Morning all.
I enjoyed that game, a lot. Admittedly, it was backs to the wall stuff at times but I expected that. Barcelona are the best in the world and play very good football. Arsenal defended so so well and there were many times during the game when they attacked very well too. Barca hit the crossbar, Arsenal had a goal disallowed for offside. Overall, I think Renée Slegers side had the better goal scoring opportunities but Barca bossed the possession stats. Just!
Renée Slegers, Arsenal women’s manager for just seven months, has been superb. Not even at 1-0 up with the clock ticking, was she tempted to bring on defensive players to protect the lead. Her two substitutions led to our goal with Beth Mead setting up Stina Blackstenius to score.
I think that’s the best I’ve seen Arsenal’s defence defend. Leah Williamson was outstanding although highlighting her seems unfair on the other players but everything she could get a body part to, she did. We as a team were aggressive, disciplined, committed and 100% up for the battle. Barca didn’t like it and I don’t think they were ready for it.
Renée Slegers has every right to feel as proud as punch for what she has done with the squad and every player should feel proud of what they have achieved.
Photo – Getty Images.
I loved this from Leah Williamson who was talking to DAZN post match:
“I don’t have the words. I joined this football club and they were winners, they won everything and all I wanted to do was represent the badge in the same way and today we went another big step towards that. We play football to make people happy, not to make other people unhappy. Today, we made a lot of people happy.”
- Barcelona scored NINETEEN goals in their three games before failing to find the net against Arsenal – and had kept clean sheets in their last four matches.
- It is the first time Barcelona have failed to find the net in FORTY ONE matches.
- Barcelona had scored at least two goals in their last ELEVEN matches in all competitions.
Not yesterday though, not yesterday.
What a great day for the Arsenal women, the club and the fans. Not only are we the only English club to win the Champions League but we’ve now won it twice.
I know the women’s game doesn’t float every football fans boat but I think I’m still struggling to believe what Slegers and her players have just achieved and the enormity of it. Chelsea and City have thrown money at their squad in attempt to win this competition yet Arsenal have just proved football isn’t always about pounds, shillings and pence. It’s about having the right players with the right attitude and the right coaching team. The players believe in their manager and she clearly believes in them. When you have a forward player who we know is leaving in the summer, coming on towards the end of the game and doing defensive duties as Lina Hurtig did, it speaks volumes.
Well done ladies, well done…
Josh Kroenke, along with Tim Lewis and Richard Garlick were in Lisbon to watch the women lift the big trophy and I suspect Josh will be at St Mary’s today to watch the men play their final game of the season against Southampton.
After yesterday, a dead rubber game is hard to get enthusiastic about but as Williamson said, this game is about making people happy. Making the fans happy and those who travel to Southampton today deserve to see a good performance. Maybe this time next year it’ll be Mikel Arteta and his players who’ll bring success to the club. As well as the women I hasten to add.
William Saliba and Jurrien Timber are out injured with the latter undergoing surgery on his ankle. Mikel Merino returns after suspension but Mikel Arteta serves a one match suspension after his booking last weekend so Albert Stuivenberg will step in.
If Arsenal can keep a clean sheet, David Raya will pick up the Golden Glove award for a second season running.
Catch up in the comments…
Chapeau to our women! Simply brilliant in planning and execution. Now let’s hope our men can go and emulate them next season!
It was great Anthony, just great.
Good morning Rico, I woke up at about five this morning just to check the sports pages in case I dreamt the whole thing. It was no dream, it was fabulous reality!
Rene’s girls left everything on the pitch, they were brilliant, just brilliant!
Morning Cicero, that’s spooky. I too was awake very early checking the headlines on the back pages.
The players were amazing, defensively brilliant. Renée is a very smart coach/manager.
Brighton winger Kaoru Mitoma is a summer transfer target for Arsenal, reports Sky Germany’s Florian Plettenberg.
Arsenal are looking at signing more firepower and Mitoma is said to have been added to their shortlist.
The 28-year-old has scored 10 goals for Brighton this season and provided three assists.
Sky Germany say Rodrygo is “considered the dream signing” for Arsenal, but a potential deal is currently stalling due to wage demands.
Bayern Munich are also said to be interested in Mitoma.
That was some stunt to stun Barca Rico. 😉
A great game, and a great and well-deserved win. Barcelona were simply over-confident and thought they would only have to turn up to win.
Incidentally, I watched Real Betis v Valentia on La Liga TV on Friday, it was great to see Lauren doing the punditry, and making a very good job of it.
I thought you’d get it Cicero… lol
I’m not convinced Barca were overconfident Brian but I don’t think they expected such a robust and disciplined Arsenal.
I was right then Rico, one of your test pieces to see if we were paying attention. 😑
Always Cicero, there’s always something within the post. Almost always anyway. 😜
Raya, Partey, White, Kwior, Tierney, Merino, Rice, Zinchenko, Nwaneri, Martinelli, Sterling.
