So; the post x 1 and the post/linesman saved us. Balanced by Mhiki’s miss.
Best first half we’ve had in a long time. Credit to Mustafi, best 45 minutes of his season so far. Leno’s desire to come will cost us eventually, calm your shark son or you’ll be back on the bench.
All the attacks coming from us down the left.
rob holding is having his best match in an Arsenal shirt.
Also Lacazette, come on down son!
Fudgeing hell, what a game. Deserved a point out of that. Liverpool are a proper good side. Can't believe how good Mustafi and Holding were. Leno was a bit dicey though. Laca pure class with that finish, great ball from Iwobi as well.
Thought we deserved to win in the end; best game I've seen us play v top 4 in a while. Great game.
Too bad Man Utd and the Spuds won.
Apparently Wenger taking over from Gattusso at Milan in January... in hindsight I'm surprised none of us saw that coming after Gazidis went there...
Apparently Wenger taking over from Gattusso at Milan in January... in hindsight I'm surprised none of us saw that coming after Gazidis went there...
Had an inkling that might happen, and a thought that Ramsey might join them in January.
Apparently Wenger taking over from Gattusso at Milan in January... in hindsight I'm surprised none of us saw that coming after Gazidis went there...
Had an inkling that might happen, and a thought that Ramsey might join them in January.
Saw a rumour that he wants Fabregas... now that would be an interesting re-union!
yea I saw that too. I think it started from an interview he did a week or so ago and he was talking about arsenal, but not joining arsenal. He just said along the lines of that he still is fond of the club and has friends here, etc.
But if we did get him. What would we do with him?
I think he means the Un-Holy trinty of Gazidis-Wenger-Fabregas back together in Milan. Can’t imagine many former players coming back to this new Arsenal.
Bit of a funny one. Just noticed my other English side, Forest Green Rovers, are playing the Gunners U21 side in the Football League Trophy today! It's just weird seeing a starting team playing an under 21 team in a competition.
Bit of a funny one. Just noticed my other English side, Forest Green Rovers, are playing the Gunners U21 side in the Football League Trophy today! It's just weird seeing a starting team playing an under 21 team in a competition.
Some handy players in the U21s team as well
Starting XI: Iliev, Pleguezuelo (c), Ballard, Bola, Bramall, Zelalem, Olayinka, Willock, Coyle, Saka, John-Jules
U21s are up 2-0 at the break. Joe Wilock with two in two mins at the end of the half.
Bit of a funny one. Just noticed my other English side, Forest Green Rovers, are playing the Gunners U21 side in the Football League Trophy today! It's just weird seeing a starting team playing an under 21 team in a competition.
Some handy players in the U21s team as well
Starting XI: Iliev, Pleguezuelo (c), Ballard, Bola, Bramall, Zelalem, Olayinka, Willock, Coyle, Saka, John-Jules
How's Bramall looking? Between him & Jenko for the Coquellin of the year award haha!
Seems like Willock is the standout at that level atm
A few empty seats at the game against Sporting. I wonder if Brumbys is there. We could do with a win here just to break the run of draws. Not good on the injury front with Welbeck and Lichsteiner both going off.
Shocking game and shocking injuries tonight
Not great but result is fine, on track to top the group and the unbeaten streak rolls on.
Welbeck injury is terrible, hes snapped his ankle badly, so sad. That might well be the last time we see him in an arsenal shirt. Not sure what lichtsteiner did but it doesnt look good. Bellerins going to need to stay fit for a while.
So sad for Welbeck; I thought he was finally getting into a decent run of form and thought he was a really important player for us off the bench. Gutted.
That's a nasty injury and gonna be a long slow recovery, likely to be a year at least. Poor dude! All the best for a speedy recovery! I did that about 3 months ago (broken and dislocated) and just sort of walking again now.
Wasn't at the game unfortunately - we left Heathrow 30 minutes into the first half. Got back to NZ this morning - those flights really are a mind f*ck as Friday never 'existed'.
Jenkinson's looking like a handy squad player! With Lichsteiner out for awhile Jenko can keep the pressure off Bellerin, and hopefully Bramall can offer some relief for Kolasinac ;)
Jokes aside it should mean more game time for AMN - although I would dearly like to see him more central.
Ramsey was very frustrating in the final third in that game, trying too hard to make stuff work. It seems he works better with Lacazette/Giroud type strikers who hold it up more than Auba's more direct style.
Ramsey EPL goal of the month and aubameyang EPL player of the month.
Goal award very deserved but auba's award very odd, he hasnt even been our best player! I guess they place a lot of weight on goal stats? Not sure how the awards are decided tbh
yeah 5 goals in 3 appearances was the kicker I think.
Even though he doesn’t seem to be our starting striker he’s scored 17 in 24 since we signed him, phenomenal numbers that.
