Morning all.
I’m not sure which Brighton team would be worse to play, the one needing three points for Premier League survival or the one who yesterday found out they’re staying put. For Chris Hughton’s side, the pressure is off. They can play with freedom knowing they’re safe. Cardiff joined Huddersfield and Fulham as the final team heading to the Championship.
For us though, it’s very different. We need three points to take the top four battle to the final weekend. Toots got battered 1-0 yesterday so even their place in the Champions League is not a certainty. Now wouldn’t it be funny if ourselves and Chelsea win our final two matches and Everton win in north London next Sunday……..
I know, I’m getting a bit carried away.
I’d imagine The Emirates will be full today as it’s the last home match of the season, one of three games left to get through. Hopefully four.
Unai Emery has big decisions to make today as far as his starting eleven goes but I don’t think he can afford to place all his eggs in the Europa Cup basket. I can’t see Koscielny starting, not after the way he’s was hobbling about on Thursday evening but other than him, I hope we see our strongest starting eleven. The right starting eleven to beat Brighton. He tried rotation against Everton, it didn’t work, he did similar against Crystal Palace, same result and just those six points dropped points alone have cost us dear. Both opposition should have been beaten but that’s been the pattern of our season. It’s proved that a number of our squad players aren’t strong enough to fill in. A few of the first team aren’t right for Arsenal either but that’s for another day.
As said, just three, perhaps four matches left for this group of players to give everything they have. Be in with a chance to secure top four next Sunday and then give again on Thursday night in Spain.
With a bit of luck, both Chelsea and Utd will drop points in the two earlier matches today and we can finally take advantage if they do.
Ninety five minutes of good football, strong defending and a bit of discipline. Then rest, head out to Spain with a bit of spring in the step and get the right result against Valencia.
That’s not too much to ask is it?
PS. Well done to big Sol who took his first managerial job this season at Macclesfield, a club rooted to the bottom of League Two. They were down and out, or that’s what it looked like having won just twice in nineteen attempts. They survived though thanks to the big fella. It’s good to see an ex top notch footballer go into management, especially one who’s prepared to start at the bottom. Shame the same couldn’t be said about a few of these ‘know it alls’ who earn a living by spouting a lot of rubbish into a microphone for television viewers to suffer…
Have a good Sunday guys, see you in the comments….
Sensational post, Rico, especially the tidbit on Sol!!
Had the pleasure of meeting him 2 years ago and he’s just a gentleman, obviously intelligent and articulate.
As you said, to see him start down low and build a career rather than jumping in at the top, failing then grabbing a microphone is very refreshing:
Maybe someday he will manage at the top level, who knows?
We have 2 viable chances at CL next season and I say we should go hard at both.
Okay the best side to beat our opponents in every game, imo.
Morning all.
Good morning Rico, not too many more prematch posts to write for a few months, well done with today’s thank you.
Like you, I don’t expect to see Koscielny in the team today and with Maitland-Niles suspended its going to be another mix-and-match back line. Perm any number or configuration from Sokratis, Mustafi, Monreal, Lichtsteiner, or Jenkinson. Whoever starts they’ll need to quickly find some cohesion, a thing sadly lacking in most Arsenal defensive combinations under Emery and his predecessor.
We can only hope the Brighton Squad are still hungover from their survival party.
Sunny with a brisk and cold northerly wind here. Bowl of porridge for breakfast, a morning spent with the Sunday papers and an afternoon of sport on his he box. Luvvly jubbly 😉
Thanks Scott, Cicero and morning to you both.
I’m surprised the club didn’t appeal AMN red card, unless they didn’t want to risk having an extra match added. Perhaps Mustafi will play right back with Mavropanos in the middle. Or Jenks, who knows..
I’d forgotten Lichtsteiner lol
Morning all.
Penultimate pre match blog Rico. Congrats on another seasonful essays on all things arsenal. I just don’t know how you do it! Your commitment and dedication to the cause is admirable and astonishing. Thanks for this year and let’s hope come August we can do it all over again but, with a better more positive outcome for our redoubtable club. Finishing first would be rather good wouldn’t it?😊
Just to say of AMN he ‘earned’ 2 yellow cards and the resultant red. There is no appeal against a yellow card offence, so he was sent off on the totting up process. The club had no grounds for appeal. That aside, Arsenal’s defence today could look like one of my mother’s patchwork quilts, but not so tidy. However, if the team remember ALL of them have a responsibility to defend and not just the 4 or 5 poor saps at the back, then maybe they won’t get overrun by the rampant? Brighton forwards!
