Arteta wins every debate

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It does not seem too long ago that social media was awash with debate.

Ole Gunnar Solskjær at Manchester United
Frank Lampard at Chelsea
Mikel Arteta at Arsenal

With 13 wins in his first 14 games, Arteta now has the highest win ratio of any permanent Arsenal manager.

He already has an FA Cup winners medal in his cabinet and his side top the league.

Lampard meanwhile was sacked at Chelsea and is now at struggling Everton, whilst Solskjær was sacked by Manchester United and has not been seen or heard of since.

Arteta won the debate.

It was also not too long ago that people were talking about Lampard and Steven Gerrard as the “new breed” of “special managers”, whilst Arteta was hanging onto his job by a thread.

With Garrard sacked by Aston Villa, it means Arteta has now outlasted both England “legends”.

Another debate won by Arteta.

And it is not only Arteta that is winning the argument, it is Arsenal.

Our downfall was being predicted left, right and centre 18 months ago.

Pundits were predicting that Leciester City would usurp as as a Premier League powerhouse.

Arsenal sit top, Leicester City sit second bottom.

Leicester had a good run, financed by far-Eastern duty free, but Covid19 has killed their owners finances and they will likely soon join Blackburn Rovers as foremer Premier League winners in the Championship.

Form is temporary, class is permanent.

And back to Steven Gerrard’s former club.

Summer of 2021, Villa fans were getting above themselves after finishing 11th the previous season.

They had already taken our best keeper Emiliano “15 appearances in 10 years” Martinez the previous summer, and were on the verge of poaching our highest rated youngster, Emile Smith Rowe.

With their owners amongst the richest in the Premier League, they were a club moving forward whilst we were in a downward spiral.

The “Villa project” was clearly a more attractive one than Arteta’s process at Arsenal (despite us having just won the FA Cup). And it was proven in the fact they were poaching our top players at will, whilst rejecting Manchester City’s pursuit of Jack Grealish.

Not to mention they had beaten us to the signing of Emi Beendia and signed long term Arsenal target Leon Bailey (who we were linked with about 5 years previous).

In the end, Smith Rowe stayed and Grealish left.

The recruitment of Steven Gerrard meant that they have the manager who could pull in the big players – highlighted by the recruitment of Coutinho in January. The only way was up for them.

11 months on from Gerrard’s appointment, they sit just outside the relegation zone.

Bailey has shown why no top team wanted him Buendia why he has been relegated twice with Norwich, and Coutinho remains the most overatted player of the last 10-years.

17th in the table, Gerrard sacked, whilst Arsenal lead the way.

Like Leicester, I guess we can put the Arsenal v Aston Villa debate to bed – I am still unsure why there ever was one?

Finally, back to Arteta.

He dumped Mesut Ozil. He dumped Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Ozil is now warming the bench of some random Turkish team, barely getting a game due to his dicky back and lack of fitness, whilst Aubameyang was quickly dumped by Barcelona and his Chelsea career will go the same way this summer.

Whilst the likes of Gabriel Jesus and Martin Odergaard have provided us with the intensity that has driven us to the top of the league.

Like with Erik ten Hag and Cristiano Ronaldo, Mikel Arteta made it clear he wants players that will listen to him, learn from him, follow their instruction.

You often can not teach an old dog new tricks.

Ronaldo does not want to listen to ten Hag, Aubameyang and Ozil did not want to listen to Arteta.

It does not matter what you have achieved in the past, it is all about there here and now. And all 3 are dinosaurs of the modern game which is increasling becoming about team work ethic over individual brilliance.

Arteta has clearly won the debate over whether he was right or wrong to dump Aubameyang and Ozil.

W after W for Arteta, both literally and figuratively

We continue to move forward, whilst Solskjær, Lampard, Gerrard, Leicester City, Aston Villa, Mesut Ozil and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang are being left behind, a distant blur in the wing mirrors.

UTA.

