Morning all.
I bet no one is giving us a hope in heck of getting anything from our trip to Anfield other than a good hiding. Hardly surprising though considering our results against them over recent years. We haven’t won any of the last five fixtures against them at Anfield. We did manage two draws though and I’d take another today in a flash. Worse still is we haven’t beaten them in the league at all in yonks at home or away.
This is Unai Emery’s first trip to the rowdy stadium as Arsenal manager, just as it is for Torreira, Lichtsteiner, Sokratis, Guendouzi and Leno. All eyes will be on both keepers that’s for sure especially as one is the most expensive ever bought. He’ll be facing the leagues leading goal scorer so perhaps a very different test for him. The hard working Lacazette is different to most too but our strikers can only score if we get the ball to them quicker and in better positions than of late. Aubameyang is quick, we’ve got to use his pace especially on the break. Those behind our front one or two, need to move the ball around faster and cut out the wayward passes and silly errors. Liverpool will no doubt see enough of the ball without us gifting them possession.
Liverpool are strong in all positions and in Salah, Mane and Firmino, they also have bundles of pace. Our defending will have to be at its best if we’re going to stop them. Height is on their side when it comes to set pieces so logic says don’t give them many.
If the sight of Mustafi back in training didn’t please you then maybe the return of Mavropanos will. It’s highly unlikely he’ll play tonight but maybe the FA Cup match next weekend could see him return.
Mustafi is to be assessed ahead of kickoff as is Monreal and Bellerin although I couldn’t see either of the latter two in the training photos. Having all four back in training must be a huge boost for the team and Unai Emery of course.
One player who won’t feature this evening apparently is Mesut Ozil. He’s cried off because a painful knee despite training yesterday. Call me an old cynic but I think this is poppycock. He’s either been left out by Emery for obvious reasons or he’s simply bottled playing in such a big and demanding game. Shocking if it’s the latter. Kolasinac is reportedly missing too having picked up a knock against Brighton but there’s nothing official on the club’s website. Sheaf, Medley, Saka, Willock and Nketiah all trained with first team although I don’t know if they’ve travelled to Liverpool.
We’ve looked somewhat lacklustre recently but then we’ve had a depleted squad through injuries so it’s hardly surprising. But our better performances since the opening two fixtures have come against tonight’s opposition and the other side currently above us in the table so if we can replicate either of those, we could just stand our ground and be tough to beat. As said, I’d take a draw right now but how sweet it would be if we could be the ones to end their unbeaten run….
A bit of transfer gossip and that surrounds Argentinian Ever Banega. Apparently he’s on the verge of making a move to Arsenal next month after his agent travelled to London to seal the deal. £18m is the fee mooted in the Spanish press which seems a lot to me for a 30 year old.
We’ve also tabled a £35m offer for Pulisic apparently which was rejected. Liverpool have since offered £45m in any case according to reports in the media.
It’s that time of year eh….
Finally, the club announced yesterday that Peter Hill-Wood had passed away at 82 years old. He followed in his father and grandfathers footsteps by joining the clubs board in 1962. Twenty years later he became chairman after his father passed away, and there he stayed until 2013. He been unwell the year before so for him, it was time to rest.
He watched on as his/our club won seventeen trophies, including five League titles and five FA Cups and moved from the grand old Highbury to The Emirates Stadium.
Ian Wright is just one of many who have paid tribute to the well respected man of the club and football.
‘Rest in Peace Mr Chairman. Thank you for everything you did for our club and our community.
‘You gave Rocky [Rocastle] his first pro contract and by doing that gave so many of us hope. Til we meet again.’
Matin Keown:
‘He was a man of great dignity and class. Throughout my time at the club he was a constant presence at matches, always greeting the players before every home and away game to wish us well.
‘His father and grandfather had been chairmen before him and when you shook his hand, it felt like a link to Arsenal’s history.
‘He was never afraid to embrace change, too. He saw a great visionary in Arsene Wenger and helped facilitate the new training ground and stadium. Arsenal was his great love and he embodied the values and traditions of this club.’
Sadly, those traditions are a thing of the past. The club goes on, it probably always will but the days of a friendly handshake before and after a game from the club’s chairman are long gone.
RIP Mr Hill-Wood.
Do it today for him Arsenal. Do it for him….
Good morning Rico, thanks for the post which, I guess, was easier to write than tomorrow’s will likely be.
The death of Peter Hill-Wood seems like the closing chapter of a large part of the history of Arsenal Football Club. The end of an era of class, integrity and doing things “The Arsenal Way”.
Morning Cicero. I don’t know, tomorrow’s might be easier 😜
A long family tradition gone but football has changed so much. Sad really but it’s all about money now..
A word of warning to all Arsenal players this evening. Don’t even breathe on Salah, in the box, he’ll go down like a sack of s**t.
