Morning! The lead up to Christmas is now in full swing. Today is a rest day before the big game tomorrow. A chance for a 24 hour detox before the last home game of the season.
We have seen this season how quickly things can change.
It was not too long ago that Spurs were 5 points clear, which was the biggest lead they have ever had in the Premier League. One defeat turned into 3 in a row, and ended with them getting just a single point in 5 and tumbling down the league and out of the title race.
Manchester City have also suffered a bad spell – 3 draws in a row and a defeat to Aston Villa saw them take just 3 points out of 12. Newcastle are another team on a bad run with back to back defeats.
After the defeat to Aston Villa, it is important we get back to winning ways tomorrow to avoid ending up on a long winless run.
Brighton is followed by a trip to Liverpool before we then face West Ham and home and then Fulham on New Years Eve. The upcoming trio of games will take us to exactly half way through the season. We need to stay on Liverpool’s coat tails. They are our biggest threat.
We all know Manchester City can go on a 15 game winning run and canter away from everyone else. For Arsenal and Liverpool, they are battling to be “best of the rest” and be that team who grabs a league title when City have an off year.
The year Liverpool won the title during Covid, Man City got just 81 points. I have a feeling this could be a similar season for them, which leaves Liverpool as our main title rivals.
We beat Brighton on Sunday, we go back top of the league. We can then watch Liverpool v Manchester United in the late-afternoon kick off in the knowledge that we have not lost any ground.
Mikel Arteta has spoken about how Brighton are a very good, well organised team, and that to beat them we need to be very efficient. They might be 8th in the table, but that upper-mid table is so compact with 3 points covering 6th to 8th.
For once, we play after a European mid-week against a team that have had it tougher.
Whilst we rested and rotated for the short trip to PSV on Tuesday, Brighton had their first XI out for a tough game against Marseille which they won in the 88th minute. We have had 5 days rest against their 3.
Hopefully we see the fatigue of playing Thursdsy and Sunday creep in, whilst the likes of Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli are fresh as a daisy.
Arteta also provided an update on Thomas Partey saying “He’s getting a very good evolution in the injury, but it’s a bit early for the time frame” when asked if he could be available to face Liverpool two days before Christmas.
When we signed Declan Rice, I was excited about seeing him and Partey in tandem for tough away games. I do wonder whether those results against Newcastle and Aston Villa would have been different had Partey have been fit. Getting him back (or replaced) will be important in January.
In other Arteta news, he spoke breifly on his hearing following the comments made after Newcastle. Whilst he did not go into everything that was said, he did hint about the approach Arsenal took:
“It’s not about them, it’s about ‘we’. Arteta said “We want to [make] the game better. How can we improve on the touchline to make life easier from the player side, from their side, technology-wise?
“It’s all about us – we’re all in this together. It’s not about separate people trying to do their bits – [that’s] not going to work. We have to do it together.”
I was surprised by the criticism Arsenal and Arteta got for saying that refereeing in this country was not good enough, and they we had to work together to improve. I really did not see how anyone could disagree with that standpoint. And it would seem that the FA did eventually agree.
The PGMOL and clubs need to come together to improve the standards of refereeing, with the result being a much better, fairer game. Clearly the FA agreed with Arteta and Arsenal on this point and that is why he was not punished.
Finally, our friends over at Kick Off Merchants are still able to get you a set of their popular Arsenal beer mats for Christmas! Order this weekend to make Monday’s post!
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 
Are Arsenal Liverpools main rival
LikeLike
It wasn’t the FA that found the charge “Not Proven”, it was an independent commission. The 36 page report they released was damning of the FA and well worth a read. One would hope that they would take the criticism on board, but I won’t be holding my breath.
LikeLike