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: Odegaard
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.
GABI JESUS IS BACK (Arsenal – Leeds reaction)
Saka out with an illness, Saliba out indefinitely, Tomiyasu out for the season, Man City battered Liverpool 4-1 earlier today, not what you want to see as an Arsenal going into this Leeds game but we handled them with a second-half onslaught to take us back to 8 points clear with a game in hand despite all those things going against us with a 4-1 win over relegation fodder Leeds. Gabi Jesus got back on the scoresheet with two goals, Trossard got himself another assist, Xhaka got a goal, Thomas Partey didn’t get injured and I didn’t have to suffer through a roller-coaster of a game. All to play for with 9 matches left, 9 cup finals, let’s do it fellas.
WE GOT WHAT WE DESERVE despite var being the biggest waste of time and money for everyone involved. Kill me (Arsenal-Brentford reaction)
And just like that, Arsenal dropped another two points at home to mid-table Brighton with a 1-1 draw at the Emirates. Very frustrating afternoon considering the opportunity we had to rebound from a 1-0 loss to Everton last week, and we were at home, it was all set up for us to smack Brentford before Man City on Wednesday and it was not good enough, to say the least. 4/10 and 5/10 all over the pitch for Arsenal players, with all to play for is disappointing but we move to Wednesday against Man City.
THOUGHTS ON THE FIRST HALF: Arteta started with the same starting XI we have seen for most of this season and I think we are at a point where we need a change or two to spice things up. Arsenal saw a lot of possession to start the match as you would expect but Brighton unlike the earlier matchup between the two teams was well-organized and stood up to the Gooners at every turn. Martinelli, Eddie and Xhaka for me, were way below the standards we had set for ourselves heading into this match, never getting and coming into the match like we needed them to, made life easy for Brentford whenever they received the ball around the box. Just a lack of cutting edge from our standout players this season. If we are being honest, Brentford had the more clear-cut chances in the first half with well worked counters between Mbuemo and Ivan Toney up top where Arsenal didn’t cope with the pressure well at all. Rico Henry had a sitter where he incredibly hit it off target and Toney hit the crossbar with a wide open net as well. The chances for Arsenal were few and far between where there were spells of well-worked possession and intricate passing around the box but we were never able to open the low block/5 defender set that Brentford set themselves up with, leaving both teams going into the half tied 0-0.
THOUGHTS ON THE SECOND HALF: Arteta seemed to have gotten into the Arsenal players at the half as we came out of the blocks with may more intent and pressure than the first half. Arteta knew what was at stake and before the 60th minute mark, got Trossard ready to come in for Martinelli which was surprising, given the fact that Arteta usually waits on subs instead of being aggressive to make changes. Trossard who benefitted from the tired Brentford legs was lively from the start and was giving Roerslev the runaround a bit before Saka found space and time on the right to whip in a cross which was was well-finished and well-timed by Trossard:
It was a perfect moment. Arsenal had broken the deadlock and secured themselves 3 points to extend the lead before this debacle:
Just terrible, fucking terrible. Zinchenko getting pinned off, Saliba was dominated by Pinnock, Ramsdale all at sorts, and Toney had the easiest goal in his life.
BUT Lee Mason, that disgusting human being who was on VAR assignment for the game failed to take into account Christian Norgaard’s positioning for the goal. He did not draw the offside line for the Danish midfielder which then allowed for the goal to stand for Brentford. Just an abysmal performance from the Premier League, PGMOL, and Lee Mason for not doing the bare minimum for their job. Like the only reason VAR should exist is to get the objective parts of the game right, and they have failed in VAR’s tenure to do that consistently. It’s so basic, so frustrating.
At the end of the day, Arsenal weren’t good enough over the 90 minutes to get the 3 points, fair to say Arsenal are hitting their current low point of the season and needs to get their heads back yesterday before things unravel even worse, no better time to do it then against title challenger City on Wednesday.
MATCH RATINGS:
Ramsdale: 5/10: Made decent saves throughout but in the biggest moment of the game, came up short
Ben White: 5/10: Been pretty poor for the past few weeks
Saliba: 5/10: Outdueled by Toney for most of the game, lost out to Pinnock for the goal
Gabriel: 5/10: Struggled a bit as well
Zinchenko: 6/10: Tried hard
Xhaka: 4/10: useless in the final third
Saka: 7/10: Our only constant attacking threat
Ødegaard: 6/10: also tried hard
Nketiah: 5/10: May be back to his level?
Trossard: 7/10: did what he could for the team
Lee Mason: -10000000000000/10: F off
ARSENAL DECIMATE SPURS TO BRING US 8 POINTS CLEAR
My biggest game of the year, bar none. Out of the 38 games we play all season, Spurs away is the most important for me. Winning at that stadium just gives me joy that only Old Trafford away kind of rivals. And for us to do it today, the way we did, the first time in that shit new stadium they have, has put me in heaven. We went 8 points clear after a 2-0 demolition of Spurs in their toilet bowl stadium. Just from start to finish, it was an Arteta masterclass. The boys came out guns blazing which has become an Arsenal staple this season with champagne football with high intensity and pressing. In the second half, we were defensively superb with Spurs growing into the game and Arsenal not giving an inch defensively, winning all our duels, putting our bodies in front of shots. Almost would have thought Spurs would have had a better chance if Harry Kane played.
