Someone mentioned about being complacent per Wolves; I think that's a warning we should all heed; there have been so many times we should have battered Liverpool (and United for that matter), we just never seem to be able to put them fully to the sword. They will turn up in some kind of block this evening; I fancy us, but it won't be easy.
The big boys need their big boy pants on tonight, let's get the job done.
Thankfully our players don't have the same scar tissue that us supporters have.
'It's going too well', 'Liverpool always raise their game when we play them'. I'll admit these thoughts have crept in to my mind in the last few days. Friends who are Liverpool supporters are all saying 'you'll smash us!' but I haven't been able to fully accept it.
Every game is 'worth three points' but tonight's game feels more important than that, nine days before our next PL match, to lead by 8 points would feel massively significant. Eyes on the prize!
If we play our best against the Pool, we will win by 3 goals. I fear though that we’ll start slow, be too relaxed and either draw or lose narrowly. Arteta absolutely needs to own this game. We are much better than them
He could have activated Antoine Semenyo’s release clause at the start of the month, but instead let Semenyo stay at Bournemouth, lose to Arsenal and score a 95th minute winner against Tottenham, while his Manchester City dropped points at home to Chelsea and Brighton.
Great man management by Mikel. Eze isn't starting tomorrow but Mikel is controlling the narrative and I think he's right that we'll still get a lot out of Eze this season.
Arsenal are first having suffered medium or long term injuries to most of our high caliber players - Calafiori, Gabriel, Saliba, White, Odegaard, Saka, Jesus, Havertz.
It's mental. Arteta is a genius. If we had a healthier team, we would have ran away with it already.
Same way Pep had injured his team, including Rodri and his whole backline (Dias, Gvardiol, Stones in addition to Kovacic, Savinho, Doku etc), it's gotten to the point his fans are shitting on him cause he doesn't give a break to Haaland, who's played 1827 minutes of 1890 maximum in 21 rounds.
Slot's generational ways lauded last season, stopped working this and someone like Frimpong with 3 injuries in his career, already had 3 injuries in 5 months since joining them, Gakpo was out, Isak is with a broken leg, Bradley has missed over 1.5 months, Alisson missed 2 months, Frimpong missed 3 months, Endo, Joe Gomez have missed over a month each.
I'm just going to mention Chavs (about 10 injuries at all times), Spuds (ditto).
Simply pup broke those guys, and the cyborg might pull a Kai.
Isak got his leg broken in a game, Alisson is a keeper, Frimpong is new to the league, and Salah is out due to AFCON, but pool still have enough talent to play well. Van the man and Konante have not been out and that allows them to sort of have defensive solidity.
Our squad has looked like a war zone with our top Stars out for long periods for the past 2 years.
From a United point of view, Sesko was incredibly encouraging. The style of the goals, even the shots he missed or that were saved were all looking very tidy, like he found his confidence.
Today was just a superb day in the Premier League. Watching all the so-called Big Six teams playing today drop points and Villa dropped two points too. The last time all big six Premier League teams dropped points in a two-day period was December 2025 (and the last time before that was in 2013) so maybe there's something in the air and we'll end up with a draw tomorrow.
Still, if we can get the jump on Liverpool tomorrow, I can see a comfortable win.
Pretty sure we're going with the expected line-up of Raya, Timber, Saliba, Hincapie, Gabriel, Zubi, Rice, Ode, Tross, Saka and Gyok.
It's the summer of 2020 and Arsenal are looking to sign an attacking midfielder. Edu's proposal? Willian.
The recruitment department's? Dominik Szoboszlai.
One of the many qualities they highlighted? His ability from set pieces.
___________________________________
Another player people thought was 100% an Arteta transfer. Key moment? Brazilian/Portuguese speaker.
It's why I'm pretty sure Edu worked on the likes of Pablo Mari, Cedric Soares, David Luiz, Tavares, Vieira and co. He thought he has skills but sadly, he doesn't.
It was all Arteta pulling the strings and the few times Edu pushed for someone, it mostly always failed.
Letting Arteta control was of massive help for where we are today. Arteta is a generational thinker. You cannot know more than him about football. I hope Berta is aware of that.
Rap-Arteta was so disengaged from the Willian transfer that he said this?
