Morning all.
Tomorrow, Arsenal take on Man City, then it’s yet another international break. Gareth Southgate has named Bukayo Saka in his squad but I’m hoping both the player and Mikel Arteta have other ideas. 88/89 minutes on the clock on Sunday, if of course Saka is even involved in the game let alone still on the pitch by then, I hope to see him go to ground before hobbling off. No, not because he’s seriously injured but just so Arsenal can withdraw him from the England squad. Two weeks of rest and recovery would do him the world of good.
Gareth Southgate:
He’s still being assessed as they’ve obviously got a big game this weekend and then there’s another seven days before we play Australia and 11 days before we play Italy, so everybody will monitor everything as we go forward, I can only go via what Mikel (Arteta) has said about the last few games. He is in contention for the weekend and we’ve obviously got a very important qualifier.
We look after the players as well as any country. We have really good dialogue with all of their clubs, I think they pretty much all would agree that we give better feedback than every other nation. Bukayo, for example, we haven’t always played. I’ve never ever taken a risk on a player’s physical wellbeing. And nor would I.
Not sure I entirely agree with the England manager.
I stand by the opinion that Arteta didn’t need to play Saka on Tuesday night. Not when there are other options within the squad and especially as we’re already without Martinelli but hey, Arteta knows better than me.
Our current unbeaten run is under threat on Sunday but as Wolves proved last weekend, Man City are beatable. City bossed the game as far as possession goes but when it came to the important stats of the match, an own goal from City and a second half winner for the home team is what counted most. Goals win games, not 70% possession. I read that Haaland had just one sniff at goal.
Arsenal v Man City should be an entertaining game but I can see it being a game which doesn’t really get going until either side scores a goal. I think it’ll be cagey with both sides playing a lot of passes in their own half before trying to inject a bit of pace and purpose to their game in and around the box.
I think the best performance Arsenal have produced against Guardiola’s side without winning, was on New Years Day 2022. Mikel Arteta’s team were superb that day until Gabriel got himself off and Silva took a dive in the box to con the officials. Not Stuart Attwell who initially waved away the penalty appeal, but after a VAR intervention, he didn’t have the balls to stand by his original view of the incident. We did so well to hold on with ten men but then Rodri scored the winner right at the end. But you know what, we could and should have put the result to bed much earlier in the game.
Our squad now is much better, deeper and stronger now than it was in that game. Lacazette, Xhaka, Tierney and Holding are gone. We now have Jesus, Zinchenko, Saliba, Rice, Trossard, Havertz, Raya and a fit again Partey. Some in that list have already lined up against City for Arsenal but not all. Saka has and today, during his press conference, Mikel Arteta was pushed for an answer about his fitness:
He’s In contention! That’s it. I’m not a doctor. That’s what they told me.
Man City are without Rodri through suspension, Stones and de Bruyne through injury.
Just a few months ago, Arsenal and Man City went head to head in the Community Shield. Havertz and Martinelli had chances to score, Saka and Rice too but it was Trossard who scored our very late equaliser before penalties decided the result. Our spot kicks were perfect. Not for one minute do I think that victory suddenly turns us into favourites to win tomorrow but it should give every Arsenal player belief that they can beat a smug Guardiola and his equally as smug team.
Unsurprisingly, Michael Oliver is the referee for tomorrows game with John Brooks and Darren Cann in the VAR hot seat. Howard Webb and his staff have been in the headlines this week after the Liverpool disallowed goal, to be fair, the officials are seldom out of the media because they’ve been so poor, but hopefully, this last week will have them focussed this weekend. No favouritism, just no mistakes. I read that Ange said football isn’t ready for technology which I think is absolute poppycock. It’s not the technology at fault, it’s the people using it.
A bit like me with WordPress….
Catch up in the comments…
I wrote to the club in a similar vein . You need an app , bar codes , qr codes to get in . then you cant pay cash for food and drink . Their obsession with technology makes it very difficult for those of us that learned time tables at school .
