Today we enter the Lion’s Den, the Roman Coliseum. Those lions will hungry after the defeat to the Barcodes etc etc. NO. It is just a football game with 3 paltry points on offer. Win or lose, we will still finish in the Top 6.
Here’s a question … Many state that Pep Wagner is the best manager in world football. Certainly his wages reflect his reputation. I ask this – If Pep managed Huddersfield would they be any better? My answer is No.
Pep is considered a genius because he works with the very best players. Silk purse out of a sow’s ear comes to mind.. Ask Pep to manage Huddersfield and he MAY do better than the real Mr. Wagner but I doubt it.
And that is why City go into the game as such firm favourites – they have better players than us in almost every position (I rate our front 2 higher), of course they are favourites.
I could write extensively about the damage caused by Abramovich and the Oilers, but this is not the time. The fact remains however, that unlike MC, we cannot afford to spend €50m+ p.p. on a our reserves. They can and do.
Just imagine having the luxury of 3 wingers at the standard of Sterling, Mane and Mahrez. We haven’t even got a winger!
We have to look at Licht or Jenks as our RB back up and that says it all.
But it is not all gloom and doom, we have some fine players and we can beat quality teams, sadly not away from home though we would have beaten the Chavs at the Bridge but for wayward finishing. A couple of lethal strikes today could see us win this afternoon (unlikely as it seems).
Ozil starting? Hardly likely. I expect Mr. Emery to PTB and hope our lightning fast strike force can score on the counter; for this reason, I would use Iwobi. Back 3. Ramsey, Wardrobe, AMN.
Suarez? Possibly a bench place. More likely a start at Bate. in the EL.
As a child I was a committed Subbuteo player, even played in a local league and when not playing as Arsenal I had Man City as my second team. I guess it was the Mercer connection or perhaps it was my fave player, Colin Bell
This is sacrilegious so please excuse me – I would take losing 3 points at Maine Road in order to help City beat the Scouse to the title. Or heaven forbid, Spurs 😱😱
COYRRG
Arsenal News 24/7
arsenalarsenal.net 
Thanks Erik
I don’t know about this managerial thing re Pep Wagner. Yes he had a privileged baptism into management at Barca, but I’m not sure that a good/bad manager at a Grimsby would conversely translate into a bad/good manager at an elite team.
Weather forecast: cold and rainy. Not sure these are ideal conditions for Mesut 🙂
(beginning to quite enjoy the fact we have one of the world’s highest paid footballers who, given his other-worldly qualities, can only perform under super specific terms and conditions) 🙂
Out into the sunshine. Enjoy days all
Good work, BR, even though this time I don’t agree with much of what you are saying (which seldom is the case). Pep Guardiola would have Huddersfield in the top-8 in no time; he works on a system of football and fits the players into it, and he is pretty good at it. Yes he has only managed the crème de la crème but why wouldn’t he? They offer the biggest salaries and big budgets.
Having worked in Liverpool in the early noughties, I was very impressed with the knowledge of football of the average red or blue supporter and their utmost respect for Arsenal and Wenger. I found them also the most hospital and warm people I have come across in the UK, and therefore would be cool with Pool winning the league this season. They spent their money wisely, attracted a quality manager and play a scintillating style of football.
I sadly do agree with you that Ozil will not get a start from Emery. Against Citeh away, he will need to win the midfield battle to have any chance. So I look forward to seeing how he wants to achieve this. Three in a line would make sense to me and Xhaka and Torreira must be played, with either Rambo or AMN as the third midfielder (but it is likely to be GuenD). I am hoping for three up front of Iwobi, Ozil and Laca but it more likely will be Auba, Laca and Iwobi/Wrong Suarez.
Should we sit back and absorb pressure? Probably yes. But it would also be nice to see us press them high and give them no time on the ball. We are probably going to lose this one, so we may as well do it in style. COYRRGs!
hospital = hospitable 😳
TA. I welcome disagreement and clearly believe Pep would do no better than the sdaly deprted Mr Wagner.
