Daily Bits and Bobs

Do they come bigger than this? After another defeat in Europe, can Arsenal bounce back?

Posted on by rico
Lest we forget......
Lest we forget……

Morning all.

It’s Sunday. It’s North London Derby Day!

When the league fixtures are announced, this one is probably the first one we all look for. When are we playing the the noisy lot over the road…?

They are noisy, always noisy but seldom has their noise made a lot of sense. Seldom have they put their words into practise, seldom do they beat us, especially at our own home but this Spurz side looks different and more organised defensively.

Alderweireld and Vertonghen have formed a good partnership and with Dier sitting just in front of them, they are tough to break down and like us, they have a keeper who is in great form. We have a glut of injuries and they don’t, so it’s going to be tough. Very tough….

Up front, Kane has started to find some form so he’ll be dangerous, as will Eriksen if given time on the ball.

We’ve lost twice this season, they’ve lost just the once but too many draws sees them sitting just off the top four.

Laurent Koscielny was training with the rest yesterday and I think he’s key to this fixture. If he plays, I think we’ll be too strong at the back, if he doesn’t, we could witness another disastrous defence display as we did in Germany. Francis Coquelin needs to be strong but disciplined. Cazorla too as Martin Atkinson won’t need an excuse to get his cards out for our players so give him nothing to do.

Debuchy needs to remind us all just why Arsene Wenger signed him. He’s not that bad, he’s just been out of the game for a while and is rusty, well, that’s what I hope but he’s had a couple of matches now so his fitness level should be much better and never will he have to be at the top of his game more than today.

Ozil, Campbell (if he starts) and Alexis need a big game too because they are the key to our attacking game and with Ollie up front, they need to give the big striker the right service. He hasn’t got the pace of Theo, so there’s no point in expecting him to run half the length of the pitch to get a through ball.

Because of that lack of pace up front, I can’t see us doing to Spurz what we did to Man Utd at home in the first twenty minutes, but I can’t see the game going the way the Bayern game went at home went either. Interestingly enough though, we play this fixture at home after a defeat in Europe so the players will want to bounce back in style, just like they did against Utd having been embarrassed by Olympiacos just a few days before.

We need to be smart, disciplined, organised, 100% committed and if need be, patient.

The Emirates will be rocking, the fans will be right up for this game and their voices will be heard. As the players walk down the tunnel, they’ll know they have their twelfth man behind them.

If the manager, coaches and players aren’t up for this match, then they’ll never be up for any match because this is Arsenal v Spurz and as far as we fans go, they don’t come bigger than this!

Spurz want top four, Arsenal want top spot!

COYRRG’s, go get three massive points to help us on our way!!

rico

202 thoughts on “Do they come bigger than this? After another defeat in Europe, can Arsenal bounce back?”

  1. Adam says:

    Morning Rico and all.
    Lest we forget indeed. Just watching the Cenotaph Remembrance Day ceremony. Always very moving.
    I think we’ll be ok today.

  2. Marinello says:

    Your rousing post was almost Churchillian Rico.
    Tricky one today. They are at full strength, we have the usual glut of injuries.
    I am going for a 2-1. But it will be a close call. Hope Kos is playing. If he is, then make that 3-1….

  3. goonster says:

    It’s the NLD people the only game we really give a shit about. Let’s smash those cnuts next door. They haven’t lost in a while because they haven’t played a good team (the shitty game was a fluke, kane scored an offside goal) we should do them over. 11.3 to the arsenal. Spuds to go 3 up and celebrating like crazy only for us to bring them back to earth with a shattering combo in 70 mins of glorious attacking football. HFB with a hatrick, sanchez and Jeff with a brace with kozzer and santi completing the scoreline. Come on you gunners. Let’s smash some potatoes.

  7. rico says:

    I reckon it’ll be close, only because we have the likes of Ramsey, Theo and Hector missing..

    Debuchy needs a good performance. I reckon they’ll get right at him. Merts too because of his lack of pace…

    Hope it’s Kos and Gabriel at the back..

  8. Marinello says:

    These matches in the past have proven to be close. Form appears to sometimes go out the window.
    Let’s hope we get the 3 points and then I can go to work tomorrow happy…
    Shame that we haven’t got all the players fit, but this is Arsenal. Whoever pulls on the red and white shirt today must put in a full shift. No going missing at corners and set pieces.

