After losing the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg 2-0 to Newcastle at the Emirates during a dispiriting January dip in form, most Arsenal supporters wrote off the team’s chances of reaching the final.
Since then, the Gunners have played themselves back into form, winning their final three games of a hectic January before a morale-boosting demolition of Manchester City on Sunday.
In contrast, the Geordies, after a 10-game winning streak, have wobbled, suffering back-to-back home defeats to Bournemouth and Fulham.
Suddenly, a trip to St James’ Park doesn’t seem so daunting. Indeed, with nothing to lose, you can’t help but wonder what might happen if Mikel Arteta’s side throws caution to the wind and plays with the handbrake off.
Gabriel Martinelli is certainly backing the team to do the business in the North East before a well-earned 10-day break in the schedule.
“It is hard to play there [at St James’ Park]. They are a really good side, but we have full confidence in our squad and we trust ourselves,” he told the Evening Standard.
“It is going to be another battle there. We know how difficult it is to play there. But, as I said, we have an amazing team and we trust ourselves. We are going to go there to win the game.
“We know our qualities. It is not because we lost 2-0 here in the last game, we are going to go there just to play now.
“We are going to go there to win the game and to score three, four, five. Let’s see, the game is going to be really hard, for sure. But we are going to try our best to win the game.”
I was just saying on another thread, martinelli took up some interesting positions against city. I saw him quite often in central positions playing off the shoulder of the city CBs, and he got himself into a one on one that forced a good save and assisted Kai for his goal from a similar situation. I’d like to see Martinelli focus less on his defensive work out wide and take up these positions so we can transition quickly – with rice and MLS on the left we shouldn’t need to rely so much on Martinelli for defensive work and capitalise… Read more »
Yes, but. Arteta wants his left backs, including Lewis-Skelly and Calafiori (and obviously Zinchenko) to provide the extra man in the midfield and create an overload. That always leaves the possibility of an opening behind them. Gabriel is great at covering that area, and when Rice is the 6 (rather than Thomas, who is more right-sided) he does that too. But we shouldn’t forget how big a role Martinelli’s pace and willingness to track back matter. A lot of times, it’s not noticed–precisely because nothing happens. So, Martinelli playing as you say means living with a greater risk of a… Read more »
Our set up is to have our forward players being our 1st line of defence, our hard press and the shift they put in getting back to have a defensive shape is incredible, our captain encapsulates this, even Raya plays outside his box like an extra defender, Timber who’s job is to defend is so far up the pitch to support our front shows we have an inter changeable shape our players are required to play, we have no sitting midfielders either, Dec not only covers the pitch to defend but is also involved in many of our plays up… Read more »
Can’t be overstated how well the emergence of MLS and Nwaneri can help us out after a lacklustre January window. MLS left eight and Nwaneri nine? Why not give it a go these lads are exceptional and both riding the crest of a wave at the moment.
I could see Nwaneri being used as a 9 (and MA has hinted at this). A flexible front 3 of Martinelli, Nwaneri and Saka would give a lot of defences the heebie jeebies
throw in a havertz who pops in from right 8 every now and then to make it a fluid front 4 with aerial possibilities. more heebies to every jeebie.
That would be tasty but our games would have to go just one way. What Havertz brings is the option to go long. I can’t see any of the three winning headers against Prem CBs, or getting at the end of crosses.
True, but it could be useful if we need to mix things up during a game – especially if havertz remains on the pitch as suggested above
I so don’t get why people keep trying desperately to drag MLS into midfield when he’s showing himself to be one of the premier young talents in the world at left back week after week.
I’d say it’s because as phenomenal as he’s been at left back, the feeling is he’d be even better in his natural midfield position (if you can imagine such a thing!)
They said the same thing about one of those other Hale End boys, and look how terribly that went 😉 No, seriously, why *not* play him as left back? Absolutely solid AND contributes so well in the counterpress as well as offensively. Sure, Calafiori has shown a good deal of attacking flair from that position too, but right now (despite his gorgeous almost Pires-like hair) I’d actually prefer to start MLS! That said, he’s still someone that needs a bit of protecting, and we can’t just count on all our young wonderkids (can’t believe we have even ONE, let alone… Read more »
Do we think we’ll see Max Dowman soon, watched some YouTube footage…can’t believe he’s 15? He’s got it all going on…won’t be knocked off the ball, great vision, some shot on him, runs at defenders. Be like a new signing👍
In a way, I hope we won’t. I feel that if we do, it’s because we’re out of options. He might be the next Miles-Ethan-Saka, but at 15, he shouldn’t be too involved on the same grass as some of the opponents we face. Utter mentalists kicking and flailing about trying to injure our lads (seemingly while being invisible to the ref) MLS being perhaps the exception here, as he seems gloriously indifferent to whoever he’s playing against. What an absolute monster. But 15.. I’d love him to do well, but I would prefer it wasn’t coming on as a… Read more »
I believe Dowman cannot play in the Premier league this year because he turned 15 after the season started and is by rule too young. Not 100% on that.
