Morning all.
The England fans who booed Harry Maguire last night should feel ashamed. I’ve never been a fan of the player but not so long ago, he was part of an England team which reached the Euros final. Were those same fans booing him then? If England fans want the team to go far in the World Cup this year, Harry Maguire needs to be supported, not booed. Every player Gareth Southgate selects for his team needs to be supported. When it comes to playing international football, local club rivalry has to be put to one side both on and off the pitch.
Anyway, that’s it for international football until the World Cup gets underway so now it’s all about the ten domestic fixtures left for Arsenal. It’s us against Totts, Man Utd, West Ham and Wolves for a place in Europe next season.
April 4th – Crystal Palace (a)
April 9th – Brighton (h)
April 16th – Southampton (a)
April 20th – Chelsea (a)
Apl 23rd – Man Utd (h)
May 1st – West Ham (a)
May 7th – Leeds (h)
May 15th – Newcastle (a)
May 22nd – Everton (h)
TBC – Totts (a)
Four home games, six away games and all will be tough. The fixture against Crystal Palace is the most important one, not just because it’s our next match but it comes right after an international break when Arsenal have been known to wobble a bit. Having the extra two days to prepare for facing Patrick Vieira’s team will hopefully help players who’ve had to travel far and wide over the last couple of weeks recover. Thomas Partey, Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel have certainly increased their air miles over the last fortnight. The two week break will have given Takehiro Tomiyasu more time to regain strength and fitness too and fingers crossed that Bukayo Saka is already returning negative Covid test results. Hopefully the rest of the players have, or will, return to north London unscathed.
I think keeping the 11-15 players who’ve done so well fit will play a a big part of how the final stage of the season will pan out and not just for Mikel Arteta’s team. If Totts were to lose Kane and Son, they’ll struggle in my opinion, West Ham two should one or two of their key players get injured. I don’t even want to think about Arsenal having to play without Partey, Saka, or Martinelli. Or not having ESR or Odegaard available. But it could happen and if it does, then others will have to step in and step up sharpish. A lot to ask I know but Sambi Lokonga, Mo Elneny, Nuno Tavares, Nicola Pepe and Eddie Nketiah, the only senior players in reserve, aren’t bad players, they’re just competing with better players for a place in the team. After them, it’s down to under 23 players, one or two who have already made it onto the bench, just not onto the pitch. But as Kev and I was saying yesterday, sometimes it takes an injury for someone else to get the break they’ve been desperate for. If it comes their way, they’ll be no better time to prove their worth. I hope that lucky break doesn’t come their way in the next two months though.
It’s not just the men who have an important run of fixtures now though as the women are still in the chase for three trophies. The FA Cup, WSL and Champions League. Chelsea stand in their way in the two domestic competitions but in Europe, it’s Vfl Wolfsburg. Having drawn the home tie 1-1, thanks to a very late goal, Arsenal need a win in Germany tomorrow night if they’re to go through, or a higher scoring draw than 1-1. Assuming away goals count.
See you in the comments.
Morning Rico and all
Totally agree about spots 4th-5th-6th could come down to injuries and I would even add Chelsea to that list
Morning Geoff. Yes, Chelsea too but they have got a deeper squad than the rest.
Good Morning Rico. I disagree with you on the booing of players. Not all players deserve fans support, whether at the national or club levels. Some managers are so set in their ways that they refuse to recognize that a particular player has lost form or is in decline and refuses to drop him or her. Against that backdrop, many fans will boo, that is their only option. I have never booed, but I have refused to watch a match because of the selection. With Maguire, if Rasford is dropped for lack of form, then Maguire should be also because both have been stinking up the joint. If Southgate doesn’t sit Maguire he’s setting him up for failure. And moreover even at the Euros he was a liability, IMHO.
Morning Obi. That’s ok, it’s healthy.
As said in the post, I don’t rate Maguire and never have but I’m just comparing now to the euros when he wasn’t booed regardless of whether he was considered to be a liability or not.
G’day Rico and all.
I guess it’s not good that supporters sometimes boo their own players, not just in internationals, but in clubs as well. It is the only way to show dissent and their disagreement with the managers/coaches selection policy and tactics.
