Morning all.
What a night in the Champions League. Man City were thrashed 4-1 by Sporting Lisbon in what was Man Utd’s soon to be manager’s last home fixture in charge of Sporting. Viktor Gyokeres scored a hat-trick, two of which were from the penalty spot. The media are criticising Brighton FC for letting him slip through their fingers a few years ago whilst writing about how the player needs to follow his current manager to Manchester. Perhaps he will, who knows and quite frankly, who cares?
Liverpool breezed past Bayer Leverkusen 4-0 but there was a shock in Spain where Real Madrid were beaten 3-1 by AC Milan. Liverpool currently occupy top spot in the qualifying league table with Arsenal in 9th place, just out of the automatic qualifying places. That could change tonight though should Mikel Arteta’s side beat Inter Milan in Italy. A tough ask though as the current Serie A champions and the 2023 Champions League finalists are unbeaten in 10 Champions League home matches.
Mikel Arteta in his pre match press conference:
My blood is pumping – this is the kind of game that we want to play. To come to Milan to play Inter, two years ago they were in the final of the Champions League, they won the Scudetto last year so to come here and show the team that we are right now and the ambition that we have. These are the games we want to play, that’s for sure.
Inzaghi has some very specific ideas, especially in ball possession, the way he moves the position of certain players to occupy different spaces and this makes it tricky and unpredictable. But to be fair, we face in the Premier League a lot of tactical issues that we have to resolve and hopefully tomorrow we’re going to do that as well.
There’s no denying that Arsenal aren’t in the best of form right now, in fact our last performance in the league was in my opinion, one of the worst I’d witnessed in a while. To have any chance tonight, this group of players need to step it up a bit. No, a lot. Not just the players either as Mikel Arteta has to play his part, not only in who he plays but how they play. It’s all well and good talking a good game but if he/the players don’t turn our form around quickly, this will end up being another season wasted. A season which just drifts to disappointing end as it did last year.
Yesterday, Mikel Arteta was also asked about Edu leaving and after expressing his thanks for their journey together and what an amazing guy the Brazilian is, he told fans that nothing will change:
The plan and vision that starts with ownership is very clear and very ambitious, we are going to continue. We have a very strong leadership team, with unbelievable know-how, real passion and great feeling for the football club. We are not going to stop where we are at the moment. Across the club [there is] excitement, passion, and understanding of where we want to take this journey remains intact. That means opportunities for somebody else to come in, to fill that role. There are people that Edu has brought alongside him on this journey which is always very important, and we move on. We say ‘thank you’ and we have to move on because that is the reality of our industry.
Mixed injury news ahead of tonight as Martin Odegaard, having returned to full training this week has travelled with the squad although it’s not known yet whether he’ll feature at some stage but as he comes into the squad, Declan Rice is out having picked up during the Newcastle game. Riccardo Calafiori, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Kieran Tierney remain out.
Arsenal’s Adrian Clarke on Inter:
Inzaghi is an outstanding tactician who likes to set his side up in a 3-5-2. Inter Milan are hardworking and robust without the ball, while in possession they rotate positions with great intelligence to help them pass through the thirds. Left-sided centre-back Alessandro Bastoni is an assured defender who likes to carry the ball out from the back, while Inter also have classy wing-backs – Matteo Darmian or Denzel Dumfries on the right, with Federico Dimarco or Carlos Augusto down the left. Whoever starts will push on and supply the bulk of the home side’s width.
In attack, Thuram and Lautaro Martinez have already despatched 14 goals this term thanks to some clever movement, and crisp finishing However, Inzaghi’s rotation policy has seen Iranian veteran Mehdi Taremi start all three European games ahead of Martinez. Another individual to look out for is Turkish midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu. He drops deep to dictate play from a single pivot position. His passing is top-class, and if we hold a high line the 30-year-old has the ability to clip dangerous long passes in behind our back four.
Beware of the ball over the top of our defence then. David Raya, who often can be spotted off his line, needs to be careful too.
Personally, I think the performance matters tonight just as much, if not more than the result. Weird as that might sound because I’m sure we all want to see our players beat Inter but as said earlier, it’s our level of football which has been off the boil. Get that back and the results will surely follow.
Catch up in the comments.
Afternoon Rico and all,
Not sure what is best, seeing Man C get thrashed or Haaland miss his penalty.
Can not watch the match tonight, but lets hope we can be proud of the performance by our players.
Morning Geoff, me neither re the game unless it’s on Prime..
Just to be helpful, I hope Inter v Arsenal is on TNT/discovery+
That’s not very kind Wavy. 😝
It is on TNT by the way.
The game is on TNT/Discovery and I am not looking forward to it a bit tbh .
We are woefully out of form and a draw isn’t good enough and Arteta has already hinted he has one eye on the Chelsea game .I don’t just understand how woeful to a man we were at Newcastle and can only hope for an improvement as this game tonight is harder than at Newcastle .
