Morning all.
No Granit Xhaka and no Thomas Partey for the visit of Burnley this afternoon as both are serving suspensions. I’ve no idea what’s happening with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang but I doubt he’s been declared fit to play yet, not that he seems to be in Mikel Arteta’s plans anyway. Cedric Soares, Calum Chambers, Bernd Leno missed Thursday’s match against Liverpool so they could be a doubt for today too.
Burnley have problems of their own. Injuries and Covid 19 has seen them postpone a number of fixtures this season. Six in total I think and that’s just in the League. No wonder they’re rooted to the bottom of the League table. Even though they have the numbers required to play this fixture, fitness must be a concern for Sean Dyche. We saw against Liverpool what missing a few matches can do, especially after Covid.
The Premier League breaks for two weeks after today’s fixtures so we need to go off on a positive note. Off to somewhere warm and sunny I suspect. Two weeks to rest a bit, train a bit and dip toes into warm, clear waters. Of course I’m envious.
Our midfield engine room has been the weak spot for Arsenal for years. The club tried to resolve that during Unai Emery’s time by signing both Lucas Torreira and Matteo Guendouzi but for whatever the reason, they are no longer an option as both are on loan. That’s not to suggest either would be the solution today either, just because Xhaka and Partey are missing. I think the only way to solve our midfield woes is by signing a strong and athletic player who can read the game in a way Gilberto could. A player who has the intelligence to know how to play the officials. I’ve no idea if Arsenal will bring a midfielder in this month but they certainly need to. One minute we’re signing Arthur, the next, Max Allegri is quoted as saying he’s not for sale and with Aston Villa reported to be after Juventus defensive midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur, perhaps the chance of Arthur coming to Arsenal are getting slimmer by the day.
Bentancur by the way, is described as being a “dynamic, hard-working, skillful, elegant, and tactically versatile midfielder, who is comfortable using either foot. He’s a tall and “physically strong” player, who is capable of playing in any midfield position, including as a defensive midfielder.”
So we’re back to the debate of who plays in midfield other than Sambi Lokonga. Ben White, Calum Chambers or ESR/Martin Odegaard? I think it’ll be one of the latter two.
Goals have been hard to come by this month. We’ve scored just the one which was against Man City. The really disappointing game was against Nottingham Forest when we couldn’t find a way past their keeper. Liverpool at The Emirates was similar because when chances came, we didn’t take them.
That’s why I think we as a club will struggle to secure a top four spot this season, even with other clubs having domestic cup and European fixtures to contend with. Ramsdale, White, Tomiyasu, Gabriel and Tierney, as good as they are, need help and protection from their midfield but they’re not always getting it. They’ll get even less support today without Partey and Xhaka. That’s not me knocking the others but Sambi is in his first season of English football and the others aren’t defence minded players.
ESR is our highest goal scorer with 9 goals, Saka and Aubameyang are second, both with 7 and after that, it’s both Lacazette and Nketiah with 5 thanks to the League Cup run. Of course we need goals from every position on the pitch but we also need a 20+ goals a season player.
Arsenal might, and I emphasise the word might, be able to muddle through today against a Burnley team who haven’t played that many games and are possibly lacking match fitness etc but when it comes to facing the likes of West Ham, Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea, Villa, Wolves etc, I think we could struggle a bit if the club don’t do something in this transfer window.
For today though, it’s all about getting three points on the board before we head into the break.
See you in the comments.
Morning Rico and all
We should win this match pretty comfortable, I would go as far as to start both Saka and ESR and test the fitness of the Burnley team in the first half
Hi Rico.. Tomiyasu has withdrawn from International duty.. so we’ll be without him today ☹
Things I don’t want to see today:
1) Brain farts
2) Red cards
3) Gifting Burnley their first win in about a year 🤣
4) Making them look like prime Barca
Yeah right! I’ll be glad to see the back of January; been an awful month on the pitch
Good morning Rico, Yep the “process”, as some like to call it, has seen the squad stripped down to the bare bones. We’ve shipped out players with no thought to their replacements and by the looks of things not much chance of signing our supposed targets.
Juventus are desperate to un-load one of their midfielders, Ramsey anybody? 🤣🤣🤣
Morning all.
A win will do nicely.
3-1.
Morning all and Rico, it’s amazing how one result can affect the mood of football supporters and I’m sure it’s the same for most clubs but we do as a supporter base seem to vacillate between ‘top four certainties’ and ‘it’s all gone to pot’ as our message of the day. 😀
That fine, it’s normal, I was also pretty pissed off myself after Thursday and what with the transfer circus that is Dusan Vlahovic and Arthur Melo it all seems like everything is against us atm.
