Morning all.
Tough game today I think. With Mikel Arteta ending his football career at Arsenal under Arsene Wenger and beginning his coaching career alongside Pep Guardiola, it’s easy to lose sight of the many years he spent being coached by David Moyes. Not the first name to spring into mind when thinking of quality football managers but Moyes is no fool. Whether or not this season will turn out to be one of his best yet remains to be seen but it’s fair to say he’s turned West Ham into a difficult team to beat. Looking at his squad, a few player names jump out by name alone but in amongst them are others who don’t necessarily have such a recognisable name. We all know about Antonio, Rice and Fabianski to name a few but who was Tomas Soucek before he arrived in London last summer? I’d certainly not heard of him but then I’d not watched the clubs he was on loan at. Now he’s bossing the West Ham midfield. He’s big, strong and dangerous. Many of David Moyes players are physically strong players. Just how they’d have coped with a similar amount of fixtures we’ve had though I don’t know.
West Ham last played a week ago. A tough game admittedly as was ours in the end but they’ve had a week off. Arsenal however played on Thursday night. No complaints of course as we all want the club to be in European but juggling both isn’t always easy. Tierney looked knackered against Olympiakos but I strongly suspect he’ll play again today but at least Partey and Ødegaard had a bit of rest, it’s just a shame they were needed towards the end of Thursday’s game. Luiz, Xhaka and Gabriel have played a lot of football of late, as has Xhaka. So yes, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see a few changes today. Saka faces a late fitness test but I don’t think he’ll be risked. If he misses today’s game there’s a strong possibility he’ll miss the international fixtures too. Good.
Holding, Mari, Martinelli, Lacazette, Cedric, Willian, Ryan and even Nelson and Eddie are all available if Mikel Arteta wants to freshen up the squad.
West Ham are unlikely to press us high up the pitch. Their concentration seems to be on being very disciplined defensively with the midfield and defensive lines sticking close together in order to prevent the opposition from enjoying space. It’s up to Arsenal to break those lines, get in behind their defenders and then make them pay. Ødegaard and ESR are our tricksters so let’s see what they can do. When West Ham break after gaining possession, they do so hard and fast. That’s when Soucek, Antonio and Rice can cause big problems. Right back Coufal will be a tougher obstacle for Tierney and ESR than Doherty was last Sunday I’m sure.
The last ten to fifteen minutes of last Sunday’s fixture was poor. Nerves, panic, the fear of losing against that lot – whatever it was, needs ridding of. Staying calm, maintaining composure and keeping things simple will see out out games. Anything else and mistakes creep in. Silly fouls in dangerous areas are foolish. There’s no point in being defensively organised for 85 minutes if a moment of madness undoes it all. Up front, take our chances and take a chance. There’s a reason Arsenal fans had a nickname for the now West Ham keeper so test him early. Better still, beat him early.
I think the game itself will be cat and mouse, Arsenal with a lot of possession with West Ham just sitting back in wait to hit us on the break. We’ve beaten them once this season, let’s beat them again.
COYG’S
Nice one, Rico 👍
The thought of seeing Jon Moss AND Jessie Lingard…ugh!!
Just to get us in the mood, the U23s are on @1pm.. live on YouTube
https://twitter.com/Everton/status/1373582659251662853?s=20
Thanks Sue and for the YouTube link. Think I’ll watch a bit of that.
Ironically Tomas Soucek was linked with Arsenal before he left Slavia on loan but I believe Emery was not in favour . Perhaps with the long list of I nearly signed players that Wenger keeps repeating this is one for his successor.
I think today will be hard fought and I can’t see past a draw , Moss is the type of ref that lets physical challenges go . But I am sure that won’t apply to Xhaka , Luiz or Bellerin who seem sto be a yellow card favourite at the moment.
Nice to see the site woke up after breakfast , welcome back.
Back safe and sound Rico. 😉
No prediction from me, other than Fatty Moss will award us four penalties and rule out any goals scored by The Hammers other than own goals.
Afternoon Rico and the House
Good to see you up nice and early today Rico.
I have just seen the u23 team for the game against Everton
I will just say its going to be a uphill fight.
Ah, here you all are, thanks for the link Rico, yes Ballard is a very good, traditional centre half, who could well be a part of Arsenal’s plans going forward. He’s still young for a centre back and that position is unforgiving so maybe we’ll loan him out next season to a championship club or maybe a lower EPL club, give him one more year of experience and making mistakes elsewhere and then perhaps he’ll be ready for us?
