Morning all.
Everything went right for Mikel Arteta and his players on Wednesday night. The fans were brilliant, the players gave a bit extra and even a decision or two went our way which in itself is unusual. The result topped off what was a perfect night. Any win over Totts is perfect in my opinion.
Mikel Arteta:
Brilliant. I loved it. I said it before, that’s in our hands. We can look and feel sorry about what’s happening with injuries or the referees, but what is in our hands, let’s make sure that we do it and I saw a different bite to our crowd, a different body language. We were on top of every ball, we created atmosphere with and without the ball and we had real purpose. We were screaming and going into every ball in a very different way and I must say that I loved it.
But, the approach the club/team had for the Totts game cannot be a one off just because the opposition live just down the road. It doesn’t matter who we face because every game is worth three points and in every game we need to fight hard for all of them.
This group of players need reminding that Villa were one of the clubs who put a huge dent in our league title chase last season. The game itself was much like a few of the performances we’ve seen this season. Tons of possession, plenty of goal scoring opportunities but no one to stick the ball into the back of the net. Jesus, Saka, Odegaard, Havertz, Trossard – they all spurned a chance or two to score. That was back in April last year. We go into this game today with Jesus and Saka. Plus, Nwaneri, Tomiyasu and White remain out. Calafiori is a doubt too.
Villa have been good at home having lost only one game which funny enough, was against us in August, but away from home they’ve struggled. A 1-0 victory over Everton at Goodison Park in the week was their first for a while.
Villa’s new signing Malen, could make his debut against his old club but McGinn, Carlos, Torres and Barkley are ruled out.
Mikel Arteta and his players should know what to expect from Unai Emery’s team today. They don’t press from the front as much as some other clubs do, instead, Emery deploys a mid block in attempt to prevent the opposition defence from passing forwards. A few lofted balls over the top of that block might work well, especially with the pace of Martinelli and Sterling.
In attack, Villa look for the through ball to Watkins or Duran so Gabriel and Saliba will need to be on their toes, however, if we win the battle in midfield, the through balls will be kept to a minimum. It’s probably on the break when we need to be careful. We need to win the battle full stop, put pressure on Villa both in and out of possession and cause them to buckle. Oh, and ping a few shots at Martinez early in the game and don’t let him settle. I look forward to seeing Havertz get at him..
Catch up in the comments.
Good morning Rico.
Every game we play for the rest of the season will be called “a big one”. Hopefully we will soon have Ben White back, Timber can the move to his preferred left back role and, who knows, MLS may move into midfield as an Odegaard back up.
100% effort this evening, nothing else will do.
Morning Cicero.
Absolutely, Trossard said we have to be near on perfect from now on. He’s right.
Afternoon Rico et al…
Yes Cicero I remember Manninger, he was very unlucky because Wenger never really trusted him above David Seaman.
I was thinking about Warmuz, remember him? No, me neither, I remember the name but I don’t think I ever saw him play, Rami Shaaban was another, our first Israeli footballer if I recall correctly?
I think he broke his leg in a game and never came back into the team? I’m sure you all have your favourites, personally, and I know this is another era, but I’m still scarred by George Wood…
Afternoon Kev,
Almunia used to scare me and to think he was once our number one keeper…
Manuel Almunia, yes Rico, there was talk at one time of Manuel making himself available to play for England (have I got that right?) something to do with residency laws if I recall.
People grumble about Arteta but nobody but nobody could not see the wood for the trees like Arsene, he was another level.
Remember how stubborn he was over signing a proper centre half? It was almost bordering on irresponsibility and wasn’t solved until we shipped 8 goals at Old Toilet.
The goalkeeper situation was also a joke after Jens left, he didn’t solve it until he signed Petr Cech who gave us one good year before his age caught up with him.
For a guy who was so smart he did also make a lot of dumb decisions.
Kev, I think Wenger was always fixated on finding another Thierry Henry, a virtually unknown forward he turned into World beater.
Did he succeed?
How about a six month loan for Karim Benzema? he’s only 37.😉
Kylian Mbappe, that’s the boy Cicero, he tried to sweet talk him into joining Arsenal when he was 16/17 but Arsene had lost his aura by then.
He made too many decisions in his latter Arsenal career that looked and were daft and consequently lost a lot of his credibility.
