Morning all.
A beautiful sunny day welcomed the start of Arsenal’s 2024/25 Premier League campaign.
Mikel Arteta’s starting eleven consisted of:
Raya; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko; Partey, Rice, Odegaard; Saka, Havertz, Martinelli.
On the bench: Ramsdale, Calafiori, Timber, Jorginho, Nelson, Nwaneri, Trossard, Jesus, Nketiah.
The opening stages of the game was all about Arsenal as Mikel Arteta’s team threatened to go ahead. Ben White saw a couple of long shots go wide, Bukayo Saka had one saved and hit another wide.
We went ahead on 25 minutes thanks to Kai Havertz’s bullet of a header. Oleksandr Zinchenko found Saka on the right, he fizzed a cross into the box which Jose Sa came out to collect. However, Havertz had other ideas and got there first. A quality goal.
Shorty after, David Raya pulled off a fine save to keep us ahead. West possession in our own half, Hwang Hee-Chan crossed for Jorgen Strand Larsen to head towards goal. Raya looked beaten but out popped his right hand to save well.
After the break, Havertz had a chance to double his tally and our lead. Gabriel Martinelli set him up but the German could only fire wide. Thomas Partey saw a chance go wide too.
Wolves grew into the game and looked more threatening as the second half played out but Raya thanks to off target shooting and Raya, we kept our slim lead. Then the moment we all craved for came. A second goal. With 74 minutes on the clock, Arsenal had a free kick just inside the Wolves half. Partey to Havertz, Havertz to Saka – the Englishman cut inside as he likes to do but instead of trying to curl one inside of the far post as he often does, this time, he went for the nearest side. Sa had no chance.
2-0 and the game was done.
There were a couple of controversial moments during the match. Havertz and Mosquera were having a tussle for the ball out on the left. The Wolves defender shoved Havertz to the ground before quite clearly grabbing him around the throat. The incident went unpunished which beggars belief.
The second incident involved Gabriel Jesus who was on the end of a bum squeeze from the same Wolves player, Mosquera. Jesus obviously took exception to it and shoved Mosquera away. Gillet, quite rapidly I hasten to add, showed our man a yellow card.
It might be a new season but the inconsistencies haven’t changed. Not for yesterday’s officials anyway.
Anyway, score wise, it was the perfect start for Mikel Arteta’s team. Yes, there were moments of sloppiness from a few players but it’s day one.
Next up for Arsenal it’s a trip to Villa Park…
Catch up in the comments.
Good morning everyone.
An enjoyable match report Rico. Fingers crossed you will write 37 more like it for the EPL matches alone.
I agree with what everyone has said with regards how they would have reacted had someone squeezed their bum. However, we have to remember that wherever Arsenal players are concerned the refs are very quick to show us a card or more
1 game and both Haverts and Saka already have two goal involvements each.
Good morning, just, Rico and thanks for the post.
I’ve watched the snatch incident, in my opinion Jesus was rightly booked for retaliation, the Wolves’ player should probably have have been booked too and the referee should be punished for his bum decision making.
Sorry I couldn’t resist. 😉
The feed that I was watching showed the incident before the card was waved so var could have saved the card but it was Tierney , probably boiling the kettke at the time.
Morning Devil, potter, Cicero.
Retaliation will always end in a booking, expect when it’s against Arsenal with Gillet officiating.
Jesus was rightly booked for blatant retaliation. But if he was clever he would have retaliated later on and not be booked.
I lost count of how many times I pulled up other players’ shorts so that it wedged between his but cheeks and firmly stuck in his shit creek with his balls on the end of a nasty squeeze while we were defending corners or freekicks. But I never shoved another player in front of the referee 😇😇😇
Morning Rico and all, I am disapointed in our captain, When you see your team mate being choked and another getting upset when the opposition player tried to shove his finger up there ass, Oddegard should have really complained to the ref even if it means taking a yellow card for his team mates,
Toney not in the Brentford team,not even on the bench.
Hi Geoff. Good point but knowing that idiot ref, he’d have booked Odegaard for over complaining.
Guess he’s off then Limey. I wonder where to..
Fingers crossed I really hope we dont end with Toney. WAY TOO MUCH baggage and I doubt if he would play for the team, but instead expects the team to play for him.
Gyokeres for me otherwise keep Nketiah.
Rico the ref cannot book Odegaard for complaining. he is the one who is allowed to talk to the ref. even if he over complains. he cannot be booked. because it will literally go against the laws. any ref who would book a captain who shows respect when complaining is going to suffer a backlash from the pgmol itself after the media murders him.
I know that Devil but we’re talking about Gillet here…
Gillet, despite his name he’s not exactly razor sharp when it comes to decision making and some of Tierney”s decisions can make your eyes water. What a pair they are, they should be renamed Blunt and Myopic.
I did notice that Edu was in the director’s box yesterday, does that mean the Merino deal is done and dusted?
The whole lot yesterday were woeful..
Good spot Cicero, perhaps it is.
Cicero, I wondered the same thing about Edu as he looked pretty calm sitting there.
Gillet, is so bad that when the premier league come knocking, we gave him a police escort to the airport and then the federal police escorted onto the plane to make sure he didn’t miss it.