  15. scottfromoz says:

    Morning all.
    Two mates drove 8 1/2 hours to watch this game with we locals.
    Let’s hope our lads make it worth their effort, and I think they will.
    It’s a tough one, but we are more than capable of winning this.
    Debuchy will show he hasn’t suddenly lost his talent, and with Kozzer and Gabriel central, I’m very confident we won’t concede.

  16. Bob John says:

    Hi all
    My biggest worry today is the Debuchy, Mertesaker, Campbell right hand side axis. Their best player Erickson plays an inside left role and could have a field day unless Coq can fill the gaps

  17. andrewh1313 says:

    Good post rico, afternoon everyone. If Giroud up front is not working after 60 minutes, we could always use Cambell’s pace and have Giroud flicking on? Or are we not allowed to ever try 4-4-2 anymore?

  18. dublingunner says:

    Afternoon, A mouth-watering game between two of the form teams at the moment. Both teams have had good solid starts, spurs havn,t lost in the league since the opening day, and arsenal unbeaten since the Chelsea defeat, which begs the question btw, how the hell could we not beat them when everyone else has.
    It seems spurs have a strongest possible 11 to face our injury plagued side, could be nervy. But I feel if they can,t beat us today, with our current problems, well, they should just go away and keep their mouth,s shut, Imo.

  21. Tai says:

    Good post Rico…

    As long as our players give Spurs the respect their form deserves, we’ll get the three points.

  23. dublingunner says:

    Jm, Martin atkinson i believe
    Gabriel via Instagram: “Our house, our rules. Let’s get on the field and show them what we are capable of. Come on Gunners!”

  29. dublingunner says:

    I think he was given an 80% chance of recovery for todays game, by Wenger, who was also Quoted, worryingly as saying,
    “At the moment we have too many players out.
    “I am very concerned, honestly, because we are only in November and we have so many players out knowing we go into the Christmas period soon.
    Lets hope we come through this patch still in contention.

  32. rico says:

    Thankfully a few should be back after the break so should be better equipped for the festive period…

    Afternoon Mg, a draw??? Nah..

  45. dublingunner says:

    Thats it Rico, Advantage must be taken, A fantastic scenario awaits us,
    “Beat Spurs to Go top of the Premier league” you dont hear that too often, Don,t blow it lads.
    with Bony gone off injured too, City having their own striker crisis.

  48. Kel says:

    Tough game imo most likely a draw, they’ll be hard to break down and we ain’t got one option from the bench.

  49. Joaquim Moreira says:

    Kos (80% ?) and Mets …. Debuchy on the right…. with Gabriel at the bench…
    Why not Gabriel nd Kos in the center?
    Campbell must learn how a striker help a defender…

  50. HenryB says:

    Good Post, Rico, 🙂

    My main concern is that historically, when we have the chance to open a gap at the top, we tend to implode.

    Hope I am totally wrong!

  63. rico says:

    Well that half was awful…

    Giroud isn’t in the game. Santi looks knackered, and he’s not alone….

    Was Gabriel once a centre forward? Lol

  64. Kel says:

    They’re up for it more, pressing well and quicker in the tackle. I can’t see Arsenal scoring tbh, unless we get a pen or something.

  68. Joaquim Moreira says:

    Put Flamini on . They control the midfield…
    Campbell only play with the left foot. why he play on the right side? He never go forward always to the middle.
    In the goal he defended with his eyes and the left back played like he wanted.
    We not shot …

  84. Kel says:

    It looks loke one of those days no matter what we do we aint getting a goal….

    We really need someone to run in behind, everything is been played in front of spurs defence, switch Alexis and put Gibbs on the left.

  108. andrewh1313 says:

    Breather now, could have been much worse. In fact Giroud had three headers to win it. Cech great again except his nap with Merts.

    Come back Ramsey and Ox. Theo too hopefully. What a shame we have no Wilshire on his goalscoring form he had just developed for England.

  109. dublingunner says:

    Evening, oh well, not too dissapointed, all things considered, just with Girouds finishing,which should of put us top going into the break, 4 winnable games with,West brom, Norwich, Sunderland and Villa to come, should keep us in contention goin into the xmas period. not the end of the world.

