Morning all.
It’s a good job Newcastle weren’t in desperate need of three points because boy they were dreadful. I honestly thought they’d put up more of a fight than they did. Mat Ryan had an easy time of things really but the odd time he was called into action, he didn’t disappoint. He looked assured on crosses and unlike Leno, seemed to prefer getting two hands on the ball rather than punching it clear. If I had my way, he’d start on Thursday but that’s highly unlikely. Also, it’s worth remembering that Leno spared us from a pasting in the first leg.
Mikel Arteta certainly made a few changes but I felt disappointed over the subs bench as there was no sign of Balogun, Nelson or Azeez.
As said, that really was a stroll for Arsenal and the 2-0 scoreline doesn’t truly reflect the game. It could easily have been 5 or 6 nil and Steve Bruce would have had no reason to complain. Other than about his teams dreadful performance.
The two goals were good. Elneny with the first, his first in the League this season and the second came after Martinelli played a lovely ball across the box for Aubameyang to score. There was a bit of a scare for Martinelli towards the end when Schar made a hefty challenge on him but thankfully he got to his feet and seemed ok soon after a while. Schar however was sent off by Mike Dean. I thought Xhaka might suffer the same fate earlier in the game but Dean was clearly in a forgiving mood as far as Arsenal go. Luiz didn’t make it through 90 minutes on his return after suffering what appeared to be a hamstring injury. Depending on the extent of his injury, he might just have played his last game for Arsenal.
Al in all, a good afternoon for Mikel Arteta and his players. Three straight forward points won.
The biggest sports story of the day though came from Manchester as Utd’s fixture against Liverpool had to be postponed because of protests against the Glazer family. The Utd fans want them out, just as Arsenal and Liverpool fans, or certainly large groups of them, want their own American owners out of their clubs. Gary Neville spoke passionately about his old club, Liverpool and Arsenal FC too.
This is a consequence of the Manchester United owners’ actions two weeks ago. There is a general distrust and dislike of the owners, but they weren’t protesting two or three weeks ago. The Glazer family are struggling to meet the financial requirements at this club and the fans are saying that their time is up.
Arsenal fans weren’t protesting against the Kroenke family two weeks ago either but as soon as it was confirmed Arsenal had joined the Super League, that was it. What Neville went on to say about Utd under the Glazers could be applied to the Kroenke family and Arsenal too, as both clubs were competitive and winning trophies before the Americans set foot inside both clubs.
A more ambitious owner wouldn’t have allowed Arsenal to drift under Arsene Wenger for as long as it did and it’s highly unlikely an ambitious owner would have appointed a novice to learn his trade at our club. A more ambitious owner, as proved by the City and Chelsea owners, probably would have thought joining a Super League was a good idea but then the City and Chelsea owners would in all likelihood, reinvest the vast money it offered into the team. Even so, football fans, in my opinion, want their club to play in the Premier League and not some stupid League where winning or losing matters not.
I’m pleased the Utd fans made their feelings clear and I strongly suspect the Arsenal fans will follow suit on Thursday before the Villarreal fixture, hopefully without violence involved. The Kroenke family need to realise that Arsenal Football Club is not a toy for them to play with. It’s a football club steeped in history, a football club which can be successful with the right tools in place and the right investment.
This week is about one thing only for Mikel Arteta and his players and that’s getting the right result on Thursday against Villarreal. Arsenal need to be in the Europa Cup Final. Mikel Arteta has the players, he’s just got to get the right performance out of them.
See you in the comments.
Peaceful protest is an impossibility , in every walk from BLM , extinction rebellion , Kill the Bill , to kick American owners out of English football as soon as a peacefully inteneded protest is organised , rent a crowd or another disparate group attach themselves and it gets out of control .
Our media who lauded the millions bought in by Roman at Chelsea following the breakaway to the premier league are now looking to face the other way withouit accepting their culpability.
It’s all well and good for Sky through Neville and Carragher to give their anti American owner opinions whilst blissfully ignoring that without their money they would not be here.
Politics over .
Yesterday was a walk in the park , next up is West Brom who will be without Maitland – Niles and we need to aim for 3 more points .
In between is the big one , there is no point in going out with the tried and tested caution . We have to win and win well and book a trip to the final.
Hi Rico and all They only way I can see Kroenke sell Arsenal would be for an offer well above what we are worth or no one buys a membership until he sells and at the moment I can not see that happening,
The Super League seems to have tipped ‘everyone’ over the edge as far as greed goes. Utd seem to be suffering the most as the club is in hefty debt and according to Neville, their stadium is on the point of falling down. Slight exaggeration by me. Lol
Agree re Thursday, just go out there and play football.
