Tag: Arsenal

Arsenal win their first 5 league games and idk how to act (Arsenal-Villa reaction)

I do not really know how to process what is going on right now. I can’t complain about anything Arsenal are doing right now. My only personality usually is complaining about Arsenal but I can’t do that. They play well, start fast and score goals. Legit the 3 things I only want in life. Arsenal has started the league campaign winning 5/5 games and sitting firmly atop the Premier League standings (Yes, I understand City is right on our ass but let me have today). We found Aston Villa in terrible form and it showed tremendously as we dominated them in a 2-1 victory. Villa were terrible, we were awesome for the most part and find ourselves ready to hopefully bring United back to Earth this weekend.

THOUGHTS ON THE MATCH:

  1. Gabi Jesus has been the best player in the league this season not named Haaland. He was absolutely splendid tonight. Despite the short rest, he was energetic throughout, going out of his way to get involved in the game, and just absolutely destroying Mings and Konsa throughout. Gabriel Jesus has absolutely mastered the timing of his shoulder budges as multiple times throughout the night he bodied the much bigger Mings and Konsa off the ball using his lower body of strength. He was rewarded for his work with a goal off the spaz (Emi Martinez). I love him. I can easily say outside of my girlfriend and immediate family, the most important person in my life right now is Gabriel Jesus.
Another plus on the night was him getting in the head of the clown that is Emi Martinez

2. I straight up might be cheering for Brazil in the World Cup. The performances of Gabriel Jesus, Martinelli, and Gabriel have gotten me pretty much a shoo-in to cheer for the Seleção this winter in Qatar. Gabriel Jesus is self-explanatory as I am essentially in love with him at this point. Martinelli has played so well this season that he has essentially made Emile Smith Rowe irrelevant at the moment and essentially made Pépé go back to France. He got his third goal of the season and has cemented himself at the time being to the starting XI with his energy and goal output. Gabriel has formed a formidable duo with Saliba at the moment. Despite his blunder last week against Fulham, he responded immediately with a goal of his own to win us the game.

3. Ødegaard owns me at this point. Especially in the first half, he was absolutely magnificent. He was on another level, everything we did in the dominant first half went through the Norwegian. He ran his balls off to get his foot on the ball, and he showed himself to Sambi as an outlet and was the outlet for every attacking player that sensed some sort of pressure. My Captain 😉

4. Despite the 1-0 scoreline, we could have scored 10 in the first half, we were a different class. The best part of this Arsenal squad this season is how fast we have become at starting matches. In every game this season, we have come out and put our stamp on the game from the start, dominating possession, and relentless pressing to make sure we got the ball back. I do not think that Ramsdale had to touch the ball with his hands or had to make a save in the first half. We just need to make sure in these spells of dominance, that we make it count with multiple goals and balance out that energy to ensure we keep it up for 90 minutes instead of 30 minutes.

5. I am biased and I don’t understand how Ramsdale wasn’t fouled on this goal. Was Ramsdale supposed to knock Kamara out, was he supposed to run over Kamara? I don’t understand. Kamara was essentially inhibiting Ramsdale’s movement on that goal. Robert Jones and VAR are clowns for letting that goal stand. Ramsdale should have done better for sure but a foul is a foul. Ramsdale next time needs to put a defender between him and the other team or just truck the player on the other team as the keeper usually gets the benefit of the doubt on those plays.

6. Cédric got called for a penalty for touching Son last season but nothing was called for Mings performing a WWE move on Saka, what a sick joke from VAR and the officiating.

7. John McGinn is such a cunt. With Sadio Mané in Germany now, John McGinn has to be the clear leader in the league for the dirtiest player. He’s such a dirty cunt, the way he goes into tackles so late with an extra cleat or body barge to make sure he gets a hold of everybody that goes up for a tackle against him. Such a bastard really.

8. Tomiyasu looks really good, like really good. If Arteta wanted to insert Tomiyasu into the starting lineup, I wouldn’t mind. Obviously, it is tough for Arteta to switch anything up with how well we have played with White-Saliba-Gabriel-Tierney/Zinchenko but Tomiyasu offers us something White doesn’t going forward. I am not saying he has to make the change now, I’m just saying Tomiyasu looked solid.

