perfect start to the new season, lads looking well prepped for this one! Jesus just adds so much to our atack. Once again involved in the first goal with a great first touch, lovely run to beat three/four defenders and the set up of Odegaard. Brilliant. Lovely to see Saliba score, a it was a beauty too.
I know it's silly to compare, and I'm not for a moment suggesting this team will be as good, but I'm really enjoying the moments from this morning, it did take me back to the peak-wenger days. Jesus has that air of Henry so far, the way he can dominate his centre back and create things out of nothing. The Saliba goal had the quality and all-round euphoria we used to get from back in the day, similar to some of Vieira's goals. There is a feeling of quality right across the pitch at the moment, in every position. It seems that anyone can score. No Jesus or Martinelli goals this morning despite both playing very well, Saka was fairly quiet by his standards, but we still look like getting goals from everywhere. Odegaard has them in him as we saw, Xhaka is popping up in goal-scoring positions all the time now, you can tell Zinchenko has goals in him, I expect a few long rangers from Partey this season, and Gabriel is a pretty high-scoring CB usually. We've got regular scorers in Smith-Rowe and Nketiah coming off the bench too. Very good signs, we really need to get the wins in the next two games and go into the more difficult stuff with 15 points under our belts.
Fulham and Vill at home the United away. Surely we have to target going to old Trafford with 15 points on the table. Really looking forward to playing Liverpool & City this season to really bench mark progress.
Boys if you’re ever over and an away game is on head to the Tollington. Finished the game with chants of “we are top of the league” - bloody great way to watch football!!
The enjoyable start to the season has probably made it more enjoyable watching All or Nothing too. I've watched the first 6 but have been avoiding the last 2 since they came out last week as really don't feel ready to relive the collapse again. Probably best to do it this week though while things are still good!
Yes the last two were a tough watch ajc. It is certainly the slow motion car crash you are expecting it to be. The team were so up for it, the collapse against Spurs and then Newcastle was clearly devastating for them, like it was for us. But overall, yes, the start to the current season made the viewing of that series a lot nicer. Arteta is the man, love that guy.
Hopefully the hurt of falling just short last season is enough to drive the team onto pick up the extra couple of points we'd have needed and make it into the top 4 this season. In a similar way to how the unbeaten season probably doesn't happen without the pain of having thrown away a title we should have won the previous season.
I've been trying to see ways to get above Spurs, and just can't whilst they still have Kane and Son and the recent additions they've made plus Conte. But with the chaos going on at Chelsea, could it actually be their place in the top 4 that may potentially be up for grabs? Something I hadn't considered until their result this morning. No doubt they still have big money to spend at the end of the transfer window though.
I’d add Liverpool into the mix of teams who could underperforme this season. While they have amazing attackers and defence, they seem to be missing a midfield. So far that has left them exposed.
Yes things will change, nothing will work out exactly as it seems. It's easy to forget that Liverpool barely scraped into the top 4 two seasons ago. Spurs are a Kane or Son injury away from the Europa League, and to be fair they haven't looked great this season yet at all, barely deserved that win against Wolves at the weekend. ManU will improve and could yet come good under ten haag. Man City to me don't look like what they were. They really do need Haaland to deliver big time, and they are a De Bruyne injury away from struggling too I reckon. Chelsea could go any which way. On the same note we could easily slip up in the next game and the entire narrative changes for us. Lets not forget we still have the youngest team in the league, the real test will come when we have a bad result or two, to see if we have the ability to bounce back quickly or not.
as in the pins at Finsbury park? Definitey worth a visit too!Gooner 4 Life
brumbys
Boys if you’re ever over and an away game is on head to the Tollington. Finished the game with chants of “we are top of the league” - bloody great way to watch football!!
The way I see it is City and Liverpool aren’t looking as far away from the chasing pack as before. I think we are going to have a proper title race this season and a shootout for the top 6. The league looks more competitive than ever, and that is a good thing for everyone. While I don’t think we’ll win the league I think whoever does do it won’t break 90 points and will have others hot on their heels. paulm
Yes things will change, nothing will work out exactly as it seems. It's easy to forget that Liverpool barely scraped into the top 4 two seasons ago. Spurs are a Kane or Son injury away from the Europa League, and to be fair they haven't looked great this season yet at all, barely deserved that win against Wolves at the weekend. ManU will improve and could yet come good under ten haag. Man City to me don't look like what they were. They really do need Haaland to deliver big time, and they are a De Bruyne injury away from struggling too I reckon. Chelsea could go any which way. On the same note we could easily slip up in the next game and the entire narrative changes for us. Lets not forget we still have the youngest team in the league, the real test will come when we have a bad result or two, to see if we have the ability to bounce back quickly or not.
ManU might be back up and confident for our visit there now, making that game tougher than we might've thought before this morning. Even more vital that we get the wins against Villa and Fulham.
I'm ok with that result. It’s one step closer to keeping the unbeaten season record intact for another season and I’d have been more worried going to OT if their season still needed kick starting. How many times have we been there confident of a result and come away with nothing?
