Morning all.
I’m not making excuses for the disappointing performance from Arsenal last night but there must have been a few nerves in the players. This group is still young and other than Gabriel Jesus, I don’t think any of our starting eleven have much experience in winning the fixtures which really matter. The game in Holland mattered, the game last night mattered even more and despite a few nervy moments, certainly late in the second half, the players did what they needed to do. Win. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how, especially when the officials think that ripping Kieran Tierney’s shirt off his back and grabbing handfuls of Eddie Nketiah’s shirt in the box is acceptable.
Will anyone remember our last two Europa League Cup performances if on May 31st 2023, Mikel Arteta, his players and thousands of Arsenal fans are inside the Puskás Aréna, Budapest, waiting for a referee to blow his whistle for the first time?
Mikel Arteta:
I expected it to be a tough match. I’ve watched them in the last few games – how they’ve changed since their new manager arrived, how they played against Bodo. You’ve seen it and it was really difficult to get any real momentum with the way that the game developed. We have to adapt to that. We had some big chances that we didn’t put away and that made the game more difficult in the last 15 or 20 minutes. We didn’t control certain situations and we had to dig in, which we did. We found a way to win and we’re top of the group.
1-0 it was in the end and that was enough to finish top of the group. What a goal it was too from the boot of Kieran Tierney.
No more Thursday/Sunday football for Arsenal until early in March 2023. All that’s left now is a trip to Chelsea on Sunday, a home League Cup fixture against Brighton and then Wolves away – then it’s the World Cup.
It looks like Takehiro Tomiyasu will miss the above fixtures after picking up an injury last night which is awful news for him first and foremost, and the team. He’s been playing so well this season and will be a huge miss. Hopefully his time on the injury list is short. Kieran Tierney should be able to cope with two Premier League fixtures and thankfully, Oleksandr Zinchenko is very close to returning too.
I was a bit disappointed with Sambi Lokonga again last night, Fabio Vieira too as neither have really taken the opportunity the competition offers to give Mikel Arteta a selection headache. With Vieira it’s kind of understandable that he’s in and out of games because it’s his first season. We only have to look back in time to see how a few players struggled in their first season before taking the league by storm in the next. Robert Pires is the player who sticks in my mind. He had a really tough first year in England but look how he turned out. Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry didn’t find things easy to begin with but hey, they turned out ok. There’s been enough magical moments in Vieira’s short Arsenal career to suggest that once he finds his feet, he’ll be ok too. Not sure about Lokonga though. He talks the talk but on nights like last, he really should be walking the walk too. Would I be surprised to see him go out on loan in January? No, not at all.
Just recently, Mikel Arteta has reported to have said the following:
We know the January window, how special it is, the opportunities that you have, the short window that you have. And obviously with the position that we are in right now as well, it demands as well another level of player — and that player has to be available. We will look at everything and let’s see what we can do.
Didn’t he say that this time last year? Seriously though, what he’s saying makes sense. There’s little point in signing players in January unless they’re ready to walk into the first team and make a difference. Any signing surely has to be as good as our best rather than similar to the rest. Harsh as it sounds but there’s little point in signing a midfielder if he’s no better than Lokonga, he has to be as good as Thomas Partey, if not better. There would be little point in signing a striker in the same mould of Gabriel Jesus or Eddie Nketiah because what we need is strength and a bit of height to give Mikel Arteta an alternative option up front. If Mikel Arteta wants a winger, he surely has to be as good as Gabriel Martinelli?
I know January seems a long way off but for football clubs, transfer plans probably never stop being discussed. Already, Mikel Arteta is likely to know which of his players have a future at the club beyond the summer and who might be allowed to leave as soon as January. Arsenal are in a really good place right now, in fact the best the club has been for many a year but we can’t sit on it and think job done as we’re not even halfway through the season. A player or two in January, just after the domestic season kicks off again, could make a big difference as we chase down a Champions League spot.
See you in the comments.
Morning Rico. Yes, a disappointing performance last night, as have most in the Europa so far. I thought Vieira was a bit better than you did. He could have and probably should have scored at least one goal and I thought he was more involved in the action too.
The stand-out for me was the really appalling standard of the refereeing. The amount of snide fouls that bloke with the curley hair committed and the accuracy with which Arsenal players had their feet and ankles crushed beneath boots was amazing. I don’t remember a single sign that the bumbling ref had even noticed. Cast-iron penalty for the again-disappointing Eddie for ridiculously obvious shirt pulling, Tierney’s shirt ripped from him etc. The list goes on and yet the screams of agony that we could all hear as the Zurich players hit the deck, their faces contorted in agony trying to con the ref that that had received a boot to the head was pathetic. In fact I thought that Zurich were a truly awful team of actors, screamers and snide gits generally. But that ref is the sort of bloke who gets players injured. He was truly shocking.
As were we.
Morning Rico and all.
I didn’t get to see the match last night, but a crappy win is still a win, and I will take that over a lose any day.
I was all for getting Lokonga but as I said last week, I may have got that one wrong, he keeps talking about lack of game time yet when he is given it, he doesn’t take full advantage of it. So maybe We need to either sell him or loan him out for a season or 2 like we did Saliba.
Morning Adam, it’s funny really though because I thought Eddie was decent, he could have scored too. I’m just glad we got the win.
Totally agree re the referee, he was appalling and as for VAR, was it even in operation?
Morning Geoff, in hindsight, Lokonga would have benefited from a loan as soon as we signed him.
I agree players are needed and they don’t have to be top notch. As long as they are of good quality and can do a good job, I would be happy. We have to remember the end of last season when were struggling to be put out and 11, don’t want to be in that situation again. We clearly need another striker who is a good finisher and someone who cab play the Thomas Party role.
