Morning all.
West Ham have hit a dip in form with just one win in their last five league games. Having looked likely to go on and cement that 4th place this season, the door has been kicked open. Arsenal, Man Utd, Toots, who have two games in hand, can overtake the Hammers this week. If we can beat the Hammers on Wednesday, it’ll be us in 4th place. If Brentford can beat Utd that is.
Arsenal have already had a blip, either that or a reality check and I don’t just mean in the last two away games, but before then too when the team sat back and let the opposition tear into us. Thankfully though, we managed to pick up points during that time which is why we’re still in a good place as far as the league position goes.
Arsenal pretty much have a fully fit squad with the only significant player missing has been Emile Smith Rowe and even he’s expected back imminently. So we’re in a good position, especially as unlike other teams, we’ve had no European distractions. West Ham have though which could be the reason for their dip in results.
Arsenal, or rather, Mikel Arteta has a problem to get through with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and the hype surrounding it all. I totally agree with him being dropped because to not do so would suggest that it’s ok for the Captain to breach the rules, but the others can’t. Whether Aubameyang comes back for the game this week is anyone’s guess. Either way, Arteta will no doubt be criticised by someone. Personally, I hope he’s left out because he deserves to be on performance level alone. On the other side of the coin, Gabriel Martinelli doesn’t deserve to be dropped because he’s been a handful for defences. He’s been doing everything Aubameyang hasn’t been doing. I’d like to see Alex Lacazette remain in the team for Wednesday too. Keep him in the middle and give him the kind of service Bukayo Saka provided on Saturday.
David Moyes spoke about his teams draw at Burnley on BBC on Match of the Day.
They’re in really good spirits because we’re in a good position, but once you set high standards, which a lot of them have, and they’ve seen the levels they can get to, I think some of them are playing below it. Some of them need to get back up to the high standards if they’re going to remain in this position. I’d rather tell them that than not. There’s no point in me pussy-footing around it and not saying it. I want to win, I want us to play better and a few of them can certainly do that.
Its interesting how Moyes comments about his players are so similar to those made by other managers, including Mikel Arteta. Everyone is in good spirits but they just need to raise their level of performance. That has to come from within the player. In Mikel Arteta’s case, he can prepare them all he likes but as many of use have said before, if a player isn’t up for playing, there’s little he can do. Bar not selecting him which is why I get so frustrated that Aubameyang hadn’t been dropped earlier in the season. It’s not like he’s just not been at the races for a couple of fixtures, it’s been more like a couple of years.
The game against Southampton was perfect in some ways. We got the nerves out of the way early and then went on to play some nice football whereas it’s usually been the other way around. We should go into Wednesday’s game with a bit more confidence and perhaps, it’s good time to play a West Ham team who’s confidence might be low.
See you in the comments.
Morning Rico and all,
Well that was a great result, and without our so called talisman leading the charge. I agree Auba shouldn’t be in the first 11, Laca Martinelli and Saka should lead the charge maybe give Pepe the last 20 mins for Saka as he’s played a lot a looks a little jaded.
I think Lakonga should play again he adds more attacking play maybe with Xhaka and bring in Partey second half and I’d like to see AMN getting some more time. He played really well the last time he started. Back five should be unchanged they’ve become the rock of our team and can play out the back. I’d like to see White making some more probing runs. But we need to be solid on set pieces, everyone should know they’re role.
Hopefully we can get a good result it’s like a 6 pointer with our positions in the table this is one we really need to win. We shouldn’t fear West Ham but we should respect them keep Antonio quiet stop the supply to him and his probing runs.
It does seem like we need to make the most of playing those European PL teams as they will be more jaded and will collect the odd injury. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we are not in Europe and we don’t have many of any injuries. Those extra games take a toll on squads one that we need to exploit.
Bring it on !!
Morning Mig, all.
Yes, a good result and better performance after the nerves settled. West Ham will be tougher I think but who knows with this team, we might just beat them.
Great performance by UEFA, Guardiola did all he could to stop himself from laughing when asked about it, no English clubs in the Europa, it’s all a bit odd, we need to back in and show them how it’s done.
Afternoon all
PEA just a thought or two. As I recall during the last season he spent at Dortmund he was always in trouble of some sort and played like a drain until they agreed to sell him. I wonder if a similar scenario is being re-enacted with the Arsenal? In that he’s deliberately not trying too hard because he wants out. Or is he just past it?
West Ham, don’t forget we are the club that just keeps giving, particularly when the opposition are going through the toils. We can always guarantee that a poor performance from the Arsenal will se a revival from the opponents! Sad to say I can quite envision this scenario occurring n Wednesday. ( or not!)
