As someone who knows firsthand that nothing is guaranteed in this god-forsaken league, I’ll take the 3 points where I can get them every day of the week and twice on Sunday but lord have mercy have we got away with it today. It wasn’t pretty, but Arsenal scraped by a tough Palace team to pick up a 1-0 win at Selhurst Park. Flashback to when Arsenal opened up last season at Selhurst Park to open the season, it was champagne football from Arteta’s men and today it was nothing close. It wasn’t the worst and there is a sense of overreaction but I will explain why I am so frustrated with today’s wack performance. With it being two games into the season, I’ll take 3 points every single time but willing to trade performances over results this part of the season for sure, all that being said, here were my thoughts on the match:
Continue reading “We better be working towards peaking in the back half of this season cause today was not it (Arsenal – Palace reaction)”Tag: Nketiah
BRING THESE CLOWNS ON IN THE LEAGUE (Arsenal-City FA CUP reaction)
Nobody knew what to expect tonight when the PL leaders Arsenal and City faced off in the FA Cup. Maybe some people were expecting a barn burner of a game with two high-pressing, high-octane offenses would clash for the first time this season and instead, they got a cagey, kind of dull, lethargic FA Cup tie. City squeaked out a 1-0 win at the Etihad to advance in the Cup but you won’t find me pressed about it.
THOUGHTS ON THE MATCH:
PREMATCH: I played every scenario of what I thought would happen tonight. With City, there is always a possibility of getting smacked, look at their 6-3 win over United and their 4-0 win against Chelsea in the last round. The tough guys would say play your starters full throttle, don’t be afraid of City so on and so forth. As cool as that is, the players are human beings and deep down it wouldn’t be the same for them in a FA Cup 4th round when they know they face these guys in the league in a few weeks. City also have the ability to smack us with 4 goals with all of our starters if we don’t show up as well so not giving them the chance to have that mental edge on us is something I was cognizant about before the match. You also don’t want to play a lineup with all reserves which could also have its own significance in a harmful way if beaten handily. If I were Arteta, I would have started the match exactly like he did: a mix of starters and capable reserves to shore out and respect a vaunted City side (Turner-Tomiyasu-Holding-Gabriel-Tierney-Thomas-Xhaka-Saka-Vieira-Trossard-Eddie). That is 6 changes from the usual PL starting XI we put out as City essentially put out their best XI in regards to their latest matches which shows what Arteta and Pep thought about today’s game. Arteta looking to rest some of his key players and fully looking at the league with Pep looking for City to make a statement and after the match today, you’d have to say Arteta won.
FIRST HALF: I thought we edged the first half by a decent margin. You can see from the start that Arteta kept his principles the same and had the boys pressing from the start. There were times that it worked but you can tell that there is no better team in world football that is capable of breaking a press like City. Trossard picked up some good moments early, going at their young RB Rico Lewis. Noticed that he doesn’t mind going down the line with his weaker left foot and forced a decent save out of Ortega. He also earlier crossed the ball with his weaker foot which found a surging Tomiyasu who caught all of the ball but Ortega did well to get a strong hand on it. Other than that, City were admittedly poor given the stakes and who each team was fielding. Haaland’s touch was all over the place, Mahrez and Grealish were non-existent, Gundogan and Rodri were just passengers etc.
SECOND HALF: You can tell that Pep got in their asses and City came out a bit faster with more purpose in the second half. They were imposing themselves or trying to at least but I think Arsenal handled it as well as they could for the most part before Ake squeezed a shot past Turner. We got some of the big boys on to get something out of the game but it was a bit too much at the end. We definitely had our chances and picked it up after we conceded but the energy and drive to get that goal was not the same when trying to compare on how we chased that winner against United. Just different class and scenario for us and we bow out of the FA Cup to City. Not a bad result at all, matched them for 90 minutes away from home with a rotated squad while they played their best XI. You obviously don’t love to lose but this match just cemented how we should smack them when they come to the Emirates when the league is at stake. You can penalize us for not being as motivated as we should for this game but you would have to double that on how City performed with who they fielded during a home game against the PL leaders.
Continue reading “BRING THESE CLOWNS ON IN THE LEAGUE (Arsenal-City FA CUP reaction)”PICKING UP RIGHT WHERE WE LEFT OFF (ARSENAL-WEST HAM REACTION)
My biggest nightmare coming into this match is that all 0ur form up until the World Cup would wash over with a 6 week break. We lost Gabi Jesus to an injury, maybe our players returning to the World Cup would be too exhausted, and maybe it would take a game or two for our starters to get back into form, just so many variables up in the air that we could not afford with Man City on our ass. And damn straight, the boys picked up right where they left off with a resounding 3-1 over West Ham at home.
THOUGHTS ON THE MATCH:
- This Arsenal team is built different: We went 0-1 down through a marshmallow-soft pen and even at that point, I was still 100% confident that we would get 3 points. From the first whistle, Arsenal asserted their dominance over West Ham. I was very shocked with how West Ham approached this game but it is a credit to Arsenal and Arteta up until this point of the season where teams need to sit back against this Arsenal team. Even though we went down 0-1 at half time with a pen against the run of play, Arsenal came out like gang busters in the 2nd half and ran West Ham off the pitch with 3 goals to complete our performance, what a win.
- Ødegaard keeps proving me wrong: If there was anybody that we needed to step up, it was Martin, no World Cup with the rest of the front line at the World Cup in Qatar, we would need him to lead us through his energy and passing and that is what he just did.
With West Ham sitting in such a low block for the majority of the match, Ødegaard to his credit put the onus on himself to create something for us through his passing and movement.
I have been on Martin Ødegaard for much of the season for his performances away from home, but so far, this guy as shown up repeatedly for us as our captain and deserves nothing but credit from me and for me to shut up.
3. Fabianski needs to just stop:
Objectively one of the worst attempts I have seen from a professional keeper. To be beaten like this at your near post is just appalling and embarrassing at the same time.
4. Seeing Wenger celebrating an Arsenal goal had me emotional:
I have seen this clap from Wenger numerous times over the years, and it felt nostalgic to see it come from him again. First time back at the stadium since he left as Arsenal manager and I am happy for him that he got the reception he deserved.
5. Eddie Nketiah stepped up when we need him most: Everybody outside of the Arsenal fan base got what they wanted and it was “How Arsenal would fare without Gabriel Jesus?” Last season, towards the back of the season, to no fault of Eddie, we faltered and lost our Champions League spot with him leading our line. This season, the squad is way more revamped with most of our players much better than where we were last season, by default, Eddie should be better as well and it looks like we didn’t skip a beat with Eddie and no Gabi Jesus. However, it was only one game against a struggling opponent, with tougher games against Brighton and Newcastle coming up, Eddie will need to keep it up to keep Man City off our ass.
6. Transfers are 100% needed in January: For us to make a competent challenge in both the Premier League title and Europa League title (Thursday-Sunday turnaround), reinforcements are needed in January. Most likely, we need one in attack and one in midfield. In defense, we are set with Saliba, Gabriel, Tomiyasu, Ben White, Tierney, Zinchenko rotation. With Gabi Jesus going down and ESR not back yet from his injury, we are a Saka, Martinelli, Ødegaard injury from being in deep shit. The Mudryk fella from Ukraine would be a suitable transfer in for a decent price, nothing more than $40m. And we also need midfield replacement like Tielemans from Leicester. If Xhaka and god forbid Thomas Partey went down, Elneny and Lokonga wouldn’t be up to speed for the things we are competing for.
Featured image credits: Getty
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