The Moment
In Saturday’s late game Miguel Arteta’s high-flying and sharp-shooting Gunners will try to make it two wins in as many tries when they host predicted relegation candidates West Ham United. In the last few seasons I would look at this fixture and think “potential banana skin” but with the feelgood factor flowing ever more freely at the moment after Tuesday’s announcement of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s contract extension, surely there can be little reason to expect Arsenal to slip up this weekend. Knocking on wood never hurts, but it feels that way.
It’s easy to say the undefeated (and yet to concede) Gunners have only beaten Fulham, but considering the short off-season they have also recently defeated Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City. The last time I checked those three are all top four clubs so Arsenal have a right to be feeling confident, if not cocky, which would be Tottenham’s bailiwick. What’s more, Arsenal come into their second straight London derby with Brazilian recruits Willian and Gabriel having made superb debut performances. Against Fulham, Willian notched a hat-trick of assists and managed to pep up the attack by a tick or two; and Gabriel, his man-mountain compatriot, plugged a few holes in the permeability of Arsenal’s defence in several of the moments when he wasn’t banging in the Gunners’ second goal from a Willian corner.
The Gunners have not lost a home fixture to West Ham since August 2015, upon Petr Cech’s debut, when Arsenal were unable to turn their ample possession advantage into scoring chances before they ended up conceding a couple of soft goals. The seemingly unlikely pair of Mikel Arteta and Calum Chambers were unused Arsenal substitutes that day; but nobody else in that Arsenal squad remains under Arteta as manager, as he is now to be called rather than head coach.
It feels like a new era, and indeed it is. The Gunners will hope to improve on their performance against West Ham at the Emirates of five months ago, in the final game before the Covid-19 shutdown, when Arsenal emerged victorious after VAR proved that Alex Lacazette’s 80th minute goal, assisted by Mesut Ozil, was not offside as it was originally called. In a match of few chances Arsenal were plainly short of creative ideas but they were buoyed by an inspired performance from Bernd Leno in goal.
The Opposition
Arsenal may have an edge in fitness not having played for the whole week, whereas West Ham hosted Charlton in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday evening. If so, any such advantage must be only slight as David Moyes made 10 changes in his midweek starting eleven. Haller (who scored two goals), Manuel Lanzini, Felipe Anderson, and Robert Snodgrass were among the Hammers who featured against Charlton, but sadly for LJW as we know him, according to a media report Jack Wilshere didn’t make the squad to face Charlton “with writing on the wall for his Hammers future.”
Last Saturday West Ham hosted Newcastle in their first match of the new season. Hoping to gain some clever insights, I had planned to watch the game on television, but arriving home a bit late, saw bubbles blowing past the players as they returned for the second half. Newcastle scored ten minutes later amid confusion and passivity in the West Ham defense. David Moyes tried to spark his attack by bringing on Sebastian Haller and Andriy Yarmolenko for Pablo Fornals and Mark Noble, but half an hour later I awoke from a nap to see the Hammers had lost by 2-0. It seems the Hammers conceded again in the 86th minute, and Felipe Anderson replaced Jarrod Bowen two minutes later in the Hammers midfield, but to little effect and to my suspicion even less entertainment.
The players were not particularly shy in recognizing that West Ham played a stinker. After the match, Newcastle striker Callum Wilson said “I like playing against West Ham. It is not a disrespectful thing but I keep scoring against them.” This sort of admission sounds quite honest to my ear but perilously close to “Can we play you every week?” (a phrase only the fans are usually brave enough to use). More to the point, West Ham midfielder Declan Rice admitted: “I don’t think we could have played any worse to be honest.” As renowned for their inconsistency as they seem to be, are the Hammers saving up their best performance for the Arsenal?
Last season David Moyes was forced to play his youngsters more often than planned as he was short at both the full-back and centre-back positions. Angelo Ogbonna and Issa Diop formed the established centre-back pairing, but Diop started the season slowly before improving his form after lockdown as West Ham fought off relegation. Based on his pre-season form Ogbonna should start against the Gunners, and Diop returned from an unspecified injury to play in both of the Hammers matches this week, so may rejoin Ogbonna in their familiar pairing.
