Arsenal 2023/24

I'm not bothered. I rate that the club, when needed to, both changed tack to a CDM position and held firm on their unwillingness to be bent over a barrel. It avoids the scenario where we splash extra cash on the hopes it'll guarantee a better outcome at the sacrifice of long term planning.

I still think Tielemens will be a January signing for us should we plan for life after Xhaka, assuming he'll fit into our wage structure. Given no one went for him at £25m you'd think he hasn't got the interest to command huge signing on fees and wages.

We have 19 matches between now and January. While Elneny will miss all of that, you'd hope Partey is available for some of them due to the injury not being as long term as Elneny, and fingers crossed the other issues aren't true.

So you'd expect January/summer window to be focussed on 6, right wing, and maybe a left 8 depending on the market i.e. if Tielemans is next to nothing in January and Xhaka is injury, why not.

Bloody hell lads. Even if we lose tonight we still hold top with a 1 point advantage. I’ve never experienced this before since following Arsenal properly, WTF am I to do?!

Dominant in possession, smash and grab on the counter. Classic United away!

That was like going to Bournemouth away a few seasons ago. Dominate the game only for them to smash and grab on the counter. We lacked a clinical edge up front and VAR got its hat trick of shocking decisions (2 already under investigation) for the weekend. Be interesting to see some rotation for our first EL game this week, and then get back on the horse for Everton at home.

Went way too attacking too early and the subs were awful.

Need to bounce back immediately next weekend.

I do not like Arsenal...

However, it brings me a lot of joy watching Gabriel Jesus leave City/Pep and look like a fantastic player.

well that was a bit of a wake up call. had all the ball and looked good on attack, but but still managed to let three goals slip passed, on another day Odegaard scores and Saka nabs two. Oh well onward we go. Cant afford to let one loss ruin the progression.

That was what I feared may happen.
ManU were well up for it and looked very good in the first 20 minutes. Then we got hold of it and looked the better side, but they were always lethal on the counter attack.
Silly mistakes let them in and they were ruthless when they got the chance. 
Still, losing at Old Trafford is nothing fatal in terms of finishing top 4. The reaction is what counts. Europa League Friday morning then Everton at home on Monday morning. Need to get straight back on the horse. 

Smith-Rowe somehow got injured in the warm down apparently. So after the first week of 2 games this season we're already down to the bare bones in central midfield and on the wing. If only someone could have foreseen the squad being short in those two positions somehow.

Smith-Rowe is the only injury across the forward line, I think we're totally fine there. 
I have a suspicion that if Martinelli or Saka went down while ESR was fit, Arteta might've selected Nketiah anyway, and gone to a front two. Jesus and Nketiah have looked very effective together. 
Vieira has apparently been playing in a forward role a lot of the time in training, and played wide on the right for the reserves. Plus Marquinhos is looking very good according to the management, and has now played his way onto the bench.
I think we'll be fine in that role, we could handle another injury or two before things get tough.
Midfield is definitely another story, and we're really struggling there. I'm very happy Zinchenko was back fit this morning as we may have to put him in there and start Tierney as a solution soon. 

Looking forward to Zurich I’d be keen to see:
                 Nketiah
Marquinhos Viera U23 player
          Xhaka U23 player
Tierney Tomiyasu Holding Soares
                   Turner

Martinelli Nketiah
Viera
Tierney Xhaka Sambi Marquinhos
Gabriel Holding Tomiyasu
Turner

That’s a pretty solid side, hope we go for a big margin.

Edit: looks a 3-4-1-2

Shark, we’ve  dominated this without doing much with it. 

Terrible game management at the end of this. No composure on the. All of trying to retain it

Eh? I thought we held out well. Kept the ball and probed attacking opportunities when we could. 

kwlap

Terrible game management at the end of this. No composure on the. All of trying to retain it

 

Was a bit like United, where we found ourselves with a lot of attacking momentum but not enough clear cut opportunities in their opposition box.

kwlap

Shark, we’ve  dominated this without doing much with it. 

totally dominant in possession and outclassed Zurich in all areas except shooting. Marquinhos (sp) and Nketiah looked to have a good understanding with each other which is positive, martenelli did well for himself. Not sold on Viera though, he comes with a lot of promise and hype but I didnt see a lot that backed that up. Needs game time obviously. Zurich really didnt have much on attack and barring the penalty they didnt trouble our defense too much.

Viera did his best work off the right wing so I’m excited to see him there when the time comes.

Marquinhos did well, essentially killed off any hope of Nelson resurrecting his Arsenal career. 

Nketiah’s finish for the winner was actually fantastic. He’s been found with that run a few times previously and not got it on target, so great to see him convert.

Ok now PSV game postponed as well.
I'm offically perplexed. 
What is the point of all this? 
The monarchy simply does not have the influence of centuries gone by, this is all becoming absolute madness to me. 