McGuinness and Clarke are the same, Clarke may actually surprise a few as he’s gone under the radar at Oldham but plays every game in a back three or occasionally a back four, he looks more the modern type of centre back who can also play def/mid, but we are lucky to have three such talented defenders coming through.
U23 on You Tube
Where on You tube Kev?
Hi Rick, all.
It’s good to be back guys. Lol
I’ll be very surprised if we get anything against the Hammers today.
Cicero, just search for Everton and the game will come up.
Let’s go and pop some bubbles!! COYG
(Argh, the blue kit 😫)
Team to play West Ham:
Leno, Tierney, Mari, Chambers, Luiz, Partey, Xhaka, Saka, Odegaard, Aubameyang, Lacazette.
Subs: Ryan, Gabriel, Holding, Ceballos, Cedric, Pepe, Elneny, Smith Rowe, Martinelli.
Got it, thanks Rico.
I recommend turning the volume down Cicero. 😂
If Balogun thinks he’s worth £40k pw then good luck with finding a club that’ll pay that…
John Henry Francis (17) looks promising, in his Smith Rowe socks…
Is that Francis Jeffers on the bench among the coaching staff?
Trae Coyle is a very average footballer despite the hype about him, I’ve never seen him as 1st team potential and Gillingham didn’t either…
Coyle delivers a good free kick though Kev.
Just switched over but if that’s the little guy in the middle, number 10 I thought he looked quite tidy too.
Doh, I though we kicked off at 2-30.
Back with the U23’s again.
Free kick in a really dangerous area for Arsenal
Does he Rico? 🤔
Lopez should have scored
No subs for Arsenal, Everton have used all 3
I thought so Kev. We’re certainly better this half and should be level by now.
Yes Rico, the No.10, he’s the baby of the team and looks to have some potential, but this team I see full of quite a few very average footballers
What a goal from Balogun.
We deserved that, totally dominant this half.
Defending is our problem at U23
Put a few around better players Kev, or those further along in their career and they might improve quickly.
Bellerin and William injury?
But look at who we have on loan though, they’d make this team look so much better at the back.
Did you read the ESR interview with Jamie Redknapp Kev?
Should have won but stopped the rot, a good 2nd half by the Gunners.
No Rico, I’ll look it up
Lovely goal by Balogun.
U23s a little betterthen ithought it would be.
I only saw the second half, Arsenal were well in control.
Oops 1 – 0. Make that 2 – 0
We are all over the place it seems.
What a poor poor start.
Leno asleep for the second. Beaten low at the near post.
the whole defence is asleep Cicero. Not only Leno.
Saka rowing with ref .
The whole team are slumbering.
0-3 down. does anyone have an alarm so that we can wake them up??
3 – 0 Throw the towel in Arteta.
Goal 1 came from the right. Goal 2 came in from the left. Goal 3 came in from the centre. Perfect……for them not us
1-3….Lacazette has scored
Laca makes it 3 – 1
Did someone say Aubameyang was in the starting eleven? Haven’t seen much of him.
How can Moss allow them to take a quick free kick when he’s in conversation with one of our players?
Well that was a prime example of what can happen if you’re not prepared properly for a game because we looked an absolute shambles. I haven’t seen us start a game like that since Wenger was in charge, where was the communication between the players, where was the urgency and do we actually have a captain out there organising and cajoling his team mates?
And yet at the end we should have been only one goal down, yep Saka’s one weakness, he can’t score goals…
At least you haven’t seen much…..I have seen nothing of Auba.
I wanted t hold back from commenting on him…..but its reality. The left hand side with him looks unbalanced. He is not playing. End of. Not not playing well. He is simply not playing. What has he got?? A chip on his shoulder? Has he got the hump? Cant be arsed??
Its Either him or Laca up front. For me it would be LACA all the way
At least Chambers got an assist. I am happy for him. He might be a squad player….but he gives his 100% worth all the time.
3-2 down. And Laca’s goal has been chalked off and goes down as an own goal by Soucek. Now Dawson has scored an own goal as well…..so WHU have got all 5 goals. Now we need another one to go to3-3
Let’s have Martinelli on for Aubameyang.
we are tightening the screw…..if we had been awake and concentrating we would have been 2-0 up.
Yes Cicero….we need Martinelli on for Auba…..ASAP not in the last few minutes.
81st miute Martinelli on for Auba.
Should have been earlier.
3-3
LACAAAAAAAAAAA
3 – 3. Laca!
Afternoon all, any goals yet? Weird weird game, whatever happens in last 5 mins, at last we have had a right back putting the ball across like Tierney does on the left. Great play Chambers.
yes Andrew…Chambers had a hand in both the first two Arsenal goals.
