Tag: Match Reaction

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 needed to win today to secure Champions League but instead promptly lost 2-0 to Newcastle because Arsenal

They did it to me again. The one constant in my life, that I can always count on, is for these clowns to let me down, time after time. There is nothing for me to say anymore, I can’t even make “kill myself” jokes anymore watching this team cause I might actually at this point. With 3 games left in the season this is what the standings looked like (on 5/12/2022):

Arsenal had 4 points on Spurs with a win against them last Thursday securing Champions League if they weren’t cowards.

Arsenal had 4 points on Spurs with 3 games left with a victory over them last Thursday being all we needed to secure that 4th place spot. Now you probably know, this is what happened last Thursday against Spurs:

Things I wish Arsenal did today to make me not want to kill myself

Despite me overreacting and panicking after the Spurs defeat, WE WERE STILL GOOD. We had a point over them which meant if we won our next two games, we would qualify for Champions League but nah. After Arsenal doing what they do best which was massively choke against Newcastle where a win would still keep us ahead of Spurs going into the final weekend, this is what the standings look like with one game left:

Just absolutely have to get the bath and toaster ready.

Continue reading “Arsenal needed to win today to secure Champions League but instead promptly lost 2-0 to Newcastle because Arsenal”

Arsenal almost blew a two-goal lead to 10 men Leeds

There is nothing like supporting Arsenal Football Club I swear. No team is able to be gifted great opportunities to only almost utterly collapse at the end and ruin everything. Arsenal (2) – Leeds (1). At this point, I keep stressing, results over performances. 3 points are all that matter despite how abject we were today against Leeds.

FIRST HALF: Coming into the match, Leeds found themselves just outside of the relegation zone with any point(s) helping in their cause to stay in the top division in England. We deployed Ramsdale in goal with a newly formed back 4. Cédric took up the right-back position with Holding and Gabriel as our center backs with Ben white still recovering from an injury. Arteta deployed Tomiyasu at left-back over Nuno Tavares which I am assuming was to make sure Raphinha from Leeds was kept in check and he probably didn’t trust Nuno to do as much. Legit before I could get myself settled into the game, Arsenal was gifted the easiest goal we will get all year from the Leeds keeper:

All things being considered, if I was fighting relegation, I would not have let the other team (Arsenal) have such an easy goal, but that’s just me. Arsenal were then able to break the game open the game a few minutes later with Martinelli doing well to get free on the left flank before cutting a cross back to Eddie for the easy finish:

And it just got worse for Leeds when Luke Ayling goes in with two feet on Martinelli with the stupidest tackle you’ll see all weekend to give Arsenal the pleasure of playing against 10-men:

Just the absolute dumbest thing Ayling could have put his team through

Continue reading “Arsenal almost blew a two-goal lead to 10 men Leeds”

We still out here breathing (Arsenal-West Ham reaction)

Results over performances. Results over performances. Results over performances. 3 words to live by at this point of the season. These guys man… 6 points off West Ham this season and Arteta continues to prove me wrong, you love to fucking see it. Two goals form our center backs for a 2-1 victory over West Ham at the Olympic Stadium?!?!? By any means necessary and keeps us on pace with Spurs in the race for Top 4.

At the end of the day, the May 12th game between Arsenal and Spurs will more than likely decide who gets 4th place HOWEVER if Liverpool beats Spurs next weekend, the NLD becomes a game where Arsenal just has to not lose and will also, in turn, assist my blood pressure levels. Don’t get me started on the possibility of catching Chelsea for 3rd place but one scum team at a time. Elneny and Rob Holding were the two standout performers for me on the day. I am still not sure the starting XI that we put out there is one that is fighting for Top 4 but here we are.

Aaron Ramsdale has been holding down the fort despite his recent struggles in the net. Tomiyasu has been fighting calf injuries all season long. Holding is an Arsenal cult hero but has been involved in Arsenal’s recent struggles for the past few seasons. Gabriel is my Brazilian left-footed lover. Nuno is my favorite Portuguese in the world who I love to hate and hate to love. If Elneny gets us to Top 4, I might have to pick up an Egyptian Citizenship. This Granit Xhaka love story at Arsenal would win an Academy Award. Ødegaard might be the best Norwegian player in the world (including Haaland, Im kinda joking but also kinda not). Saka is a starboy. Martinelli never stops running. I won’t say a bad word about Eddie until I see how our season ends.

You love to fucking see it boys, get innnnnnnn.

Featured image credits: Premier League

Video Credits: NBC

We may never lose again

Only at this club can we lose 3 straight to Palace, Brighton, Southampton, and beat Chelsea and United like nothing happened. The performance wasn’t perfect, United was better for large stretches but I also just don’t give a fuck. Arsenal (3) – United (1) and I’m taking the 3 points and running off to enjoy my weekend. At this point of the season, it is only about the results and nothing else. The performances would be nice to have but at the end of the day, they mean fuck all if the results don’t follow. The 3 points for Arsenal have most likely put United out of the top 4 for good and keeps us on pace with the scum (Spurs).

