So we lost to the Big Oily Beast and we are licking our wounds. Pep and his bullies were riding high and we were taught a hard lesson. If you don’t believe and play with fear all falls apart.
Somehow we fell back in old behaviours and I think this is due to Arteta’s emissary-master relationship with the hairless one. His inexperience showed and Guardiola out-thought our lego-haired genius. Giving Man City space like we did is courageous at best, but it does require our attackers to believe in themselves and take the game to the City defence. We never did that and we got badly punished for it.
The early goal was a big blow from which we never recovered. There was so much space for the Belgian maestro and Norwegian Berserker that it made them roar with beastly excitement.
What happened after that was pure torture. They were playing with us like killer whales tossing a baby seal between them in the air, squealing with dark pleasure.
We lacked compactness and our heads were on fire but the boys never gave up the fight. Ramsdale was immense and he almost single-handedly took us to the break with just one goal against us. Then VARce joined in with the dark trickery of humiliating this young and super talented team and allowed for a goal that for any warm human eye looked off-side.
You just knew then this was never going to be our night; the bitter-dark final content of the goblet had to be drunk. Guardiola was loving it and it showed how much he had started to worry about his emissary’s progress since Mikel left the Oilers tub. Still he lacked class and that is ultimately what oil money can never buy you: the history and class of our beloved Arsenal.
Arteta and the boys will learn from this. Never respect and fear the beast. That’s what killed us, nothing else. Key is now to get up and fire up the cannon once more. Next up is a team that once looked as beastly fearsome as the Etihad Oilers, and look where they are now. Class Never Dies. Let’s go OGAAT till the end of the season. Let’s believe.
By TotalArsenal
Bergkampesque 
It’s our worst performance against ManC in the last 2 seasons. Team with current confidence issues v team on top of their game.
However, what dun kill us makes us stronger. Bad day at office. Move 0n! We can and should be better.
( I am, however apprehensive of games against NewC and Brighton).
Well summed up, TA. Guardiola appears to have an hex over Arteta as he got caught in the mould of being the “former Assistant” to Pep; I hold the view his warnings about how good City are, however well intended, frighten, rather than embolden his players when they meet City.
It was same for Liverpool till he conquered that beast (fear?) this season. So, I believe it won’t be too long before Arteta masters Pep. I hope he stays another season, at least, so we can achieve that win over him.
The City celebrations gave away one thing, for me: they were truly concerned we could beat them to the title this season. If we scored first, they would have become jittery and we stronger.
Watch Pep celebrate each goal and how his players were joyous after the game. You do this out of relief (or, satisfaction with your day’s work, of course, but….) that it was easier than you thought. We just froze on the big occasion and showed too much respect to their players. Our key men had very bad days and but for Ramsdale, it could have been worse.
By the time the subs were on, there was no pressure so, while it is true our subs Brough more vibrancy, one can argue it was against tired opposition already assured of a win.
If we can, somehow, forget the occasion and play without pressure, this team will blow every other team out the water. The challenge is to get into their minds.
Crystal Palace v West Ham United * A (1-3)
Brentford v Nottingham Forest H
Brighton v Wolverhampton Wanderers * D (2-2)
Manchester United v Aston Villa A
Liverpool v Tottenham Hotspur * H (3-0)
Rangers v Celtic H
Total, I’m missing your selections for this weekend.
Crystal Palace v West Ham United * H (2-1)
Brentford v Nottingham Forest H
Brighton v Wolverhampton Wanderers *H (2-1)
Manchester United v Aston Villa H
Liverpool v Tottenham Hotspur * H (3-2)
Rangers v Celtic D
This is brilliant
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/apr/27/manchester-citys-perfection-is-laced-with-coldness-and-unease
Total, the game between Rangers & Celtic is a Cup game = no draws.
Home win then, GN5 ⚽
Ramsdale has played every league game this season, 33, so has White, Gabriel, Saka and Martinelli. Odegaard and Xhaka are on 32 lge apps, Partey on 28, Saliba 27 and Zinchenko 25, Nketiah is on 26 but many of them came as a substitute. That’s 10 players that make up the core of Arteta’s best starting XI, by comparison I reckon that Man City have closer to 18 players who Guardiola has choose without the teams level being affected along with 3 or 4 quality youngsters who are emerging from the City academy, it kinda shows how much Edu and Co have to do to provide Arteta with the tools…
Trossard, Tomiyasu and Jesus can be added to the 10 above imo.
With Saliba, Martinelli and Saka next season no longer U21 players it’ll mean they’ll have to be included in the 25 Man senior squad, the same will apply to Balogun and Okonkwo if they are in Arteta’s plans for 23/24.
Thanks Total.
And, thanks for the link to the Guardian article. A brilliant piece of insightful and prophetic writing.
Floyds, “Comfortably numb” would be a fitting replacement for “Hey Jude” as the Etihad theme song.
Kev, what about your cockney rhyming slang poetry?
As in Don Siegel’s “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”, this is a different, data-infected king of predictions who’s turned up on this blog.