  110. Malaga gooner says:

    I said I would be happy with a draw
    The international break couldn’t come quicker
    Hopefully we can get some players back

  111. Kel says:

    International break comes at a good time imo, the injuries we have are brutal I hate making excuses but if Theo, Danny, OX, Ramsey, Bellerin had have been available we would have won that game.

    We were 2nd best today imo but it was understandable.

  112. rico says:

    Ollie should have won that for us… Thought he had a bad game….

    Shame he went for the cross when Kos was behind him. Kos would have nodded that one home, his angle was perfect…

  114. Joaquim Moreira says:

    Giroud was immense today in my opinion.
    Kos and Monreal were very good
    Without Cazorla the backs don’t know who pass the ball away.
    Totts were better in the 1st half. That youg midfield filled the field

  117. dublingunner says:

    I think considering we weren,t great for 75 mins, and just looked slower than them, we dug deep and ground out a result, where in other times we,d have possibly lost that game.They maybe played better, but we,d the better chances. another assist for Ozil, 6 premier league games in a row, and 10 so far this season, Magic.

  119. rico says:

    I’d agree Dublin. Outplayed for most of the game, especially in the first half, but when it came to clear cut chances, we had the better ones..

    Ollie could have won that game for us….

  120. Joaquim Moreira says:

    It’s my opinion. He was always in the game. He fight alone in the area, he won mostly of aerial balls, he came back, he was on both sides, he played with the same intensity in the full game. We had an exhausting game every 90 min + extra time.

  121. dublingunner says:

    Pity, on the Giroud front, Rico, but we must remember that was spurs best 11 against our much depleted squad, that alone is a positive,
    Wenger said Carzorla played to 30% of his potential.He was dizzy, that explains his performance.
    As for Campbell, I don,t think he,ll make it, tries hard but doesn,t blow me away.

  122. rico says:

    We’ll have to agree to differ Jm, first half I thought his control was awful. He spent too much time moaning… Second half was slightly better but he could have so easily won us the game and had he done so, he’d have been forgiven big time by me…

  123. rico says:

    But we never have a full squad Dublin, that’s what cheeses me off. But yes, you have a point… Well batter them at their pit….

  128. Tai says:

    Great game.

    I’m happy with the result…prayed for the three points but it would have been clear injustice for Spurs to go home with nothing after their impressive display.

    What else would have Giroud done? He won most headers, hit the bar, forced a couple of saves from Iiloris, and held up play well. If anyone let us down it was Sanchez . And of course, Santi. This is a game we could have lost. Great credit to the side for clawing back…and for Wenger, who introduced Gibbs as left wing. I’m sure most pundits would have called him a genius if he was Mourinho.

    Without Walcott, Ramsey, Bellerin, Welbeck, Wilshere, Chamberlain, Rosicky, we played the most compact Spurs side in recent times, fought back from behind and still remain joint top of the log.

    City were missing just Aguero and Silva…then Bony…and couldn’t score against the bottom team. And somebody tells me about depth.

  129. rico says:

    Taii, I know you’ll probably think it’s just me having a dig at you as it seems you take so many comments personally these days…

    But. I’m pleased we managed to sneak a point but imo, it was far from being a great game through the eyes of an Arsenal fan.

    What more could Giroud have done you ask? Well he could have scored, he could have made better layoffs in the first half and he could have stopped squabbling and just payed the game.

    But, he’s not alone as far as playing better as many players weren’t at the races and imo, that’s because too many players have played too many games on the trot.

    Why? Because our squad isn’t deep enough in strength – yes, we have injuries but as so many fans have pointed out for many years now, this is something which isn’t a one off. It happens every season and we as a club are not equipped to cope.. If we were, we’d have won today…

    As for City, who cares, today we should have taken advantage of them dropping points, but we didn’t.

    Days like today could just stop us from winning the league….

    Happy? No I am not!

  130. Tai says:

    When you fight back so hard to equalise…when you could even have gone two down, you should be happy. Nobody wins every match.

    Rico, you always accuse me of being easily impressed…I love life that way instead of being overtly critical and moaning all the time. Where I come from, having the cup half-full tops having it half-empty.

