And so the time has come for…the season to begin! but allow me to first congratulate all our England fans here for the amazing Euro win by your Women’s team! What a tournament and what a team! 4 Gunners in it as well 🙂
Back to EPL footie now, Crystal Palace won’t be an easy game to play…especially away. They only lost 4 games at home last year and we did not beat them either last year so the reading of stats and last year’s history does not favour us…
One of the key match ups will be Zaha – White and I think Saka-Partey-Saliba will need to be strong because there is no way White will be able to contain Zaha…
So while the season is looking mighty exciting with the great pre-season and our good transfer window so far, I think that we will be missing Tomy a lot tomorrow…
Most likely line up:
Ramsdale – White, Saliba, Gabs, Zinch – Partey, Xhaka – Saka, Ode, Martinelli – Jesus
Most likely score line: 2-1 to CP with a goal from Martinelli
but I am hoping to get a point from Vieira’s den tomorrow….
Arsenal News 24/7
arsenalarsenal.net 
Good luck to Patino and Balogun!
COME ON YOU GOOOOOOONERS !!!!!!!!!!!! LET’S START THE WAY WE MEAN TO GO ON !!!!!!!!!!
That means you Granit !!!!!!!!!!!
oy are you ever a glass half empty guy RC7! We’ve seen a new energy and determination from AFC and Arteta’s skill as a manager is becoming apparent. Try being more positive…it won’t hurt anything important to you, other than your hedging your bets.
A score draw for me vs the Selhurst Park School of Diving, I’m not confident in the referee later today or any of them as it goes but if we score first leaving them chasing the game, it could be interesting?
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Welcome to the new season everyone.
A tough opener for us, but lots of ground for optimism.
Good, realistic pre-match RC, but I’m hopeful we can nick it by the odd goal.
I might be optimistic, but I predict a 0:2 away win.
Yes, I know that pre-season games hold limited relevance on the performance of the early PL-games, but we conceded a single goal in the last 4 matches. (And even against Orlando we had Cedric-Holding-Mari-Tavares back 4, so the current – and expected – defense of Ramsdale+White-Saliba-Gabriel-Zinchenko is yet to lose its cherry.)
Palace is a tough opponent, and they might beat us on ball possession in their own stadium, but – with no offense to Zaha and Benteke – there are more terrifying front-lines of other PL teams.
I’m sure it will be more difficult to score tonight in Selhurts Park than against weak opponents like Chelsea and Sevilla, but with a stable defense, a strong midfield and a creative attacking 4 I honestly see a narrow victory coming our way.
Ome thing on our side palace had a bit of a disjointed pre season so hopefully dey not fully up to speed yet and we can capitalize
Like omg, I am amazed at your negative beliefs to start, RC.
I think we will come out firing on all guns, and will be 2-0 at half-time. 3-1 or 3-0 full time score. Gabriel and Partey goals at sometime in game.
Loved Mikel’s interview with Sky Sports. “what are your three aims for the season?”
MA ” Win, win, win, every game, every competition”. Go Mikel, Go Gunners, make us proud and prove RC wrong. 🤞
Fred, Palace had an entirely different type of pre-season.
They split the squad into half, and had 2 separate pre-season ‘tours’. I would say both squads were a mix of team A and team B players, and they all had a lot of minutes. They didn’t face the same level of opponents than Arsenal, but they had some decent results. So the question remains if they could improve cohesion and tactical flexibility in this way or the have to restart building their PL identity, but they played more than us, that’s for sure.
I’m with you, LBG. Except I’m going confidently with a 0-4 score line to the Arsenal. With Gallagher returning to Chelsea, and a number of injuries (esp. Olise and MacArthur), Palace are weakened in midfield. Two of their three goalies are also missing. Their back line is without Tomkins. The Arsenal are full of confidence (yes, pre-season results are meaningless of themselves, but winning is a good habit, and more importantly, we have seen the gelling of the team, given time to get to know each other), and while Jesus is rightly gaining plaudits, I think the leap forward by Martinelli, Odegaard and Saka is of as much significance. At the back, suddenly Gabriel looks the weakest link, so outstanding have White, Zinchenko and above all Saliba been – and that’s not to suggest Gabriel is weak at all!
Cut off the supply to Zaha, which our super-high press will do, and Palace have nothing.
Oh, and Saka to score the first goal in the thirteenth minute!
All good stuff Gooners. I think we’ll win, but we could lose. Maybe we’ll draw??!! If I’m honest, I have no clue what will happen but given the optimism around the club and supporters, I really think it’s up to us to not make stupid mistakes and go out and win. That’s really the only way we can lose our momentum. So, I predict a win if we’re able to perform. I can’t see Palace outplaying us.