Ho hum
I thought West Ham and Leicester were in Europa
I can see West Ham getting the lift they need too Wavy, but at least we have a confidence building win behind us. 😜
Thanks Rico, hope to have the pc back tomorrow.
Yes a good time to play the Hammers. They started well but may have hit the wall. Too many games, fatigue and injuries are taking their toll.
Three points would be very welcome…..as always.
Not sure why it did that today Cicero. Weird.
I hope we don’t blow the opportunity to catch West Ham this time..
Evening Rico and the House
At last after a 2month break I have few browny points to spend and some spare time to spend them in .
The fact that I have been a full time carer ( for over 3 years) and we have both had to shield finally took its toil on me.
Every thing that could go wrong went wrong and I had to give The House Arsenal and in fact footballa a break.
Things are now starting to look up and I am trying to catch up on your Posts and the comments Rico,
I must say its a pleasure and a Tonic to read them
I hope you will forgive me for posting a unrelated football comment Rico but I just wanted to let you know why I was not around.
Pleased to see that you have had your booster Rico hope you didnot have any side affects, We had ours and the flue jab in Sept and Im proud to say my 13 year great granddaughter had her first jab on sat. Asked the Nurse when can I have no 2.?
Run out of browny points for tonght
see you later.
PS West Ham are in the last 16 of the Europa and Leicester are in th play offs tto reach the last16
Rick. Lovely to see you back. Sorry you’ve had it rough but happy to hear that things are looking up for you.
All the very best for the future.
Hi Rick good to hear from you. Glad that’s all well with you. We all need to keep safe and keep up to date with vaccines and stuff.
My granddaughter caught the virus last Christmas she was 7 and despite their protestations schools are Petrie dishes it’s good that your got grandaughter is on the road to protection .
West Ham will not be easy and Moyes probably knows more about Arteta and the way his mind works I don’t think it will be easy
Great to hear from you again Rick, we were a little concerned as to why you’d gone off grid.
I hope that you and yours are well, safe and healthy and stay that way.
I’m not too sure that the new coaches of the U18’s and U23’s have been the rip roaring success that many fans of the academy had hoped for following the departures of Steve Bould, Ryan Garry and Greg Lincoln.
The likes of Hutchinson and Taylor Hart have failed to develop fully under the new regime and that’s worrying to me. The academy seems to have a serious problem sourcing and developing defenders and defensive midfielders and so they compensate by playing attacking players in unsuitable positions and thus we seem to concede far too many careless goals.
Playing three centre backs and two wing backs shows that our full backs are severely limited defensively and our centre backs are poor positionally. The U23’s has one defensive midfielder, the very average Akinola who we signed from the Football League and there’s no one else of his type who I can think of in the academy and that’s rank poor recruiting imo.
As for Khaylon Edwards, if he wants to leave then see ya later. Last season he didn’t exactly set the world alight so just because he’s in the midst of a Joe Willock type scoring run right now it doesn’t follow that he’s the next Ian Wright!
Afternoon Rico and all
If we are turned on then there is no reason why we can’t beat west Ham,
I would start both Auba and Party on the bench, To me Auba has not shown enough that he should just walk back into the starting line up.
Ric @7:44 hope the short break helped, I fully understand we’re you are coming from I am the full time carer of my youngest son and my wife is the full time carer of our oldest son and I can not remember when me and wife went away for 48 house on our own well over 5 years.
I recon that’s why I am so hard on players like Auba they have nothing to worry about and all the money they will ever need yet they can’t turn up to training or even try on match day. Well that’s my 2 cents worth.
Respect to you and your wife Geoff…
My youngest son James was in the care industry for 12 years and it’s poorly paid, unappreciated and stressful.
I’m glad he’s out of it now…
Welcome back Rick. We’ve missed you. Hope everything is now ‘sorted’ and selfishly, we can look forward to many more of your precision insights about our benighted club.
Good luck and I hope your have a calmer and better future.
Morning Rick, Geoff and all.
Good to see you back Rick but totally understand time is precious and many things in life are far more important than football. You and your family take care.
Geoff, credit to you and your wife. Life must get tough sometimes, I hope you have support when you need it.
Just goes to prove doesn’t it that it’s always kind to treat people with a bit of decency online because none of us know what another is going through.
We may be a small group here on HH but it’s a bloody good group and I wouldn’t want it any other way….
Thanks Kev, That’s why I glad Rick got a small break just to unwind and try and clear the mind.
Just watched a show from England called The weekend review and noticed that they all recon Auba should be stripped of the captaincy,
Kev, apparently we’ve signed an ex Bayern scout back in October. That is according to Football London anyway. He is shown online as being employed by Arsenal so it might be true.