Afternoon Gooners
Afternoon Rico. Very good post…
Bertie Mee,
Terry Neill,
Don Howe,
George Graham,
Arsene Wenger,
All of them have been on the receiving end of a good old Merseyside hiding at Anfield, it’s a ground where Arsenal rarely leave unscathed and I don’t expect today to be any different.
Arsenal successes at Anfield are few and far between, that’s why we remember them, they’re sweet and among your fondest of Arsenal moments, whether it be Alan Ball from the penalty spot in front of the Kop, blowing kisses after thrashing the ball past Ray Clemence, or John Radford plowing through the mud, skipping over a Larry Lloyd attempted foul to smash in the winner, Liam Brady announcing his arrival with a goal at the Kop, Anders Limpar, Bobby Pires chipping the winner, 10 men grinding out the 3points after Van Brockhorst was sent off, Paul Merson or the epic Alan Smith and “Its up for grabs now” Michael Thomas, I’m sure there’s more but the League successes are always the sweetest to me, above Old Trafford or White Hart Lane or anywhere else.
And get sent off for diving hopefully. If Kolasinac plays, I hope he tests that dodgy shoulder Salah has…
Afternoon Kev, thank you.
I’m with you there, our victories at Anfield, even though few, are some of our best in my memory. Being so young, 89 will always be my favourite because such a dramatic final day of the season victory to secure the league title will never be matched imo.
This is one of those games I feel like I’ve got to endure rather than enjoy. If we come away with a point I’d be amazed, but I’ll still hope for all three.
In the short term winning this sort of game is a nice to have rather than a must have. Take care of the games against the bottom 14 teams and get 4th and the top 4 matches become luxuries.
Having said that Liverpool are following the self financing model very well and have benefitted massively from selling both big name players and getting good value for squad players. We seem to have struggled to do the same lately.
Do I have a comment spam, that so pisses me off…
Ok, off to the granddaughters for a late Christmas – Ho Ho Ho…. 🎅
Perspective.
Nothing in spam Kev.. have a fab time…
Hobart, agree re the way Liverpool are running the club. I guess it’s no different to the way we used but the difference is that Klopp brings in really good players with the money…
G’day everyone. A fitting and complementary comment on PHW, Rico.
Hoovered the house, played a brief nine holes on the local P&P and now watching Barrow v Salford….just to pass the time away. Wishing and hoping for that good (decent?) result this evening.
Any rumours about who Özil might be loaned out to?
Pathetic bloke!
Looking at Ever Banega’s Wicki page and profile makes me think he will be an ideal replacement for and upgrade on Ramsey. Having previously played under Emery, he should know his tactics, style of play and training methods well.
At thirty years old he won’t cost the Earth and his wages will doubtless be less than the Welshman was demanding. A central midfielder to complement Torreira or an attacking midfielder to compete with Iwobi. Just the sort of experienced player we need.
Thanks Andorra, we fans have a lot to thank him and his family for I’d say..
Cicero, as said in the post, £18m for Banega which I think is a lot of money…
Banega has now 30 years old.
He is a good player but I think he is not fit.
Moroever, comes to replace Ramsey.
It will not be a “reinforcement”.
Smith Rowe perhaps Jm?
maybe or maybe not
Tots 1-1 Boly!!!!
I already understand what the evolution of the Totts was this season.
I explain after Arsenal. match.
1-3
Ruben Neves and Moutinho defeated Totts in the midfield
Leno, Lichtsteiner, Sokratis, Mustafi, Kolasinac, Maitland-Niles, Xhaka, Torreria, Ramsey, Iwobi, Aubameyang.
Tottering Tots losing at home to Wolves. 90 mins. 1 – 3.
Final score Spuds 1 – 3 Wolves.
no lacazzete in the team… again
The wolves coach (Portuguese) in the 2nd part released Ruben Neves with the entrance of Moutinho and shattered the totts.
What’a a player Ruben Neves! (ex-Porto)
Great to see Mustafi back..
Nice result at Wembley… lol
4.30am wake up to watch this-not sure how good a decision it was 🙂
Morning all.
Ramsey good enough to be captain, not good enough to keep lol
Noice 🙂
These pricks are blessed!!!
Oh wow! Oh no. Oh shit.
Oh F**k!
Shambles of a defence…
This is gonna be 5 or 6
Spot on, Kev.
That’s not down to injuries, either, just ridiculously poor awareness.
Terrible
Lucky Xhaka..
AMN needs to run at his man, he’s on a booking… lol
Of course injuries have an effect Scott, but players who can’t tackle also is an issue.
I’ve been watching gutless Arsenal teams at Anfield for years, this isn’t new.
Hoping for some half time magic from Emery.
Nah I thought you were talking about that 3rd goal, Kev.
Naive defending at best.
Salah dives at 3-1 up.
Scumbag!
Just when you think you’ve seen every way to foul up a defence we find a Hackney marsh method deflectionsand the famous long diagonal then the expected salah penalty
School boy defending..