Gillet the self confessed ‘ scouser fan’ & Tierney ( Man U) the “ chuckle brothers”.Always worried when that double act get our matches.
Toney to Man United I reckon,of course if Arsenal were interested,Chelsea would probably try to gazump.
Two of the worst that’s for sure but hopefully we won’t see either officiating an Arsenal match for a while now.
Wouldn’t surprise me if Toney ends up at Arsenal..
Something funny from today’s clash of the billion pounds FC vs Oil funded 114 accusations FC.
Mateo Kovacic dribbled directly past Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez to score his goal vs. Chelsea.
Chelsea sold Kovacic to Man City for £25 million last summer and bought Fernandez and Caicedo for a combined £221 million last year
Chelsea owner, Todd Boehly left the stadium in anger after realising how much he spent on both players.
The billion pounds FC bottled it again
Really Rico, what makes you think that that might happen?
I was under the impression, given what I’ve read, that Arteta doesn’t like his demeanour and attitude, that it’s all about Ivan Toney and the team comes 2nd.
Of course I don’t know, it’s all smoke and mirrors, but I must confess when I heard Toney wasn’t playing today it did cross my mind that Arsenal might have made a cheeky bid?
As first weeks go it pretty much went to form with no upsets and the big teams all winning whilst the others (losers) might be looking for reinforcements by the end of the month.
Therefore Edu still has some hopes of doing some more sales business?
Toney is in talks with Saudi side All Hilal, Brentford have turned down initial bid.
Doesn’t sound like we are bringing in a striker, I wonder if it’s because we are having trouble moving Eddie and Ramsdale on.
No reason really Kev, other than we’ve been linked with him before. I read that stuff about his attitude but no idea who reported it or whether it is true..
Phew Cicero. 😜
I hope Toney is not on our radar .
I noticed that Timber is completely right footed but came on at LB.
As many have reported our win was a somewhat sloppy performance .
I hope we don’t buy Ivan Benjamin Elijah Toney. Lots of baggage and tbh I dont take kindly to players who are caught betting not even if they happened to be my favourites. Take Tonali (before he went to NUFC) and Fagioli (of Juventus), both of them I wanted at AFC since they made their debuts. They were caught with illegal betting and from then on I hoped and still do that we will always steer clear of them.
And if you take a deeper look at Toney’s initials you would see I B E T. That is enough to make me wouldnt want to touch him with a barge pole.
Every player has a stinker now and then. And that is normal and to be expected.
But what if that player has a past?? a past with betting on games??? that means that every time that player has a stinker the question at the back of our minds would be whether or not that particular player has betted on the game.
Once you do these things your integrity and character will always be questioned.
Plus he expects the team to work for him. And we have had enough of these in the past.
First day of the season, I’m not bothered about players being a tad off. Not after a win anyway.
We should get stronger..
Rico, one has to take into consideration that on the first day of the season, physically all the players will be on a par. But then some clubs, like us, city, liverpool etc begin settling down. and the others’ form and conditioning will dip earlier. maybe niggling injuries etc.
so yes as you pointed out, that after a win, whether the performance was top notch or not no one will care. What counts is the win, two goals, clean sheet and no injuries.
Exactly Devil, plus, a lot of our players played in the summer and haven’t been back long.
Yes ever player has a bad day sooner or later, the problem comes when the manager sees it but still leaves the player on instead of replacing him for the rest of the match.
I guess I am different from most on this site, as I am more stricter in the sense that I believe there is no excuse for a professional player to come back from a short break and claim he is a bit rusty but will be fine by round 3.
I am ok with new players taking some time to get settled in and work how his new team mates play and the managers game plan.
I was surprised yesterday to see Mateta starting for Crystal Palace,the Olympic final was only 9 days earlier,he only played half the game but he wouldn’t have had much of a holiday.
Noticed that Pep held back his Euro finalists but other teams started theirs. This is where Man City have such a massive advantage with the strength of their squad.
I guess that Saka, Rice etc will have a different training schedule than the rest who came earlier. I guess they will not have a proper pre season load. They will have in season training like between matches where they get to recover, train and then play. You cant have players like Saka and Rice doing a full pre season after finishing the Euros.
Karl Hein gets a clean sheet in his first game for Valladolid who beat Espanol 1 nil , Joan Garcia in goal for the Barcelona team.
Wolves want to take Ramsdale on loan with an option to buy next summer.
Forest have made a bid for Nketiah £25 million + add ons. Arsenal have rejected it.
Sociedad are refusing to lower their price for Merino.
Brinkmanship all round as we approach the end of the transfer window.
Isn’t it exciting?
Going down to the wire.
A couple more iffy results and those clubs in for our players might firm up their offers?
Sociedad will need to replace Merino I’d imagine so they’ll need his fee to reinvest, I reckon this will go into next week.
And maybe we can’t move for Merino until we’ve moved on another player or two?
Sociedad lost 1-2 to Vallecano last Sunday with Zubimendi on the subs bench until half-time (?) so looks as if they need to do some business to strengthen, maybe that explains the comments coming from their president, no doubt following complaints from the Real fans?
Good Morning everyone
According to Spanish and Italian media deal for Merino has been agreed at 38 million pounds.
Morning guys.
New post up now. Sorry, it’s a bit of a repeat on what’s been said this morning which I hadn’t seen…