Losing fingernail material by the minute !!
C’mon YOU GOONERS !!!!!!
Sky headline and analysis
” Is it FINALLY Saliba’s time at Arsenal”
Ridiculous that pundits, newspaper journalists and even supporters, have no concept of patience and in particular the time it takes to become a successful Premier League player.
Saliba was a raw18/19 year old, full of himself and, having been bought for 27m, certain he was ready! He then proved to Mikel he wasn’t!
Two to three years later he is a 6’4″ centre back, with a smooth grace as he moves around the pitch, with a head up calmness and he is now probably ready.
He will still get battered occasionally by hardened forwards, but should NOW show the footballing world that he is going to be a star for us for many years to come.
100% agree LBG. It’s like there’s a phenomenal new concept of a top club taking a young raw talent and sending them on loan to develop !! It’s been happening for years with hundreds of players. Maybe the player and manager differed as to when he was ready but I bet that happens a lot more that we hear about too. In any case, it seems like Arteta has managed him perfectly and in that case, Saliba will be a better player for it. He certainly looks a lot better physically than two years ago.
1-2
That’s what happens when you have split loyalties. 0-4 pah. 0-5 at least and we are crowned league champions in waiting.
lol…M glad I am getting the score line wrong 🙂 I d rather be half empty and then enjoy than the other way around…been too disappointed too many times by BOTH my teams 😛
Martinelli on the scoresheet 🙂
Mo worries, RC78. You had every reason to be skeptical.
I was overall satisfied with the display, we had a strong team and got the tactics right (albeit nothing fancy).
The only shame – in my subjective opinion – is that we used the celebrated 5-substitutes rule to introduce 2 players in the 83th minute, and one in the 90th. But even that wasn’t too surprising either.
Good performance – Great result. Anyone complaining about those 3 points has a short memory. Saliba awesome. Honestly, Zinch struggled at LB. But overall, extremely happy !!!!!!!!!!!!
Ramsdale with a few hairy moments and then 2 magical saves…
White – not at ease but marshalled on…
Saliba – a good intro to the EPL
Gabs – a good day at the office
Zinch – in and out of the game
Xhaka – a card and a serious but tepid display
Partey – We need more from him but did OK
Saka – a good first game
Ode – not at his best but worked hard too
Martinelli – missed one, scored one and kept on running
Jesus – a class apart for the first 30 mins but then faded away
A good result and TOP OF THE LEAGUE
Well we made hard work of that but got there in the end.
First proper look at Saliba, calm, controlled, authoritative. Made Gabriel and White look panicky.
Very quiet Saka until the goal.
Xhaka got his card just to wind LGB up.
Ramsdale got better as the game went on.
Zinchenko looked classy but agree needs more time to get used to playing LB within our set up.
Partey went about his business in a tidy manner.
Jesus: nothing to worry about.
3 points, 3 points, 3 points
1. Palace lost only 4 last season at home
2. A rough- house team who never let you settle.
3. Antony Taylor encouraged that – at least three shirt pulls in that exciting first twelve minutes that were not penalised.
4. Why did we not insist on a close closing down of Anderson. Ben White tormented every time he hit the diagonal.
Positives:-
5. Saliba excellent/ Gabriel solid.
6. Jesus electric in first fifteen
7. Aaron did what we needed in one on one and honestly saved us from dropping points.
8. Martinelli good in parts but not given the ball enough, especially after Cline booked.
Zinchenko fair but a bit of a wandering role. ( Get him in midfield alongside Partey). Great to see Kieran back – two vital clearances.
General:-
9. Long balls from goalkeeper or CBs to forward HEADS is futile. Not won once.
10. X……nothing need be said by me.
11. Why can’t we take throw ons and win the ball from them.
12. Shoot early, be selfish Martin O, Saka, Martinelli.
13. Mikel, did we need a freshening of legs earlier?
Great start to the season.
A very hard fought win but Palace will cause a lot of problems for a lot of good teams this year.
Jesus very good especially first half.
Saliba – it’s only one game and I don’t want to get carried away but, wow! He looks like a Rolls Royce defender.
Benny Blanco struggled against Zaha (understandable). But Tomi will be first choice RB when fully fit and Benny will have to settle for the subs bench.
I thought Ode struggled overall but he doesn’t stop trying.
Saka is just great when he’s on the ball.
Lots of other good cameos.
Happy, happy, happy.
LB
Of course he did……and then argued continually he had done nothing wrong ( Neville ” X will always let you down”). But…..what about a booking for exactly the same offence from Eze? Antony Taylor ( continues) to be a w*****.
You could see it in Taylor’s expression as soon as he realised it was Xhaka, he couldn’t wait to get the card out, a caution based on reputation.
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