9. I absolutely feel for Ollie Watkins for being stuck in Saliba’s pocket all night. I watched all 90 minutes of this game and can’t remember one thing that Ollie Watkins did. Like I can’t tell you one thing that he did, which just shows you how well our Rolls Royce of a defender in Saliba shut him out. Just amazing.

10. I’m sick of Thomas Partey being injured. We need to sign reinforcements in this window badly if Thomas is out for an extended period. Can’t be cheap in the window and rely on our young players to carry us through, we need depth at midfield and a winger with the departure of Pépé.

Twitter credits: NBC Sports, ArsNoContext

We may never lose again (Arsenal-Fulham reaction)

I understand with that title, I am begging for Arsenal to lose their next match which is to Villa, and to that, I’d like to say I just don’t give a fuck. This Arsenal team is different (I’ll pay for this in the future). Arsenal snuck past a tough Fulham team at home 2-1 to keep up their 4-game winning streak to start the season which has us top of the league for the time being. This is a game where we probably would have faltered in last season 100%. Just a different feeling around the team at the moment, not sure if I can explain, cause I don’t want it to end but that is not how it works as an Arsenal fan.

It wasn’t pretty, we gave up a sloppy goal but fought back for the 2-1 victory. This Fulham game was the first time something didn’t go our way this season and it definitely had me wondering how we would react to troubling times and we handled it like champions do 😉. We never wavered, we kept fighting and grabbed two late goals to get the 3 points. I said this before and I will continue to say this, outside of City and maybe Liverpool, all games at home must be 3 points which shows how important result is in the grand scheme of things, gives us more margin of error for tricky away fixtures.

THOUGHTS ON THE GAME:

  1. Thank you Kent for motivating Ødegaard – this Norwegian is a man on a mission to shut me the fuck up and I love every single minute of it. After not being convinced of his first two games, especially being our captain, I was asking for Ødegaard to step up and that would be an understatement with how the past two games have gone, two goals against Bournemouth and a MOTM performance and a goal against Fulham. I first thought he didn’t have urgency to start the game, passing up shots, trying to complete the perfect assist instead of putting shots on target. As the game grew though, so did his influence. Everything we did offensively ran through him, very much so like a classic Ozil performance at his best. He has been terrific these past two games and would love for him to continue to shut me up and sit me down. #ThankyouKent for motivating Ødegaard to new heights.

2. Gabriel is a mentality monster. After giving up the weakest goal to Mitrovic by stumbling over the ball in the back where all Mitrovic had to do is step right in and take the ball, he redeemed himself greatly by nabbing the winner off a corner to secure the 3 points. What a redemption story.

So so sloppy from Gabriel

All in all, I still believe in Gabriel wholeheartedly as our LCB. Yes, he’s rash, irrational at times, and over-aggressive at times. HOWEVER, he’s MY rash, irrational, over-aggressive CB. He scores a great amount for a defender (5 goals last year), he’s a no-nonsense defender, has decent pace for his size, and is just an absolute mentality monster.

3. The Ben White block on Reid was incredible. Benjamin White, you are an absolute beauty. In a tied game, Mitrovic forces a save from Ramsdale where the rebound fell to Reid who quickly shot the ball where Ben White then put his body on the line and blocked the shot. Just everything you can ask from your defender. Putting his body on the line like John Terry to defend our goal. Something that Virgil Van Dijk can not relate to that absolute hand-behind-his-back fraud.

4. Zinchenko and Thomas need to come back. Thomas more so than Zinchenko. Kieran Tierney is more than an adequate left-back for us, in some instances, a better left back but he and Zinchenko are completely different players. Tierney loves hugging the touchline and overlapping the LW to put in crosses with Zinchenko preferring to tuck in to CM and create overloads that way. To my surprise, Arteta had Tierney tuck in to CM which is not his game at all. If you asked me, I preferred we played to Tierney’s strength than forcing him to play a way he doesn’t usually, which is the job of the manager, to fit to the players system if possible, not the other way around. When it comes to Thomas, we have nobody like him in the squad and we absolutely choked with him not in the squad, we got away with it yesterday but we need him back ASAP.