Look … let’s not panic, our squad is the youngest in the League, we often forget that our manager’s a rookie too. Why change too much during the interlull? Whatever happens in the coming weeks, this is the best season we’ve had in ages, not only because of our League position, but also because of the sheer quality of our football.
Why not believe in them, in their margin of progress, in intelligent analysis of what went wrong, so as to work harder, better? One thing I don’t want is support a club in which top-class players are paid millions so as NOT to play games that matter/count. In other words, I don’t want a club where Alvarez is Haaland’s backup, Laporte Ake’s, Mahrez Bernardo’s, Foden Grealish’s, Phillips Rodri’s etc …
Let’s do with what we have, which is what a proper footbal club is supposed to be having, i.e. backups who’re not quite as good as the first-choices (until one day one (Academy!!) lad takes advantage of his cameos to overthrow the “natural” order of things). If we have a season-marred injury, let’s give all our support to our backups first – because they need it more than our first-choice players – and if, at the end of the day, it doesn’t work out and it means not winning titles but at the same time playing thrilling football – only a little less efficient – and along the way giving us such moments as the Bournemouth final seconds, then so be it (which doesn’t mean I agree with the use MA has made of our “second fiddles” this season; I don’t (“margin of progress”)).
TA, Stu, it’s been a long time since I started regarding Barney Ronay, no longer as a “sports” writer, but as a writer in his own right. He’s insightful, stylish, superiorly-read, and has profound love and knowledge of the beautiful game. I’m getting sick and tired of his Guardiola cult, though. What has been making this City season special has a name and this name is Haaland, just as Guardiola’s most successful seasons so far had Leo Messi written all over them.
Give Arsenal Mbappé, and Mikel will become the “best manager in the world”, right away.
LeG since 2005 when Putin’s sports-washed West London team won their first League title since 1955 we’ve seen 18 championships won thus: Chelsea 5, Man City 6 and Man Utd 5, the two outriders were Liverpool who rebuilt their squad on the back of selling Suarez and Coutinho and Leicester the only one who did it the traditional way through shrewd business and smart transfers.
In general you have to throw a lot of dough at it and even then there’s no guarantee but when you have a generational talent like Arteta it makes sense to support him as much as you can within the rules and provide him with the talent to do the job. The alternative Mon ami is being a ‘finishing school’ as a French footballer once called Arsenal.
Right, I’m drinking a nice cup of Rosie Lee whilst sitting at my Cain & Abel before I comb my Barnet Fayre, put a few Lady Godiva’s in my pocket and hit the frog and toad up north to visit my China plate in Enfield.
Allez Les Rouges
Love it, Kev. 😁
Your 3-line conclusion was received, loud and clear. And I don’t even need a dictionary any more … how’s that for progress?
We’ve spent more than £400m since MA took over, mon ami, which doesn’t look like a finishing school to me. More than 2 thirds of that dough were spent on keepers, defenders, defensive midfielders, but we’ve not exactly become an impregnable fortress, have we?
As for the above-mentioned 16 titles, this is exactly what I don’t want this club to become. I leave those trophies to them without the slightest regret. In the meantime my club has disappointed me, made me sad, but also done me proud, played fantastic football, provided me with moments of exhilaration that only football can give … has sometimes angered me, but never filled me with shame. And we’ve won titles, too, which is not the case of all clubs, but strangely enough our 4 FA Cups don’t seem to matter at all …
In the current state of things, with M.U. soon to be Qatar-owned, that’s all I can ask. It’s easy to see why buying Rice makes “football” sense for example. He’s an excellent player indeed, Partey-Jorginho-Xhaka-Elneny are in their thirties now, Mikel doesn’t seem willing to play Oleks in midfield, and neither Ibrahim Rosiak nor Henry-Francis are ready yet to take that huge step.
But I’ll tell you a secret: luring the lad away from his boyhood club, at the time when the Hammers have in store the best generation they’ve had in ages, one he could be both skipper and role-model for, is not only morally wrong, it’s also useless. Declan Rice won’t take us higher than 2nd, neither will the Rice-Caceido pair, all these costly transfers will do is make sure we end up above 2 teams we will have depleted, West Ham and Brighton.
One transfer, and one only, would change this young team, and turn them into actual, formidable, rivals of the usual title-winning suspects. If Edu really meant business, he’d save about £130m from not buying the likes of Rice-Caceido, he’d bring back home Norton-Cuffy, Tavares, Balogun, Trusty and Patino, promote Hein, Cozier-Duberry, and Walters, offload guys like Turner, Tomiyasu, Kiwior, Vieira, Lokonga, Pépé, Mari, Marquinhos, and … Trossard (something like £200m must have been spent on them – jury’s out on how much we’d get back of course). Then, he’d make the Kroenkes’ pockets for a few extra bucks, and he’d bring Mbappé home to London as the only addition to the starting XI (backed up by a bunch of young, ambitious, tremendously gifted Arsenal through-and-through lads) who took us onto such a joyful ride this season. Then, then only would I be in awe of our technical director’s achievements.
