- Playing against a lower league side is tricky for Arsenal.
- Nelson can go 0-60 quicker than my old Puch Maxi.
- Mike Dean really is a twerp.
The first half was scrappy. Yes Portsmouth were creating the better openings but if anyone thought they looked like scoring they were kidding themselves. In my opinion of course. I’ve watched the tackle on Torreira several times now and Bolton definitely got the ball first but it was side on and the follow through made it look a lot worse.
https://gfycat.com/firmdaringcaribou
Whether or not Dean would have let it go unpunished in the Premier League or not is another matter and by the letter of the football laws, he shouldn’t do, nor should he have done so last night.
A tackle or challenge that endangers the safety of an opponent or uses excessive force or brutality must be sanctioned as serious foul play. Any player who lunges at an opponent in challenging for the ball from the front, from the side or from behind using one or both legs, with excessive force or endangers the safety of an opponent is guilty of serious foul play.
Referee consistency is a topic which has been well discussed because there is none. Cabellos came on in the place of Torreira who was stretchered to the sounds of:
‘You’re going home in a f****** ambulance’: sang the Portsmouth fans.
What a classless bunch they are!
To come here, to this stadium, with seven under-23 players, and to dominate completely is a little bit unrealistic but we went through that moment [at the start] and after that we started to take the ball and play in the opposition half and dominate the situation much better. We scored the goals and should have scored more. – Mikel Arteta.
Guendouzi picked up a silly booking. Silly by Dean I mean. Our Frenchman was just trying to be funny I’m sure but Dean has lost his sense of humour. If he ever had one.
A bitty first half ended with an Arsenal goal. A Reiss Nelson corner saw the ball come back to him out on the right. Another cross into the box was met with the right boot of Sokratis on the volley and the ball flew into the back of the net. A great way to end the half. The same group of players came out for the second half and managed to up the tempo a bit. Whether our goal just before the break knocked them back a bit, or they were runnynout or puff I don’t know but we certainly took control of matters. A second goal killed them off. Reiss Nelson was again the provider for Eddie Nketiah with a proper poacher strikers finish.
Ainsley needs to put his head down and work hard and show me every day in training that he wants it more than anyone else, he wants to play for this club and fight for his place.
On Pablo Mari -I think he looked comfortable. He is very vocal and very comfortable on the ball, always commanding the back four and he looked like he’s played here for months. I think we have a good player. – Mikel Arteta.
Regardless of whatever any of us think of the performance, Arsenal are through to the quarter-final of the FA Cup and we needed that after last Thursday. With the vast number of changes made and a debut for Mari, expecting smooth and free flowing football was probably too much. Playing against a lower league side can often be a tricky affair, especially away from home after such a horrid result just a few days ago and perhaps with a low mood in the camp. This result will have done everyone the world of good. 🤞
What about Eddie?
He has been phenomenal,” said Arteta. “The workrate that he puts in, the rhythm that he goes into pressing, his understanding of the game – when to come and when to go in behind – and always in front of goal, he is ready to score. Mikel Arteta.
Watching David Luiz at the end with Reiss Nelson was great. A guy with many winners medals at home with his arm around our youngster shows his character. The way our captain on the night spoke about his young teammates was a breath of fresh air. He clearly wants to help them succeed at this ‘great club.’ As I’m sure we all do.
I certainly do. I’d love to see Willock, AMN, Nelson, Nketiah, Saka and Martinelli be at the heart of a successful Arsenal football club over the next five/ten years. Whether they will or not is probably up to them and their commitment to hard work and improvement.
Finally, Pablo Mari, our debutant. I know it was only Pompey but I thought he looked steady, assured and did some good things.
2-0 away from home with a clean sheet, I’d say that’s a good job done.
Next up is West Ham at The Emirates.
Catch up in the comments guys.
Morning Rico. Until Arteta works out a way to get his teams to play for 90 minutes, we’ll just scratch along. They had a decent second half last night but the first 45 was the sort of nonsense that is only too common and has been back to the latter years of Wenger.
