Morning all.
Four fixtures took place last night and each ended up in a draw. Liverpool were held by Leeds at Anfield, neither Totts or Brentford managed to score and Crystal Palace against Fulham ended 1-1. But the result of the night was at The Stadium of Light where Sunderland against Man City ended 0-0 meaning Arsenal start the second half of the season with a four point lead at the top of the table.
Tomorrow , we take on Bournemouth on the south coast, Aston Villa face Nottingham Forest whilst the day after, Man City take on Chelsea.
I’m not sure if it’s a footballing record or not but one day into the new year and Chelsea have sacked Maresca. Under 21 manager Calum McFarlane will take over until a new manager is appointed. Let’s hope he can get a big performance out of his players at The Etihad.
I thought you might enjoy the above clip which shows some of the best of Arsenal so far this season. Up until the end of November anyway. I certainly enjoyed looking back on what we’ve done so far and hope more of the same is to come over the next five months. Actually, I hope better things happen going forward, especially now Mikel Arteta has an almost fully fit squad to select from. He can rotate more that’s for sure so the players should be much less jaded as the end of May approaches.
Here’s a reminder of our fixtures this month:
Saturday January 3: Bournemouth (A) – Premier League, kick-off 5.30pm.
Thursday January 8: Liverpool (H) – Premier League, kick-off 8pm.
Sunday January 11: Portsmouth (A) – FA Cup third round, kick-off 2pm.
Wednesday January 14: Chelsea (A) – Carabao Cup semi-final first leg, kick-off 8pm.
Saturday January 17: Nottingham Forest (A) – Premier League, kick-off 5.30pm
Tuesday January 20: Inter Milan (A) – Champions League, kick-off 8pm
Sunday January 25: Man Utd (H) – Premier League, kick-off 4.30pm.
Wednesday January 28: Kairat (H) – Champions League, kick-off 8pm.
Saturday January 31: Leeds (A) – Premier League, kick-off 3pm
Mikel Arteta has what he asked for at the end of last summer, a strong and very deep squad. Some say it’s the strongest in the Premier League this season which I find hard to disagree with.
January is certainly busy but it should be pretty exciting too..
Short one today, I’m still in holiday mode. Lol
Catch up in the comments…
Good morning Rico, Arteta seems reluctant to rotate players except when he is forced to by circumstances. If he looks back over the season, so far, I think he will find that very few of his stand-ins were anything less than impressive.
Lovely morning up here in Norfolk. Clear blue skies brilliant sunshine but very cold -4 degrees with snow and sleet showers forecast for this afternoon.
Morning Cicero. It’s odd isn’t it because he pretty much demanded a big squad pre summer and yet he’s reluctant to use it unless forced as you say. I just hope he/we don’t get to the end of the season regret.
Good Morning Rico and Gunners
Lovely roundup Rico. Thanks for the post
Rotation is very important and I hate it when any coach rotates simply because he is forced to. Granted, there are some players one cannot do without, BIG Gabi springs to mind. However we had to go without him for quite some games and it showed. We needed Hincapie and even Calafiori. So why not rotate earlier? Even subbing him with 20 mins left. Imagine, you are 3 or 4 goals up and 20 mins left. Personally I would have subbed him at least every few games. Then the next game I would have subbed Saliba. With hindsight, I am happy when Calafiori gets a yellow….Arteta is forced to sub him so he won’t get a red.
Just found out this bit of stat…….
Gyokeres has the best conversion rate (goals from amount of shots) among the present strikers.
Gyokeres Played 22 – goals 7 – CR 24.5%
Kai Havert Played 88 – goals 29 – CR 19.8%
Gabriel Jesus Played 101 – goals 26 – CR 10.2%
Gyokeres is currently averaging a goal for every few shots on target, showing a clinical edge that requires fewer chances to find the net than the other players.
Morning Devil, thanks.
As important as Gabriel, Saliba etc are, their understudies are excellent backups in my opinion. I think it’s all about against who we rotate. Calafiori is an excellent centre back, Hincapie is a very good left back. The list goes on I think, including when it comes to the backup options for Saka.
But neither Havertz or Jesus have played much this season so the stats don’t tell the truth.
Afternoon Rico/everyone
lack of rotation is baffling,it’s definitely cost us in the past,and with the squad as strong it is,even more so. It’s not like even a couple of years ago where we there was a huge drop off outside of the first choice 12/13.
The problem is if our reserve players get so few minutes,when they are called on,they won’t perform.The whole thing becomes a viscous circle.
Plenty of tough looking games coming up,chances to rest first choice players too.
Good result for us last night,Sunderland have been amazing really.
Bournemouth next for us,then hope that Chelsea get a new manager/caretaker bounce.
Hopefully Limey, more of a dead cat bounce as we play them away in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg January 14th and again on February 3rd for the return leg.