Arsenal player ‘wants a dry slap’ but three things improved for Gunners
Arsenal fans are buoyant after that win over the anti-football folk of Newcastle United, but Gabriel does deserve a slap.
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Game the f*** on
Mikel grew a set!! Finally!! League is there for the taking if he carries on like this. Gabriel wants a dry slap for that pathetic dive mind you. Game on Liverpool….
RHT/TS x
READ: Arteta swaps handbrake for kitchen sink as Arsenal outlast Newcastle and The Conspiracy
That’s a statement win from Arsenal
I wish I could have seen the look on Stewie’s face as he watched Gabriel’s header go in and deleted his tirade about Arteta.
Thats a massive win for us. We have played at Anfield, St James Park, Old Trafford (yes they are s*** but its still a bogey team) and Man City at home in first 6 games and we are 2 points behind Liverpool who have had the easier opening fixtures. All this with numerous injuries. Couldn’t have wished for better really (bar one free kick going slightly further left).
Hopefully we can put a run together and we get a solid 2 horse race this season and we can finally go the extra mile. I think if Wirtz and Isak start clicking it’s still Liverpool’s to lose but there’s no doubt we’ll be right up there with them based on what we’ve seen so far.
Rob A (that was some dire refereeing all round) AFC
Is this the harbinger of doom for Liverpool?
My wife said I was an idiot for suggesting Arsenal’s result would be an indicator for how the season would end given their habit of dropping points after rivals lose…I hope she’s right.
Aidan, Lfc (glad she didn’t realise I was an idiot before we married)
Re-writing the narrative every fecking time
Merino is a negative pick from a too defensively minded manager… Except for when he’s the kitchen sink of attacking substitutions showing that the handbrake is off.
Please can the sports media remember that their primary job is to report what happened not to try and create other stuff happening. The manufactured narratives, the attempts to create discontent and get managers sacked. It’s all awful. Sky are woeful for it and Football365 used to be one of the rare lights in a dismal field of journalists and media bodies desperate to be the centre of attention. You guys are just as bad and I will continue to mark the point where you lost the plot as when you stated trying to manufacture discontent around Eddie Howe a couple of seasons back… Any Newcastle supporter who believed that nonsense then needed their heads examined as does any Arsenal supporter who believes it now about Arteta.
Looking forward to seeing how many times we can keep reinventing the type of footballer Merino is this season to fit the story that’s needed…
James (Gooner in exile in the North East)
Oliver Glasner belongs where he is
Hasnain Ahmed Khalid, football managers often fit football clubs, their culture and tradition. Arteta was perfect for Arsenal not just because of tactics but because he genuinely loves the football club. He also has strong traditional values which helped with the culture reset we urgently needed.
Oliver Glasner is a great manager but I don’t see him succeeding at a big club (in England). His teams play with an underdog mentality which is suited to mid-table teams. When you manage a big club and you dominate the game 90% of the time, you need a different set of tactics and mentality. His style is suited to the Italian league where teams like Inter, Napoli who play the traditional 3-4-3, 3-5-2, go into games against Barcelona, PSG, City etc playing with that underdog mentality. That’s where I think he would thrive. Not at Arsenal, City, Liverpool or even ManUtd. Again, this is not football manager.
To the game. Everything I wanted to see I saw in this game.
More balls over the top – check
More touches for Eze in dangerous areas – check
More urgency to turn these draws to wins – check check
There are some areas for improvement. We still don’t create as much from the left as we do from the right and on a weekend where Xhaka again proved to be Sunderland’s best player, I want to say how much I miss him. I’m sure Martinelli misses him as well. I will always remind you the media (and fake fans) how you hounded him, abused him, cursed him and insulted him until he left. Again, this is why media narratives are so dangerous and I will always be a voice of opposition against it.
Back to the game. This is why Eze still has to be our first choice LW. Although, he needs the license to roam infield. We need to share the attacking responsibilities between left and right equally. Also, Rice has to roam more. For those of you who keep saying Arteta has destroyed Rice by taking him from his number 6 position, I hope you’re watching. You see the clear difference when he started to drive forward in the second half.
Finally, thanks to Berta for an outstanding job. He has given us better tools and in the Newcastle game, our large bench helped win this game again (Odegaard was immense). But these new players are still bedding in. We still need patience. Gyokeres was better today. Great hold up play and better link up play with his team mates. Let’s go. COYG!
Damola AFC, Berlin Germany
Arsenal have some welcome questions now
So after Arsenal finally overcome those Geordie anti-footballing zebras, with a deserved victory. I have a few questions.
How do you fit in Eze and Odegaard? What role does Rice play? Arsenal’s sudden embarrassment of riches is now a glorious problem (assuming the usual injuries don’t linger, hah!).