5. Saka is on my shit list now. It’s my turn now to shift my jinx over to Saka to step the fuck up. I have always been one to say Saka is a bit overrated based on how highly Arsenal rates the boy. I just need him to be more ruthless in front of the goal. I want him to take over the game by the scruff of its neck like I know he can. He sometimes seems too passive. Nobody questions the talent, we just need more end product to his name. Vinicius Jr’s development at Real Madrid is a perfect example of what Saka could be if he refines his mindset to be an absolutely ruthless killer. Half of it is the team’s fault by not getting the back to him quick enough which allows 2-3 players to shade over and defend Saka. But there are more than enough times where he needs to just take players on to create goals. He is more than capable of doing it, just needs to develop that killer instinct. Arteta echoed similar sentiments below:

Arteta tells Bukayo Saka to become “A ruthless winner. That’s it. Simple”

6. Villa and the United game can have me dreaming. These dumb idiots at other clubs see Arsenal’s start to the season and love to remind us how we have not played anybody good. Well I guess with Villa struggling mightily and United being what they are, I guess we will have to wait past these two games still to see if we can beat a “good opponent” ;). But anyways, these next two games will be a great indicator on how we have grown as a team to start this season. The Villa game will be a quick midweek turnaround with a Villa team eager to steer their season in the right direction. United will look to continue their trajectory out the shit hole they were in after Brentford by beating “Title challengers” Arsenal 🙂 . I’d love nothing more than to shit down their throat at Old Trafford with Arteta-Ball, similar to how we dominated Palace at the start of the season.

7. Haaland is a cheat code. Man City has this Norwegian freak as the star striker and he is absolutely terrifying. He is the Thanos of the Premier League. That man is inevitable. He already has a hat-trick to start his City tenure and it doesn’t look like he is stopping anytime soon. I’m not sure if there is anybody or anything that can stop City with that freak leading the lines. Speed, strength, technical ability, awareness of a world-class #9. He has it all and has me terrified of when we play him.

Featured image credits: GETTY

Video Credits: NBC Sports, DYAKU_, braa_meloo, iskaholic

I’ll never give up on Nicolas Pépé

Nicolas Pépé just completed a season-long loan move to Nice for the 2022/2023 season, which likely ends his career at Arsenal. I don’t know how I feel about it. Objectively, if you look at it, it can not be labeled anything but a failure. Joining Arsenal in 2019 as the club transfer record fee of €79 million, anything but player-of-the-year type performances would be the only standard. Nicolas Pépé bagged 27 goals and 21 assists in 3 seasons at Arsenal (112 apps). Not terrible but nothing remotely close to what he should have produced with that transfer fee. Is it his fault that we went out and spent that money on him? Absolutely not. Should we have expected more from him after his last season at Lille? Absolutely.

Why did it not work for Pépé at Arsenal? He absolutely had moments where you recognized his immense talent and potential. He had a wand of a left foot. He had deceptive quickness and an uncanny ability to thrive in uncertain situations, especially when trying to go past defenders. However, there was such a lack of consistency with it that was so frustrating. Unai and Mikel never seemed to be able to get the best out of him but it also seemed pretty obvious that neither really gave him the fairest chance. Unai has stated publicly that Wilfried Zaha was his preferred winger to get in 2019 and Mikel from the start has shown favoritism to every other winger at Arsenal before Pépé.

Pépé isn’t the type of player you want in a possession-oriented team against teams that defend in low-blocks. His style very much resembles an old-fashioned winger where his first instinct is to go at players directly as opposed to looking to combine with teammates firsthand which goes against the fluid possession that Arteta craves. Pépé thrives in chaos and counter-attacks. His best moments at Arsenal came from us countering City in the FA Cup SF or his majestic goal against Wolves shown below.

Nico did well to win the ball off Semedo and then he got the ball from Lacazette and from there, just absolutely emasculated Semedo and Neves before curling it to the far post with his weaker foot. Just frustrating that moments like this came few and far between.