Late goals for the Scum and Mancs just rubs in a bit more salt into our emotional wounds and the spectre of an industrial team like Burnley rocking up doesn’t help our nervous tension. 😬
Tomiyasu is out I’m hearing but Chambers should be fit, in midfield Bertie Lokonga is having to grow up fast and up front we have the Invisible Man at centre forward.
As Lacazette spends most of his time in midfield maybe Arteta should team Laca with Bertie as a pair in centre-mid and play Eddie up front on his own.
Enjoy the game from behind your settee… 😁
Morning all.
Today’s result should be 3-0, nah 3-1!
But we are the club that likes to give, aren’t we? Burnley at home should be a foregone conclusion, only one possible outcome… a home win, however, if we don’t turn up I can see the headlines now. ..”the project’s dead, Arteta out, same old Arsenal fail again,”etc etc. please spare us that kind of disgrace, please!
It’s absolutely crucial, if we have aspirations to the top four that we win today and win comfortably. Here’s hoping😊
Love the new font Rico, it’s not so aggressive and has the knack of calming my fevered brow when reading anything about the Arsenal. ( Particularly the negative stuff).
Is the game to be found anywhere on tv or the web today?
The fact that Burnley are bottom of the league is largely due to the number of their games that have been postponed. It is not a true reflection of the Burnley players or of their manager, nor necessarily of the teams fitness. Although they might be a bit rusty they should not be treated lightly, Sean Dyche will have them raring to go and we can expect a hard fought battle with cards-a-plenty for both sides.
Late tonight Wavy, an hour of highlights on Sky.
Morning Kev, Sue, Cicero, Geoff.
I too think we underestimate Burnley at our peril. Their players will no doubt be ready to fight for their PL survival as well as just being glad to be back playing.
Glad you like the new font Wavy. 😀
Sue, I didn’t know there was any international football right now.
Thanks Cicero. I’m on it! Unless……..!
I’m a very bad loser😤
Afternoon rico, belated birthday wishes! Couldn’t face reading anything Arsenal for 24 hours after midweek. So here we are, still without defensive midfielders. May get away with it if we can be bright offensively and score 2 or 3 goals. Certainly don’t want to be protecting a 1-0 with 10 minutes left.
Afternoon Andrew, thank you.
The loss to Liverpool was hard to stomach wasn’t it, especially seeing Partey sent off.
World cup qualifiers, Rico..
After our game the team are off to Dubai for warm-weather training. Alright for some; I’d love to be somewhere hot right now – Florida or Tenerife would suffice 😉
Wavy.. I shall be watching on Hesgoal
Thanks Sue. How crazy though whilst we have a break.
Ditto, I’d love to be dipping my toes into warm waters. Not a bad life being a footballer eh.
The Fiorentina fixture is feisty. Lol
Is hesgoal any good Sue, or dodgy?
Arsenal XI: Ramsdale, Tierney, White, Gabriel, Saka, Odegaard, Lacazette, Smith Rowe, Holding, Sambi Lokonga, Martinelli.
Subs: Leno, Tavares, Chambers, Nketiah, Alebiousu, Biereth, Oulad M’hand, Hutchinson, Patino
It’s not too bad, Rico, get the odd buffer which is to be expected..
Very young bench
Burnley are stronger than I was expecting.
Can’t stand ex-Stoke Pieters or Lennon for obvious reasons!
David Coote officiating – he’s useless, right?!
With Odegard and ESR in the line up at the same time we don’t win any game.
Very light in midfield, but I suppose that’s the best we’ve got available.
Aren’t they all Sue? 😕
Yes, Cicero!! Although some are worse than others..
They’re all young Sue. 😜
Hahaha, very good!!!
Fans pumped up and the players look set for a good
I get a ‘download vpn’ message Sue.
I can’t even get on it now, Rico, it won’t connect for some reason – never happened before. Been told to try VIPLounge.. I’m just listening to the commentary on Arsenal.com (I don’t like it 😀)
I can’t either Sue, perhaps it’s been hacked. Lol
Haha maybe, Rico.
Still dirty sods aren’t they?!
29 minutes in Burnley picked up there 3rd yellow card already.
Westwood was lucky it was only yellow, Geoff
And to think we have more red cards than this lot 😱
Why am I not surprised there’s bookings Geoff/Sue, other than they’re not given to us. 😜
Shooting is off, Laca, Tierney, over the top. Burnley lucky not 10 men, ref bottled it.
Have we looked like scoring?
Premier League Discipline since 2 January 2019 (the last time Burnley got a red card) Games played Arsenal 114 Burnley 111 Fouls Arsenal 1131 Burnley 1111 Red cards Arsenal 14 Burnley 0
Wow..
Great run by Laca but wayward finish. No room, just counted 10 Burnley in box. Tierney trod on earlier for yellow, then another poor challenge. Saka just nearly scored!