Spot on, Rico! Firstly, I’m glad we’re through, as let’s be honest that fixture had ‘banana skin’ written all over it! Especially with that idiot refereeing!
Fancy booking Guendouzi?! I don’t blame Matteo for what he did, I’d have done the same! That man (Dean) riles me something chronic.. so I can imagine what it must be like for them on the pitch.
I can’t believe those morons chanting that at Torreira, that is so wrong! Poor sod, he left in a protective boot and on crutches, I hope it’s not too serious 🤞
Both well taken goals, as you say Mari looked good. I know Luiz has his moments, but I do really like the guy. I even liked him when he was at Chelsea 😀 Only player of theirs I have liked haha!!
The draw is tomorrow…. and it’s Chelsea v Liverpool later (instead of Eastenders ☹) bloody hell I don’t know who I want to win that!!
Morning Adam. I’m not overly fussed about the first half performance last night. It wasn’t good to watch but there were so many changes, I kind of thought it might be a bit scrappy.
I still believe Arteta is working out who to keep and who to try and sell.
Agree on Luiz Sue and I love his leadership qualities with the younger players, unlike Sokratis who apparently had a few verbal exchanges with either Nelson or Willock.
Dean was a plonker, to book Guendouzi and then let a bookable tackle just a bit later, shows how crazy he is. Even Jenas had something to say about that.
I’d rather Chelsea win than Liverpool and then we draw them so Eddie can’t knock them out with a couple of goals… lol
Yeah thinking about it, it’d be oh so sweet to see them knocked out so soon after that Watford mauling!! Surely Klopp won’t play all the kids? If he does I hope they get stuffed… (I’m not bitter over our carabao cup exit – honest 😂😂)
Rico. I am actually talking about the way the team throw away 40 minutes of just about every match and continue to do so. It cost us 3 points against Chelsea, another 4 or 5 through the silly draws and a Europa League game. Even Keown said that the only 90 minutes we’ve actually played was against Man Utd. Also I think you’ll find that Arteta knows exactly who he wants to keep but needs to balance that with the perilous financial position the the Euro failures has cost us.
Haha Sue. Let’s hope Klopp plays the kids…
Maybe he does know Adam, I guess we’ll know for sure in the summer.
I knew what you meant about not playing for 90 minutes but perhaps I’m thinking about long term rather than the quick fix with a squad full of players who have been shocking for two seasons.
Sokratis in my mind was giving advice to the younger players and directing them and pointing out positioning . When I saw it at the time I thought it was about time a bit of experienced leadership was being shown.
When I was 15 and breaking into county league football I had an ex pro centre half who had me on a bit of string , told me where to be , when to run , what to cover ,he shouted and screamed at me but made me a better player kind of like Mertesacker did with Holding against Chelsea at Wembley .Whats more he was the first to congratulate me as I moved up in standard at the end of the season. It is imperative that players talk and pass things on whilst they are on the pitch . I don’t get the criticism.
We got what we expected from a Kenny Jjacket team , get in their faces and put them out of their stride ,be physical and see how they respond . It was a pure and simple Allardyce / Pulis tactical team talk that any one of us could have given and probably did predict .
It did not work .
Our favourite referee who I think we have had 6 times so far this season was his usual petty erratic self , he really does enjoy being the centre of attention and woe betide anyone that shows him up ( Guendouzi ) and his interpretation of the laws ( Torriera ) were they influenced by the fact that there was no VAR and he was not being scrutinised ?
As for our players , if Ceballos was as good at finding our forwards as he is our centre backs he would be quite an asset no doubt he will have great passing stats for last night but How many went forward ? Both my son and I were groaning as he picked out Luiz and Mari with unnerring consistency I know it’s fans that get impatient but you could see Eddie making runs and the ball not coming , I reckon he now knows how lacazette feels.
