Morning all.
Watford thrashed Everton 5-2 yesterday afternoon which was a good result for Arsenal. As was Man City beating Brighton 4-1 at The Falmer Stadium. It might be early in the season still but any points the club’s above Arsenal drop is good. As long as Mikel Arteta’s team can keep the points tally on the rise of course.
More points will be dropped today by clubs sitting above Arsenal as the following fixtures take place this afternoon:
Brentford v Leicester
West Ham v Toots
Man Utd v Liverpool
Three draws would do nicely.
Arsenal’s Beth Mead scored a fine hat-track last night as England Women defeated Northern Ireland 4-0 in their World Cup qualifying fixture. It took the Arsenal player just 14 minutes to score her three goals after coming on from the bench in the second half.
Even to score a goal at Wembley is an amazing feeling, Beth Mead told ITV. It’s an honour to put this shirt on and score for my country, but to score a hat-trick is a special feeling and I’m glad to help the girls get three points today. Wiegman] just told me to go out there, enjoy it and make a difference – hopefully I did that! Sarina has confidence in every single one of us. I think it’s got to be up there [as a career highlight]. To score a hat-trick at Wembley for your country is probably one of the proudest moments for me and my family.
Excellent.
Pride oozes from this young man too.
Boyhood Arsenal fan. Hale End graduate. Wearing the No 10 shirt. Scoring in front of his people.
THIS is what it means ❤️
#️⃣ #ARSAVL pic.twitter.com/q20aVVXACK
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) October 22, 2021
Emile Smith Rowe isn’t a guy who refers to the Arsenal badge for the sake it or because he feels he should I’m sure. He’s an Arsenal boy fast growing into a man. He plays football at a level beyond his years and he’s nothing but a delight to watch. The same goes for Bukayo Saka and I’m sure it won’t be long before both are representing England at the same time. But honestly, I wish they weren’t playing for their country, not even at under 21 level as is the case for ESR at the moment because I worry about what condition their bodies are going to be in when the second half of the season comes along. Especially Bukayo Saka who already looks shattered. A tough summer both mentally and physically seems to be taking its toll.
Alex Lacazette also looked knackered during the second half against Aston Villa which was hardly surprising after the effort he put into the game. Plus, apart from the League Cup, he’s not started many recent fixtures.
Juggling a squad of players can’t be easy because there’s always a fear that the level of performance will drop but juggle is what every football manager gets paid to do and I hope Mikel Arteta does just that on Tuesday night for the League Cup fixture against Leeds Utd. I know we’d all love to see Arsenal at Wembley in February or whenever it takes place but is it really worth risking the fitness of key players? Personally, I hope both ESR and Saka are at home watching the match, Thomas Partey too. What about Alex Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, start yet another game or give Eddie Nketiah and Flo Balogun another game? Come January, we will be without those heading out for the ACON, so could this be an opportunity for Callum Chambers in midfield alongside AMN?
These are just suggestions and not for one minute am I suggesting an entirely different starting eleven. I know Mikel Arteta has played a strong team in the previous rounds although he has rested a number of players too. Could he rest one or two more though for the Leeds game?
See you in the comments.
Good morning Rico, I was pondering Tuesday’s line-up while walking my son’s dog earlier. I came up with a 433 which include your midfield pairing.
Leno, Cedric, Holding, Mari, Tavares, AMN, Odegaard, Chambers, Pepe, Martinelli and Balogun.
I think it will be too soon after the Villa game for most of the starters then to be in the line-up on Tuesday. Tavares has to start in the absence of the injured Tierney.
Great minds Rico. 😉
Morning Cicero, great minds indeed. Lol
That lineup makes sense to me although I’d like to see Nketiah out there. Any idea what Tierney’s injury is?
Morning from a kind of drab grey morning with a bit of watery sun from an ever decreasing Norfolk as the sea takes more land and homes from the North Norfolk coast .
Fortunately no lives lost , just land as the lack of sea defences and high tides with strong winds take their toll again.
Arsenal :- I wonder if the ULEZ extension is going to take it’s toll on attendences , an extra £12.50 to get within 2 miles of the stadium for Sadiq Khan’s latest tax to fund his change of London’s history programme. I am so glad that I don’t live there any more like so many other Londoners that have left .
How seriously do we take the Carabou cup ?
We are at home and that should help . We are a team aspiring to get near to the top of the league where Leeds appear to be more content to survive the season. Our first team is in reasonable form , whereas theirs is struggling.
Do we play the kids or some or none. ?
This is where the squad players have to play or otherwise they have little point of being here.
Chambers , Mari , Holding , Cedric , Elneny , AMN there’s enough experience there to enable Martinelli , Nketiah , Balogun , Patino and Maybe Hutchinson to get some time on the pitch.
