Morning all.
I read this headline in the Mail Online yesterday.
“Arsenal ended a horrid domestic season on a high by winning the FA Cup but they were 43 points and 29 goals worse off than Community Shield opponents Liverpool… so, what must Mikel Arteta do to catch Jurgen Klopp’s mighty Reds?”
It amazes me that these sports writers clearly forget that outside the top four there are fourteen clubs who finished the season way behind Liverpool. None of them can brag about a day out at Wembley and heading home with a trophy. Utd won nothing, Toots, nothing, City, the League Cup. You’d think with all the money Pep has spent on players since he arrived in Manchester, he’d have won the Champions League but yet again, that’s eluded him. Where’s the criticism of the under tall old has been, or Ancellotti for that matter?
It’s boring to read such stuff time after time. We all know Arsenal have been through a tough patch but I’d rather listen to Mikel Arteta talking about the future and the plans of the club than read some journalist try and tell the world he knows how to make Arsenal great again. If he was that good at football management, he wouldn’t be writing for Mail. He’d be on a touchline somewhere, probably wondering when his sacking was coming.
Three weeks break, a few days back in training, one friendly against MK Dons and Arsenal we’re back at Wembley facing the newly crowned league champions. Without Lacazette, Pepe and our new signing Willian in the squad. Saliba watched on as Holding and Luiz were Arteta’s choice in the centre of defence. Liverpool were pretty much at full strength, or at least they had their much gushed over, front three.
I don’t really think much can be said about the game other than how well we played. The defence was solid and organised, Elneny and Xhaka were very good in midfield and Saka was excellent in the first half especially. His pass out to Aubameyang was pinpoint, the shot, outstanding.
Eddie had two opportunities to increase our lead before the break but couldn’t take them. There were a few stray passes, certainly in the final third but I think to be critical today after putting the league winners in their place would be a tad harsh. Mikel Arteta can deal with that on the training pitch.
Klopp was moaning after the game about the way we set up. How his team need to play better against the ‘low block’ – well get used to it I say because he can call it what he likes, I just feel Arsenal have learned how to defend better. Properly. Yes we conceded late on but those guys were almost dead on their feet. Even so we had late chances to win the game.
“We had some challenges and some players who only had one training session for a final after the holidays, but I kept pushing them, I kept demanding and they kept responding.”
“They are willing to do more and I’m really happy with how they competed in the game. They showed course to play against this team with no fear. They really went for it and it’s nice to win it on penalties too.
“There are never any excuses. We had to compete in this game and we came here in these circumstances, but the players were willing to put their bodies on the line and to play against this opponent with the way that we did today. Credit to the boys.
“We had them for three or four days and now they will go back again,” Arteta added. “It’s a very strange mini pre-season and because it’s an international week we will do what we can. Whoever we have available [for Fulham] we will get them in the best possible condition.”
Penalties came and Arsenal delivered perfection. 5 out of 5 buried with confidence.
Liverpool sloped off down the tunnel as soon as they could. Losing will have hurt them I’m sure. For Arsenal though, it’s a boost before the season kicks off in two weeks time. A confidence builder, not only for the squad in general but for individuals. Guys like Elneny, Nelson even after his super cool penalty, although not quite as cool as the one our birthday boy and man of the match Ainsley Maitland-Niles despatched. I know I’ve said it before but I really hope he wants to stay and Mikel Arteta wants him to. Everyone within the camp will have benefited from that victory. As is oft said, winning breeds winning and just like making mistakes can become a habit, not making them and winning matches can become a habit too.
An excellent day out for Arsenal, topped off with an England call up for AMN.
Enjoy..
See you in the comments guys.
Morning Rico. One of the things that Mikel has done is to show why a manager is the most important man at the club. In a short time he has redefined what can be achieved without Immediate recourse to the cheque-book.. Sure, you need financial backing from the owner and the board and the collusion and commitment of all the technical staff. But he has demonstrated to anyone who cares to take note that understanding each and every player (in depth) is vital. We hear he has his non-negotiable points to make yet he offers a route to success if they are followed. What he has managed to extract from quite a few of our players has been remarkable and those who haven’t bought into his ‘way’ are going to leave. Or so we hope.
