Tag: Fulham

Clown show at the Emirates again (Arsenal-Fulham reaction)

My life is an utter joke supporting this god-damn team. Back in the friendly confines of the Emirates, everyone is back and fully healthy, and then leave it to Arteta and Arsenal to absolutely stink up the joint with a 2-2 draw at home to Fulham. Not sure how I will make it the rest of the season, we are only 3 games in folks.

THOUGHTS ON THE MATCH:

  1. This Kai Havertz experiment needs to end yesterday: Never made sense when we bought him, didn’t make sense when we played with him through the pre-season, and it still doesn’t make fucking sense why we bought this brother 3 games in. If you are Arteta, why the fuck, would you completely change our style of play to a guy who doesn’t create value in possession, doesn’t have elite goal-scoring prowess, and doesn’t combine well with the rest of the team. We have absoltely shoe-horned him into a side to the detriment of Thomas Partey, Gabriel Jesus, Zinchenko and Gabriel etc and many others. It isn’t a fucking accident that we almost immediately were more threatening and dangerous when Havertz left the pitch. Martinelli looks a completely different player when Havertz is on the pitch vs. somebody he can combine with such as Fabio Vieira. If you wanted someone to dilly-dally and float through a game, Havertz is your guy, but when you are trying to chase City for a Premier league title chase, don’t get me started on what Arteta and company were thinking of bringing this guy to the club. Pep must have been choking himself to death from laughing when he saw Arsenal go in and splash that mich money over this guy. United next week, stop playing around and put Partey-Rice-Ø in the midfield.
  2. Saka and Martinelli also stinking up the joint: What Saka must have been thinking when he just gave Fulham a goal out of absolutely nothing.

No one was even close to the ball. You’d like to think Saka rebounded after this but that would make too much sense for one of your best players to step up after a dreadful mistake. Him and Martinelli made Tete and Robinson look like perennial defenders the way they let them defend them. Martinelli, I’ll give more defense too cause he had absolutely nobody to play off of, Saka had no excuses for the horror show that ensued afterwards.

3. Partey-Rice-Ø midfield is the way forward: This experiment with Partey at RB to be our inverted fullback also needs to be stopped especially with Zinchenko back and fully healthy. I could see what Arteta was trying to do by putting Partey at RB to help get Havertz into the team but its not great, it is way different putting a midfielder into a defensive role than it is the other way around with Zinchenko being a midfielder turned into a LB. Arteta needs to put his pride aside and just admit he completely fucked up the Havertz deal and go back to what made us unstoppable last season, White-Saliba-Gabriel-Zinny at the back, Partey-Rice-Ø in the midfield with Saka-Martinelli-Jesus leading the line. Havertz and Fabio can give us a different look if needed but no way should we be toiling with Havertz in our starting XI. Think about it, This Arsenal team took were on pace for 100 points halfway through last season with a stellar squad and this season, to shoehorn Havertz into the squad, he has benched one of the best CBs in the league in Gabriel, moved Partey to RB which means Zinchenko can’t play. Just absolute madness

4. At the end of the day we probably deserved a draw and nothing more: Fabio did well to combine with Martinelli to create a penalty and the cross was sublime to take the lead but the build-up in that second goal had Saka absolutely fouling Bassey with one of the dirtiest plays every, very similar to what Ramos did to Salah in the CL final in 2018, and we played on and scored. We got away with one against VAR but Fulham then went on and equalized with 10-men afterwards. At the end of the day, our performance didn’t deserve a win but we definitely didn’t deserve to score that 2nd goal the way we did.

Continue reading “Clown show at the Emirates again (Arsenal-Fulham reaction)”

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

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

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