Rob Holding’s new hairline to save us in the second half with a bullet header?! 😜
Still need a striker then.. 😂
We look like we stuck in first gear, only one shot close to scoring, Burnley lucky their not down to 10 men
Sue Burnley very lucky they’re player never got a second yellow card,
We need to attack more and not keep passing backwards.
Rico a dedicated striker would not go a stray
I tried to follow the game on the Arsenal site, but it’s just pathetic. Trying to follow on BBC Sport but it’s not much better.
Think I’ll give up and go and prepare the potatoes and sprouts to go with the roast lamb with mint sauce. Not forgetting the bottle of Bordeaux. 😉
Thought so Geoff.
You might need more than a little bottle later Cicero.
Come on Palace!
ESR great shot shame it didn’t go in, we look like we have found second gear,
Laca missed a setter
Great save great from ESR.
Laca, after fantastic ESR run, just wide.
You can take Pieters out of Stoke…
I hope there’s 20 mins added time. Lol
Horrible horrible team.
12 Arsenal corners, can remember getting to just one of them!
Another hack by Lennon, no card!!
No question now, Striker needed ahead of midfielder.
Note to Kroenke you may want to hold off that extension to Arteta contract
That’s a bad result for Arsenal.
Things are going downhill quite quickly it seems.
There’s something not right at Arsenal.
They’ve had 1 win all season…
Andy Carroll is a free agent, he may be a bit of a dinosaur but he would be a presence in the box and would give opposition defenders something to worry about.
Benitez is available.
😬
And people actually wonder how we have such a tally of red cards-just watch our games and it’s obvious but it’s also easier to blame those representing our club and not the filth who’s job it is to be neutral.
ESR was lifting the team and creating chances but gets taken off.
Andy Carroll?
Is he still even playing???
Wow.
1. Agree with Geoff and many others, that an extension to Arteta is not justified at all.
2. I don’t agree with the striker panic. We made 34 crosses today, out of them 3 were accurate. This match was one in the huge list of games where we couldn’t really create many real chances and wasted our possession on ineffective crosses. For me it’s less of an execution deficiency, but a planning failure.
3. I don’t want to be unfair to Saka, but his primary skill appears to be drawing faults.
4. I was hoping to see more of Chambers, or one of the youngsters from the bench (Pation, Salah). I’m disappointed for making a single substitution only.
Certainly need something , lots of aimless passing and crosses to no-one . Saka and Maryinelli too wide just trying to cut in and get the curling shot . Easy to defend against especially when the defence dwarfs the forwards.
20 e + games later and it’s hard to see (not even looking at the stats…) that we can’t win a game with ESR+Odegard on the same team. And the reason, in my opinion, is that the 2 together don’t add anything, being worth 1.
We also don’t learn anything from the defeat at Forest. Game starting with the centre-backs, no ideas, no speed, pressured, the ball doesn’t move. Helped without right defense to give fluidity to this side, worse.
Then, we don’t shoot when we can and in the end, in desperation, you try to shoot anyway.
Corners: it’s not clear why they didn’t score more like the one that almost scored: they insisted on crosses in which Burnley felt very comfortable.
Haven’t seen the game but I can imagine how it played out. Yawn…
Don’t think I’ll tune into MOTD, Rico 😆Jammy Scousers [again].. wouldn’t surprise me if the Spuds win
Rico. Yawn is a perceptive summary.
I shan’t bother either Sue. Seen too many minutes like today’s already by the sounds of it.
I’m still yawning from Thursday Adam.
Joaquim Moreira, my thoughts exactly. But I think it’s not evident for Arteta and the majority of the fans.
Similar was Wenger’s downfall. He had 2 only players above 50M, Laca and Auba. He tried to squeeze them into the same team, but it backfired more than it succeeded. Laca’s only position is ST, and while Auba is more versatile, he is not among the top 5 LWs of the PL. But Arsene didn’t want them to substitute each other, and the rest is history.
Arteta’s nightmare has the same blueprint. His 2 best players are Ode and ESR. (There are other candidates, but let’s not debate on that now.) But they are simply not effective in the same team. 2 AM’s are just luxury, and Smith-Rowe is not that lethal on the wing alone.
Just think about are best games in the season.
– ARS-NOR 5:0 – ESR didn’t start (came on in 82′)
– LEEDS-ARS 1:4 – ESR didn’t start (came on in 78′)
– ARS-SOU 3:0 – ESR didn’t play at all
– ARS-WHU 2:0 – ESR didn’t start (replaced Odegaard at 66′)
– LEI-ARS 0:2 – Ode didn’t start (came on in 58′, already at 0:2)
I think we’ve all seen arsenal play better with Odegaard or ESR rather than both but without Partey or Xhaka, Arteta was left with few options.