Arsenal had an 18-pass move against City in the FA Cup SF in 2020 where Pépé’s final ball to Auba completed the goal. Here you can see the wand of a left foot that Pépé had whether it be for crossing or shooting. Here the cross to Auba came against a City side not set in its defensive shape where Pépé’s quality was able to shine through a vulnerable defense.

Southampton also just gave up the ball carelessly and 3 passes later Pépé maneuvered his body between himself and the goal which gave Valery no chance to stop him before he put the ball past the keeper.

Just absolutely annoying we couldn’t get this week in and week out.

CONCLUSION: People forget Pépé had 10 PL goals in the 20/21 season and was absolutely left out of the squad in 21/22. Arteta clearly didn’t favor him. Pépé is a player who thrives on confidence and form and Arteta provided and assisted in none of that. To be fair to everybody involved, Pépé was not brought in by the Arteta/Edu regime which left Pépé vulnerable to being an outcast once Arteta arrived. I never fully disliked Pépé because of the fact that I never felt like he got the fairest chance. from Arteta. Even when Pépé when played well and provided goals/assists, he never was able to fully get into the squad. Not saying Pépé is absolved of all blame, but not sure if there was more he could do at times. Price tag wasn’t his fault. The managers never believed in him. He had glimpses which made you believe but was never consistent. It just wasn’t a right fit for all involved which sucks. Just because we are Arsenal, it is almost a certainty Pépé will thrive at Nice cause that is how like works. Nothing but the best for Pépé and absolutely hopes he proves Mikel wrong. I’ll never give up on him.

Featured image credit: AFP

Twitter credits: NBCSports

Ødegaard shutting me up (Arsenal – Bournemouth Reaction)

I’m not sure how to react or act to Arsenal right now. After the first three weeks of the season, I usually have countless things to complain about Arsenal by now but I have got nothing. I am what the adults would say, “in the mud”. 3 games and 3 wins from the Gunners to start the season and at the moment we are Premier League Champions. Arteta put out the same squad that has started the season and they did not let him down with a 3-0 thrashing of newly promoted Bournemouth. Easy game, easy win, and easy weekend for everyone supporting this cursed club.

THOUGHTS ON THE GAME:

  1. Gabi Jesus changes everything. Comparing him to Lacazette last season is not fair to the Frenchman. Gabi runs, he passes, he passes then run, he can play with his back towards the goal then runs forward. It’s just a sight to behold. What he did for the first goal to bring the ball down while shrugging off a defender and then to evade several defenders before laying it off to Martinelli is just outstanding. He also picked up an assist on the second goal and had a goal overturned due to a tight offside call. He’s been more than we all could imagine, he’s been absolutely perfect. I love him

2. Ødegaard shutting me the hell up. With Arsenal getting off to a flying start to the season, I felt some players were not quite at it from the start and Ødegaard was one of them for me. I expected more from him and then today happened, and he shut me up quickly and well. Two goals to get this account started this season with an assist as well that was tightly overturned to GJ9. To be fair, Bournemouth displayed optional defending in the first half, which gave Ø so much space to operate. He will obviously have to keep it up against the big boys but couldn’t ask more from him today.

3. Saliba is perfect. There is nothing more I could say about this kid. Anything more and I’d get in trouble with my girlfriend. He’s an absolute rock at the moment at the back. He’s composed, he’s tidy, he’s strong and he’s only 21. And to top it all off, he pulls off an absolutely ridiculous goal with his weaker foot in the top corner. No idea where the hell that came from but I’d see it every week no problem.

4. Bournemouth are not good. They got ran around by City last weekend and after watching today, that makes total sense. They were at home and you’d expect them to come out sort of like Fulham against Liverpool. It was nothing close. They sat back, let Arsenal play around with the ball and just like that, they found themselves 2-0 down quickly and could never recover. They offered no resistance to the Arsenal midfield and defense which let them pick out passes and holes between the lines. Just an abysmal performance and has relegation candidate written all over.

5. Arsenal still needs a proper test. I won’t even utter any words that resemble Arsenal challenging for the title. But….. we do look like Top 4 candidates. You can only win against who you play and after the Leicester defeat today, our strength in schedule looks suspect. But…. Arsenal teams in the past would have gotten 4/9 points after these first 3 games and we all know that. I’ll take the wins when I can but I still got my eyes out for when we play the big boys.

