Morning all.
Here we are again, two weeks without domestic football to keep us moaning and groaning. International football just isn’t the same in my opinion, not these days anyway and the only thing I have an interest in is the injuries whilst hoping Arsenal suffer none. The thought of kicking off the next run of domestic fixtures without the likes of Gabriel, White, Partey, Saka, ESR etc, well, it doesn’t bear thinking about really.
Arsenal’s midfield is already one down for the next three months because of the injury to Granit Xhaka and regardless of what you and I might think of him, he’s one of the first on Mikel Arteta’s team sheet.
Arsenal went into the last international break on the back of some terrible performances matched with bad results. We sat bottom of the League with many of us wondering when our first win would come. Would things improve and could Mikel Arteta improve them. Was it already time to replace him, after all, it wouldn’t have been a knee jerk reaction because the football the team was playing had been poor for a while. Rumours were rife that Mikel had ten games to save his Arsenal career. Whoever made that up I don’t know but I doubted it’s truth at the time. After all, what club spends as much money as Arsenal did this summer and then sacks the manager before some of the new signings have even played?
Our last match before the September break was a 5-0 defeat at Man City. Mikel Arteta played a back five in front of Leno. Cedric, Chambers, Holding, Kolasinac and Tierney. Xhaka was the only defence minded midfielder. His sending off didn’t help the team but I don’t think the outcome would have been different had he stayed on the pitch.
I don’t know what happened during that break which followed but I’d imagine there was a lot of soul searching, chats and training. Mikel Arteta was under pressure and he knew it. He needed the fans on his side as much as the players.
After that much needed break, Gabriel and Ben White returned to full fitness and new man Tomiyasu Takehiro was ready to play. As Norwich arrived at The Emirates, Aaron Ramsdale had been given his first League start and AMN, alongside another new signing, Sambi Lokonga formed our central defensive midfield.
Admittedly, Arsenal made hard work of beating Norwich but the game was won and that’s all what mattered that day. The losing streak was over. Arsenal had bossed possession, had thirty shots on goal with seven on target. Norwich had one on target. Then came Burnley, a tough away fixture for any team I think but lo and behold, Arsenal came away with maximum points once more. Another clean sheet for Ramsdale and Arteta’s new look defence.
Then came the big one in this September group of fixtures. The NLD. Lose that one and Arteta was done for – yes, I read that on social media and somewhere else on the Arsenal blog world. Well, Totts were battered good and proper by an Arsenal team performance which was the best I’d seen in a long time. Especially in the first half.
Darn, we dropped points against Brighton at the weekend and the world has ended. But it hasn’t. The weather was awful, we couldn’t find a pass and simply but, most of the Arsenal players had a bad day at the office. Twelve points were on offer for Arsenal during September and we took ten of them. Of course twelve would have been better but to keep Brighton from scoring is a positive for our defence. Important for our defence and Ramsdale.
Of course there’s room for improvement, there always is but September was far far better than August so it looks like we’re on the right track. Both home and away fans seem to behind Arteta and the process he talks about and that’s more important than what the media or even we on the blogs say. As said earlier, we’ll often moan but that’s because we want the best for the club, more from the players and success on a match day. And yes, I want Mikel Arteta to be successful at Arsenal too, not because of who he is or what he’s done during his playing days but because he’s the Arsenal manager right now.
Arsenal’s next run of League fixtures are:
Crystal Palace – H
Aston Villa – H
Leicester City – A
Watford – H
If Arsenal head into the next international break in November with another ten points in the bag and a place in the next round of the League Cup, I’m sure we’ll all be pretty happy.
Twelve points would be even better…
See you in the comments.
Good day Rico. There seems to be an international break every couple of weeks, it ridiculous. Teams get to play three or four matches and then players are shipped off around the world to play two games in four days with all the the travel thrown in as well as the Covid bubbles and isolation where appropriate.
I dread to think how many, and how often, international breaks there will be if Wenger gets his wish of biennial World Cups. Clubs will have to increase their squad sizes in order to cope with the demands on their best players. Bigger squads means bigger wage bills and, as injuries and tiredness problems take effect, the fans will lose out as they won’t see as much of their idols playing for their club.
The clubs with the most money will sign up even more of the best players and the gap between the rich and the poorer clubs will inevitably widen.
Sorry to sound so gloomy, it’s probably due to the effects of a particularly horrible cold that both my wife and I are suffering. Not Covid, we took a test on Sunday, thankfully both were negative.
Morning Rico and all.
4 winnable games, but another run of 10 points from a possible 12 would probably see us well and truly in the top 6-8 on the ladder.
That’d be a decent comeback after losing our first 3, so let’s hope the boys get back to winning form after the break.
I’d hoped when Saka trudged off against Brighton, he’d skip the England games.
Morning Cicero, Scott.
These breaks certainly don’t have the the players interests at heart. Ridiculous…
Nope, it’s all about money, unfortunately.
Morning Rico and all
The way these matches are going all clubs need to be able to have two teams.
1 for the domestic season and 1 for all other matches, other wise I can see players wanting more money, going on strike or even worse steal collapsing / dying on the field from exhaustion. just imagine one of these young 18 / 19 year old players, playing all these games then driving home.
Hi Geoff. I think we’re there already. I know Mikel has fielded a strong team in the league cup but if we were in europa, he’d have possibly played a very different team to the one starting League fixtures.
Afternoon rico, good report highlighting our change of fortunes. Even 8 or 9 points out of 12 would see a reasonable position. Without a pretty good defensive display we would have lost by 2 or 3 goals Saturday. The future is brighter!
Afternoon Andrew, thanks. When you compare the defence in the first three games and the one v Toots etc, no wonder we initially struggled.
Onwards and upwards we hope .
Away on international duty are
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – Gabon
Folarin Balogun – England under-21s –
Sead Kolasinac – Bosnia and Herzegovina –
Bernd Leno – Germany –
Martin Odegaard – Norway –
Bukayo Saka – England –
Albert Sambi Lokonga – Belgium –
Emile Smith Rowe – England under-21s –
Takehiro Tomiyasu – Japan
Kieran Tierney – Scotland –
Aaron Ramsdale – England
Eddie Nketiah _ England under 21s
Nuno Tavares – Portugal under 21s
Thomas Partey – Ghana
Mohammed Elneny – Egypt
Nichola Pepe – Ivory coast
Just enough left for a 6 a side if Arteta joins in It would have been quicker to list those not going.
Hi Rico.. Our women are live on Arsenal.com! Come on!!!
Final score 4 -1 to Barcelona. 😕
Seems that Arsenal are playing QPR in a 1st team friendly today.
That’s good Kev, the squad players need game time.
New post up now