I have been attacked by football “fans” at both Everton and LFC. Once again we disagree 😀
M-Niles apparently did not travel so likely to be Lich or Jenks at RB. Or are we going to see a winger as a wingback there in the person of a certain Dennis Suarez?
Leno
Musti. Kosc. Nacho.
Lich. Torre. Douzi. Kola.
Ramsey. Iwobi.
Auba.
Some rumours that Xhaka didn’t travel.
Hi Raddy,
I agree that the quality of the players is more important than the quality of the manager, however if you had the real Wagner in charge of MC would he do as well as the substitute Wagner?
It’s odd that bus pictures get more attention than posts.
It’s not odd at all, GN5.
All it says is that two bloggers find bus pics more palatable at six o’clock in the morning than football talk.
The only other possibility is that Chas started it, and because I see him as head boy, I suck up to him and tow the line 🙂
Ok, football talk
I reckon our attack will be min 70% down the left
Thanks Raddy for your non-bus efforts.
Xhaka, A M-N and Micki not travelled apparently.
COYG
Micky, “bunking” up with my Bros is too much for a Sunday morning…..Watch out for the rear end, esp after a Veganuary.
Cheers, BR, another fine talking point post.
We all know that Sam Allardyce said that he’d win the Champs League every season if he had Real madrid’s players at this disposal. Now while I’m not saying he’s a lying, fat, pie-eating buffoon, he does have a point. Money comes to money as do trophies. Even Klopp’s spent nearly £400miliionwhist at the dippers, though offset by the enormous amount they got for Coutinho.
Maureen is one of the few who you’d definitely say is a bit pants as his teams do not play anything remotely like a decent brand of football even when he has millions at his disposal. Short-termist nonsense from the Portugueezer.
I’d like to see Wagner get the City gig in an alternative universe just to see how he fared.
Deffo with you regarding not wanting the dippers to win the League. I still don’t understand how Mane, Salah and Firmino are available for selection every week. At least if the light blue oilers win it we can blame the money.
I’m rambling, so Id better go off to research tomorrow’s bus photo.
LBG
Meat eaters’ arseholes are notoriously more pungent.
Fibonacci sequence – each bus arrival is the sum of the two preceding buses arriving.
Chas
cabbages!
I find it rather strange that anyone finds a little early morning bus talk offensive.
What should we be discussing?
Which right full back would be a suitable purchase in the summer to cover Catwalk’s absence?
Leave it out, plenty of time for the experts to chat about that during the daytime.
Besides, the motning crew have always talked diverse bollix. 🙂
LBG
It’s a well known fact that people on the Atkins diet have the most evil flatulence by far.
Bus Fibonacci sequence
0 – 15
Afternoon all, thanks to chas and GN5 form their posts over the last few days, sorry I wasn’t around today to comment.
Raddy … a very fine PM/discussion document if I may say so. All I would ask is that we give a good account of ourselves today, and play with heart and composure … and buckets of energy.
Xhaka and M-N must be missing due to injury, so our defence is further denuded … the last thing we’d want, but hey ho,, most teams would factor in 0 points away to city.
As regards Pep and Huddersfield is concerned, I think he would improve them because he is very good at man management and motivation. He may fall short on tactics because he couldn’t get those players to deliver his style of play and he has no experience of setting teams up for damage limitation or dealing with 28% possession.
Micky …. thanks for your reference @ 9:22 … I really enjoyed reading that 🙂
… the bad news is that the totts supporters want us to beat city … and we hate giving them any form of pleasure ….
Well I guess bus talk is acceptable on a football blog as they are an intricate part of defensive strategy
My team would be:
Leno; Jenkinson, Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal, Kolašinac; Torreira, Guendouzi, Suárez; Lacazette, Aubameyang.
When Kolašinac attacks from the left flank, Monreal covers at left back. Jenkinson plays a more compact right back role.
Torreira patrols in front of our D while also links up with our creative midfielders, Guendouzi & Suárez work our attack from middle and right side while also look to disrupt City’s link up flow in the middle of the pitch.
