Typical typical Arsenal!
It would be Arsenal-esque to lose three games in a row that on paper we should have won, and then go out a few days after our latest loss and beat Chelsea wouldn’t it?
So the smiles are slightly back on Arsenal fan faces albeit for a short period of time, and no we are not fickle, we do know there are tough games still to come. But although the game is done and dusted now, we can and deserve to gloat for at least 24 hours don’t we?
It was a heart attack waiting to happen really and an ‘edge of your seat game’ at times with not knowing who will score the next goal and all, but there’s no doubt it was a good team performance from our boys. It was a game that Mikel Arteta got the tactics down to a T although there were questionable defending at times..
And had we played like that against Palace, Brighton and Southampton we may have been sitting pretty above Spurs!
But all is not lost and we move forward.
Another person that is no doubt smiling is Eddie Nketiah, who finally got on the scoresheet, twice, in a Premier League game as well and it was nice to see, but can he carry that into the next few games if given the nod? I sure hope so.
I must admit I did raise my eyebrows when the team-sheet came out and I saw Gabriel Martinelli, Alex Lacazette and Nicolas Pepe all on the bench and Nketiah leading the line, but he soon wiped away those doubts and maybe, just maybe, this will be the beginning of Eddie.
And of course goals for Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith-Rowe should be an ever present thing for our team, but that’s where they will learn to be more consistent I’m sure.
But if there is one criticism I would have to point out it would be that we are conceding far too many goals, and I know I have previously said I’m happy to concede as long as we win and walk away with all three points. I stand by that but I would like us to be a bit tighter at the back as a clean sheet and three points goes down better in terms of goal difference if that comes to count at the end of the season!
However, a win is a win and a lovely one at that, although let’s not get too ahead of ourselves as each remaining game is a test in itself and there will be more twists and turns to come I’m sure.
For now though we deserve a smile, until the next one, hey Gooners?
Shenel Osman
@sh3n3l_
VIDEO – A great win for the Gunners at Stamford Bridge and Mikel Arteta was in an upbeat mood after the game…
Yes surprise and relief.
There is not joy yet because Spurs remain favourite for 4th place which now looks likely to be decided by the NLD. I predicted top 6 from the off and am staying with that.
For me personally I don’t think Arsenal is ready for CL football or at least needs a big summer window. Both sides spent the whole game trying to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Terrible defending and poor finishing cost both sides. Arsenal was simply the luckier of two very poor sides. Arsenal Spurs and Man U do not deserve CL football so I don’t mind if we do or we don’t get top 4 but if we out last the other two bumbling Berties well why not 🙂
A real team effort I want to see that magic makes life more worth living. Being a arsenal fan has been full of ups and downs never a dull moment I hope the immortals return with arteta 🥲 new and improved at some point in time.
I’ve got egg on my face. I never expected Nketiah to be such a nuisance to Chelsea. He is not the long term solution but he did a job. ESR and Bukayo are fantastico. It’s still going to be hard to get 4th, but lets dream at least. If we would have got a decent striker in January we would have claimed 4th already. The Spuds derby is now a six pointer…sadly the imposters from Tottenham have a better GD so are a little ahead. I do think Pepe could be a weapon for us and I hope he gets a little game time. We have 6 cup finals left…can we do it or will we crumble?
Its funny how I saw majority of Chelsea fans saying Tuchel shouldn’t play Christensen at all as he’s going to leave for free next summer (and indeed, he did sub him off at half-time).
And yet we have 3 free players who are leaving in the summer, and we have to rely heavily on them!
Off topic, but I don’t envy Manchester United’s fixture list:
Pool, away, 4-0
Arsenal, away
Chelsea, home
Brentford, home
Brighton, away
Palace, away
Can the same team from last night, please, turn up again on Saturday?
The biggest problem now is the way our prayers lose the ball in a dangerous areas to the opponents.
ADEGA, I fully agree….most of the games we lost is because of that..
Still not sure why ESR sits bench for so many games when he is one of our biggest goal threats, good to see him score again.
Arteta said this last week… Arteta spoke about how Smith Rowe’s fitness problems have prevented him from being coached fully into playing this role.
“He’s not been completely fit to be training and playing every game, but it’s a possibility. It’s a position that I think he can fulfil in the future, but he needs training, and he needs experience in it,”
Direct qualification to Europa League = Good job
Qualification to CL = Extraordinally achievment
The Spuds have 2 tough games remaining in their run in, Liverpool and Leicester. I hope both of them do us a favor by beating the Spuds. That said we have tough games against Man Utd., WestHam and the Spuds so its anybody’s guess who will make the top 4, its between us and the Spuds. It will be fantastic returning to the CL but for that we have to consistently win all our remaining games by treating each game as a Cup final. I think MA should stick to the same line up against Man Utd.