    Giroud could have won us the match because he tried very hard to…missed, hit the bar, forced saves. Luck and just luck deserted him…NEVER that he didn’t try hard enough.

  131. tsgh says:

    happy with results first nld at emirates for 3 years now…

    We seriously need a ball playing CM.
    Without Sc19 on form or in-line-up its a bit one dimensional, imho

  139. scottfromoz says:

    Under the circumstances, our guys did well to grab a draw, but still should’ve won.
    Still, it’s a result and we maintain our position.
    Our shortfall of healthy players has us in big trouble already.
    Thank goodness the interlull has arrived…..it could not have come at a better time.

  140. Micko says:

    Plus points, Kozzer was awesome again today, no coincidence we let in 5 against Bayern mid-week and were rolled over so easily in the League Cup the week before, the medical team need to earn their corn !

    Down-side, Cazorla getting schooled by Dele Alli first half, a 19 year old kid , 11 years his younger, fair play to Arsene for changing it around at half time for a change.

    Have to agree with Tai, a real master-stroke bringing on Gibbs when he did, I would have gone with Ospina myself with the choice on the bench !

    Truth is had Giroud had his scoring head on today we’d be sitting top of the league.

    Only one team in it with 15 to go, think we let them off the hook, I hate the scum.

  141. Micko says:

    Can see where your coming from tsgh, Cazorla had a nitemare, maybe there’s more to it than meets the eye, it will all come to light tomorrow !!!

  142. potter says:

    Today we saw that we still need that powerful midfielder . Too often in the first half Santi found himself surrounded by three 6 footers and was out muscled . Spurs were closing us down and our passing was not crisp and we gave the ball away too often. Second half ( love him ) Flamini gave the power support that Le Coq needed and gradually we took control. Atkinson was letting the physical take place and as usual we always falter in these games . For 60% of matches their combination works really well but in these high tempo rough and tumble games we need something different.

  144. scottfromoz says:

    Micko, I read Cazorla was suffering dizzy spells during the first half, so was obviously replaced and it explains his performance.
    That’s his worst 45 minutes in 2 years.

  150. Adam says:

    Morning Rico and all. Lots of pathetic violence and trouble around the ground yesterday and the customary annual destruction of the toilets. With our injury problems and recent schedule we ground out a result and should have won it. I really can’t work out why Giroud gets involved in all these petty spats. Vertonghen is a spiteful coward who loves to dish it out but goes down like a tart when someone gives some back. Ignore the fat tosser and concentrate on scoring.

  151. allezkev says:

    Morning All….

    Disappointed we didn’t win and I’ve only seen some highlights of the game. But my son, who was there, reckoned that we got out of jail.
    From the highlights I saw, the Spuds had a log of chances, and although we had a few I think, from what I saw, that a draw looked a fair result. And I’ll take that.
    Still 2nd behind City…

    Morning Rico
    Evening Scott

  152. allezkev says:

    Morning Adam…

    Well you was there mate, so I’ll bow to your opinion….

    Why don’t Arsenal grow a pair and just ban the Tottenham fans from the Emirates.,,,

    They started wrecking our toilets back in the days of the Clock End, Highbury, early 90’s…

  153. Adam says:

    Morning Kev. On chances I think we probably edged it but we were shapeless and rather laboured. If we were Man Utd the press would be telling us that getting something from a game when not playing well or with 10 injuries is the mark of champions. When it’s us against those shitheads it’s a mark of a shift in the balance of power in North London.
    Most of the Spurs fans don’t actually have toilets at home and usually use the gutter outside the fried chicken shops that adorn their home turf. Sinks and taps are luxuries to them that they just don’t understand. They never have to do any washing up because all they eat are takeaways and they are probably down the scrap metal merchants this morning trying to sell the taps they stole to buy some deep fried grease-burgers that I believe are something of a delicacy, alongside urine milkshakes, in that cultural desert know as Tottenham, Middlesex.

  154. rico says:

    Morning Adam and Kev..

    It hurts for me because of the timing of our chances. We rode our luck a bit in parts of the game but having equalised, missing golden opportunities to snatch all three points was a bummer..