The Hammers’ summer transfer market activity was rather quiet, with the main drama surrounding the future of defensive midfielder Declan Rice, as Chelsea were rumoured to be keen to bring him back to Stamford Bridge having released him as a 14 year-old in 2014. But as no such deal has materialized we should expect Rice to start in midfield alongside 33 year-old captain Mark Noble, who has exceeded 500 appearances for the club but by now must be treading on his last legs, or so one might suspect. To put his durability into context, Noble made his senior debut for the club in August 2004.
West Ham fans, as well as Noble, criticized management for the recent sale of young midfielder Grady Diangana. Apparently, Moyes was told he needed to sell players before he could buy new ones. Anticipated deals involving midfielders Felipe Anderson and Manuel Lanzini failed to materialize, forcing the sale of Diangana to free funds for the signings considered necessary to avoid another relegation battle. Whether the Hammers can complete either task is still to be determined. A West Ham fan, Pete May, conveyed the downcast mood around the club when he wrote: “We’re not in a good place: the defence is still poor, we’re not spending and expensive players such as Haller, Anderson, Fornals and Lanzini all underachieved last season.”
At the start of September the Hammers reportedly failed on consecutive bids of £27m and £30m for Burnley’s 27 year-old centre back James Tarkowski. More recently, the Sun reported that the Hammers offered Arsenal a £5m package to take Rob Holding on loan for the season, an offer that was also rejected. The timing of the story, just a few days before Holding is likely to feature against the Hammers in the Arsenal defence, is interesting to say the least.
The Hammers’ failure to complete new signings this summer could signal that West Ham’s owners may not have full confidence that Moyes is the right man to make them. This week a website that handicaps which Premier League manager is likely to be next to receive the sack offered its lowest odds (2/1) on Moyes; so there may b a chance of the Hammers holding off on signings until a new manager is in place in January.
Arsenal XI
At Fulham debutant Willian was primarily responsible in my opinion for making the Arsenal attack look more fluid than it has in ages. Confident and relaxed on the pass, the dribble and in tight spaces, he helped transform Arsenal’s attack into a more smoothly methodical unit as they probed and eventually broke down the opposition defence. The good news for Arsenal is that Willian can deploy his skills effectively not only from the right wing position as he did at Craven Cottage, and I would be excited to see him play against the Hammers in a more central playmaking tole, allowing Pepe to make his first start of the season at right wing, playing alongside the Brazilian.
But there are very strong arguments for keeping the side that won at Fulham, primarily to keep the momentum going and to solidify the foundation of the first XI. The defence that held Fulham scoreless fully deserves to retain their places, and indeed it would be a bit harsh on any of the starters to be taken out of the side following a 3-0 win. I suspect that the resolute Arteta may make no changes at all, retaining Elneny in the midfield and Maitland-Niles on the left, so the team I am predicting is:
Leno
Holding Gabriel Tierney
Bellerin Xhaka Elneny Maitland-Niles
Willian Lacazette Aubameyang
At the same time I’ve been wondering if it might help the progress of the team if Arteta were to tinker slightly so as to figure out where Saka and Pepe will fit in the overall scheme. Inclining slightly for the latter scenario, I would like to see starts for Saka alongside Xhaka in midfield, and for Pepe to come in on the right side with Willian shifting into an attacking central midfield role behind Lacazette. We know that the Arsenal team against Fulham clicked, including the attacking combinations that outshone most of what we saw last season, but it is ever so tempting to want to find out which variations on that team can click if and when we run into difficulties along the course of the season. Ceballos and Nketiah will certainly be involved as well before long, but if not from the beginning, then at some stage I would love to see how this lineup might be able to break through a packed Hammers defence:
Leno
Holding Gabriel Tierney
Bellerin Willian Xhaka Saka
Pepe Aubameyang
Lacazette
The ‘Holics Pound
If there is one thing Mikel Arteta still must instill in this Arsenal team, it is the instinct to kick an opponent when they are down. I don’t mean it in a literal sense though, because if they see a decent opportunity this pack of Premier League referees are itching for the chance to dole out another handful of red cards to Arsenal before the holiday season hits, so we must not afford them any such openings. Rather, I mean that Arsenal must not just protect one goal leads but keep pressuring the opposition in their half of the field, probing weaknesses, taking advantage of tiring opposition legs, and putting a few more goals in the net to keep the feelgood factor flowing, rather than just scraping by or risking a late reversal. This certainly must be the approach against a club in relative disarray such as West Ham find themselves, so I am predicting a 5-1 win with four second half goals as an implementation benchmark of the “kick ‘em when they’re down” theory. Rob Holding and friends will on the other hand be putting all their efforts into a second consecutive clean sheet, and who is to say they can’t do it so if I were a betting man I might put a second fiver on 4-0. The game may turn out to be a good deal more difficult than I have prognosticated, but if so we should remember we are headed in the right direction.
