GoonerKent

THANK GOODNESS THIS DAMN SEASON IS OVER (Arsenal-Wolves reaction)

Maybe next week, maybe next month, I can reflect positively on what Arsenal achieved this season but seeing what the Arsenal social media team has put out as it pertains to glancing over the negative performances with positive meaningless fluff videos, none of the players apologizing or acknowledging how they bottled this season away, Arteta talking about how we are going to go back at it next season, it just makes my skins crawl. I’m not really blaming anybody because anybody would try to focus on the positives over the negatives, that is human nature, but the way the club and players, in my opinion, haven’t come out and acknowledge how they messed up doesn’t sit right with me. Instead, they are going to give these happy end of the season posts, thank the fans, all that BS after we smashed Wolves 5-0 to end the season and act like everything is good. All I ask for is some accountability from the club, players, and manager.

Nonetheless, Arsenal rolled over a very poor, lethargic Wolves side to finish the season in 2nd place on 84 points, a remarkable achievement with no context and when comparing against prior seasons, but with how we choked it away, it definitely will be something that will not go away anytime soon.

THOUGHTS ON THE MATCH:

XHAKA Farewell: I’ll keep all my thoughts on the season for another post and focus on what happened today, with Xhaka quietly announcing today will be his last game for the club, there is not a better way to say goodbye than with two goals to close his account as an Arsenal player. It is a shame he will not be with us next season when we play Champions League football as he was one of the main players that stuck through the tough times for this moment, but he is going to a wonderful manager in Xabi Alonso at Leverkusen with a country/league he is comfortable playing in, nothing but respect to the great Granit Xhaka. It wasn’t pretty, it got bad at some points, but he worked his ass off always, showed that he cared about the club and always stood up and took on responsibility when he didn’t have to. What a guy, Granit Xhaka.

2. No team shows up like last-game-of-season-Arsenal: These guys are shameless man, when the lights are off, and pressure gone, these guys have the audacity to smack 5 past Wolves and act like the past two months have not happened, you gotta laugh, otherwise you will cry. Xhaka had himself two goals, Saka with a delicious finish to the far post, Gabriel with a backpost header, Kiwior squeezing in a goal at the end, just shameless. Arteta went and put out Thomas Partey in a back 4 and it worked today but didn’t last week. Who knows if it would have saved our season ultimately but it would have saved us from not having to see Rob Holding back out there as an Arsenal player, that is for damn sure. All things considered though, Wolves were embarassing today.

3. Today’s game didn’t matter so will save all my thoughts on the actual season for next time.

PLAYER RATINGS:

Ramsdale: 8/10 – Didn’t have anything to do if I am not mistaken when it comes to saves

Thomas Partey: 8/10 – Much more comfortable today than last week, probably lots of random factors that come into that, but had more of his brilliance and influence on today’s game.

Ben White: 7/10 – He was good

Gabriel: 7/10 – So was Gabriel

Kiwior: 7/10 – Got himself a goal, not sure where he fits in long-term but his skills on the ball is something to behold.

Jorginho: 7/10 – Played a wonderful ball to Trossard for our 4th goal

Xhaka: 10/10 – What a guy

Saka: 6/10 – Had a wonderful goal but can’t get these past few months out of my head with him, needs to make it up next season.

Odegaard: 7/10 – What a season from him.

Trossard: 7/10 – Picked up two more assists today, what a signing he has been for us, will be massive next season when we are competing in both the league and the Champions League

Gabriel Jesus: 7.5/10 – had a goal to sign off his first season with us, will need much more from him next season.

New Arsenal Jersey: 6/10 – The jersey itself is fine, I hate the gold shoulder stripes, I’m more old-school about it with any bold gold markings on a jersey should be saved for titles, not anniversaries.

Wolves: 10/10 – Literally went out and there and didn’t give a fuck, I gotta respect it.

END THE SEASON (Arsenal-Brighton reaction)

It has been real, it has been fun, but it hasn’t been real fun. In the most embarrassing way possible, Arsenal bowed out of the title race at home by getting dogwalked by Brighton 3-0 . Completely outclassed, outworked, outthought, outfought by a superior Brighton team. Just embarrassing from start to finish by the supposed title challengers.

THOUGHTS ON THE MATCH:

Arteta might actually just be an idiot: He has done well to get us to this point but I am starting to think this guy might just be a clown. Arteta went out and played the same starting XI he did against Newcastle which is all fine and dandy when you look at it high-level, but when you are playing an up and running, physical Newcastle side where you might need a Jorginho to bring some control to a game. But when you are at home and are playing a Brighton side that plays similar to how Arsenal do with their high press – build from the back style, you might want to try something different than playing a Xhaka-Jorginho pivot. The Brighton midfield trio of Gilmour, Gross and Mac Allister absolutely took the piss out of the Arsenal midfield today by their inability to ever lose the ball, nip and tuck fouls to stagger the Arsenal play and pretty much overrunning the unathletic immobile duo of Xhaka and Jorginho. Arsenal could never get a grip in the center of the pitch and Arsenal paid the price. If only we had a more athletic, phyiscally imposing and simply better player on our bench that could help (We did, and his name is Thomas Partey).
We need to have a discussion on Saka: This has become really really bad. This man hasn’t turned up for what feels like a month now, essentially when we have needed him most, he has completely non-existent and nobody says or does anything about it. For example, you could make the argument that he was the worst player on the pitch but somehow he was the only one that didn’t get subbed off. This protection of Saka is strange and is definitely warrants questions that need to be asked of why he gets so much protection from the media and Arteta. Supposedly, our best player but doesn’t show up when we need him most, weird.
Arsenal bottled it, straight up: I don’t want to hear anything about City, Arsenal weren’t supposed to be here or anything like that. In a 7 game stretch where you play Liverpool, West Ham, Southampton, City, Chelsea Newcastle, and Brighton and you only win 2 of the games, nah, I’m not sorry, you choked. You want to win the title, how about you win some games, how about that? You want to win the title but get slapped up by your main rivals home and away? Nah, not how it works. Even the Klopp Liverpool sides that lost out to City, they at least defended their home fixture and gave City something to worry about, we just continually get cooked by City home and away, it doesn’t matter. So high level, of course you can say Arsenal didn’t choke cause we were never supposed to be here but that is now how this works. You perform the way we did in the last 7 games, win 2/7 games, dropping 12 points out of a 21 possible in the meat end of the season, nothing other than a chokejob.
Saliba about to be a very rich man: There are many reasons we are in the position we are in at the moment, dropping 12/21 points, embarrassing performances at the Emirates etc. and it all be attributed to when we lost William Saliba to injury. You can argue that since we lost to him to that Sporting tie, shit hasn’t been the same, you can make an argument that we replcaed him with a useless piece of life in Rob Holding but regardless, once the spine of our team fell apart, so did our title chances. Thomas Partey hasn’t quite been at his best without Saliba behind him. And with Saliba now fighting for a new contract with Arsenal, all he has to do is show the last 7 games and Arsenal can’t really do much else than to pay this guy.
If you think Jorginho is better than Thomas Partey, you are the problem.
I can’t even get mad at the ref for being incompetent at his job because we were so shit today: When Alexis stepped on Kiwior, how was that not looked at? Don’t get me started on the assistant referee trying to flag Trossard offside on an throw-in, can’t make this shit up.
END THE SEASON

Arsenal boys showed up, but seems a little too late given how it seems impossible to drop points for City

Wow, forgot how much I hate Newcastle and their obese fans. A year ago last year, they were wholly responsible for knocking us out of the Champions League places after bullying us up and down the pitch at St. James to get a 2-0 win over us and fully sending me down a spiral of depression.

Earlier this year, they played us to the most 0-0 draw at the Emirates which an absurd amount of timewasting, fouling, complaining etc. Credit to them, they left the Emirates with a point but karma is such a bitch. Newcastle to their credit, have been tearing up the league since their Carabao Cup final loss to United and have bullied and punished teams in their backyard. Today, the Arsenal boys stood up for themselves and shithoused and fought out a 2-0 win away at St. James. Not much has changed in the title run with City refusing to lose, but at the end of the day, all we can do now given our recent mess ups is to keep the pressure so we move onto the next week.

THOUGHTS ON THE MATCH:

We might have got away with one but sometimes, that is how things go: Literally from the get-go, Newcastle had banged a shot off the post and had a close-penalty shot with Bruno G. having a clear shot on goal form the top of the box. It felt like deja-vu from last year with their fans right on top of us with their players running free right through our midfield. Joe Willock also had a clear shot on Ramsdale and puts up a terrible attempt and shoots right at him and had another one in the second half when Xhaka puts in a game-saving tackle to keep the shot out of the net. Joelinton had a clear header in the box after a Zinchenko disasterclass that hit the post. Despite the 2-0 win, it felt like we got away with one, sometimes that happens but we just remember to count our blessings cause another day, this could have been compeltely different.

VAR AND OFFICIALS TRIED BUT WE KEEP WINNING, 3 POINTS FOR THE GOOD GUYS (Arsenal – Leicester reacition)

After disastrous defeats to Everton and City and a disappointing draw at home to Brentford, Arsenal has fortunately rebounded with two huge away wins at Villa and at Leicester today with a 1-0 victory. Arsenal have extended their lead at the top to 5 points and gives us room to breathe while City playing Bournemouth in the coming hour.

Table: Arsenal have now extended their lead at the top of the Premier League to five points, albeit perhaps briefly, as Manchester City travel to Bournemouth this evening, with kick-off moments away. #afc pic.twitter.com/nXVbcOFLOO
— afcstuff (@afcstuff) February 25, 2023

All things considered, Arsenal seemed to have somewhat stabled and righted the wavering ship, games against Everton midweek and Bournemouth are prime opportunities for Arsenal to pick up points and put pressure on City.

THOUGHTS ON THE MATCH:

Leicester was dreadful. Leicester who still has so much to play for in their quest to not get relegated were objectively poor today, considering the circumstances of playing at home, with the league leaders coming into town, and they just stood back and soaked all the unnecessary pressure. Arsenal playing teams that dive into a low-intensity low-block is my favorite type of team to play. They offered no staggered pressing at all to switch things up like Brentford did, they had no cohesive strategy whenever they did win the ball which left Kelechi ridiculously isolated between Gabriel and Saliba, just an all-around disaster from Leicester, not complaining by any means, just saying the biggest driver to Arsenal’s 1-0 victory.
Martinelli rollercoaster continues: In the first half, this man was driving me crazy. Every decision he made, was the wrong one. As a right-footed LW, he seems satisfied with just going down the line to play on his weaker foot, not even giving the defender an inkling of doubt that, you know, he might want to get on his right to wrap a right-footed shot at their shit keeper. Just maddening, as well as the few times the ball got stuck to his feet when we were intricately playing around the box and he just fucked it up. But to be consistent with what he has done all year, he gets us that all-important goal to solidify the 3 points with a devastating run for the easy finish. Just an enigma for me right now, but as long as he is scoring, I won’t say a word.