Thanks Rico we have very little support my mum and dad look after the boys for maybe one hour but they are both in there mid to late 80s and yesterday he was diagnosed with bone cancer , other that all our family and friends know longer come around or ring us, it shows who you’re true family and friends are.
we’ll at least I can watch the matches we win and cheer up.
Rico a new scout that sounds good, let’s just hope he knows what he is doing and the club listen to him, hint sell Auba and find a striker who knows were the inside of the net is.
That’s so sad Geoff. I’m sorry to hear that.
The last one didn’t last long Geoff.
If true Hopefully things have changed now Arteta and Edu have been working together for a while and that they now have the scout there after, if he fails it will not look good for them
Yes Rico, I saw that about the ex-Bayern scout, let’s see if he can find us the next Lewandowski?
Bloody hell Geoff sorry to hear about your Dad, that’s a low blow…
Hey guys, thought I would pop in an let you know that Abaumeyang has been stripped of the captaincy and not selected For tomorrow’s game.
If my news is late, please ignore my post.
Hi Brad, excellent news.
From AFC.com.
Following his latest disciplinary breach last week, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will no longer be our club captain, and will not be considered for selection for Wednesday’s match against West Ham United.
We expect all our players, particularly our captain, to work to the rules and standards we have all set and agreed.
We are fully focused on tomorrow’s match.
Not holding my breath Kev. Lol
If it’s true about Auba then I am happy to eat a small slice of humble pie, but will save the rest to see how we go for the rest of the season goes.
Any news on who the new captain is.
I’m going for Laca but I wouldn’t be surprised if Arteta picks a young players to take the team forward for the next few season.
I reckon he will go for Odegaard and rightly or wrongly that might lead to Esr not getting the right development
Going to be hard to sell Auba now, his messed up at 2 clubs and his big weekly pay.
I reckon it’ll be Gabriel, Tierney or Xhaka. That is if Lacazette doesn’t get the job until the end of the season.
I recon Laca will be captain for 2 reasons
1 it will keep him happy until the end of the season.
2 The younger players like playing with Laca and they seem to respect him
It would now be cheaper to give Aubameyang a free transfer than continue to pay him £350,000 per week for the rest of his contract term. Added to which do we need him hanging around like a fart in a phone box?
Press conference over and Arteta refers to a captain collective and names Xhaka as being important within it.
There will be a lot of outrage at that.
He has 18 months left , so to pay him off would be extortionate
Surely there’s a breach of contract here?
With the current rules he would probably need three letters of warnings and as far as we know he’s on two.
I can’t see how he can stay now though, it’ll do neither the club or player any good whatsoever.
But getting shot of him will be an expensive issue . We set the precedent with Ozil and have paid off a few to go Koscielny was one . Players and their agents have seen us fold before and will expect us to do it again.
Perhaps as Cicero said, we could let him go for free. I’m sure he’ll want out.
Well if Barcelona wanted Aubameyang it would save us something like £25m in wages to give him a free transfer and I’m sure he’d love to play for Barca, the only fly in the ointment would be if PEA and his agent still wanted some kind of financial payment to ease through a deal especially if Barca weren’t prepared to pay the same wages?
Aubameyang always wanted to play for either Real Madrid or Barcelona and this January is going to be pretty much last chance saloon for it to happen.
Mkhitarayan, despite his agent, passed on financials to get the move he wanted as did Willian so it’s not all been one way, Kolasinac didn’t get the move he wanted because he wouldn’t budge on a payoff so he’s pretty much sat out the last year, so be it.
Let’s hope he puts football ahead of money. He should do at this stage in his career, it’s not like he needs it.
I see on SkySportsNews that they’re making a big deal about Arsenal having 11 captains in 14 years, 14 years must mean 2007, I don’t even know who that was, was it William Gallas? How many of those 11 captains were stand ins – and is it a typical SSN non story?
Does anybody really care?
All I care about is beating West Ham.
Our captains have been dire for years but it’s history as you say Kev. Good old Sky Sports, they always like to make a crisis out of a drama.
Let’s hope there is a clause in Auba contract that allows us to terminate it.
Or we try to loan him out for say half his match fee with the option to buy
It will be a very big embarrassment for Auba if the ACON matches go ahead and He doesn’t get selected.
The warning ⚠️ was there last transfer market when Auba wanted out but no other club were serious about buying him.
Thanks to Auba The problem he has caused is what do we do with Laca in January if a good offer comes in, can we trust Auba to score?
Rico I still can’t find HH on my computer but my iPads find it straight away
I’m on it Geoff, thanks for letting me know.
We may have had a lot of captains but in the last quarter of a century we’ve only had three managers, and one very short term stand-in, what’s more the third man is still firmly in the chair. Not many clubs can equal that record.
Is it a good record to have though Cicero? I’m not sure it is when all things are considered.
New post up now