Category Archives: Arsenal

Dusan Vlahovic, VAR Decisions, Resting Saka and More

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Dusan Vlahovic

Yann M’Villa and Julian Draxler. A bit like the John Lewis Christmas advert, transfer speculation season truly began when Arsenal were linked with one of the pair. It feels like Dusan Vlahovic is the new “lets link him to Arsenal every window”.

We tried (and failed) to sign the Serbian striker in January 2022. He opted to stay in Italy and join Juventus instead. A little more than 12 months later, we were linked again.

Last summer, speculation continued that we were monitering him. Then ahead of the Winter 2024, we have been linked once again.

Still only 23, the strker has not exactly set the world alight for Juve, scoring just 27 goals in 72 games. Do I think we will sign him? Probably not. But I do look forward to us being linked with him for the next 15 transfer windows…

VAR Decisions

I never really got the mocking by pundits and fans over Mikel Arteta and Arsenal’s statement surrounding the stae of refereeing in this country.

The Premier League is the best league in the world with the best players, coaches and supporters, all of whom deserve better. PGMOL urgently needs to address the standard of officiating and focus on action which moves us all on from retrospective analysis, attempted explanations and apologies.

We support the ongoing efforts of Chief Refereeing Officer, Howard Webb and would welcome working together to achieve the world-class officiating standards our league demands.

I struggle to see how any fan can disagree with what Arsenal said:

  1. We have the best league in the world, we should also have the best officials.
  2. The PGMOL urgently needs to address the standard of officiating.
  3. We will look to work together to reach the world-class officiating standards our league demands.

For pundits to come out and say that our statement was “embarassing” and fans to mock us for wanting to help improve refereeing in this country if baffling.

Every weekend we see officials – both in pitch and in the caravan – making errors that cost teams points, and these poor decisions affect EVERY club over the course of a season.

In recent weeks, we have seen poor VAR decisions affect Wolves, Arsenal, Tottenham and more. And in Europe this week we have seen some horrendous decisions in the Liverpool and Manchester United games.

I do get that football is tribal, and it is natural for fans to “love VAR” when a poor decision goes their way, or goes against a rival, whilst “hate VAR” when a decision goes against them or for a rival, but things will not improve whilst we excuse poor decisions depending on who they go against.

Would Jamie Carragher have called Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp embarassing if they released a similar statement to Arsenal? Would Gary Neville have dedicated so much airtime criticising Arsenal if it was Manchester United in our shoes? Would Dave the Tottenham fan from Harlow have been calling up TalkSport to defend officiating if it was Spurs on the wrong end of a bad decision?

When it came to £20s plenty, club rivalries were put aside to get a better deal for fans.

Club rivalries need to be put aside to put pressure on the PGMOL to improve. A bad decision is a bad decision regardless of who it affects. And going out of your way to defend a bad decision just means officials will not improve and bad decisions will continue.

And the next bad decision might go against your club…

Resting Saka

Against Sevilla Bukayo Saka was kicked from pillar to post. This led some to ask “what does Saka need to do to get a rest”.

As we have previously blogged, Saka is a world class player, and world class players very rarely get rested. And because Saka is so good, he will have to get used to opponents trying to kick him out of every game.

One thing that made Lionel Messi so good was his resiliance.

Messi was fouled, on average, 3 times a game during his career in La Liga. The fact he never suffered a serious injury is incredible. He had to learn how to ride a challenge to ensure that he did not receive a bad injury. Almost like a judo fighter learning how to full safely.

Raheem Sterling is another to look at.

Like Saka, teams looked to target him during his younger days. For Liverpool and Manchester City he would be one of the most fouled players in the league.

Still on 28, he has now played over 600 games for club and country and looks to be slowly returning to his best following his move to Chelsea.

Saka will play lots of games in his career, and be on the end of a lot of fouls. If we want him to become one of the best in the world, he will need to be playing 50 games a season and it will be more luck rather than judgement if he goes through his entire career without a poor injury.

Burnley

Gotta be a big win today. Just like Sheffield United.

Shake those mid-week cobwebs off, treat the opponent with respect, and take them apart.

Enjoy the game today…

Keenos

A repeat of Sheffield United will do nicely

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After back to back defeats and a media pile-on, The Arsenal has felt a fairly negative space for the last 10-days. The victory over sevilla should draw a line under that.

We are topping our Champions League group, a single win from guaranteeing that position, and have an opportunity to also be topping the Premier League by the time we watch Match of the Day tomorrow. There should be plenty of reasons to be positive right now!

