Morning all.
Our match on Thursday night has been postponed but Sunday’s game against Brentford will go ahead, albeit at midday instead of 2pm. I’m glad the Premier League along with both clubs have managed to sort this out because having to somehow fit three additional fixtures into an early busy season wouldn’t have been ideal, especially as other European and domestic fixtures would have been played. I totally understand why the PSV Eindhoven match is off because London is going to be busier than ever before. 10,000 police officers are expected to be on duty in London every minute of the next 5/6 days.
Chelsea’s home game with Liverpool and Leeds United’s trip to Manchester United have been called off. Brighton against Crystal Palace had already been called off because of rail strikes and remains postponed.
The Women’s Super League kicks off this weekend. Like the Premier League, the weekend’s fixtures were postponed so instead of facing Man City in the season opener, it’ll be Brighton & Hove Albion Women who Arsenal face.
Brentford, with their big, strong and in-form striker Ivan Toney have had a mixed start to the season. They’ve thrashed Man Utd 4-0 but were beaten by Fulham. Much fuss was made of last season’s performance by Arsenal on the opening day of the 2021/2022 season, justifiably so in my opinion as Arsenal were toothless in every department. Admittedly, we had a number of injuries as well as a couple out through Covid but even so, the performance was disappointing. 65% possession, 22 shots, 4 on target.
Five of that starting eleven won’t be anywhere near Brentford on Sunday as they’ve either gone for good or out on loan. It was Ben White debut day and it didn’t go at all well and Leno had a game to forget. To be honest, most of them did. ESR was the only one who stood out for Mikel Arteta’s team.
Fast forward a year and the squad looks very different. Mikel’s first choice first eleven, going from our opening few fixtures this season, is very different. It’s different to his first choice eleven when every player was fit last season too. That’s what a good summer transfer has done.
But, and annoyingly, the same old ‘can’t convert opportunities to goals’ is still apparent. Should we as fans be concerned already? Let’s be honest, we should have beaten Man Utd and the other matches we’ve won over the past few weeks, could and probably should have been by a greater scoreline. The creative side of this Arsenal team is possibly the best we’ve seen since Santi Cazorla or Cesc Fabregas were in the team, but it’s just the final piece of the jigsaw, which is yet to really click. However, unlike this time last season when a certain striker who is now at Chelsea, was sulking his way through a game, or Alex Lacazette, who let’s face it, struggled to be in the right place at the right time, let alone score, we have two strikers who cause problems for the opposition. Both Nketiah and Jesus are always on the move and with Odegaard, Saka and Martinelli pulling the strings around them, surely it’s only a matter of time before the goals begin to flow.
Isn’t it?
See you in the comments.
Good day Rico, Brentford away will not be an easy game but at this stage we don’t want walkovers, we need to get on with playing our game and get the M U match out of our heads by beating our opponents descicivly. If that means swapping Nketiah for Jesus all well and good.
Afternoon Rico and all,
A good win away at Brentford this weekend will show that Man u lose was a small hiccup.
Afternoon Cicero, Geoff, all.
Yep, anything but a win won’t do us any good whatsoever. Toney v Saliba should be interesting.
We suit Brentford’s style. They’ll sit off like United did and try to catch us with a break or a free kick.
We need to take our chances and be wary of a long ball over the top.
Going back to the previous post . Remember Spurs were eliminated from the conference for not playing their fixture.
Agree Pete,
Potter, didn’t they mess about when trying to rearrange their fixture though and were happy to forfeit it?
Spurs beaten two nil by Sporting.
Just seen, hilarious..
The period of mourning and cancellations has taken everything else out of the headlines and has made things quiet not only here but everywhere on the news and the general media. The blanket coverage is now struggling to find anything new to say .
Last night our neighbours got a last minute blast in Lisbon twice and at that bastion of national pride the minutes silence lasted about 30 seconds before the noise and chanting caused it to be curtailed early.
It now seem s that October 20th is the new date for the PSV match so at least it will be played in between two away games at Leeds and Southampton .
Still I reckon that will appear in Rico’s next post , so we can comment then.
It is Potter, only because of your prompting. Lol
New post up.