Tag Archives: Arsenal

Arsenal get the the result the performance deserved against Crystal Palace

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What a windy night that was! Hope everyone is safe and well!

I had a hellish drive from up the Midlands after seeing family. A 2 hour trip from Burton-on-Trent took me over 3 hours due to the wind, rain and pure weight of traffic. Was not a nice drive in the dark!

Arsenal were back (temporarily) for the weekend, winning 5-0 against Crystal Palace. We now embark on another 10-day break.

Going into the break, I blogged how we were not getting the results our performances deserved. Personally, I do not think we played any better against Crystal Palace than we did versus West Ham or Liverpool.

We lost both of those home games, yet destroyed Palace 5-0, but the performances were not too dissimilar. The main difference was Saturday we scored our chances.

I commented in the pub after the game “against West Ham, the headers were going over, Leandro Trossard would have fired into the keeper and Gabriel Martinelli would have shot wide. Twice.”

Whilst all this might seem a bit negative, it is not. I did not join others in the pit of despair during our run of 1 win in 7 games. Bar Fulham, the performances were decent. Saturday against Palace was also decent.

The victory took us to 3rd in the league, level on points with Manchester City and just 2-point behind Liverpool (who repopened the gap to 5-points yesterday). After 21-games, we are in the title race.

A couple of side notes now.

Liverpool: After 21 games, they are 5 points clear. After 21 matches last season, we were 3 points cleasr. If Liverpool do not win the league from here, will they face the same accusations of bottling from the media we got? Or as always, will those media outlets be too scared to paint Liverpool in a negative light for fear of boycotts and cancelling.

Tottenham: After 21 games last season, Spurs were 5th. After 21 games this season, Spurs are 5th. It is a myth that Ange has massively improved them.

Gary Neville: Neville has blamed Arsenal for Nottingham Forest writing to the PGMOL over what they perceived to be a poor decision at the weekend. It is all Arsenal’s fault that teams are openly criticising the PGMOL, despite Everton writing an open letter first, then Wolves, then Liverpool (twice). Just shows again mentioning Arsenal get the hits, impressions and generates that ad revenue.

Not much else happning out there. I still do not think we will sign anyone.

Have a good Monday!

Keenos

Gunners look to shoot down Eagles

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Shorter blog than normal today due to the 12:30 kick off. Still need to smash a couple more coffee’s and have a fry-up before I head out to todays game.

The early Saturday kick off is easily my least favourite over the weekend. It is just shit having to wake up, get dressed and head straight to the game. Will be lucky to get a couple of pints in before the game, which often explains why the atmosphere in these early games are subdued.

Mikel Arteta’s pre-match interview was a day later than normal due to the trip to Dubai, on which he said:

“We worked really hard on things that we wanted to do, and we recharged our batteries. The context and the change in environment in beautiful weather helped, and the togetherness and the moments that we shared together were great. We feel fully recharged.”

What is now important is that the fans also used it to reset their brains.

Before the break, some of the old boo boys and moaners had begin sharing their views again. Today we all need to get behind the team and allow our behaviour to positively impact the players. not negatively.

On injuries, Arteta said “we are touch and go with a few”. Those few will be Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus. I would not be surprised to see both start.

One interesting quote to come out of the press conference was Arteta speaking about how it is important not to overreact after a run of defeats: “defeats cannot make you lose who you are because if you do that, then you were never who you said you were.”

He is spot on with this.

You can not keep chopping and changing tactics after a few poor results and expect to consistently perform. Liverpool are the perfect example of this.

Jurgen Klopp teams have played pretty much the same way throughout his management career. Even last season when times were tough, he stuck to his principals.

Football is becoming a lot more “formalised” on the pitch, with more set plays in open play. Players know where they need to be before the ball is passed, and this gives sides a huge competitve advantage. 7 tought games does not make Arteta a bad manager, nor does it mean that he should undo the great work he has done over the last 18-months.

In other news, we were approached yesterday by West Ham United for Emile Smith Rowe. Both player and club rejected the deal.

Arsenal would have rejected the deal because it was a loan offer. The door is open for Smith Rowe to leave on a permanent transfer. Probably anything north of £30m. We have learned from the Ainsley Maitland-Niles saga that loan deals only devalue a player.

West Ham fans have been up in arms saying “Smith Rowe thinks he is bigger than us” and then thrown abuse at the young England international. Lets get things right, ESR does not think he is bigger than West Ham, he just wants to have one more opportunity to resurrect his Arsenal career.