Lacazette drops deep to create overloads with Guendouzi & Suárez in our attacking 3rd, as while as minimise Fernandino’s passing options. Aubameyang plays off the shoulder of City’s CBs as well as in between channels of their CB and FB (as a line breaker).
A baptism of fire for No.22:
LBG says:
February 3, 2019 at 12:37 pm
Fibonacci sequence – each bus arrival is the sum of the two preceding buses arriving.
I CANNOT WAIT until tomorrow morning. Sooo excited 🙂
You know what chaps, I’ve been studying the fibonacci sequence for other reasons, but something epic has dawned on me. The 2-3-5 fits 🙂 🙂
Talk about a told ya so
Top post BR
Haven’t read all the posts, but totally agree about your idea of him trying to become the real Mr Wagner.
https://streamable.com/pkse4
Looking at the line ups, I’ll be shocked if we don’t get a hammering. Mustafi and Lichsteiner have been awful recently, Monreal is returning from injury, the Torreira/Geundouzi partnership doesn’t really work, and Iwobi isn’t the man to feed our front 2.
Very worried.
Leno; Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal, Kolašinac; Torreira, Guendouzi, Suárez; Lacazette, Ramsey, Aubameyang.
This is what I want.
If we have nothing coming down the right we are as toothless as we were against West Ham and ManU as it is too easy for the opposition to simply focus on the left and we have nothing.
Try to replicate the Chelsea game and for that we need both flanks firing.
Before last week I would have said can’t we just give City three points and five goals and spare ourselves the loss of another central defender but the bar codes have changed that making it all to play for.
COYRRG
So we have nothing coming down the right,
We need a miracle.
Just changed my mind about my 70% down the left comment from earlier 🙂
Excited to see Suarez making the bench
Hope Auba and Laca are playing as a front two with Iwobi behind, but suspect Auba will be shunted out wide. We’ll see soon
here’s how I reckon some thinking is going on:
City left winger: “yipee, can’t wait to get at Licht and Mustafi”
Licht: “I know exactly what that City winger is thinking. Just wait until I make my first contact with the little shit”
Arsenal arrive at the Emptihad
ha ha superb
No Smith, TG.
Just seen the team. Pace in defence could be an issue. PTB may be the solution.
Is that Geoff Capes?
Yep
wow, good spot erik
come on you gunnners
Just read we are winless in our last 20 away fixtures against Top 6 sides.
A record that needs changing.
Hi Guys,
Nice Post BR.
Oh, dear — what the hell was Iwobi doing? 1 ; 0
This could be a severe spanking.
5 starters out, what does everyone think is going to happen!
My expectation today is we are falling closer to Wolves.
Good job we have Wobbly in to do some defending!
That was a good start 😦 😦 😦
Who does Geoff Capes play for?
Those are 5 questionable starters, and Mustafi is in the side in a back whatever is pure defensive suicide.
Wow. Go to pour a little heart starter and we score. Who, how?
Kos
https://streamable.com/m6oxl
Go to pour a little heart starter
ha ha ha never heard that before 🙂 🙂
pups style- serial fouling.
Grown into it after the worst possible start. Geundouzi playing well and Iwobi working hard also. We need to keep the ball better but can’t complain up to now. Really good
well, I imagine we all expected far, far worse after their first, and here we are, still in it
You knew with Mustafi and Lich in the side goals were coming for $h*tTy. Lich has been burned a number of times, his passess not so tight and just sort of wandering around in no mans land on the right.
The ref should have carded the other side way before Tor, but that is the way it goes with the Arsenal lately.
Maybe a goal in the side, would like to see Saurez come on and see what he can do with Guen and Tor.
Our narrowness at the back has killed us this half. In fairness we’ve had to play that way in order to flood the midfield and make it difficult for them to cut through the centre, which for the most part we’ve done, but by allowing them the easy switches to the wings we’ve given them the opportunity to overlap and get to the byline which has resulted in a couple of goals and the majority of their chances. Having said that the first one came from losing the ball in our own 18 yard box which has absolutely nothing to do with tactics!