Realistically we should win comfortably but,………?? This is Arsenal I’m referring to, so any result is possible. So long as we win I and most other folk will be happy or not. I’m looking to be ‘happy’😊
Cloudy and cool here again, not very summery, sadly.
Tonight, the first ever Aussie to referee a professional game In england happens.
It’s a Championship game and the ref is as good as anyone around!!!
Jarred Gillet is his name and is one of those composed referees who’s always respectful to players, but keeps control all at once.
He quit the A League to head to Uni but has been called up to referee today and won’t let anyone down.
Don’t be surprised if he’s handling League games next season.
Thank you Wavy. Means a lot.
I’m hoping for a better second season under Emery, certainly viewing wise but the younger guys will be older and hopefully wiser, certainly those who have been on loan and then those who played in Europa might get the opportunity to play more too. Thrown in a few very good signings and fingers crossed eh.
I’d forgotten only straight red cards could be appealed..
Nice post rico.
Boy that home defeat by Palace really has made us suffer. “IF” only….a little word with a big meaning.
Nice touch about Sol. I wish him well in the future. Could do with him now.
My team for today, if Willock is available.
Leno.
Mustafi………Sokratis……Monreal…….Kolasinac
Xhaka………Torriera
Willock…….AUba…….Laca……..Iwobi.
Ozil must be kept on the bench today, as we need plenty of effort and commitment.
COYG
Good post Rico. Great to see big Sol do so well as he could have grabbed a mic, talked drivel and been paid zillions like Neville.
Afternoon Gooners…
Afternoon Rico.
You can well imagine a whole host of football/shitraking journalists being absolutely devastated at Sol Campbell saving Macclesfield from the drop. He seems to generate an unfair amount of negativity from the Press and you can imagine how the knives were being sharpened for his demise…
Good luck to him.
Does Emery stick or twist?
Does he heavily rotate today, with Valencia on the horizon?
Or does he go for top four on the back of the Spuds imploding?
It would be awful to fall between two stools, for for me, the priority is Valencia.
I’d rest Koscielny, Sokratis, Xhaka, Ozil, Lacazette, only give Torrieira 45mins, maybe rest Aubameyang as well?
It’s a risk, but we need our players as fresh as they can be for next Thursday as we might have to go into extra time?
Brighton are safe and despite their manager banging on to his players about not dropping their intensity, it would be quite normal for the Seagulls to just lose an edge, even a 5% drop can make the difference.
I hope Ozil does not play in Valencia. If he plays, we’re done in 20 minutes!
I reckon the first twenty minutes in Valencia will be like the Alamo . They will push with everything they have and if we can get through that unscathed it will be fine . I have my doubts that we can do it though , I anticipate a long time looking at my watch every 2 minutes.
Thanks Vcc, Paddy.
It’s odd how we’ve improved a bit against the so called better sides, yet beaten by the lesser teams. Perhaps the more physical teams…
Afternoon Kev, I’m glad I’m not the one making the team decision today.
Surely though, whoever he selects should have enough in them to win today. Especially as it’s the last home game of the season. P’us other clubs might be looking at guys like Elneny etc so it’s in their own interest to put in a good performance if they play.
Finishing 4th against winning a trophy?
I know where I stand Rico…
The thing is we could win our last two games and still finish 5th…
The one ‘staying put’ for sure rico, our strikers should be filling their boots today.
As for Lichtsteiner, I called it last summer, he may have 35 caps for his country but what were we thinking taking on a 104 year old !!!
At the time we signed him, Bellerin was out for the season, Maitland-Niles was an unknown quantity and Jenkinson was only in the squad because no other club wanted him. Which left us with the magnificent Mustafi as the only feasible option at right back. Lichtsteiner’s experience and nous gave us breathing space when we most needed it, in fact the Premiership proved to be a step too far for him, but he got us out of a dodgy situation at the time.
