Tag: Tierney

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:

  1. 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).
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. If you think Jorginho is better than Thomas Partey, you are the problem.
  6. 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.
  7. END THE SEASON
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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:

  1. 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.
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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.

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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.

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7 POINTS CLEAR FOR THE FELLAS (Arsenal – Brighton reaction)

What can I say at this point? These guys won’t just stop winning games, just a relentless machine at the moment that looks scarily obsessed with grabbing the PL title. Arsenal finished off 2022 with a bang with a 4-2 win against Brighton on the South coast. With Newcastle and City dropping points today, Arsenal find themselves 7 points clear at the top of the PL standings with 16 games played. Still a lot of football left to play this season but Arsenal don’t look closer to dropping any points compared to their rivals for Top 4. Arsenal opened the match scoring 66 seconds in and then scored about 100 seconds into the 2nd half and didn’t look back. Things got eerie towards the end of the match, but we took all 3 points at a tough away ground and now have great momentum with our clash with Newcastle on 1/3/2023.

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NOTHING PERSONAL (Arsenal-Chelsea Reaction)

We are in a title challenge. I’ll say it again, we are in a title challenge. I won’t say it with sarcasm, I won’t say it with a “but”, I won’t say we will win the league, but damn it we are fighting for the title with 13 games played. Arsenal defeated Chelsea at the Bridge 1-0 and it was the most dominant 1-0 battering you will ever see this season. We were all over them from the start, just dominating them in their own backyard, Thomas was running the show, Saliba and Gabriel had Auba in their pockets (Auba just had 8 touches in the game), Ben White parenting Mason Mount, just spectacular performances all around from the boys.

Read more: NOTHING PERSONAL (Arsenal-Chelsea Reaction)

THOUGHTS ON THE GAME:

  1. Zinchenko came back at a perfect time: Zinchenko came back at a perfect time when Tomiyasu took a knock this past Thursday. I would have been fine if Tierney was asked to play instead but seeing Zinchenko back at his best despite the weeks off through injuries was a sight to sore eyes. Arteta came came out with the same XI everywhere else and we didn’t skip a beat. Ø I think and Saka at some parts were below par in spurts but all in all, can’t complain with how Arteta started the match.
  2. Thomas Partey is our best player: He just is. He was magnificent today, picking the right passes at the right time. Played his part defensively when he needed to. Nothing gets me more excited in sports than he plays his reverse passes. He was just perfect today in all aspects of his game. When Thomas Partey is at his best, I feel fully confident in the team. He gives us a freedom to be aggressive as long as we know he is patrolling things in the midfield. Just a spectacular performance from our best player.

3. Auba cracks me up man: Aubameyang, this clown had the audacity to come out with those Sky Sports adverts and say dumb stuff like it’s “Nothing Personal” and then goes out and puts a performance where our defense held him to 8 touches in 64 minutes.

Honestly, I don’t have ill will towards Auba since he did so much for us when he was here, but you can’t help but laugh at this stuff man. 8 touches all game, did Potter even select the guy today? Just a weird performance from him considering all that was on the line for him.

4. William Saliba, Gabriel, and Ben White are full of heavy pockets: Mason Mount, Auba, Sterling, and Kai Havertz all need to come out of our boy’s pockets now, it’s getting embarrassing. Just dreadful from their attacking players but masterful from our boys at the back. I still am examining if we were that good at the back or if Chelsea were that anemic going forward. They didn’t have a sniff towards Ramsdale. They had the rare counter but they really didn’t generate any real passage of play or cause Ramsdale any trouble. Any type of deep cross they had, the our men sniffed that stuff out easily. Just amazing stuff from the boys and proud of them but they need to let the kids out of their pockets now.

5. Gabriel Jesus will come good: I’m the first to rag on an Arsenal player if he is not performing to acceptable standards but this isn’t one of those cases. He hasn’t scored but I won’t acknowledge that cause he’s perfect and is doing everything else correctly. 🙂 Also since I am in such a good mood, I won’t come for Ø.

6. Arteta-Ball back in full force – There were a few passages of play where the boys were just straight messing with Chelsea, you love to see it.

Just perfection from everybody except the finish.

7. Need to finish the rest of the games off strong before the World Cup: We have Brighton in the EFL Cup, and Wolves next weekend at the Molineux Stadium. It’s never easy going there as we have seen in the past few years but they are fighting relegation which will be an interesting twist from past encounters. I expect Arteta to rotate as much as he can midweek against Brighton and go with our best XI against Wolves. At this point, every game is a must win to keep up with City so let’s hope the boys finish it off strong. It does feel weird to not complain about anything but here we are, straight vibing. You love to see it.

Twitter credits: ArmeriaGunner, iskaholic

Forest was the perfect team Arsenal to rebound (Arsenal-Forest reaction)

After the disappointing 2-0 defeat to PSV in Europa League play where we got absolutely battered, we needed a team to turn over and Forest was the perfect team for that. Leeds away and Southampton away were dreadful performances so it was nice for us to bring out a 5-0 demolition on relegation fodder. We still have everything to play for with Chelsea coming up next weekend who will be looking to rebound from a humiliating 4-1 defeat at Brighton.

