Given how dreadful Arsenal has been in recent weeks, Gooners would have liked to see them hit the field sooner in the hope that they may break their dismal form like a bad habit.
Arsenal, unfortunately, will not play this weekend. In mid-January, Premier League authorities decided to break Matchday 21 across two weekends, and Arsenal’s fixture did not make the five matches for this weekend; therefore, they will rest this weekend and play one of the five matches on the other weekend.
As Gooners, we can’t wait to watch Arsenal in action again. Hopefully, they have recovered, rebounded, and, most importantly, sharpened their goal-scoring instincts while in Dubai. They need to be at their best as soon as they take to the field next.
If you’re wondering what’s next for Arteta and the boys, here are their next five league games.
January 20: Crystal Palace (H)
January 30: Nottingham Forest (A)
February 4: Liverpool (H)
February 11: West Ham United (A)
February 17: Burnley (A)
Picking up 15 points in the above games will put Arsenal in an excellent position to have a say in the title race.
I believe Crystal Palace, Nottingham Forest, and Burnley are all games Arsenal must win. The Liverpool encounter could be an ideal opportunity for Arsenal to avenge their FA Cup elimination. West Ham did find a way to beat them not long ago, but I believe they won’t know what hit them come February 11th.
If Arsenal has 18 league games to go, they can’t afford to drop any points; if they do, they will not only struggle to win the league, but they will also struggle to finish in the top four.
Darren N
NO MORE WINS! – Here is the latest DUBLIN ARSENAL video featuring OZZY, EAMONN, CRAIG and Jonathan look back at another 2-0 loss this time to Liverpool in the Fa cup
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they are all winnable, even a draw or two, especially Liverpool, and we still in it
“must win” is used to early too often, some on these pages using it in October in CL
and even if we do win all 5 i still don’t think we have it for all remaining 18 games
but i am not one for the current doom and gloom
remember we were top at xmas
and but for Fulham, the underlying performance have been good
but for finishing, which I sure will come
and there is the CL too, while we are definitely not the best team in Europe, there are some exciting games to come
looking forward to good second half to the season
I agree with your point that it is not all doom and gloom as it sometimes seems when you read certain articles or hear some fans. It is useful to note that most fans don’t have this perspective and are still quite positive about the team. That frustrates some of the regular contributors to this and some other sites who all too eager to denounce certain players and the manager, and highlight whatever else they feel is wrong whenever we have a setback.
We have been on a setback for the past 20 years. When is it supposed to end?
The wait will end when we have professional people in places, not wannabes. A proper Director of Football, a proper scouting system and a proper manager who puts the club above his ego.
Till then enjoy the clown show, laugh a but, cry a bit and rinse, repeat.
Once you have professional people in place, then you have exciting players and exciting results. Till then put up with masquerades and their results
If Arsenal could win those five games without a new CF, Arteta would be a genius
Exactly @gai
But unfortunately, he is no magician.
If it was last season I would say YES but this season I will say HOPEFULLY 😁
There’s still time to ship Nketiah out and bring a new CF in, but I’m not sure whether Arsenal can find a suitor for Nketiah or not
@Gai, I just watched how Issak of New Castle turned Kyle Walker and scored a fantastic goal. Height, technic and Physicality. God help us at Arsenal with our dimunitive duo of Jesus and Nkethia. It’s self deceit to think we are fine without another CF. Arsenal is no MCity, and even MCity needs a Halaand.
Isak possesses very good technical skills for a tall CF. His physicality is also decent, but he doesn’t seem able to hold off the likes of Van Dijk, Konate, Gomez and Saliba
I also hope Arteta finally realized that even the great Guardiola and Klopp need strong CFs
Liverpool will provide the sturdiest test of the next five fixtures, but our two recent games against the Merseyside outfit shows we can go toe to toe with them.
I wouldn’t bet against this feat, especially with the world class player back in the fold, the gunners has way of playing exceptionally well when our back is against the wall.
I just hope our forwards can finally start scoring again, because they are letting the rest of team and manager down.
WDDDW
9 points imo but hopefully more.
So you predict ONLY a draw at Forest then!! IF we dont win there we wont deserve to be even top four.
I think you are wrong and that we will win there and at West Ham too.
A HOME DRAW AGAINST LIVERP[OOL, to be fair to you, is at least a REALISTIC PREDICTION. I predict thirteen points, not nine, therefore.
Jon, as a principle, I never engage in betting. However, I feel we shall beat Liverpool at Emirates like we did last season. I am quite confident because we have started getting some of our injured players back. Secondly, the one week break will re-energise our players and set us on a winning path. Furthermore, even though we lost the FA game, we played better and could have won if we took our chances. It cannot become a habit to miss our chances in every game. We are destined to break this mental block and start scoring goals like we were doing previously. I believe that if we score the opening goal, we shall go on to sore more goals and win the game. You may not agree with me now but at the end of the game you will agree with my assessment.
How many injured players have we had?Outside of Partey I can’t think of any who have bey seriously missed and I’m certain that even your optimism is thinking of Partey per West Ham and Liverpool last season and not the Partey after that whose confidence was shot to pieces and rarely played again let alone with any impact. As for Viera a big yawn and hopefully a sayonara.
Agreed, if they start scoring, we might be able to outscore our opponents in the matches.
Liverpool look more like potential Epl winner this season. Not because of their form, Arsenal have been there before but because of their manage JKlopp. He has wealth of experience of managing his team state and form against dangerous rival. No disrespect our coach Arteta need more experience on the job.
They are all winnable. And loseable too.
Liverpool will be the toughest obviously but we can beat them if MA picks the right team and players play at their best level.
But yes. We can’t afford another loss and too many draws if we want to stay in the competition
We need at least four wins provided we take max points from Liverpool which i’m confident we will.
