Morning all.
Our FA Cup campaign kicked off with what was probably considered to be a kind tie. We were at home against EFL Championship side Leeds United and were runaway winners. Well, not quite runaway but winners nevertheless thanks to Reiss Nelson. When the balls were drawn for the next round, a trip to Dean Court to face fellow Premier League club Bournemouth. Arsenal and away fixtures haven’t tended to get on recently so anything might have happened on the day. Bukayo Saka and Eddie Nketiah scored the goals to see us through 2-1. Yet another away fixture was dealt our way for the fifth round, another trip to the south coast. League One side Portsmouth were beaten 2-0 as Arsenal yet another quarter-final date in this great domestic cup. This was a tougher prospect. Chris Wilder’s Sheffield Utd awaited us. They had to wait too, Covid-19 made sure of that.
Eventually the day came and Arsenal made the long trip to Bramall Lane and only went and won! We actually had a penalty decision given our way too which Nicolas Pépé converted. I thought I might miss the spot kick but a quick whiff of smelling salts brought my temporary faint to a rapid end. The score was level and heading for extra time when Dani Ceballos popped up with our winner. Through to the semi-final where one of Chelsea, Man City or Man Utd would be our next hurdle to overcome. We were doomed, doubly so when the blue side of Manchester came out of the pot. The master v’s pupil, the greatest v’s the novice, experience v’s inexperience. You get my drift. No one gave Mikel Arteta a hope in heck of beating the man he’d worked with for a few years. Certainly not with this Arsenal squad. Well, Arsenal shocked Man City, Arteta shocked Guardiola. Arsenal turned up at Wembley in the mood. Not for dancing, but for defending. Aubameyang was the goal scorer but each player had played their part.
Back we go to Wembley on Saturday.
Chelsea’s first fixture was a home tie against Championship side Nottingham Forest. An comfortable 2–0 victory thanks to goals from Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ross Barkley. The fourth round saw them take on another Championship side in Hull City which they won 2–1 thanks to goals from Michy Batshuayi and Fikayo Tomori. The fifth round saw Liverpool’s name pitched up against them. Ha, not so easy. Actually, it was. Willian and Ross Barkley scored the two goals which sent the now league winners, crashing out of the Cup. Another tough fixture, they all were at this stage of the competition, came in the way of Leicester City who had been flying high in the League. The King Power Stadium offered no comfort for the home club and they too were sent packing. 1-0 was the scoreline, Barkley the goal scorer. Again!
Manchester Utd v’s Chelsea, the second semi-final at Wembley. Both already knew that it would be Arsenal in their way of winning this prestigious Cup. Utd knowing that two more victories and they’d level our FA Cup winning record. Not that it seemed to motivate them as Chelsea ripped them apart. 3-1. Mason Mount, Olivier Giroud and Harry Maguire scored Chelsea’s goals.
Back they go to Wembley too. More tomorrow.
If we haven’t had enough of Arsenal’s old boys laying the boot into the club, one of our old gals have joined in now. Lianne Sanderson has told Sky Sports that even if, and it’s a big if, Arsenal win the FA Cup Final on Saturday evening, it would only paper over the cracks.
Do some people think Arsenal fans are stupid enough to think that life in the backyard at Arsenal is rosy, regardless of what happens? They must do, Sanderson must do. These same people can’t listen to Mikel Arteta or read what he’s said since returning to the club last year because if they did, they’d know he’s fully aware of the goings on at Arsenal. Funny enough, more-so than anyone Sky Sports employ, or any other news/sports outlet too.
The FA Cup is about a journey which for both Chelsea and Arsenal has been good so far. Chelsea might have secured top four but they’re in no better place than Arsenal right now. Other than Lampard has been at the club for a full season whereas Arteta just a few months. Both squads have their strengths, both also have weaknesses but the idea is the same at both. Aim for the top.
It’s not about papering over cracks, it’s about knocking the house down and starting again. The foundations are in place, the walls need building up again. Arsenal, or rather Mikel Arteta isn’t in denial, his head is not buried in the sand either. He knows the squad needs improving and he knows the hard work has only just begun.
Papering over the cracks suggests Arsenal are happy as they are and that’s that. Poppycock!
See you in the comments guys.
From last post, reply to the Boss. 🙂
Got me wrong, Rico, I`m saying I would not be surprised if any owner invested their own money in their teams!……………………..thats what normal business owners do……………..invest money in the product(players) to make it better and from the link I put up it says what top 6 clubs owners have invested into their teams upto 2019 for 5 years, it cant be clearer to me…………i`ll book you an appointment with Specsavers! 😆
At the end of the day, it`s an article I have read and I prefer to believe it as I know for a fact SK has not invested a penny in the team, so the author got that right, so why would they print lies about the rest!
We can all go on about Leicester and any other Spud like club doing well, but leet look at the average or overall picture and the likes of Man C and Chavs have been consistant in winning trophies with a lot of money invested in their teams, people can choose tpom ignore this fact and go on about Arsenal spending a lot, but the difference in quality is there to be seen.
Yes we can say we bought badly blah blah blah, but it`s being blind to the truth.
Man C and Cgavs owners have between them probably invested £2B between them in their clubs since taking over and not fforgetting any club owner can put as much money as they like within FFP rules into the infrustructor, academy etc as they like………………………. Kroenke could do that but has invested £0…………………..I love putting up that fact! 😆
Infact as of the rumour that Arsenal are cutting it scout system, we are going backwards, we wont have as many Saka`s coming through if that is true, whereas Chavs and Man C are reeping the rewards of some fine young talent and will spend money!