Congratulations to the Canaries, Champions of the Championship.
On The Ball City!!!!
Has the stamp of Kallstrom all over it , Looking back over the Lichtsteiner signing on google the one thing not specified was the length of his contract . he came on a free but swallows £340,000 a week , hopefully it was 1 year.
Chelsea 2 up
We need a revolution in our team for the next season
Potter, nought or two too many there, Lichtsteiner was signed for free and is on £35,000 per week on a twelve month contract.
Huddersfield 1 – 1 United. Seventy minutes.
I read a few days ago Lichtsteiner is on 90k a week.
So many different bloody stories lol
Leno, Lichtsteiner, Mustafi, Sokratis, Monreal, Torreira, Xhaka, Mkhitaryan, Ozil, Aubameyang, Lacazette.
Cech, Elneny, Koscielny, Iwobi, Guendouzi, Kolasinac, Nketiah.
Scott, the Lichtsteiner wage is from a usually very accurate source.
Cicero,
I’m not questioning you, just laughing at the blown up figure I read.
I’m a bit worried about Xhaka, Sokratis and Lacazette, I hope they don’t play the entire game…
Talk about Fergie time 8 yes eight minutes added time.
All over United drop two more points.
Trophy for me too Kev, everyday of the week. But I think Emery will want both.
Micko, I reckon so too, we might have a chance… lol
Without getting to far ahead, fourth place means pre-qualifying for the Champions League, does the Europa League winner have to pre-qualify too?
Straight to the group stage..
Two shocking passes from Xhaka.
I don’t think that Xhaka should have played Rico, he needed to be rested…
Whatever we might think about our players, we’re gonna need all of them if we are to win anything.
Nicely lined up by Taylor to send Sokratis off….
Neither do i Kev but then I think that every game. 😝
Playing out from the back again
Rico 😀
Listening to the radio, BBC5Live, can’t get onto Arsenal Player – useless crappy website…
Our defending sounds a bit Fred Karno Army’ish…
Sky desperate to make penalty a dive
Sky can fcuk off…
That’s smudger these days. Anti Arsenal for some reason…
This bloody ref is doing his best to even things up after the penalty award. We need to stop p*****g about and score another goal or two.
Ozil has become the new Ramsey, slowing the game down, passing sideways or backwards and contributing nothing to the defence.
Here’s an idea, how about a little more tempo from us 2nd half ! Who knows might get the supporters off their seats.
Xhaka gives the ref the opportunity, penalty awarded and scored. Absolutely stupid by Xhaka.
Half an hour to turn this mess around.
Ah well, at least we can see a few of the youngsters getting a run out at Turf Moor.
Bang goes another Aubameyang chance!
…..and another one.
Did Xhaka actually make contact for their pen?
And another…
….and yet another.
Hopeless in the air Auba
Are any of us really surprised, Arsenal are not a top four team, we’re not CL quality we are Europa standard and that’s how it is…
We don’t deserve anything else….
1 point from our last 12 points, what a disgrace…
Blown it 1 point from the last 4 games
That’s our Premiership season over, never mind the Burnley game, its over.
The question I ask, has Emery’s coaching and tactics in any way improved any of our players in any significant way?
I wish Brighton would have scored that late chance. Today’s effort has been an utter shambles. No spirit and no drive – probably saving themselves for the return leg in Valencia.
WHAT is Lictensteiner doing on the right wing has Emery lost his marbles?
Xhaka bombs two free kicks and then gives away the penalty and can’t pass to save his life. Apart from to the opposition.
Iwobi is playing like a schoolboy with stage-fright.
Nobody is running off the ball to space and there doesn’t appear to be anyone capable of actually running at the opposition trying to beat them with the skills they are supposed to have.
Frankly we don’t deserve to be in the top flight and I look forward to a MAJOR clear-out.
Emery included – his picks have been highly suspect.
Beat me by a minute
First time since the premiership was born we’ve conceded 50 goals in a season, I thought Emery was brought in to take us to the next level lol.
Anyway, we can all take next weekend off, top four sorted and bottom three done and dusted.
Oh to be a Gooner.
Quote from the BBC: “If they win the Europa League, they will be in the Champions League next season.