How did we not get more from that? and at the same time, shark we are lucky to get that draw!
That was a bit rubbish this morning. Leno pretty awesome though.
Would have to take that point, all things considered!
Our performance against Liverpool was decent but the final ball and finishing wasn't quite as good as it could've been, other than that the last handful of performances have been a bit below par.
Natural that we have a dip, and encouraging that we've managed not to lose, but we need to get back in some form again after the international break. The top 4 will get away from us if it continues. When we come back we play Bournemouth, and Chelsea play Spurs, so an opportunity to make up some ground before massive games with Spurs and ManU.
That was a bit rubbish this morning. Leno pretty awesome though.
Would have to take that point, all things considered!
Our performance against Liverpool was decent but the final ball and finishing wasn't quite as good as it could've been, other than that the last handful of performances have been a bit below par.
Natural that we have a dip, and encouraging that we've managed not to lose, but we need to get back in some form again after the international break. The top 4 will get away from us if it continues. When we come back we play Bournemouth, and Chelsea play Spurs, so an opportunity to make up some ground before massive games with Spurs and ManU.
Yup pretty spot on, would really like Ozil to take a hold of games like this. Putting Rambo on earlier would have been good. We really need nacho back Kola is a shocker. Mustafi and Kola are a dizaster waiting to happen
Shocker of a game. Glad I could fast forward through it.
Pathetic performance. Didn't even deserve a point.
I'm not sure I'm enjoying our short corners. I know we scored from one today, but most of the time we rarely get a ball of quality into the box. If we're not going to get those balls in to a decent level it isn't worth the risk of sending the CB's forward. I also didn't understand Emery's substitution of Guendouzi on for Iwobi. Surely we should have seen Mhikitaryan come on at that stage rather than another central midfielder who isn't known for scoring.
No games now until 26th November. Hopefully this break in play gives time for some of our players to recover, and fingers crossed no new injuries. Ideally we'll have Sokratis, Bellerin, Monreal, and Kolasinac all fully fit by then, with Kosc knocking on the door.
Also, very interesting that it was Sokratis and not Mustafi that played in the Europa League and rested for the EPL.
I think emery has to bite the bullet and drop aubameyang, play iwobi left and mkhi right, like valeo and others were talking about recently.
Auba has been lethal off the bench too, the only worry would be how he reacts to being dropped.
I think emery has to bite the bullet and drop aubameyang, play iwobi left and mkhi right, like valeo and others were talking about recently.
Auba has been lethal off the bench too, the only worry would be how he reacts to being dropped.
I actually think we need to change the formation and revert to a classic 4-4-2. Looking at the way Xhaka and Torreira controlled the midfield against Liverpool I wonder how they'd go if they played like this:
The loser here is Ozil, which is why I doubt it would happen - but I do think this would get the most of our $100m strike force.
Almost agree with the above. May be too narrow, especially considering how Emery prefers to play (utilising attacking full-backs)
It's not far off how we're playing, but with our wide players coming in field and our CF (Ozil) moving away from goal. The challenge seems to be is that we just don't have out and out wingers to play this formation. You could argue that you could stay on a permanent rotation of Laca, Auba, Ozil through the front 2 positions, Ramsey, Mhiki, Iwobi through the wide positions, and Guendouzi, Torreira, Xhaka, Elneny through the central positions.
Iwobi has mostly played on the left and right wings this season. He seems much better on the left - I remember Wenger talking about 'preferential vision' in regards to Pires - saying he was an average player on the right, and an extraordinary one on the left. I think Iwobi is similar.
https://www.arsenal.com/news/internationals-whos-p...
Plenty of international matches for the lads. Through a good chunk without any major injuries, hopefully it continues. Still another week before Arsenal are in action - this window is so damn long!
Xhaka led the Swiss to a 5-2 win over a stacked Belgium side. 2 early goals to Thorgen Hazard were cancelled out by 5 answered goals from the Swiss. From catching the highlights the penalty for Belgium which tirggered it seemed very tough, but alas they essentially collapsed under pressure!
Is it TV rights driving the fact that we play Sunday night after an international window when we've got a game the following Thursday evening? You'd think it'd be better for players welfare to play on Saturday and have another day between their fixtures.
Also I've been reading both Auba and Laca missed the window to recover from groin & back problems. Here's hoping we've got at least one of them available or Nketiah might be about to really burst onto the scene!
https://arseblog.news/2018/11/monreal-injury-woe-g...
Monreal's out for the weekend. No Lichtensteiner either. Good thing is no mention on Auba or Laca so hopefully we have a relatively solid 11.
Edit: Update, Kosc might be back for U23's on Monday which is good to know we might get to see less of Mustafi! Hopefully he can come back to most of his former level.