Saka badly needs time out , hopefully this break will liven him up . All we are seeing is a few flashes here and there. He needs to be more involved . Still there’s only 8 more home matches , 9 away and 7 days to do something about it.
Eight isn’t it? Arsenal won’t be busy until the 8th day.
There’s a song in there somewhere. 😂
You hum it Rico and I’ll play it
Ha ha Kev, I can’t remember the words. Hazel O’Connor sang it though.
– I didn’t understand why we didn’t play Chambers on the right
– Not knowing the other players, I would have balanced the midfield with Tavares or started with Nketiah.
– Laca already has a hard time playing as Nº 9
Jm, Nketiah looks like he’s got one foot out the door already. Might as well bring Biereth through now.
JM,
Didn’t you tell us Tavarez was worth £1 when we bought him, and now he should have started?
I don’t mean to single you out, but here is the prime example of the hypocrisy social media and football blogs.
We all make comments, we all make ridiculous statements at some stage and they never come back to bite us yet we take managers to task every time things go wrong.
With all the experience following the game, I am still amazed at how easy people think it is to run a club.
Damn, many Arsenal fans throw the towel in quicker than the English cricket side 🙂 🙂 🙂
Happy to judge the performance of Arteta and Edu on transfers when the TW window actually closes, by the way.
Many start moaning on January 4th when we have signed anyone but I go back to my earlier point-things aren’t as easy in real life as Xbox makes them appear so let’s give it another week and see where we end up.
Rico just watch the highlights and you will be happy after that you will start yawning
Ha ha Geoff, I will.
Who is Biereth?
Scott: he should have played to balance the team physically and positionally. It’s not the best solution, but it’s what’s available. Until they leave, all players have to be focused to play
JM, your point is well made-we can only make do with what we have.
We all know we need strengthening and the club is working on it, no question.
Still, better to NOT buy for the sake of it unless it’s the right player.
Did anyone see the Chavs first goal today?
Incredible strike from a little distance.
We have players capable yet we hardly ever have a crack-this goes back a decade or more now.
Even Xhaka scored some bombs early on for us but for some reason out there cue in the rack.
Early in a game it’s not expected so why not take a chance every now and again?
If nothing else, it gives the defence something else to think about.
Any word on Auba’s health?
I have always said that shooting affects defensive patterns. Our players do it sometimes but usually they are blocked because they try to get too close and defenders cut them out . We should Take a few pot shots and make the keeper do something early.
I’m all for having a few pot shots, never mind all those daft stats about how often you need to shoot to score, a shot is a damned sight more entertaining than a million passes, passes won’t get you out of your seat, passes won’t get the pulse racing but a few shots might just shock you out of your passing induced stupor.
That’s it guys.
It’s something that became an issue under Arsene-the dream of walking the ball into the net.
We play out from the back to entice opponents to come forward.
Taking a few shots early on from 25 yards would have a similar effect-dram them out a little quicker.
Keepers early on can be vulnerable as well.
Before we line up Edu and Arteta against a wall to have them shot at dawn it’s worth remembering how much business has been done by the clubs we’re mostly competing with, namely Man City (don’t laugh), Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham and yes West Ham…
Let me tell you how many players they’ve signed in this window: Man City none, Man Utd none, Chelsea none, Liverpool none, Tottenham none and West Ham none.
Maybe an indication at how difficult it is to to business in this window?
Of course it could be argued that Arsenal’s need is the greatest and I wouldn’t argue with that, but I’d suggest that the fans of most of those other clubs would probably disagree.
Edu has got 8 days to work some magic and saving his reputation after an impressive summers effort. O relógio está passando as they say in Brazil….
We do need some recruits Kev, but as you say, there is plenty of time IF all parties want a deal done.
Jm, he was on the bench yesterday. Joined us in the summer from Fulham and is in the under 23’s.
Not saying he’s the answer right now but he’s our future whereas Eddie wants out and plays like it too.
New post up now
Who is Biereth? .
Under 23 forward , aged 19 , stands 6 foot 1 ” signed from Fulham has played 15 games for our under 23 team and has scored 7 goals and credited with 3 assists.
Bit too soon for him , lets see what happens in the Papa John’s and decide on next year.
Well personally I’d have given Biereth a go, Eddie missed two big chances in two games we probably would’ve won if he had scored, chances that weren’t difficult, but he missed them and that kinda tell you that he isn’t good enough at this level. So try something different, think outside of the box, get the fans animated, nothing gets them going quite like a youngster coming on and Burnley knew nothing about him, be imaginative?
Bringing on Eddie isn’t being imaginative…
Kev, I was all for giving Nketiah more chances but honestly, he looks like one foot is already out of the door. He’s probably thinking about his next club instead of scoring a goal. I’d rather see players play who want to be at the club.