Have a good one, ‘holics.
Cracking report bt8. I enjoyed
the optimism though personally
I’m going to go for 3-0.
Must be tempting to pick the
same XI but I would bring Dani
back in midfield.
An early goal or two would be
nice to dent the Hammers
confidence.
I also wonder if we will see Luiz
as MA has generally picked him
when fit.
Bt8
Thankyou for a very full and supremely confident preview. I remember how confident we were in 2015 after just winning the Community Shield and we were pretty wretched .and they beat us deservedly and quite easily. They were also the better side fir much of the game in March , Bath’s report of which coincidentally launched this website. I saw some of the game last week and they were putrid but Moyes is a decent manager and organises teams to be solid and competitive.
I think it will be nowhere as easy as you suggest but I think we will win. I expect Luiz and Ceballos to return and I hope we can stoke up the feelgood factor.
Our game in March was the last before the lockdown. I hope this doesn’t precipitate one too but football might go off the air for a week or two. But we are in a much better place than we were in March. 3-1 to the Arsenal
10 out of 10 for that Bt8
I think and hope Mikel keeps faith with the eleven that started at Fulham.
Morning TTG
The under 23’s had a draw last night with Brighton,and young Mr Saliba played the full 90.
Be interesting to see when he plays for the first team.
I suspect it might be EL group stages.
I doubt he will be risked at Leicester in midweek,or indeed at Pool in the 4th round if we get past the Foxes.
An excellent and uplifting preview, bt8. Your cup overflows with optimism. Being of a somewhat more pessimistic and cautious nature, while beside myself with rapture should we win 5-1 or 4-0, I would be delighted with a 3-0 victory as predicted by TTG and, it being a London derby, expect something more akin to 2-1 or 2-0. It will be a harder fight than Fulham as it is in the nature of the Spammers to rise to the challenge of their betters from up the road.
You have nicely highlighted the key issue for MA8, to stick or twist in his team selection. There is as you observe, much merit in sticking with a winning team and its outstanding performers: Gabriel, AMN, Elneny, Willian and of course Aubameyang. Yet he will as you say want to see how Pepe, Saka and Ceballos contribute to the blend. He has the benefit of having tested that question through the past week in training and for us it’s just guesswork. I’m guessing he sticks with the boys who started at Fulham and they deliver a 2-0 win with goals from Aubameyang and Willian.
COYG
In the very, very distant past, when I was a boy, I recall a wondrously named character in one of the rather marvellous comic books of the day – Beano, Dandy? Can’t remember which. Henceforth the West Ham plodder named above shall be known as Pongo Snodgrass, in tribute to that venerable comic of my youth.
That is all.
I enjoyed reading all that you prongnosticated bt8 and your last sentence rung a warning for me (perhaps like hammer on iron) because I have a sneaking suspicion that the men from the east will raise their game way above the performance they produced against Newcastle when they come to play The Arsenal tonight. I’ll be happy to see the ‘Fulham team’ start tonight.
While your banana skin reference brought immediately to mind a Sp**s mental man throwing a plantain at Pierre Emerich, I know that wasn’t your intent. I have a feeling that banana skins of your intended variety result directly from players being unclear on their roles, poorly prepared, unsure of the tactics the team is to play and insufficiently well motivated before they take the field. None of these are characteristics I associate with an Arteta team.
Just keep winning, Arsenal.
I have a PhD in Beano Studies, CER and can assist you with your DC Thompson inspired dilemma.
Jeremy Snodgrass was one of the may ‘softies’ that Dennis the Menace (often accompanied by his dog Gnasher) would beat up frequently. Jeremy never quite reached the heights of softy fame achieved by ‘Softy Walter’ (Walter Brown) who had the sad misfortune to live right next door to Dennis, but suffered badly nevertheless.
Who’s saying UK taxpayer money invested to fund my studies wasn’t money well spent now, eh?
BtM,
Well played Sir. I for one am grateful that in days gone past state funding for Beano Studies was in place. One only has to see the cultural impact that has had in terms of this august organ to realise the societal value of free tertiary education in ye olden days. Ahh, sic transit gloria mundi……
Thanks all, especially Clive for your very kind and complimentary rating.