Keenos

https://twitter.com/shewore/status/1583718559519494144?s=46&t=qPmgt-el2N7smVfZVzgtSQ

MATCH REPORT: Arsenal 1 – 0 PSV

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Arsenal (0) 1 PSV Eindhoven (0) 0

Europa League, Group Stage Matchday 4 of 6

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Thursday, 20th October 2022. Kick-off time: 6.00pm

(4-2-3-1) Matt Turner; Takehiro Tomiyasu, Rob Holding, Gabriel Magalhães, Kieran Tierney; Albert Sambi Lokonga, Granit Xhaka(c); Bukayo Saka, Fabio Vieira, Eddie Nketiah; Gabriel Jesus.

Substitutes: Aaron Ramsdale, Ben White, Thomas Partey, Martin Ødegaard, Gabriel Martinelli, William Saliba, Reiss Nelson, (Marcus Vinicius Oliveira Alencar) Marquinhos, Karl Hein, Catalin Cirjan, Khayon Edwards.

Scorers: Granit Xhaka (70 mins)

Yellow Cards: Kieran Tierney, Granit Xhaka, Martin Ødegaard

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 62%

Referee: Alejandro José Hernández Hernández (Spain)

Assistant Referees: José Naranjo (Spain), Diego Sanchez Rojo (Spain)

Fourth Official: Muñiz Ruiz (Spain)

UEFA Referee Observer: Kristinn Jakobsson (Iceland)

UEFA Delegate: Miroslaw Ryszka (Poland)

VAR Team at UEFA HQ, Nyon, Switzerland: VAR Juan Martínez Munuera (Spain); AVAR Ricardo De Burgos (Spain)

Attendance: circa 50,000

Tonight’s match at the Emirates is of course, the rescheduled second game from a month ago, and quite frankly, it is one that we need to win in order to continue our one hundred per cent record in Group A of this season’s Europa League. Our opponents are currently in second place in the table, and it is also interesting to note that the PSV Eindhoven coach is the former Manchester United player Ruud van Nistelrooy; if his team is as competitive as he was, then we should certainly see an interesting match tonight.

Within minutes of the kick-off, Eddie Nketiah’s right footed shot from outside the box missed to the right of the PSV Eindhoven goal, which led to the next ten minutes or so of pressure on the visitors’ goal with Kieran Tierney, Granit Xhaka and Eddie Nketiah getting very close to opening the scoring with superb shots on the PSV goal from open play. The match rocked backwards and forwards but overall at this point in the game, we were the dominant team, although when PSV Eindhoven came forward, they did threaten us although they were caught offside on several occasions, the most dangerous one being when Guus Til tried a through ball, but Xavi Simons was caught offside, thankfully. Nine minutes before the half-time break, Bukayo Saka crossed the ball (following a corner) into the visitors’ penalty area, finding Gabriel, who had an attempt to score from a very close range, but narrowly missed the goal unfortunately. With five minutes left before the break, Graniti Xhaka won a free kick in the PSV half, and although his through ball found Fabio Vieira, his left-footed shot went agonisingly wide. In injury time, Granit Xhaka was booked for a petulant tackle on an opponent, which was a shame really; it also meant that we went into the break honours even.