Good afternoon winners
Its always great to read an excellent title winning post Rico. You need to that more frequently next season, about eight times in total. Not a big ask you know…..just eight titles (men and women included – before you begin to count on fingers lol 🤪🤪🤪
BArca had scored for 41 consecutive matches, they had scored 2 goals plus in each of their last 11 matches. Arsenal stopped them from doing that and they scored the winner. Stina is the number 1. Laila Habert is my taste but for now Stina (who’s good looking bdw- for me at least) is the number 1. Slegers came in and slotted without any fuss. And yes I like her coaching style and game management.
I just am not sure about today’s line up. Nwaneri, Tierney and Zinchenko yes….but Sterling??? I want the golden glove as well.
There has been gossip about Arsenal wanting Martinez back. Whilst he is a bracket A keeper, his attitude, especially the way he mouthed Arsenal after he left has left me with a bad taste. So its a no no for me. It has been reported that RM want Raya…..imo Arteta should see how much Garcia costs and ask RM to pay a fee of around 50M for Raya. That is why I want a clean sheet today. He will be selling a keeper who has won two golden gloves in the last two seasons. And he is 29….and in front of him has the best defence of the EPL. Raya will sponsor Garcia (who is good and still young bdw) and a 2nd keeper maybe.
Thanks Devil.
Really strange lineup, I’d rather see an academy player than Sterling.
I am following the Forest-Chelsea game as well…..the moment Chelsea score Raya wins the golden glove.
Tierney makes it 1-0
Nice parting gift from our left back…
I hope Kabia comes on at some stage with Sterling going off.
Martinez? No thanks, he’s just been given a straight red card to wrap up, not only his final generation of the season, but also his time at Villa..
I think Martinez will end up at Utd or Real. Quite frankly, I don’t give a damn…. 😜
Chavs 1-0 up.
Raya WINS GOLDEN BOOT
1-1 Arsenal
Rod Stewart has made it 1-1 😅😅
Saka comes on. Goodbye to a waste of money
Haverts on as well
Odegaard makes it 2-1.
No CL for Villa then. Martinez has cost them dear.
Two goals scored, one conceded, no clean sheet but three points. 2nd place in the Premiership. 🔔🔔
Thank goodness this season is over…
35 goals conceded, the lowest in the Premiership this season
69 goals scored, third highest in the Premiership this season. Liverpool 86, City 72.
Amen to that Rico.
Yep it’s been an ‘if only’ season. On a brighter note, managed Wembley tickets today after pathetic National League and TFL allowed an extra 5000 seats for next Sundays playoff final due to coaches organised, rather than all train as Wembley tube closed. 22000 sold now by Southend but 600 left queueing in ground and 8000 online. Pressure being put on Kahn by Collymore and MPs amongst others to increase to 30,000, meeting Tuesday.
Definitely a “if only”season.
If only we didn’t care 😜
There seems to be a rumour going around that Real Madrid are in for David Raya, sounds like BS to me but I wonder if the club would be tempted if the money was good and the rumour was true?
Arteta loves Raya, so much as to replace Ramsdale just after a new contract. Can’t see him agree selling?
At last this tortouous and disappointing season is over. The best defence, golden glove, most creative midfield but just the third best attack….just 69 goals in 38 games which means less than 2 goals a game. Yes we had chances, off target, on target, however, conversion left a lot to be desired. These are not kids in the park….these are professionals who are dedicated to training football every day. So I can say that Arteta is a bit to blame as well because he could have used a session or two to finishing.
Whenever we shoot from outside the box we stand a good chance to score….if we fart around the box all the time we cannot score. Do we have to score a perfect goal by passing till we reach the goal line? Lampard used to score so much simply because he shot from outside the box and it went in either a goal from him or else through a deflection. They all count as one.
KEv…I already pointed that out and I think that if Arteta realizes that he can replace a very good keeper with another good keeper and make a profit then he will go for it. Arteta in that manner is ruthless in a way.
Just a thought . Sheffield United got 90 points and Sunderland 74 but for a money spinner for the F.A they had to play off to see who went up to the premier.
By the same token :- as Liverpool got 84 , 10 points in front of us we should have a money spinning play off to see who are league champions.
Goalkeeper David Raya on retaining the Golden Glove this season: “I am delighted to keep it. As I’ve always said, it’s not just me, it starts from everybody on the pitch and it’s a collective effort, even if it’s the keepers who get the award, but it’s just great for the team as well.
“Every award is special but the way we defended this season, we had a lot of injuries and different back fours. Today we played with KT in the centre-back and Zinchenko came back in as a left-back and Kuba as a right centre-back and Ben White as a right-back. That just shows the willingness to keep doing the right things and credit to everybody who helped the team to keep their feet.
“It is a special moment. To do something like this at this amazing club and put something into the history of the club, it’s incredible. I’m very, very proud to achieve this, so now let’s go for the third one.”
Yes Dev, I do recall you mentioning something about Raya, I think it was in relation to Garcia.