PREMATCH/FIRST HALF: Mikel went with with pretty much the same XI that started against Chelsea with the lone change coming from Cédric coming in for Holding which pushed Ben White back next to Gabriel. The 7:30 am games are usually the ones where Arsenal loves to fuck me but instead, we came out and drew first blood thanks to the masterclass defending of Varane and Telles:

Nuno my guy, needs to work on that knee slide. Gotta be on the wet grass but he will learn in time.
Continue reading “We may never lose again”

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 – Liverpool Reaction (Premier League)

If you made a carbon copy of our 2nd leg in the Carabao Cup semifinals against Liverpool, you’d come up with the exact same match today. Arsenal came up short today in what is very common against Liverpool as of late with a score of 0-2 with goals from Diogo Jota and Roberto Firmino being the difference. There is just a gulf in class between the two sides that we can’t overcome at the moment. In no way shape or form did Arsenal play poor today, there was just a better side on the other side and I can live with that. I predicted a 3-1 loss to Liverpool so a 2-0 scoreline feels pretty much expected with how things turned out. Liverpool are just more experienced and composed in these big-time matchups compared to us. One could say Liverpool didn’t play that well today, if you looked at Jürgen Klopp’s reaction throughout the match, he never looked please at all and they still were dragging our asses up and down the field. Everytime we looked to pose a threat, they were able to snuff out all of what we were trying to create offensively and smartly chose their moments to press and hit us on the counter when it seemed fit.

Table Outlook:

With all that being said, I think even Mikel Arteta at his core would’ve nailed this game as a loss, especially with a Liverpool team that has everything to play for in obtaining the league title. Arsenal still controls their destiny but matchups with Chelsea and Spurs away are not a given but it is more than what I could ask for going into this season so I’ll take what I can get despite this loss.

PREMATCH-FIRST HALF: Mikel put out an unchanged side from the team that beat Leicester on Sunday which was expected. I mentioned that I wouldn’t have minded if he switched to a back 3 for this game but don’t blame if for going with the lineup that has got us to this point. My hypocritical ass would have been the first one to come for him if he switched things up and it didn’t work. Klopp benched Salah for today’s game which was a surprise but when you have Jota, Mané and Luis Diaz leading your line, you’ll probably be just fine. The game started with Liverpool retaining a good amount of the possession. Arsenal then grew into the game and would say had most of the chances for bulk of the first half. Martinelli was having his way with Trent down the left flank just like in the Carabao Cup ties and was our main source of threat in the first half as shown below:

Continue reading “Arsenal – Liverpool Reaction (Premier League)”

Arsenal – Watford Reaction

Absolutely get the fuck in fellas. Arsenal did their best to make the match by letting Watford back in but a solid performance away from home saw us see out Watford 3-2. Goals from Ødegaard, Saka, and Martinelli saw us through in a somewhat comfortable manner. This result is a massive 3 points considering our fixture list coming up. Arsenal feel like a double-edged sword for me at the moment with every win comes more pressure, and with more pressure comes increase sadness if they mess this up. Looking at the table, we are the clear favorites for that 4th position at this point. It’s hard not to get excited to be in this position we are in currently but as Arsenal fans, we know better than to get our hopes up with this team. Future Kent can deal with whatever Arsenal does to me later, right now, let’s just be happy that we aren’t United fans.

PRE-MATCH/FIRST HALF: Mikel went out and out with the same team that started against Wolves with ESR and Tomiyasu being the notable players not in the squad today. Watford had more changes with Joao Pedro and Cucho Hernandez coming in for Josh King and Ismaila Sarr. The match started with Watford heaving it up and you could clearly tell that Ben White and Gabriel were switched off. Watford then were able to play Emmanuel Dennis through for a goal 18 fucking seconds in however Tierney “cleverly” made sure he was in an offside position. Thank fucking goodness, almost had me unwell not in a minute into the game. Then a couple minutes later Cédric, Saka, and Ødegaard sweetly combined to put us ahead with one of the nicest flicks you’ll see coming off the Norwegian’s heel.

Continue reading “Arsenal – Watford Reaction”

Arsenal-Wolves Reaction

Let’s gooooooooooo!!! 3 points are all that matters and the boys got the job done today. This match had typical Arsenal screwing it up when the pressure is on at home, the crowd gets all amped up, and then Arsenal usually would find a way to fuck it all up. But today, not sure what deal Arteta made with the devil but the opposite happened. It wasn’t pretty, it was sloppy, it was damn ugly, it made me not want to live for most of the game, but we made it out with 3 points and moving onto the next match. Arsenal nabbed a goal in extra-time to take us past Wolves at the Emirates with a score of 2-1. With Spurs losing to Burnley yesterday and Wolves fighting for top 4 with us, this match ended up being a 6 point swing between us and Wolves as you can see from the league table before this week’s matches:

And now after….

Continue reading “Arsenal-Wolves Reaction”

Arsenal-Wolves Reaction

LET’S GOOOOOOO. What a stupid soccer match. This team never fails to raise my blood pressure but somehow pulled off a 1-0 win over Wolves at the Molineux Stadium through a Gabriel goal in the 25th minute. Such a massive 3 points by Arsenal away from home while also keeping a clean sheett.

PRE MATCH/TEAM SELECTION – The team selection was just about what I expected barring Cédric coming in for Tomiyasu. ESR found himself on the bench but only due to Arteta going with the XI that he has preferred for the past couple of months. Wolves came out with their expected with their keeper Jose Sá being their standout player up until this point of the season with their manager doing quite a decent job with the team in his first season in Bruno Lage. Also, every game against Wolves reminds me that Daniel Podence is a footballer and then I always wish he was on our team only for that day as he always shows up against us.

Continue reading “Arsenal-Wolves Reaction”
Exit mobile version
%%footer%%