Although, much like Christopher Guest in Spinal Tap, I had hoped to “turn it up to 11” 😉
I’m hearing that Bale is currently injured and may not be fit for a month . Can this be true?😃
Btm/ CER
After strong encouragement from his grandparents one of my grandsons is a Beano aficionado and is kind enough to save them for his grandad . I’ve no academic qualification but have earned my Beano badge through the hard yards and sheer graft . A British classic
the rarely spotted Kieran Gibbs
is starting for WBA today.
Iwobi on a bench that Feo didn’t
make.
Well the rarely spotted Gibbs was
playing but just got sent off with
his manager following him off at
half time for being irate with the
twattish Dean.
Twattish Dean making sure it’s all about him again?
Well played, bt8,
A decent preview requires a considerable amount of research, or an extremely keen memory, hence my own preference for the former where football teams, players, years etc are concerned. Am I Aline in finding this so difficult despite having attended so many hundreds of games over too many decades ?
Personally I very much favour a team along the lines of your more adventurous second selection, especially against inferior teams on our own ground. My own preference, of course and quite rightly, matters not one jot, and I’m more than happy with whichever selections Arteta makes after our quite miraculous transformation from a mere eight months ago.
No fans in the stadium again today, of course, a great pity for Arsenal supporters, but it will also mean no Numskulls following the ‘Ammers, which may or may not please the Beano aficionados 😳
Score ? They always seem to manage one against us so I’m happy with the 5-1 prediction above 👍🏻
As others said, supremely enjoyable preview.
Your optimism surely tells us how far we have come since Mikel’s appointment that even though exuberant the prediction may sound unrealistic it is not. I have a feeling Mikel’s old “gaffer” will do his very best to make sure he is not humiliated by his erstwhile pupil and lose his job in the process. I will expect a difficult to break down performance from the hammers and a 2-0 kind of win for us.
Who will start? Possibly the same line-up as Fulham and those disappointed will get a chance to stake their claims in a barnstorming performance mid-week against Leicester. But that’s getting ahead of ourselves.
Aubameyang to score one maybe one of the subs — Eddie? Pepe? — to get one let in the game.
I will be delighted to be proven wrong and a 4-0 victory will be lovely!!
Faustus, you of course are correct about the Arteta-Moyes connection, which had completely slipped my mind. They, Leighton Baines and one or two others were the most prominent figures of a very good Everton side of a dozen or so years ago, and it would be interesting to hear from Mikel as to what role Moyes played in his development as player and prenascent coach. Thanks for pointing it out, but I’ll be looking at it as another opportunity for pupil to note back at his master.
That would be to bite back at his master.
Everton looking very dangerous with James Rodríguez pulling the strings, as if it were the World Cup of 6-odd years ago all over again.
As optimistic a preview as it was well-researched, bt8. We’ve only once scored five in a game against West Ham, the 5-1 home victory in January 2013 with LJW and Kieran Gibbs in the team (and Mark Noble in the vistors’). Giroud, with a brace, Podolksi, Cazorla and Walcott were the scorers that day after Jack Collinson had given them the lead.
I suspect Moyes will set up to frustrate. It could well be a 2-1.
As for selection, I will punt that David Luiz will play centre CB with Gabriel to his left and Tierney pushed up to left-wing back with AMN rested for Tuesday to prep his pocket for Vardy. Otherwise the Fulham team but with Saka and Pepe coming on relatively early, especially if the game seems well in hand.
Ned
I’m not sure that either Leicester or Arsenal will start very strong sides on Tuesday . I’m not sure Leicester will want to overwork work a 33 yo who is their main attacking threat . I’m pretty certain Arteta will ring the changes
As quoted by Arseblog, Arteta on Moyes in yesterday’s press conference, which I obviously had not seen:
“Well they have many strengths and some weaknesses, like we all have. I know David, the manager, really well and I know what he will be trying to do tomorrow to hurt us as well. It will be a tough game and I am expecting a difficult battle tomorrow.“
TTG @no. 10 – glad to hear of your Beano badge from the University of Life – toughest of all to graduate from………
Fulham getting whacked at
Leeds. First time I’ve watched
Leeds. Pretty much as advertised,
good football going forward with
some iffy defending. 4-2 so far but
still 25 minutes to go
Fulham have fought back to
4-3 from 4-1 down. Leeds
clinging on in an entertaining
game
Cheers Bt8!
