Morning Top Of The League FC. Or as we are now called: Top At Christmas FC.
It was Played No One Decent FC, then Collapse In October FC. After a draw away to Southampton it was Burnout FC. But here we are, going into the World Cup, top of the league.
What will be next? My bet is “Arsenal haven’t played Man City or Newcastle” or “they will collapse after the World Cup.
But let’s ignore the naysayers and just enjoy our Christmas dinners!
We have turned a brilliant pre-season into a brilliant start to the season. It is more than any of us could have hoped.
I still do not expect us to win the title. Very few Arsenal fans can say they are confident about us being Champions. Opposing fans will try and paint a different picture, that we need to be humbled. But the reality is we are just enjoying having a competitive team again.
We are too and we deserve to be there.
There has not really been a game that we have won that we didn’t deserve too (victory over Leeds the only one that gets close). We have not had those Spurs games where they have been behind, and just scrapped through.
And in the two games we dropped points, we can point to being on the wrong side of refereeing decisions (no penalty against Southampton and opening goal wrongly disallowed against Man U).
Opponents will point to the Liverpool game (when the referee got everything right) as an example of when we got favourable decisions. And Sky are trying to paint a narrative of us being lucky having spent half-time Saturday and 10 minutes after full time bitterly debating a possible penalty that was offside anyway.
We now have a little break for the winter World Cup.
Whilst people might think it will damage our momentum, I think it will have the opposite effect.
Just 10 Gooners will be going.
The Arsenal boys who are going to the World Cup in Qatar…
🇧🇷 Gabriel Martinelli 🇧🇷 Gabriel Jesus 🇯🇵 Takehiro Tomiyasu 🇫🇷 William Saliba 🇨🇭 Granit Xhaka 🇬🇭 Thomas Partey 🇺🇸 Matt Turner 🏴 Bukayo Saka 🏴 Ben White 🏴 Aaron Ramsdale
Over the 10, Bukayo Saka, Granit Xhaka, Thomas Partey, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Matt Turner are the only guaranteed starters. Gabriel Jesus and William Saliba are both 50/50 to start.
Of those 7, Tomiyasu, Xhaka and Partey will probably struggle to make the knockout stages, meaning they will be back with Arsenal in the first week of December.
Saka, Saliba and Jesus are the only candidates to be playing for their country come through quarter finals, and you would expect almost everyone back by the end of the semi-finals (14 December).
That will mean Mikel Arteta should be ready to face West Ham on Boxing Day with the majority of the squad having had at least 12 days without a game. We should be nicer rested.
A Boxing Day visit from West Ham is followed by a New Years Eve trip to Brighton. We then have a tricky period of Newcastle (H), Spurs (A), Manchester United (H) and Everton (A).
If we are still top of the league after the first 6 games back, then I might start believing.
In other news, Tony Adams was knocked out of Strictly last night.
Rumours are he had the votes that guaranteed him being through, but a “hamstring injury” meant he was likely to pull out. That led producers to make the decision to put him in the dance off, ignoring the vote. We can be proud of getting him so far!
Enjoy being top!
Keenos
Beer mats, bottle openers, bar runners, coasters, artwork and more
Saturday, 12th November 2022. Kick-off time: 7.45pm
(4-3-3) Aaron Ramsdale; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Oleksandr Zinchenko; Martin Ødegaard (c), Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka; Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli.
Substitutes: Kieran Tierney, Eddie Nketiah, Rob Holding, Cédric Soares, Fabio Vieira, Reiss Nelson, Mohamed Elneny, (Marcus Vinicius Oliveira Alencar) Marquinhos, Matt Turner.
Scorers: Martin Ødegaard (55 mins, 75 mins)
Yellow Cards: Thomas Partey, Gabriel
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 63%
Referee: Stuart Attwell
Assistant Referees: Harry Lennard, Darren Cann
Fourth Official: Tom Bramall
VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Mike Dean; AVAR Neil Davies
Attendance: 34,624
Can this really be the last match before the enforced hiatus? A definite case for tempus fugit, obviously. In just eight days’ time, the 2022 World Cup kicks off in Qatar, and has there ever been a more controversial tournament such as this? Tonight’s match against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux is our last first-class game until Boxing Day against West Ham United, some forty-three days’ hence. All we can hope for is that we can go into the Premiership interlude injury-free and that all of our players come home from Qatar completely fit and raring to go again.
