Category Archives: Arsenal

It’s a NO for Mbappe as Arsenal look to put one foot in the Europa League Round of 16

2 Replies

Life is good as an Arsenal fan right now.

Top of the league. Top of our Europa League group. A group of young, hungry players that have a connection with fans.

We look to carry on the good run in the Artic Circle tonight with the return game against Bodø/Glimt.

Firstly, fair play to the few hundred fans that have paid a few hundred quid to head out there.

Most of you go home and away, over land and sea, every game. You are the fans that players should be taking time to meet and interact with.

A win will leave us on 9 points with 3 games to go – and 5 points clear of 3rd place Bodø/Glimt who would have played a game more. So not quite through, but we will have a big foot in the next round.

It is also important to top the group, so whilst we can all but guarantee qualification tonight, it will not mean we can take the pedal off the gas for the last 3 games.

Top the group and you are straight through to the last 16 – and importantly European football can be put on the back burner until March.

If we finish 2nd, it is the Knockout round play-offs in February where we would have to face one of the 8 third-placed teams from Champions League group stage.

We still have the easiest game in the group to play – Zurich are 0 points from 4 games – but that is the our game of the group stages.

The aim has to be that we are qualified before then allowing us to rest everyone ahead of a trip to Chelsea 3 days later.

I expect a strong team tonight as we look to secure the 3 points.

The other big football news floating about this week is Kylian Mbappe.

It would be a hard “NO” from me.

The player is clearly an egotistical little prick who spent 12 months flirting with Real Madrid before signing an incredible deal with PSG.

5 months after agreeing to that deal, he publicly declares that he is “unhappy” at PSG and feels “betrayed”.

He is clearly a talented player, but he has had it all his own way whilst playing in France.

I wonder how he will cope playing week in, week out, on a bigger stage. How he will do with more competitiive games and a greater level of scrutiny.

To have his ego and attitude at just 23 stinks a little. You feel he will want to go into whatever club he joins and be front and centre. Be the most important player there. Believe that he is superior to everyone else. And that is not good for team moral.

Pep Guardiola would want nothing to do with him, and nor would Mikel Arteta.

I would be surprised if Jurgen Klopp would want to work with him, whilst Tottenham coukld never afford him.

I do not see him going to Spain – he has burnt his bridges with Real Madrid and Barcelona are still struggling to balance the books.

He is the type of player that I can see Todd Boehly going out and signing for Chelsea.

A superstar name without really thinking how he would fit in or if the manager would want him.

I can also see him ending up at Manchester United – who would show they have not learnt their lesson after Paul Pogba.

These days, it is not just about the talent you have in your feet but also your attitude.

Mbappe might have the talent and ability of a Thierry Henry, but he has the attitude of Abebayor. He stinks.

I hope Arsenal sit this one out.

Enjoy the game tonight.

Keenos

Arsenal fans expect a top 4 finish (but majority think we won’t win the league)

Leave a reply

Morning.

So we ran a couple of polls on social media over the past 48 hours and the results make interesting reading.

XX% of Arsenal fans think swe will be top 4 at the end of May.

I am actually suprised it is that low! The 10% that voted that we wouldn’t are either extremely pessimistic or non-Arsenal voting fans.

75 points is usually more than enough to make top 4. With 24 from our opening 9 games we are almost 1/3 of there.

We need another 17 wins to hit that magical number. With 29 games to go we should breach that figure with ease.

Chelsea and Manchester United are 8 and 9 points behind us (albeit with a game in-hand) whilst Liverpool are now 14 behind.

There is a bit of noise coming out of Newcastle, but they are not even on course to get more than 60 points.

If we do not get top 4 this season, it will mean we would have hit a horrendous wrong of form. That was supposed to happen in October (Tottenham, Liverpool, Man City), but has not!

The second poll really shows how level headed most Arsenal fans are.

Whilst most will agree that Manchester City are still strong favourites to win the league, most will now agree that we are in the title race.

A lot will be written about “deluded Arsenal fans” over the coming weeks. But what this poll highlights is most of us do not expect to win the league.

It is clear our expectation is to be top 4, not to win the league.

These polls are important for 2 reasons.

Firstly it shows that even if we do not win the league (and only finish top 4), the season would not have been a failure – we would have met most fans expectations.

I imagine there will be a few Twitter accounts and YouTubers that will rant and rave if we do not win the league, and claim that most Arsenal fans are happy to accept failure.

The polls also put a stop to the narrative over Arsenal fans being “too big for their boots”. The majority do not see us as favourites for the title.

At some point the media will begin building us up in the hope that we do not win the league. they can then spin the line that we are failures, bottle jobs. This despite most fans clearly not expecting us to win the league.

With that Manchester City game now cancelled, October is looking a lot nicer. But we still need to maintain winning ways starting Saturday against Leeds United (and lets not forget about the Europa League).

UTA.

