Morning all.
It’s Saturday 12th August, it’s Arsenal v Nottingham Forest, our opening fixture of the new season. A season which could be wide open as far as both the title and top four goes. Arsenal’s transfer business has been very good but other clubs have strengthened well too. Chelsea have spent another vast amount of money on ten new arrivals in hope Poch will be able to work a few miracles. If Sky Sports are to be believed, Caicedo and Lavia could be the next through their door as well as others. Liverpool, who Caicedo has allegedly rejected, have added just two players to their squad, Utd four, including Johnny Evans.
What’s been noticeable though is that the same clubs have lost experienced players. Man City, Chelsea and Liverpool especially. Including academy players, Chelsea have moved on 28 players, including Omari Hutchinson who left Arsenal probably believing he’d be playing first team football by now. Instead, he’s on loan at Ipswich. The grass isn’t always greener Omari!
Nottingham Forest have dipped into the transfer market too, not in the kind of numbers of last summer when they were like kids in a sweet shop but nevertheless, five new players have arrived to date with Matt Turner being one of them. He’s bound to be ready for today’s game, no doubt hoping to prove he’s better than Aaron Ramsdale.
This is the first time for four years that Arsenal have kicked off a new season with a home fixture.
Back in October last year, Nottingham Forest looked like a club destined for relegation and manager Steve Cooper looked likely to be one of the early contenders for the chop. 13 games had been played, they had a goal average of -20 and just 9 points were on the board, 3 of which came after beating Liverpool the week before. If that victory concerned Arsenal fans, they needn’t have worried because Arsenal thrashed Forest with relative ease. 5-0 which started with a Martinelli header, followed by two quick goals from Nelson, who’d replaced an injured Saka on 30 mins, a thunderbolt from Partey and finally, one from Odegaard. 69% possession, 24 shots on goal with 10 on target.
Forest got revenge in May of this year when they beat us 1-0 at The City Ground despite Mikel Arteta’s team having 82% possession. The result meant Forest stayed up, City were crowned title winners and Arteta and his players had to settle for 2nd place.
Forest have played seven fixtures in pre season which means they’re likely to be in pretty good physical shape but in those seven fixtures, they managed to score just three goals. Arsenal have played one less including a Community Shield defeat of Manchester City.
Mikel Arteta’s pre match press conference didn’t reveal much other than the club aren’t planning to make any more player signings and there’s nothing to say about the future of Flo Balogun. The rest was about keeping every player happy, invincible players being around the squad and how well Steve Cooper has done at Forest.
Mikel Arteta:
I’m super excited, I think it’s a new challenge and a new opportunity. We’re very fresh to start again and we’re excited to play our first game at home as it’s been a while. [Forest beat us last season] in a really clever way and they deserved on the day to get the points. Tomorrow (today) we’re going to have to play better to deserve more.
He’s a hoot isn’t he…
Whether he’ll bring in any more players before the end of the window:
At the moment we are not planning to do anything, but the window is very unpredictable and things can happen that probably we don’t wish for, so at the moment we are happy with what we’ve got.
We’ll see…..
I imagine Forest will be happy for us to have the majority of the ball with his side staying compact in defence. Then, if and when the opportunity arises, they’ll break quickly and try to make the most of any attacking threat they can. Totts linked Brennan Johnson and Morgan Gibbs-White are their dangerous players, as is Taiwo Awoniyi but I believe the latter is ruled out through injury. Chris Wood, if he features, can cause problems too. But, Arsenal should by now be wise to this tactic because so many other managers deploy it. They also try coming out of the blocks quickly, hoping to catch our players half asleep. Yes, we’ve fallen foul of that too many times before.
This is day one of a new season and we’re the home team. It’s up to Mikel Arteta’s team to set the pace of the game, the control, the slick and organised football to blow Forest away early and then take them to the cleaners. Be confident, assured and clinical in every department.
We know Gabriel Jesus misses out today so the only question waiting to be answered is whether Mikel Arteta will go with Eddie Nketiah, or will one of Kia Havertz or Leandro Trossard take up the central position of a front three. All three of our new signings are likely to make their home debut today. (Raya yet to be confirmed by Arsenal)
Officials for today’s game are:
- Referee: Michael Oliver
- Assistants: Stuart Burt, Dan Cook
- Fourth Official: Darren Bond
- VAR: Jarred Gillett
- Assistant VAR: Darren Cann
Manchester City romped to a 3-0 victory over Burnley last night. Kevin de Bruyne suffered an injury which looks likely to keep him out for a while and Burnley had a player sent off.
Yep, the Premier League is back. Mikel Arteta is excited, are you?
Catch up in the comments..
Afternoon All, getting very excited about the start of the season,
Can’t wait,bit surprised at line up- no Gabriel,an important player in my opinion.Very attacking team COYG
What an odd starting 11
I Hope Michael Oliver has a better game than this American ref is in the England game.
Partey at right full back ffs!
Perhaps we’re going 3 at the back
Rico the American ref in the the England match must be blind, the Arsenal ladies playing for Australia had a good game tonight
Ready to start!
Halftime England vs Colombia 1 -1
Our officials, were so busy with the transfer market that they forgot to service the turnstiles 😄
Australia did well Geoff, could so easily have won it in ordinary time.