I dont have TNT or Discovery. but thanks for rubbing in Wavy😒
Glad you’re not in the dressing room Kelsey. Lol
Personally, I think a draw in Milan would be a very good result.
I write as I feel Rico .Not exactly happy with the last non performance and I still insist we have an A team and a C team and especially without Rice it will be difficult tonight let alone at Chelsea .Of course I would be delighted for us to win both games but I wonder how long The Process will take .We needed a striker in the Summer but didn’t get one and we aren’t scoring for fun anymore which is always a huge confidence booster for any team.
I know Kelsey. There’s no indication that Rice will miss the Chelsea game though.
The not signing a striker has hurt us I think but so has not having a senior back up plan for Odegaard.
I meant that Rice is missing tonight only.
Tonight’s game and the next Champions league match are our two toughest,I can’t get enthused about this dumbed down format though.
It’s a great boost to have Odegaard available,even if it’s only a few minutes from the bench ( sets him up for Sunday hopefully)
Maybe Jorginho will play tonight.
COYG
Team to play Inter:
Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Timber, Partey, Mikel Merino, Saka, Martinelli, Trossard, Havertz
Subs: Neto, Robinson, Zinchenko, Myles-Skelly, Kiwior, Jorginho, Odegaard, Nwaneri, Sterling, Jesus, Butler-Oyedeji.
Can’t say I’m overly excited or optimistic about the game..
Come On You Gunners, make Arsenal great again…
Not sure how Merino could have got his arm away for that pen. Ball to arm not arm to ball.
Dodgy start but we’re playing well I think, still no end product though..
I reckon we should be winning but we can’t score for toffee
Jesus on for Merino.
No goals, no clean sheet, no change from the Newcastle game. To be honest, we could have played until midnight and we would still not have scored a goal.
The team needs to refresh ideas, refresh physically and refresh mentality
We need a slice of luck to go our way..
Oh, and a player who can hit the back of the net…
. The Inter defence had the brandy and cigars out . A well organised Italian defence can head out centres all day everyday .
If you don’t shoot you don’t score
Good morning Rico and all.
The same old story. Yesterday Arsenal had up to 14 Corners. Inter Milan had None.
In second half , Arsenal played in half of Inter Milan. It was all balls for Arsenal but there was no clear chances created. Arsenal relied on too many crosses into the box , which Inter Milan continued to head away.
Merino was subbed out in second half, Jesus came in. There was pace and energy. With introduction of Nwaneri, Zinchenko etc the team looked likely to requalise. Inter Milan had the luxury of removing Martinez and replacing him with Thuram. But who do we call upon when we need goal?
After watching tonight game it is clear enough we need a striker. I didnt keep banging the drum for Gyokeres for nothing. Unless there is an agreement with Sesko for 2025. However I still prefer Gyokeres.
Even the Italian commentator bought up the topic saying that in a big game like this, you need a creative player, a quality striker to put the ball in the back of the net
Very disappointed and the job is too big for hArteta.. Terrible ref but one could say that every game .Why bring Jesus on at half time ,he’s a diving diva and adds nothing to the attack .We should have bought a striker in the Summer and just look at the stats last night,they mean absolutely nothing .Trossard is completely out of form but he starts him. Why didn’t he bring on Newari on at half time ? Granted Odegaard and Rice missing makes a big difference but we are still trying for the perfect goal every game and all teams are wise to our tactics .Chelsea next,not looking forward to it .It’s not a blip it’s bad team management by Arteta .We can’t score every goal from a set piece,what’s wrong with old fashioned shooting or isn’t that in the plan.
intricate , intricate far too complicated, forget the basics of taking people on at speed and drawing defenders out of position .
We need movement but we take so long to do things that there is no room left for anyone to go. We get yellow cards for taking too long to take throw ins but if no-one moves to create space we either throw it back or give it away.
We were taking bets on how many passes would happen before the ball made it back to Raya , we are so infatuated with keeping the ball with no risk that we pose no real threat to an organised defence like Inter’s.
Not looking forward to Chelsea up next .
Morning Devil, all.
I thought the actual performance was better but it was the same old story as Potter suggests imo. We’re probably not scoring goals because we’re too slow in attack. We give opponents too much time to get back into shape defensively and then wonder why we can find a way through.
Shooting from distance is all well and good but hitting the target helps. Thought Havertz strike was going in until their keepers big hand stopped it..
New post up.
No need for anyone to stick their head in the gas oven, WE WUS ROBBED!.
The general consensus is that the Merino penalty would not have been given in the Premiership. He was jumping for the ball, one leg was in the air and he was trying to maintain his balance, no intent to handle the ball. NO PENALTY!
The Inter ‘keeper in trying to clear a ball punched, two fisted, Merino in the head, no contact with the ball. PENALTY!
Cheer up everybody, Michael Oliver we see us right on Sunday!