Following an extremely moving Remembrance Day commemoration, which involved the playing of the Last Post by a solitary bugler, the match got underway with Gabriel Jesus passing the ball back to Aaron Ramsdale, who kicked it up the pitch, hoping that an Arsenal man could run onto it (which they did not). Within a couple of minutes into the game, Granit Xhaka went down on his haunches in obvious difficulty. He went off the pitch to contain himself, and returned soon afterwards, which was good to see. Shortly afterwards, Gabriel Jesus had a goal disallowed for offside, and then Adama Traore tried to run through the middle of the Arsenal defemce; he beat a couple of defenders but was then tackled firmly by Gabriel Martinelli, who neutralised the danger. Sensing a weakness, the home side tried to capitalise on the situation as Goncalo Guedes was deemed to be offside in the centre of the pitch as he was bundled over by William Saliba, in a heavy but fair tackle.After a couple of Wolves corners, we broke out and Bukayo Saka was unlucky not to score when his shot almost deceived the Wolves goalie, who pushed the ball behind for an Arsenal corner, which went absolutely nowhere. After fifteen minutes, Granit Xhaka was substituted for Fabio Vieira, as he was unable to continue, and the match went end-to-end with both teams having wasted chances at Molineux today. However, we started to get a grip and had a good, productive period. Ben White made an overlapping run and his cross was just nicked away from Gabriel Martinelli, and then Gabriel Jesus headed wide from a left-wing cross. We started to knock the ball around quite comfortably in the Wolves half, but as the ball went astray, our captain pulled back Joao Moutinho and was a wee bit fortunate to avoid a booking; the home side captain Ruben Neves told the referee such a thing as well. Just after the half hour mark, a Thomas Partey long throw led to a corner which was cleared by the Wolves defence. Gabriel Jesus had a great chance to score as he ran through the Wolves defence and cut inside, but his shot hit the crossbar and flew off into the crowd. Toti was booked for cynically tripping up Gabriel Jesus as he was running though with the ball, and a few minutes later, a Ben White cross saw Gabriel Jesus getting his feet mixed up as the ball bounced wide of the goal. Adama Traore picked up a loose ball on the edge of our penalty area and whacked a shot harmlessly over Aaron Ramsdale’s crossbar. A couple of minutes before the break, William Saliba played a blind back pass, which was nowhere near Aaron Ramsdale that saw Goncalo Guedes get the ball and curled a shot towards the far corner with Gabriel getting a crucial deflection for a Wolves corner that came to nothing, thankfully. Shortly after Boubacar Traore pulled back Gabriel Jesus, which saw him receive a yellow card, as referee Stuart Attwell blew the whistle for the half-time break.
For the second half, there were no changes, and right from the restart, both teams showed good intent to score with the match oscillating from end-to-end. Thomas Partey received a yellow card for a silly tackle on Nelson Semedo, and ten minutes into the second half, Gabriel Jesus found Fabio Vieira with a lovely classy pass; he drew goalkeeper Jose Sa out towards him, and then rolled the ball across the six-yard box towards Martin Ødegaard and Bukayo Saka. They both had an open goal to score into and our captain got the final touch. The goal certainly fired us up, and the confidence was there for all to see, with crisp passing and good off-the ball running as well. The home side came back at us, and Gabriel received a yellow card for bringing down Adama Traore on the edge of our penalty area, with the resulting free-kick from Goncalo Guedes being easily picked up by Aaron Ramsdale. Gabriel Jesus controlled a long ball forward and at this pint, he was all on his own, not a team-mate in sight. He waited to feed Martin Ødegaard who hds made the run but Toti slid in to deny him a goal at the last minute. A couple of minutes later, Adama Traore and Aaron Ramsdale run into each other and our keeper needed treatment, but got back onto his feet shortly afterwards. With a quarter of an hour left of the match, Gabriel Martinelli beat Dexter Lembikisa on the wing and found Oleksandr Zinchenko, whose cross was deflected into the path of Gabriel Martinelli, whose shot was saved by the legs of goalie Jose Sa. The rebound landed to Martin Ødegaard, who neatly hit the the ball into the back of the net for our second goal. With six minutes of the match remaining, our hearts were in our mouths when Adama Traore skipsped past Oleksandr Zinchenko with some nice skill and then blasted a wild ball across our six-yard box; although there were two Wolves players hanging around, they did not connect thankfully. Although the home side did have one or two late chances, there was nothing to threaten Aaron Ramsdale at all. Literally, on the ninetieth minute, Mikel Arteta brought on Mohamed Elneny, Reiss Nelson and Cédric Soares for Bukayo Saka, Fabio Vieira and Oleksandr Zinchenko, just to shore things up for the four minutes’ injury time, during which, we employed game management which ensured that we ran out winners by two goals to nil and remained top of the Premiership tonight, and on Christmas Day also!
Although it was tough at times, the proof of the pudding was very much in the eating here at Molineux tonight. Losing vice-captain Granit Xhaka so early in the match certainly unbalanced the boys, although they did get it together after a while, his absence was keenly felt. However, under some intense pressure at times, we held it toegther, worked for each other and got the ultimate reward at the end of the match. It certainly is a fabulous feeling being top of the Premiership for Christmas, let’s hope that when we reconvene on Boxing Day at the London Stadium we can continue where we left off. Have a great Christmas everyone, enjoy the World Cup, and we will meet again on Boxing Day for part two of this incredible season.
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: West Ham United at London Stadium on Monday, 26th December (Boxing Day) at 8.00pm (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
When the vote is open, it will appear at the top of the Strictly homepage. If you can’t see it, try refreshing the page.
To cast your votes, select Tony & Katya, click the ‘plus (+)’ icon next to their name so that a ‘3’ appears in the box between the ‘plus (+)’ and ‘minus (-)’ buttons.
Finally, click ‘Submit 3 Votes’ at the bottom and you would have now voted for Adams 3 times.
So lets get voting. And turn Adams from 100/1 outsides to 2022 Strictly Champion!
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 