“I believe he’s a player that can really make a difference for us,” Arteta said. “We have been monitoring him for the past few months, we had a clear intention to strengthen in the attacking midfielder and the winger positions. He is a player that gives us a lot of versatility, he can play in three or four different positions. He has the experience of everything in the football world, but to still have the ambition to come here and contribute to bring the club where it belongs. I have been really impressed with all the talks I have had with him and how much he wanted to come.”
And this...
Mikel Arteta was highly influential in signing Willian, convincing him with a detailed three-year plan to win the Champions League and promising versatility, quality, and a winning mentality to help younger players like Saka and Martinelli, making Willian feel valued as part of a long-term project, though the transfer ultimately proved unsuccessful.
-----
Arteta has been a brilliant manager for us and overall he's been a huge boost for the club in his selling the club to incoming and existing players. But let's not rewrite history here. The only player I can recall Arteta publicly saying that Edu pushed to the club was Tavares and even in that context he said he was happy that Edu convinced him to sign for the club.
"The only player I can recall Arteta publicly saying that Edu pushed to the club was Tavares and even in that context he said he was happy that Edu convinced him to sign for the club."
Do you need to be told personally by Arteta to know? ITKs almost always make sure to say who pushes for a deal.
For an instance, Edu is on the record saying Sterling was his idea, but you will read how it was Arteta who wanted him here, then proceeded to not play him much if at all. Like, it's pretty obvious just like it is now with Norgaard (also written by the Athletic) and how Norgaard wasn't his pick.
And what do you want Arteta to say about Willian? "He wasn't my choice but oh well..."?
Rap-Arteta was clearly intensly involved in recruiting Willian. It was blindingly obvious he wanted him at the club and you forget that he continued playing him after the fans had turned on Willian. Edu wanted him too. Quite possibly the recruiting department wanted Szoboszlai but Edu and Arteta worked as a team and they preferred Sterling.
Arteta has earned enough deserved praise without you needing to cover for his occasional transfer missteps.
The journo said it was all Edu. I'm going off that.
Arteta has a duty to play high profile signings / high profile players, at least in their first months, with the hope it clicks cause if he benches them real quickly, he shows the world he was against their signings to begin with. I can assure you, if Arteta has set his sights on a player and he gets the player, his stubborn self will not give up until he makes the player work. Willian was permanently benched and just as quickly, out of contract.
Here's the quote from that CBS article. It doesn't say that Edu was the sole decision maker on Willian's signing.
Then again in that summer, the one in which technical director Edu dramatically overhauled the scouting department that recommended the young Hungarian, they bought Willian. This was clearly one of those recruitment missteps that happen at every club long before Szoboszlai spanked one in David Raya's top corner from 32-yards-out.
You know the best thing about the Manchester City result?
It's that it's been no fluke or blip.
It's exactly their level. They're not going to go on an insane tear of wins like they did two seasons ago.
Brighton looked the much better team until both sides made their subs and the Man City subs, although not great, are on a much higher level than any team the size of Brighton.
We'll drop some minimal points the rest of the way... But City are going to drop a lot more. Nunes, Jerky, Nico who? There's no prime Aguero, Sane, debruyne, Walker, Gundogan coming to save them. I don't care who they buy.
And Guehi is not nearly as good as Grovers think. I never wanted him at Arsenal. He will be a bust.
They should have won that game to be fair with the chances Brighton handed them or the few they created.
The biggest advantage we have now is the level of attacking talent has equalized.
They had Gundogan, Mahrez and Debruyne to pull it out when the going gets tough. They don't have that this time. Their players miss chances as ours do.
Someone mentioned about being complacent per Wolves; I think that's a warning we should all heed; there have been so many times we should have battered Liverpool (and United for that matter), we just never seem to be able to put them fully to the sword. They will turn up in some kind of block this evening; I fancy us, but it won't be easy.
The big boys need their big boy pants on tonight, let's get the job done.
Tonight we might see the changing of the gaurd.
History in the making.
We have waited an eternity for this.
We have earned the right to be here
We know what we need to do.
Our differences as fans pale into insignificanceif we pull this off.
Our beloved Arsenal leading the charge.
Now is our time.
COYGs
Thankfully our players don't have the same scar tissue that us supporters have.
'It's going too well', 'Liverpool always raise their game when we play them'. I'll admit these thoughts have crept in to my mind in the last few days. Friends who are Liverpool supporters are all saying 'you'll smash us!' but I haven't been able to fully accept it.