6. Our depth is crazy right now. For us to be able to bring on Tomiyasu, Tierney and ESR from the bench is wild. If things go our way here and there, we do look like we have a proper team that can challenge for the Top 4 and the Europa League. I still hate the Europa League and that we are in it, but I’d rather give our squad players more playing time to keep the morale up as the season goes on.

7. I am still not over with how last season ended. I finished the Arsenal: All or Nothing documentary and I have nobody but myself to blame. I knew it would piss me off to see us choke the season away in a documentary format and it did more than that. To just see the player’s reactions to the games in the locker room and at training just ticked me off. Just lifeless chokers they were man. I won’t question the manager and the team for not caring but after rewatching how flat we were against Spurs and Newcastle, it’s hard to argue otherwise with so much at stake. They just need to win the title this season to make up for it. We have Fulham at home next week, 3 points and nothing else.

Featured image credits: Reuters

Twitter credits: NBC Sports

My love for Gabi Jesus is never-ending (Arsenal-Leicester Match reaction)

After getting off to a blistering start in a 2-0 victory over Palace last Friday, there was always a possibility of a letdown. Growing up an Arsenal fan, this was always something you knew would happen instead of Arsenal keeping up the positive momentum into something more. And these guys have proven me wrong and shut my ass up again, in the Emirates debut for the team, we went out and slapped Leicester up and down North London in a 4-2 victory that should have been way worse. We were absolutely dominant from the start. There were a few slip ups here and there, but all in all, a comfortable victory.

10 THOUGHTS

  1. Gabi Jesus is more than anybody has expected. He runs, he scores, he passes well, he runs after he passes, he wins the ball in the air. He has done it all for Arsenal at the moment and I don’t know what will happen if he isn’t here. The first goal, where he chips the ball to the far post is just world-class.
That is a man in form right there

Look at this pass from Ramsdale and Gabi Jesus bringing it down with his head and then subsequently sending Jonny Evans to retirement. What a hat trick that would have been. Not only did he bag the goals, but he also got himself 2 assists as well. Just an all-around performance from our star man. The best performance from an attacking-player I’d say since one of the Alexis Sanchez hat trick games.

2. Martinelli has made himself a sure-fire starter. I’d think of benching Saka or Ødegaard over Martinelli at this point. He’s a menace whenever he has the ball, he is a menace when he is defending. He just doesn’t stop and I love it. Two goals in two games had Wesley Fofana on skates the whole match. With all the talk of Arsenal signing another winger, Martinelli has made a point for sure that his spot isn’t up for grabs.

3. Saka and Ødegaard need to step up. The Brazilians Gabi Jesus and Martinelli have gotten off to a blistering start. Ødegaard more so than Saka need to step it up a bit. The sharpness that the two Brazilians are playing with is lacking dramatically with Saka and Ødegaard at the moment. Nothing drastic needs to change, just a notice out to those two that they are falling behind a bit. Ødegaard also needs to be careful as Fábio Vieira is waiting out in the wings to take his place.

4. Granit Xhaka, our left-sided 8 for the season? I have been calling out for a while that we needed a more athletic 8 to insert into Xhaka’s spot but he has been objectively terrific this season. Outside of the blip with Fofana yesterday, he has been immense. The Aaron Ramsey runs into the box, the connection with Zinchenko and Martinelli, etc. I wish he had more athleticism to his game that would circumvent his slowness at times but he’s more than fine at the moment.

Got a goal for himself for his efforts as well

5. Zinchenko-Xhaka-Martinelli wrecking havoc – our left-sided attack has been absolutely amazing so far. With Zinchenko tucking inside into the midfield, Xhaka pushing into the box, and Martinelli out wide, teams have not been able to cope with that so far as opposing players seem lost on who should go with who. It’ll be interesting to see how this fares as teams get more and more tape on us, but so far, it is clear that our left-sided part of our attack has been more threatening and sprinkle in Gabi Jesus , it is a handful right now for everybody.