We have a plan and we also seem to have organisation and a shape, even when the opposition are taking a goal kick I notice that our strikers and selective midfield players are elegantly poised to squeeze them into hurried or risky situations. Emery promised the high-press but it didn’t last long as confusion and anarchy slowly spread through the team.
A club can spend, spend, spend and never really move too far forward if they have the wrong manager. I think this will be proved yet again this season.
I really like Mikel’s intelligence and willingness to accept the realities of the demands being placed on him. Why would AMN want to go and play in the endless desert of midlands football if he can be a fully active team member at Arsenal?
Yesterday I thought that even if we lost to long-ball Liverpool and survived Milner’s pathetic attempts to injure our players, that we are seeing things from Arsenal and performances from individuals that are both for the team and hugely encouraging.
Long may it continue.
Morning Rico,Adam and All
Good summary of yesterday’s win Guys
the other part of the game I thought
was encouraging was after we considered
we stepped up again.
On AMN where would you say his position is
in the big games he has been brilliant on the
left,we have as I see it bought a big player to
fill that hole with Tiny wingback.
Conceded..should have said
Adam, it sounds like you’re starting to see what LC and I have been saying about Arteta for a year or two 🙂
In saying that, with the right man at the helm, it negates the need for an owner to spend up to create a great squad so I’m happy to see Stan sit back and allow Mikel to do his thing.
We are already getting the best out of our current players, and with a few tweaks, top 4 is a definite target this coming season, and hopefully, we can aim for the title within another season or two.
Mikel is the man.
AMN must stay!!!
To allow him to go is stupidity, imo, and his upside is immense.
Morning all and thanks Rico.
Bindippers had a strong team out there, stronger than us on paper, but we wanted it more!………………….
Personally, it was all about performance and also a subtle “window dressing” for some players, I`d still prefer to win our first league game than the CS, but it`s a good confidence builder.
An interesting fact to put you all to sleep………………………….The Spuds last won the CS outright back in 1963!!!………………since then they have shared it 3 times, last time in 1991 against the North London is Red!
We have been involved in it 11 times since winning 8.
Also, does anyone know why we did not play in the CS in 1971?…………………it was played between Leicester and Bindippers!…………………maybe something to do with us winning the double and we couldn`t play ourselves at that time!
Magic Mikel is Mikel the Messiah! …………………………………………thank Dennis for the top managerial scouts of Scott and Le Coq! 😆
Morning Adam, Fred, all.
Things are certainly looking more organised and even away from the pitch there seems to be a plan. Certainly reasons for optimism for the first time in a while. I think it was easy to believe that Mikel was the answer from the beginning because anyone seemed better but the reality was, is, he couldn’t truly be judged until his work was on show because there was no evidence to support his expected success.
I like him, I really do and he talks well. Very clear with his plan. So far so good, this season will tell us more though.
Fred, he seems to do well on the left and he and Auba appear to be a very good pairing along with Tierney. If our right hand side was as strong as our left, we’d be laughing.
LC, you and I should become owners of a club.
We will spend, and we will put there right people in place bahahahahaha
Who shall we buy?
Who’s cheap, have nothing going for them and can only improve?
Nah, we aren’t buying that shower of shit up the road hahahahaha
From the BBC.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta thinks captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been “convinced to stay here for longer” after his starring role in the Community Shield win over Liverpool.
Forward Aubameyang, whose Gunners contract expires next summer, curled in a fantastic opener – before Takumi Minamino’s equaliser – and then scored the winning penalty in the shootout at Wembley on Saturday.
“It’s an exciting time to be an Arsenal player,” said the 31-year-old Gabon international.
