“Pepe prepares to face Eric Dier”
Every season, this is the biggest game we play.
Before the fixture list is out, if you asked me which is the one match I most wanted to win, it would be Spuds at home, every time.
Furthermore, it is also the match I most hate to lose. Getting turned over at our own ground, against any incarnation of the shower from the wrong end of Seven Sisters Road, is one of the worst things in my footballing experience. I detest that feeling.
It must be avoided at all costs.
First, a quick recap of how we got here… an unfortunate situation against Brentford led to a gloomy loss, followed by two predictable losses against top sides. Since then, we have won one-nil twice. And we’ve won a couple of League Cup matches along the way. For me, the Brentford game is the only unexpected result in there (although I would never consider the away game at Burnley a banker for this team!)
This match against our old rivals could go either way, we have not seen enough of our new look side to know how they will approach this one. Of course, if it goes to the good guys, then we will all be feeling a lot better when we look at the league table on Sunday evening.
However, as we get Partey back, introduce Tomi, White, Ramsdale, Lokonga (and Odegaard) into regular first team duties, and generally look to reshape our team and the way it plays, I am not sure how much we will learn about our prospects from this one-off game. We will need longer to evaluate where this team is headed this season.
And I think that is a great thing to focus on… Amid all the varying opinions about the manager, the executives, the owners (maybe there are less varied opinions about the Kroenkes, heh) and where the team is going, perhaps sometimes we spend too long worrying about the big picture?
I’m going to take this derby as a one-off, on its own merits.
All I want to see from our lads on Sunday is full commitment. The new boys will have been told about this one and I want to see them give everything they have against the worst club in football. I don’t care if it ain’t pretty. I don’t care about the evolution of the team, the tactical nuances of Arteta vs Nuno, or how scrappy our goals are. I just want us to win. By any means necessary. Just win.
Personally, I am sick to the back teeth of the constant drama at our club.
Its like a soap opera. I suppose that’s why we make such an effort to teach all our young foreign players to speak like they want roles on EastEnders.
Seriously though, there are so many different voices, all talking at cross purposes, and I (as a long-time regular in Dave’s bar) am finding it hard to feel connected to those Arsenal fans who express their views without a level of respect for fellow fans. Add this to the untold waves of biased, agenda-driven tripe that the wider media, in all its glorious forms, is heaping down upon our beleaguered fandom, and the current existential crisis of our club does seem to have outrun the focus on the, you know, actual football.
I do not want to get into the rights and wrongs of that. Everyone has their opinion. And opinions are like noses – everybody has one, and everybody picks their own.
I just want to observe that there is nothing to galvanise a fanbase, a club, and bring everyone into unity, like the marshdwellers leaving their own Toilet Stadium and squelching their way over to our place with plans to take a result back to the sewers. For a couple of hours on Sunday we can tune out all the noise around the club and make some noise cheering on The Arsenal as we go toe to toe with the chicken-basketball worshipping servants of evil.
In his presser, Arteta made a distinction between fans and supporters. I guess he is just saying that it is important we all get behind our team. He is right that the supporters in the stadiums (home and away) have been absolutely stellar recently. They have led by example.
I am really up for this, because we need to be pulling together, and on Sunday we all will be. Every Gooner, everywhere, without exception, will be willing us on for a victory we could really do with. There is nothing like a North London Derby to remind us of our club motto.
The Arsenal
Ramsdale
Tomiyasu – White – Gabriel – Tierney
Partey – Lokonga
Pepe – Odegaard – Saka
Auba
Unusually, everyone is fit and available for selection. That almost never happens.
I can’t see Leno back in for this one. I think the jersey is Ramsdale’s to lose and I am happy with that. The back four picks itself. I think Arteta will partner Lokonga with Partey to add some extra stability, although he could play ESR instead, with a dual role for Odegaard and the Croyden de Bruyne. Pepe might be on the bench for ESR anyway, but I am plumping for Pepe to be the Agent Of Chaos tasked with pegging Reguilon back.
Xhaka is available to start. I will support him if he does. I hope he does not. The holics’ pound assumes that he won’t start. If he does then I will be less confident.
Sometimes last season it was hard to be certain of more than about five players in the starting lineup. I hope we continue with a more settled eight or nine guys in the league, with adjustments being measured and fluid, rather than wholesale and jarring.
