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Up the Arse! Goons Thread

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Arsenal website has a BTS gallery for the men's squad photo day. One of the images is Odegaard with his (injured) right arm draped over Big Gabi. That's a good sign, right?

Also good to see Gabi Jesus, Havertz, White and Saka amongst it. A brief look behind the 'veil of secrecy' that is Arsenal’s injury list. We're spoilt as AFL fans when it comes to injury reporting.
 
Really enjoyed this replay, so much to like about the performance. Firstly I’ll say what an occasion in Bilbao. Their return to champions league after 11 years which is a hell of an achievement as it is given their policy of only having players of Basque origin representing them. Brilliant stadium and the energy in the crowd was something else. An occassion so big that I believe many of Arteta’s family came as well from closeby.

And this all stems back to what a mature, professional performance it was. They threw everything in that first half and we found it difficult to get out, their pressing was so good. Arsenal and Arteta knew that over the duration of the match, we can take that sting out of the game as long as we don’t do anything stupid and concede. Helps having such senior pros on the pitch, from Gabriel to Merino to Rice etc.

We controlled possession and if the ball over the top wasn’t on, no dramas Raya or Mosquera would put their foot on the ball and not risk a 50/50 ball. Really refreshing to see that level of maturity. We managed the occasion as good as I’ve seen in a long time, this Arsenal is different. 2 years ago we wouldn’t have had the capacity to be able to ride out these nights, but here we held them at bay and they didn’t really lay a glove really. The one save Raya did make was routine stuff for him.

Arsenal are a defensive machine, we know this. As a unit, we give very little away. Mosquera (or Bossquera) is a ridiculous signing. How can you be that good, that assured and composed yet so young and only having a handful of weeks at the club? That’s an unbelievable piece of business to all involved.

And it means there’s no pressure to risk and rush Saliba. Get him ready for the City match on the weekend.

Arsenal’s ability to impact off the bench is another massive factor. All of sudden, that bench is insane. I keep banging on about it because not too long ago it was Jorginho, Sterling, a host of left backs and academy players (with all due respect to them).

Now, the current matchday squad is ridiculously strong. Not sure how long it can be sustained, and remains to be seen how Arteta keeps them all ready and motivated. For now though, for this season, Arsenal has built a unit to win.

Martinelli in that position time and time again he’s shown he’s a killer. Bringing him on to impact off the bench is a luxury we just haven’t had. Same with Trossard, whose numbers coming off the bench would stack up very highly in terms of all time goals/assists. This Arsenal is built different.

We can start a match of this stature without Saliba, Saka, Odegaard, White and Havertz, 5 integral players over the last few seasons who have brought us back to this level, and I’m not even worried.

This is brilliant to see.
 

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Cruyff14 said:
Talk of Saka being back my mate said. Big boost if so.

Noni v Gvardiol will be a good match up. And I wonder who starts on the left?
Click to expand...

Eze on the left, Martinelli comes in later. Surely we are due a big Eze debut goal for the club in front of the home fans.

Does Nwaneri start in the middle? Or do we go more defensive with Marino.

.... Or maybe Eze start in the middle and Nwaneri is on the bench.

We are pretty spoiled for choice ATM.
 
It’s more likely for me that Odegaard and Saliba start, Arteta always keeps his cards close to the chest with that stuff.

Saka though it’s possible he’s returned to training and hasn’t been pictured yet. It’s been 4 weeks from the injury so depending on the grading of it at the time, it’s possible he is available. However I just don’t think he will be risked. It’s a big call either way.
 
 
Very interesting. Dowman played the u21s yesterday (and scored of course, the youngest player to do so, 15 years old and playing u21s is incredible).

So that already opens up one spot in the matchday squad, Saka perhaps.
 
Absolute ****ing borefest. 30 mins gone and not a single shot on goal yet.

Arsenal look devoid of any attacking ideas, Man city happy to sit back and score with counters.

Noni looks like the only attacking threat and is getting doubled, Trossard offering literally nothing.
 

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Shoei said:
Arsenal look devoid of any attacking ideas, Man city happy to sit back and score with counters.
Click to expand...
Baffling team selection again. 3 DMs on the pitch and all the creativity left to rot on the bench, no doubt to be introduced in the 70th minute and not be given enough time to influence the game.

Madueke fighting a lone battle out there at the moment.

Gyokeres anonymous so far again, but we don’t help him with the lack of service.

I love what Mikel has done to the club but I’m starting to doubt if he’s the man to take us the next step.
 
Terrible first half, the worse in a long time.

Last 5 minutes the team looked like they might actually give a **** and attack, but still everything left to Noni to do.

Zubi/Merino/Rice doesn't work if all 3 are going to sit deep, Rice gets 1 or 2 runs and Arsenal start looking better.

Gyokeres would be lucky to have touched the ball 2-3 times? I don't know what role he's playing but its doing nothing against City's 2 CBs and Rodri sitting in front of him.

City sitting deep and just happy to push Arsenal out wide knowing they are just going to pass back to Raya at the first sign of pressure.

This is one of those games that has 0-2, 0-3 written all over it.
 
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Point rescued. Not bad considering how negative City were for the entire game.

Trossard offered little. Rice was uncharacteristically poor I thought, his passes were very erratic.

Saka looked great in spite of having 2-3 blokes hanging off him every time he got the ball.

Fantastic ball from Eze to Martinelli the super sub.
 
Some finish by Martinelli.

Deserved a point at the very least. Pretty dominant second half.

If anything, it tells me that we are better equipped to deal with low blocks this season. But good low block teams are still difficult for us to play against.

I really, really like Saka floating across the front three with Eze and at the end Nwaneri playing behind. It oozes danger.

Start the way we finished against Newcastle and we should hopefully get a result.
 
Arteta said Madeueke had a knock in the first half that’s why it was him who came off at half time. Not sure about that. He should’ve stayed on for me and Trossard should have made way. I feel in a match like this just find a way to incorporate Eze. He should’ve started.

That’s one of the most def rejects and negative set ups from City I can recall. The stats would probably show that too.

Martinelli with a beautiful finish. What a luxury to have him off the bench.

The opening half though from Arsenal, damn. That’s the difference. 1 point obviously is better than zero however this still leaves me with so many questions.

Once again we miss Kai Havertz. If he’s fit, Gyokeres is the sub for matches like this.
 

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Up the Arse! Goons Thread

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