The FA Cup winners have been trying to tie Aubameyang down to a new contract for some time.
He has scored 70 goals in 109 games since joining Arsenal from Borussia Dortmund for a club record £56m in January 2018.
Here’s hoping.
Cicero, I really think he’s staying.
It’s a massive plus for us if he does!!
Morning campers, morning Rico, Aston Villa are it’s reported in the process of preparing a bid of £10m for Emi Martinez, but why?
It’d be like Arsenal preparing a bid of say £18m for Grealish, there’s no point is there and Villa would feel insulted, but it seems it is ok for Villa to underbid for one of our players.
Maybe there’s been a mix up Rico, maybe that £10m bid is for Matt Macey?
The Wembley Stadium authorities are grateful to Covid-19 for forcing the Community Shield game to be played behind closed doors. They were concerned that the pitch, already soaked by heavy rain during the game, would have become waterlogged by the tears cascading down the terraces from bereft Liverpool supporters.
A special centre has been opened by Liverpool City Council where specialist counsellors will be on hand to offer help to supporters struggling to come to terms with being beaten again at Wembley by The Glorious Gunners. All those attending the centre for treatment will be given a commemorative hub cap as consolation.
Morning Kev, you might be right re Macey because Martinez is a £50m keeper now I reckon.
One game for England and so will AMN be. £15m is laughable. More insulting than that extra pound offer made for Suarez.
Hey Scott………………….the shower of shit have a documentary on Amazon called ………………All or Nothing…………….or as I like to call it……………………….Fcuk all and Nothing!
LC, I’m sure at least 10-12 people will watch it lol
When Wenger announced that he was leaving Arsenal my No.1 choice to replace him for the new Arsenal manager/coach was Max Allegri (whatever happened to him?) my No.2 choice was Ancelotti and it most certainly wasn’t Arteta even though he was in the frame, I thought the job was too big and that Mikel was too inexperienced.
Now it’s quite possible that with the mess we were in thanks to Wenger losing his grip towards the end of his reign, that had Arteta got the job then, that things may have not turned out so well? It was always going to be a major job replacing a man who had ran everything and with no framework in place hardly above him to support a novice. Arteta would have had to contend with the fallout of Gazides leaving and then Mislintat leaving, all that in his first job in charge.
As it was we got Unai Emery and it was Emery that had to deal with all those distractions from above whilst trying to instigate the new methodology of playing out from the back. Sure he made mistakes, like trying to play out from the back with players not suited to that system like Sokratis and Petr Cech who was patently unsuited. Then there was the captaincy, indecision over Ozil and our shambolic midfield, well no midfield really, but we only missed out on top four by one point which was an improvement on Wenger’s last season and we reached a cup final which was also an improvement on Wenger’s last season.
Emery’s biggest problem was his communication skills because his English was terrible, maybe he should have used an interpreter more, but he didn’t although he did set the wheels in motion tactically and maybe that actually helped Arteta? He had an idea of how he wanted us to play but he didn’t have the linguistic skills to impart it and he couldn’t connect with the fans.
I feel a bit sorry for him and I hope he’s successful at his new Spanish club, in fact if he learnt anything from his time in England it’s that he should career wise stay in Spain.
So Arteta arrived and immediately showed how important communication is, he enthused the fans and he found willing acolytes in his players, well most of them and those players that won’t buy in have been totally marginalised. But Mikel is an intelligent man and he always leaves the door open so if Guendouzi is willing to park his enormous ego and listen it may not be the end for him as it is the end for Ozil.
But let’s not forget that Mikel found a squad of players who’d already been playing out from the back for a year so they were not completely unfamiliar with that way of playing. Of course the Emery methodology needed a lot of refining especially in the midfield, but Arteta has worked a minor miracle and turned many players we wanted to see the back of into valuable members of the Arsenal squad, players like Xhaka, Mustafi, Luiz, AMN, Ceballos, these guys were a car crash when he arrived, now we’re beating Liverpool, Man City and Chelsea.