Leao seems to be the name doing the rounds today and yesterday, seems as if Rodrygo is too expensive in terms of wages and fee?
Despite what his uncle said last week, Gyokeres will move this summer and his destination will be either Arsenal or Chelsea.
Arsenal have made an offer for Benjamin Sesko, and Andrea Berta is in talks with
A C Milan winger Rafael Leao.
Busy, busy Berta.
Happy Bank Holiday Rico and Co.
Like you Rico, when I saw the line-up and saw Stirling named in the starting XI I just thought ‘why?’ What was the point of playing someone who has shown to be totally ineffective for the entire season, nothing he’s done in games absolutely nothing justified his selection yesterday.
Now he may have been brilliant with the youngsters, might have been an absolute star in the dressing room but did we need to spend over £100k per week for a social worker?
He seems to be to Arteta what Silvestre was to Wenger – a blind spot.
Mikel may have had a great history with Raheem from his City days but for someone who doesn’t let sentimentality get in the way of his decision making and is as switched on tactically as Mikel is I can’t see any other reason for picking Sterling, we were basically playing with 10 men. Surely Kabia on the right wing would have been far more effective in a game that was a dead rubber…
Tierney had a solid game, he wandered the pitch like a Scottish Calafiori and took his goal like a veteran striker flicking it home at the near post. Martinelli had his usual couple of chances and missed them, a good header and a one-on-one with the keeper. Merino had a decent header as well and there were other opportunities, crosses into the box that nobody reacted to or read that a proper striker will read.
Kiwior was solid, White showed flashes of his best form, Zinchenko was very good. It was a classic end of season game, you could see an element of mental fatigue in both teams – they’d had enough.
I’m not sure of the accuracy of this fact but somebody mentioned that this season was the first time in almost 100 years that an Arsenal player hadn’t got into double figures for goals, but given that Arsenal were top of the injury table in the Prem, top of the red card table and bottom or close to it in the penalty table maybe explains some of that.
There’s only so much you can do when matters beyond your control impact the team.
Mind you, controlling the transfer windows is in your control so no excuses there KSE and Co.
If Raya does leave for Real Madrid, rather than sign Emi Martinez why not bring back Aaron Ramsdale? As Sam Dean says in The Telegraph this morning “no ‘keeper of his quality should be playing in the Championship”.
I commend the idea to The House. 😉
I’d be amazed if Arsenal re-signed Emi Martinez, I have absolutely no idea where that story originated from, it makes no sense to me.
Mind you with Emi in the team we did win trophies… 😉
You have to feel sorry for Unai Emery, to have Champions League football snatched away from him in the final seconds of the season by a complete balls up by a totally incompetent referee is devastating.
Amazed? Kev, I’d be appalled!
In most of my time as an Arsenal fan the goalkeeper spot has tended to be a fairly settled position, with Bob Wilson, Jimmy Rimmer, Pat Jennings, John Lukic and David Seaman, those five traversing most of my years watching the Gunners. It all ended after Seaman left for Man City and Wenger went through an eclectic range of different long shots and experienced goalkeepers on a last hurrah.
What we need is a few years of goalkeeping stability methinks.
It’s highly unlikely Cicero especially considering some of the comments Martinez has made since he left.
Garcia makes a lot more sense to me if there is a Real Madrid offer in the pipeline.
Arsenal set a new top flight record which has stood for 101 years yesterday.
Arsenal had won all of their final matches of their league campaign for the last 13 years.
With a win at St Mary’s this yesterday, that run extended to 14 years which broke Liverpool’s record set in 1924.
✅ 2011/12 – West Brom 2-3 Arsenal
✅ 2012/13 – Newcastle 0-1 Arsenal
✅ 2013/14 – Norwich 0-2 Arsenal
✅ 2014/15 – Arsenal 4-1 West Brom
✅ 2015/16 – Arsenal 4-0 Aston Villa
✅ 2016/17 – Arsenal 3-1 Everton
✅ 2017/18 – Huddersfield 0-1 Arsenal
✅ 2018/19 – Burnley 1-3 Arsenal
✅ 2019/20 – Arsenal 3-2 Watford
✅ 2020/21 – Arsenal 2-0 Brighton
✅ 2021/22 – Arsenal 5-1 Everton
✅ 2022/23 – Arsenal 5-0 Wolves
✅ 2023/24 – Arsenal 2-1 Everton
✅ 2024/25 – Southampton 1-2 Arsenal
Cicero, while I really like Ramsdale, I think we need a much better keeper than him. Yes he should not be in the championship and his place is in the EPL however Arsenal need a top keeper. And Ramsdale is not an A list player.
With regards Martinez I dont think Arteta should go for him. His attitude and also his comments against Arsenal after he left has left a very bad taste. And I am not a supporter of those who left coming back to the club. Especially those who comment negatively about Arsenal after they leave.
Happy BH to you too Kev and all by the way.
There’s a new post up now..