The second half started rather sluggishly, but livened up seven minutes into the half when Bukayo Saka set up Gabriel Jesus, whose strong left-footed shot from the centre of the box was saved in the centre of the goal. The visitors came back at us, with an excellent Xavi Simons effort from the centre of the box which went high and wide to the right, and almost immediately from Matt Turner’s goal kick, Gabriel Jesus grabbed the ball, and got it to Bukayo Saka, but the goalie managed to get his hand to the effort somehow. PSV Eindhoven started to get frustrated, so much so that Érick Gutiérrez was booked for a nasty challenge, which merely served our desire to win this match. Granit Xhaka, Eddie Nketiah and Gabriel Jesus were lining up to take pot shots by this time, and although the visitors tried to hold us up by committing fouls, it seemed inevitable that we would score, and score soon as well. Mikel Arteta made a double substitution with Thomas Partey and Martin Ødegaard replacing Fábio Vieira and Albert Sambi Lokonga in order to push forward and get a goal, and sure enough with twenty minutes of the match remaining, utilising a pass from Takehiro Tomiyasu, Granit Xhaka’s right-footed shot from the centre of the box beat the goalkeeper and ended up in the bottom left corner of the net to give us the lead in this match at last. In order to consolidate our lead, two more substitutions were made when Takehiro Tomiyasu and Gabriel Jesus were replaced by Ben White and Gabriel Martinelli to add yet more spark to the side. Martin Ødegaard and Gabriel Martinelli linked up well, with the latter being unlucky to score with eleven minutes of the game remaining, and both Bukayo Saka and Eddie Nketiah were desperately unlucky not to score as the match entered its last five minutes. Reiss Nelson replaceds Bukayo Saka, and a couple of minutes later, both Martin Ødegaard and Kieran Tierney were given yellow cards for fouls which were borne out of frustration more than anything else. After an excellent Eddie Nketiah shot from the centre of the box which was blocked by a PSV defender, the whistle blew for the end of the match, and our unbeaten record remained intact.

It was not one of the great matches, but we kept our record, and if we get a point from next week’s return leg in Eindhoven, then we proceed to the last sixteen of this competition as group winners which is the most important thing of all. It is to be recalled, with regards to this match that Eddie Nketiah had six of our twenty-five efforts on goal, failing to hit the target once, whilst Granit Xhaka missed a certain goal on his favoured left foot from an arguably easier position in the first half than the chance he scored with in the second half. Bukayo Saka saw two powerful efforts superbly repelled by the PSV goalkeeper, whilst Gabriel Jesus was particularly unlucky in his pursuit of a goal. But the bottom line of it all, is that we won, and we proceed in this competition.

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: Southampton at St. Mary’s Stadum on Sunday, 23rd October at 2.00pm (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

Arsenal strengthen position at top of table despite not playing

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Morning all, and another round of Thursday night football. Although is 6pm more late afternoon?

Bit of a nightmare kick off for most today.

With most working 9-5 or 9-5.30, it means many of us will be having to duck out early from work, or arrive late for the game.

I would not be surprised if the Emirates is half empty at kick off as fans commute in from their jobs, and as the game goes on it fills up.

It will also be a nightmare outside the ground today as fans do not logistically have the 2 hours prior to kick off to enter, and more than usual with arrive with bags.

Having it at 6pm (so that the game does not clash with the evening Premier League games) once again shows it is more important to “maximise TV viewiership” than do what is in the interest of fans that go in, week in, week out.

The mid-week Premier League fixtures have fallen favourable for us. We remain top without even playing.

Chelsea drew away to Brentford whilst Tottenham lost away to Manchester United.

For many of our rivals, yesterday was their “game in hand” on us.

This round of games now mean that Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool have played 10 games. Newcastle and Tottenham have played 11.

We are top of the league and rightly so!

On Tottenham, Antonio Conte is turning them into a traditional Italian team.

Five at the back
Three defensive minded midfielders
Hoof it up to the big lad in the hope the smaller quick lad gets onto it

They might be having their best start in their history, but it is really turgid football, and once the results start falling away the fans will turn.

Onto tonight.

We win and we are in the next round of the Europa League, and one foot in the last 16.

Expect a fairly strong team due to this.

On a personal note, a year ago today I was made redundant from a job I had “loved” for 15 years. Since then I have gone onto bigger and better things (as well walked away with a nice redundancy package!).

It has taught me to value myself more.

Anyone going through the same thing, do not worry, do not be fearful of the future.

There are so many opportunities out there and if your current company do not value you, someone else will. And probably pay you a lot more for the same job.

Enjoy the game tonight.

Keenos