Ha ha Cicero.
Btw Rico, that was a really good post, no seriously it was very good.
Honest… 😉
Cracking comment Kev, but that’s because I totally agree. I don’t want to sound like one of these ‘I told you so’ comments but at the time I always believed Emery was a short term option with the idea of bring stability and to begin with, he did. His arrival was like a breath of fresh air for me but yes, if only he could have mastered the English language better.
😂 Kev.
I know Eddie didn’t score yesterday but his first opportunity which Allison saved well, he made himself. Won the ball first, then up on his feet and into the box ready for the pass. Once he starts taking his opportunities, if he does of course, he’s going to be very good striker imo.
The one thing that worries me is that Arteta is taking on too much. Coaching is his forte, not management. With a non-football managing director and only Edu to help him we are moving back to the early David Dein and Arsene Wenger era.
If, God forgive, Edu was to leave Arteta would be left holding the baby.
Hey Rico! Super read… I watched MOTD last night and again this morning, lovely jubbly!! 🙂 What a performance 👌
Matt Doherty has signed for the spuds then.. another gooner to go along with Kane, Aurier and Sissoko!!
Can’t wait for the season to start…
Reports are saying Martinez is close to agreeing a new contract! 👍
Having said that, Auba has been ‘close’ for about the last year 😂
Can’t see Edu going any time soon. He’s on a mission I reckon.
Hope the Telegraph is correct in its reporting on Martinez close to signing a contract extension.
Hi Sue, thank you.
Oops, I didn’t see your Martinez comment. Great news if true.
I still think Auba has signed already.
I knew you’d agree with me Rico, that why I like it on here. 😁
I don’t “expect” Edu to leave Rico but there have been a whole raft of ins and outs over the last couple of seasons that we can’t rule out future changes in our executive team.
You see Rico, I agree with you on Nketiah. 😉
But yeah, it wasn’t just his goal opportunities he also played an important role in the pressing and as Adam so sensibly put its not just the pressing it’s how we force opponents into areas where they feel uncomfortable and that’s where the defensive errors that we’ve scored from occur.
I get that Cicero, but he’s just taken on three new coaches so I reckon he’ll start to delegate more to ease the load.
And yeah, Edu is quite an important part of the set up, I agree, as it stands we might be doing deals atm that Raul set in motion?
Let’s see how things go in January as that’ll be solely on Edu?
Gazides leaving when he did Cicero was a bit of a shock and I just had a feeling that Raul and Mislintat would jockey for position and so it proved.
But with Edu I think he looks more secure, he’s kept a really profile, even when the flak around Raul and Kia was at its height he was Teflon especially considering that Kia was his mate as well. Maybe Kia is still working for the club but that he keeps it more low profile?
low profile
Ha ha Kev, me too.
Cicero, it was probably Edu’s job to make the changes, in conjunction with others of course.
Martinez is currently, in my opinion, number 1 in Argentina squad.
It is normal he wants to play more. One chance is to play in the League and the other in the Cups; another, is playing games at home and another playing away. It is also unknown how Leno will return. In addition, Arsenal must have 2 goalkeepers who give us confidence.
If Bellerin were to leave, he would have bet on Doherty (ex Wolves). He went to the neighbors. We’re going to need a Ceballos player. AMN made a great game but Tierney was not inferior to him.
Haven’t any Turkey’s proposals for Ozil yet? And from China or from Arabia?
Martinez number 1 in my opinion too Jm. He seems stronger physically and very good when it comes to getting off his line to block a shot. Very strong hands too and is a big physical presence. Playing out from the back appears calmer with him involved too.
I think the Hector stories are the kind of things Vinai said the club could do nothing about.
Wolves have ended their chase for AMN according to Sky Sports.
Anyone seen that video on SS with Doherty deleting his love of Arsenal tweets?………………..all done to appease the knuckle draggers, but being knuckle draggers they wont see how less than convincing it was!
😆
New post up now