Leno
Bellerin
Gabriel
Holding
Tierney
Xhaka
Ceballos
Saka
Willian
Aubameyang (c)
Lacazette
Bench: Macey, Maitland-Niles, Pepe, David Luiz, Elneny, Nketiah, Kolasinac
No Reiss Nelson, Ozil or Guendouzi
Saliba, Cedric, Torreira and Willock also among the missing not in acation.
Two changes then. It would have been
hard on Elneny and AMN to not even
make the bench
But Dani and Saka give us more attacking
potential
You are as confident in your fine preview as Wenger used to be about our attacking prowess in the good old days, Bt8. I will take any victory so long it is accompanied by a clean sheet.
Arteta must have learnt about the defensive aspects of the game from Moyes. Today we will be up against a parked bus with Antonio, a Anderson and Haller hoping to nick one on the counter. Not sure if Xhaka has completely from the knock he picked up last week. If he hasn’t we will see Elneny and Ceballos in the midfield. Hope Xhaka is fit to start. A game to look forward to.
Thanks NBN for the team news. Good to see Xhaka and Saka start. Look forward to Ceballos’s performance after former Spurs manager Tim Sherwood claimed that Ceballos was our weak Link in the midfield and he would be found out this season.
Ned
Saliba played last night and Torreira is on his way out . I find it interesting that Nelson hasn’t made the bench. Last week I mentioned the rumour re Zaha although Zaha’s fee may have gone up tonight! Not sure if we don’t play Pepe that we’d play Zaha!
I think we’ve picked Saka because we expect to attack more tonight AMN is possibly a better defensive option
Is that a back four with Saka playing in a MF creative role or a back three with Hector and Saka as wing backs?
Enjoyed the warm up match at
Old Toilet. Hopefully that’s the
only surprise today
COYGS!!
Was that a come-and-get-me performance from Zaha at OT?
Bale won’t play for S***s until 17th October minimum. That’s his 31st injury since he left them. That’s a million and a half quid they’ve wasted on the loan !
btm@32: My guess is we will see a lot of that fluid back four when attacking, back three-cum-five when defending that Arteta deployed against Fulham.
Btm
Good question.
We have three centre backs playing but Saka is much more creative going forward than AMN and possibly we will morph from a five to a four when attacking .Glad to see Ceballos back
I fancy Willian to score tonight
The latter I suspecr, BtM though we can morph as we did last week.
Will be interesting to see how Saka plays his wing-back role. AMN was good at tucking into the midfield against Fulham when we were transitioning to attack. Saka naturally likes to play wider (and is a better crosser than AMN, though AMN is no slouch in that regard). But Arteta will expect him to be disciplined to keep the triangles properly balanced. I am sure we shall see a lot of our attacks coming down the left-hand side with Saka and Tierney looking to get behind the West Ham defence and Auba cutting in. Another of those right foot curlers just inside the far post wouldn’t go amiss from him today.
love the rose-tinted optimism, bt8. and not far off your team guess. i’d like to see xhaka, willian and dani in the midfield, and saka up front with laca and auba, running a diamond. but i’m guessing it’s as ned and ttg called it. 3-1 to the arsenal will do me fine, either of your punts as well.
COYG!!
KT out. Kola in. Warm up injury.
Not good news about Tierney.
Tierney injured in warm-up
Replaced by Kolasinac not Luiz or AMN .Interesting !
Big blow both offensively and defensively.
Shit. Faltering Fullback.
Bugger.
I assume Kola in as he can
provide some overlap on the
left but the side is not as well-
balanced now
kola? what?
COYG!!
Joe W back to the bench with
KT injury
holding, xhaka, saka. that’s all the slop, i hope.
Shoot FFS!
Shit first fifteen minutes for us as our passing has been atrocious and has let us down. Hammers playing with confidence but early days yet. COYG.
playing like strangers
arsenal are having a potlach.
Disjointed.
beautiful!
Was it offside? No, it is a goal for Laca!!!!
lovely pass from saka to auba.
That was close but get in!!!
oh, i got the half ton. cool!
Decent chance for Saka
holding does well there.
Well in Scruzgooner.
Shit. Antonio scores just before half time. 1-1.
gah.
Classic example of how not to play left back.
I hate giving away goals just
before half time.
