because we scored early from set pieces.
This was a Martinelli type, open game. BUT don’t be fooled. 90% of the time we won’t have easy breakaways on counters like he had today.
We all know that from the first minutes of games Martinelli is usually frustrated by parked busses, and makes very poor decisions on which teammates to pass to (or doesn’t pass at all with his head down), preferring to dribble into tackles, or out of play.
Against Forest I’d start Trossard again. Against Liverpool, a different story… they play more open, so I’d probably go with Martinelli.
Great finishes though. I’d like to see Gab allowed to come inside more. Lots of people agree with that, I know. That’s an Arteta issue.
Nigel, I noticed today that Martinelli was very much head up looking for a pass today. Maybe that’s something which has been worked on over the last couple of weeks.
Well he did carry the ball across the byline only once in this 20 minutes. I didn’t notice what you’re describing in his combination play.
I love Gabby, but not out very wide on the wings. He doesn’t combine with Left side teammates as well as Trossard does. But with a different set of tasks by the manager, with permission to come inside, he could be a star.
Arteta starting him game after game pinned to the line, against packed defenses, isn’t helping the player or the team, his energy is wasted, and will hurt his confidence.
Teams are not going to change the way they defend against us, even in Europe. We need to adjust.
Our best result this year…
We played better against Aston Villa, West Ham and Liverpool than we did today and lost all three!
Ok Palace aren’t as good as those three above but they drew with Man City and were robbed of a draw against Liverpool by VAR.
The delivery by Declan Rice for the first goal was perfect and all Gabriel needed to do was time his jump and get it on target. That final ball is so important, the pass from Nketiah to Martinelli for the 4th the pass from Jorginho for the 5th, the throw out by Raya for the 3rd – fresh minds?
Only the joyless suits at the Premier League could take away Big Gabby’s 2nd goal – wankers the lot of them…
I’m sure, if I recall properly, that I posed a question recently about the quality of our young players?
We like to think that our youngsters are among the pick of the crop, we focus on them and want to see them given chances in the 1st team.
Well our youth team lost 7-1 away at Liverpool today. That is a record defeat for Arsenal in the FA Youth Cup, a record that goes back over 70 years. It was 1-1 at half time so an Arsenal youth team consisting of the best available U18’s at the club shipped 6 goals in 45 minutes.
That is simply unacceptable and it’s embarrassing…
Ah, it seems that it was 3-1 at half-time so Liverpool scored only 4 goals in the 2nd half…
It does seem churlish to criticise on the back of a 5 nil but having gone into our early lead with two set pieceswe progressed slowly and it was only after we made the substitutes that the ante was pushed up and we moved the ball forward quicker . Raya’s throw, Nketiah’s through ball and Jorginho’s first timer and for once we added another 3 goals .
Going back to last season both Arteta and Martinelli scored for fun when they had the space handed to them by the ball arriving quickly. This season we are dwelling on it and taking too many touches , it slows us down but today with ESR whose first movement is usually forward and Jorginho seeing the pass early , for 20 minutes we looked liked we did last season .
Lets hope that Forest get more of the same.
I don’t want to pile on Havertz but he seems to slow everything down, it might be my imagination and maybe the phase that the game was in when he went off gives us a false impression but I guess we’ll only know that if Smith Rowe starts a few games in his place?
Kev I think Smith Rowe/Havertz could be an excellent pair of options to rotate … for different types of opponents and defenses. Such contrasting styles….Luckily they both can play 2 or 3 different positions, so they could get enough minutes to be satisfied.
I don’t think Kai will be dropped for multiple games. He’s too good a player, and has never been dropped that way in his career by any manager. The fact that Emile was an earlier sub than Nketiah… thank God! Finally Arteta gets it… and Eddie gets a great assist anyway.
Morning all.
I’d love to see ESR start against Forest, his mindset seems to be ‘get the ball forward’ and he goes with it too. But the one I’d be happy to see replaced is Jesus. If Havertz is going to fill the “tall striker” role, why not try him again in the next match.
New post up.