In last night’s game against a poor Ivory Coast side, reduced to ten men after just 40 minutes, Maguire was barely adequate even though he was under no pressure whatsoever. He is one of Southgate’s un-dropables as is Kane and, to an extent, Henderson.
It was plainly evident that when Kane was brought on the intensity of England’s pressing game dropped alarmingly as he jogged around waiting for a chance to add to his personal goals tally.
Southgate will have to make some, for him, hard decisions before the World Cup kicks off.
Arsenal: Leno, Swanson, Holding, Ogungbo, Tavares, Azeez, Patino, Sagoe JR, Ibrahim, Nketiah, Lacazette
Subs: Okonkwo, Sousa, Dizeyi, Bandeira, Butler-Oyedeji, Biereth, Ideho
Beat a Brentford 11 by 4 goals to 1 . Holding got 0ne Lacazette hat trick.
Afternoon Cicero, I swerved the game as it was only a friendly so can’t comment on Maguire’s performance. However, I can imagine it, just as I can Kane. Guess I’m just not keen 9n booing players during a game.
Did we play a friendly today Potter?
If you can call it that…
https://arseblog.news/2022/03/laca-bags-a-hat-trick-as-arsenal-beat-the-bees-bs/
I’m not totally against booing players and coaches but I think some times people forget that playing for your club and country are different in the following ways.
1 A player spends a whole season understand his coaches game plan and how and were his team mates what the ball put. yet he may only play one match for his country and does not know anything about his international team mates style of play or the coaches game plane.
2 Some players lift playing for there country and some can not handle the pressure of playing for there country.
3 Did the captain do enough on the field to try and lift the players game
4 Did the player just have a one off bad game.
5 If a player is having a bad game why did the manager leave them on the field, why not replace him sooner than later
Good morning all from a snowy Norfolk, just a light covering but minus 4c. 🎿
Morning all.
What a load of statistical b******t this is.
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11670/12573264/granit-xhakas-yellow-card-against-aston-villa-angered-arsenal-fans-but-do-the-stats-suggest-he-is-harshly-treated
I read earlier that our game against Totts will be in the last week of the season. If the PL/TV think this will be the fourth spot decider which I strongly suspect they do, I think they will be disappointed because imo, it’ll be decided before then.
Statistics, don’t yer just love em?
Like a hole in the head Cicero.
Harry Maguire – Boo 😂 If it annoys St Gareth it’s good enough for me.
I love a good booing of a player in the stadium. Sometimes a message needs to be sent to these prancing prima donnas.
Snow…in March…blame Vladimir Putin.
The old codgers in Norfolk will be digging around for the long johns at 5.30 in the morning ‘cos I were in bed at 8.30.’ 😘
Hope you’ve got a tin hat on Pete. 😅
Buenos Dias Pedro
I have no snow just a biting cold north westerly wind in my part of the building site formerly known as Norfolk..
No logic in this country , we need food as we import too much and then build housing estates on farm land.
Must be that the developers give more to the government than the farmers.
On the subject of builders , I will be on the roof of my garage as the wind has decided to remove much of the felt and I need to replace it post haste.
Makes a change having Putin to blame usually it’s Brexit.
Not much happening on the Arsenal front , we played Brentford’s reserves and hopefully gave Lacazette a degree of confidence. Romour going about that May 17 th has been selected for our trip up seven sisters . 2 datys after our trip to Saudi on Tyne and the last match against Everton .
Lacazette to be offered a year with another year an option according to The Mail. Hope it’s true.
If he signs then that probably means only one striker coming in and dough set aside for a midfielder +
Great post Rico
Good Afternoon Rico and all
I think it is near impossible not to boo the choice of MAguire. I dont think that the supporters were booing the player himself, rather I think they were booing Southgate and his decision to go with Maguire when White, Tomori, Declan Rice and Conor Coady, Marc Guehi and even I dare say Holding are vastly better than Maguire. If Tony Adams was labelled a donkey then what does Maguire qualify at??