A half to forget in all honesty,
the passing was so poor
BTM knows
Worryingly, Tierney has injured his hip, which is the injury he arrived at the club with. Could be the proverbial three weeks.
The loss of Tierney has really affected the side. Kola looks all at sea and neither midfielder looks comfortable. I see Pepe having a role to play here
Picking Kola out for the goal
is a bit harsh, we were slow
across the back line.
Dani and Xhaka’s passing has
been poor and the shape looks
wrong – I’d like Willian to stay
wider
Pepe for Xhaka, TTG? I know what you’re thinking 🙂
The Bash Street Kids would run rings around Kola, wouldn’t they?
Pepe did well against Wham last year. Maybe a match winning performance from the bench?
Matt.
Kola backs off and backs off.
And then backs off a bit more.
Then he makes a late challenge.
Classic Kola.
Hopefully MA can sort things out
at half time. COYGs!!
Both Saka and Bellerin were in the opposing third when they scored. Some things about our play haven’t changed. There is no fluidity or penetration going forward and defensively we looked vulnerable especially since we gave the ball away so much.
Lucky VAR did not award a penalty against us off a handball by Gabriel in our penalty area. otherwise we would have been in a deeper hole.
Three defenders back and that should easily have been enough, ksn.
That was never a penalty. No one thought it was.
We almost conceded. Playing uncharacteristically poor defensively. The game is not a walkover almost everyone assumed.
BtM, the commentators thought otherwise, especially Wrighty who thought it was a penalty.
Got to say that West Ham are playing very confidently and passing the ball around nicely.
Boring as old arseholes, this.
Willian off, Pepe on.
Surprised to see Willian go off. He’s looked good. Laca tiring.
TTG’s prediction is on the cards.
Concerning to see the Spammers running around Rob Holding with some ease.
Like your comments.
Fumbalaya from Leno.
Right on, Cynic. Anyone would thing Arsenal were playing in blue. We have been poor, sorry to say. We are really shaky and almost conceded again.
Eddie!!!!
Luiz coming on for Saka.
Ceballos and Nketiah mentioned in the same sentence in the preview but not to combine like that! COYG
I’ll take that, sigh of temporary
relief.
come on lads!!
whew.
saka motm. eddie, well done.
Three points. We had a very bad day on the pitch but still found a way to win. That is what champions do.
Finding a way to win when at far from your best is a very worthy quality. Not all wins need to be pretty. No pictures on the scorecard.
An entertaining and very hard fought contest. Two excellent goals to counter a poorly defended return by the Hammers.Tierney’s absence had a significant unbalancing impact, particularly at such short notice.
Kudos to Ceballos for his work rate and commitment tonight. Kudos to Auba for being Auba.
Pity about the sewage spilling from the gutter though. Usual source.
Onward and upward. 6 points from a possible six.
Three points. Quite similar to
the pre lockdown game really.
Saka and Dani combined well
to make the winner.
cynic, no matter what’s addressed to you, responding with a personal insult is out of order. don’t go there.
But let’s all head towards a century!
Shoves Antonio off the ball and watches in disbelief as Michael Oliver lets me get away with the same trick Antonio has been doing all game.
Hoofs it forwards to…
A very Manchester United type win except they would have been given a penalty . Moyes set his team up well and they are much better than they showed last week. We are an accident waiting to happen at set pieces and our midfield isn’t mobile enough and we don’t dominate teams physically and do very past them . We fartarse around and pass back and sideways more than we pass forward .
On the credit side I thought Laca was good, Auba worked hard and Saka made a difference with his vision . Kolasinac and Holding weren’t good although I thought Gabriel showed more promise . Can we have Emi back please?
disappointed in holding today, ttg. not up to what is needed. hopefully just an off game.
Eddie looked sharp as a tack (attack, geddit?) when he came on.
He replaced Laca, a 29 year old former international who has had a much more impressive career and who had scored the first goal, his second in two games. Yet when the final whistle blew Laca came on to the pitch with a big smile, calling ‘Eddie, Eddie!’ to congratulate the younger man and big him up for his winning goal.
They are playing for each other and working for each other. That bodes very well.
UTA!
Eddie and Danny had a tiff before the last game. This game Danny set Eddie up for the winner.
I like how they use their frustration!
Bang
We will be much better against Liverpool. AMN for Kola if Tierney is out. The rest should be fine. COYG!
As BtM said above, you’ve got to be able to sclaff out a win when you’re off the boil.