Smith Rowe joined Arsenal at the age of 10. He finally had his breakthrough season in 2021–22, and what has followed is 18 months of injuries. He clearly wants to give it another 6-months of trying to make it at Arsenal rather than be loaned out.

If Smith Rowe fails to make an impact in the 2nd half of the season, he will know his time at Arsenal has come to an end. Then I expect him to join someone like West Ham permanently in the summer.

We all know West Ham fans are a little fragile, but them abusing a player for trying to make it at a higher level, for the club he has been at since he was 10, just shows they are knuckle draggers.

Little over an hour before I need to get on the Central Line. Time for coffee number two and to stick some sausages and bacon in the air fryer.

UTA.

Keenos

Dubai return, Injuries, Ivan Toney and more

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Dubai return

I am not a fan of the winter break. It feels pointless. But it also came at a good time for The Arsenal.

We felt like a club under pressure. Struggling for positive results with a missfiring forward line. Spending 10 days in Dubai has been an opportunity for players to unwind – both physically and mentally.

Tomorrow we need to get behind the lads. They would have shaken the negativity off, so it will be important that we the fans do not pile it straight back on.

A big enough win tomorrow (8 goals!) and we go second…

Injuries

With the team out in Dubai, we have not had the usual thursday pre-match Mikel Arteta press conference. That means we have no idea if any of our walking wounded will be back fit.

The lads out long-term – Jurrien Timber, Fabio Vieira and Thomas Partey – will almost certainly not be back.

Some were hopeful that Timber would return in February, but with the type of injury he had this was always optimistic. I would be surprised if we see him until April.

Fabio Vieira and Thomas Partey were both out in Dubai training, but the Crystal Palace game will come a little early whilst they continue to rebuild their fitness. With another 10-day break before our next game, expect both to be held back.

Olexsandr Zinchenko is currently 50/50 to start against Palace. The expectation earlier in the week was that he would be back, but the Evening Standard are now reporting that he might not be fit enough.

It is better news for Gabriel Jesus. The Brazilian has looked fit, sharp and ready in Dubai. Expect him to be straight back in the first XI tomorrow.

Ivan Toney

I have always been concerned about Ivan Toney’s attitude.

Those Snapchats from a couple of years ago where he abused Brentford never sat well to me. Then you had the gambling ban. And more recent the interview where he openly discussed leaving the West London club.

Btrentford recruited Toney from League One. They supported him during the gambling issues and his ban. He has shown them so little respect and clerarly believes he is destined for bigger things than them.

Compare Toney to Ollie Watkins (who Toney replaced at Brentford). Watkins gets his head down, scores goals, and is never in the press for the wrong reasons. There is a reason why Watkins has now become an England squad regular, whilst Gareth southgate was always reluctant to pick Toney.

I am not sure that I would want someone with Toney’s attitude at the club, despite the goals he might score.

Tottenham transfers

Spurs fans are all a little giddy right now after news broke that they will (potentially) be signing 18-year-old Norwegian forward Antonio Nusa.

“Ange has transformed us”
“Paratici doing bits”
“Levy backing Ange”
“So exciting to be a Spurs fan right now”
“We are back as a serious club”
“Ange success rewarded”

Let’s get a few things right.

They have signed a Romanian central defender that no-one had heard of 6 months ago.
They have signed (on loan) a past-it forward who was dumped by Chelsea, and has now been dumped by RB Leipzig
They are potentially going to sign an 18-year-old forward with 5 goals in 52 games that no one had heard of yesterday morning

This will not be the first transfer window Tottenham have “won”. Infact, by my math they have won more transfer windows than league titles.

As for Spurs being back and brilliant Ange, Tottenham are 5th, behind “found out Mikel Arteta” and “struggling Arsenal”.

Give it 18 months and the tactically inept Australian will be at Fulham.

Jordan Henderson

Joke of a man.

Went to Saudi Arabia for the money, pretended he was going to “achieve something special and build a club and build the league”, and then within 6-months he is out of there.

Everyone knew that the Saudi Pro League was a huge sports washing experiment, and all those players that took the money to promote the nation in a positive light are complicit in the Human Rights atrocities that are carried out at the demands of their pay masters.

One reason I chuckle when football wear rainbow laces or take the knee is because you know the majority of them can be bought. They will all go to Saudi Arabia for £500k a week, despite the “Kingdoms” stance on slavery and sexuality.

Henderson was one of the most prominent voices during the “we will promote any cause” era of the Premier League. He then showed his true self by going to Saudi for the money.

He should never play for England again.

Keenos