If we look at the last couple of months for Arsenal, they are probably the worst I have seen in my lifetime.
November started with a brilliant win at Old Trafford on the 1st, but other than a couple of facile Europa League wins it was awful right up until Christmas, with just 2 points from the intervening League games.
Thankfully our Boxing Day win over Chelsea came at last and now we have doubled our wins in December with last night’s victory at Brighton.
As we enter Jovial January, we have moved back up to the heady heights of 13th place in the table, but we must now go on a run to get us back amongst the big boys.
We start with West Brom on the 2nd, and if we don’t win that we can forget about any sort of revival at all.
Then we have a week’s rest before we welcome Newcastle to start off our FA cup adventure. Again that should be an easy win and should set us up for two nice home League games against Palace and Newcastle again. If we can win all of those we should have much greater confidence going to Southampton on the 26th, and we have the return against Man United at the Emirates on the 30th. Wouldn’t it be great to do the Double over them for a change….
Could we? Will we? Will January get us back on track?
lets face reality here what is the quality of our squad?
in term of rating our attack on current form and quality should be in 8/9 position, our midfield same and our defence probably 6th /5th.
so realistically our final position should be midtable at the end of the season.
Arsenal fans always overestimate our players abilities, thats why we are mostly disappointed when our fantasy targets are not met.
ill implore we do not raise our hope too high because of back-to-back wins, we do not have a quality squad and most unfortunately we have too many out of form players, can we have a turnaround season? probably, depending on the players
Kind of agree with you here. It’s good to be positive but let’s not kid ourselves, there will be more disappointments this year. My hope is that this is a transitional season and next year we’ll be a bit stronger.
The competition is fierce, which is why all the points totals are still so close together.
Let’s hope we get the chance to kick on in January. A “circuit break” seems increasingly likely. Tough call as, in my view, football has provided a much needed release for millions of fans during the pandemic. Present company included.
Although the counter argument is that watching Arsenal this year hasn’t exactly been great for Gooners’ mental health!
I thought Mari was very good yesterday. Why are people not mentioning him and xhak, holding display yesterday. But I can’t remember any mistake xhaka has made of late since he’s came back. I will still say it, I know I’m one of his biggest critic but I give credit where it’s due. On mari, he is a better defender compared to Gabriel. He reads the game well and there is this certain calmness in his game. He never panicked and he’s an organizer. Gabriel is a very good defender no doubt, and as he’s maturing he’s gonna be even better. But now Gabriel is too erratic with his challenge and he’s always nervous. He’s new in the league so I give him a lot of credit for his standard. But if I was Arteta I will stick with Mari and avoid the urge to put Gabriel back. Holding has always been a good defender but anytime he’s come into form boom he gets injured and back to square 1 again. So hopefully now he’s having a bit of run he stays fit. Hats off to ESR, whom I believe is the perfect example of a well grounded young pro. He never complains about anything rather he is grateful and an Arsenal man through and through. Reminds me of Jack wilshere. Joe willock should look at himself otherwise he runs the risk of not making it in an Arsenal shirt. Saka and martinelli are the future. And tierny what a player. If we can do a swap with Madrid for isco with pepe I won’t loose a sleep. That’s how bad pepe is right now.
Well, there’s a bit of relief for arsenal fans now no thanks to back to back wins but we should not be over excited or get carried away. This arsenal team is not that reliable. We should just take it game by game . That creativity in the mid-field is still desired, though ESR is living up to expectations. The kids are wonderful! ( ESR , Saka, Martinelli).
A lot depends on 4 players in our squad:
Özil
Sokratis
Mustafi
Kolasinac
I believe Sokratis and Mustafi will leave on 6-month loan (like Cedric) so next summer they can sign off as free agents.
Özil is more difficult. We’ll have hard time casting him off.
Kolasinac has to be sold or loaned.
After shipping off these players, we can bring in 2 new players. I reckon Buendia will be our main target, with also adding Isco/Eriksen on loan.
Runarsson as 2nd choice is a worry though. A lot of talk cutting Ceballos’ loan short too. Interesting month ahead.
Kolasinac > Schalke…
Is he going Sue ? The Grinch is out 😂
Looks like a loan though, Kev. On a site I look on it said 1 in – Buendia.. 1 out – Kolasinac… ooh interesting!!
Ha, but Price isn’t 😁
I went to some Bayern site to read ip an article about CHO and well, the comments section were salivating for Gabi and Bukayo. We have to keep our future stars under tight wraps and not present any team a whiff of a chance to sign them. Also interesting that some fans there still rated Ozil.
Everton made a great buy in James Rodriguez. Could Isco be our James? We are still a bit lost though. I know Xhaka scored a goal, but the guy is living in La La land and should be playing for a thuggish Champioship side. I like Todd Cantwell…he has some Grealish in him. Come back Santi Cazorla. Is there a Santi clone out there. We are creatively up the Khyber Pass.
Holding has improved and I like Mari. Gabriel is top notch. Saka, Tierney and Martinelli….10/10. But we are creatively shite. My happiness would be to see Kolasinac, Xhaka, and Mustafi go and a couple of creative players come in. Just my New Years fantasy.
In order to keep going with our wins, we need a playmaker that can make a difference, changing MA mentality and tactics which basically means that he doesn’t need to stick to one plan and play accordingly against all the teams, he needs to be more creative and using all the “cards” he got, he have some good quality youngster players whom are willing to support him with his tactics and start turning things around – as what happened when he played ESR and Martinelli came back. He should start consider using Nelson and Willock in the right way and maybe support Pepe more often and make him free in his future formation, this man has the potential but he is always playing with pressure on his back for some reason, maybe playing him as our “number 10” and give him more space with the role that currently ESR is playing will be a smart move.
Get a RB and Playmaker should be our tartgets, with Partey coming back I think we can see some changes. Let’s support our ARSENAL!!
People who think that Norwich will sell players like Buendia Cantrell…when they are fighting for automatic promotion will be sorely disappointed even if they get great fees for those players it is peanuts compared to the promotion and if relegated the parachute money!
I wouldn’t be too sure on that, we can also throw in a loan deal for someone like Saliba/Nelson for 6months to help their promotion.