6. Saliba is still the greatest ever – naturally, there was more luck that would go against Saliba as how things work. Despite the own goal, he bounced back nicely and looked assured for the rest of the game. Ben White was also absolutely terrible in the build-up to Leicester’s first goal, he needs to at least challenge Justin for that flick on and just terrible luck from Saliba to try and cut out the flick.

7. Ramsdale is a bit fortunate – a huge reason why Ramsdale is our keeper and not Leno is for sure his aggressive and progressive style of play. He plays a high line and loves to come out to receive but also to defend and almost got caught out for the Vardy dive. He was smart and pulled out of the tackle and the ref did well to consult with VAR to negate the Leicester penalty. But he needs to be way smarter when coming out for those 50/50 balls. Also letting a goal through your legs isn’t great. Not totally his fault but not a great look.

8. My Jamie Vardy luck might actually be turning around. He owns me. Jamie Vardy owns me and I know there is nothing I can do about it. He won the 2015/2016 title over us. It feels like he damn well scores in every game he plays against us. He has 11 goals. Just a fucking pain in my ass for years. But…. it seems that things could be turning around. He got a penalty taken away due to VAR which years ago wouldn’t have been called off. And it was his header that let Gabriel Jesus get his second goal.

He very much still owns me but yesterday gave me back some of my fight in this rivalry with Jamie Vardy.

9. Tierney and Tomiyasu waiting in the wings. It is interesting that two of the subs we made yesterday were bringing on Tierney and Tomiyasu. Two guys who definitely think they should be starting. I’m all for competition within the squad and interested to see how Arteta uses them going forward. At the moment, it feels like Arteta can’t change with what has been working but we will see.

10. I am just waiting to see when Arsenal fuck me – Not sure if it will be next week or next month, but it will happen and I will lose my mind over it and will not be rational. You can’t blame me for feeling like this and being pessimistic. But these guys will do it, not a matter of if, but a matter of when. (Please don’t screw me Arsenal).

Featured image credits: AP

Twitter credits: Grimanditweets, NBC Sports, SHA3WAZA_2

Arsenal Preview 2022/2023 (Forwards) – Gabi Jesus Szn

Imagine a professional football team that tried to achieve Champions League football with a center forward that couldn’t run, jump, or move in any capacity. God Bless Lacazette, but that is what Arsenal tried to achieve last year. The combination of Auba, Laca, and Eddie Nketiah last year through 38 PL games accounted for 13 goals. 13 motherfucking goals. 37 year old Cristiano score more himself in a disoriented United squad. Salah had more than 13 himself halfway through last season. It is quite literally a miracle that we were one result going our way from making the Champions League. To the club’s credit, Arsenal have gone on and acquired the services of Brazilian International and multi Premier League champion Gabriel Jesus to lead the line and the change has been nothing short of drastic.

CENTER FORWARD/STRIKER: If you look at the numbers Gabi Jesus produced during his time at City, they may look underwhelming at first but he had a lot of extenuating factors that played against him. The stubborn Aguero refusing to give up his spot, an absolutely crowded front line, and lack of consistent game time hindered Gabi’s time at City. Gabi Jesus spent a good amount of time on the wings and was in charge of tracking back like any winger is asked to do which is something Pep appreciated from him however, that greatly hindered Gabriel Jesus’ chances for goals. At Arsenal, we go as far as Gabi takes us. He’s our star man and what our transfer window was based off of. It’s on him, management and the team to get the best out of him. In just a few games in preseason and against Palace, you can just see the quality oozing out:

He calmly brings the cross-field pass down with his chest and proceeds to pass and then RUN into the box to follow his pass and get the goal. I’d have to end myself before Lacazette did such a thing last season. This goal also shows the flexibility that Gabi provides in being able to play on the touchline if need be, for example if we need to team him up with Eddie for a goal and he has to float out wide.