I got that wrong about Sokratis then. That’ll teach me to believe what I read. I guess the fact that Sokratis always looks grumpy doesn’t help.
Our midfield imo is our real weakness. Defending set pieces needs working on but said for yonks that we need a Fabregas kind of player, Santi or Rosicky because most of ours are so negative.
Potter, I did notice Eddie making a lot of runs, but imo, plenty weren’t the right runs.
His angles were wrong at times but gee, he’s a good player in the making.
He’s learning, and I get what you’re saying about Ceballos, but I thought we were pretty patient until the opposition ran out of legs and from there on we took control.
We fans have often criticised our side for becoming impatient and even anxious when we have decent possession and can’t turn it into goals, so I thought we did ok.
2-9, job done, plenty of players who haven’t had a lot of game time of late so all in all, we did ok.
10-12 weeks into a massive rebuild.
What should we really expect atm?
Thanks for the post Rico, morning all.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m really pleased with the win, especially with such a young team, but they could have been much better. Most of the first half was played at walking pace. We have real speedsters in the team and don’t use them enough. There was no press on the ball , little movement off it and our passing was slow and ponderous. Arteta must be pulling his immaculate hair out when he watches.
With a little bit of tweaking I think we could have a great team of youngsters.
I liked Mari, he was calm and assured. I felt quite confident with him.
I didn’t personally think there was anything wrong with the challenge on Torreira. It was a hard tackle, but no malice in it.I might be being unkind, but if it was on a different player, I think they would have walked off without the drama.
I thought our fans were fantastic again last night! You’re right about the Portsmouth fans Rico, Some of them are real scum, but the more games I watch the more nastiness I see at all grounds nowadays.
Must admit Mike, I’m not convinced there was much wrong with the tackle other than it can in from the side. But I’ve seen cards given for similar which will always raise the question on its fairness.
I still think Arsenal are very much a work in progress and Arteta has a few more of the kind of players he wants in the team, I’m reserving judgment on Arteta and the club. Or sitting on the fence. 😜
Hi All The problem when a team never looks like scoring is they often score against the run of play and win one nil that’s why I glad to see our second goal, I like Guendouzi as a player but he has to start thinking before he says any thing to the Ref lets face it Dean hates arsenal at the best of times and he does not need to be given any reason to show a yellow or red card
Thanks for the post Rico…
I tried my best to listen to the radio yesterday whilst I was working, but in the end the analysis of Tony Pulis – yeah analysis from that dinosaur – beat me. The BBC are really scraping the barrel having that tosser giving his expert opinion, ask him about leg breaking tackles and he knows his onions, ask him about coaching a team to actually play technical football and forget it…
Anyway I turned the radio off.
Isn’t it odd that Arteta has lost two games out of the 14 since he’s been in charge at Arsenal, both at home, both by 2-1 and both following mistakes by Leno…
Considering that this isn’t his team, that he’s not had a pre season with them or any money to spend and that a lot of Arsenal fans were in truth talking in terms of fighting relegation this season, his record of Played 14, Won 7, Drawn 5, Lost 2, Goals For 22, Goals Against 12, isn’t too bad, we’ve also kept 6 clean sheets and probably should have won the two games we lost!
Did anyone really expect this squad of players to morph into Man City on Arteta’s arrival?
I didn’t, I just wanted us to stop shipping goals, to stop defending like dorks, to end the stats that stated that our opponents had a million shots on our goal, I wanted to see the players show some effort to work hard to actually look organised and I think it would be churlish of us to not admit that we’ve seen all of these things under Arteta.
But you can’t make a silk purse out of a pigs ear, or a competitive team out of a dysfunctional group of players collected together by Wenger, Emery and Raul. I know that patience is in short supply after so many false promises and false dawns but Mikel had to sort the defence first, it was a car crash and it still needs attention. We all used to agree that you build a team from the back, get that right and the rest will follow, well that’s what we’re seeing I guess.
