Morning all.
The League Cup semi-final last night was good for us. Both Chelsea and Totts endured a long physical 120 minutes of football before the result was decided on penalties. Hopefully it’ll have an impact on both sets of players legs over the next week or two. The the Toots, they’ll have the double blow as a domestic cup trophy opportunity passes them by. I’d laugh but we too have a very tough fixture tonight against Utd and I don’t want to tempt fate.
The Utd squad travelled to London yesterday without David de Gea which is great for us considering his form of late. Whilst folk having been raving about their sudden resurgence, perhaps things might not have been so rosy for them had the Spaniard keeper not been playing so well. Certainly in their fixture against the Toots when he pulled off eleven saves in the first half alone. Also, as much as seven wins on the trot is good for their new manager, those victories have been against clubs who Utd should be beating, so I’d say a bit of perspective wouldn’t go amiss.
Not that I’m trying to suggest our challenge tonight won’t be a difficult one but if we can do to Utd what we did to Chelsea and Toots at The Emirates then it should be a good contest. Certainly not the one sided Utd affair the media darlings are expecting. Oddly enough, against the so called big teams we appear to be more focused and our football has been so much better. There’s something in that I reckon, something which needs resolving.
Also missing is Marcos Rojo, Chris Smalling and Marouane Fellaini. Alex Sanchez however, will definitely make an appearance according to the Utd manager. It’s widely reported he’ll make a few unforced changes too for this fixture as top four remains the club’s priority. Luke Shaw and Marcus Rashford are slight doubts too. Don’t get me started on Rashford!
The Arsenal squad have enjoyed a week of down time, we’ll, no midweek fixture and as we already know, on Monday they all went for a day out together. A team building day I think the official title is.
“I like a lot to do something different sometimes, in my career at all the teams. On Monday we prepared for this day. I think it was a good moment to do an activity together, away from here and also paintball is good for us to be together and do something different. We enjoyed it and it’s also an activity where we can feel together and change some things in our work every day.
Arsenal.com
“Yes, yes, yes [the players shot me] – three times! But I think it’s good. I enjoyed it and it’s good to do something different for work and it’s good also for our spirit.”
I think doing things like this is important, time away from the training ground, a bit of a laugh and a day when the likes of Lacazette can get his own back on Emery for substituting him so often. I bet the Frenchman was one of those who shot his manager, perhaps he was behind all three. Seriously though, days like these every now and again can do the players the world of good. Certainly more fun than my ‘team building days’ were at work.
Emery didn’t give much away regarding his team selection for tonight’s match although he did mention Dinos Mavropanos and how he hopes to play him now he’s back from injury. Funny enough it was against tonight’s opposition he made his debut. The happiest day of his life according to the big Greek defender:
“I can remember the entire game, in fact, even the moments before we arrived there. For me, it was probably the happiest day I’ve had so far in my life. We conceded a goal in injury time and we were very unlucky in that moment but I think we had a good game as a team. Me individually? I think I played well.
“I’m looking forward to coming back on to the pitch [now]. I believe it will be a fresh start, but I will come back stronger and give my best efforts to join the starting XI.
Arsenal.com
Just the three missing from our squad now but even so, they are all a big miss in my opinion. Petr Cech is likely to return in goal for his cup duty and with Martinez now at Reading, either Lliev or Leno will be on the bench. As for the rest of the team, who knows. Will Unai Emery go for it with his strongest team, or be tempted to give his key players a day off?
Having already had a week of rest, fun and frolics, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see our strongest eleven out there, or something very close to it. It’s about time someone put that baby faced Norwegian in his place.
I’d love it to be Arsenal and Unai Emery.
Have a good Friday guys…
Morning Rico. Unfortunately there was no extra time last night. 😉 just Eric Dier committing a series of fouls really.
Morning all.
We are a damn good chance if we show up.
Spurs-they never fail to give us reason to laugh 🙂
Good morning Rico, Adam, Scott. I guess we have grown used to doubting the ability of Arsenal teams to beat Man U, but tonight offers us yet another chance to do just that.
Last night’s game showed us the way, strongest possible team and don’t take any s**t from them.
Pawson is not a bad ref, but he is another northener.
Thierry Henry has been suspended by Monaco and a sacking is expected within days.
Afternoon everyone. I can’t see why we shouldn’t be able to beat them. If we field af full strenght team, and hit the ground running from the beginning, it could be a fun night. Let Kolasinac eat Alexis alive I say.
