Very impressive.

He was marshalled will in the first half, barely had a kick. But second half he was good, held it up well and showed a good level of pace, athleticism and directness.
My main concern with him is when you see a lot of his goals he’s got a lot of space to run in to, would he get that with us? But then when you see what he did to create that chance all by himself at the end that’s the kind of thing that would make me excited by him. Like an X factor where a player can pick the ball up and no one considers there to be any danger but they can fashion danger, a chance, a goal from their own individual ability.

Barney Ronay of the Guardian in good form:

"If Martin Ødegaard were to cook you a seven-course taster lunch, which he would probably do really well, in crisp and unstained chef’s pinafore, he would also insist on scrubbing the pans in between courses while expertly controlling all the lights and music."

"For Chelsea, Marc Cucurella dealt with Bukayo Saka very well, a constant pestering presence, hair flying, like being marked by a thickly matted patch of seaweed."

The XG stat is pretty amazing: Sporting CP 0.97 Arsenal 4.23

I would have thought that Sporting's XG would be higher, as Sporting had plenty of shots and Raya had to make some good saves in the second half and they hit the post.

What this shows is that while they carried some threat, they hardly ever cut us open.. They had lots of shots (some of them extremely good ones that troubled Raya) but mostly from low XG positions, rather than high XG chances. We by contrast had much better chances.

Sportings XG per shot was 0.05, whereas ours was 0.30. Quite a telling stat, and very characteristic of an on form Arsenal!

I hope the Spurs impersonation continues!

David Coote facing fresh allegations over text messages where it appears that he deliberately yellow carded a player(s) so his friends could win money by gambling on that event.

Nothing proven

Big win for the position in the group. We’re 7th with 10 points, our GD keeping us in the top 8. 2 home games up next has put us in a really strong position to make the top 8. Many people say 16 points ‘should’ get you top 8. 10 points, 2 home games to come - it would be lovely to seal top 8 with a game to spare but just because of the quantity of teams it seems unlikely that many teams will be able to effectively throw the last game

Sporting’s record this season in the league and CL before playing us was played 19, won 18, drawn 1, and only 9 goals conceded.

Arteta would have loved the first goal as I think it’s straight out of his plan A coaching manual. Right sided overload to create a 5v4, all 3 of our Central Midfielders are on the right side, plus Saka and Timber. Play it around them with the extra man then find the killer ball across for the tap in.
Calafiori also well tucked in to a central area to protect any counter attack if we lose it. Teams are allowed to counter us in wide channels but the 3-2-5 formation stops counters through the centre. Counters out wide can be slowed down as our players race back to cover

Funny but as we were walking away from the ground Saturday a mate said he didn’t think Timber actually had a good game and needs to do more which in a 3 nil win is surprising. I disagreed but on reflection I do think we look a bit flakier down that side in recent games without white if I’m honest Timbers obviously great on the ball but they seemed to be playing their out ball down our right to Awoniyi maybe they didn’t fancy him against the huge Italian Ricky left and it might be a coincidence but that could have bore fruit.

I think if everyone’s fit and if it’s a key game at Anfield or etihad say White starts and Timber sits the bench. Just look more solid but it’s a nice problem to have.

A bigger problem is what happens for the next 3 months in Blancos absence. Timber will need a rest at some point and you don’t want to move Partey. I suppose we have Tomiyasu but he can’t stay fit either. I do wonder if you might see a young prodigy type player come in that position in January to make sure there’s cover.

Blimey. What next. He’s going to be outed as the shooter on the grassy knoll near the Texas schoolbook depository isn’t he

He looks absolutely what we need. A protagonist who doesn’t need other players around him to add value. I’d possibly suggest he’s a better player than isaak. If you signed him it would also be like signing a new midfielder as Havertz can play anywhere. Loads of options. Will probably end up at united now.

Reminded me a bit of Shevchenko, for some reason.

Yes that’s a good comparison. Like a target man who can run and carry the ball. Suppose Rudd van Nistelroy is another similar style

After Spurs gave them a touch- up the other day Ange and him embraced. It’s like COVID : he’s passed it on. We will see how damaged their confidence is when they play Pool.

Man U fans up in arms as 'saviour' Jim Radcliffe hikes ticket prices mid-season in his efforts to cut costs and improve operational efficiency.

Careful what you wish for......

I read a few tactical blogs after the game and they pointed out that although we looked like we pressed quite aggressively we didn’t really have Gabriel backing up the press as he usually would if we’re super aggressive. We kept Gabriel back so he and Saliba could always be 2v1 against Gyökeres, it meant if Sporting played it right they could get their own 2v1 against Rice, but Arsenal funneled the play to Sporting’s left, particularly from goal kicks so this wasn’t exposed. It maybe showed the level of respect Arteta has for Gyökeres

I don't know, Rich. We scored after 7 minutes which gave us something to defend very early and had a second midway through the half. No need for a Gabriel press in that scenario.

Last night could actually be very significant. We have generally underperformed in Europe under Arteta. Yesterday was completely different. It felt like the team finally put in a PL level performance in a European game.

Excluding the league cup we’ve played 17 games this season. 11 of those have been
Villa away
Spurs away
Atalanta away
Man City away
Newcastle away
Inter away
Chelsea away
Sporting away
Brighton home
PSG home
Liverpool home

That’s an insane set of fixtures. Looking forward to the ‘easier’ schedule coming up in both league and CL

Last night made me think how new players like Calafiori feel. He was playing for Bologna before, not in European competition and now he’s at Arsenal beating Sporting 5-1 away. The step up is huge and the relisation that you’re part of an elite team must be amazing.