But didn’t Nwaneri also turn 15 in the season where he got his debut at Fulham? I for one would love to see Dowman break Nwaneri’s record as the youngest ever player in the Premier League.
Nwaneri turned 15 in March of 2022 and debuted in September 2022 so he was 15 when the season started.
His “natural” position is the one he most excels at, not necessarily the one he played in youth level. Saliba was a striker at youth level, does that make him a natural striker?
On second thought, we’ve needed a striker so badly, maybe we already have one? Hah. Gabriel maybe even more so.
It’s pretty clear that Gabriel has little interest in more headed goals, so playing at the 9 won’t excite him. What he really really wants is to score a goal that looks like Calafiori’s (or like Partey’s against Man City, but with no deflection). If anyone shows him film of Flamini’s goal against Spurs, we may lose him as a defender forever.
Hah well I do think we’ll see another Gabi header from a corner hit the back of the net before this season is done. But a good 9 should be able to score with his feet too and he’s shown little promise there, Saliba however…
I get what you’re saying, but the only reason we think he’s a ‘natural’ midfielder is because we’ve heard that he played there for the youth team. I’ve never seen him play there, and I doubt many Arsenal fans have. He has the perfect skill set to play left-back exactly as Arteta envisages the role, and I imagine he’ll stay there for as long as Arteta is in charge. It’s definitely not a problem, we’ve seen time and again that when we’re controlling the ball our full-backs will get chances to get forward and show their attacking skills.
Hear hear! And.. in this team, what difference does it make. All our players contribute in every phase of play. MLS scores Calafiori too. Martinelli defends. Kai is such a glorious allround workhorse. Gabi heads in corners.To have a player that *also* does something else very well, isn’t exactly a problem.
with no recruits this month we may have to get creative with some positions further up the pitch especially if we get unlucky with injuries and suspensions. He’s been a midfielder by trade at youth level, he’s bulletproof at the moment and if needs must i’d have complete confidence in the lad.
Don’t get me wrong I think he can do a good job there too, but we already have Rice doing brilliantly right now at left 8 so why would you waste the brilliant skills MLS has shown so far as part of the back four, and he doesn’t have the kind of physique (yet at least) that Mikel wants in the middle of the park.
Tactically an Arsenal fullback is technically a displaced midfielder.
After the disappointing January window, we have to pray that Martinelli, Nwaneri, Trossard and most importantly Havertz stay fit. How Arteta will juggle the limited options he has in his forward line, will be interesting to see. Let’s hope we are still in the title race by the time Saka returns to full fitness. The fact that we could not sign a forward on loan from Europe is staggering. On a lighter note, maybe Villa signed all of them.
I think as a decent forward looking to go out on loan in January, the absolute must is guaranteed game time (ie first choice in the position). They are going out on loan halfway through a season for a reason – they are not going to want to go from sitting on one bench to sitting on another bench. What position in the front 3 would we have been able to guarantee a decent forward a role as first choice? And which available forwards who moved on loan would have gone to us if we can’t make those guarantees?
I have some mixed feelings this morning. Sunday really highlighted for me how good our players can be, and therefore how difficult it is to find someone who can noticeably raise the level. I’ve seen enough Sterlings, Anthonys, etc to feel uncomfortable with expensive (or inexpensive ) punts. That said, for every Sterling, there is a Trossard who can really add something. I looked at the loan/purchase transfers made across all of the teams in Europe and tbh there were very few (if any) who I thought would genuinely improve us now. Having said all that, if this was an… Read more »
Given that we never want to see Partey at RB selling Kiwior would be risky until White or Tomiyaso ( ha!) are fit again. Without Kiwior then Timber is the 3rd CB choice. Which we likely need at some point.
The one that concerns me is Tel who ended up at Sp*rs. That looks like exactly the kind of deal we should have made – they get a “body” in for the short term, but he’s a highly talented teenager who they have the option to sign if he does well for a set fee. That’s a much better deal than Sterling.