Game over 3-3.
We should have won this game if we were not napping for 15-30th minute in the first half. All three goals were giveaways. We just told them ‘here have the ball and score’
Chambers, Ødegaard and Lacazette. Really really good imo.
My question is ‘why weren’t we prepared at the start?’
That’s either on the manager or captain. Or both.
Ashamed to say I nearly turned off before half time! Odegaard is as good as Aubameyang is frustrating, I would bench him for a while. If only Chambers could continue like that…….. it would be like a new player 🙂
Andrew…I said it after the Burnely game…..Arteta should concentrate on getting a LB who can rotate with Tierney and leave Chambers and Soares to share the RB slot between them for next season. Bellerin can be sold to finance another player position. Because both Chambers and Soares offer a solid presence and none of them stands above the other. Both offer different styles according to tactics. And both are needed.
I wonder if that’s why we haven’t seen much of Chambers, Arteta has been working on him as a right back.
Silly game , abject first half hour then started playing. Could have won could have lost all part of the Arsenal roller coaster ride
I posted several times (and it was one of the reasons why we didn’t win games in the Emery era), that a Laca-Auba duo doesn’t work. In fact, Emery tried the pair several times with alternatives and they didn’t work. I challenged those who have time, to write down how many points and victories they accumulate with this pair and to relate them to the number of completed games that they both finished.
Whenever I see this team again, “I wrinkle my nose”. In short: they do not match.
Ironically, there were only 3-3 when a pair broke up.
Luiz, was always badly positioned in all goals. It was mainly due to his reaction to the game.
There are players with “too many games on their legs” and this is reflected in their performance.
Losing 3-0 and reaching 3-3 is always a good thing; however, it seems to me that in general we were superior, but we forget that, on the other side, there are 11 players, who want to win and who we cannot give gifts,
It might be that Rico. Same with Martinelli. Its going to be a busy summer with regards the revolving door. And maybe a few surprises along the way…..some solutions could be internal ones and already at the club.
I reckon too Rick re the revolving door and finding internal solutions, especially if we don’t finish in a European place because money will be tight I’d imagine.
Looks like our FA Cup record is safe for a year or two more. Leicester beating Utd 3-1
Chambers deserved the high praise he got from the pundits. Such a long way back from his bad ACL injury. He seems a good guy, so whether it’s at full back (where I still remember him being skinned and repeatedly pulling shirts to stop wingers), or CB or DM, I’d love him to come through.
Its afunny old game
Abject for 32 minutes thereafter the Arsenal were pretty impressive. Should have won but could have lost, so draw probably a fair result. (Whatever that means.)
I’ll just offer an award for m o t m. Let’s hear it for John, lm not fat I’m tubby, Moss. I thought he had a blinder…..for us😂
Afternoon all.
Didn’t he just Wavy. Moss had more of an impact on our game than our captain. 😆
On one hand I want us to win the Europa Lge as it would be another tin pot added to our list of honours.
But at the same time I am concerned because that would mean we go in the CL. And are we ready for that??? If we are in the group games in Europa league we get some easy games which can be used to bed youngsters in. The only snag is that they play on thrursday.
On the other hand CL gives us good money and with a good run we can fetch up to 50million plus.
If we do qualify for the CL, we’d have more money to sign players. Not that I think we’re likely to win the Europa Cup.
My question is ‘why weren’t we prepared at the start?’
Aubameyang was driving the team bus and the real players arrived 20 minutes late.
Once the cardboard cut outs went we controlled the match for long periods and kept going to get back the three. Which brings me to the question if we can play to the finish when we are losing how come when we are one goal up we become nervous wrecks for the last 15 minutes.
Answers on a post card please.
I sure wish someone had the answer Potter.
If as Lacazette alluded, Arteta prepared them for the game, is it simply a case of the wrong players or just the wrong attitude from a few? I don’t like to keep harping on about Aubameyang but he’s our captain for goodness sake and yet it looks like he couldn’t give a toss. The most energy I saw him use was celebrating Lacazette’s goal after he’d been subbed.
Sheesh, Rico, what a game! Great for the neutrals…
I’m happy with the comeback, but after going 3-0 down after such a lethargic start was unacceptable! What on earth was wrong with them all?!!
Have to thank the hammers for their brace 😃 Laca’s header was a beauty!!
Need this fortnight off to get over today and prepare myself for the scouser game!!
Good old Leicester 😉
Sue I agree in that for the neutral it was quite a game, especially as there were no fans but from an Arsenal perspective, it’s worrying.