I don’t think on this occasion Guendouzi did anything wrong Geoff. As Jenas said, is being humorous or sarcastic a bookable offence? Not as far as I know.
Hi Rico, yeah I’m sitting on the fence too.
It must be frustrating for Arteta. He must be wondering how he can get a 90minute performance out of his team.
Puch Maxi !!!! Wow Rico that’s a blast from the past. I could get nearly 40 out of mine if I put my chin on the handlebars.
For sure it’ll be frustrating Mike, especially when he sees an improvement after halftime but surely that itself shows he has the motivational skills but these players just aren’t catching on from the off.
Loved my little Puch, 30 mph really..
Hi Geoff, I’m no great lover of Guendouzi, but I thought getting booked for that just showed how up his own arse Dean is.
I do however (and Rico has mentioned this before) wish that when Guendouzi is tackled he didn’t grab the ball !! He did it in our own penalty area last night after a soft challenge, and with Dean as the ref could have cost us a penalty.
G’day all.
Puch Maxi? That sounds like a revolutionary dress length. 😉
Can’t say much about Mike Bloody Dean, I just hope the t**t retires soon, he’s fifty-one, what’s PGMOL retirement age?
Now that we are out of the Europa League Arteta needs to try to play a settled team. Particularly the defence, George Graham showed the way, settle on a group and stick with it.
Is there a problem with Bellerin that we are not being old about? Subbed against Everton, not on the bench last night even though we have no real back-up for the position so Sokratis was shifted sideways.
I’m with you there Kev. Never expected miracles…
Yes Kev, Arteta’s record so far this season isn’t too shabby at all. Towards the end of Emery, I’d almost lost hope and thought even the likes of Pep could come in and wouldn’t be able to sort this bunch out! So, for me, Arteta deserves a pat on the back!
Guendouzi deserves a high 5 and I won’t tell you what Mike Dean deserves 😂😂
Potter.. you made me chuckle with your Ceballos comment! And thumbs up for your county league football story!!
Mike.. that was so mean!! 😂 Poor Torreira!! And also thanks for that – I wasn’t sure what a Puch Maxi was 😂😂😂😂😜
Cicero, Bellerin is probably being kept back for the league.
Cicero :-Without upsetting our leader on here , I was discussing the other day whether Bellerin’s speed had gone and whether it was due to his injury or if his newly found veganism is having an effect.
Whilst I am sure that he is well regulated there is a strong support for the theory that a shortage of protein has affected muscular recovery and that cows milk is better in this case than say soya or coconut milk .
Now I am not a dietician nor a vegan or even vegetarian but but I was talking to a medical biochemist who seemed sympathetic to the idea.
Kev , yes Arteta is definitely improving the team. The defense is 100% better. He must wonder himself why the players can’t do what he asks for more than half a game.
Sue, well……. he is such a drama queen…………Puch Maxi 49cc moped 120miles to the gallon. If you ran out of petrol you cycled it home !
Interesting that Potter, A chap I work with was trying to put some weight on and beef himself up a bit,(he was vegan). All he did was lose weight no matter what he took, while exercising in the gym. He started drinking raw milk and now he is looking really fit and says where he felt hungry most of the day, he is now more satisfied.
Potter, Lewis Hamilton is vegan, he’s still super fast… 😂
Aguero, Messi and Gnabry are vegan.
As is Serena Williams..
Not knockiing Vegans at all ! You do it for all the right reasons.
Just it must be really hard for an athlete to replenish his body as a vegan even over a Veggy .
You would hope that the Arsenal dieticians could sort that out though.
Sorry…. His or Her body ……… Did I spell dieticians correctly ?
I thought it was a valid point re players diet, a vegan diet might not suit everyone.
Mike, who cares if you spelt dietician right? 😜😜
Rob Holding didn’t get a game again last night and still I read rumours that we are looking at center halves in the summer.
