Morning all.
It’s official, Arsenal will be top of the League on Christmas Day. We knew that before the match against Wolves kicked off though because Brentford had beaten Man City 2-1 at The Etihad. Just to make sure though, Mikel Arteta’s men beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-0 in the Black Country.
- Was it a good game? A bit scrappy.
- Did Arsenal play really well? I’ve seen them play a lot better.
- Did Wolves cause us problems? Too right.
- Did a few refereeing decisions go in our favour? I think so.
- Did Arsenal win? Oh yes!
- Is there a bug within the camp? Yes.
Granit Xhaka had to leave the pitch because of illness and as Mikel Arteta said after the game, he wasn’t the only player feeling pretty rotten either. Yet still we got to the end of the game with another three big points from an away match. Another clean sheet for the defence and Aaron Ramsdale too.
I can’t be bothered to dissect the game but I thought Wolves were strong, physical and better than their current League position would suggest. Perhaps if they ventured forward a lot more instead of concentrating on packing the defence, they wouldn’t be, but what do I care. Never really been overly keen on them.
As for Arsenal, Gabriel Jesus scored but was ruled offside. Then he hit the post but that was as close as he came to breaking his goal drought. Martin odegaard had been on a bit of a barren run too but he put a end to that by scoring both of our goals.
Life is seldom perfect and football is no different. At The Emirates, Arsenal have played some of the best football seen in a long time but away from home, not always is getting a result all about playing fantastic football. Back in the days of Arsene Wenger, I can recall many occasions when a few of us on here craved for the team to be more pragmatic. To be patient, defend well and take our chances when/if they came. Or at least enough of them to win the game. That’s what we did yesterday in my opinion. Yes there were a few mistakes made but in the end, they didn’t matter. William Saliba’s awful attempt at a back pass didn’t matter because Gabriel was there to clear up.
Yesterday must have been a weird day for players, especially those who’re now heading off to play in the World Cup. No matter how hard they tried to put their respective countries out of their head, surely the fear of picking up an injury was in their minds. For Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey, this World Cup could be their last, for Ben White, Aaron Ramsdale, William Saliba, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli, it’s their first and I’m sure, all of them are desperate to be there. It’s easy for us to say Arsenal come first, and we’re right of course, but representing one’s own country is many a sportspersons dream come true.
Anyway, whatever was going on in the players minds, they did more than enough to secure three points and with it, open up a five point gap at the top of the table.
Enjoy the World Cup guys, I’ll be praying for every Arsenal player to come home fit, healthy and early next month.
See you next time…..
Morning Rico and all.
One thing about yesterday’s match, why start Xhaka when he had a stomach bug and risk making an early change that we may have needed late in the game if our players got tired or started picking up yellow cards.
Morning Geoff, all.
I’d imagine Xhaka said he felt ok to play, as others who have a slight bug did.
Morning folks , I know where I will be at Christmas “” Top of the league “” but will we stay there ?
I reckon that the next three games will be telling. We have West Ham ( never easy ) , Brighton ( bogey team ) then Newcastle ( form team won the last 5 ).
Come through that lot unscathed and I think that we can start believing and then comes the window of opportunity for big money to get splashed.
It ain’t over yet although we are handily placed.
Morning Potter. I don’t think we’ll stay there as I don’t think the depth is there but as long as we secure top four, I’m sure Arsenal fans will be pretty happy. Saying that, January transfer window could make a difference.
I hope we can still bring in a dedicated striker in January as we still have to play Man C twice.
That was the target at the outset , however we have probably over achieved and hope springs eternal as they say.
Good morning Rico and all.
Will we stay at the top? Not unless our principal striker starts hitting the back of the net. I’m hugely disappointed with Jesus, after his initial goal glut he has been less than prolific and has started to wander deeper when where we really need him is the oppositions penalty box.
The January window presents an opportunity to rectify the situation by bringing in a central striker who can dominate defences. The problem is, I can’t see Arteta dropping his old mate so early in his Arsenal career.
I have been saying that he’s playing too deep for a few weeks .
But to accommodate him deeper and bringing in a Toney type forward would badly affect the reintroduction of Smith Rowe and need a change of pattern of play .
This might however not be such a bad thing because in the games that we have struggled in both Martinelli and Saka have been targetted as the dangers and their effectiveness has been negated which is why Jesus has dropped to bring the ball through the middle.
We do need an alternative but in all likely hood that would be bringing a player to do the Nketiah 20 minute stint which would push him further down the order.
At the moment it seems that everyone is pulling for each other , it’s a balance that is going to be difficult to juggle.
Morning Rico. Yes, it wasn’t perfect but with the stomach bug in contention, we did what we had to. I’m pretty happy with Jesus myself. He’s not a conventional striker for sure and we could do with someone more prolific. Then again, Zinchenko isn’t a conventional left back like Tierney for instance but Arteta is making me question a lot of my long established views on positional play and I’m happy to try and understand his ideas.
I thought Odergaard was great yesterday incidentally. One piece of late ball-retention skill on the halfway line where he emerged after a nutmeg and a pirouette will live long in my mind.
Morning Cicero, Adam.
I think Jesus has been really good. His attitude is running through the team, a bit like when Alexis first arrived. I think he’s been really unlucky in front of goal.
I thought Jesus was playing further up field because it was what Arteta wanted
Good post Rico, yes the World Cup great, great bowling by Curran, always good to win in Oz.
Maybe the bug explains Arsenal not being at their sparkling best and that makes the win even more impressive, no whinging before the game we just did a great job of managing the game, our players even looked calm during those few moments of Wolves pressure. The story continues…..
Thanks Kev. After the disappointment yesterday, elation today for England. Fantastic all round.
Much as I dislike crash bang wallop cricket, as it was the final, I tried to watch it. However, I found it impossible, the number of replays, the constant use of superlatives for the most mundane bits of action and the cut-away shots of spectators, the benches and any other distractions the director could find broke up the flow of the action. Sky appear to be aiming their coverage at an audience with the attention span of a senile goldfish.
That said, congratulations to the England team.
I loved it. 😂
…and congratulations to George Russell for his first Formula One Grand Prix win.
Good night all.
New post up.