Arsenal kicked off the new season with an encouraging Community Shield victory over Manchester City. After the game, the managers and players faced questions from the media.
Here are a few of the best bits…
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Fabio Vieira on taking the decisive penalty and winning at Wembley…
To be fair, you always feel a bit of nervousness but it’s normal. You have to stay calm and that’s what I did. I just scored the penalty and was very happy to win and to help.
It’s amazing. It’s my first time playing at Wembley, it’s an amazing stadium and as I said I’m very happy, and the win is the most important thing. I’m here to help the team. We have a long season ahead, and I need to focus and help the team. That’s what I have to do.
Source: Arsenal.com
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Mikel Arteta on Aaron Ramsdale’s performance and practising penalties in pre-season…
He was great and we practised penalties a lot on purpose in pre-season to be ready for this just in case. We went through disappointments against Manchester United where we didn’t stop any of that, and that was the learning curve that sometimes it’s needed to get the right result and I think he was superb.
Source: Post-match press conference
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Kevin De Bruyne on Arsenal new boys Havertz, Rice and Timber…
I think they’re good players. They looked at what they needed and they bought them. I think they started all three today, so that means they are big signings for them. Everybody is looking at their own team. Every team has so much money, so everybody is always spending in this league. We know that. It gets tougher every year, but one way or another we try to maintain where we are. We’ve done well in the last eight years.
Source: Hayters TV
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Pep Guardiola on the new rules for stoppage time which led to eight minutes being added…
It is not annoying, we have to get used to it. I had the feeling, not because we were winning 1-0, it was just the fact I had a feeling that much didn’t happen to extend by eight minutes. But it is a good question for the [rule-making International Football Association Board] and all the people because they don’t consult the managers, they don’t consult the players. What is their opinion, we have to accept it. Now the games will be 100 minutes, that’s for sure. It never happened today and it was eight minutes, imagine if they extend for goals and every time you score a goal in a game [that is] 4-3. You put 30 seconds, 45 seconds on for seven goals, tomorrow morning 9 a.m. I am here playing.
Source: Post-game press conference
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Mikel Arteta on deliberately practising penalties in pre-season…
We’ve done it [taken part in a shootout] three times in pre-season. It was part of the plan to get ready just in case we had to do it today, that it wasn’t the first time to do that, and I think that it paid off.
Source: Arsenal.com
Hey Pep, wake up and just accept your loss.
Yeah ya bald bastard. You’re no Rob Holding.
Gonna be a season on excuses for lil peppy…
To be fair he’s right. If it happened the other way around we’d all be here furious today. But he’s also completely failing to acknowledge the officiating up to that point had been pretty much exclusively pro-City, they should have had at least 2 more yellow cards for how they were roughing us up in the middle and who knows what effect that could’ve had, and Saka should’ve gotten a call when fouled on the edge of their box, which would’ve been dangerous. So at least the shitty officiating balanced out in both directions for once. We’ve rarely been that… Read more »
Love how fastidious Arteta is in all aspects of his job.
Who practices penalties in case the charity shield is a draw?
( not Rodri and De Bruyne obviously.)
Enjoyed DeBruyne’s quote on money. Shows a Complete lack of awareness for the club he represents.
Essentially admits Man City have been successful because they’ve outspent other clubs. He’s just upset the spending power seems to have narrowed over the years!
Whisper it quietly but, according to an article I read yesterday, using the Transfermarkt figures Citeh’s squad is worth £999m and ours, er, £1.03bn.
This puts us top of the value chart. The clever bit is not spending anywhere near that much to accumulate that squad.
Spending power isn’t everything.
My guess is that the current value of our academy graduates, especially Saka, accounts for a lot of this. Add in Martinelli and the relative bargain of Odegaard. (I don’t know what his value on the market would be–in my opinion, only people like Mbappe or Haaland could be worth more–not even Bellingham.)
It’s a function of our youth and a lot of those young players recently having signed long term contracts.
Well, it is possible to a high squad value team only if the club is able to retain the best players, regardless of whether they’ve been acquired through expensive transfers or have come through the academy. Having the financial resources to retain those players is crucial. If that wasn’t the case, there wouldn’t be clubs that have excellent talent but have to sell to survive.
Yeah, ask Boehly and Glazer family at Man Utd.
Based on the quality of officiating in the last decade, the amount of effort to improve that, and the introduction of a VAR system that was ‘supposed to make it easier’, but quite frankly made it worse….All I see this season is this….
Poor Officiating + Poor VAR = Players booking/sent off…
This season is going to be a baller.
On the + side, Son from Sp*s wont be able to stand in front of the ball at opposition freekicks to delay play like he ALWAYS does… the twat. So there’s that.
I am fearful, yet again, that all our efforts will ultimately be undone by poor officiating.
Let’s all hope that isn’t the case. The jealousy already being displayed against us is back to Invincibles level hatred.
A double edged sword; it means we have a team that scares everyone else to fucking jelly – but it only serves to increase their collective willingness for us to fail.
Apologies for the late match report, but myself and Mrs Q went on to a party after our visit to Wembley – the hangover is just beginning to calm down. I stayed up well into the early morning after we (finally) got home to re-watch the game which I had set up to record on ITV1. Predictably, Roy Keane and Chelsea’s answer to Waynetta Slob were as pro-City and anti-Arsenal as any station barring Man City TV could just about get away with. A special mention, however, must go to our very own Lee Dixon, who was clearly watching the… Read more »
“we didn’t have any weak links or passengers in the side” do you mean in the full squad? Because our first 11 last year was pretty stellar. The problem came when one or more of them wasn’t available or played below par due to exhaustion/injury. If you’re talking about the full game day squad then I’d agree. Some would consider Vieira the weak link on our bench yesterday, and he still might be, but he’s gone one step further in showing that he isn’t with that beautiful penalty to win it and hopefully he’ll keep growing in confidence as he… Read more »
Well, he did specifically write “the starting lineup and the bench”
I’d add that in any squad, no matter how good, half are always above and the other half always below squad average. It’s just that nowadays, even our bottom half is excellent so yes, no obvious weaknesses.
Yes, I meant the bench as well. At one point last season, we were including youngsters who were nowhere near First XI ready.
It’s different now.
Arteta obviously sees something in Vieira, and Arteta knows.
I did not hear Dixon yesterday, but he is a regular commentator on NBC’s feed and I have heard him dozens of times over the years. As I said in another post, he often sounds like he is bending over backward to sound neutral and not pro-Arsenal when analyzing what is happening on the pitch itself. But he is open about his support for Arsenal, and maintains a close relationship with the club. Given his career as a player and his life since then, that is exactly what one would expect. I think you are over-reacting (though, as I said,… Read more »
Mate, I’ve got all the time in the world for Lee Dixon – who wouldn’t? – the guy is an absolute Arsenal legend. And here’s the thing; I usually enjoy the games where he adds co-commentary. He is interesting, intelligent, articulate, genuinely funny and his vast experience in the game is without question. All the more reason, therefore, that I couldn’t believe my ears at half the rubbish he was coming out with yesterday – particularly with his take on the ridiculously biased flurry of yellow cards for us and City allowed free license to do as they pleased. Every… Read more »
Dixon was a bloody disgrace, he was anti Arsenal, anti Havertz, anti Mikel, he’s a total twat. Lots of the Invincibles are. Thank goodness for people like Gilberto, an absolute gem and always supportive. It was lovely to see him giving out the medals.
Which Invincibles are anti-Arsenal total twats?? Dixon wasn’t an Invincible btw.
I think that’s pretty harsh and pretty inaccurate as well. He definitely seems like an Arsenal fan whenever I hear his commentary or punditry. He certainly seems to know more about Arsenal than any other team. Most of his criticisms are usually reasonable. How is he “anti-Arsenal”? That’s obviously nonsense. Just because he’s not acting like an Arsenal fan at every moment doesn’t mean he doesn’t love the club.
Only one way yesterday could have been better. Ratfink sorry Bernado falling over the ball for his penalty and landing flat on his face 😈
I’d loved to have seen Grealish miss one.
And do his cruciate in the process.
Wish I could give this more thumbs up. An enjoyably long read with my coffee and scone!
Cheers mate!
Scones are great; I enjoy them on Sunday afternoon tea time with some blackcurrent jam and a pot of strong tea – all very working-class posh! 😂👍
If the penalty and his thunderfuck of a goal the other day against Barcelona are anything to go by there is clearly a very talented player inside Viera trying to get out.