Tomorrow we face Burnley at home, the final game before yet another international break. Hit 6 and we will leapfrog Manchester City and (depending on how many Liverpool score), we will finish the evening leading the league after 12 games.

Whilst we may not have looked as slick this season as last, we have proved in the opening stages of this season that we are once again genuine title challengers.

Last season was certainly not a fluke, and Mikel Arteta has not been “found out” this.

Some will point to us being 4 points behind where we were last season as proof that we have “taken a step back”, but it is not that easy to compare and contrast.

We had a electric start to last seasons campaign. Came out super fast. But with 10-games to go we looked shattered and there was very little left in the tank. Whilst we drifted out of the title race, Manchester City were picking up steam.

City started much slower than us last season, rarley getting out of 3rd gear. They were aiming to peak in the home run, not at the start of the race. The hope is (in my mind), that by us holding a little back this season, we will be in a better place come the business end of the season.

Whilst pundits and fans are pointing to our “poor start”, we are only actually 2-points behind where Manchester City were last season. 24 points from 11 games would have had us 2nd in the table last year.

And too highlight just how fast we started last season, Manchester City are 1 point behind our 11 game total, the “excellent” Tottenham 2 points behind and the resurgent Liverpool, like us, 4 points.

In 11-games this season, we have already played Manchester City, Newcastle United, Tottenham, Manchester United and Chelsea. A dozen into last season we had only played Liverpool, Tottenham and Manchester United.

The Premier League looks much tougher at the top end of the table this season than last. Newcastle look just as strong, as do Manchester City. Liverpool and Tottenham look better and Aston Villa also look a good side.

Unless Manchester City do what Manchester City can do, I do not think a team is going to get 90-points this season. The eventual champions will lose 5 or 6 league games.

Our start this season has certainly been tougher! Add in Champions League football and it is not a huge surprise that we are a handful of points behind where we were last season.

We need to be as professional tomorrow as we were against Sheffield United.

Get up for the game early, take it to then, and never take the hand off the throat. Get the victory in the bag early and then just keep going.

The fans also need to play their part. It will be very easy for us to buy into the negativity that some are trying to spread. To grumble about Arteta, have the hump over Havertz or call for the return of Ramsdale. But we are supporters. We need to realise that Arsenal is a good place right now and that our job is to back the team.

Luckily, as always, the majority of the negative voices only sit in their social media bubbles and do not attend games. Most are just making outlandish statements against the club they support in an attempt to get some of those Elon Musk pennies.

So we march on tomorrow. Together.

UTA

Keenos

Match report: Arsenal 2-0 Sevilla

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Arsenal (1) 2 Sevilla (0) 0

Champions League Group B, Matchday 4 of 6
Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU
Wednesday, 8th November 2023. Kick-off time:8.00pm

(4-3-3) David Raya; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Takehiro Tomiyasu; Kai Havertz, (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho, Declan Rice; Bukayo Saka, Leandro Trossard, Gabriel Martinelli.

Substitutes: Aaron Ramsdale, Jakob Kiwior, Cédric Soares, Fábio Vieira, Reiss Nelson, Mohamed Elneny, Karl Hein, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Amario Cozier-Duberry, Charles Sagoe Jr.

Scorers: Leandro Trossard (29 mins), Bukayo Saka (64 mins)
Yellow Cards: Oleksandr Zinchenko, Declan Rice
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 62%

Referee: Istvan Kovacs (Romania)
Assistant Referees: Vasile Marinescu (Romania), Ovidiu Artene (Romania)
Fourth Official: Horațiu Feșnic (Romania)
UEFA Referee Observer: Costas Kapitanis (Cyprus)
UEFA VAR Team in Geneva: VAR Bastian Dankert (Germany); AVAR Benoît Millot (France)

Attendance: c.60,000

We proudly sit on top of Group B on six points whilst our opponents tonight are in third position, four points behind us, and of course, they will be searching for their first victory in this season’s Champions League competition. Sadly, Gabriel Jesus will not be playing tonight due to the hamstring injury he suffered in our away win at Sevilla on 24th October; also our captain Martin Ødegaard is doubtful after missing Saturday’s defeat against Newcastle United at St. James’ Park, as is Eddie Nketiah with an ankle injury.

