Arsenal 2024/2025

Martinelli with a possible calf injury? Have to wait till he gets scans back in London to see if it's anything but he sat out Brazil's last match of the window - but was apparently on the bench so it may be nothing at all?

Still hoping Saka's injury isn't bad but we still have to wait to see with that one too

Another international break, and more possible injuries. Saka, Martinelli, possibly Tomiyasu. Hopefully nothing as serious as Odegaard, but man we've been unlucky early on. Hopefully we'll get better news tomorrow when we see the squad announcement for Bournemouth.

Havertz is also unlikely to start. White, timber and zink remain out.   Could be quite challenging game this. 

Playing well considering we’ve been down for 10 for most of this. Hope we can nick something. 

Welp. Nicking something won’t help now. Very good corner set piece goal from them and then kiwior sets up a pen for them. 

This has been such a shark game from us, and I blame it 100% on the international break. Saka not in the squad, Saliba getting abuse from French media, and Martinelli only on the bench really fudgeed us. Poor decisions from Trossard/Saliba/Kiwior for the goals, but man we're not getting any help.
VAR also really fudgeed us tonight, I thought it was 50/50 a yellow or a red, so why is it an obvious enough error to send him to the monitor? Worse still, Sky at half time has an angle the ref didn't see showing the ball spinning towards white and away from the Bournemouth man. Hopefully, that footage gets his ban rescinded.

For mine a clear example that we just dont have the depth in the squad to win everything this year. Even challenging for the league alone is hard enough. But Steriling is no replacement for Saka, and as good as Merino can be, he is not Odegaard.
merino was well off the pace today, looked gassed after the first 25 mins, lost the ball multiple times and should have been replaced at half time. Saliba had little options, Trossard made the wrong pass, Partey was wide open square. Sold down the river!
After that we just didnt look like ever going for the win.
Need Saka and Odegaard back asap!
Saliba now out for the Liverpool game too.

We deserved to lose today.

Big test against Liverpool without Saliba now. Hopefully have Saka back fully fit.

This result plus playing Liverpool next week without Saliba, and we've seen it's impossible for us to win without him, already feels a bit fatal in terms of a title challenge.

 A loss against Liverpool will make me question our title hopes quite seriously. I know there's still a lot of the season still to go, but it will feel too early for a true title contender to have 2 losses. Generally you don't want more than 3 or 4 losses by the time you mathematically win the league, so another loss would create a lot of pressure.

Kind of getting ahead of myself, I just hope we can still take down Liverpool without Saliba and then I won't have to think of all these doom and gloom scenarios!

Interesting read in BBC sport, Arsenal were the last team to win the PL Title with 3 red cards in a season...we've definitely got an uphill mountain as we've cost ourselves 7 points so far. Big game against Shaktar, Arseblog made a very compelling for a Nwaneri start...would love to see it!

Hoping we rotate a bit against Shaktar. Could be a good game for Nwaneri, Zinchenko, Jorginho to get some minutes. Maybe a debut for Neto?

Worrying amount of injuries starting to pile up, and why does it always seem to be at full back?! Calafiori, Zinchenko, Tomiyasu, Tierney, Timber all impacted to various degrees. I wonder if we're looking at a Kiwior, Gabriel, White, Partey back 4 for Liverpool with Saliba suspended? Be a good time for Saka and/or Odegaard to be available again given we've got Liverpool (H), Preston (A), Newcastle (A), Inter over an 11 day run.

This game feels a bit like a write off with no Saka, Odegaard, Saliba or any left back to mark Salah. My birthday and a day off work with it being Labour Day. Tempted to just skip the game and have a nice day rather then let it ruin the day from the start. Obviously never be able to do that though!

ajc28

This game feels a bit like a write off with no Saka, Odegaard, Saliba or any left back to mark Salah. My birthday and a day off work with it being Labour Day. Tempted to just skip the game and have a nice day rather then let it ruin the day from the start. Obviously never be able to do that though!

Yeah feels like it should be a write off, but unfortunately a loss will put a serious dent in trying to mount a title challenge.