This passage of play against Palace also shows the all-action footballer that Gabi Jesus is as he muscles Schlupp off the ball, megs Dourouré, and then sends Andersen back to Denmark all in one run before getting his shot block. Gabriel Jesus was absolutely everywhere in the first half against Palace and was extremely unlucky to not have a goal to his name for his effort. He fell off a bit in the second half but so did the rest of the attacking line as Palace grew into the game. He hasn’t seem to fully find a connection with Ødegaard and Saka yet but for the sake of Arsenal, we need them to find something if we want to achieve greater things than last season. 30+ G/A contributions should be the standard for Gabriel Jesus if he stays healthy and I don’t see why he doesn’t reach it. he looks sharp, he’s moving well, he just needs to opportunities. Oh and we also signed Eddie Nketiah to another deal to be our backup striker/CF. I would rather us have let him go after this contract ended personally as I don’t rate him highly but since we were dumb enough to not move him out with time left on his contract, Arsenal probably felt obligated to extend him due to not handling his contract situation efficiently.

WIDE FORWARDS/WINGERS: I will absolutely never give up on Nico Pépé even though his time at the club is more than done it looks like. Arteta doesn’t seem too eager to give him any playing time despite the wages and transfer fee he commanded. I don’t think Arteta has treated him well or given him the fairest chance but in his defense, Pépé hasn’t fully taken his chances despite scoring 10 goals in the 2020/2021 season on limited starts. I’d like to find a way to get a front line of Pépé, Saka, and Gabriel Jesus a chance to grow but we will see. At the moment, it looks like Saka’s and Martinelli’s positions out wide. In a time where the best wingers are getting close to and more than 20 goals a season, we are going to need more end product out of the two of them. Saka did fine last year despite him creating so many chances and messing up the final ball. Martinelli absolutely needs to get 20+ G/A in the league if he wants to be our starting RW. His respectable 6/6 G/A in the league last year came off only a half season being our out-and-out starter but will need more from him. ESR is the forgotten man at the moment as he hasn’t been able to stay healthy. In the first half of the season, he was like a bat out of hell scoring all the goals he did with his timely arrivals to the box. Having him rotate with Martinelli or off the bench would be dope, we just need him to be healthy. Absolutely can not have the #10 shirt Arsenal wasted to a bench/rotation/injured player. Reiss Nelson is still at the club as well and should be loaned/sold off by the end of the window. Love you Reiss.

Featured image credits: Premier League

Twitter credits: NBCSportsSoccer, arsenal_video

Arsenal 2022/2023 Preview (Defenders) – Saliba might be the best defender in the world

OUTLOOK: Going into this season, I was somewhat worried about the defenders/injuries that Arsenal was carrying into the season, but a French blessing in the shape of a William Saliba fell into our lap and now I can’t be more excited to see what our back line looks like with him. Despite the injuries to Tomiyasu and Tierney coming into this season, the arrival of Saliba has pushed Ben White out to RB with Tomiyasu out which affords the ability to not have to play Cédric. Saliba-Gabriel have created a formidable duo that looks as good as any in England especially given their age profiles. Zinchenko looks to have the left-back spot now with Tierney struggling to cope with injuries. Through the Sevilla and Chelsea friendlies to go along with the win against Palace, I imagine we keep this back 4 intact til things break down but you have to love the depth and flexibility we have right now when everybody is back, a huge problem we had last year that messed with my sanity.

Continue reading “Arsenal 2022/2023 Preview (Defenders) – Saliba might be the best defender in the world”

TOP OF THE LEAGUE

A year ago, Arsenal opened the Premier League up with a 2-0 loss to Brentford which unquestionably made me want to end everything. Today, the boys opened the Premier League again and showed out. We fought through a tough Crystal Palace team to nab the 2-0 win and help maintain my sanity to start the season. There was a positive aura around the Arsenal squad heading into the season with an undefeated preseason record as well as the smooth transition with all of our signings, none more-so than my Brazilian hero Gabriel Jesus. I wasn’t feeling great going into the match as the last time we went to Selhurst Park, we were emasculated and I haven’t recovered.

PREMATCH: Arteta selected starting XI he selected against Sevilla and Chelsea (Ramsdale – Ben White – Saliba – Gabriel – Zinchenko – Thomas – Xhaka – Ødegaard – Saka – Martinelli – Saka). Tierney made it back into the squad but looks like he is in the outside looking in with the arrival of Zinchenko.