We kicked off proceedings tonight and within a minute, we had been awarded a corner, and Gabriel Martinelli’s corner was headed just wide by Kai Havertz. Arsenal are very competitive tonight, passing well and pressurising Sevilla, dominating possession in the early stages of the game. The visitors are having issues in not only winning the ball, but holding onto it, as there is an Arsenal man immediately in their scope of vision ready to relieve them of the ball. After Bukayo Saka was fouled by Nemanja Gudelj and a free kick was awarded, the subsequent ball into the penalty area was wasted, and slowly we started to look for the opening goal of the evening. Although we were doing well, with some good shots on goal, the match was starting to look a little flat, which can be dangerous, as we all know. Gabriel Martinelli is causing massive problems for the the Sevilla defenders on the left-hand side, as his cut-back pass fell beautifully for Jorginho on the edge of the penalty area and he set up Ben White to shoot; he tried to curl it into the far corner of the net but it was wide and high, unfortunately. We had a penalty appeal turned down when Bukayo Saka was brought down just inside the penalty area, and just a couple of minutes later, Bukayo Saka cut down the right wing, slotted the ball into the middle of the penalty area for Leandro Trossard who made no mistake in side footing the ball into the net. As soon as the match restarted, we continued to put the Sevilla defenders under pressure, with Gabriel Martinelli turning their defence inside and out, and on the other wing, Bukayo Saka was doing just as much damage in his own way to them too. Kike Salas fouled Bukayo Saka and the subsequent free-kick was punched away by the goalie and the visitors attempted to catch us on the break, but an excellent world-class tackle by William Saliba on Adriá Pedrosa in our penalty area neutralised the danger perfectly. As half-time approached, we still looked for more goals. Gabriel Martinelli cleverly chipped the ball past the defender on the by-line and although he managed to get the ball over into the penalty area, nobody was there to pick it up. Although there was a minute’s injury time, the score remained the same as the teams walked off the pitch for the half-time break.

The visitors kicked off the second half, and they must surely be wondering what on earth happened to them in the previous forty-five minutes and how they can possibly turn this around. For the second half, Takehiro Tomiyasu was replaced by Oleksandr Zinchenko and immediately this highly experienced player found himself in the thick of the action. Bukayo Saka exploded into life, running the length of the pitch before crossing the ball for Kai Havertz, who blasted it over the bar. Just as in the first half, Gabriel Martinelli was turning the defenders inside out and seemingly with ease, flicking over the ball for our strikers to attempt to score. Kai Havertz ran with the ball on the edge of the penalty area, and his superb left-footed shot curled inches past the post. Sevilla were struggling to get out of their half now, and although the visitors were trying to make things difficult for us, we still looked the most likely team to score a goal in this half. After some clever play from Declan Rice, he flicked a ball into the path of Leandro Trossard, whose left-footed shot went wide of the post, and shortly afterwards, we finally got a well-deerved second goal when a quick throw-in sent Gabriel Martinelli on his way into the midfield area, and he spun away and slotted the ball through to Bukayo Saka, who had space to run into on the right wing; he cut inside, beat the full-back and simply slotted the ball past goalkeeper Marko Dmitrović after sixty-four minutes. We really had the bit between our teeth now, and Ben White’s cross was far too high for Kai Havertz, but fortunately it fell naturally to Oleksandr Zinchenko on the edge of the penalty area and his strong half-volley was somehow saved athletically by Marko Dmitrović in the Sevilla goal. Juanlu Sánchez received a well deserved yellow card for cynically chopping down Gabriel Martinelli, and shortly afterwards, after the visitors made some substitutions, we continued marching forward in order to try and score more goals, with Gabriel Martinelli leading the charge. With eleven minutes of the game remaining, Reiss Nelson and Fábio Vieira replaced Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli, obviously to rest them for Saturday’s match against Burnley. Soon afterwards, Bukayo Saka hobbled off the pitch, to be replaced by Jakob Kiwior, and then, just minutes later, Jorginho was replaced by Mohamed Elneny just on the cusp of full-time, and as we entered the six minutes injury time, we looked extremely comfortable indeed. Declan Rice powered past a few Sevilla players in midfield and the ball was eventually chipped over the top for Kai Havertz, who could not bring it under control, and it was taken off him by a Sevilla defender. There was a VAR check when it was thought that the ball hit Fábio Vieira’s hand, but it was not pursued by the referee, and a minute or so later, he blew the final whistle to bring matters to a close.

A good evening’s work all round. The boys all played very well, and Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka along with Leandro Trossard were exceptional, and William Saliba was truly awesone at the back as well. The opposition just fell to bits in the end, and with one shot on our goal throughout the whole game, the gulf in class was evident. Anyway, we are top of Group B, and we will qualify for the last sixteen of the Champions League if we chalk up one victory from any one of our last two matches in the group. Well done chaps.

Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Burnley at the Emirates on Saturday, 11th November at 3.00pm (Premier League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon