Tag: Chelsea

CHELSEA BEAT ARSENAL TO MUDRYK

Wow, before I could even start getting angry at United for getting away with a bogus non-offside call, Todd Boehly and Chelsea swooped in last minute to secure a deal with Shakhtar Donetsk over the transfer of Mudryk.

It seems like it is pretty much set that Mudryk will sign as a Chelsea player and leave Arsenal at the altar. For months now, we have been linked with the player, Mudryk has not so subtly shown his affinity for Arsenal over recent weeks has it has been highly reported his first choice was Arsenal over Chelsea if it was his decision. With Arsenal haggling with Shakhtar who remained steadfast of their valuation of the player (around a €100m), it looks like Chelsea met Skakhtar’s ask with ours being €5m short as Arsenal vowed to not get into a bidding war with Chelsea smh.

MY THOUGHTS: I am 100% disappointed and frustrated with how it turned out. I am definitely conflicted though on how I feel about it for sure. First off, Mudryk is an absurdly talented footballer, his combination of direct pace and agility combined with his technical gifts, makes it easy to see why Arteta and Edu coveted this player and worked so hard to bring him to the Emirates. So I will not bash the player just because he is not going to my club. However, I do feel frustrated we couldn’t get this over the line. All things considered, we bid €95m (with add-ons) of the €100m Shakhtar wanted for Mudryk, is €5m really what is stopping us from getting the player we’ve prioritized? Part of me just thinks if we are a big club, we get the job done, and get the player to the Emirates? What makes it worse was how bad he wanted the move to North London and how it was highly reported he preferred a move to Arsenal over Chelsea.

But at the end of the day, sports is a business and Arsenal had a threshold they vowed to uphold and were not willing to meet Shakhtar’s ask for the player. Now is Mudryk worth €100m? Probably not, but who is? At the end of the day, everybody is worth what somebody is willing to pay for so I guess technically he is. With Antony going for around €85m to United and Jack Grealish going for €100m, I don’t blame the Ukrainian Club for getting as much as they can out of the deal. Mudryk is all talent at this point with just 12 goals to his young career in the Ukrainian Premier Liga and the Champions League, proven is not the first word that comes to mind when it comes to this kid but he does have 3 goals and 2 assists in this Champions League campaign. Chelsea have spent a ridiculous amount on transfers these past few windows, so how they keep getting away with it, who knows.

WHAT IT MEANS FOR ARSENAL: Well, we will see in May, won’t we. Arsenal was willing to spend upwards of €95m on a player so the money is 100% there to strengthen the squad. I agree with the Arsenal board on sticking to their guns and not getting into a bidding war with Chelsea, but now we have to make our move in this window cause we need players bad. We must have learned our lesson last year when we didn’t sign a soul for reinforcements when we sold our Captain to Barcelona and relied on our fragile squad to take us to Top 4. This year, we are fighting for a PL title and with City stumbling, this is a supreme chance to make this title ours. I won’t get mad at Edu and Arsenal now as we have rest of January to make moves but deals are needed now and with us not spending on Mudryk, there is an opportunity for us to spend on multiple players instead of the one. At the end of the day, we will have to wait for May and the future 3-4 years to see if we missed out on this talent, Arteta usually has a decent eye so it looks like a tough miss on our end but only time will tell. SIGN SOME PLAYERS ARSENAL

Twitter Credits: Fabrizio Romano, David Ornstein, CFCMod_

NOTHING PERSONAL (Arsenal-Chelsea Reaction)

We are in a title challenge. I’ll say it again, we are in a title challenge. I won’t say it with sarcasm, I won’t say it with a “but”, I won’t say we will win the league, but damn it we are fighting for the title with 13 games played. Arsenal defeated Chelsea at the Bridge 1-0 and it was the most dominant 1-0 battering you will ever see this season. We were all over them from the start, just dominating them in their own backyard, Thomas was running the show, Saliba and Gabriel had Auba in their pockets (Auba just had 8 touches in the game), Ben White parenting Mason Mount, just spectacular performances all around from the boys.

Read more: NOTHING PERSONAL (Arsenal-Chelsea Reaction)

THOUGHTS ON THE GAME:

  1. Zinchenko came back at a perfect time: Zinchenko came back at a perfect time when Tomiyasu took a knock this past Thursday. I would have been fine if Tierney was asked to play instead but seeing Zinchenko back at his best despite the weeks off through injuries was a sight to sore eyes. Arteta came came out with the same XI everywhere else and we didn’t skip a beat. Ø I think and Saka at some parts were below par in spurts but all in all, can’t complain with how Arteta started the match.
  2. Thomas Partey is our best player: He just is. He was magnificent today, picking the right passes at the right time. Played his part defensively when he needed to. Nothing gets me more excited in sports than he plays his reverse passes. He was just perfect today in all aspects of his game. When Thomas Partey is at his best, I feel fully confident in the team. He gives us a freedom to be aggressive as long as we know he is patrolling things in the midfield. Just a spectacular performance from our best player.

3. Auba cracks me up man: Aubameyang, this clown had the audacity to come out with those Sky Sports adverts and say dumb stuff like it’s “Nothing Personal” and then goes out and puts a performance where our defense held him to 8 touches in 64 minutes.

Honestly, I don’t have ill will towards Auba since he did so much for us when he was here, but you can’t help but laugh at this stuff man. 8 touches all game, did Potter even select the guy today? Just a weird performance from him considering all that was on the line for him.

4. William Saliba, Gabriel, and Ben White are full of heavy pockets: Mason Mount, Auba, Sterling, and Kai Havertz all need to come out of our boy’s pockets now, it’s getting embarrassing. Just dreadful from their attacking players but masterful from our boys at the back. I still am examining if we were that good at the back or if Chelsea were that anemic going forward. They didn’t have a sniff towards Ramsdale. They had the rare counter but they really didn’t generate any real passage of play or cause Ramsdale any trouble. Any type of deep cross they had, the our men sniffed that stuff out easily. Just amazing stuff from the boys and proud of them but they need to let the kids out of their pockets now.

5. Gabriel Jesus will come good: I’m the first to rag on an Arsenal player if he is not performing to acceptable standards but this isn’t one of those cases. He hasn’t scored but I won’t acknowledge that cause he’s perfect and is doing everything else correctly. 🙂 Also since I am in such a good mood, I won’t come for Ø.

6. Arteta-Ball back in full force – There were a few passages of play where the boys were just straight messing with Chelsea, you love to see it.

Just perfection from everybody except the finish.

7. Need to finish the rest of the games off strong before the World Cup: We have Brighton in the EFL Cup, and Wolves next weekend at the Molineux Stadium. It’s never easy going there as we have seen in the past few years but they are fighting relegation which will be an interesting twist from past encounters. I expect Arteta to rotate as much as he can midweek against Brighton and go with our best XI against Wolves. At this point, every game is a must win to keep up with City so let’s hope the boys finish it off strong. It does feel weird to not complain about anything but here we are, straight vibing. You love to see it.

Twitter credits: ArmeriaGunner, iskaholic

I can’t stand this Raphinha guy

UPDATE: He signed for Barcelona lmaoooo. At a club that also just signed 33-year-old Lewandowski, 6 months after they signed 33-year-old Aubameyang, resigned Ousmane Dembele, and couldn’t keep their club legend, Messi, due to financial reasons went on to sign Raphinha for over £55 million. You can’t help but laugh. How many promises can Xavi make for a forward line that going into next season that has Lewandowski, Aubameyang, Ansu Fati, Memphis, Ferran Torres, Ousmane Dembele, and now Raphinha?

Growing up in elementary school, we all had that school crush that we were madly in love with and we all probably had a moment when the person we had a crush on didn’t feel the same way. Absolutely shitty feeling. You know the only thing worse than that? Still going after the same girl or having feelings for her when she already said she didn’t feel the same way. Nothing short of pathetic at that point. This exact scenario is where Arsenal finds themselves in search of the soon-to-be former Leeds RW, Raphinha. Arsenal were at the middle of June, the leader in the race to sign the Brazilian but Chelsea and Barcelona stepped in and messed everything up.

PLAYER PROFILE : Raphinha, is no doubt an absolutely brilliant player, a prototypical left-footed RW who loves taking on defenders and maneuvering himself to get shots/passes with his left-foot. He’s the type of player who hate to play against as he is always looking to go at defenders, and not the fake always where some players will do feint and then pass the ball back if the defender doesn’t budge. Raphinha LOOKS for it and is successful a decent amount of times. There’s a smoothness with his dribbling and movement which kind of reminds me of Di Maria as they have similar body types and are comfortable left-footed dribblers. They do both pick up different positions as Di Maria is probably the more complete player however Raphinha, I’d say is the more direct player.

This directness I’d say is the main reason why clubs like Barcelona, Chelsea and Arsenal are interested in his services, considering the man played two seasons at Leeds with 25 goals to his name at the club, those are more than decent clubs to be linked to.

Raphinha has an absolute wand of a left foot as well. He loves to hug the touchline on the right flank, and then with a quick bit of acceleration, cut in his right foot and deliver crosses to his attachers:

Why did his teammate go and head the ball as if he was defending lmao

The flair and directness of Raphinha in a team at Leeds that had Dan James as a starter make it so obvious why Raphinha stood out so well at Leeds. Like no fucking shit the man was going to look like Robben reincarnated, these men gave up goals like a NYC turnstile, and wondered why they were fighting relegation all season long.

SITUATION: In the spring of 2022, when Leeds was fighting off relegation, it was pretty well known that Raphinha would more than likely leave the club whether they survived or not (they survived). The former Champions League winner with Barcelona, Deco is his agent and was putting out rumors of Barcelona and Raphinha being linked for months now. If that wasn’t fishy enough, it is well known now that Raphinha prefers the move to Barcelona over any English club with Leeds asking for £60million and £65m for the right winger. Like only Raphinha posting an Instagram story pleading for Barcelona to sign him would make it more obvious.

Deco seated with Raphinha on the day he transferred to Leeds from Rennes

Barcelona who are going through their own financial issues (you know, the one where they couldn’t keep Messi, the one where Pique had to take a pay cut, etc.), i.e they are in a shit ton of debt have been in and out of Raphinha depending on what day of the week it is. This waffling from Barcelona caused Arsenal to get in the mix for Raphinha who they have been tracking for some time now. At one point in early June, it seemed like we were the leaders to nab up the talented Brazilian as Barcelona were busy dealing with their own shit.

Arsenal set to make second bid for Leeds star Raphinha with winger ‘open’ to move as Barcelona drop out of race

Then out of fucking nowhere, Chelsea stepped up again as the constant pain in my ass and decided they wanted to ruin my life. This meant they were willing to agree to Leeds demands for Raphinha which Arsenal could not, as well as provide Champions League football to a player that has not experienced that before.

Even though Chelsea thought they had something with Leeds, Raphinha still yearns to play at the Camp Nou, and at this point, it is almost a complete joke with his team for next season still in the air.

KENT’S CONCLUSION: At this point, I just don’t fucking care if Arsenal sign him. I always thought £60 million for a player who only scored 11 goals last year was a bit rich but in this market, it is essentially big teams overspending on players and hoping they work out (Lukaku, Nico Pépé, Sancho etc.). Would I love to have him? Of course I would. But does he take us to the next level? Maybe? Here are the reasons why I don’t care at all anymore about if he comes to Arsenal

  1. We already have Saka: The man is clearly talented and would improve our team for sure, no questions about it. However, £60 million for a player that plays in Saka’s position isn’t the best use of funds. We also have a Nico Pépé sized transfer fee in the RW position that we still have on our books that we haven’t got rid of yet which makes it a little uncomfortable that we would go head first for another RW.
  2. He clearly doesn’t want to be here: Which is totally fine. It’s clear that his preference is Barcelona, Chelsea , and then a long look down to Arsenal. Arsenal have been an utter joke for a good part of the last decade compared to Barcelona and Chelsea, why would any player choose Arsenal over the other two if they had any sort of ambition. Those clubs have had way more success as of late and are playing Champions League football next season, no reason for Raphinha to choose Arsenal for him if money is all relatively the same, absolutely none and it doesn’t hurt my feelings at all.
  3. This situation is all for a Brazilian not named Neymar: Raphinha has every right to take his time on his next club, but for God’s sake, it’s like this guy is the second coming of Neymar. No way is this guy worth the hassle of stringing Barcelona, Chelsea and Arsenal along for £60 million. Neymar, yes he is worth the hassle for a talent like that. This guy, not even close. At this point, I wouldn’t even want the guy, he clearly rather play at Chelsea or Barcelona. Just take the L and move onto somebody else that hates his club situation enough to come play at Arsenal. 🙂

Video credits: SVMM, NBC, Brazil Scout Premium

Imagine losing a soccer game, could never be me

GET THE FUCK IN FELLAS. Arsenal 4 – Team with no owners 2. Arsenal did it, they really did it. It’s moments like these that make you want to laugh and kill yourself all at the same time. For the past few weeks, I have mentioned that our games in hand(s) aren’t that much of a blessing as they are all games against Big 6 opponents, one of them being Chelsea. Little did I know, that Arsenal would go on to lose 3 straight to Crystal Palace, Brighton and Southampton; and subsequently travel to Stamford Bridge to whoop some Chelsea ass. Only this god forsaken club, I swear. This game puts us right back in the Top 4 hunt which 100% will come back and kill me. Future Kent will worry about that later though.

PREMATCH: With Chelsea coming off a busy week after a grueling Champions League tie with Real Madrid and a FA Cup Semifinal victory over Crystal Palace, you would expect Tuchel to put some rotation in for Arsenal, but little did I know he would have so little respect for us ( I don’t blame him). He put Lukaku back into the starting XI, brought on Malang Sarr to LCB, rested Thiago Silva, and brought in RLC to the CM pivot. Arteta tinkered heavy too by bringing in Rob Holding to CB, pushed Ben White out to RB, put Elneny next to Xhaka in the CM pivot and put Eddie up top over Laca.

SUMMARY: The first half started with Chelsea very much on the front foot with very dangerous corners that Ramsdale didn’t deal with at all (He hasn’t been that convincing for a while now for me). Then we got a gift shaped in a beautiful Danish basket all laid out for us by Andreas Christensen’s misplaced back-pass that Eddie was able to latch on to and put away.

The ability for Eddie to run like a normal human being makes him a net positive compared to what Laca has offered us recently.

In typical Arsenal fashion, legitimately just a few minutes later, Timo Werner got a deflected shot past Ramsdale but who gives a fuck?

I can watch Xhaka bullying Lukaku and Alonso all day long.

Our second goal in the 27th minute by ESR came from a brilliant run by Xhaka who was able to body off Lukaku and meg Alonso in our own box before starting a counter that turned into ESR’s 10th PL goal of the season. Just fucking brilliant by Granit to get us out of pressure. To be fair, he couldn’t have picked two better Chelsea players to just straight up embarrass and dribble past as Lukaku can’t move anymore and Alonso is Alonso. Chelsea were able to equalize soon after as we were sloppy in the back which gave Chelsea the chance to capitalize on a flat footed Nuno at the back post. We went into the half tied up 2-2 with Chelsea and at this point, I just get migraines watching this team play. To be fair, as well as we played as it pertained to the 2-2 score at the time, I thought Chelsea were way below standards as opposed to Arsenal bossing them. Kanté and RLC lost possession so many times. The Chelsea wing backs, Alonso specifically was basically a turnstile that Saka kept toying with like on a busy day at Grand Central. Just no resistance to the Arsenal attack whenever we were able to cross into their half.

SECOND HALF: The second half started with another gift from Chelsea which is super awkward cause Chelsea I don’t think can accept gifts on their end due to various sanctions lmao. With that being said, Nuno capitalized on a loose pass and played it into Eddie who was able to poke the ball in after calamitous defending from Chelsea. Inject this shit into my fucking veins.

Arsenal then did a masterful job of seeing the game out despite the heavy Chelsea pressure to get an equalizer. And then came the beautiful cherry on top.

Arsenal and Kent finally got some luck and were granted a penalty for the vicious mauling Saka took from Azpi. Just a hugely dangerous altercation with Cesar lucky to even stay on the field. There is no place for this type of play in the Premier League. (Between you and me, that is the softest penalty I have ever seen, if this was given against Arsenal, I have no doubt that I would not live to finish the rest of the game. I would have lost my mind and voice but oh well lol, couldn’t be me). Saka converted the penalty and gave us the 4-2 victory as well as a new found look on life if you are a depressed Arsenal fan.

