Tag Archives: soccer

No more distractions, time to focus on The Arsenal

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That is the distractions out the way. Now to focus on the Arsenal.

We have 12 games left this season. Maybe 15. We are the in-form team in Europe. Players are returning to injury. We just need to keep focusing on ourselves and see where we end up.

Yes, we have some fixture congestion. But you can not be in the fight for multiple trophies at the business end of the season without it. If you do not want fixture congestion, then you are better off supporting someone like Spurs who are never in the race for trophies.

I will be delighted if we end up playing all 15 potential games we have left this season. That will mean we have got to the Champions League final at Wembley.

Teams these days have big squads, with 20 international players. It is down to the manager how he rests and rotates to keep players fresh.

Liverpool also potentially have 15 games left, and we are at the stage of the Europa League that Klopp will begin to take it more seriously – it is the only trophy Klopp has not won with Liverpool and he would not want his final season to end with just a League Cup.

Manchester City potentially have 17 games still play, with them still in the FA Cup. So fixture congestion really is not an excuse for any team (although I imagine Klopp will use it as an excuse).

Up first is Manchester City. Probably the hardest fixture to have after the international break. The positive from our point of view is that all of our players got through international duty without injury, even Declan Rice who played 180 minutes (was this Southgate’s revenge for Saka pulling out / Ben White situation?).

Meanwhile, they saw Kyle Walker limp off against Brazil and John Stones pull up injured in the opening minutes of Belgium. It is unclear the status of both but their worst case scenarios is their season could be over.

Walker went off with a hamstring injury. If it is just a twinge, it could be a couple of days (although if his muscles are on the brink, it is only a matter until his hamstring goes properly). If he has pulled it, that is 6-8 weeks out. Season pretty much over.

The way John Stones knee collapsed could mean it is a serious injury. The worst are always those that happen when an opponent is nowhere near. I would not be surprised if is a ligament injury and his season is over. It should not harm City as they have about a dozen centre backs that they paid £50m+ for…

I have enjoyed the conspiracy theories that both players hobbled off within 10 minutes as some sort of ploy to get out of international duty. Like England do not have their own physios and doctors who would have been able to assess straight away if they were “faking”.

Back to Arsenal. Arteta has had around a dozen or so senior players to work with this last week (they did get a few days off based on Ben White playing Uno on the beach!).

Of the 11 who have been away, 10 were in teams who played yesterday so today. With most of those playing at home, they probably got a flight back to England straight after their games and will report to training this morning following the same rehabilitation schedule as a Tuesday night Champions League game.

It will be massages, stretches and analysis work ahead of Man City today, so nothing to strenuous. And then Arteta will have 3 full days of proper training to prepare ahead of Sunday.

Of those 10 who were still on international duty yesterday, 7 started for their countries, and 3 did not play any minutes. That takes us to 19 players who either stayed at home during the international break or have not played this week.

As above, international duty will not be an excuse for whatever happens Sunday. Just 6 of Arteta’s first team were in action yesterday so everyone should be well rested!

Sunday is huge. It reminds me of Liverpool last season.

I said in 2022/23 that I will not start to believe that we could win the title unless we win at Anfield. We drew 2-2 and then fell away. It is the same this season.

It is so tight at the top. 90 points is what is needed to win it. That means 8 wins and a draw from the last 10 games.

With trips to Manchester United and Tottenham, and home games against Chelsea and Aston Villa still to come, we do not want to drop points too early in this run in. Beat Man City and I will start to believe we can do it. Lose and I fear we might fall away and finish 3rd.

Back the boys!

Keenos

The Arsenal peaking at the right time

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Morning! Hope you all haven’t missed me too much.

Just over a week ago I returned from 10-days in Egypt and bought something back with my that has seen over a stone in weight loss in that time. Some will say that is not a bad thing for me! The stomach bug hit me for 6 and completely drained my energy.

Today is the first morning I have woken up and not had a bowel movement that resembles the Niagra Falls. Sorry to all those tucking into a Friday morning bacon roll!

Sadly the illness led me to miss the Sheffield United victory (and could not even get out of bed to watch it on TV) and I have also sold my Brentford ticket. Hopefully this is now the recovery and not a false dawn!

This blog was never supposed to be a daily one. I only ever really wrote when I fancied it. But in the last year and a half, it had become something I was doing each and every day. The last 3 couple of days with no blog broke a daily writing streak of more than 500 days!

That Sheffield United victory seems a lifetime ago right now.

I remember writing to some mockery back end of last year that Mikel Arteta was ‘negative splitting’ his season. That we were holding back in the first half of the season deliberately to ensure that we had more energy for the final kick.

This is something you see distance runners and swimmers do. They will try and complete the second half of the race quicker than the first half, taking advantage of others who might have put too much energy into the first half of the race.

It is something Manchester City under Pep Guardiola have always done so well. Done just enough to get through games in the first half of the season before being unbeatable in the second.