Hi Geoff, The Mail had an article yesterday which suggest the Kroenke family would sell for £1.7b. True or not I don’t know.
Morning Rico,
Can’t be bothered to talk about Newcastle game only to say I think it’s pathetic that they’ve obviously got an agreement that Willock is not allowed to play against Arsenal. Any player would love the chance to shine and show their manager what they are missing.
We need these American so called franchises out of the English game for good. Look at how competitive out league is although I will add that we still need to have a league which is all about developing talent, nurturing the youngsters, and managing with intelligence, expertise, and courage. I do think we need a way to level the playing field so that the richest clubs aren’t necessarily always the winners the obvious recent exception has been Leicester. But with West Ham up there Leeds and Aston Villa splitting the big clubs up it’s been a good season. However, the past few years has seen two runaway teams Man City and Liverpool I would suggest Liverpool spending significantly less than Man City reached an unbelievable peak last season but this season the loss of their talisman and key defence players robbed the team mentally as well as physically. There uncertainty without keys players upset the balance. Man City has without doubt spent the most money and have a bulging trophy cabinet to show for it. We need to level the playing field somehow to make it fair and competitive for the less well off clubs and ultimately allowing football to be the winner. And we need legislation to prevent owners pillaging and offloading vast debts onto football clubs to satisfy their own greed.
That’s a great Bank Holiday post Rico, well done, a 9/10 for that one… 😉
It’s gone very quiet in the Spotify camp and maybe that’s a positive thing as it could mean that negotiations are afoot?
Bank Holiday equals massive road works – wish me luck…
Morning Mig,
It’s been a written rule for years re the loans. I don’t agree with it either but as Geoff pointed out, on loan players could be tempted to help their parent club when the sides meet.
I’d love the PL to go back in time to when clubs were owned by British people but that’ll never happen. FFP was put in place to stop over spending but all the time the same clubs finish in the top four, the same clubs will be permitted to spend more. Vicious circle really.
I’m disappointed Kev. 😂
Perhaps Mr Ek listened to AW, don’t talk, do.
Good luck 🚕
Good morning all, those protesting at Old Toilet weren’t the supporters, they were just the Northern hoi polloi. The real fans were cosily ensconced in their Hampstead apartments or their mock Georgian, stock broker residences in the home counties.
Ha ha Cicero
No Geoff, I thought it was Osbourne and still think he’s corrupt.
You should consider yourself lucky Kev. In our village on the A140, we have roadworks with single line working and traffic lights due to “urgent” gas works which were do take six weeks. They started in early October and are still not complete seven months later. On Friday, returning home from Norwich, we were held up in a quarter mile queue of holiday traffic heading for the coast.
I’d settle for a 1-0 win on Thursday..not very likely though.
Rico did you guess who the person was in the tv show you were watching.
Guess work doesn’t come into it Geoff. Concentration, deductive powers, intuition, and an intimate knowledge of police procedures…. followed by a coin toss decides the question 😉
Think I drove through them at Hevingham the other day. I am sure I broke the law getting out of the village back on to the A140. Traffic was a nightmare took about 3/4 hr to do a 10 minute journey. but there you go.
Your quite right about the hoi- poloi , just as tv cameras like to zero in on union flag wearing , lager can carrying youths,the serious protesters will not be seen and football yet again gets tarnished with the hooligan brush.
There is a serious conversation to be had here but the argument needs to be done in a logical way . These guys are not going because they see a few people setting off flares on the pitch and neither will they sell out unless they get their pound of flesh.
Protests like last night , the ones at Chelsea and Arsenal are too easy to ignore and public sympathy soon disappears as soon as a photo of a copper with blood on his face appears.
Kroenke , Glazer , Henry and the other Americans at Palace and Fulham together with the Chinese and other nationalities need to be bought together and read the facts of life .
They bought into a system that works it started over 130 years ago and it is not going to change to suit them . If they wish to continue fine but if they are going to agitate to change things then don’t hit the door frame on the way out.
I’m not convinced Potter, I think if life is made too uncomfortable for them, they’ll sell up.
Rico, LoD, you’ll just have to wait for series 7 or even series 8! Osbourne will be the final ‘bad egg’ to be revealed. Bent as a nine Bob note!