Every game is 'worth three points' but tonight's game feels more important than that, nine days before our next PL match, to lead by 8 points would feel massively significant. Eyes on the prize!
My sentiments entirely Bob.
If we play our best against the Pool, we will win by 3 goals. I fear though that we’ll start slow, be too relaxed and either draw or lose narrowly. Arteta absolutely needs to own this game. We are much better than them
City dropping points from a winning positions in their last two games will encourage teams against them.
Pep Guardiola is a "genius".
He could have activated Antoine Semenyo’s release clause at the start of the month, but instead let Semenyo stay at Bournemouth, lose to Arsenal and score a 95th minute winner against Tottenham, while his Manchester City dropped points at home to Chelsea and Brighton.
Agent Guardiola.
karma
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cx2wqjxk0kvo
Great man management by Mikel. Eze isn't starting tomorrow but Mikel is controlling the narrative and I think he's right that we'll still get a lot out of Eze this season.
Surely our time has arrived.
Miguel Delaney says Bournemouth wants Ethan Nwaneri, and Arsenal is open to a loan until the end of the season.
Does he start for them? I was thinking maybe West Ham, although there's a huge pressure on them currently, might be a bad environment.
No to the Hammers, Raps!
He would start for West Ham...but...no!
Arsenal are first having suffered medium or long term injuries to most of our high caliber players - Calafiori, Gabriel, Saliba, White, Odegaard, Saka, Jesus, Havertz.
It's mental. Arteta is a genius. If we had a healthier team, we would have ran away with it already.
A genius for putting them there or getting them out?
Same way Pep had injured his team, including Rodri and his whole backline (Dias, Gvardiol, Stones in addition to Kovacic, Savinho, Doku etc), it's gotten to the point his fans are shitting on him cause he doesn't give a break to Haaland, who's played 1827 minutes of 1890 maximum in 21 rounds.
Slot's generational ways lauded last season, stopped working this and someone like Frimpong with 3 injuries in his career, already had 3 injuries in 5 months since joining them, Gakpo was out, Isak is with a broken leg, Bradley has missed over 1.5 months, Alisson missed 2 months, Frimpong missed 3 months, Endo, Joe Gomez have missed over a month each.
I'm just going to mention Chavs (about 10 injuries at all times), Spuds (ditto).
Simply pup broke those guys, and the cyborg might pull a Kai.
Isak got his leg broken in a game, Alisson is a keeper, Frimpong is new to the league, and Salah is out due to AFCON, but pool still have enough talent to play well. Van the man and Konante have not been out and that allows them to sort of have defensive solidity.
Our squad has looked like a war zone with our top Stars out for long periods for the past 2 years.
From a United point of view, Sesko was incredibly encouraging. The style of the goals, even the shots he missed or that were saved were all looking very tidy, like he found his confidence.
Today was just a superb day in the Premier League. Watching all the so-called Big Six teams playing today drop points and Villa dropped two points too. The last time all big six Premier League teams dropped points in a two-day period was December 2025 (and the last time before that was in 2013) so maybe there's something in the air and we'll end up with a draw tomorrow.
Still, if we can get the jump on Liverpool tomorrow, I can see a comfortable win.
Pretty sure we're going with the expected line-up of Raya, Timber, Saliba, Hincapie, Gabriel, Zubi, Rice, Ode, Tross, Saka and Gyok.
a left back would be good!
Fixed-I just hope it wasn't a subconscious error because Hincapie is going to get a red in the first two minutes!
Yes City drew again. Sorry im at work and only catching this now
James Benge, CBS Sports
It's the summer of 2020 and Arsenal are looking to sign an attacking midfielder. Edu's proposal? Willian.
The recruitment department's? Dominik Szoboszlai.
One of the many qualities they highlighted? His ability from set pieces.
___________________________________
Another player people thought was 100% an Arteta transfer. Key moment? Brazilian/Portuguese speaker.
It's why I'm pretty sure Edu worked on the likes of Pablo Mari, Cedric Soares, David Luiz, Tavares, Vieira and co. He thought he has skills but sadly, he doesn't.
It was all Arteta pulling the strings and the few times Edu pushed for someone, it mostly always failed.