  155. allezkev says:

    Adam, ha ha ha….

    Ok mate, Giroud should have scored for definate…
    I usually hate the Interlulls, but this one has maybe come along at the right time and will give us two weeks to recover…

    Jamie Vardy, 9 goals in 9 games…
    Ruud Van Nistleshithead got 10 in 10…
    The record is held by Stan Mortenson who got 11 in 11 in 1951-52…

  157. Adam says:

    Vardy is an interesting player. As is Mahrez. Both at Leicester but soon to be somewhere else I would think.
    Rico. Spurs played us at exactly the right time (for them) and they couldn’t beat us. They were time wasting after 10 minutes of the second half.
    At least we showed a bit of spirit after the break and they tried to hit us on the break with the adenoidal Kane.

  161. scottfromoz says:

    How did the officials miss Vertonghen on Giroud on the entry box??
    Blind?
    Must be, because I could see it from Oz WITHOUT the assistance of television lol.
    I didn’t realise the destruction of the toilets is now a tradition.
    Takes real hard men to do that….I’m very impressed 🙂

  163. allezkev says:

    Scott, having a riot and wrecking their environment is in the Scummers DNA…

    It’s quite normal behaviour for them…

  164. Kel says:

    Tough game we got dominated for the most but we were guilty of missing a few very good chances in the 2nd half, but considering that was spurs best 11 v a very tired and injured Arsenal who just came off the back of a tanking against Bayern I’m not to pissed off tbh.

    If santi wasn’t feeling right he should have bloody said so even if it’s only 15 mins into the game. Unfortunately we have no one else like him ie deep playmaker, but flamini done well when he came on.

    Ok we missed the chance to go top, but city also missed the chance to extend their lead against bottom of the league villa, who’s more pissed off today Arsenal or city 😉

  165. Adam says:

    Rico. Santi looked off from about 4 minutes into the game. The bigger picture though will be trying to get our injured back and playing soon. And of course planning for January’s splurge in the transfer window. 🙂
    Scott. Kev is right there. Cave paintings found in an early Fried Chicken shop in Tottenham High Road shows the tradition of wrecking toilets goes way back.

  166. rico says:

    Bugger City Kel, once they’d dropped points, we should have capitalised but I think I feel better today than I did yesterday. Thought we were awful, especially in the first half but when you see so many clear cut chances go begging in the second half, you know it’s not going to be our day..

    Mind you, I bet Spurz fans feel the same….

  168. allezkev says:

    Rico, there’s a lot of points to play for, I’d rather be where we are for most of the season, just under the radar, not seriously considered as champions by the media who expect us to fall apart and maybe hit the top with a couple of games to go….

    But January is important, as Adam alluded to ? …
    With our injured coming back, topped by at least one quality signing, we could go all the way, competing till the end of the season…

  169. rico says:

    Adam, I know. He looked well off colour which is why I questioned him even starting. But yes, was very odd to wait until half-time before replacing him…

    Apparently, Flamini was warming up straight after the game started so that says a lot….

  170. scottfromoz says:

    Fair enough Kev….a classy lot then.
    Oh well, I guess they pick their targets well Hahahahahahaha.
    Adam, it’s only once a year, so that’s a positive lol
    Do any of you watch Scottish games?
    An Aussie kid is getting rave reviews for Celtic but I’m wondering if our media are blowing them up, or if it’s genuine.
    His name is Tommy Rogic, and around two years back someone asked me if there was an Aussie young guy I could potentially so see at Arsenal…he was the one.
    He’s had some injury issues (Asrenal kid all over) but is fit and really firing, from the reports.

  171. scottfromoz says:

    Rico, I reckon what says even more is we improved a lot when Flamini replaced Santi 🙂 🙂
    He was quite good but poor Santi was woeful, though he was trying.

  172. Adam says:

    Rico. I like him although I haven’t seen A Bilbao that much. There are lots of gifted players in Spain. Even the low end teams have interesting players. Whether they could withstand the rigours of the PL is another matter.