The Scum
I hate this bit. I don’t care about their team, or their tactics, or anything to do with them, really. But this is a preview, and some of the learned patrons of this bar will doubtless have thoughtful contributions to make about how we might setup to counter the threats posed by a team that we absolutely cannot lose to.
So, since I can’t just say that we should do a Tuchel (bring on Kante at half-time to win us the game) I suppose I’ll do a bit of research and see what they have been up to since the ironically named Senor Espirito Santo began leading the hordes of darkness.
* Give me a minute. Talk amongst yourselves. *
Well, I feel somewhat dirty. Don’t say I don’t go into bat for you lot. After a rummage through the muck, it turns out they won three without conceding a goal, and then lost 3-0 twice, to Chelski and to a Crystal Palace side who cast them out like the snakes they are. Top coaching from St. Patrick, that.
They are playing a 4-3-3 that morphs into a 4-3-2-1. Kane will not necessarily start highest up the pitch, that may be Son. Both are dangerous and Kane would love to kick-start his season with a goal against us.
Hojberg, Alli and Ndombele may start in midfield. I’d prefer to play against Harry Winks, but there is nothing to be afraid of either way.
The French chap captains them and keeps goal. New signing Emerson Royal will play at right-back, so we will all be hoping Tomi comes out looking much the better player. Reguilon will be left back. Good player, but very annoying (ditto Hojberg). Romero partners Eric Dier at CB. I dearly hope Dier has one of those days of his where he looks like he’d get subbed off on Hackney Marshes.
Apparently, they have not created many chances but have finished well, whereas we are the other way round.
And that’s all I have to say about that.
The holics’ pound
For my first prediction of the season, I am going to go with the underlying stats, which say Spurs are not creating many chances, and with Aaron Ramsdale’s bloody-minded determination not to concede his first goal in our colours against this disgrace of players (if anyone has better suggestions for the appropriate collective noun for Spuds players then please let them loose in the drinks.)
So, having decided Spurs won’t score… how many do I think we will manage?
Well, a classic 1-0 to The Arsenal is available at around a predictably meagre 7s. That would be a hat-trick of 1-0 wins for us.
A 3-0 thumping can be had at 1/20 to 1/25, depending on where you shop for it. That would be a hat-trick of 3-0 defeats for them.
However, the money is going down the middle. 2-0 to The Arsenal is available at around 11/1, and goes up to around 20/1 if you put Auba down to score one of them.
Wherever you are on Sunday, I wish you all the best.
And when the match rolls round and you are screaming our lads on, in the stadium, the pub, your own lounge, or anywhere else, then I, and all the other Gooners around the world, will be screaming along with you.
Victoria Concordia Crescit
Lovely preview GSD. A combination of heart and head. For the first time this season I won’t be in my place tomorrow, nor will I be making the journey to Brighton next weekend. We booked a holiday last February which begins today. You can imagine my feelings when the fixtures came out and I saw that I would miss the NLD.
Typical top-notch GSD . A very good and a fair preview notwithstanding the fact we have no wish to be fair to the Spuds.
I think your side is right, your reasoning right and I’d love to see us establish some real momentum through this game . It’s a coming of age for some of our new lads . May they see it through gloriously tomorrow
Great preview and team selection, GSD.
And you captured the mood just right.
COYG
Cracking preview thanks GSD.
Happy with your holic pound too
– may you be quids in
Nice one, GSD. I like your selection and your bet though I do expect Arteta to start Xhaka and I personally would start ESR before Pepe or indeed Saka. Of late, all good things have required the presence of ESR.
You’ve fired me up, GSD. Excellent preview.
Brave call to drop ESR.
I would hope Arteta would go full future and play 4-3-3 with Ødegaard alongside Partey and ESR behind Saka, Auba and Pepe. But I suspect his conservative streak will assert itself for this game and he will start with your 4-2-3-1 but with Xhaka in place of Lokonga, to inject NLD experience, and ESR playing on the left of the 3 with Saka on the right and Pepe dropping to the bench.
I would play Arteta himself before Xhaka. Don’t laugh. Have you noticed how the club’s videos are more and more showing Arteta participating in the training sessions?