Saliba's goal reminded me very much of this classic Vieira strike against Man United in 97-98. Similar shot from roughly the same spot but on the other side. At the time it also came from one of the least likely scorers on the pitch which is maybe why Vieira was left unmarked and they all backed off.
What do you guys make of all the Neto chat? Given we've previously been linked with Raphina, a proven PL winger coming into his prime I'm not convinced Neto fits the mould. Yes, he's had a good season before his knee injury, but given Wolves have him on a long term contract I'm not convinced he's worth the outlay to effectively replace Pepe. Would rather we got someone a bit older and proven (25/26) to compete/relieve Saka in a way Pepe has never been able to. Another 22 year old coming in means less minutes for our other developing players who could play then i.e. ESR, Nketiah, Marquinos, Viera and to a lesser extent Nelson/AMN if they stay with us this season.
AJC your video of V's goal led me to this gem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tO9kkRZmNE
So funny watching all 3 of it trying to play it with a straight bat. As with most heated moments when you try to break down how it happened with reason and in a calm way it looks a bit ridiculous!
Started AON last night. Absolutely struck by how personal and real both Saka and Ramsdale are in the first episode. Mikel is super intense ay, but I don’t suppose you get to where he is without it. Can’t wait to watch the rest.
Pepe loaned to Nice. Apparently Fabio Vieira has been training in that right sided attacker role, and played there for the PL 2 team last week. Perhaps might be the option if we don't sign anyone else.
We really do have options all over the pitch. If we splash the cash it's got to be for the right kind of player who can make an immediate impact and who you can trust to take some pressure of Saka especially. For me, that was Raphina. I'm unsure who else in the PL fits in that mould and age profile. Zaha should have been it when we signed Pepe, but he's 29 now and I cannot seeing us doing a madness and breaking the player profile we are recruiting for.
Fantastic win Absolutely dominated but things didn't fall our way, then an ugly error and all of a sudden we could lose. A classic case of "last season we would've lost that"? Fantastic spirit, nothing changed after Fulham scored, we didn't go into our shell, just hammered straight back into them. Fulham had started the season well and were a danger all day, really good 3 points, probably our hardest match so far in terms of matchday adversity, closely followed by Palace on the opening day. Also extra adversity with Partey and Zinchenko getting injured the day before. Elneny and Tierney were both very good - although it's notable that Tierney is a bit different than Zinchenko. Xhaka played the same kind of role as before but Tierney doesn't go narrow like Zinchenko does, he's much more comfortable looking for the byline. Martinelli seemed to fill that hole coming deeper and more central. It worked though. Some highlights for me; - Just about Odegaard's best ever game for us? He is absolutely humming, feels like he's really coming into his own. Fully ran the show this morning, everything ran through him. - Saliba gets me more excited every game. The stuff that doesn't get mentioned. There was a period we were attacking and lost it, he anticipated beautifully and stepped up to win it and we went right back to attack, and then it happened again immediately, and he did the same. His anticipation and focus allowed us to keep attacking in waves without giving them a break. And does he EVER misplace a pass??? - Nketiah looked really good when he came on. Bench options are so strong now. Tomiyasu came on and played the sh*t stirrer role really well, which I loved. - Saka has been a little quiet lately but looked quite good this morning, should've scored one or two. - Gabriel has had several of these types of errors, should've learned by now, I want to see him iron that out of his game. He better be careful too, there is good competition in this squad. Could easily put White back to CB and Tomiyasu to RB if he keeps making them. Nice to see him get the winner after that though. - How good are our fans right now, home and away. That crowd was absolutely rocking, and the fulham goal only made them louder. All the fans are really buying into this team, it just about brings a tear to the eye.
happy to take the 3 points, felt like we deserved them, especially with the dominant first half. You are right about Gabriel, I reckon he has one of those moments in him every game. Some in areas like this morning which will cost us games if he isnt more composed. He's not the CB that I want Saka crossing the ball too across the goal mouth. I'd prefer Saliba or White to be there. Having said that, Gabriel did well not to let his head drop and he fought hard to be where he needed to be to score his goal. It was definitely one of those games where we lost points in previous seasons. Thankfully the effort levels never drop regardless of how the game is going.
So with only 5 days left until the window shuts (23:00 01/09) what's your picks/preferences?
I think we'll see AMN and Bellerin leave on somewhat facilitate deals. AMN is a frustrating example of missing out on £20M to Wolves and likely now gone on a free. Similarly Bellerin's commitment to Betis has culled his value, I hope the club can manage to find a way forward without letting him go on a free.
Equally I think we'll have to find somewhere for CM who can offer more of what Partey can do. Our midfield without him is entirely different, and while it might work at home against mid to lower level opponents, we won't get away with that against the top 6 away from home. I don't see Tielemans being that guy, but I'm not sure who else in the market could be that player for us?
Cannae get a look in. Match state against CP, Leicester, and Fulham didn't really make it possible either given how good Martinelli has looked. Expect he'll be starting cups and Europa league soon though.