Dont forget we lost on a streak to teams below us but just won against a top 3 team and at their backyard.
Every game is tough and different and anyone can beat anyone.
Don’t rule out brentford from turning spuds over more than capable of doing that as the likes of us and westham and a few others can testify to that!
I also liked the line up as a 3-4-3.
Tomi and Tierney being out, it helps having a third CB on the pitch and Elneny rather than Sambi.
If Eddie could work on his hold up play then I’m sure Arteta would be playing him upfront instead of Lacca. He definitely has more energy, press and pace than Lacca and is more of a goal scoring threat.
My worry though is that both his goals (great ones by the way) came from forced errors. He tends to miss chances created and that’s why he ends up getting benched as a reminder to those fans who might have a short memory.
At his age and given the opportunities he’s had and trajectory he was on 4 years ago he should be at least on par with the likes of Darwin Nunez, Alexander Isaak, Jonathan David etc.
There’s a reason why we’re linked with strikers that are around Nketiah’s age and not simply saying to ourselves “oh, we have Nketiah, he’s ready, let’s give him a bumper new contract because he’s just as good”.
Personally, I think AFC mismanaged his development. He should have been loaned to competitive teams in the EPL or other top tier clubs in other countries to gain proper consistent game time and should only be returning to AFC now fully developed to properly challenge in our squad.
That’s why I do not want Balogun anywhere near our squad for the next 3 seasons. We need to do a Saliba on Balogun. Look at how Saliba has turned out especially with the Marseille loan spell.
Saka and ESR are special cases and even ESR had some short loan spells before being integrated into the team.
Of course we should be walking around with HUGE smiles on our faces – look at the reaction of Tuchel after the game.
A HUGE result for the European places and great credit has to go to Mikel and all the players involved.
We should now take this momentum forward and what a time to face United, with all their problems.
A HUGE HUGE result COYG’s.
That result kick started the run towards the end of the season. A reason to be cheerful after the despondency and a win against a shell of its former self on Saturday would be the icing on the cake.
Bring it on!
Tuchel looked and sounded absolutely shell shocked and his excuses were lamentable.
Probably one of only a handful of games I’ve enjoyed this season .
A good 3 points but both teams defending was comical which I suppose made it more of a fun watch .
4 shots on target
4 goals ,so at least we improved on that front .
Man Utd next 🫣
It almost felt like the match was fixed at some point, especially after Aspilicueta’s foul on Saka. It was a really comical game. Felt like Tuchel underestimated Arsenal. He figured “they’ve scored once in 3 games they lost, they really don’t know how to score, I’ll use my weakest defence.” If he had Rudiger and Thiago available to him with ziyech and havertz earlier, it might have been a completely different game but we capitalised on tuchel’s gamble which helped us.
Arteta finally showing his “adaptability” with tactics given the injury we suffered recently to first team players. The other aspects he needs improvement is Judging players potential’ and the technical side of the game. He outwitted Tuchel who even admitted we changed tactics and formation like 3 times during the game. Thanks to players like Xhaka who was constantly receiving instructions from the touch line and transmitting it to his team mates. That’s what make him a team player and why coaches respect him, not the way some fans disrespect him and can’t see past his pace on the ball.
Bringing back Rob Holding (with vast experience and excellent record against Chelsea, remember his battle with Diego Coast in that famous FA Cup final), Elneny (experienced Egyptian international, who is an excellent team player who does the basics so well, not surprised he’s been instrumental to all our wins against top 6 sides; kept our midfield tick in the famous 1 nil win at Old Trafford) and restoring Xhaka to his preferred midfield position not only gave us solidity in the middle of the park but experience which we’ve been bereft of in our last 3 losses.
This experience at the back and middle gave our youngsters the freedom to express themselves in the attacking third.
Going forward into the last 6 games, I don’t expect the gaffer to make too many changes to the back 4 and midfield. With Tomiyasu back in training and Partey on his way to recovery (to be back in 3 weeks), we can expect both to be match-fit for our last 3 games of the season.
Where I expect some tinkering is the front 4 where Martinelli, Pepe and Lacazette gives us some interesting options. We need to win as many games as possible and score goals for fun to improve our goal difference. COYG!
I think tuchel tried to make it a cobham vs hale end affair by starting james,christensen,sarr,loftus-cheek and mount together against our saka,esr and nketiah and hutchinson and co on the bench.sorry mate,you ain’t cocky.