I was surprised Nwaneri didn't get a start against Shaktar, felt like it would've been a good chance to get him a start in a bigger comp than just the League Cup whilst also not being the most highly pressured fixture - we sure could've used his creativity

Decent first half. Cracking goal from Saka and what a delivery from Rice for Merino’s header.

Wank defending for their goal mind you.

Ah bugger. I thought we had that one. Of all the points we’ve dropped this season I think this will cost us the most. Real shame we could t close it out. 

These refs are making me think about giving up on football.

I mean, not really - but bloody hell!

Buffon II

Decent first half. Cracking goal from Saka and what a delivery from Rice for Merino’s header.

Wank defending for their goal mind you.

Yeah, Saka proved why he is so important to our chances this year. First touch sublime and then outting the shot away - every defender knows what he is gonna do, but stopping hims is another thing.
As for their first goal, Havertz should have done better and Partey was just on the wrong side of the attacker.

Again, a game with incidents that wouldnhave been carded had we committed the foul, but the opposition get away with it. Maac Allister with several fouls in quick succession, all could have easilty dran a yellow, yet he gets away with it until early in the second half. Van Dyk should have been yellowed for his hip charge into Saka.  Then there was the kicking the ball away.......not once did we do it - pleased we've learned, but they did it three or four times with no consequences.

Would have taken the draw beforehand but obviously gutting to have led twice and so late.  Leaves very little margin for error now with 115 FC. Almost feels like we can't afford to drop another point in terms of a title chance. Will we have a defence available next week?

Anyone gunners fans or Mags fans watching the game this week in Wellys? If so, where? 

That was super frustrating to watch, I lost it at the end when he blew the 'foul' Kiwior committed. Why don't referee's play on and allow VAR to review like the linesman do with offside? Then the obvious corner being given as a goal kick was mad. You know it's bad when Garry N on commentary is shocked. Mike Dean popping up on commentary to back up his mate is actually the worst, just f*ck off already.

Given the injuries at the back are piling up I really hope we see decent rotation for Preston away in the cup. Good game for Jorginho, Neto, Myles LS, Kiwior, Sterling, Jesus, Nwaneri to get a start in.

ajc28

Would have taken the draw beforehand but obviously gutting to have led twice and so late.  Leaves very little margin for error now with 115 FC. Almost feels like we can't afford to drop another point in terms of a title chance. Will we have a defence available next week?

Not dropping a point would give us 105 points, so I think it's fair to say we can probably drop one or two ;) 
Lets have some optimism lads. To me, Man City are the least convincing they have been for the last 5 years, and they've got Rodri out for the season. 
There for the taking, if we're good enough. 
Liverpool have had a kind draw so far, they're not as good as people think imo. 
We should've beaten both of them, but we've got a wee injury struggle at the moment, which I would expect us to kick clear of soon. 

paulm

ajc28

Would have taken the draw beforehand but obviously gutting to have led twice and so late.  Leaves very little margin for error now with 115 FC. Almost feels like we can't afford to drop another point in terms of a title chance. Will we have a defence available next week?

Not dropping a point would give us 105 points, so I think it's fair to say we can probably drop one or two ;) 
Lets have some optimism lads. To me, Man City are the least convincing they have been for the last 5 years, and they've got Rodri out for the season. 
There for the taking, if we're good enough. 
Liverpool have had a kind draw so far, they're not as good as people think imo. 
We should've beaten both of them, but we've got a wee injury struggle at the moment, which I would expect us to kick clear of soon. 

As unconvincing as thw 115 may be they can still buy their way to a win this year. The longer the EPL/FA take with their ruling on the 115 crooks the more it feels like they will face no sanctions and get away with another 5 years of domination.

Good quarter final draw for the league cup. 115 and Chelsea out, one of Spurs or United out in the next round. Don't see why we can't target winning this, or at least making a final. 115, Liverpool and United are happy to keep winning it so never quite got why it's beneath us. This team needs a trophy and winning breeds winning.