Ha ha Kev re Wenger, let’s not start on the defenders he signed latterly.
Gosh, Bournemouth are thumping Newcastle 4-1 at St James. There’s hope for our League Cup fixture yet. 😜
After all, Newcastle can concede 4 goals… and score one.
Let’s hope Malen doesn’t want to inform Arsenal, who shouldn’t have been sold to PSV.
Yes,all big games now but a level up from Spurs. The result in midweek gives me a lot of hope though.
I would go with a front 3 of Trossard,Martinelli and Havertz which is pretty much first choice from those available.
Bournemouth certainly showed the way to beat Newcastle,high energy from the word go and great finishing. Hopefully that will dent their confidence.
Totally agree we should look at the lower leagues in England. In recent years there haven’t been many. Rob Holding was never really a first choice for long but 98 appearances( I had to look that up) and an FA Cup win is not too shabby.
Going back further Steve Bould and Lee Dixon had great careers.
COYG
No Saliba, not even on the bench. Raya, Partey, Timber, Gabriel, MLS. Odegaard,Rice, Merino, Trossard, Martinelli, Havertz.
Has Saliba been sold to Real Madrid? They’re said to be interested in him.
He wasn’t in training so I guess he’s injured..
Partey at right back it seems.
AFC.com:
Gabriel Martinelli and Mikel Merino are both back into the starting lineup to face Aston Villa at Emirates Stadium on Saturday.
Raheem Sterling and William Saliba are the two to make way from the team that started the north London derby victory on Wednesday night. Sterling is among the subs, while Saliba misses out entirely – he had played every minute of our past seven games since December 21.
It means a defensive reshuffle, with Thomas Partey likely to start at right back, and Jurrien Timber partnering Gabriel in the middle. Myles Lewis-Skelly continues at left back after his storming display in midweek.
question :- Is Martinelli a better right winger than left or does he benefit from Odegaard the way that Saka does ?
By the look of that goal Potter, Martinelli doses well on the left.
I think having Martinelli and Trossard can make a difference. Usually it’s either or.
Odegaard certainly looks to be over his injury hangover.
Hhaaavvveeerrrttzy
I think we need to take Merino off and bring on Jorginho.
Berg 10, the original, is in the crowd.
Sh*t Watkins again! 2 – 2
2 goals down to Partey keeps losing his man
That’s a bit of shock..
Sterling to get the winner… 😂
Oh bloody hell Sterling coming on.
Martinelli off for Sterling you got to be joking
This is on a knife edge
I’m not sure that hit his arm.
So so disappointing…
looked like his hip to me Kev but there you go .
Funny how sometimes they take about 3 minutes over a VAR check and look hard to find a reason to cancel the goal,in this case they decided very quickly. I’ve seen a few replays and can’t decide.
I can’t decide either..
Given that it’s the 18th January and yes I hear all the guff about it being difficult to sign a striker in the January Window, but surely if they were going to do it, they would have done it by now?
So it’s not happening.
Having seen how Partey and Merino both lost their man the quicker we get Zubimendi the better…
Disappointed.
In my opinion, it doesn’t seem to me that we played badly, but I insist that, for example, in the corners, it would have been preferable to give the ball to the edge of the area for the shot than to be crossing into the “wet” with a goalkeeper of 2 meters. Odegard doesn’t shine. Stirling is a disaster. If I’m not mistaken, we’ll concede goals in 6 consecutive games. See if we decide, I think practically the Cahmapions League next Tuesday. And there is no possible solution at the bank. Given the scenario, it seems to me that we should go get not 1 but 2 players…
The Trossard foul was the start of the problem. No foul, no goal.
Kev, I think our transfer window opened after Jesus was injured.. Need another week at least…
If that’s true Rico then that’s a problem because our transfer window should have opened after Saka got injured, we should have someone in situ now, as Man City are on the point of doing so with the guy from Frankfurt.
Maybe it’s a lack of ambition from those above, an old chestnut but worth revisiting and could that realisation be the reason that Edu left?
Arteta keeps hinting at it and if he felt that the ownership wasn’t serious in matching his ambitions then I reckon he’ll be off.
And I wouldn’t blame him…
There is no plan B. And that’s down to the manager. The two weakest links among the regular starters are Partey and Merino.