But funnily enough, for all the (hundreds, thousands??) of columns getting all excited about how much our owners should spend, and on whom, not a single one ever considers that possibility, which is why I can’t take this frantic agitation about transfers seriously – and never will.
Salut l’aminche, éclate-toi chez ton pote à Enfield (it’s your turn to tune in to French slang now).
The French singer, “Renaud”, is a good place to start. I taught this song, about how hard it is to cope with the moment your mirror makes you realize you’ve been getting old, to kids in Dublin when I was an assistant there. It’s called “Cheveu blanc” (lyrics in the description).
Hmmm. Looks like we are going to have to go to Brighton, prepared to battle, if we are going to get a win there.
They’ve just wiped the floor with Wolves and that’s a team that just lost a cup semi final.
LG, Je parle français comme une vache espagnole. So I won’t even attempt to impress you, but I am at home with the lingua franca of those born within the sound of Bow bells.
Kev, I trust you’ll don a new whistle, some new batts and your Arsenal Centre half as you go for a ball up the frog, stop in at the battle and enjoy a couple of apples, me ol’ china. While you’re there have a butchers at the League Aunt Mabel and remind me who is still top.
AArnold is not Arsenal fans’ favorite person, but he’ll have all my respect from now on. As I read this, I was thinking of Matt Smith a lot. At the time of the “Super League” debacle, the Guardian had pretended to collect fans’ suggestions about how the football business madhouse could be brought back to a semblance of reason. I penned quite a long letter, in which there were 6 main suggestions, and a few extra ones, among which “the footballing equivalent of a “G.I. Bill”, providing an escape route for injured players/academy youngsters who never make the grade”. May this After Academy become just that …
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/apr/30/liverpool-trent-alexander-arnold-on-football-academies-and-the-games-brutal-talent-machine
Lol, Legall, I was just about to put the link up for you and others here! Yes I love people with a deep social conscious, and TAA is one of them. 🙂
The Guardian article is spot on. With regard to the game, after a few lacklustre displays with our ‘A’ team, I was disappointed that we went to the Etihad with an entirely predictable lineup and, as others have pointed out shown more resolve in defending from the front.
David Ornstein is reporting that Charlie Patino might be allowed to leave in the summer as he wants regular first team football…
Here are last weekends results:-
1st Total, Eris & Madhu with 5/6 plus a share of the most correct predictions = 6.33 points
4th Kev, OX10 & Stuart with 4/6 = 4 points
7th Legall with 3/6 = 3 points
8th GN5 with 2/6 = 2 points
“””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””
Season to date:-
1st Kev with 141.80
2nd Eris with 123.46
3rd Madhu with 121.13
4th OX10 with 114.13
5th Stuart with 111.13
6th GN5 with 99.33
7th Total with 92.99
8th Legall with 91.30
“”””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””
Next weekends selections:-
Tottenham Hotspur v Crystal Palace *
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Aston Villa
Liverpool v Brentford *
Newcastle United v Arsenal
West Ham United v Manchester United
Roma v Inter Milan *
Tottenham Hotspur 3 Crystal Palace 1
Wolverhampton Wanderers Aston Villa A
Liverpool 2Brentford 1
Newcastle United Arsenal D
West Ham United Manchester United A
Roma 1 Inter Milan 1
Heartbreak for our ladies. What a match…
Yeah, the ladies must be devastated to be eliminated, having started so well. It would have been nice to see them against Barcelona in the final.
All the injuries finally caught up with them, I guess. Tough!
Tottenham Hotspur v Crystal Palace 3-1
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Aston Villa A
Liverpool v Brentford 2-2
Newcastle United v Arsenal D
West Ham United v Manchester United D
Roma v Inter Milan * 1-2
Tottenham Hotspur v Crystal Palace * 3-1
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Aston Villa A
Liverpool v Brentford * D
Newcastle United v Arsenal D
West Ham United v Manchester United D
Roma v Inter Milan * 1-2
out for our ladies what a remarkable effort fro them. It was a physically draining game and they were at it for 120 mins. The resilience that they showed when they had 5 players out due to ACL is outstanding. Weinroither also got injured during the match and had to be stretchered off. But they never gave up. It was a brutal match and it took a Wobben moy error which was outstanding throughout the match to decide the fate. Truly outstanding effort and attitude from the ladies. Kudos to them.
Tottenham Hotspur v Crystal Palace * 2-1
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Aston Villa. A
Liverpool v Brentford * 2-1
Newcastle United v Arsenal H
West Ham United v Manchester United A
Roma v Inter Milan * 0-2
Thanks for the weekly update, GN5. Super job.
Tottenham Hotspur v Crystal Palace * 2-1
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Aston Villa D
Liverpool v Brentford 2-2
Newcastle United v Arsenal A
West Ham United v Manchester United A
Roma v Inter Milan * 1-1
Good morning fella’s. Full debut for Kiwiboy up against Auba…
Indeed, Stu.
New Post 🙂