CONCLUSION: Arsenal definitely played well today but it will be a worry to see how easily we conceded those two goals for Chelsea. Regardless, we played well overall and deserved all 3 points. If we played like 50% of that against the 3 previous teams, Arsenal fans wouldn’t be in the mental pretzel we are all in because of this damn team. Chelsea was dreadful. They were poor in all parts of the pitch, if Werner was one of your productive players, you are in for a long one. It was strange to see Chelsea come out so flat in a Arsenal-Chelsea tie but you can most definitely attribute it to the empty seats at the stadium, such a shame. Special shoutout to former Chelsea academy product Eddie Nketiah for scoring his two biggest goals in his Arsenal career when we needed him most. He might, and let me emphasize, might be the reason our season is saved. I thought he played well for this teammates, annoyed the Chelsea defenders when pressing, and moved around the pitch with the speed that is faster than a average human being. What a performance by Eddie.

PREDICTION FOR OUR GAME AGAINST THE UNITED (I swear if we fucking lose): We have an early kick-off with United this Saturday who are coming off an embarrassing loss to Liverpool. With ALL that being said, I am expecting a Man United 3-0 victory over us at the Emirates. Arsenal is the team of life and I am fully expecting us to make Ralf and company feel good about themselves. If Cristiano is able to come back and play from the tragic events that his family just went through, you can bet your ass, 100% he is scoring a hat-trick all over us at the Emirates, book it. This is definitely not a jinx, and will definitely happen this weekend, no way it doesn’t.

MOTM: Thomas Tuchel – nobody helped Arsenal more today than that beautiful man as Chelsea manager. For him to help Arsenal so much by playing a dire squad with absolutely no desire or hunger to win this London Derby is something I can not thank Tuchel enough for doing.

Player I am most thankful for: Eddie Nketiah – being able to move and run faster than an average human being is something I can’t thank him enough for. Looking at you Laca.

Funniest guy: Aaron Ramsdale winding up the Chelsea fans is straight-up gold, love that guy. Just need him to play better

Someone that is going to 100% gets screwed and betrayed in a few weeks: Arsenal fans – I think we all know what is going to happen in the end. However, these types of victories over scum like Chelsea don’t happen often and need to be cherished. I am going to enjoy this game and laugh at Chelsea fans before Arsenal brings me down to Earth in a few days.

PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD BEAT UNITED

Featured image credits: Arsenal

Video Credits: NBC, Random Videos

Arsenal’s April Outlook

Who would have thought as March comes to a close, that I would have to worry about Arsenal having a chance to compete for a Top 4 spot? For the past few years, I have been stuck hoping Arsenal win Europa League knockout rounds against Eastern European farmers such as Slavia Prague to make our season worthwhile. Usually at this point of the season, we are out of the running for Top 4 and I am just causing pain to myself by watching meaningless April games for absolutely no fucking reason. With the international break taking place coming to a close, our Top 4 hopes more than likely will rely on how we perform in these April fixtures outlined below:

I’ll go into what we can expect going into each match and the context that will be taking place around us and our opponents.

CRYSTAL PALACE: As long as Crystal Palace have Patrick Vieira as their manager, they will always be my 2nd favorite team. This game will be hard for me to watch as I’ve enjoyed watching Palace play this season but this is a must-win game for the Gunners. The game will be at Selhurst Park which has given us trouble in the past. Fortunately for us, their two wingers Wilfried Zaha and the talented Michael Olise both picked up knocks over the International break so Patty V needs to chill and let his stars recover after Monday. Even if we get lucky and Zaha and Olise are out, Palace still have an in-form Conor Gallagher who is in my current PL TOTY with how well he has played. Back when we played them in October, it was a back and forth 2-2 draw with Mikel playing Ødegaard in a deep playmaking role next to Thomas. Both teams have changed drastically so no point in delving too much into that game but as long as we somehow get revenge on James McCarthur if he touches the field, I’ll be happy. Such a fuckm that guy. PREDICTION Arsenal 1 – Crystal Palance 0, ESR to get our goal off the bench.

What an idiot he is and to make it more ridiculous, just got a yellow for a blatant kick to Saka’s legs.
Continue reading “Arsenal’s April Outlook”
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