VAMOS, ANY uneducated fan can simply say “Im confident we will take max points from Liverpool, ” NOT that I am in ANY way suggesting you are one.
But surely a more persuasive argument would be made, IF ONLY you would venture some REASONS for your “confidence”! Perhaps you still might care to do so?
DAVID I usualy admire reasoned cause for optimism. But my guess about the Liverpool match is that a draw is now most likely!
NATURALLY I HOPE YOU ARE RIGHT AND MYSELF WRONG. But hope, without sensible reasons behind it, it is not worth much at all.
At best among our key injured players, we MAY, just MAY, have a not fully match fit Partey back and more likely, a semi fully fit Tomi. We are still likely to have to play a plainly exhausted SAKA.
IMO, we will still lack any influential newcomers in THIS window.
Perhaps I will be wrong and I desperately hope so. I need to be and “bigtime wrong” too, for us to have any real chance of silverware.
Iff Arteta can stick to this squad for the second half of the season, Arsenal will definitely end with at least a trophy:
DRIVERS – Eddie, Jesus, Saka, Marquinhos, Odegaard, Zinchenko, Nelson, Martinelli, Timbre
OCCUPIERS – Saliba, White, Tomiyasu, Partey, Rice, Kiwior, Magalhaes, Havertz, (promote Lino Sousa from Academy), (callback Omar Rekik from Wigan), [sign Onana from Everton], [sign Chalobah from Chelsea]
It’s very simple.
The club should stop being emotional and just cash-in on the tactical misfits in the squad! These are Trossard, Jorginho, Vieira, Elneny, Cedric, and Emile. They are bound to be appropriate elsewhere, but not in this current Arteta-ball system, bcos they are neither natural drivers nor occupiers.
Jon 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I wonder who the spare wheel is?
An amazing analysis, wondering where Raya and Ramsdale falls in the scheme of things
HOW, AND FOR WHAT PURPOSE? The priority at Arsenal is not to just win the league, it’s to win the league with certain, specific players. We are so picky that winning the EP league cup in Arsenal colours ,is not for just any good player.
All this talk about arsenal needing a CF.
Forgetting Man city have won most of their league titles without a striker or with Jesus.
Teams did not “find them out ” by doubling on their wingers. I truly believe MA needs to be even more tactically astute, rotate the front line. I believe that’s why we bought Harvetz to play left, centre mid or forward. Arteta should be benching martinelli or may sell him in the future in favour of a versatile winger. Trossard in my mind should be given some serious minutes along with ESR now is the time.
How can we win those matches with us using the same tactics? It’s not just possible
Exactly,we can not aspire too much playing Tiki Taka from our area(the purpose of bringing Raya) and getting to the other area at 5 Km.per hour.
Jon & Ken1945, i’m in stitches here.
Drivers & occupiers?
We learn everyday, afterall.
HAVE YOU NOTICED THAT AD PAT HAS NOW CENSORED AND REMOVED ALL REFERENCES TO THE POST ABOUT DRIVERS AND OCUPIERS!?
Merely par for the course with PAT, CENSOR SUPREME!
Must say this has surprised me but hey, it’s not the end of the world after all!!
I think it’s the first time I’ve been censored, but I might be wrong 🤔
Yes I removed them because the convo was boring and nothing to do with the football. I would have thought that any great Intellect would work out the meaning by looking at the players mentioned under the description…
Other teams are improving by buying this window. Because Arteta is scared to sell, we will not get the striker we need. Because Martinelli and Saka are doubled up on, we will score less goals. Simple, pretty obvious fact. Like the old Bob Marley song….”No striker, no score”. Arteta is showing his limitations and he is scared to be pro-active. He is way too conservative in his management and any selling to finance.
Well, I have said it once before, the problem with Arsenal this season is all psychological. We have lost our conviction, our lethal belief and our execution in the box sucks. Always squaring the ball and even Odegaard shooting levels is down. And Arteta is to blame. By introducing Kai H in this team, he brought in a cancer and mentality that we did not have last season. Even Martinelli has lost confidence in hitting the ball to the net. The sad part is, Arteta has no clue that the attacking system is dying of this cancer, or is too proud to admit. Even if we bring in a new striker, it will not fix this problem. We need to go back to the mentality of last season, even if it means dropping Havertz until the mentality is back. We had a goal return without a top striker last season. There was a point in the season when entire team was trying to help Kai break his duck and the bloke was missing sitters until the Pen he was given. Bogey man in the mind. Goals on multiple fronts and players is our strength.
Gunner Ninja
I know it’s easier to make Kai a Scapegoat for everything wrong. You can’t blame him for poor form of Mattinelli, Gabby and Saka. Remember he gave us some important goals.
The problem is we are playing the same squad and tactics all the time. Why can’t Arteta give the likes of Nelson, Elneny, ESR and Kiwior more opportunities to freshen the squad?
What about signing a strong and aggressive striker?
Freddy,
I agree with you that Arteta could do more rotation and change his tactics to improve performance.
However, I disagree that a new striker at this point will give us a way out simply because if the same striker is subjected to current tactics and exposed to the underlying mentality then its a case of rinse and repeat.
I am not blaming Kai. All I am saying is that having to accomodate him, the team has dropped its level mentally. Compare this to the energy and hunger Gabby and Zinny brought in when we started out last season. Also, I have not written him off, I just wish Arteta would bench him until we get our mojo and goal hunger back into the squad. He offers none of that and transmits the wrong ingredients to the team.
I only see 3 points there.
I see the CP, NF and Burnley games as winnable. Beating Liverpool and WestHam wont be easy although not impossible. That said, hope we make some signings this winter window, specially in the striker, left back and midfield positions, if not all 3 atleast 1 or 2 signings.