Even Man Utd supporters are fed up to their nose with Maguire. But they cannot do anything at the moment. In the case of the national team though a choice can be made. And there are vastly superior CBs around.
Summer is drawing near all the time and with it the transfer window. I still keep having the odd sensation that one of Halaand or Gnabry will join us. Yes there is a chance I might be disappointed however, I keep having that sensation that a big player will be at the Emirates next season. Then again, Arteta might surprise us all and go and get an a player we have never heard of (like Cabral, a brazilian who is only 23 but is quite a good CF). Gnabry loves Arsenal, Halaand’s best mate is Odegaard, Gnabry knows the place inside out and even Arteta himself, Halaand might be excited by the new project taking place at Arsenal…etc etc.
Much as I like Laca….I feel that with the arrival of maybe Gnabry or Halaand, plus the return of Balogun, Laca will be allowed to leave. Because its clear that Arteta will buy to strengthen the attacking dept and LAca is growing older by the day.
So Gary Neville believes Arteta may still leave Arsenal if we finish 4th as he feels Arteta want’s to coach a team that can win the premier league and he can’t see us doing that.
Well I guess from Southgate’s perspective he’s never been let down by Harry McGuire so why should he drop him?
I mean it’s not surprising that ‘Slabhead’ isn’t on tip-top form as it is at United but then they’re as dysfunctional as we were 3 years ago, he’s always done a good job for the national team and if he was say Welsh, or Irish, or God help him Scottish he’d be an absolute fixture in those national teams and nobody would say a word.
It’s not his fault that United paid £30m more than he was worth when he moved from Hull City just as we paid £30m too much for Pepe, that’s the sort of thing that happens when the people doing a clubs business aren’t up to much.
Ha ha Kev, it’s yesterdays 😆
Afternoon Devil
I read that from Neville Geoff, what a prat he is. One minute he’s critical of Chelsea’s spending, the next, he’s calling Arsenal tight.
Yes I saw that Geoff, it’s the kind of mindless nonsense you get during the Interlull when the ‘talking heads’ have so little to talk about and therefore make poorly thought out statements in a desperate attempt to stay relevant.
Gnabry probably doesn’t love Arsenal Devil, not after the club sent him to a club managed by Pulis
I’ve only just read it Rico…. 😄
Not really 😉
Need a shovel Kev? 😀
Cicero needs a shovel Rico 😃
I need a wind break , will someone turn the fan off. I reckon it’s all these windmills that are meant to be saving the world spinning that’s causing the wind.
Ha ha Kev, snow, wind and rain here too..
can you send some of that snow over here please, but you can keep the rain and wind
I checked that date but maybe Gary Neville thought that it was 1st April and wanted to hear a recording of himself saying it to convince himself.
Had that comment come from someone like Ancelotti and Guardiola, multiple winners on the European and domestic stage both as a player and as a manager, I would have been alarmed. But coming from someone whose only success as a manager was winning the wooden spoon takes the biscuit.
21 years ago today….. ☹️
R.I.P. Rocky
Nice point Devil. I remember Tony Adams being ey-ore’d mercilessly at Old Trafford after a freak own goal. It was pretty spectacular tbf.
The next day the newspapers printed pictures of him with donkey ears on his head. Of course he was ey-ore’d at every ground for the next few years. That stopped when it became obvious he was the best central defender in the country.
Booing seems pretty light in comparison to that.
@Potter seems that everybody is moving up Norfolk way, must be good. Some friends just bought a place near Queenies estate, although there’s not even a boozer in the village. Madness.
They move to the country, build houses and then the country it isn’t any more.
As for the pubs mostly they depend upon the tourist trade and with so many second home owners not there in the winter they go broke .
The ones that are open are charging London prices forgetting that the locals don’t earn London wages and quite a few close from November to Easter because there’s not enough trade to cover the staff cost leave alone business rates .
With the current recession I can’t see them surviving along with many of other small businesses.
Common sense has prevailed. 5 subs agreed upon as from next season
That’s good news re the subs ruling.
Arsenal women ate 1-0 down…
When donkey won the derby
Morning all
New post up.
Great vid Potter.