THOUGHTS ON THE MATCH:

  1. Arteta picking Tomiyasu today paid off but he has Forest to thank. I have been harping for weeks now that Arteta needs to put Tierney at LB but Tomiyasu was brilliant today so can’t say anything about that today. However, Forest were so pathetic going forward and didn’t press us at all which gave Tomiyasu acres of space to operate and didn’t feel any pressure in possession. If the Forest manager, Steve Cooper, had any competence, he would’ve forced Tomiyasu as the basis for their press which is what Leeds and Southampton did to trouble us and get us off our rhythm. Much easier said than done when Leeds and Soton were at home but regardless, Forest just played into our hands fortunately by sitting back and trying to hit us on the counter. The rest of the lineup spoke for itself with everybody playing well. Next week will be interesting with the game being at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea, my guess is he will pick Tomiyasu for defensive purposes, but nobody is a bigger advocate than me on us needing to insert Tierney before it costs us.
  2. Thomas Partey masterclass. First off I understand it was last place Forest, but Thomas Partey was by far the best player on the pitch and played like a Top 5 CDM in world football today, 2nd clearly behind Rodri. His long ball passing was on point all day, he made the right passes at the right times, the tempo of his passing was perfect, he scored a peach of a goal. Just an all-around performance from our best player to get us back on track. We absolutely need him to produce something similar against Chelsea since their midfield depth is lacking at the moment, need him and Xhaka to run things at the Bridge next weekend. Love this man
Almost carbon copy of his goal against Spurs, you love to see it

3. These are the performances title challengers put in over a 38-game season. 100%, you can’t expect teams to put in performances like this, 5-0 demolitions, but sometimes, when you see relegation fodder at your home stadium, you just need to put up a whacking to send a signal out to the league that you are for real, this was 100% one of those games to get us back on track but also to let the league know that the Leeds and Southampton were blips rather than being permanent.

4. The goals will come for Gabriel Jesus. It is more than fair to say that Gabriel Jesus is going through a cold patch with goals but damn it the performances are there. It just sounds like I am making excuses for the guy, which I am, but he’s tracking back, he’s getting assists (2 assists today), he’s working his ass for the team. It’s all there except for the finishing, some could argue it is the biggest part, I am not but some will, but he will get there. I am calling it now, my man Gabriel Jesus is getting a brace against Chelsea, it is coming, I feel it. Just give him 90 minutes with Trev and Thiago and it will put Gabriel Jesus back on track as our talismanic striker.

5. REISS NELSON, GO OFF KING. My boy Reiss Nelson, proud of the kid. When Saka went off for an injury, I was pissed cause it felt like Eddie Nketiah was coming on but too everyone’s shock, he chose to bring on Reiss, and it did not disappoint. Credit to Mikel for getting this decision spot on, cause Reiss was perfect, providing two goals and an assist in just over a half of football.

The fluidity in the box, the cut in to his left, just brilliant from Reiss
Great from Reiss to read the passage of play and get in front of his man at the front post for the clever finish

Not sure after this match, why Mikel hasn’t given him more in the Europa League games, but my word if he keeps this up, this is the depth we needed with a World Cup looming, happy for Reiss cause he hasn’t had many opportunities and happy he hasn’t let this one pass him by.

6. This thing where the referees let defenders and opposing players kick Saka for fun with no repercussions is the most annoying thing going on in football and needs to stop now. If the Premier League and English FA had any hope for England in the World Cup, it is keeping their best player fit and healthy, not as target practice for neanderthals like Steve Cook.

7. God bless Pablo Mari and glad he’s doing alright after the horrific events in Milan.

Featured image credits: PA

Twitter credits: NBC Sports

Arsenal 2022/2023 Preview (Defenders) – Saliba might be the best defender in the world

OUTLOOK: Going into this season, I was somewhat worried about the defenders/injuries that Arsenal was carrying into the season, but a French blessing in the shape of a William Saliba fell into our lap and now I can’t be more excited to see what our back line looks like with him. Despite the injuries to Tomiyasu and Tierney coming into this season, the arrival of Saliba has pushed Ben White out to RB with Tomiyasu out which affords the ability to not have to play Cédric. Saliba-Gabriel have created a formidable duo that looks as good as any in England especially given their age profiles. Zinchenko looks to have the left-back spot now with Tierney struggling to cope with injuries. Through the Sevilla and Chelsea friendlies to go along with the win against Palace, I imagine we keep this back 4 intact til things break down but you have to love the depth and flexibility we have right now when everybody is back, a huge problem we had last year that messed with my sanity.

Continue reading “Arsenal 2022/2023 Preview (Defenders) – Saliba might be the best defender in the world”

Man City owe Arsenal for funding their transfer window, Zinchenko coming to North London

(If for whatever reason this doesn’t happen, it is not my fault and I take no responsibility for it)

Arsenal missed out on Lisandro Martinez and that is fine, he decided to go and play with his former manager on a worse team in United for €57.37 million, which could rise to €67.37m through variables. From an Arsenal perspective, there is no reason we should have spent that much money on a CB who we it looks like we would have deployed at LB (even though he doesn’t play there for club or country, the only thing he has that resembles a LB is his preference of his left boot). We also missed out on Raphinha which I could give two shits about as he has publically and privately been twerking for Barca for months now, no need for Arsenal to cough up north of €60m for a guy who scored 11 league goals last year (Pépé got lambasted and called a bust for scoring 10 league goals the season before, makes you think). But no worry, looks like we got the LB we wanted, according to Fab, Arsenal and City have reached an agreement for Oleksandr Zinchecnko.

Continue reading “Man City owe Arsenal for funding their transfer window, Zinchenko coming to North London”
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