I was quite ambivalent about the result yesterday evening, Tottenham losing on penalties was great, I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I would have been quite happy to see them play in the final as Man City would have destroyed them, but all’s well etc…
For me it has to be the strongest team tonight, Man Utd will pick their best XI make no mistake, we cannot afford to lose at home in successive cup ties. The FACup represents our best chance of a trophy this season and winning it would lessen any disappointment of another season in the UEFA Cup.
6 more days to go, the clock is running until the 31st, isn’t it a 10pm cut off..?
This is just like the old days under dear old Arsene, hanging on until some last minute miracle, but whoever we sign, if in fact we do, isn’t going to turn this squad into the Invincibles, we’ve got a long long long way to go before this squad is consistently competitive…
Afternoon guys.
Silly me Adam, no extra time indeed. Shame. Lol
Kev, I’m quite disappointed in our senior management. I thought they would have everything in order to get the transfer business done in double quick time. Perhaps the Mislintat situation stymied them, but they have little else to do, so that shouldn’t have been a problem.
I don’t think I like this new management set up. They say the camel is a horse designed by a committee. I hope we’ve not been lumbered with a load of turkeys. 😉
Rico. 😃I wondered if your holiday villa had a TV.
iPad Adam 😂
Spot on rico, 2 league titles with Nowegian giants Molde & relegation with Cardiff, if Emery plays his cards right tonite I can see him putting Ole in his place…..C’mon Arsenal !
Big fuss over nothing Micko, honeymoon period I reckon. Give him the job I say and then see what happens… lol
I’m sure all the City fans will second that rico, looking forward to watching it on the box later, stocked up on the valium so nothings gonna ruin my nite lol.
Ha ha Micko..
Tonights Team
Cech, Niles, Sokratis, Kossy, Kola
Torreira, Xhaka, Iwobi, Ramsey, Auba, Laca.
Subs Leno, Mustafi, Monreal, Lichsteiner Elneny, Guendozi, Ozil
COYG
What rotten fortune for Sokratis.
It’s gone to rats….
Very frustrating
Our final ball let’s us down somewhat.
emery and Arsenal.. being schooled.
If that’s long term injuries to Sokratis and kos I dare say our season is over….
We just don’t any luck with injuries..
Too much pussyfooting in and around the box.
The only positive tonight is that’s it’s not a draw haha…
last thing we need is a replay.
Utd terrific at countering, Arsenal unfortunately injuries have played their part tonight but tbh we’ve been well and truly suckered punched.
back to the drawing board yet again.
This performance could be any arsenal team for the past decade. Tikitaka shite.
Yes we are very unlucky with injuries, it’s getting a bit absurd now.
Congratulations to Ozil and Emery.
If Ozil came in to organize the midfield, the option to pass Xhaxa for defense was a mistake. It cleared the midfield and MU took advantage of this error to make the substitutions that he intended.
On the other hand, he is out of rhythm and “stole” the game’s fluidity.
Just have to concentrate on the league then.
Nothing to say until I have stopped seething
Can we please get somebody to teach our so called defenders how to defend. Having two slow centre backs on the hallway line when we lose possession is just suicidal.
Xhaka was, for once, having a good game in midfield so why did Emery move him back when Koscielny went off instead of replacing him with Monreal?
There is so much wrong at Arsenal, from the owner down to the players, that I can’t see any hope of a return to the top four in the next two to three seasons at least.
‘night all.
Didn’t watch the game, Burn’s Night prevailed…..there’s a bit of Scott’s inthere several generations ago, no excuse I know, but social peesuuers prevail! Given the result I shan’t bother watching but the result comes as no surprise. The injuries were important but not crucial and may even have had a small influence on the result. The truth is that we are a very long way from being seriously competitive, a very long way.
Is Unie the answer? On recent results I can absolutely say he is not. I’ll give him one full season then I’ll see. But he’s not shaping up too well, just now. 1-3 loss to the manure is not far short of shite….despite the set backs.
Woe is me………..again!
Well that was a thoroughly depressing evening, as once again Arsenal over indulged in the tiki taka ‘why take one touch when I can take three or four and lose possession’ style so beloved of Arsene Wenger and despite the seven months of Unai Emery we can again see the fingerprints of Wenger, imbedded in the likes of Ramsey and Co that are still so prevalent in this team a team built to fail…
But I’m not letting Emery off by just blaming Wenger because if Ole Gunnar Solskjaer can sort out a moribund Man United in just a few weeks why on earth can’t Emery at least make, after some 25 weeks, a modicum of improvement to our shambolic defence?