Last season was the perfect example of how a team that has a better 2nd half of the season will usually finish ahead of a team who start fast and has a good first half.

Now some will argue that “we have left too much to do” and started out drive to the finish line too late. I really do not think being 2 points off top after 27 games is leaving ourselves with too much to do.

Yes, these fans will point to Fulham (both games), West Ham and other fixtures, but football is not perfect. If you say “Arsenal should have won those games” then you also have to concede that Liverpool and Manchester City “should” have won games they did not. The issue with fans at times is that they expect their own team to be perfect all the time, but do not hold the same bar of expectation to others.

On to Brentford tomorrow. A late kick off and a game I was really looking forward too. Instead I will be watching it from the comfort of my sofa, hopefully having kept down the last 48 hours food!

Have a good Friday.

Keenos

Raya proving Arteta right in battle for Arsenal number 1

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The recruitment of David Raya by Arsenal has been one of the most talked about transfers in decades.

Popular Aaron Ramsdale was cast aside in mid-August as Raya joined from Brentford on-loan. The result was a never ending stream of criticism from journalists, pundits and many Arsenal fans.

6 months on and Raya now looks very settled in an Arsenal jersey, and any negative comments surrounding why we signed him should be gone – although every now and again a lazy pundit likes to mention him again.

We conceded a shocker of a goal against Liverpool and this lead to those lazy pundits to repeat their misguided rhetoric.

Karen Carney, one of a new breed of pundits who are just not fit for purpose, said “the goalkeeper needs to communicate better, he can see it all, he’s under no pressure, and that’s where we question is he the right goalkeeper because he doesn’t have that commanding presence.”

Firstly, the goal was clearly not his fault.

William Saliba failed to take control of the situation and expected his keeper to come out for the ball. In leaving it for Raya, the Frenchman did not work hard enough to keep Luis Diaz behind him. The result was the calamity of an own goal for Gabriel.

I have watched the goal numerous times and fail to see how any blame goes on Raya. As a central defender, you should always be thinking “if in doubt, kick it out”.

It is clear that Raya did not call for the ball – you can see in his body language and way he did not fly out for the ball. It was Saliba’s decision that it would be “keepers” rather than Raya’s. A defender should not be making that decision for the keeper.

One thing that has impressed me with Raya is his command of the area.

When we signed him, I spoke to a Brentford fan and he informed me that Raya’s aerial prowess was one of his best attributes. He would come out in a crowded box and catch the ball under extreme pressure. Handling in the air was exceptional.

Early in his career, Raya had a couple of bloopers (Chelsea) where he was arguably in the wrong position for a cross. At the time I questioned whether this was his issue, or an issue with coaching. Since that day he has looked imperious in the air.

Only 3 players have caught the ball from more crosses this season than Raya. In comparison, he has punched the ball clea just 4 times (16th in the Premier League). So I am not really sure what Carney is going on about when she says Raya does not have a “commanding presence.”

A lot of the love for Ramsdale was over his character. He is a decent keeper who is good enough for a top 6 team. Raya has that little bit extra that could lead him to being a title winning keeper.

Take the quick throw outs as an example.

Over the years we have seen Ederson and Alisson turn defence into attack with their quick and accurate distribution (whether by feet or throwing). It is a great asset to have for a keeper in a top team as you can launch an attack with opponents having players up the field and before defenders have got back into their low block.

Raya was involved in a lot of goals for Brentford with his distribution, and I am sure this is one reason we signed him.

Having settled in the team, we are now seeing the impact of Raya. Everytime he gets the ball Gabriel Martinelli is sprinting into that space left by a full back. We have already scored once this season and against Liverpool we were unlucky not to score another.

What is interesting when watching Raya is he does not just pump it forward every time. He looks for that quick throw out and if it is not on he is happy taking a few steps back. For me this is the difference between him and Ramsdale.

Ramsdale was neither accurate enough in his distribution, or calm enough to realise the opportunity had gone. He would often just launch the ball forward, needlessly losing us possesion.

As Raya has settled, his distribution is much improved.

It was always going to take a while for him to get used to passing out to Gabriel, William Saliba, Declan Rice, etc. Understanding where they would be positioned and how they wanted the ball delivered makes all the difference when trying to draw the opponent out close to our goal ahead of launching an attack to get throug the press.

When he first joined, Raya was having to get his head up and look where he was playign the ball. This would lose vital split-seconds. Now he is playing those passes on instinct, knowing his teammate will arrive into the space he is passing into.

For me it is now a no-brainer. Raya is available for £27million in the summer and it is a move we have to make. Meanwhile, we should be looking to cash in on Ramsdale for £40million or more. Nottingham Forest, Brentford, Brighton and Newcastle look the likely destinations.

A £13million (or more) difference between the two fees will add extra to our transfer kitty this summer. Although that would likely be eaten up as we buy a new number two (someone who is happy to sit on the bench and whose dad won’t go on every podcast going).

Have a good Thursdsay.

Keenos