How long did the ‘Wire’ last for? 8 series I think and like LoD every episode was unmissable, especially if you read the live on screen script to make head or tail of what they were saying to each other☹️
Good win yesterday but we were only playing a goodish championship side, despite their recent run of form. And just a comment about the starting eleven. I wasn’t much impressed by Odergard’s contribution, bar one particular pass! As folk were saying yesterday I can’t see him staying, mostly because he’ll be beyond the club’s spending budget.
Villarreal are a tad better than the toon. As above a 1-0 home win will be fine in fact providing we don’t concede will be brilliant. Are Adams and Bould etc available?
I reckon you’re right Wavy, still, it’ll be worth waiting for I hope, unlike last night’s disappointing final episode.
Ditto re Thursday, getting through matters, less so the way we do it.
No matter who Arteta picks for Villarreal match we have to be switched on from the start and put pressure on them
Villareal showed they have a good defensive style against our passing tactics. Where they went wrong was to panic when Pepe and Saka ran into the box with the ball at their feet. Without that VAR hand ball decision against Pepe, we would have had two penalties.
I would like to see more dribbling both inside and outside the box, the more we do it the more the chances we will be awarded freekicks in dangerous areas. I’m not advocating diving, just forcing the defenders to risk committing fouls.
Cicero, I suggested the very same thing last Thursday. Barca beat them by route one and then causing their defence to panic. All the time we tippy tappy pass around, Villarreal will deal with us with ease.
I wonder if the Arsenal fans turn up before the Villarreal match and hold up signs saying we support the players would it give them a lift and help there confidents to beat Villarreal
Geoff, the protest at Old Toilet was organised by an official fan club in conjunction with the club, the police and Trafford Borough Council. It was intended to be a peaceful demonstration against the club’s American owners, the Glazier family. It was to be held in a carpark a short distance from the ground which is not surrounded by small streets of houses. It taken over by rent-a-mob.
The Emirates is in a largely residential area with side streets of houses, shops, pubs and restaurants. There is not sufficient space near the ground to hold a protest safely. There would also be no way to prevent it being taken over by mobs of trouble makers just as in Manchester.
I would be in favour of a peaceful protest, but I don’t believe pictures of drunks hurling bottles, cans and barriers at the police would do anything towards getting KSE to sell the club.
Good Evening everyone
I have just read that Donnarumma is finding it difficult to agree with Juventus. He is a free agent in the summer.
Shouldn’t we contact him….top class keeper, still only 22. And only his wages and signing on fee.
Then sell Leno to cover Donnarumma’s wages
Is he good then Devil?
He is the top Italian Keeper. Made his debut for Milan in the Serie A aged 16 years. Stands 6ft 5′ he already has 25 caps for the NAtional team.
But is he any good? Leno once played for Germany. Lol
If he is having trouble agreeing terms with Juve then is he likely to be in our scope . Maybe we should hope he gets there and make a move for Woyjech up
Cicero Just trying to think of a way to show the players that we support them.
Good morning all.
Writing in this morning’s Telegraph, Thierry Henry says that Daniel Ek is set to make a formal offer to buy Arsenal Football Club from KSE before the end of the week.
Ek and the three Invincibles have met with the AST to explain their plans to bring back the “Arsenal DNA” to the club.
Morning all.
New post up now.
Henry told Sky Sports the same Cicero.
https://highbury-house.com/2021/05/04/henry-offers-hope-fa-bring-in-new-rules/
Morning All, it’s a bit quiet on here, Bank Holiday hangover perhaps?
KSE are sure to knock-back the first offer but as Arteta says ‘It’s a process’…
I wonder if a change of ownership would lead to a change of management, I reckon that Freddie would return to run the U21’s/U23’s?
DG if the Juventus goalkeeper is out of contract and if he’s a top talent as you suggest I reckon he’ll have bigger clubs than Arsenal sniffing around him.
I’m a bit underwhelmed by most of the transfer rumours I’ve been seeing for the last few months, I can’t help asking myself if we don’t have a player who is equal to player X or player Y in the Academy already?
I mean signing Willian just basically ended the Arsenal career of Reiss Nelson and obstructed Nicholas Pepe’s development so that was a great forward thinking transfer. Do we need anymore dead hand transfers like that?
I mean we have William Saliba, why do we need to sign another centre half ffs and who knows if one of our younger centre backs out on loan can’t do a job anyway?
Focus on those areas where it’s clear we lack numbers and quality, left back, centre midfield, goalkeeper, right back.