Souness said we got out of jail tonight and he’s not wrong. Too many players were below par and Wet Spam gave us the run around for the first 15 minutes of the first half and the first 20-25 of the second. The late loss of KT certainly unbalanced the left side both offensively and defensively. Kola was awful but I thought Holding was nearly as bad (Antonio gave him a torrid time) and he was probably the most culpable for their goal though several players were poor in that build up. Ceballos had a mare in the first half but redeemed himself in the build up to our winner.
Good work from Saka, Lacazette, Auba and Gabriel and late on from Eddie. All 7/10. 5/10 all the rest except Kola and Holding who get 3 and 4 respectively. Yet we won. So happy days continue. Lots of work still required, as MA8 knows.
Spot on Bath, exactly the way I saw it . GSD picked out the team spirit and togetherness but it’s easy to be like that when you win .
We must get these two midfield lads in and I think our best back three will ultimately be Saliba , Luiz and Gabriel although Mari may have a shout . I love Rob Holdingbas a lad but he is not quick enough and he was gash tonight . Kolasinac is anxious to get back to Germany. Don’t let’s delay him . Let’s hope the Tierney withdrawal was precautionary. He is a big influence in the team now . Ceballos was very leggy and as for the other fella in midfield I won’t start again! He is just soooo ordinary
They go together TTG.
Togetherness helps you win. And vice versa.
And, TTG, if Mari has a shout for later this season, age is on his side for the coming years.
I think next year when Luiz is gone Mari will replace him. Mari is a great reader of the game. Good passer. Very calm.
I would dearly love to see us sign a Partey type player. (Or, just, y’know, Partey). And an Aouar type player. (Or, just, y’know, Aouar)
We need both.
But on the back of today’s game i am shifting my opinion. If I could get only one it would be Aouar. We need a guy who can turn quickly on the ball and accelerate upfield. We are too slow in transition and we will play more teams in the league where that is the bigger problem than our lack of defensive protection.
Tierney badly missed, as noted by many in the bar. Kola isn’t the short- or long-term replacement. We need a back-up for KT. Saka can do duty at full back or wing back if needed but not as the left-side CB. None of Ballard, Clarke and McGuiness is left-footed Bola seems the only candidate among the U23s. He got some minutes in the pre-season friendlies, so he might get a run-out in the cup games.
Our passing was woeful in the first quarter of an hour, which let West Ham get an early grip on the game that took a while to prise loose. We won’t get away with it against Liverpool.
I dunno Ned.
We have AMN and Saka who can play LWB. Our current issue is that we need Tierney to play LCB. But when we have a fully fit Mari, coupled with Gabriel, and Luiz who can take his central place (plus atm Holding, Sokratis and Mustafi) I think we are well stocked.
If we play three at the back then Mari plays on the left and KT is wing back. No need to spend on anyone else when we have Xhaka and Elneny as two of our first three midfielders.
Just wondering, do the monks (or their rival, the cantor) know our average points haul at the end of the season after taking maximum points from our first two games?
Q. Where does £940m-odd in signings since 2013 get you?
A. In Manchester United’s case, 16th place in the table.
That’s counting £850m through 24 January 2020 for transfers listed in the talksport article, plus more than £90m since then for Donny van de Beek (£34m), Odion Ighalo (loan, £7m) and Bruno Fernandes £50m, the last three figures according to transfermarkt
Jadon Sancho?
@108 Ned
According to MA, the first 15 minutes were
the worse we’ve played since he got here.
Giving the ball away under no pressure
is just a no but there were several
culprits. A bad performance but 3
points so my Sunday morning coffee
is not too bitter 😃
Also playing Saka in front of KT
can work in a three I think but if
we’re forced to play Kola then it’s
better to have AMN in front of him.
I don’t see AMN behind Saka as a
solution there either, too small
defensively and teams will overload
us on that side.
Rob had a tough day on the right but
Antonio has been playing well for the
last few months now and was always
going to be a handful.
A tough run of PL games coming and
my fingers are crossed for KT’s hips and
no setbacks in Mari’s return.
And please Dennis, reinforcements in CM
Tierney’s hip problem doesn’t appear too serious according to Arteta and he was pulled out as a precaution. Matt makes a very good point about Antonio . He is a real handful on his day and one to consider for the Fantasy Leaguers among us . Certainly he is immensely strong . Let us hope we can move in the surplus players this week
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