Think it's more about policing resources than mourning. Certainly agree the weekend's games should have gone ahead with black armbands and the national anthem like they did at the cricket. The Queen herself had always been involved with sport and may have preferred things to just carry on.

With the PSV game I think that's the day the Queen's coffin goes on display which is going to be a massive Police and military operation so not enough resources available to cover a 60K stadium in London on the same day. Not to mention how clogged up roads and public transport will be.

Two ideas on this - it’s bonkers that it takes that much police resource for a funeral. But get that it’s a big deal and all. 
It’s just as bonkers that football matches need such a high level of policing as well. My read on it is that it shows that football supporters still have trouble managing their behaviours. That’s why other sports can continue. Bit of a shame. 

It may not be a huge deal to us in NZ, but officially its a massive thing, the head of state has passed which kicks off a slew of formal processes that need to be passed onto the new King. Beisdes the fact that Elizabeth has been the only head of state that most of us have known in our lives - so of course people are going to want to be part of it in some way. Police resources are stretched already, having to manage a funeral procession as well as multiple football games at stadia across the country is just too difficult.

All very sensible points.
Stop it. 

Mood on the ground is sombre, number of people in London is the most I’ve seen since I moved in 2019. The biggest impact is the period in which the Queen lies in state which started today, Wednesday evening. Its open 24 hours and runs until Monday morning 6.30am before the funeral on the same day. The queue to file past the Queen’s coffin while it lies in state will likely last 30 hours and the infrastructure to facilitate the queue covers close to 10 miles. As you can imagine that requires a lot of police to ensure order but also protect, can only imagine it’s an opportune time for something nasty from an enemy of the UK.

While all of that is being tended too I can understand why they didn’t have capacity to support Arsenal v PSV. Had it been a day earlier it might have been a different story.

Comments above supporters is also very true, live football games have the largest police presence of any sporting event I’ve been to here. It’s such a shame but thems the breaks. I actually had tickets, mercifully I can still make the rescheduled event.

In actual sporting news did you see the goals against Spuds last night? A young Brazilian winger scored a worldly solo goal off the left wing - at 24 I wonder if he is on our list of possible upgrades because if he’s that good RW shouldn’t be a problem.

Also couldn't be more fitting that they were the first British football team to lose under the reign of the new King. Spurs always gonna Sours.

Womens team cruising in their first game, up 4-0 over Brighton with a few minutes left. Nice comfortable start. I watched parts of it, Miedema hasnt scored but is in the middle of everything as usual, what a player she is. In the bits I saw Blackstenious should've had a hat trick by now. Brighton got a red card in the first half which has made this easier, but we're so so dominant, they barely get a touch of he ball.  
Two for Mead, one for Blackstenious, one for Little.
Happily the womens games appear to be free to watch live on Arsenal.com, FYI 

Odegaard and Zinchenko are out
Vieira and Tierney start
Partey starts, back from injury!

15 yr old on the bench, gonna be a test - especially given how the bees beat us last season.

Brentford's physicality already usettlng us.

aaaaand saliba scores with his head on the first corner of the match. Lovely take from Saka and Saliba did exactly what was needed.

1-0 in the 18th minute

2-0 10 minutes later, peach of a ball from Xhaka and who does he find? Jesus with a powerful header passed the keeper.
back to the top of the table at this rate, 9 goals in 12 PL games for the gunners by Jesus.

Oh wow!
step up Fabio Viera! great shot from outside of the box, Brentford just giving us way too much room.
3-0

theprof

2-0 10 minutes later, peach of a ball from Xhaka and who does he find? Jesus with a powerful header passed the keeper.
back to the top of the table at this rate, 9 goals in 12 PL games for the gunners by Jesus.

Jesus hasn't played 12 PL games for us.

This kid was born the year this website was founded.

Mad.

We were good, like really fudgeing good.

Buffon II

theprof

2-0 10 minutes later, peach of a ball from Xhaka and who does he find? Jesus with a powerful header passed the keeper.
back to the top of the table at this rate, 9 goals in 12 PL games for the gunners by Jesus.

Jesus hasn't played 12 PL games for us.

commentary screwed me, although at that time at night I may have misheard.

Look pretty dominant today. Really enjoyed how much we were able to push and pull brentford around. 
Veira’s goal ay! I think he didn’t realise it went in. Just magic. 
And I can’t get over how young that kid is. Like he was 13 when we went into lockdown!! 

Nice little bookends there - Brentford away last season, and Brentford away this season, neatly showing the progress we have made. 
Glad the ManU loss doesn't seem to have changed the mindset. 
The passing play just generally, is quite wonderful. Starting to look wengerball-esque at times. Some lovely little sections of play, even just the very beginning with the build-up to Martinelli slipping and fluffing that chance in the first or second minute.
And they should be showing the highlight of the Vieira goal as starting all the way at the back. Saliba played out under great pressure to begin that move, it was excellent. 

Geez its pretty mindblowing how young that kid was that got on. Never heard of him but how could I have? He was born, then he debuted LOL