THOUGHTS ON THE MATCH:
- Arsenal players won their matchups all across the pitch: We started our regular starting XI of Ramsdale, Ben White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Thomas, Xhaka, Ø, Saka, Martinelli, and Nketiah and credit to them all, they all won their respective matchups. Gabriel and Saliba had Kane all tied up in their pockets, Saka had Sessegnon on strings all game at RW, to be fair to Ryan, he was trying to get up as much as he could to help the Spurs attack but since we were able to put them through a spin cycle of possession, there was so much space for Saka to operate like this goal right here:
Zinchenko was dragging Kulu all over the pitch, almost seemed he had Kulu as a RB with Zinchenko’s positional flexibility. Thomas and Xhaka pushed aside Højberg and Sarr like they weren’t there. It was just a masterclass by the Arsenal lads all over the pitch.
Continue reading “ARSENAL DECIMATE SPURS TO BRING US 8 POINTS CLEAR”Arsenal win their first 5 league games and idk how to act (Arsenal-Villa reaction)
I do not really know how to process what is going on right now. I can’t complain about anything Arsenal are doing right now. My only personality usually is complaining about Arsenal but I can’t do that. They play well, start fast and score goals. Legit the 3 things I only want in life. Arsenal has started the league campaign winning 5/5 games and sitting firmly atop the Premier League standings (Yes, I understand City is right on our ass but let me have today). We found Aston Villa in terrible form and it showed tremendously as we dominated them in a 2-1 victory. Villa were terrible, we were awesome for the most part and find ourselves ready to hopefully bring United back to Earth this weekend.
THOUGHTS ON THE MATCH:
- Gabi Jesus has been the best player in the league this season not named Haaland. He was absolutely splendid tonight. Despite the short rest, he was energetic throughout, going out of his way to get involved in the game, and just absolutely destroying Mings and Konsa throughout. Gabriel Jesus has absolutely mastered the timing of his shoulder budges as multiple times throughout the night he bodied the much bigger Mings and Konsa off the ball using his lower body of strength. He was rewarded for his work with a goal off the spaz (Emi Martinez). I love him. I can easily say outside of my girlfriend and immediate family, the most important person in my life right now is Gabriel Jesus.
2. I straight up might be cheering for Brazil in the World Cup. The performances of Gabriel Jesus, Martinelli, and Gabriel have gotten me pretty much a shoo-in to cheer for the Seleção this winter in Qatar. Gabriel Jesus is self-explanatory as I am essentially in love with him at this point. Martinelli has played so well this season that he has essentially made Emile Smith Rowe irrelevant at the moment and essentially made Pépé go back to France. He got his third goal of the season and has cemented himself at the time being to the starting XI with his energy and goal output. Gabriel has formed a formidable duo with Saliba at the moment. Despite his blunder last week against Fulham, he responded immediately with a goal of his own to win us the game.
3. Ødegaard owns me at this point. Especially in the first half, he was absolutely magnificent. He was on another level, everything we did in the dominant first half went through the Norwegian. He ran his balls off to get his foot on the ball, and he showed himself to Sambi as an outlet and was the outlet for every attacking player that sensed some sort of pressure. My Captain 😉
4. Despite the 1-0 scoreline, we could have scored 10 in the first half, we were a different class. The best part of this Arsenal squad this season is how fast we have become at starting matches. In every game this season, we have come out and put our stamp on the game from the start, dominating possession, and relentless pressing to make sure we got the ball back. I do not think that Ramsdale had to touch the ball with his hands or had to make a save in the first half. We just need to make sure in these spells of dominance, that we make it count with multiple goals and balance out that energy to ensure we keep it up for 90 minutes instead of 30 minutes.
5. I am biased and I don’t understand how Ramsdale wasn’t fouled on this goal. Was Ramsdale supposed to knock Kamara out, was he supposed to run over Kamara? I don’t understand. Kamara was essentially inhibiting Ramsdale’s movement on that goal. Robert Jones and VAR are clowns for letting that goal stand. Ramsdale should have done better for sure but a foul is a foul. Ramsdale next time needs to put a defender between him and the other team or just truck the player on the other team as the keeper usually gets the benefit of the doubt on those plays.
6. Cédric got called for a penalty for touching Son last season but nothing was called for Mings performing a WWE move on Saka, what a sick joke from VAR and the officiating.
7. John McGinn is such a cunt. With Sadio Mané in Germany now, John McGinn has to be the clear leader in the league for the dirtiest player. He’s such a dirty cunt, the way he goes into tackles so late with an extra cleat or body barge to make sure he gets a hold of everybody that goes up for a tackle against him. Such a bastard really.
8. Tomiyasu looks really good, like really good. If Arteta wanted to insert Tomiyasu into the starting lineup, I wouldn’t mind. Obviously, it is tough for Arteta to switch anything up with how well we have played with White-Saliba-Gabriel-Tierney/Zinchenko but Tomiyasu offers us something White doesn’t going forward. I am not saying he has to make the change now, I’m just saying Tomiyasu looked solid.
9. I absolutely feel for Ollie Watkins for being stuck in Saliba’s pocket all night. I watched all 90 minutes of this game and can’t remember one thing that Ollie Watkins did. Like I can’t tell you one thing that he did, which just shows you how well our Rolls Royce of a defender in Saliba shut him out. Just amazing.
10. I’m sick of Thomas Partey being injured. We need to sign reinforcements in this window badly if Thomas is out for an extended period. Can’t be cheap in the window and rely on our young players to carry us through, we need depth at midfield and a winger with the departure of Pépé.
Twitter credits: NBC Sports, ArsNoContext
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:
- 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.
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:
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