A Cultured Left Foot. Yogis Warrior, YW, or simply Yogi. One of the best writers about Arsenal out there in my opinion. Seldom have I ventured further than ACLF, Le Grove, Arseblog and a couple of other Arsenal blogs whose names escape me this morning, for a different take on the club we all love. I loved the daily photo to go with the article Yogi produced pretty much each day since 2006.
Learning of his passing yesterday was a shock and terribly sad. Yogi, and all he gave to Arsenal fans across the world through ACLF will be sorely missed.
RIP fellow Gooner. My thoughts and prayers are with the loved ones you’ve left behind.
Who doesn’t love the FA Cup? No one I reckon. A Monday night fixture down on the south coast under the floodlights should be a cracker. Bournemouth have finally ended their bad run of results which will have given them a bit of a confidence boost and we’re ticking along steadily although results haven’t been going in our favour. Something which will soon change hopefully.
Bournemouth were the opposition for Mikel Arteta’s first match as head coach. A draw was the final result of a game we really should have won after enjoying 61% of the possession and creating seventeen opportunities to score. Just two were on target though despite having a wealth of attacking players on the pitch in Aubameyang, Lacazette and Ozil. Pepe too at the end.
Have we improved since then?
A lot of things [have changed since then] that I wanted to implement, not just towards the players but around the club, in terms of the culture. I’m seeing very good signs in progress. A lot of things about our way of playing and our style as well, even though the circumstances in some of the games have made it a little bit more difficult than expected. But in general, I can see the direction towards what I wanted a month ago.
I think that one of the important things is creating that connection again with the fans. It’s a long time ago, and these people have been here for a long time, [since we have] seen the fans react and support the team how they did against Chelsea. It was incredible and in some stages it was like we were playing at home. The amount of support they gave was incredible in difficult circumstances and I’m so proud that they’re feeling a little bit closer to the team now.
If there’s one thing clear for everyone to see is the way Mikel Arteta has focused on getting the Arsenal fans back on board, behind the players, to be their 12th man. He’s worked wonders with Granit Xhaka too in order to repair the damage which had been done earlier this season. Damage which I thought was irreparable. I was wrong. Whether Xhaka remains an Arsenal Player beyond the summer who knows but in my opinion, he’s playing some of the best football he’s played since moving to Arsenal. The fans at Stamford Bridge were amazing, in fact they have been since Mikel Arteta returned to the club. Long may that continue.
So what about tonight’s team?
We’re going to fight for every competition that we’re involved in. I know what it means to this club to win that competition and we need to get back winning. We need to get back to being up there and having everybody talking about us. We need every competition to try and do that.
We can expect a strong squad team then, one which is likely to include Martinelli. The BBC have Arteta quoted as saying the following about our Brazilian:
I would like to talk about potential, more than what it is at the moment. For him there is still a long way. The stature of this club, to give him the key to do that straight away is not fair on him. We have to bring him down. I want him to train with his head down every day hard, and slowly he will start to earn the praise if he does what he needs to do every day, but it is not about one or two days.
In other words media, stop bigging our teenager up just so they can knock him in a few weeks time, or hope he gets tempted by Real Madrid etc. Enjoy his progress, his football but otherwise, leave him alone.
Injuries, and we have a few of those still in Tierney, Chambers, Kolasinac and Nelson all out. Plus there’s the added disadvantage of having Aubameyang and Luiz suspended for this one only. Sokratis could be back though. Ceballos too.
Bournemouth too have injury concerns of their own. A number of them according to Eddie Howe but he didn’t name names. How very secret squirrel.
One thing we don’t need tonight is a draw because the replay will be in the middle of the ‘winter break’ as Liverpool found out yesterday after surrendering a two goal lead in their match. Jurgen Klopp has already said that he won’t be around for the replay and neither will his first team players as they need the break. Ours need the break too as life under Mikel Arteta has been demanding and rightly so. £100+k a week isn’t handed out for a gentle jog around for ninety minutes. Or £300k for that matter!
Talking of which, I hope to see a change tonight with Ceballos coming into the team in place of Ozil. Our German might have improved, but not enough in my opinion. At least with Ceballos we’ll get more in the way of defensive work when it’s needed and it’s not like Ozil has been notching up the assists or goals either so he’d have to play pretty badly not to be an improvement in my opinion. The only concern over Ceballos is whether or not his fitness is at the right level.
Mikel Arteta won this competition with Arsenal and he’s made it clear that he’d like to win it again as our head coach and you never know, he might in his first season if can manage to win an away fixture this evening and the draw falls in our favour until May but the chances of that are slim I’d say. A win tonight though would be a huge boost before heading to Burnley on Sunday,
After that they can all put their feet up for a few days…
Enjoy the game guys..
Hi Rico very well written about Yogi could not of said it better my self R,I,P Yogi
Hey Rico, bo worries about it and thanks for letting me in.
Really well written about Yogi. R.I.P Yogi, my blogging friend.
Morning Rico. A sad morning indeed. Yogi was always worth reading.
Morning Rico, thanks for the post and yeah, although I didn’t contribute often on ACLF it was a blog I often read, Yogis son left a message on Reddit in case anyone is interested, you can get the link from Arseblogs Twitter feed.
Tough game tonight, Bournemouth will be looking to build on their last result so who knows what Bournemouth will turn up?
