Arsenal 2023/24

Saw something similar against Liverpool with odegaard and havertz floating in false 9 type positions. 
Personally i feel havertz is underrated, he brings a lot of flexibility and versatility to our game, and is a very good big game player. 

Floodgates well and truly opened. First time we've been 4-0 up at half time since that ridiculous Newcastle game 13 years ago.

Watching the highlights.

Hard to believe we were 0-0 at 31mins 1st half.
Plenty of early solid chances that we missed too.
Keeper did really well to save Trossards volley. Cracking shot!
After Saliba's goal Saka had two clean chances.
Pen was clear, despite VAR checking everything they could to deny it, well taken by Saka, love that he steps up everytime to take them. Only 21; 50 goals and 49 assists!
3 set pieces 3 goals and then Trossard steps up, he had a solid first half and at 
4-0 you could tell we were dominating. It didnt look like WHU had anything on attack at all. Fans leaving at half time??

Even at the start of the second half it looked like WHU had no intent in challenging. So much space in the middle of the park.  No surprise that we were lining up for chances. Saka could have had 4 himself except for some great keeping. His second was just classy, typical jink inside and hits it low with the left foot. great positioning and a lovely ball from Odegaard.
Rice's goal was fantastic! Gotta appreciate his lack of celebration. But that came from a loose pass from Martinelli, Odegaard mising it and noone from WHU chasing the ball, no desparation at all. Hammers management will be regretting selling Rice you'd think, 2 assists and a goal in 66mins.

Saka’s second and Rice’s were brilliant finishes. Trossard’s was decent as well.

We have become a seriously good set piece team. Two against West Ham is no mean feat. 

We should consider going after this kid: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_%C5%A0e%C5%A1ko
Watching him for RB Leipzig against Madrid tonight and he's got the height we want plus the pace. At 20 he has plenty of developing to do but he'd be an upgrade on Nketiah. Could save the rest of our pennies for Pedro Neto.

I would love if Mbappe went against the expected trend and signed for Arsenal over Madrid. Cant see him at City, but imagine if he did go to the PL it would be between us and Liverpool. C’mon Stan, splash the cash!

I feel like we aren’t in the same orbit as those top 5 or 6 teams who do so much trade between themselves. Not that I wouldn’t love to see him in London.

He won’t go to city as they already have a main forward who doesn’t defend. And I can’t see him coming to us for the same reason. Also, for ffp reasons as well. 
Liverpool is a different story, they don’t seem to be as close to the ffp limits, but cant see it happening unless their new manager is the reason. 
Juve and Bayern aren’t the business anymore, nor Barca. That only leaves Real. Unfortunately. 

I’m yet to watch the Arsenal game but good to see another emphatic result which does wonders for our goal difference.

In other news I’m stoked to see City drop two points. But the 20 minutes I watched at the end were almost unbearable. Chelsea are just so bad it’s not even funny. How they didn’t get pumped I don’t know.

Edit: just watched highlights and we looked good. It’s great to see so many young players firing.

That Dubai break really did wonders for us it seems. Hit some right form.

missed the game this morning, my alarm didnt go off - gutted but wow have we hit form at the right time or what. shots have been fired (literally) to the rest of the league. Jesus is gonna struggle to get back into the lineup with Havertz and Trossard both scoring in recent games. Odegaard's goal was a peach but so too were the other three non pen goals.

Always need to find a way to keep Trossard in the side. He just has end product. Taking him out after that 7 game run last season must be a massive regret for Arteta.

Cracking win. Loving this title chase, it's nice not to be the front runner but to be in the thick of it. Away game to City on the 31st of March will be huge. City also have to go to Anfield. If City lose both of those there is every chance one of us or Liverpool lift the title. Crazy to think only 13 PL fixtures left this season.

I saw a list of Manchester city‘s results against top six opposition this season and they have only won one game. That was against United. 

brumbys

Cracking win. Loving this title win, it's nice not to be the front runner but to be in the thick of it. Away game to City on the 31st of March will be huge. City also have to go to Anfield. If City lose both of those there is every chance one of us or Liverpool lift the title. Crazy to think only 13 PL fixtures left this season.

Season has flown by hasn't it.

I'm actually more excited for our European run tbh. First leg against Porto this week. Obviously have to navigate each match and tie as it comes but we are a serious possibility of making the final this year. Bookies have us as third favourites to win it and we are finding some serious form at the right time.

