Morning all.
Mikel Arteta made eight changes to the team which played at the weekend. William Saliba, Gabriel and Kai Havertz started which is a shame but understandable as putting two inexperienced players in front of Aaron Ramsdale could have done them more harm than good. PSV are no mugs in football and they don’t lose at home very often. Eddie Nketiah gave us the lead before the break, Vertessen equaliser for the home team after the break. Both sides had opportunities to score throughout the game but 1-1 is how it finished.
Mikel Arteta:
With the amount of changes that we made, I think we competed well. We lacked certain cohesion and timing in certain things, especially in the high press. They broke it and they had spaces to run but I was expecting that. The fluency wasn’t going to be all the time there but at least the body language and the intensity of the players was there at all times. We scored a beautiful goal, and at the end we could’ve won it with the chance of Leo and the goal again that was disallowed.
I guess if you tuned into the game expecting to see a performance similar to what we’ve been seeing in the Premier League, you’ll feel disappointed. All I cared about was finishing the game without any injuries because it was more like a pre-season friendly than a competitive football match. Plus, eight’ squad players had a lot of minutes which will have done them the world of good. Right at the end, Emile Smith Rowe made his return from injury which was great to see. It’s a shame the youngsters who travelled didn’t get any minutes though.
Champions League football is on hold now until February for Arsenal. I think one has to say that our return to the competition has gone really well. There’s still a round to go tonight which could have an impact on who we face in the knockout stages but one thing we do know is that we won’t be facing Manchester United regardless of how far we go in the competition because they’re out. They needed a win last night and a draw in the other group game but they got neither. Newcastle in a similar position tonight as they have to beat AC Milan and hope that PSG don’t beat Borussia Dortmund.
The draw for the Round of 16 takes place this Monday (December 18) at 11am and any one of the clubs finishing second in their respective group. So far we know that some of those clubs are FC Copenhagen, Napoli, Inter Milan, PSV Eindhoven. Lazio, RB Leipzig, one of Porto or Shakhtar Donetsk and potentially, PSG. As group winners, we will play the first leg away, returning to the Emirates for the second leg. The first leg will take place on February 13/14 or 20/21, with the second leg on March 5/6 or 12/13.
There’s a lot of domestic football to play before then, including an FA Cup fixture against Liverpool but that’s not until early in January. Before then we have:
Brighton – H 17th
Liverpool – A 23rd
West Ham – H 28th
Fulham – A 31st
After the Fulham game, the transfer window opens and Football Talk have an article from sports outlet Fichajes, who write that Arsenal have made a £17 million plus add-ons bid for Santos’ young striker Leonardo and hope to secure the deal early in January. We’ve also been linked to a central defender but I’ve forgotten his name. Lol
Anyway, I’m sure we’ll be linked to many players over the next few weeks but who we sign, if anyone, remains to be seen. My Christmas list would be a striker and a fully fit Thomas Partey..
Catch up in the comments.
Good afternoon Rico,
One interesting point from yesterday’s game, Declan Rice playing in central defence alongside Gabriel after Saliba was subbed and he didn’t look out of place. I would have expected Kiwior to move inside with Zinchenko coming on at left back. Perhaps the rumours of Kiwior wanting away are true after all and until Timber returns we could be short in defence so was Mikel sussing out Rice as a stand in?
Leonardo was the great revelation of the Brazilian Championship. He plays for Santos, who fall down from the division. It seems that Real Madrid are after him.
Afternoon Cicero. I guess Kiwior is thinking about the World Cup. I’d have thought Tomi will slot into central defence once he’s back if injuries hit. Rice in there would have a huge negative impact on midfield.
Afternoon Rico and all.
I see ex ref peter walton who ever he is, has come come out and said Aterta should have got a longer suspention, there is a simple answer Peter to this start suspening ref more and for longer periods when they make a clear mistake that could corse a team to lose.
A C Milan are in talks with Arsenal over a loan deal for Jakub Kiwior. That’s according to Calciomercato
Can’t see Kiwior leaving in January is Tomi is out, or unless we’re going to sign a defender. We’re already light in defence. Timber won’t be 100% until next season imo.
Morning all
No good news about any of the injuries and we’ve also lost Elneny. it seems that Tomiyasu will be fit sometime in January just in time to go and play for Japan in the Asian Cup.
Some serious potential opponents in the Champions League,PSG,Inter Milan, Napoli among others,we could also meet old favourite Alexis Sanchez or Matteo Guendouzi.
Expect Man City to be drawn against Copenhagen,we will probably get something much tougher.