Exactly Rico, we really don’t need a draw, although I’d take that over a defeat despite the mid season break issues. And we are the draw specialists at present…
Surely we’ll get some positive news regarding Mari today, they’ve had all weekend to sort it out!
Morning Geoff, C, Adam, Kev and all.
Good to see you back C.
I think tonight will be a tough match too Kev. I’m hoping Howe rotates heavily.. lol
Morning all.
Kev, don’t our lot do, ‘Sunday observance’ no trading on a Sunday! I mean they work very hard and have to have a day off every week! I expect we may hear a bit of something on Tuesday or Wednesday or even Thursday there will be no work on Friday as all the brexiters will be partying😢
Don’t hold your breath for the arrival of Mari or any other new player. We’re skint aren’t we?
Blue skies here. Makes a change!
C, I’ve just seen your note from yesterday’s post. Sad to say I don’t think I’m the same ‘Wavy’ although I may have written a few words ten years or so ago, but it would only been a fleeting visit. ACLF was a good site, always worth a read. Sad times.
B’th and Boscombe will put out their strongest eleven tonight, imo. Howe’s job may depend on it. We should of course win and quite comfortably too. A month ago we wouldn’t have had a prayer but now, I think we are more like the old Arsenal which means we won’t be laying on our backs having our tummies tickled. The team seems to have grown up quite a lot in the last few weeks. Now we are much harder to beat. It’s a start on the road to redemption. Or at least I think it is.
I don’t think we’re as skint as we make out Wavy, we’re just trying to be smarter in the market.
Isn’t the deal for Mari a loan with an agreement to buy him in the summer?
That points to balancing the books next summer by selling a player or three.
Saliba will arrive and we need to find more dosh for St Etienne.
Then there’s the contract scenarios of Aubameyang and Lacazette, will they stay or will the go?
Then there’s the european situation, will we have the extra cash to spend, how much will we make this season via league position, Europa progress (final hopefully) and FAC (winners hopefully)..?
Contract extensions for other players like Martinelli will eat into our fighting fund and KSE won’t help so its gonna be all based around what we make ourselves, pretty much as it always has done…
Wavy, wasn’t sure if it was the right one but worth an ask. It is sad times but lucky for us all is his words will always be there.
According to that article the other day, KSE can’t help financially other than by clearing the stadium mortgage. At a cost of an extra £50m.
Afternoon everyone,
Sad news about YW,A cultured left foot was a brilliant blog, that and Highbury House were out on their own.I still read Le grove – it makes me laugh, that fella has what Sybil Fawlty called sledgehammer wit.I don’t read the comments,too nasty, last time I looked they were obsessed if you were Wenger in or out.Positvely Arsenal is worth a look if you need a laugh,those people probably believe the earth is flat.
The comments section on LG Limey is one of the reasons I started HH. It all gets a bit personal on there..
Not ever read positively Arsenal so will have a look.
Some of the posts on Positively Arsenal are OK but sometimes I just laugh,a recent post/comment was talking about Arteta,it said – he’s had several years working with the best manager in the world… and he’s also worked with Pep Guardiola.
Now I love Wenger, he’s Arsenal through and through but come on.
That’s funny. Wenger really did divide fans during the second half of his tenure.
South Africa all out for 274. England win by 191 runs. Series won 3 – 1.
Excellent result, now for another one tonight.
Limey, I think some fans tied so much of themselves to Arsene, that any criticism of him they felt, was as if, they themselves was the target of the criticism, they took it personally when in fact they needed to get over themselves because nobody cares.
Tonight’s line up
Martinez, Bellerin, Mustafi, Sokratis, Saka, Guendouzi, Xhaka, Pepe, Willock, Martinelli, Nketiah.
Mustafi has made more successful attacking passes than Ozil usually does. 😆
Good first half with two nice goals..,
So far so good,will be happy if we get a third
Solid performance.
The ref was very easy on Bournemouth……a hell of a lot of nasty little cheap shots, late challenges etc etc went “unnoticed” by him.
Good performance. Not a clean sheet. Ceballos must replace Ozil. Mustafi probably out 3 months (at least…)
I’m hearing that’s it’s a ruptured achilles, nasty…
Pretty much end of his season if so…
KSE had better stump up the money for Mari….
Pompy away it is then…
I’ve just finished watching a recording of the game. Excellent first half, good football, pacy, accurate passing and two well created, well taken goals.
Losing Mustafi seemed to wreck the cohesion of the defence, Holding did well but he looked a bit rusty and he needs to be more accurate with his passing.
Despite conceding a goal, and the ref adding eight minutes stoppage time, our game management was quite good Xhaka’s booking for delaying a free kick was in the realms of taking one for the team.
I’m not at all bothered about the lack of a clean sheet, it’s knock out football so the win was all important.
Pompey next on the list, not a bad draw.
Saka MotM. 🎵🎵🎵
News on Mari is confusing. One report says Arsenal changed the loan terms after the medical. Another says the deal is off and the player has returned to Flamengo and a third says negotiators are ongoing.
With Mustafi seemingly out long term our executive management team need to extract the digit and get the deal done.
Morning all.
Ceballos led the team around the park from the minute he stepped on the pitch.
His football brain is very impressive.
Morning.
New post up now