Morning all.
Out of those listed above, the only one I could spot in yesterday’s training session is Kolasinac. Not a good start really as the team could do with Mustafi back as surely Koscielny won’t start yet another match in such a short space of time. Xhaka playing there though isn’t working either, not so much for his defensive work but we’ve missed him in midfield. Torreira has missed him in my opinion.
Theres been plenty of headlines made out of Mesut Ozil and the media wasted little time by asking Unai Emery about the Germans future:
“Every player wants to play and be okay to help the team when we need.
“The frustration is the same for everybody when they didn’t play in a match. But I spoke with him and with the regularity in the season, I am telling him what we need from him and he has the commitment to help us, and the quality and the characteristics to help us, when the team needs his moments in the pitch in one game.
“Tomorrow he is in the squad.”
In other words, he wants more from Ozil. His teammates deserve more and need more from he too. I’d imagine all we fans want to see is Mesut Ozil at his best when he’s dictating our attacking play and creating goal scoring opportunities. We’ve got two great strikers in the team, a poacher too in Eddie Nketiah so it’s not like he doesn’t have the players to feed. This is his kind of opposition, he should thrive today.
Arsenal should too but as last weekend and midweek proved, if everyone isn’t singing off the same hymn sheet, our level of football suffers. Our results suffer too having lost our last two two fixtures which hasn’t happened since the opening fortnight of the season. We huffed and puffed a bit during that good run. Some might say we’d been lucky along the way, others might prefer to recognise some good last ditch defending and a new found grit and determination but the reality is, we’re still a long way off where Emery is no doubt aiming to take us.
Injuries aren’t helping us but even so, that’s not what has caused the last two bad results as we’ve had plenty of very good chances to win the game. As said after the Totts match, we could so easily have been one or two up by the time they scored but we’ve got a bit sloppy in front of goal and it’s cost us. Ruthlessness, that’s what we’re missing up front, that killer instinct.
Find that killer instinct again and we’ll win this game at lunchtime but if we don’t, we’re going to be for another tough ninety minutes. Burnley need points, Dyche will be determined to keep a clean sheet but if Ozil can for once produce some of the magic we all know he has yet seldom produces, he could be the difference.
I won’t hold my breath though…
First
Good morning!
Not Christmas shopping this morning Jm? Lol
Second?
Morning all
Blast!
Third then…….Arsenal’s finishing spot this season??
No chance Wavy.. lol
Wonder what we’ll see from Arsenal today. They looked knackered on Wednesday and with such a quick turnaround, they’re hardly going to be rested. This is when the squad needs to be used, actually, no, Wednesday was the day for squad players imo, but the squad is threadbare so Emery either uses youth, or we’re likely to pick up even more injuries.
Morning. Very important today. Need a display and three points otherwise I think we can start planning for next season.
I’m hoping that someone is having a word with Emery in the background regarding the physical demands of English football.
Supposedly we’ve increased our training demands, we’ve increased our physical workload during games, what we haven’t done is rest players (Ozil excluded ;-)) or increase the squad depth.
I’m worried about our injury crisis lasting all season.
I wonder if in hindsight Emery wishes he’d rotated against Totts? We don’t have the squad to compete in three cups and go for a top four.
Make that two cups now…
Ozil is captain today. What a joke that is..
19Leno
15Maitland-Niles
5Papastathopoulos
18Monreal
31Kolasinac
29Guendouzi
4Elneny
10Özil
34Xhaka
9Lacazette
14Aubameyang
Substitutes
1Cech
8Ramsey
11Torreira
12Lichtsteiner
17Iwobi
49Nketiah
87Saka
Morning all.
Ozil as captain-very interesting.
Maybe Emery is trying to hand him some responsibility to see if he steps up-a last resort.
Not a bad idea because If he can’t show us something now, he never will.
Hopefully, the healthy players have had a few quiet days and are ready to rock.
The last time he was captain was when he had a strop.
A captain needs to lead by example and Id have thought Ozil is the worst candidate..
G’day to you all.
Seventh! Wow!
That looks like the best starting eleven available, with the exception of our terrier who is on the bench for a well earned rest. Lacazette and Aubameyang in tandem with Ozil running things behind them, oh, wait a minute “Ozil running things” isn’t that an oxymoron?
Fifteen minutes to kick off, time to shut down the PC and transfer to my armchair in front of the tele.
C’mon the Glorious Gunners!!!!!
no Christmas shop rico..
Concern with the line up
Back later
Afternoon Gooners
Afternoon Rico
Captain Mesut Ozil, a psychological decision?
Let’s see if the responsibility has a positive effect.
Almost 1-0, then almost 0-1…
Afternoon Kev, and Ozil nearly gifted Burnley a breakaway…
I forgot Jm, it’s not Christmas Eve yet.. lol
Nice goal, good from Mesut..