Keenos

Fans of Liverpool, Tottenham & Strictly all crying due to The Arsenal

8 Replies

You know when things are going well because you begin upsetting all the right people.

Firstly we have Spurs and Liverpool fans.

Rather than focus on their own team deficiencies in defeat to The Arsenal, they continue to take to social media to complain at refereeing decisions that “went against them”.

Tottenham fans have even jumped on the Liverpool bandwagon, spending the last 24 hours cryarsing that the only reason we are top of the league is due to “favourable VAR decisions”.

So lets quickly work through the decisions made at the weekend.

Gabriel handball: Never a penalty. Gabirle was in too close proximity to Diego Jota. And there is a clincher that was not picked up during, or in the post-game punditry.

As soon as that ball hits Gabriel’s chest and rolls onto his arm, a penalty can not be given.

Even if the referee had have given it, VAR would have overturned due to it hitting his chest.

As the handball rule says not every touch of a player’s hand/arm with the ball is an offence.

Saka offside: Bukayo Saka was not offside.

VAR was unable to determine whether or not Saka was offside. At that point it is right to revert to the onfield decision.

The linesman thought he was onside, so goal given.

Martinelli foul on Trent: Football is a contact sport. Martinelli crossed the ball in, Trent Alexander Arnold lunged at the ball and ended up in a position where Martinelli caught him on the follow through.

The still photo of the incident has been circulated by Liveprool and Spurs fans. Making it look like Martinelli was putting in a late, ankle high challenge on Trent. This is not the only time their fans are trying to twist the truth with this incident.

Some people have talked about a West Ham player being sent off under similar circumstances against Chelsea last season, but they have crucially ignored that the red card was overturned.

It was Trent that was “out of control” when attempting to block Martinelli’s cross. Martinlli was making a natural movement. Not over contact is a foul.

Jesus penalty: Was it soft? Perhaps. Did the Liverpool player make contact with the back of Jesus achilies, ankle high, getting no-where near the ball? Yes.

It is one of them that if it happened on the halfway line, a free kick would be given and no one would batter an eyelid.

Late, high, out of control. It’s a foul – even if it was not enough for Jesus to go down naturally.

In that sort of situation, most players will go down to bring the referee’s eye to a foul. If Jesus did not go down, a penalty would not have been given even though a foul took place.

On researching, I have just realised we have upset that vile character Richard Keys. As I said, we are upsetting all the right people.

We are also upsetting Strictly fans.

The further Tony Adams gets, the more momentum will build. We will continue blogging about him every Saturday.

A few Arsenal fans have replied to those blogs with “we don’t care”. Well if you do not care you are welcome to unfollow.

It is Mr Arsenal. Our greatest captain. It is a bit of fun. If you can not get behind him, then I would question as to why you support Arsenal.

Aubameyang “can’t handle managers that manage”

A lot has been made over the years about managers who “can not handle big players”.

The tag has been labelled against Mikel Arteta by former top striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Whilst it is true that some managers struggle with “big name players”, it is also true that some big name players struggle with managers that manage.

The truly top players became so not just because of their talent, but their willingness to learn. To be coached.

They would be role modes on and off the pitch and you would often hear of them “staying back after training” to work on something.

I remember the old Ian Wright quote about looking at the window whilst he was having a post-game bath. Out in the English autumn weather was Dennis Bergkamp practising a few free kicks.

It made Wrighty think that if one of the best in the world was still out there training, then perhaps he should be too.

Thierry Henry was of similar ilk. Always looking for aspects of his game to improve.

Then we have the likes of Aubameyang and many others.

They might have had a great career, but how much better could they have been if they allowed themselves o be coached, to be managed, to be developed.

Instead players like Aubameyang are content with their considerable natural talent and “doing the bare minimum” before heading off to a party or runway show.

It is the easy option for the likes of Aubemayng to blame others for “being unable to handle” the player. But he is a grown man.

Maybe he should have kept his ego in check. Done what Arteta (and other managers) asked him to do. Then he might have become one of the greatest of his generation.

There is a reason the likes of Pep Guardiola’s loves Kevin de Bruyne, why Jurgen Klopp loved Sadio Mane, and why Arteta likes Gabriel Martinelli.

It is because they are not just satisfied with their lot. They want to improve. To learn.

Arteta is now building a team that are hungry. That want to improve. And we are seeing the results on the pitch. 

The Premier League’s youngest squad is growing every week. The improvement is clear. And it is all to do with the players attitudes on the straining ground.

Aubameyang thought he was bigger than Arsenal, more important than the manager. In his mind, the manager should have left him to do what he wants. Not try and change him.

Anyone that has dealt with an employee like that will know it ends in disaster.

Arsenal were right to dump Aubemayang.

He has already since left Barcelona and Chesea are exploring letting him go next summer.

Potentially 4 clubs in 18 months tells its own story.

Keenos