Otherwise, they must beat Burnley next week, hope Tottenham lose at home to Everton and make up an eight-goal swing.”
Yeah, right. FAT CHANCE!
Y’know guys, playing like that they might not make it in the the Championship either………..?
If we don’t win up at Turf Moor, then we could finish below Man Utd and need to qualify…
Emery won’t go as they would have to pay him off.
I can’t see a future for Auba he scores goals but he isn’t clinical he could have should have got the golden boot just today .
The truth is we are not good enough and as we all know so much is needed , June July is going to be interesting
Bottle jobs…. so glad this season is over.
as for emery I’m still waiting on that high press.. 🙄
we’ll finish 6th imo.
£100m minimum investment if not then same as next yr 6th or lower imo.
Emery could still win a trophy, even with this dysfunctional squad of flakes…
We’re paying for a lack of business in January, that’s Raul’s decision, so let’s see what our Head of Football Relations Director of Football Supremo does in the summer.
Can’t say that I’m very excited by the prospect…
a) A long time ago I said that unfortunately we were not going to stay in the first 4, although hypothetically, we could have a more accessible calendar. The 5 points lost in the last 2 home games were deadly.
b) Regarding the game: i) Was it a penalty for Arsenal? doubts ii) Xhaxa made that penalty for what? The player would hardly do anything else. It took another yellow (something that the Brighton defender on the penalty in favor of Arsenal, did not take. Someone explain me the criteria). iii) We committed by our own fault. We had opportunities to score (Brighton too). But explain me: when it was necessary to replace (around 65 minutes) it does not replace; when Arsenal were on top, to create opportunities, the Brigton “without breathing”, there are 3 substitutions (!!!) to break the rhythm, give oxygen to the opponent. We lost 5 to 8 minutes to return to the goal and we could have suffered one or more goals in that period. Hilarious…
c) It leaves us to win by 0-4 and the Totts lose by 4-0. (or 0-3 and 5-0 …)
If we play like we did today, Valencia will batter us imo.
Sounds like we were poor…………………………………….
We were shocking………..again. Ffs.
I wish I would never see Xhaka in an Arsenal shirt again. He is a total liability. A total numpty. Their guy was going nowhere and he decides to hand Brighton a free penalty.
Please clear off Granit, and never come back. I’ve never felt so furious with an Arsenal player in all my life, and I’ve lived through a few. Stepanovs, Gus Ceaser to name but two.
Our only salvation now is to win the Europa league.
Only a handful stuck around for the lap of appreciation at the end apparently………and who can blame them !
Is there anything to looks forward to next season????
The only ray of hope is the fact we may be looking to give the kids a go.
Other then that……
What’s improved this season???
Early on, most of us believed the teams spirit and fight had, but recent weeks in particular kill that theory off.
The defence, which according to everyone simply had to improve because Wenger didn’t do defence, hasn’t.
Our attack has been hot and cold for years.
I’m really struggling to find a single thing and while some fans rejoice at the last sight of Ramsey, well, again we only need look at this seasons stats with and without him to see his worth but even keeping him is no game changer because we need a hell of a lot more than that.
While my opinion on Emery has changed several times this season, the past 2-3 weeks says pretty loudly he isn’t the man for the job.
If he wins the EL then maybe he is back on track but failure to do so must leave a massive question mark over him, even though I’m all for honouring contracts.
This is the worst finish to a season I can recall.
We’ve finished with barely a whimper when it really should not have taken much to grab a top 4 spot.
Such a shame, but is Emery merely a EL kind of guy??
Seems to enjoy winning it.
That’s not the ambition we are after, surely.
It’ll be bloody nice to win, but then what???????????
The attitude today seemed to be “Take it easy, get an early goal and rest up for Valencia on Thursday”. I rather suspect that was not Emery’s chosen tactics, but it certainly was the way we played. No sense of urgency, until Brighton equalised, then frenetic and uncoordinated all out attack.
Xhaka will cop the blame for a lot of it, but Aubameyang fluffed a hatfull of chances and Ozil was almost totally ineffective.
Lose on Thursday and I can see a storm of criticism swamping Emery, Only the thought of paying him off will prevent the board from sacking him.
We have two games to save our season, after today the Burnley game is irrelevant.
New post up now.