I actually fancy Arsenal to do well this time.
Brighton to overcome first,they always seem to play well against us.
Certainly no easy opponent in the CL although wonder wonderful Copenhagen might be better than others.
Brighton play tonight so i hope they have a tough game.
Cicero, this will interest you, the referee is the one who officiated Arsenal v Chelsea at the weekend.
The Premier League will field its first ever female referee during Fulham’s home tie with Burnley on December 23, and the first black referee since 2008 later that month.
PGMOL chief Howard Webb confirmed that Rebecca Welch will be in charge of the history-making league tie as the Premier League breaks new ground.
At the start of November, Welch became the first female official to be involved with a Premier League tie when she served as the fourth official when Manchester United met Fulham at Craven Cottage.
Mikel Arteta will not be punished for his comments after Arsenal’s 1-0 defeat at Newcastle last month, an FA statement has confirmed.
Arteta was charged by the FA on November 16 for labelling the decision to allow Anthony Gordon’s winning goal ’embarrassing’ and ‘a disgrace’ following a VAR check of over four minutes.
But an independent investigation has concluded that he did not breach the FA’s rules and will not be sanctioned.
The FA statement on Thursday afternoon read: ‘An independent Regulatory Commission has found the charge against Mikel Arteta for an alleged breach of FA Rule E3.1 to be not proven.’
The FA provided written reasons for the verdict, which included Arteta claiming that his use of the word ‘disgrace’ had been misinterpreted as a similar word in Spanish has a different meaning.
Very clever Mikel, very clever….
I can only think of desgraciado meaning unfortunate.
The truth is they backed down because they did not want the video evidence in the open .
Desgraciado in English means unhappy or wretched.
Either way the F A have climbed down, for what reason we can only surmise, perhaps as Potter says they don’t want to risk having to publish the full evidence as it might lead to demands for a replay.
F. A. Nil – Arsenal one. 🔔🔔🔔
Totally agree with others, to suspend Arteta would have opened a can of worms,
Swift action taken against manager who hit referee, with a lifetime ban,
Joe Willock apparently told our players that the ball was out.
Perhaps the FA simply realised that Arteta was right, the officials in the PL are a disgrace to the game. He’s not the only manager to imply it.
Morning guys.
It seems that if the rumours are true that the Arsenal delegation walked in with two barristers and Joe Willock admitting the ball was out had an effect on them.
I think it was someone from PGMOL who admitted that they did not have enough camera angles to decide with certainty whether or not the ball went out of play. So it’s obvious that they took a guess.
Wow, good on Joe Willock.
Referees guessing? Surely not. Oh yes, Gillet did exactly that at Villa..
Let’s face it referees have always made mistakes , they are human just like the players and the fans, all of us make mistakes and I can accept that. The thing that makes my blood boil is that instead of one referee and two linesmen, we now have a fourth official and an unknown number of blokes sitting in Stockley Park who are just as prone to making mistakes as all the others. Even when they are all in constant audio contact, between them they are still getting it wrong on far too many occasions and nobody seems to be doing anything about it.
Football was a simple game, now it is beset with a form of control which not only doesn’t work but is also draining the excitement out of the game.
Var, who needs it? who wants it?
Cicero, you’ve just said it. A number of blokes making the same mistakes. It’s not the technology it’s the blokes operating in. Most of whom then officiate a game badly.
Treat the symptoms and the cause and football would improve I’m sure.
Cicero 10.27pm I agree with you that referees are only human and the speed of game can corse them to make mistakes, but like you said there is no excuse for VAR as is the time and camera angles that the referee doesn’t.
I have mixed feelings about Joe Willock, why come out and say anything as it opens a can of worms, parts of me say good on him for saying something now the refs know how to fix the camera angle in the future but and there is always a but, should he be suspended for cheating / conning the referee.
Maybe place a small camera inside the goal post aiming at the corner flag could be an option to help prevent this from happening again.
There’s no need Geoff, technology tells a ref if the ball has crossed the line for a goal so simply extend the margin to include the entire back line.
A simple rule change is all that’s needed, if the ball is not touching line it’s out of play. The same should apply at corners where players try to gain an extra inch by placing the ball so that it is in front of the line but overshadows it. At penalty kicks the ball must be placed in the centre of the spot.
That’s my thought too Cicero, make the rule the same as tennis as I suggested a couple of weeks ago then set up the technology in exactly the same way. It’s not rocket science if the PL/FA want fairness.
Every other sport uses technology, only English football is failing it.
New post up now.