I’m listening to BBC5Live Rico, seems a goal constructed by Ozil and finished by Aubameyang but our defence seems a bit open, big game for Elneny although he’s going to be rusty, Maitland Niles couldn’t score in the proverbial…
Good from Kolasinac as well. And of course Auba. But after we nearly scored second minute, we had one defender in our half as they broke away and should have scored. Never learn.
Nice listening to co-commentator Lee Dixon on the radio, makes a change from hearing some wanker desperate to hear us concede.
Apparently Hector Bellerin sitting in the stands is dressed like some French 1960’s art student.
Lee Dixon commented that right backs have certainly changed and wondered what George Graham would think? 🙂
Mr Casual Maitland Niles is getting into some dangerous attacking positions but seemingly couldn’t hit a barn door…
Monreal off, another one bites the dust.
Lichtsteiner on, another man who can indulge in the dark arts against a physical Burnley.
Dixon saying Xhaka into defence and we switch to a back three.
MN’s really is laid back Kev, very good going forward but then that’s what he does best. Kolasinac is playing well I think.
Barnes v Sokratis is boiling up. One or both could end up off…
No Koscielny on the bench, maybe it might have made more sense to have Zach Medley on the bench instead of both Nketiah and Saka?
Better from Ozil, but we need more from him.
Defenders look a bit like they’ve never met before, but they are doing the job so far.
Smudger doing all be can to denigrate Arsenal, as is his wont.
One nil to the Arsenal, that’ll do me at half time. If we can get an early second it could be game over.
Agree Kev, did you see Pep played a 17 year old CB the other night? He did well apparently…
Apart from one great pass Cicero, he’s been far too quiet. When he goes over, why can’t he get to his feet quicker, it’s so frustrating especially when no foul has been committed..
Brilliant!
Well played Elneny who came to Ozil rescue and started the move..
Aubameyang. Job Done…
Now let’s rack up a few goals and maybe even keep a clean sheet…
Cicero, Smith is an Aston Villa fan…
Lucky Barnes, he knew what he was doing there imo.
Boot in the chest ref??
It’s all gone a bit wrong since Elneny went off.
Torrieira needs a booking so he can miss Brighton or else he’s bound to be booked on Boxing Day and Athen out of Anfield.
You know, Saka running at pace at the Burnley defence might have been better than bringing on Iwobi – but Unai Knows…..
I hope….
Tarkowski and Mee, worth a cheeky bid for either of them?
Phew!
Phew! And Iwobi gets a good finish..
I hope that Burnley stay up – we always beat them….
Kolasinac back to his best. Excellent display. Just given MOTM as I’m typing!
I hope they go down…
Kolasinac motm, rightly so. He’s been a rock I think.
How can a player put his boot into an opponent’s chest, whilst he’s laying on his back, and get away without even a yellow card?
Burnley are exactly where they deserve to be, in the relegation zone and I hope they stay there.
our defence is so pooly.
the 3thrd goala ws offside.
Ozil does not have a first league pace yet
One thing is consistent Dyche is moaning.
Potter, aparrently three dives by us excuses anything by them. Shame they didn’t ask him about the raised foot, threatening stamp. They should have had two off, but he moaned we should have had one off for diving. Funny how blinkered Managers are.
Who did Dyche think have dived? I must of missed that one..
In the second half there were faults signaled our favor in the defense, at least very debatable, in addition to an off side badly marked.
To defend in this way we will have many dislikes until the team “calm down”.
There are muscles saturated players and we will have 4 games in a row.
Sokratis to play this way, will quickly have 5 yellows, if not be sent off.
The replacements were not happy although we won.
Just seen our three goals, I’ve gotta say that they were three quality finishes.
I haven’t an issue with Kolasinac as a footballer, just with his availability.
Apparently he’s missed 78% of the games he could have played in since he’s been at Arsenal.
If he can sort his fitness it’ll be happy days.
Smith Rowe back in training as well, along with Kolasinac. 1 day ago
Mavropanos back in training. Saka, Medley, Nketiah and Willock trained with first-team. 1 day ago.
Tweets from Jeorge Bird
Goodness on Mavropanos and Smith Rowe Kev, we could do with both on Boxing Day.
New post up now
Hello, fellow HH’ers….
3 excellent finishes (did Iwobi actually score? It WAS him!))
What a muddled group of players in the penalty area to gift Burnley an “almost” lifeline – not a cool head that I could see to just put the ball out to touch. Y’know, nothing fancy but hopefully it’ll happen one day…….
Özil did play with more commitment but, like a few players, went down far too easily. I would swear that last season he was bulking up in the gym (as he was a bit of a lightweight)?
Dyche did complain over some of the Arsenal “dives” and I definitely agreed with him over Xhaka because, he also fouled in such a well disguised manner that HE got the free kick. To be honest I look forward to VAR ‘cos I dislike cheating, and what example are they sending out to the upcoming youngsters?
My last comment of the day is that a few players (no names) REALLY need to spend MORE time on the practice ground striking free kicks, crosses, and lay-offs so that in the majority of cases the ball goes between both posts and the crossbar. Wunderbar if it goes in but, even if it doesn’t, at least they were ON TARGET!