I’m beginning to think that Arteta may have hit the buffers as far as tactics are concerned.
Maybe if we can sign a decent striker Arteta’s system can still work, if we don’t I reckon his time may be coming to it’s end.
Just my hunch though Kev. Should have been opened and ready on December 31st at midnight.
Partey at right back doesn’t really work. When White comes back it should help.
He’s been great in midfield. Re Merino, I’ve no idea what position he plays in. I’m not sure he does.
Saliba has a suspected hamstring injury..
Evening everyone. It’s been a football less day for me today sadly….or maybe not!!
I’ll have to watch the game on Arse.com as the comments on here are raking my curiosity.
Cicero, damn I missed the great non flying Dutchman. Pure class.
A disappointing result in terms of points but until I watch it back unfair for me to comment.
We’ve dropped a total of 12pts from winning positions :: Brighton H, City A, Dippers* H, Chavski A ,Brighton A, and today versus the Villa H: don’t win titles doing this.
There might be extenuating circumstances on some of these but as a pattern it shows an inability to close games when we are ahead.
Nicked then slightly amended ( keeping it clean ) from another forum.
Watch the highlights, our goal should have stood as it looks to me that it come off his chest, especially when last week or the week before in another match the player had his hand out to the side and they scored from it and that was ok.
Morning all.
I read somewhere that with Partey at right back, we’ve not won a game.
Moving him affects the whole team setup and how we play. He’s a midfielder for goodness sake. Why not play Kiwior in defence and leave Timber at right back? After all, what’s the point in Kiwior if Arteta doesn’t trust him enough?
I hate to say it but throwing away a two goal lead looks awfully Spursy. 😕
With two full backs, Tierney and Zinchenko, on the bench why not play one of them on the “wrong side” instead of putting Partey at right back? Simples!
I went to bed last night fairly depressed about Arsenal and woke up this morning and nothing has changed and I take it from the lack of activity that most of us feel the same .
The more I think about it the less I come to any conclusion that might in one foul sweep solve the problems . Really it is more than a striker , it’s about being able to close games out . We can all bitch and shout about whether in the eyes of John Brooks the ball hit Havertz ‘s hand but really it should not have mattered .
At two nil up we should not have been in the position to have to depend on a last minute goal to save our season , where is the nous that says hold possession keep control , don’t get caught to forward and if they do break track their runs .
Should that thinking come from our on the pitch captain or from our much lauded coaching staff or from the Manager himself.
One thing I know is that it would not have happened had TA6 been there or PV4 or for that matter with GG on the touchline .
We had Partey foraging into midfield and Merino playing forward , surely it was a case for Jorginho’s brains to slow the thing down and kill the game.
Still it is what it is , time for a mug of tea and further thoughts of sticking pins into a doll of John Brooks , yes the same John Brooks that was suspended for two weeks for making a mess of a VAR call earlier this season .
Lewis Skelly at right back seems do’able, then Tierney and Zinchenko can share the left-back.
Rico I think that the stat is that Arsenal have won 1 from 6 when Partey has been right back, maybe the other 5 were draws?
Trossard and Martinelli getting wide and putting crosses in instead of cutting inside and trying to get through the traffic seemed a Plan B to me and it would have worked if Merino and Partey had gone with their runners.
Still a lot of ambiguity over our disallowed goal, but then I did predict that the PGMOL would stop us if they could.
The 12 points we’ve dropped would have been 8 points if we’d not had Rice and Trossard harshly sent off.
He certainly had options other than Partey at right back..
As well as a striker we need to appoint a Director of Football, someone to hold Arteta to account and oversee his whole management of the squad.
Just a thought, Dennis Bergkamp was in the stand yesterday, could he be in the running?
I guess the ‘suits’ at Arsenal can safely hide behind Jason Ayto if we fail to make any significant signings this month, it’s always handy to have a patsy.
Kev, no disagreeing from me. We have options, albeit limited.
The logical thing to me though was playing Kiwior or Maldini in defence, leaving Timber at right back.
I’ve pretty much written the same in the new post Potter..
Guys, new post up.
I wish we knew for sure why Arsenal haven’t signed anyone this month. Reports in the mad sagest the money is there.