Declan Rice has been mostly been subdued in his midfield role. Arteta has to adjust how Rice impacts a game especially his forward play. Maybe the left inside fullback doesn’t ply so far forward?
I’m now expecting every single tackle all over the pitch where the defender is a nanosecond behind and gets to the ball second, to never ever be a foul again. Thats the new rule after the penalty overturn right?
Yesterday felt like the first time there was a bit of balance to Arsenal after quite some time.
Ali, Ealing
Conspiracy chat
PGMOL 1-2 Arsenal
Eoin (dumbfounded by current refereeing standards) Ireland
…Such a great way to win the game. Snatch a late winner and the added boost of developing that siege mentality after putting up with all that garbage.
Only one talking point for me because the game is dead on 15 mins if the pen stands (assume we score). The decision to take the penalty away was laughable (from a Liverpool fan no less). I am so happy that the team ultimately made sure this did not matter but my god what a farce.
The things Newcastle get away with are quite remarkable. I’ve never seen someone pulled to the ground by their face and not even get a foul. In the first half Arsenal were appealing for a decision on these but in the second half they did not bother asking. No way this ref in this stadium is giving them a sniff.
On the stadium this is my annual query of why Newcastle are the only team allowed to stick the away fans way up into the gods?
Lastly, the shite they go on about on sky. Having two ex-Tottenham players on at half time. Can barely contain themselves laughing about this dogshit ref. Can I just have adverts the whole half time and take some money off my subscription? Jeezus.
Anyway, great win and delighted to do one over on Newcastle.
James
Can we not get caught up in the nonsense please?
My wife agreed to put our various children to bed this evening so I could watch the end of the Arsenal-Newcastle game. Which I very much enjoyed (Arsenal fan).
The reason I’m writing is that I very rarely get to watch post-match coverage these days (because of the children mentioned above–80% concentrating on a game while it’s actually happening is quite reasonably about as much as I can do most weekends) and I thought Sky’s post-match coverage was horrendous. A bit of analysis of the three goals (fairly interesting), but the vast majority of the time was spent discussing refereeing / VAR controversies. Nothing on the overall flow of the game, the tactics, or how Newcastle frustrated Arsenal very well before Arsenal ultimately turned their dominance of the ball into goals late on. No actual explanation from the supposed experts of why the game went the way it did other than some sensible, but not exactly ground-breaking, thoughts on a few individual moments. It seemed much more geared towards rage-baiting the fans and speaking Very Seriously about referees.
I don’t know whether Jamie Redknapp and Les Ferdinand are particularly bad, but I was pretty shocked at the level after the Sunday 4:30 kickoff–one of the biggest games of the week. Isn’t always like this? Or am I the only one who thinks punditry should be about explaining why the game turned out like it did?
Paul, Arsenal, London
P.S., to be a complete hypocrite and jump on the refereeing decisions bandwagon, I thought it was a clear penalty for Gyokeres, and I thought Gabriel was very lucky to get away with the handball in the challenge with Elanga. Gabriel potentially could have been sent off for pushing Woltemade, but Guimaraes wasn’t for his much worse elbow into Havertz’s head maybe last season / 2 years ago, and Gyokeres got thrown to the floor by his face at one stage. So maybe it all evens out and we should concentrate on the actual football instead of getting bogged down in this nonsense.
Credit where it’s due
I’m writing in to compliment Joe Hart’s analysis on Match of the Day. In my opinion, he’s articulate, calm, not overly critical or overly complimentary, just a good balance depending..
Also no clichés thrown in, just simple analysis that the viewer can understand from his point of view, even if ‘one doesn’t agree with, can still comprehend, his perspective.
(I remember when Rooney and Hart were making their points on Liverpool v Arsenal – and Joe Hart took initiative to break down why Raya was not at fault for not saving a spectacular free kick).
Finally Arteta plays a 4-2-3-1, Finally Arsenal win at St James Park. COYG!
Leo
Arsenal cheats do prosper
Just a quick note from the Newcastle Arsenal match. If it’s accepted for the Newcastle goal that Gabriel wasn’t fouled when he went down like a sack of spuds, why wasn’t he given a yellow for simulation, because it clearly was? Or for dragging Burn down at least two or three times during the match? Or whoever it was fouled Elanga on the break near the end?
Is it just because Newcastle players didn’t start waving imaginary cards around like Arsenal players did for Joelinton’s yellow?
Of course it was him that scored at the death. Apparently cheats do prosper.
Badwolf
Set-piece FC
On balance Arsenal deserved to win. Probably shouldn’t be relying on set-pieces when you’ve spent a billion quid though.
Chris, NUFC