A swashbuckling, invigorating, high quality preview GSD! Let’s hope the team picks up on these themes …
I am with Ned in hoping to see a 4-3-3 with Partey – Ødegaard – ESR in the midfield. Go at them at high intensity with pressing from the front.
But I also share everyone’s hunch that Mikel will go for experience in this match. Laca has a record of playing well in this fixture and won’t be surprised to see the old Auba-Laca-Pépé frontline, Partey-Xhaka-Martin midfield and Saka and ESR brought on in the second half. Not at all our best team but won’t be surprised to see Mikel fall back on that.
Play well and win this match convincingly and that will give the team a huge impetus … the 5-2 win in Mikel’s first home NLD came when our season was spiraling out after that 4-0 loss at Milan and FA cup exit but following the win team went on a run to move past the spuds on the league table and finish the season securing CL spot.
All you dedicated subscribers to The Athletic might like to know you can buy it for upwards of $750 million. It has hired the investment bank LionTree to seek a buyer at that price after its attempts to sell itself to the New York Times and another US media company, Axios, both collapsed.
Same old, same old, I’m afraid. Get off the fence, why don’t you GSD? Tell me, what do you think of Tottenham?
On more serious note, whisper it, if we beat that shower by two goals, we go above them in the table – and not before time!
Because I’m a genuinely nice bloke who doesn’t like to see other fans suffer (provided they don’t support ManYoo) I hope the Swampies see an improvement over recent results and go for 2-0 to the Arse.
COYG.
I hope we give them a proper doing, as the Ryder Cup debacle has somewhat ruined my weekend.
Although after five years of doing nothing, the master of mash ups uploaded this on the quiet over a year ago and it has cheered my moany bones up, despite the presence of Madonna.
Ticket sold on the Exchange I’m still taking a cautious approach to live matches .
I noticed our U23s drew at the Etihad today 2-2. And our problems at Brentford look more explicable given their quality and the impact of a Covid outbreak just before the match
Blogs writes: “There is one way of making sure Xhaka doesn’t get sent off tomorrow, and that’s not picking him, and let me state for the record I’d be fine with that.”
Amen, brother.
TTG@11: There is some quality at Brentford but I expect their bright start to fade as the season wears on. Bottom-half finish, although never seriously at risk of relegation. Next season, I expect them to consolidate into a mid-table side.
Nice one GSD !
I Like your team – Saka, Pepe, ESR – someone has to give way but that’s what happens when you start to increase real quality in the squad.
Hopefully there will be no place for Xhaka as I have no desire to see another duel between Kane and not very Able.
Oh come on- someone had to 😏
Excellent preview, GSD.
And in answer to your question: A Detritus of Spurs players?
Excellent preview, thanks GSD,
I love your team selection, it would be a brave and bold approach. A Partey/Xhaka pair in midfield could work but I prefer Sambi.
The front three could be Saka-Laca-Auba and Pepe comes on later.
COYG
Cheers everyone.
It’s a big day. The first derby with fans for a while…
UTA!
GSD, a collective noun for Spurs players ?
Well, the collective noun for a group of collective nouns is a cacophony. It’s a fairly short step from there to a Cockoffany for a group of spuds …? 😳
Cheers GSD, that’s a first rate preview befitting of a NL derby. I would go along with your team selection but expect we will be xakhared at some time. Just win – performance secondary in this match.
COYG
Cynic@10÷ thanks for the mash up, it made my day. Even my son loved it. We danced in the kitchen. 🙂
Shouldn’t the collective noun for the neighbours be a defecation?
I like CER’s effort, although personally I think Ned is leading the way with a ‘defecation’ of Spuds players. That’s very good.
A travesty of Spuds?
Arsenal: Ramsdale, Tomiyasu, Gabriel, White, Tierney, Partey, Xhaka, Saka, Odegaard, Smith Rowe, Aubameyang.
Subs: Leno, Holding, Cedric, Tavares, Lokonga, Maitland-Niles, Martinelli, Pepe, Lacazette
Cheers, GSD. A sad sack of Spuds would be an alternative.
Looks like conservative Arteta has won out over full-forward Arteta with that team selection. If it is a one-off and we win today, I can live with that.
For me, it’s just Xhaka in midfield I don’t like. But that’s been done to death, so let’s see how it goes, and I hope he has a great game today.