Letting Arteta control was of massive help for where we are today. Arteta is a generational thinker. You cannot know more than him about football. I hope Berta is aware of that.
Rap-Arteta was so disengaged from the Willian transfer that he said this?
“I believe he’s a player that can really make a difference for us,” Arteta said. “We have been monitoring him for the past few months, we had a clear intention to strengthen in the attacking midfielder and the winger positions. He is a player that gives us a lot of versatility, he can play in three or four different positions. He has the experience of everything in the football world, but to still have the ambition to come here and contribute to bring the club where it belongs. I have been really impressed with all the talks I have had with him and how much he wanted to come.”
And this...
Mikel Arteta was highly influential in signing Willian, convincing him with a detailed three-year plan to win the Champions League and promising versatility, quality, and a winning mentality to help younger players like Saka and Martinelli, making Willian feel valued as part of a long-term project, though the transfer ultimately proved unsuccessful.
-----
Arteta has been a brilliant manager for us and overall he's been a huge boost for the club in his selling the club to incoming and existing players. But let's not rewrite history here. The only player I can recall Arteta publicly saying that Edu pushed to the club was Tavares and even in that context he said he was happy that Edu convinced him to sign for the club.
"The only player I can recall Arteta publicly saying that Edu pushed to the club was Tavares and even in that context he said he was happy that Edu convinced him to sign for the club."
Do you need to be told personally by Arteta to know? ITKs almost always make sure to say who pushes for a deal.
For an instance, Edu is on the record saying Sterling was his idea, but you will read how it was Arteta who wanted him here, then proceeded to not play him much if at all. Like, it's pretty obvious just like it is now with Norgaard (also written by the Athletic) and how Norgaard wasn't his pick.
And what do you want Arteta to say about Willian? "He wasn't my choice but oh well..."?
Rap-Arteta was clearly intensly involved in recruiting Willian. It was blindingly obvious he wanted him at the club and you forget that he continued playing him after the fans had turned on Willian. Edu wanted him too. Quite possibly the recruiting department wanted Szoboszlai but Edu and Arteta worked as a team and they preferred Sterling.
Arteta has earned enough deserved praise without you needing to cover for his occasional transfer missteps.
The journo said it was all Edu. I'm going off that.
Arteta has a duty to play high profile signings / high profile players, at least in their first months, with the hope it clicks cause if he benches them real quickly, he shows the world he was against their signings to begin with. I can assure you, if Arteta has set his sights on a player and he gets the player, his stubborn self will not give up until he makes the player work. Willian was permanently benched and just as quickly, out of contract.
Talking about stubborn, Rap....
Here's the quote from that CBS article. It doesn't say that Edu was the sole decision maker on Willian's signing.
Then again in that summer, the one in which technical director Edu dramatically overhauled the scouting department that recommended the young Hungarian, they bought Willian. This was clearly one of those recruitment missteps that happen at every club long before Szoboszlai spanked one in David Raya's top corner from 32-yards-out.
https://x.com/jamesbenge/status/2008977817170739438
The journo who wrote the article, summarized the article on his twitter account into what I originally posted.
You know the best thing about the Manchester City result?
It's that it's been no fluke or blip.
It's exactly their level. They're not going to go on an insane tear of wins like they did two seasons ago.
Brighton looked the much better team until both sides made their subs and the Man City subs, although not great, are on a much higher level than any team the size of Brighton.
We'll drop some minimal points the rest of the way... But City are going to drop a lot more. Nunes, Jerky, Nico who? There's no prime Aguero, Sane, debruyne, Walker, Gundogan coming to save them. I don't care who they buy.
And Guehi is not nearly as good as Grovers think. I never wanted him at Arsenal. He will be a bust.
They should have won that game to be fair with the chances Brighton handed them or the few they created.
The biggest advantage we have now is the level of attacking talent has equalized.
They had Gundogan, Mahrez and Debruyne to pull it out when the going gets tough. They don't have that this time. Their players miss chances as ours do.
Even Haaland was feeling the pressure with that missed easy chance. It's nice to see it happening as long as we keep chalking up the wins.
This stoppage time between Newcastle and Leeds has been bedlam, sensational stuff
And Newcastle have done it late
The match should have been over. Before the Newcastle corner, then when the ball went out for throwing almostvat the centre circle. Horrible referee.
Prime barclays this
Yup, felt like a knockout game in a cup competition