I have been nothing but consistant with my opinion of SK and how he is the biggest threat to our future, nothing has changed.
Now to gym!…………………….fact!…………………..If SK spent as in Arsenal as I spent time down the gym, Arsenal would be in great shape like me! 😆
A nice cup post, Rico! 👍
I’m nervous as hell….. am not ready to bid farewell to European football or Aubameyang, so they’d better be up for it! Please don’t let us down!
It’s a lush morning, here in Devon… definite dog friendly beach weather… and fancy wearing an Arsenal shirt too 😉
We all choose to believe the stories which suit our own agenda Lc.
Arsenal are a self sustaining club. That’s the main fact imo.
It’s going to be surreal atmosphere on Saturday as Arsenal and Chelsea play out the FA Cup final in an empty stadium. It will become even odder if we have the usual C List “celebrity” singing Abide with Me to a couple of dozen press, cameramen, and assorted hangers on.
Who is going to present the Cup to Arsenal and the loser’s medals to Chelsea?
this will be my last comment, hopefully for only a few hours, as BT should be arriving shortly to install our new superfast, all fibre broadband.
Information super highway here we come. 😉
Ake off to City then…
How long will we have to wait for news……??
Morning All, it’s a lovely sunny day out there and I’ll soon be out there myself…
Morning Rico, the owners of Man Utd take money out of their club they also leverage all the investment in shares on the club, as far as I know they’ve not put a cent of their own money in, it’s why millionaires become billionaires.
Man City and Chelsea aren’t run like normal football clubs so you cannot really use them in any assessment.
Usmanov invested in Everton, he bought some shares but as far as I know he’s not spent any of his dough on transfers. Everton are in the midst of moving to a new stadium and will be heavily indebted for a long time, but I doubt that the clubs owners will put any of their money in for new signings.
The Tottenham situation will be very interesting this summer as we all know that Mourinho loves to spend copious amounts on shiny new players. He won’t be able to do that and has been busy signing up existing players to new contracts. If Spurs lost Kane they would be in deep shit.
My major criticism of KSE is that they allowed executives and managers to run the club without any proper oversight, it led to us drifting. Even the Arsenal Board were complicit, nobody wanted to make the difficult decisions. Arsenal have spent some serious money on transfers and on salaries but the decision making has been appalling, lurching from Stat DNA to Kia and his pals and leading to millions wasted. We’ve gone over this a thousand times…
If Arsenal had been run as well as Liverpool, if we’d spent our money on the right players, sorted contracts out without letting them drift and not overpaid the likes of Walcott, Ozil and co then we’d be up with Liverpool. But that’s what I blame KSE for, they kept Wenger too long, didn’t have any oversight on what Gazides was doing, didn’t have a clear out of the Boardroom and replace those there with proper business types and allowed Gazides to choose Emery before he fecked off. All that is on KSE and it’s because they’ve not been involved enough, hopefully Josh will change that, not that I’m totally confident in him…
It’s the standard response to any Arsenal success that doesn’t involve the title or Europe.A cliche “ papering over the cracks” lol! Doesn’t have the brain or the foresight to see what Arteta is really wanting.However it’s a trophy that many of the top teams would still dearly love no matter what they say & to use as a stick to beat Arsenal with shows how jealous some are of our FA cup aceivements.
Not long Sue. Within the next couple of months anyway. 😂
We will be winning on the weekend.
Fekken Chavs-twice we’ve met them in the cup final and twice we have beaten the bastards.
A hat trick beckons.
Auba, Holding and Pepe to score!
Have you been on the ale again Scott? Lol
Morning Kev, that part of the ownership I agree with. For too long they sat back and watched the club fall further behind when they should have been quicker to tell Wenger his days were done and the same with Emery.
They can’t afford to do the same with Raul.
Re Josh, I actually have a bit of faith in him. Probably because it was after his visit when he stayed over for a while, Wenger soon announced his leaving an Gazidis followed soon after.
Well the information super highway will have to get along without me on it in the foreseeable future.
My engineer’s appointment was cancelled due to “shortage of resources in the area”. Presumably the same shortage of resources in the area was the reason why nobody saw fit to inform me of the cancellation.
BT were profuse with their apologies when I phoned, it took just on twenty minutes to get an answer and if I was willing to hold on for a short while they would find me a new appointment. I held on for a further ten minutes and was then informed that the earliest appointment available was between 8am and 1pm on the 18th August.
BT are an absolute joke!
Arteta and #AFC will look to fend off competition for Gabriel Magalhaes as he’s given the green light to leave Lille.
The Brazilian left sided centre-back has emerged as one of the most cost-effective solutions available to Arteta.
Yes, Cicero, BT are a joke!
Scott, if you are correct, I will forgive everything you have ever said about Sanchez! 😃😃
Merson is rumoured to be heading to the jungle!
Cicero, I’m with Virgin, they’re not perfect but I used to be with BT and they are absolute rubbish, Virgin run rings around them.
I see that Scott has been on the grog… 😄
Merse in the jungle Sue, I really don’t know what to say other than ‘get me out of here’…
😂😂 Good one, Kev!
Watch and learn people hahahaha
We will win.
No question.
Merson in the jungle? My money is on him to win it. 😂
😂 Nice one, Rico 👍
He’ll be great for entertainment value Sue. 😆
Seriously though, it’ll do him the world of good I reckon. Wrighty said he really benefited from his time in the jungle.
https://www.ltarsenal.com/tim-lewis-appointment-to-arsenals-board-a-closer-look/
I agree, Rico 👍How good was he on Harry’s Heroes? I really enjoyed seeing his other side
Ditto Sue. Still a bloody good footballer too.
New post up now