COYG!
Let’s go Arsenal!
The team is more or less as expected. Let’s get Auba on the ball in and around the opposition penalty box.
COYGs!!!
I am giddy!!
and we’re arrrrrrsenal, arrrrrsenal fc!
Great start, all over them
nice stop aaron.
we are relaxing too much. though i dare say we can’t keep that intensity up for 90 mins.
One-nil to The Arswnal, slick passing Ode-Saka-ESR-goal 🙂
COYG
wooooooooooooooooo!
now 2!
Thierry Henry tribute celebration from Auba. Loving this.
Nicely played Xhaka
Let’s do this!!
Get in B
Keep hammering them boys
Arteta ball!!
buuuuuukaaaaayoooooo! 3-0
ma8 knows the score.
We needed a wee bit of luck, though. A Hjolberg miscontrol
i love it was kane standing on the ball that led directly to our third.
Great attacking play, what a day to click up front
whattaya think of tottenumb???
We just need to keep this on the 2nd half.
We have improved the GD, and also overtaken the spuds.
1 or 2 more would not hurt 😁. I’d love a clean sheet tonight.
Shit!!!!
Waddaya think of shit?
Ledley King is so depressed he sounds like he’s been put on at the wrong speed.
tottenumb!
Pfffff….what a play from Saka and ESR… I love our attacking play. Everything just clicks
ramsdale is a boss.
Got away with one, it’s all coming
up The Arsenal
kt3 has been quiet, but excellent.
It’s time to make some changes. Sambi or AMN for Xhaka and Pepe for Saka
Happy Day😀
Result was everything
Get the fuck in!
Fuck off you Spurs!
Nah Matt.
Result would have been everything… if we had got a result playing poorly.
But we played some top stuff. Our new signings look to be players Mikel can build a team around. Tomi, in particular, I think will add incredible balance to this side. I think he might prove to be an inspired signing, and I’m already in love with his attitude.
I have made the point a couple of times – but I wanna make it again…
We had a revolutionary manager in Arsene that caused us to coin the phrase ‘Wengerball’. Now we, as Gooners, seem to think it appropriate to tack ‘ball’ at the end of any manager’s name, in reference to their general style of play.
This shits all over the point of ‘Wengerball’. His teams did something none of us had ever seen Arsenal players do before. And that teams emulated probably until until Pep reinvented the football landscape. It was relevant to coin the term ‘Wengerball’ because it was unlike football as we knew it!
It is lazy and meaningless to talk about ‘Emeryball’ or ‘Artetaball’ unless you are genuinely talking about the total vision a coach has of how football should be played. So, personally, I have disagreed with every single comment about the nature of ‘Artetaball’. They are all bullshit.
The guy has been trying his best to work with what he has. He has made a bunch of mistakes. I’m not saying he is golden. Cos he bloody well ain’t.
But what I am saying is that we have not seen anything like his perfect vision of a team. Or anything we could call ‘Artetaball’. And today was a good reminder that he likes to play attacking football that blows teams away.
Can we do it more regularly? That’s on him to lead the way….
Enjoyed that!
Well played Arsenal!
The world seems such a better place when we win an NLD.
Will just let the win soak in for now.
The atmosphere at the stadium seemed first rate.
ESR on post-match interview just said that’s the best day of his life. 😂
Ødegaard-Saka-ESR in the first half were phenomenal together. Martin’s understanding of the game is already world class.
Great stuff by Partey, Auba, Tomi and Ramsdale with that unbelievable save.
Esso – Saka and Emile Smith Rowe!
You knows it!
Now we, as Gooners, seem to think it appropriate to tack ‘ball’ at the end of any manager’s name, in reference to their general style of play.
God, I hope we give the job to Chris Beech some day.
Or Neil Cox.
Or, for the more middle class amongst us, Nicky Mellon.
I meant Mickey Mellon, obviously…
Or give the job to David Seaman.
I like it, I like it, I like it, I la la like it, I like la la like it
Here we go – SAKA AND EMILE SMITH ROW
Such a shame that Alan Ball is not still with us…..
Determined, disciplined peeformance. Slick passing, and great result.
Very well done.
Of course the ideal manager for those with a dirty mind is Heiko Herrlich
>>>>>>>>>>>>>