  173. rico says:

    Kev, I understand what you are saying but I’d still rather Ollie had buried one for all three points…

    Maybe I’m just hard to please… 😉

  174. allezkev says:

    I see that the British Government plan to build 9 new prisons, which will eventually replace many of our old existing Victorian prisons…

  177. scottfromoz says:

    Rico, there is no question he should have nailed one, but I guess t could have been worse.
    Adam, Nacho is proof that with some time, Spanish players who can seem a little lightweight do have the capacity to make it.
    Damn he’s good.

  180. allezkev says:

    I quite understand Rico…. ?

    I guess if I’d seen the game, either live or on TV, I might feel the same…

    Tbh I was more frustrated by our performance in Europe…

    And I really cannot understand why we have so many injured players all the time and why that problem hasn’t been addressed by the club, especially as it’s such a repetitive issue….

    We can all criticised Wenger for different aspects of his management, but why he has not sorted out the continuing and damaging injury issue is something that really annoys me. More then dropping two points to the Scum…

    Rant over ?

  181. Adam says:

    Scott. I seldom watch Scottish games except when Rangers are in the same league as Celtic. Even then it’s only out of a certain morbid curiosity. 🙂

  182. allezkev says:

    No Scott, you’ve had enough of our rubbish, and we thank you for your generosity in taking them off of our hands.

    Maybe we could transport a few of our scumbag criminals to Helmand province?

  186. rico says:

    I’m reverse Kev. CL doesn’t interest me at the moment but that’s because I don’t think we have a squad good enough to get to the quarter finals let alone win it and it’s all about the money game for the club.

    Totally agree re the injuries and with Shad in place, I thought such issues would be somewhere towards being resolved but there not. Either we have very fragile players, which I think we have a few, or there’s something going on which is far more serious…

    And, knowing that this is something which repeats itself every season, why haven’t we got a deeper/stronger squad so that we can cope?

    It’s only a matter of time before Alexis or Ozil breaks down. Coquelin and Cazorla too.

    Thank goodness Low has left Ozil out this time….

  187. Kel says:

    I’d say spurs fans will be feeling worse than us today they could have went 2 up in that game and that would have really put us to bed imo. That was the best chance they’ve had to beat us at home in a along time everything was in place for them to get a result…. injuries, fatigue, just conceded 5.

    They were so fucked off they wrecked the toilets lol 🙂

  189. Adam says:

    CL is beyond this squad I think. It’s just a money earner really. A shame really as we have some top players but we have failed to really push on by adding the quality we need to compete at European level. Unless this is addressed Ozil, Sanchez and perhaps some others will want to move on. The big picture is far more complex then yesterday’s result against Spurs. Think small and you’ll remain small.
    PL should be our sole aim this season.

  191. scottfromoz says:

    Spot on, Adam.
    When I say I don’t care about CL, I would love to see us win it…that would be the ultimate.
    Until we can win the PL and prove ourselves worthy of the champions tag, we can’t win the CL, IMO, and if we do, we don’t deserve it.
    Does the club want to win it?
    I don’t think they’re too fussed, which is a shame as it shows a distinct lack of ambition.

  192. tsgh says:

    Morning Rico et al,

    Kev I agreed with your 8:09am; being at the game I will ditto Adam’s view as well…

    After 12 or so games being on equal points to shitty is an acheivement by itself imho

  193. rico says:

    If I let my imagination run away with me I do start to wonder if AW is preparing to depart next summer..

    No spending
    His comments about the last year of contract
    Pep due to leave Bayern in the summer….

    I don’t think he is interested in the CL either, not one bit.

    Perhaps one big signing in Jan, win the league and bye bye….

  197. tsgh says:

    The thing is one or 2 of the fringe players have to step up and take their chances this season;
    Maybe with the likes of JW10 coming back would give us a different dimension in midfield.

  199. allezkev says:

    Scott, I was chatting to a couple of Aussies from Western Australia last week, and they were saying similar things about the country and economy…

  200. tsgh says:

    Hi Scott, I don’t ;but we talked about the Aussie you tipped could be making the headlines a few years back and I gather from your post above he is doing splendidly over the border…

    I tried to keep an eye on Gedion at Rangers but its a bit too sunday league for me; I must admit… 😉

  201. rico says:

    Depends whe return is Scott, if it’s towards the end of the season, they are all usually back fit by then.. Lol

    Ts, spot on re the the fringe players, but are they capable?

    New post up now..

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