Having scraped a last-minute draw at home to lowly Fulham, Arsenal face Everton this Friday with a won now essential to stay in the race for Europa League qualification next season. Arteta will need to block out the European Super League news, which is everywhere and try to focus his squad on the games ahead. […]
The New and the Familiar POSITIVES, NEEDS and HOPES Arsenal are sneaking up on us. As we have seen ourselves as a dominant possession team for the largest part of the last 20 years, I don’t think we give this current group the credit they deserve for their current improvement. For at least the last […]
This piece is part of a soon to be released work on Unai Emery. To borrow a quote from the intimidating Mike Tyson in Dark Trade, “The leader’s always by himself in a time of doom.” As was Unai Emery. In his final match as Arsenal manager, fans held signs calling for change, “EMERY OUT […]
The Arsenal set up 1) In possession Utilising the familiar 4-2-3-1, Arsenal were building through the thirds in a 2-3-5 shape. Cedric would initially remain deep, with Tierney deployed as an outlet through the left channel, allowing Willian to occupy the half-spaces. The 2-3-5 became a 3-2-5 occasionally with Elneny dropping in between the two […]
I, too, cannot wrap my mind around Mikel Arteta’s substitutions. I can’t explain why he keeps playing Willian on the left, I can’t understand why he seems to overlook Martinelli, and so on. I believe he should have responded better when David Luiz got sent off at Molineux and I think he killed the team […]
When the Coach got to coach POSITIVES, NEEDS and HOPES I was really looking forward to yesterday’s game. Off the back of two losses and another potential fan meltdown, that may seem a little crazy. My excitement was based on knowing that the game came with a full weeks preparation time. Something our coach hasn’t […]
Have you noticed? POSITIVES, NEEDS and HOPES I think it’s pretty normal for football fans to notice the following; great performances, poor performances, glaring opportunities, eye catching individualism, big effort, lack of effort and man of the match candidates. There are more but that’s enough. What I’m starting to notice with the current Arsenal team […]
When it’s the Coach POSITIVES, NEEDS and HOPES Every game can be won or lost by a coach. Something they do or don’t do. Often it’s plural. Yesterday, Mikel Arteta and Ralph Hassenhuttl got to show themselves. Two games, same opponents, back to back. A real coaches game. Just played each other so we were […]
The Swiss Army Knife POSITIVES, NEEDS and HOPES There’s a groove developing. A little swagger. Beyond the natural boost of confidence earned when you start winning and keeping clean sheets, what are the details? 1) INDIVIDUAL IMPROVEMENT Have you noticed? We have 11 players that we can pick who are either on a run of […]
Sometimes the Solution is the Winner POSITIVES, NEEDS and HOPES So, we didn’t get 3 points but….. what did we get? We got returning players, Partey in particular. We got a better performance from our central midfielders. Our backline looked solid and we defended against two of the trickiest players in the league, admirably. A […]