THOUGHTS: Arsenal came off the blocks hot with Martinelli and Gabi Jesus leading the charge. Palace looked a bit rusty and hesitant to start the match and we used that to our advantage. Every time we got the ball in the first 30 minutes, the Xhaka-Zinchenko left-sided partnership was running Palace with Zinchenko pinching into the midfield and Xhaka pushing up. Palace were not able to cope with the left-sided overload. Gabi Jesus also had himself a first-half, almost winning goal of the season by dribbling the Palace team before having his shot blocked and Martinelli scuffing the rebound.

Wins and muscles the ball off Schlupp, megs Doucouré, and sends Andersen back to Denmark all in one play.
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Arsenal 2022-2023 Preview (GKs) – Ramsdale needs to not play like an asshole

A position that has not driven me to want to drown myself in bleach over the past few seasons has been the guys in between the sticks. Bernd Leno-Emi Martinez-Aaron Ramsdale have all been respectable goalies and competent players at their respective positions for Arsenal teams that have finished outside of the Champions league. Our #1 coming into this season is Aaron Ramsdale and he has that position locked down as any position can be at Arsenal at the current moment. The classy and underrated Bernd Leno is getting sold to Fulham in the coming days which has opened up the backup role to American Matt Turner. As things stand, Aaron Ramsdale will get all the Premier League games barring injuries as well as the Europa League knockout games. There might be a decent chance Matt Turner gets the Europa League knockout games if he performs well but the easiest way to put it, in any high leverage game, you can bet Arteta will give Ramsdale the spot. Matt Turner will serve as a FA Cup, Carabao Cup, and Europa League group stage games which should give him some momentum going into the World Cup.

Mikel Arteta just like his former boss Pep, yearned for a ball-playing goalkeeper to start our attacks and if that is what he is looking for, he more than got that in Ramsdale. The way he is able to pass out of pressure was something I was not expecting when he came into the team. He sometimes gets us into trouble with his risky passing, but the reward outweighs the risk when he pulls it off. As a shotstopper, I believe Bernd Leno surpasses Ramsdale as Ramsdale struggled dramatically towards the tail end of the season to get his hand to anything. It felt like Aaron Ramsdale was just a passion-merchant late last season with his performances largely begging for more secure hands in goal. He yells a lot and celebrates a lot after saves, which I don’t mind, you just gotta make the saves you are supposed to save which he struggled with in April and May. Aaron needs to play with that swagger he has, he just needs to ride that line better and appropriately lead the back line.

Gets beaten so cheaply at the near post

Regardless, he is our guy going into next season and it could be way worse. Hopefully Matt Turner can provide enough push for Ramsdale to stop playing like an asshole. Aaron Ramsdale has every motivation to play well and push for that England #1 spot if Pickford struggles. The same with Turner, I expect nothing but perfection from the Arsenal keepers going into this season with the World Cup looming (it won’t happen but gives me room to complain).

Kent’s confidence on Arsenal’s GKs: 8/10 – good enough going into next season, I have much bigger things to worry about. Just need Ramsdale to not play like an asshole and spaz (Jordan Pickford vibes if you know what I mean).

Featured image credits: Getty

Man City owe Arsenal for funding their transfer window, Zinchenko coming to North London

(If for whatever reason this doesn’t happen, it is not my fault and I take no responsibility for it)

Arsenal missed out on Lisandro Martinez and that is fine, he decided to go and play with his former manager on a worse team in United for €57.37 million, which could rise to €67.37m through variables. From an Arsenal perspective, there is no reason we should have spent that much money on a CB who we it looks like we would have deployed at LB (even though he doesn’t play there for club or country, the only thing he has that resembles a LB is his preference of his left boot). We also missed out on Raphinha which I could give two shits about as he has publically and privately been twerking for Barca for months now, no need for Arsenal to cough up north of €60m for a guy who scored 11 league goals last year (Pépé got lambasted and called a bust for scoring 10 league goals the season before, makes you think). But no worry, looks like we got the LB we wanted, according to Fab, Arsenal and City have reached an agreement for Oleksandr Zinchecnko.

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