Tag Archives: She Wore A Yellow Ribbon

Arsenal need to get back to upsetting others for the right reasons

2 Replies

First things first, we have been charged again by the FA for failing to ensure our players conducted themselves in an orderly fashion.

I was having a discussion the other day with a mate about how often we see these charges after live TV games. Yet similar incidents happen in almost every game across the country at all levels.

It is almost as if the FA only charge teams when it is on TV or an incident goes viral on social media. And that is the wrong way to police the game.

Maybe in response, Arsenal should release a statement apologising for the behaviour of the players and pointing out that it was down to human error.

A public statement by the club like that would be antagonistic, but also point out how fluffy the FA are when it comes to dealing with their referees poor decision making.

They are very quick to punish clubs for failing to control players, punish managers for speaking out against poor decisions, but as soon as the spotlight is on their officials they try and brush it under the carpet.

Today is Aston Villa away. I am already on the train heading to the game. It is initial to get back to winning ways.

We could have easily dealt with the loss to Man City had we picked up at least one win against Everton or Brentford.

VAR aside, we did not perform well against Brentford and Everton was our worst game of the season. If we want to retain any hopes of mounting a title challenge we need 3 points today.

The away boys, as always, will make a lot of noise and back the team for 90 minutes. And that is a reminder that most of what you see on the internet is just bluster.

We had one commentator on yesterdays blog calling for wholesale changes. He also demanded that “questions just be asked of Aaron Ramsdale after that performance”.

Fans like him really are not needed. They jump on players after one poor game demanding all sorts of changes.

Title challenging teams tend to not make knee jerk changes to their side. They tend to play a consistent team. Some fans will never get it!

Hopefully we get another 3 points today. And upset the FA with our players and managers behaviour. And fans behaviour.

When people hate you, you just be doing something right.

UTA

Keenos

Cup defeat showed Man City are not a team to fear

Leave a reply

Whilst we lost to Manchester City in the cup, there were plenty of positives that we could take and carry into tonight’s game.

Haaland don’t like it up him

In the games I have seen Erling Haaland struggle in this season – and there have not been many – he has had a defender stick right to him.

Against us in the Cup, it was firstly Rob Holding and then William Saiba. He barely got a sniff.

Haaland is a fantastic finisher and comes alive in the box. But he does not have a little trick to get the better of a touch tight defender. He reminds me a lot of Ruud van Nistelrooy.

Likewise, he is not great at laying it off to team mates.

If a defender is tight to you, you should be looking to draw in your opponent before laying it off to a team mate in more space. Harry Kane is fantastic at this. As was Olivier Giroud. Haaland doesn’t have the “quick lay off” in his locker.

Like in the Cup, we need someone to be tight to Haaland to restrict him. This then frustrates him. And if that player gets booked, Mikel Arteta needs to not be afraid of making a change.

Martinelli / Trossard axis

Man City’s full backs are a threat going forward. But they can also be got at in defence.

Trossard gave Rico Lewis a torrid time in the Cup game. And then Gabriel Martinelli came on and further increased the intensity.

Knowing that they will only play 65/30 minutes each will lead to the pair not needing to pace themselves as much. And then as one tires, the other comes on.

This will no only keep Man City’s right back pinned back for 90 minutes, but also provide a fantastic attacking outlet for us to go on and score.

No Lokonga, more Partey

We massively missed Thomas Partey when he went off at half time with a rib injury. The difference between Partey and Albert Sambi Lokonga is the biggest positional drop off at the club right now.

A fit and ready Partey makes a huge difference to the team

Strength of XIs

In the Cup, Man City basically played their strongest XI.

Ben White, William Saliba, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Martinelli were all missing from the starting l line up. That is half of our strongest outfield players.

All 5 are set to start tonight against Man City. If a 50/50 1st/2nd XI can dominate the champions on their patch, what can our strongest team do at home?

The Cup game showed we can compete with City. Now we just need the 3 points.

Keenos

Martinelli / Trossard axis could be devastating

3 Replies

Like many, I was sceptical at the signing of Leandro Trossard.

I viewed him as a fairly average player who was trying to force through a big moves based on a single decent spell. I was not impressed with his behaviour post-World Cup.

But he has shown in the two games since joining just how key a signing he could be.

One of our issues this season has been a lack of attacking options on the bench. If Gabriel Jesus, Bukayo Saka or Gabriel Martinelli were not quite doing it, the only option was Eddie Nketiah.

This meant that Martinelli and Saka would play the full 90 minutes. Even when struggling to break opponents down.

Against Manchester’s United and City, we saw just how dangerous a “fresh pair of legs” can be.

Martinelli started the Manchester United game. His Duracell bunny running drains a full back.

After 65 minutes of facing Martinelli, he was switched out for Trossard. And the new signing was integral in helping to set up our winning goal.

Trossard started in the defeat to Man City and gave young Rico Lewis a torrid time. And on the 66th minute he was taken off for Martinelli.

1-nil down, the substitution rejuvenated us. Martinelli became the biggest threat on the pitch, putting 90 minutes of hard running into a 30 minute cameo.

Whilst against City, the sub failed to lead to a goal, you can see in the future that it is going to have a huge impact.

Martinelli or Trossard will now know that they only need to pace their effort of 65 minutes. And then with half an hour to go, a tired full back is going to face a new electric threat.

There is a lot to be excited about over The Arsenal right now.

Keenos