I wish Sokratis was a bit of a better player, I love his attitude and you can see he loves to play,he is just a little bit too clumsy for Arteta I think.
Rico…..The grammar Police !!
Potter, Mike if his diet is causing a problem then perhaps Bellerin should find a more suitable club, the former Premiership winners from the Midlands Lettuce City for instance. 😉
Nooooo Cicero ! …..You’ll awaken Le Coque Monster with jokes like that and start all kinds of trouble !!
They are banned from here Mike. 😂
Ronald McDonald is vegan
Ah, that’s why McDonalds sell vegan food then Kev. Lol
Exactly Rico 😉
I’ve not long got off the phone to Adam and he’s abst incandescent with the treatment of his favourite Ainsley Maitland Niles by Arteta.
It was all I could do to calm him down…
😆 Arteta couldn’t have made it more clear to AMN. Shape up or ship out. Seems he’s having to do similar with a few. Good. But that’s why I don’t think Arteta really knows yet who he wants to keep because it’s all about how individuals react to his coaching.
Ronald McDonald is a clown .
Yes, used by McDonalds restaurant ads etc I think.
He’s behind you…
What have we started ??!!
It is a bit strange that Arteta picks Sokratis in that position over AMN. But I like that attitude from Arteta. I agree with you Rico, good.
I hope our rivals kick lumps out of each other,there are lots of red cards, games go to extra time and penalties.
I’d like to see a last minute goal for Liverpool, only to be ruled out by VAR.
That sounds good to me, Limey!!
Tofunam Hotspur?
Klopp means business 😂 Giroud starts – hope he scores!
Beans Park Rangers.
Long overdue too Mike, our previous managers have been a bit soft..
Sounds the ideal scenario Limey.
Willock should watch and learn from Billy Gilmour. Guendouzi too.
Adrian has obviously been watching/learning from De Gea 😂😂
Cracking game..
😂 Sue
You’re right Rico – it is a cracking game! Oh and I can hear the Steve Gerrard chant 😂👍
Under 23s beat Monaco 4 – 3 through to semi finals.
What’s that chant Sue, can’t hear it..
Excellent result Potter.
About his slip, Rico… he slipped on his f*****g arse, gave it to Demba Ba, Steve Gerrard Gerrard!! Brilliant, hey?! 😜
What a goal from Barkley.. I was just saying how rubbish he’d been lately…….
Omg I’m on cloud 9 – Liverpool beaten again!!! Get in there! 👍
Gotcha Sue, a great moment in history. Lol
Very good and physical game at Boringwood.
Our first 2 goals scored by Medley following freekicks from Mat Smith.
No 3 Pen by Balogun after Greenwood was fouled.
Monaco down to 10 with player sent off for head butt on Harry Clarke
Balagon scored winner in injury time ( again)
Plus Danny Ballard played 2nd Half
Downside 3 of the team will be pying for the u18s in the youth cup
at Blackburn on Friday
will be playing
You wait forever and then just like buses three come along. Atletico, Watford and now Chelsea, the Micky Mousers are rocking.
Great result for the youngsters and especially for Daniel Ballard.
Man City (a) next Wednesday 11th, a bit short notice, but Arteta will know everything there is to know, but can he stop them?
Rick, how did Ballard go?
Hiya Kev,
It’s lovely to see Liverpool having a poor trot, especially in the League but it’s only really a fleeting moment of joy for us 🙂
Hi Rico and Mike I agree that what Guendouzi did does not deserve a yellow card but the ref was Mike Dean and he will book arsenal players just for coughing near him under unsportsmanlike conduct all I am saying is he needs to watch what he says to certain ref’s we have.
Geoff, yep, Guendouzi is surely getting a reputation for diving and petulance.
Talented kid, but nowhere near the World Class player he seems to think he is.
Disagree Geoff. It should be Dean who simply sticks to the rules. It’s he who looks like an idiot now, not Guendouzi. Shouldn’t be one rule for one referee and one for another.
New post up now