It’s not nice to be pointing fingers at players but for me the jury is out on Lokonga and Vieira . Occasional flashes of competence doesn’t really cut it especially when they get their big chance and then don’t take it.
Last night from what I could see through what looked like a London smog both players seemed to give the ball away on a regular basis and our midfield was pretty non existent . Eddie was also ineffective but can at least hide behind being physically assaulted throughout and as said above how Tierney’s shirt miraculously tore itself is a trick that Magneto would be proud of.
Still we won but did not give any hope that we have really learned how to manage a match and see out a win by keeping possession and freezing the opposition out .
I can only conclude that currently we have 15 or so players that can take anyone on but once we bring in fringe players our standard drops .
More hard work for Edu and Arteta to do and hopefully because Josh was in town last night he will have noticed too.
Morning Rico, looks like Tomiyasu is out for the duration, might be touch and go for him and the World Cup, he does seem a bit injury prone, luckily Tierney has hit his straps and Zinchenko is back. That’s what I like about Ben White, his durability.
I don’t think that with so much up for grabs that Edu will let the January window slip by without a couple of additions.
I feel the same Potter re criticism towards players considering how the season has gone so far. I agree re the first 14/15 players, but after that, the gap is quite big.
Morning Kev, I don’t think so either. To be fair to the Kroenke’s, they haven’t not backed Arteta so far.
Potter I agree that it’s harsh to point the finger at one player, but when he goes to the media and then doesn’t walk the walk, it’s hard to back them.
Personally I hope we loan Logonga out for a season or two as I still feel he could come good.
As for Jesus I recon he is putting to much pressure on him self and when he scores next the pressure will be off and more goals will come.
I had my say on the Zurich game earlier this morning.
In that comment I referenced the lack of goals from Jesus. Now I hate statistics, but here are a couple relating to that lack of goals.
Jesus made 236 appearances in all competitions for City scoring 95 goals, that’s an average of just 0.4 goals per game. He made 99 Premiership appearances (including 60 as a sub) and scored 58 goals, that is an average of 0.5 goals per game.
For Arsenal he has made 12 Premiership appearances and scored five goals, that is 0.4 goals per game. If he played in every Premiership game this season, 38 games at his average he would score just 15.2 goals.
From those figures the best we can expect him to score by the end of the season is just another 10.2 goals.
Make of that what you will. 😒
Cicero if I understand your stats correctly, Jesus would be better off starting every match on the bench.
Echoing the comments above. The game was a hard watch, but job done.
The constant fouling by Zurich was a tactic that the ref let them get away with. Ankles were kicked regularly that should have been yellows. How the right back didn’t get a card is beyond me.
@Cicero you’ve been at the spreadsheets?
In my book a 1 goal per 2 game striker is very good. There are very few that go beyond that level.
If Jesus hits that level it will be a successful season for him.
Unless that player is Haaland Pete. Lol
Penalty kicks come into other strikers stats too, Jesus doesn’t take ours..
Rico, what’s the betting he takes the next one we are awarded?
I don’t think there has been a goal a game striker in the history of the top leagues.
Puskas was the closest I’m aware of, Dixie Dean and Greavesy were the best in this country. Ronaldo and Messi the most recent examples.
Ted Drake has the best ratio for Arsenal. Ian Wright was a 1 in 2 striker, Henry less. Alan Smith 1 in 3.
Let’s see with Haaland. He’s full of confidence at the moment and he’s a new quantity in the premier league. Will defenders start to figure him out?
I think Saka will continue to take them Cicero. If we ever get one that is.
I think Haaland will just get better but he’s a bit of a freak of nature I reckon. There’s so much more to Jesus though other than just his goals.
This is true but he is dropping too deep in my opinion. If he is going to contribute the goals that Cicero mooted then we still need a main man to get around 20 plus in a league system especially with the chances we create. Oh for a Wrighty in his prime.
Happy Guy Fawlkes day.
It would be a blessing if dear old Guy Fawkes could blow the present bunch of self-interested, back-stabbing, sleazy, lying charlatans to kingdom come.
What about the government ?
Impossible to differentiate between our so called government and all of the opposition parties.
Irrespective from our ambitions, the January transfer window is seldom an opportunity for marquee signings. There are major exceptions to the rule though, but I’m almost 100% sure that PSV would not part ways with Gapko mid-season; same with Rice and West Ham.
That doesn’t prohibit us from doing business, but we will be limited to the type of players that are ‘prone’ to switch clubs in the winter, for example
– players running down their contract (Tielemans, Jorginho, Lemar, Asensio, Zaha, Ndicka, Trossard, Depay, Kante)
– players from leagues not operating in the August to June mode (Danilo, Endrick, Berg, Solbakken, etc.)
– talisman players like Vlahovic, that dominate the financials of their club, independent from the time of the sales (Mudryk, F. Torres, Gouiri)
It’s still an impressive list, but the only probable addition I see is Danilo from Palmeiras (maybe Depay)… The rest are either too expensive to buy, too expensive hire, just below the level we need for Arsenal, or we expect a better deal in the summer.
After some of the things we have seen in the penalty box this season . De Bruyne’s penalty dive at Fulham is hard to take. Stuart Attwell on VAR
Carlos Vela, remember him? He’s playing for LAFC against Philadelphia in the MLS cup. His teammate sitting on the bench is some old Spud called Gareth Bale.
As long as we don’t go for Zaha he is too old, and he keeps falling over his own shadow. then blames everybody else for it.
New post up now