Mathematically, we are no longer able to win the League.
Laca just scored the 11th goal (today’s first did not count). In the previous year, he scored 10.
In my “stubbornness”, I keep saying that the double duo is Laca-Martinelli. In fact, if you remember correctly, Martinelli’s best performances were when he played with Laca and not with any other player or “alone2 in front.
I know almost nothing about Balogun to speak.
JM you read the game exactly as I read it. Because I am of the same opinion as you are with regards LAca. Personally I would prefer that Arteta sells Auba and keeps Laca. 1) Laca is 3 years younger. 2) other players prefer playing with him as front spearhead. 3) Him and Auba together do not work. 4) Auba can fetch a good amount of money because he is a finisher (?)
I don’t understand why there’s a suggestion that Aubameyang and Lacazette can’t play together because under Wenger and Emery they did and were scoring plenty of goals. Defensively we were poor but we scored goals, certainly more than we’re scoring these days.
Morning all,
Rico, I don’t think Auba can play alongside anyone atm 🙂
I thought he wanted out when his contract extension negotiations dragged on, and while he stayed, maybe that’s because nobody else wanted him.
He should be benched now-enough is enough.
We can all come up with theories why the boys were so woeful early, but these things just happen at times.
There doesn’t need to be an explanation, or a reason, it just happens.
At least they showed the ticker to fight back and from 3-0 down, it is a massive effort.
Scott, I don’t think he can either. The drop in his form is staggering.
There has to come a time when Arteta says enough is enough with him surely.
Don’t think I agree re the ‘it Just happens’ theory, the players were half asleep at kick off which is unprofessional imo.
I agree Rico, it is worrying. We can’t keep playing 45 minute football!!
We can’t Sue but sadly I think we will for a while yet.
Just testing
The reason Aubameyang and Lacazette can no longer play together is that Aubameyang has gone into premature voluntary retirement. His only notable action was in fact an inaction, when he made no discernible attempt to jump for a cross from the right.
I don’t agree with the idea of benching him, he should be dropped completely and have the captaincy removed too.
All credit to the rest of the team for fighting back from 3 – 0 down to take a point and congratulations to Calumn Chambers, our Man of the Match.
I get that Cicero but the suggestion seems to be it has to be one or the other rather than both. I don’t think now is the time to strip him of the captaincy but probably the summer when his age and form, if it continues, Might mean his playing time will be less. That’s if he stays of course and I don’t think he will.
JM, I absolutely agree with you in regard to Aubameyang and your preference for Martinelli.
When it comes to which of Lacazette and Aubameyang we should sell, at present the former would command the higher transfer fee, the latter is a busted flush so his value in the transfer market has plummeted.
A bad week for Man U, out of Europe and out of the F A Cup too. Old Red Nose would be chewing the office carpet.
What’s that advertising jingle? “I’m lovin it”. 😁
Utd are still in Europe Cicero
I said this match will show us how we are doing this season and all I can say is go Laca
Just a question was either the ball under control or was Kane on the pitch when Dean gave the penalty and where is the media uproar that followed the Lacazette one last week
Martinelli was right behind Lacazette when he headed the equaliser
Martinelli is ready-time to pull the trigger.
He’s been brought along brilliantly in recent months, imo, and now is the time.
I saw in interview with Tierney and he rates Arteta a footballing genius, and goes on to say the differences in the mentality and how the process (yes, its word of the month lol) is a long, slow one that will reap rewards if it isn’t already.
Would we have come back from 3 down
6-12-18 months ago?
No.
Scott, didn’t we come back from 2-0 to beat West Ham under Emery, or was it Villa.
We were scoring more goals under Emery so the chances are we might have come back, but we’ll never know.
Scott it depends on whether the opposition helped us by scoring 2 goals for us LOL
My mistake Rico, but I’m sure Granada we get the job done. 😉
I hope so Cicero. We’ll need all the help we can get to win it.
New post up now
https://highbury-house.com/2021/03/22/best-game-of-the-season-for-the-neutral/
Morning all
Geoff, they were under pressure and we’d have scored anyway.
We don’t get bonus points when they’re not own goals, or do we 😉
I honestly think they can play together but it often depends on the opposition and some of our best results under Arteta have come with Lacazette and Aubameyang playing together, but that doesn’t mean that if the opportunity arises that we shouldn’t sell one or both of them this summer. There is so much work for Edu and Arteta to do this summer and probably next and if they do what is needed 75% of the current 1st team squad could be different by the time we kick off the season in 2022/23.