Its going to take more than a trade mark Emery half-time substitution to sort this mess out. The defenders have no idea what formation they are supposed to be playing, Lichtsteiner doesn’t know whether to stick or twist and Maitland-Niles isn’t getting back quickly enough.
Well that’s Emery’s solution Koscielny on for Mustafi.
I’m just about done with this farcical game.
It doesn’t just condone cheating, it encourages it.
2 of the absolute softest penalties in history and people are raving about how good these scumbags are?
You can’t bloody defend against them because they fall down like a bag of shit.
The game has lost its integrity.
Cicero, when it’s 4-1, may as well try something lol
Mustafi was like a traffic cop.
Doing bugger all but he was waving his arms around.
We’ve looked much better with Kozzer on, just quietly.
Absolute nonsense. I await the transfer window with anticipation.
I expected this sort of scoreline, I just didn’t expect the ref to be so involved. 2 soft penalties given one way and a bang on penalty not given our way. Surprised no one mentioned Mane having Sokratis by the throat, which from memory is a red card offence?
Not going to excuse our defending which was woeful, but I thought it was a closer game than I expected.
As for that we actually finished the game looking balanced playing a 4231 formation. Strangely similar to last seasons formation.
Adam, do you reckon we will spend?
We all know we need to, but will Stan open up the purse strings?
Damn, I hope so.
I don’t have a clue Scott. We should do but our injuries are crippling too.
Me too Adam 😜
You can only buy whats up for sale . So don’t expect too much.
Got to question Leno on the penalties. Both times BT put up where they put their,shots.Salah goes down the middle and Firminho goes to the keepers left .Both times they did and he went the other way.
Why so many injuries?
Are we just being unfortunate atm, or are they being over trained?
That, combined with a lack of quality and depth are murdering us lol
Very frustrating, but not as frustrating as the penalties given v one we didn’t get.
Everything went the Scousers way-
The luck and poor decisions all helped them.
We were woeful, but were they really that good?
Not that it matters.
Rico. Problem is that it takes so long to rebuild a team that I doubt it could happen before Emery’s time runs out. The management are going to have to come up with an exceptional plan of action quite soon.
@scott
Wenger used to keep physical training low during the season as he believed that gametime was enough when combined with a small squad.
Add into that he played a possession style that minimised effort for us and maximised it for the opponents. We still had injury issues.
Emery has increase our training physicality, increase our effort style in the game and hasn’t changed the squad depth. Hopefully that will be addressed at some point.
My plan Adam would be to teach our lot to defend…
But yes, you’re right about time.
In my opinion, if Emery signs a couple of 29/30 year old olds next month or in the summer, it would be a really bad move. It’ll show he’s only thinking about now and not the future as whoever takes over from him will be left with another ageing squad with little value.
You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.He has the rest of this season to get youngsters in and teach them.Too many of our team are too old to change. We have to look to the future .
@rico agreed. First thing I would like to see is a style or formation for the team. Then fill in the blanks in the squad accordingly, but at the moment I’m not sure what style we are playing or even trying to play.
Either way we need to be smart in the transfer market and that rules out buying players with no resale value unless really necessary.
Do we stop and start from scratch?
Rebuild the entire squad, bringing in young guys and give them their chance, or wild fans but accept that?
In which case, get Mavropanos in alongside Sokratis or Medley. I really can’t see what there is to lose – in the short time I’ve seen medley play, he looks far more composed than some of our defenders.
Me neither Hobert, sometimes we looked like under tens all chasing the ball. No wonder so much space is left to exploit..
I have not seen him and only a fleeting glance at Mavropulus. But I have seen enough of the guys that played tonight.
Whatever happens, changes are required, and fast.
No point reverting to what’s failed time and again.
You and me both Potter, basic defending and yet too difficult to execute
How’s about we get a proper defensive coach in??
I mean, we have what we have and we can’t change the entire unit in January, but it’d be nice to see an attempt to improve them.
How old are Liverpool’s two full backs, anyone know?
Doesn’t matter with van dyke organising he even makes Lovren look good.
Funny though, I can recall mention of VVD on here when he was at Celtic. Suggestions of signing him then we’re quite strongly scoffed at. Same with Wanyhama.
Hindsight eh…
Mustafi and Kolosinac probably were replaced because they were injuries ? Probably…
Conclusions: a) We have the worst team of 6 b) Our fragility is notorious and so we always tend to lose points c) The opponent is always faster, wins in individual duels, is more team d) In today’s game we had ideas, a lot of football and always on Iwoby’s side.
Rico, but if they’re only good enough for Celtic 🙂 🙂
There are gems to be found everywhere.
Mustafi and Kos were only ever going to play a half each apparently.
They have pace up front, we have midfielders working at being wingers. It doesn’t work, we need an injection of pace and trickery on both sides of the pitch.. Nelson and Saka have it.
Is Nelson still killing them in Germany?
RIP June Whitfield. One of the best…
That’s sad
New post up now