Tag: Turner

Not at our absolute best but we take it one game at a time (Arsenal-Forest reaction)

With Arsenal getting as close as we did last summer, the record signing Declan Rice stepping into our midfield, and highly touted Kai Havertz and Jurrien Timber arriving at the Emirates, there is a lot of hype and pressure around Arsenal and their title credibility and deservedly so. Arsenal should only be thinking about overtaking City this season and any thing less than 2nd would be failure. With all that said, 3 points anyway they come is the mantra til we get everyone settled into the squad and it wasn’t pretty but Arsenal scraped over the line to collect our first win of the season over Forest with a score of 2-1. We weren’t at our scintillating best, we had our moments of brilliance, got bailed out a few times but fought well to collect the 3 points and move onto Palace next week.

THOUGHTS ON THE MATCH:

  1. Arteta lineup for the season? With the positional versatility that our new signings bring the squad, there has been a lot of speculation of how the team would play this season, Declan Rice at the 6, Havertz at the 8, Partey replaced, Timber at RB and Ben White out, Timber at LB, Havertz at striker, we could go on and on about Arteta’s plan for the squad and I think we got our answer today: Arteta will mix it up quite often throughout the season. A lot will probably depend on our opponent, if we are at home or not, who is in form, tactical preference etc. The smart bet was to assume we would play like we did against City at the Community Shield, Ben White-Saliba-Gabriel-Timber across the back, Thomas with Declan, Odegaard Martinelli Saka and Havertz leading our line. Swap Jesus for Havertz and that is probably our strongest lineup but Arteta had other plans today with Partey slotting in at inverted RB, Nketiah coming into the team with no Gabriel. I can guarantee that Arteta will bring Gabriel back into the squad next week and with Timber coming down with a knee injury, who knows how Arteta will line up against Palace.
  2. Saka and Martinelli had their moments: Forest started out with a sturdy back 5 and an organized shape that was tough to break through. BUT this is why someone like Martinelli is invaluable to the squad, with Forest in their deep blocks of 5, Martinelli got the ball with momentum and took it on himself to take on two Forest defenders, back heel a ball into Eddie who did well to take on his defender and get the ball past Turner:
We don’t really have a player like Martinelli in the squad

Saka who was lively from the start did well to get on his left foot and curl a unstoppable strike top bins, more of that please from both of them this season.

3. Our left hand side might be an issue in possession: Not sure if it was a tactical decision but the bulk of our possession was hammered down our right with Thomas-Odegaard-Saka dictating a lot of our play down the right flank. We will have to wait and see if this trend occurs but it definitely creates a technical imbalance when we aren’t able to sustain possession and build-up from the right. Declan Rice isn’t the same player as Thomas on the ball, Saka> Martinelli and no Ødegaard type player on our right, that could change with Zinchenko slotted into our team but it was definitely noticeable how much we chose to play down our right flank. That being said, Martinelli was dangerous everytime he ran at Aurier so if Arteta wanted to keep the left side direct and our right to be our source for possession for the rest of the squad, so be it. I prefer more balance but will have to wait and see how we play in the next few weeks.

4. Kai Havertz is who he is at this point of his career: It’s hopeless to think he will change at this point, he comes from the Ozil family tree, technically brilliant, will come in and out of his games, massively frustrating, will have his moments but man, not sure if we can use him in big matches and in tough away grounds. When we play like we did today, Havertz just floated into the open space and I am not sure he or we knew where he was supposed to be in buildup. He wasn’t totally convincing today but will have to wait and give him and Arteta time.

5. Injuries already: Gabi Jesus and Zinchenko having injury niggles is not ideal but now with Timber going down, makes you thank God that Arsenal were efficient in their defense signings as we have Tomiyasu and Kiwior who can back up the LB position in the meanwhile. Didn’t make sense how when Timber went down the first time, we still kept him on. Definitely a black mark on the Arsenal training staff and depending on how bad his injury turns out to be.

6. Declan and Thomas Partey: Our best team has these two in there, Declan can run for days and Thomas on the ball is our best deep lying playmaker. When we needed to see the game out, it was nice seeing those two controlling the midfield. Need to get Timber/Zinny healthy so we can let the two of them cook.

7. Still had a glimpses of last season with us having troubles closing out a 2-0 game – need to put out foot down the throats of our opponent’s necks smh

Player Ratings:

Ramsdale – 7/10 – nothing he could have done for the goal, solid

Thomas Partey – 7.5/10 – Technically brilliant, got caught a few times, showed his age, still pivotal to the team

Ben White – 6.5/10 – Nice to see him play more centrally, got caught out a bit on their goal but it was a mess from the whole team tbf

Saliba – 8/10 – Rolls Royce

Timber – 7/10 – Was good up until the injury, need him back

Declan Rice – 8/10 – Grew into the game, was too conservative at the start but was more expansive as the game went on. Total engine though

Kai Havertz – 6/10 – It’s like watching Ozil, floating in and out of games like a butterfly

Ødegaard – 7/10 – didn’t contribute to the goals but you can tell his influence is all over the team. technical brilliance

Saka – 8/10 – First half unplayable, second half playable

Martinelli – 8/10 – Nobody like him in the team

Nketiah – 7/10 – If he keeps scoring, I will shut up

Tomiyasu – 7/10 – Did well when he came on

Trossard – 7/10 – Same as Tomiyasu, hard done not to start

Gabriel – Not on long enough to rate

Haaland/City – 0/10 – Chill the fuck out pleaseeeeee

Arsenal ticket team – 0/10 – get your shit together

Kent’s mental wellbeing -7/10- fine for now, need to keep collecting the 3 points

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)”

Arsenal 2022-2023 Preview (GKs) – Ramsdale needs to not play like an asshole

A position that has not driven me to want to drown myself in bleach over the past few seasons has been the guys in between the sticks. Bernd Leno-Emi Martinez-Aaron Ramsdale have all been respectable goalies and competent players at their respective positions for Arsenal teams that have finished outside of the Champions league. Our #1 coming into this season is Aaron Ramsdale and he has that position locked down as any position can be at Arsenal at the current moment. The classy and underrated Bernd Leno is getting sold to Fulham in the coming days which has opened up the backup role to American Matt Turner. As things stand, Aaron Ramsdale will get all the Premier League games barring injuries as well as the Europa League knockout games. There might be a decent chance Matt Turner gets the Europa League knockout games if he performs well but the easiest way to put it, in any high leverage game, you can bet Arteta will give Ramsdale the spot. Matt Turner will serve as a FA Cup, Carabao Cup, and Europa League group stage games which should give him some momentum going into the World Cup.

Mikel Arteta just like his former boss Pep, yearned for a ball-playing goalkeeper to start our attacks and if that is what he is looking for, he more than got that in Ramsdale. The way he is able to pass out of pressure was something I was not expecting when he came into the team. He sometimes gets us into trouble with his risky passing, but the reward outweighs the risk when he pulls it off. As a shotstopper, I believe Bernd Leno surpasses Ramsdale as Ramsdale struggled dramatically towards the tail end of the season to get his hand to anything. It felt like Aaron Ramsdale was just a passion-merchant late last season with his performances largely begging for more secure hands in goal. He yells a lot and celebrates a lot after saves, which I don’t mind, you just gotta make the saves you are supposed to save which he struggled with in April and May. Aaron needs to play with that swagger he has, he just needs to ride that line better and appropriately lead the back line.

Gets beaten so cheaply at the near post

Regardless, he is our guy going into next season and it could be way worse. Hopefully Matt Turner can provide enough push for Ramsdale to stop playing like an asshole. Aaron Ramsdale has every motivation to play well and push for that England #1 spot if Pickford struggles. The same with Turner, I expect nothing but perfection from the Arsenal keepers going into this season with the World Cup looming (it won’t happen but gives me room to complain).

Kent’s confidence on Arsenal’s GKs: 8/10 – good enough going into next season, I have much bigger things to worry about. Just need Ramsdale to not play like an asshole and spaz (Jordan Pickford vibes if you know what I mean).

Featured image credits: Getty