I’m happy with the way we’ve set up, but mistakes have cost us and against this City team you have to be very clinical in everything you do to get a result.
Corect me if I am wrong (which according to Mrs. R. I always am).If a player is standing in an offside position when the ball is played then he is offside. Twice in the move leading to MC’s 2nd there were MC players ahead of the last defender .
Hard to beat MC when they have 11 men, impossible with 14.
Though we really played well after conceding
Disappointing end to the first half as we were on top for a little while there after the equaliser good competitive match.
Shame Lichsteiner fell asleep on their second.
Like the shape generally, Lacazette working like a Trojan as ever.
Raddy did that player play the ball? It really is cut and dry now (I think we of a more mature vintage struggle with it) but the only time a player is offside these days is when they actually play a ball or influence an opponent by attempting to play (standing in front of gk for example not offside, waving leg at a shot while standing in front of gk offside)
I was wrong about not attacking down the right, but then again, no-one would have foreseen the 4-4-2
Given the lack of Bell and Granit, I reckon Emery made a good call with the set up
City are the better team so we’ll just have to scrap and hope
BR
They don’t even flag players who are miles offside until they actually touch the ball, so they ain’t gonna flag someone who’s 30 yards away, are they?
Offside means offside. I agree with you.
GIE. If they are wearing anything but an Arsenal shirt, of course they are offside. The ball has nothing to do with it.
And Atkinson is, once again, having a horribly biased game.
Thought Douzi has an excellent half – best I have seen from him. The lad has such potential.
ha ha ha Erik
one rule for us…. quite right
Super subs time
Now tell me the officials are bent. A clear handball and the idiot gives a goal
Crap work from Leno
The “hand of God” put that ball in!
Brilliant. Suarez coming on. Nothing to lose now and good experience for him
5.50. Aren’t not are. Bloody spellcheck
Atkinson is a disgrace.
It’s 1-1 in reality (alternative, it may be).
Anyone fancy doing some match thoughts?
I haven’t actually watched the game.
But will do something if no-one offers.
Two goals would be nice!
Glad to see Mav and Saurez in, passing the ball better already.
Question: How does Emery seriously start Mustafi and bench Mesut???
Job done – Cmon West Ham
The goal before half time killed the energy, but I take some comfort from that first half performance. It’s clear we need better players in certain positions, but I think Emery is getting quite a lot out of the players we do have. Good to see Suarez and Mavro getting a game and I thought Geundouzi had one of his Breyer games. We still need to work out our best formation but City away is not a game that’s going to show us that.
It’s such a difficult balancing act in these games. There were a lot of times in the first half where we could’ve been a lot braver with the ball and played out from the back rather than going long, but the flip side of that is what happened in the first minute when Iwobi decides not to hoof it and we lose the ball and go behind.
You can’t make big mistakes against City but there were a couple of individual errors today.
A commendable performance but the expected result for the expected reasons.
Game summary:
Man C’s wingers played in acres of space, all that was missing was a park bench for them to sit on to wait for the passes.
Our offense were starved of passes from a midfield overrun and overwhelmed by the Man City offensive assault.
Our men of the match were the newcomers Torreira and Guendouzi, two real spark plugs who will become a big part of our future.
Thank you, Raddy.
We played a good game, but lost. Disgraceful ref, poor first goal (why cant we ever clear the ball first time?), poor time to concede the second.
Anyway, we look forward to further progress over the rest of the season. 4th place trophy is still on.
Leno was impressive.
time for a quickie?
You swine. Not a landmark in sight!
Can’t think of a single worthwhile thing to say about the game to help out
It’s alongside a North London park.
We need a default “nothing to discuss” page
A modern day spot the ball
NEW POST
regents
My best guess at location
https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5577055,-0.0903537,3a,75y,31.49h,90.33t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s4-U-jArVEAVhocpzfhGuWg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192