Might be a little weak in places but with 60 minute substituions we should be able to bring people off of the bench if needs be.
On another subject a recent article in L’equipe caught my eye regarding Matteo Guendouzi , it appears that he is ruffling more than a few feathers in ligue un.
It seems that marseille see themselves as the hard mae of French football and Guendouzi has still not learned to keep his mouth shut . This quote is quite revealing.
“He insults freely but he knows very well with whom he allows himself to behave like that. One day he’ll pick on the wrong person and it will end very badly.”
Basically a lesson that some of us learned early , there is always someone bigger and uglier than you and when you meet , you tend to learn the hard way.
Lovely blue skies down south Potter. Sorry. Lol
That’s how I think re the squad players, if they’re not deemed good enough to beat a probable second Leeds team then why have them? Bielsa I’m sure will be thinking of his next league match bearing in mind they’re just one place above the relegation zone.
Why doesn’t that about Guendouzi surprise me. Such a shame he has an attitude problem.
Marseille v PSG later. Guendouzi and Saliba v the money bags.
Morning Rico and all
Carabou cup we should start all our bench players and give as many first picked players a rest
Afternoon rico, House.
Arteta said that ESR has made some lifestyle changes for the better. Anyone know what he is referring to? Not heard any complaints about lateness, diet, priorities etc?
I read through many of the 900 posts following the BBC article that quoted this for enlightenment. So amusing the Aston Villa fans sourness. ‘Lacazette is the nastiest player in the league’. ‘Was never touched in the match’. Him and fellow diver Saka’.
Wow, an elbow on the head, a panel of experts all saying penalty, and Saka the diver?! What dreadful losers and what a shame we didn’t hit six.
And that lovely gentleman Mings or should that be Mingings never touches anyone .They are quite delusional ( not as much as Liverpool supporters ) as a group as can be seen on any visit to the Birmingham Live site which spouts it’s anti Arsenal agenda on a regular basis.
They have got to learn to suck it up , they were well beaten and standing there singing ” have you ever won the European cup ?” harking back the best part of 40 years ago is about their level.
Afternoon Geoff, Andrew.
No idea re ESR Andrew. Villa fans are having a laugh. They should look at their own players before ours.
I posted this the other day about Mings. The injuries he caused were awful.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bJy8NEWzhjM
Spuds lose again! 😉
Brentford too I think.
That most definitely puts us in the pack , at the bottom of it maybe but beat Leicester and we can in the words of Merson’s dad , aim for the sky and maybe hit the ceiling.
rico, discraceful Mings!
About time we had a warrior put it about a bit, if only Lacazette could battle like that every game. Maybe he can, and a number 10 role helps him link up others even more.
Man U four nil down at half-time.
Is this it for Solskjaer ? 5 nil down to Liverpool after 50 minutes
I hope not Potter, they may appoint someone competent. 😉. Daniel Farke may be available tomorrow morning.
I hope Utd stick with Ole, Toots stick with Nuno and Arsenal, to be continued..
Andrew, yep, it was a shocker.
Good evening Rico and all
Reading the article it clicked or me….we are playing Tuesday against Leeds. I thought we had a week of rest. completely forgot about it……..so thanks for the post which reminded me of it.
I enjoyed reading it bdw.
I think that Leno will be starting in goal. Personally I would go with a 3-5-2 formation so that Chambers, Holding and Mari can all play. Cedric and Kolasinac will play as wingbacks.
In midfield I think it will be Elneny and AMN plus Odegaard in front of them.
Up front is where I have the dilemma. Since Arteta went 4-4-2 against Villa there is a chance that he will go with two upfront against Leeds. So it is a choice between Baologun, Nketiah, PEpe and MArtinelli. I would go for Martinelli and Pepe. Pepe would drop off like Lacazette did while Martinelli would stay upfront like Auba.
Evening Devil, thanks. I can’t see Arteta making that many changes.
Glad we are not playing Liverpool in the next week or two
We are soon Geoff, first match after the next international break..
Rico praying that they have gone off the boil by then.
I doubt they will Geoff. Whilst pundits are talking about Chelsea and City, Liverpool are right up there.
Arsenal play Leeds on the Tuesday.
Leicester play Brighton on the Wednesday.
Could be a bit of room for rotation but maybe not as much as when we were in Europe.
Leno and Holding to start, Elneny and Niles in midfield, Martinelli and Pepe up front and a few substitutions if we’re comfortable around the hour mark.
Two games a week was the norm a few years ago.
The draw has done us a favour Kev. Lol
New post up now
I hope so Rico, I guess we’ll know for sure when the final whistle goes at Leicester on Saturday
Indeed Kev. I’m not counting any chickens just yet…
Good in theory Geoff, But it’s probably only trophy we have a chance to win?
Oops, switched tablet and replying to old post, lol,