Tel was only going somewhere that guaranteed his games. He turned down a £50m permanent move to spurs (bid accepted by Bayern, Tel turned it down). Tel still wants to succeed at Bayern, but he doesn’t want to waste another half a season on their bench. That is why he turned down a permanent move to spurs – but I expect spurs could guarantee him a role at first choice where he can show what he can do for a few months – I don’t think we could offer him the same sort of guarantees on game time or I’m… Read more »
Part of the reason tel went to spurs was because spurs are still owed a significant amount of money by bayern for Harry Kane, and this deal apparently incorporated some of that figure into the obligation to purchase.
And they don’t have an option to sign him – there is no option in the loan deal as he does not want to sign for them permanently
Sorry, I fell asleep before the end of the window last night and was going off bbc sport live blog (which said there was no option and flat £5m fee). Just seen what Romano said and it does appear to have a £60m buy option (and £10m loan fee). I’m not sure what the buy option in these deals entails – perhaps the player also has a say in whether the deal is made permanent or not? I’d be interested to know the answer to that if anyone knows?
Seems quite odd that Tel would turn down a €60m permanent move but then accepted a loan with a €60m buy option. To me that suggests the option must include his own decision in the terms
I think the option simply means that Bayern will agree to sell him to Spurs at that price. It doesn’t mean he will agree. He gets playing time for a half-season and the right to return to Bayern under his existing contract. If he loves it at Spurs–and Spurs exercise their option–he can choose to stay there. A complete win-win for him.
So basically 4 months in a relegation fight at the toilet bowl and he can wave bye bye forever (at a cost of €10m to spuds).
If he does well then he will have much better offers than spurs, plus a spot may open up at Bayern in the summer.
That would explain why he turned down a permanent deal but agreed to loan with an option
From what I understand, his first choice was really Man Utd, but they baulked at the £5m loan fee. I think we weren’t that interested because he’s not an outright number 9, not a prolific goal scorer, and has limited experience despite a lot of potential. We probably can’t guarantee him the game time he’d want right now either. But he’s very highly rated, so perhaps it would have been worth the gamble despite all of that.
Lets go for the Triple over Liverpool – Lets beat Newcastle 3-0 away, take the Dubai ten day break, come back refreshed so we push those Scousers all the way to the title. 1. Then we have the chance to; win the Carabao Cup with Liverpool in the final; 2. win at Anfield; then 3. finish off by winning the CL final verses…. yes… you guessed it …..Liverpool! We might not win the league, but lets show everyone who’s really best & who really deserved better after suffering all the injuries & after receiving the terrible biased refereeing decisions that… Read more »
Let the MLS take care of joelinton!
Hes out for 8 weeks
I’m starting to feel strangely optimistic about tomorrows game
Or any other of The Toon thugs…being that Joelinton is banjaxed–brave lad, our Myles.
This transfer window has been disappointing for two reasons: 1) lack of signings, obviously, but 2) we have once again failed to turn genuine interest in our unwanted players into sales. Dortmund were interested in Zinchenko and appeared willing to take an obligation to buy – nothing came of it. This follows a summer in which Zinchenko, Lokonga, Kiwior, Nelson, all had rumours of clubs interested in permanent transfers (or at least loans with obligations) and all either stayed or went on dry loans, meaning this summer their contracts will all be one year shorter and the chances of getting… Read more »
Agree with you on the sales. Kiwior is certainly a saleable asset – zinchenko will be harder due to wages. Jesus is now pretty much unsellable due to wages of £250k and injury record. Lokonga may go permanently as there is an option and he has done well, but again been injured a lot. Vieira has been decent and Porto have just sold a key midfielder to city, so hard to say what vieira future will be. We have huge assets in our squad that we would not want to sell, but the ones we do want to sell will… Read more »
New coach at Dortmund. Likely didn’t fancy Zinny as the old coach did.
Has anyone been notified that the Main Blog site has [500 Internal Server Error] for comments?!?
Yes, we’re aware – sorry for hassle. Hopefully have it fixed soon!
My ‘2 penneth worth’ for 500 Error.
If there have been absolutely NO configuration changes then it could be just ‘it filled something up’ (RAM, log file, database etc.) and a simple reboot might clear the problem (to be fully investigated later). Can also be Firewall issue but it would be VERY RARE that your Cloud provider would f’about with Firewall rules on a Live System.
Can’t get to today’s arses, just getting “500 Internal Server Error”