I wonder if Tierney is off as he’s not in the squad.
Rico, at 12:01, if Arteta is not going 3 at the back and flooding the middle, then he’s already over managing given Gabriel has been a reliable performer. Why would you want to play with his confidence so early in the season?
I don’t understand it either Obi..
Wow! Can they move the ball any slower.
Great start, only given them 1 chance so far
Looks worrying for Timber
Jeez, we made hard work of that.
Looks like Timber could be out for a few weeks.. pff!
Not a convincing win, we fell asleep and let them back in.
Rice seems to have fitted in well
Havertz was disappointing. Partey at right back is nonsense imo and Trossard needs to start more.
Hi Rico.. The injury curse/heart-attack football is back! 😄 Great first half – we really should have killed the game off, but no, we let them back in. Typical Arsenal!
Now we wait for the bad news about Timber (who has been so good for us). As for Havertz, I’m struggling to see what some fans are raving about… I’m loving Rice though, what a signing!
Hope you’re well, Rico 🙂
Maybe they need to look back at Georgie’s teams . 2 nil up after 70 minutes , he would have just managed the game out , kept the ball away from them and not all gone up for a corner and invited the break away goal.
Rico unless I’m mistaken it should be Australia vs England in the next women match, should be a good match, but the Aussie’s better be turned on.
Let’s hope Timber is made of hard wood and not balsa wood and returns soon
A 2 – 1 win and three points is all well and good but I feel disappointed. We did so much good work in the first half that I was expecting something similar after the break, perhaps even a few more goals to equal or beat City’s score and take first place.
Nice football, very entertaining but as with Bazball we lacked the killer instinct. Sometimes you just have to forget the Fancy Dan football and go for the throat.
Rice and Timber look the real deal, Havertz needs a goal to give him a bit of confidence, as Sue suggests, the jury’s still out as far as he’s concerned.
One game into the new season and we have lost a third of our new signings for a while. 😕
Human nature is to not give Forest the credit they deserve,they defended well mostly and in the second half it was an even game.Arsenal probably had most possession but it was all tippy tappy. We’re much better when we move the ball quickly,today there wasn’t the intensity,which was why we unstoppable at times last season.
I thought our best players were Saka,Martinelli & Odegaard. Rice looked solid.
By the way who bets we get drawn against Bayern Munich in the CL ?
Hi Sue, all good thanks as I hope it is with you.
I’m thrilled with two out of three of our new guys but hope as time passes, it’s three out of three.. Agree re the story of two halves. Sounds familiar eh.. lol
Harvaetz is not seen in the game. We forget he’s playing.
As always, we are too long to shoot on goal.
We are constantly very exposed in the corners and fouls at the entrance to the area. The centrals advance and positions are exchanged and the team is in the global, dispositioned.
It is Geoff, should be a good game. Less dirty I hope.
I think that’s the frustration Limey, tippy tappy stuff. I get so bored with it.
Was it the right move to sell Matt Turner? He pulled of a series of good saves and certainly denied us all three points….and we still haven’t signed Raya yet.
Sorry of course he didn’t, we got the three points but could ha e finished with a better goal difference.j
Goalkeepers often have a good game against us Cicero, either that or we’re not clinical enough. Perhaps a bit of both.
England get a comeback win over Wales, Owen Farrell sent off again for a dangerous tackle. He really must learn to make legal tackles, he’s becoming a liability.
Yer gotta larf! Kane made his Bayern Munich debut in the German Super cup against Leipzig. He came on as 64 minute substitute, according to reports “he had a few touches but made little impact”. Kane did not get his first ever trophy as Bayern lost 3 – 0. It seems he has carried his jinx with him. 😉
I have no problems with selling Matt Turner, as Arteta never really selected him over Ramsdale, hopefully if all goes well and we get Raya then Arteta might use him to keep both keepers on their toes.
I still feel that we need to look for a striker,
I must of watch a different match to Arteta, he reckons we were very entertaining, and we really dominated the match, I don’t agree with that, after all they nearly scored the first goal, and we went to sleep in the second half and let them score. Did we deserve the win yes dominated the match no.
I see that Kane has tuck the spurs winning mentally with him 😀
I see Kane has taken that spurs winning mentality with him 😀
Not to offend anyone, but sometimes I wonder if people actually watch the games or maybe their football IQ is just below average. I have watched the game 4x ( including watching it live – there’s nothing better on TV). I don’t understand why people are killing Havertz. I am beginning to think it is just simply some sort of prejudice. The guy had a good game: good movement off the ball, pressing high up field, being available for the pass, getting deflection, etc. You can’t blame him that he didn’t get any adequate service. On the other hand, people are going on about how “great” Rice was. IMHO, he had an average game. They are confusing the fact that he was everywhere with having a good game. Also, White slows down the game, stops every ball under his foot, and there is no criticism.
Btw, does Arteta know you are allowed 5 subs? He has the team pressing everywhere but refuses to sub. That’s the reason that in most games, there is a drop off in performance after the 1st half. They are tired. He needs to use his subs
Marquinhos has gone to Nantes on a season long loan. They have no option to buy him next summer as he is expected to be part of next season’s squad.
New post up.
Offence taken Obi..