It’s simply not good enough!
And yes, I know we have a rag tag group of defenders and after Sokratis went off we’d lost three of our first choice back four (Holding, Bellerin and Sokratis), but the defending last evening was like watching some off the wall comedy from a Stan Freiburg recording.
For me, only Alexander Lacazette came out of that game with anything like the form you should expect from an Arsenal player. The rest varied from average to abject.
Calling for the head of Unai Emery, as some apparently have done on platforms like Twitter, is patently a dumb thing to do, he has a job of enormous complexity to achieve and it’s quite possible that he hasn’t the capabilities to do it.
But it isn’t his fault, the cancer at the core of our club has been gnawing away at it for a few years now under the guidance of a CEO who jumped ship as soon as a more lucrative offer afforded itself to him and an owner who seems totally disengaged with our football club in any shape or form save the share price and any money he can skim off to finance the L.A. Rams.
For me, our season is over. There is not a cat in hells chance of this squad of players having what is needed to finish in the top four.
As for the Europa League, well there’s a slight chance given Emery’s pedigree in it I suppose and with it a backdoor into the CL, but given this squads propensity to shoot itself in the foot I wouldn’t put a bet on it even if Adam gave me the cash.
As far as the January Window is concerned, any last minute business will now have the whiff of panic about it.
More backs injured.
Sensational stuff lol
Poor Kozzer-just finding his best and bang.
Purely an accidental collision but still, how much bad luck can we possibly have-I’m probably tempting fate by even asking the question!
Morning all.
Monaco have confirmed the sacking of Thierry Henry after just twenty games.
all i can say is stay away from the emirates, we’ve no money to invest an owner who won’t help and doesn’t care so why give him your money.
this season is fucked imo, let’s ride it out with a half empty stadium.
Sponsorships etc don’t like that so maybe just maybe it could make that prick take notice.
what else can the working man do?
Morning Rico, Kel and all. As Arsenal fans we’re up and down like emotional yo-yo’s on a weekly basis it seems. Last night ended as a nightmare. Two more injuries at just about the most inoportune times did for us. I am struggling to think of another club that has anything similar. This season started with Kyle Walker breaking AMN’s leg and has carried on getting worse. Overall we were just too over-elaborate and MU were direct. Big ball over the top and we were done for – again.
Personally, I would love to see the supporters make their feelings known in a more robust way but I can’t be bothered to think about it in any detail at the moment. But, unless the club are careful, I can see them slipping down the table over the next few seasons.
Morning Adam and all.
Little has changed with this Arsenal team really. One day good, the next it’s back to schoolboy errors and slow slow play going forward. I thought it was funny how the pundits were going ga ga over Ramsey, who if wasn’t leaving for free, would be saying wa wasteful..
New post up now
Wenger was a good manager over time , his running of the club was excellent but his tactics were becoming stale and easily overcome by those that wanted more to stifle than to expand and express themselves . He had noble ideals about the way the game should be played but unfortunately they were not shared by others.
We needed to change and it was always going to be an interesting period in the way we started the new regime.
The problems within the club appear to be running much deeper than just changing the manager. Many of us whilst not wanting a complete take over by Usmanov appreciated that his shareholding held a handbrake on any motives that KSE may have had. Sadly this has now gone and we seem to have gone from a thriving financial institution , “”remarks from Gazidis “” to a club on our uppers waiting for a new deal to come through to raise enough finance to possibly fund two or more likely one player.
The previous regime left us with a squad of players that on the open market will not raise any cash . So the Bale , Coutinho scenario is not happening for us unless we unearth another Anelka from Hale End. ( I know we did not get him from there ). our work with contracts and wages had sadly reduced our options.
The cries to sack the manager are way off beam though, so far he has not had much of a chance and it looks like he will have a long job on his hands to rebuild . Changing him will only get us more of the same.
Since I became involved with The Arsenal during Tom Whittaker’s time we have always gone through peaks and troughs . His last trophy was in 1953 , and joining in 1956 I waited 14 years before Bertie Mee led us in Europe to the Inter Cities . We then went a further 9 before the Sunderland winner at Wembley ( that always seems forgotten when the media re-run cup matches between us and United )then a further 9 between Neill and Graham . Following him we , after a few interims , appointed Wenger and with a few of Grahams old players we won the league after 3 years. We were consistently successful for a long period of time before his departure.
I suspect that we are due a further period in the doldrums but once we have revitalised the squad we will rise again albiet I may well be in the latter end of my 70’s before we do.