The Athletic had a  write up about our history at this stage and I’d forgotten all the trauma associated with it. So many bizarre results, like going to the Nou Camp off a 2-1 home win and having RVP sent off for a second yellow kicking the ball after the whistle when he couldn’t hear it.

The Bayern 10-2 was the worst. Utter humiliation on every level.

Both of those results were maddening.

Do you think Chelsea have now dropped to as bad as we were during peak banter years?

Worse.

We never finished as low as they did last season or the position they are currently in this season. Although when you finish somewhere in between the European places and relegation I supposed it doesn't really make much difference what actual position you are, and they probably haven't taken some of the massacres we did.

Feels good to be back in a CL knockout round but very nervous for tomorrow given our poor history in European knockout rounds. Just hope we get out of there still in contention for the home leg which often hasn't been the case after the 1st leg in the CL.

I’m nervous about the prospect that our boys will be kicked from dawn to dusk tomorrow. I caught a couple of porto games a month or so back, very physical style. 

Not sure if others would agree but I care about the league far more than the CL so would prefer we rested a few guys like Saka for this one. We still have plenty of firepower without him, but if we overplay him and he gets injured we would be in trouble.

We're arguably the biggest club to have never won Europe's top prize so if we were to tick that off I think it would be far more important to the club as a whole than winning a 14th league title.

loyalgunner

Not sure if others would agree but I care about the league far more than the CL so would prefer we rested a few guys like Saka for this one. We still have plenty of firepower without him, but if we overplay him and he gets injured we would be in trouble.

Agree, League first, Europe second. This would be the perfect game to give Saka a rest and start one of the younger guys.

Feel weirdly emotional hearing that anthem for us in a knockout tie again but sharkting myself a bit thinking about our most recent CL knockout ties. Just want to get out of this leg still in the tie.

I get it, given the choice I'd always choose to win the league. But this is the one thing we're missing. It's something to hope for once in our lifetimes and I fear 2006 was as close as it will ever be. All our main league rivals (obviously aside from Spurs although even they made a recent final) can point to winning this in recent years, and even West Ham can show a recent European trophy. It's the one thing we're missing. I never understood the idea that Europa wasn't worth winning when we were in it either. Get a good result in the 1st leg then maybe you can rest a player or 2 for the 2nd.

Also, what an awesome kickoff time on a work from home day.

Unbelievable, I just realised that the champions league is not on sky. How are you guys watching?

loyalgunner

Unbelievable, I just realised that the champions league is not on sky. How are you guys watching?

If you have a Bein sports sub you can watch it there.
Luto doing us a massive favour at the moment, 1-0 up over liverpool at half time

No denying Liverpool are looking dangerous but Luton have imploded. 3-1 in the 72nd minute.

Sharke.

Still not out of it and 2-1 at home will do with away goals no longer counting (didn't actually realise away goals were no longer a thing - it's been  while since I've paid any attention to CL knockout). But standard European knockout tie for us. 0-0 would have been a good result but tough ask now.

Is it just me or did Raya look quite flat footed and jumped a second too early? Good shot of course but it wasn't in the top corner.

How will 2-1 do? That would mean extra time.

Haha sorry, I mixed up the rules with thinking the away goal didn't count and forgot it would be 2-2 on aggregate. With the old rules a 2-1 win would have meant we were out on away goals. 2-0 is going to be a mountainous task. 

Arteta has never won a European knockout tie at home. 

Be a good time to change that in a few weeks.

Game reminded me of those games against the likes of Deportivo and Valencia of 20+ years ago.

Physical, wily, tactically switched on opposition against whom we had no answer. 

I expect us to run riot at home, especially if Jesus is back. Biggest challenge is ensuring that Porto don't keep delaying the game. Check this from TNT sport (used to be BT sport):

The game between Porto and Arsenal saw 3⃣6⃣ fouls committed, the most in any #UCL game this season.

The ball was also only in play for 50 minutes ⏰ pic.twitter.com/lud3BiY42C

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) February 21, 2024

Can't imagine they'll get away with the delaying tactics at Emirates....

Big worry is European referees, PL referees wouldn't let you away with that but we won't have that!

We need to worry about getting shots on target more than refs tbh. Not comfortable shifting blame to the officials when we were seriously below par.