Sign of the times, I still struggle of a self service checkout.. 😂
Thursday I went into Tesco Express, in Norwich, to buy a bottle of milk. There were only self-service checkouts which you could only use by first scanning your Tesco Clubcard. I don’t have one! So I went to the tobacco sales counter, and explained the problem to the young lady “manning” it, she said “I know, stupid isn’t it? She accepted my one pound coin and a fifty pence piece gave me my change and wished me a nice day. The human touch! You can’t beat it! 😉
Afternoon Rico and all, I read an article that Englands manager Southgate said he would look after Saka and only play him if he is fit enough, what a load of crap, no manager picks a player just to sit on the bench, if you have any delt then don’t pick them and give someone else a chance.
Like him or not, Sympathy to Sir Alex Ferguson on the sad loss of his wife
Hi Geoff.
The human touch isn’t always pleasant though Cicero, certainly not in sunny Berkshire..
I can’t post
Awesome write up, Arsenal have been presented with a rare opportunity tomorrow to turn this fixture around in their favour. Dropped points in so many consecutive matches against City ain’t good
Well England beat Samoa in the RWC but I’m not sure how. Samoa caused all sorts of problems and England were way below par. Still, it’s Fiji next in the Quarter Finals.
The cashless society is coming, not this week but very soon. It’s a slow drip drip and then the Banks in cahoots with Big Tech and the Government will have us by the balls (er, not you Rico of course, but you get my point 😉).
If the Canadian truckers demo taught us anything (you know when they had access to their bank accounts stopped by order of Citizen Trudeau) then it taught us that 1984 isn’t just a work of fiction…
I hate this cashless and self checkout crap, last week I did my weekly grocery shopping, 1 large trolley full, while scanning items the banks went down and had to leave the whole dam thing, as the shop had no cash registers open.
Afternoon guys.
Are we winning later?
I hope Saka plays today,whoever plays a great chance to get something against this lot,hell we can win.
If available I’d play Partey and Rice together – feels like we need to be strong in midfield.
COYG
I would too Limey, a midfield of those two would give us the edge I think.
Yes Rico – always hard to predict Arteta.
As long as they don’t play Partey at Right Back !
Don’t even go there Limey… 😆
No Saka..
Arsenal XI: Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Odegaard, Rice, Jorginho, Trossard, Nketiah, Jesus.
Subs: Ramsdale, Partey, Smith Rowe, Martinelli, Kiwior, Tomiyasu, Vieira, Nelson, Havertz.
Jorginho is a surprise..
Strong looking bench.
No Saka Rico but Martinelli is on the bench.
Yes Cicero.
Very Limey..
I wonder if today is one of those days when Arteta is thinking about changing the keeper? 😆
Seriously, Raya is like a rabbit in headlights…
Raya looking nervy.
Jeepers!
Come on VAR, that’s a red!
Gary Neville so biased against Arsenal it’s a joke.
Oliver has cocked that one up..
He reckons City should be down to ten
Partey and Martinelli second half hopefully..
var dont want controversy but they might get it
And Oliver, he bottled the big decision. The second booking..
Havertz to score our winner? 😉
Now hold on boys, hold on….
Wow! Well done Arsenal, well done!
One goal, clean sheet, three points, JADATO. 🔔
Rode our luck but deserved it on the whole. Interesting to see what happens after the break with the keepers . and January is coming and hopefully a forward to hold the ball up and score a few goals. If we took even a third of our chances we would be top on goal difference.
Ramsdale back hopefully.
Saka will not be going away with England, Mikel Arteta has confirmed. Excellent.
Nor is Saliba for France , 12 days to Chelsea .
Just watched replay, glad Saka got dropped he needs a break,
We deserved that win, with both teams looking shaky in the first half, however we looked much better and controlled the second half with the changes coming at the right time.
How the Man city player never got a straight red for his first tackle then not receiving a yellow for his second tackle, then Haaland getting really shitty with the Arsenal set piece coach after the final whistle.
Nor Trossard for Belgium I’d imagine.
Arsenal being smart?
New post up.
Geoff, Walker started it I believe after refusing to shake hands with our coach.