I want that Nwaneri goal on repeat, what a kid. Excites me as much as Saka did. Would be magic to have another generational talent from Hale end come through the ranks so soon after Saka. 

ajc28

Good quarter final draw for the league cup. 115 and Chelsea out, one of Spurs or United out in the next round. Don't see why we can't target winning this, or at least making a final. 115, Liverpool and United are happy to keep winning it so never quite got why it's beneath us. This team needs a trophy and winning breeds winning.

Dont think we ever made out it was beneath us? 
Pretty strong lineup yesterday too, all things considered. Reckon Arteta is keen as on it, or any trophy - we always seem to be up for the Community Shield in a big way too. 

Was referring to how it used to be (particularly under Wenger) just "play the kids" and get out of it asap to focus on other competitions. That's still the attitude of a lot of fans. Arteta does seem to take it a bit more seriously though which is good. At this stage with a decent quarter final draw and some other big teams out it represents an opportunity. This team needs to win something together. 

Boo. That was pretty average. Players looked tired. Newcastle got their got and then sat deeper and we didn't have the creativity or finishing to do the business. Lucky the 115 lost as well, though concerning that Lpool keep winning. 

Blast from the past, Forest sitting in third is a bit of a shock! As much as we seem in a bit of a rut, City also look to be on struggle street. This season might be a return to the years gone by of sub 90 point title wins as the top 6 knick points off each other.

Just need to find a way to not drop points at Inter and get all 3 against Chelsea. That keeps us in good position on both fronts, and we’ll hopefully come out the other side of the next international break with our backline sorted again and Odegaard back skippering in the team.

I do think we’re going to need to go into the market in January. Either a wide forward or CF upgrade is critical to change the outcome of games like today.

Seriously frustrating couple of games - Nix los and then this from the gunners. We really miss Odegaard, Trossard is not the creative AM we need, Nwaneri did better. Partey is not an RB, why Arteta persists with him their is beyond me. If White is tired and Califiore injured then put Timber on the right with Zincheko on the left (I know the latter is returning from injury). We look so much better when Partey moved to the midfield but still nothing really as we should be. Only positive from today was 115 losing too.

Bournemouth have now beaten us and City at home this season, and Forest went to Anfield and beat Liverpool. Could be a fairly open season with lesser teams taking more points off the title chasers.

Sharke to go away there and lose 1-0 again, same result on the exact same weekend as last year. Didn’t offer anything to suggest we deserved a point let alone all three.

Need to arrest this run of form very quickly though. 7 points off top is nothing at this stage of the season but we don’t want that turning in to double digits before December rolls around.

Lost a bit in the disappointment of the day but the unbeaten record lives on for another season.  

Massive news this evening. Edu is leaving the club.

Buffon II

Massive news this evening. Edu is leaving the club.

Limited details about, nothing from the club yet, but appears to be off to run the group which owns Forest. I get that's a bit different from running Arsenal, in that it's a multi-club model but I'm unsure anything that collection of clubs owns is going to be competing for the best players and titles in Europe.

Yea that's pretty big news ay. I'm a firm believer in internal teams making external playing groups strong, and he with Arteta and the rest have done that. Wish him all the best and hope we get someone even more capable 

Trebling his salary apparently. He seemed a decent guy and was a well liked former player. Oversaw some big improvement but ultimately we haven't won anything for 4 years and this past summer was a disaster that we're now paying for in dropped points. Perhaps this is an opportunity for further improvement.

My partner is from Milan. Thankfully she hates Inter. That was painful to watch. Nothing went our way, and couldn’t find the cutting edge in the final third. Glad Odegaard got some minutes in his legs. Hope Havertz cut doesn’t rule him out for Chelsea…

We just don't have much about us atm ay. Like we fight hard-ish, but never enough. We played well-ish, but never well enough. I'd say Chelsea are favourites this weekend and thats wild considering the trajectories of the two team over the past year

Certainly Odegaard can't come back quick enough. We just offer no threat at the moment and it's difficult to see where the next goal is coming from. Season in danger of complete collapse if we lose again in the weekend.