Similarly, and a feeling I can relate to, was what sporting fans felt when they are used to their team being so dominant domestically and doing well in Europe to be thoroughly beaten up by us and the realisation that you may be a good team but the leap to the real elite in Europe is a big one. Like I felt when we lost to Bayern 5-1

That’s nuts. Wonder how it works for their season ticket holders who have paid already ?

It can’t be easy to accommodate all the price increases plus their travel costs from Guildford every week.

Liverpool 5 wins out of 5 in the CL. Real Madrid down in 24th place.

Liverpool have had far easier fixtures than us I think.especially having their toughest games at home

They just beat Real Madrid, are top of the CL table, 8 points clear in the PL and have lost one game all season. It's a lot more than "easy" fixtures. We need City to beat them at the weekend....something they never do at Anfield.

Probably a smart idea to do it now in the middle of their winning streak to avoid anyone noticing.

For sure. But I'd settle for a draw. Another statement liverpool win and a 9 point gaps would start to feel scary.

Apart from the statement of beating RM, they now have the luxury of only needing 2 points from their last 3 CL games, including a home game against Lille.

We're in a good position in the CL, but its hard to figure the table out. There are a host of very good teams just behind us so it looks like it could be a bit of a cavalry charge in the last three rounds.

Perhaps, but I think Martinelli's contribution is underrated, especially off the ball. When we are overloading on the right, he's doing a great job both in attack (arriving at the far post) and defense, being prepared to cover any potential threat on his side. He and Calafiori are necessarily more low-key when we play like that the discipline they showed was admirable.

If they beat City, they will have beaten Europe's two best teams in the space of a few days. They are already full of confidence. Liverpool with their tails up are a serious force. In addition, they won't have the pressure of winning their first title in decades. A draw in that City game would be OK, but I really think we need Liverpool to lose a big game to dent them a bit.

As for the CL, the structure is weird. It all feels so random and without a return leg, the games have lost something.

Yes but in comparison to our fixtures they’ve all fallen very nicely for them. Madrid are bang out of form and were missing Vinicius, Rodyrgo, Tchoumeni, Militao, Carvahal, Alaba all from their best 11.

No doubt they are playing well, but I see chinks in their armour that I struggled to see with City in the last 2 years. Not much more could have gone right for them so far and not much else could have gone wrong for us so far - injuries, 3 terrible red cards, even just the Arsenal v Liverpool match in isolation everything possible went for them.

They don’t have control of their games like City did last year, their squad is similar to ours in that a couple of key injuries (Van Dijk, Salah) will really hurt them

Liverpool are W10 D1 L1, 31 points in the league, from the exact same set of fixtures for us last season (swapping out promoted/relegated teams) we achieved 31 points

The UK is going to be a total basket case in the future. Clowns to the left and jokers to the right

https://x.com/tahiralimp/status/1861765 ... 2SVs7ar8TQ

Martinelli has been far better in recent games. Getting in scoring positions, I think he looks better with the big Italian behind him

Starmer's response to this quite obvious call for a blasphemy law by any other name, was chilling. Desecration of Abrahamic texts was described by Starmer as "awful." What right as he, or Tahir Ali, to tell us that we have to respect a particular set of holy texts? Far from being awful, it is a great freedom that we have a well-established right in the UK to desecrate (disrespect) any writings, be they holy or not. You'd have hoped that such a highly qualified lawyer, and a son of an atheist, might have had the balls to put down such an undemocratic suggestion. Frighteningly he didn't.

It’s hardly chilling. Starmer brushed it off in the same way Cameron or Johnson would have if Peter Bone made some absurd far right suggestion. Surely he can’t agree with the desecration of different peoples religions. Also worth mentioning Labour introduced the law. However it is interesting to these loons on both sides talk utter *%^@

Maybe not worrying to those who are content with the return of blasphemy laws and the inevitable threat to freedom of thought and speech which that entails. If only Starmer had brushed it off - that would at least shown some strength and leadership. Instead he chose to acquiesce to a truly backward-looking idea that is being pushed by one part of his quickly decreasing voter base. Let us be clear, the suggestion is a new law under which desecration (i.e. the right to say or think what you like about a religion) would become a criminal offence. There is no such law at the moment, but with this PM don't count it out. As we are belatedly finding out more and more about the pernicious recording of non-crime hate incidents (250k of them over the past decade!) we surely have to be true to our Western liberal democratic view that no religions should have a special protection from the law, let alone just the three promoted by Tahir Ali.

No please count it out. I’ll save you the worry. This will never happen, not in my or your lifetimes. Actually it won’t happen in the lifetime of my kids either.

No party in their right mind or government would ever introduce this. Would unleash social unrest and play into the hands of the far right who obsess about this stuff. That doesn’t mean we can’t take the piss out of these loons on all sides.

Muani? Would make sense

https://www.caughtoffside.com/2024/11/2 ... -transfer/

At the right price, for sure. Muani might be a great player to bring on when we're ahead or when we play teams that press high. The question is, would he be what we need as a starting striker when we are playing how we want to play? There are question marks about his movement and link-up play, and his goalscoring record is so-so. Ideally I'd want a more instinctive finisher, like Gyökeres.

A traitor pandering to the American loons. Like I said both sides

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/ ... tion-limit

Hed be a better option than Jesus who hasn’t scored in the league since January, probably a temporary move but would fill a hole. However if Arteta used him like he’s used Sterling it would be pointless. I wouldn’t be shocked if Sterling had his loan cancelled in Januarys window and moved to another club for minutes.

That's the point. Sterling hasn't been given minutes as a striker let alone a start, even in a league cup game and even despite Jesus' complete lack of goals. So would a player like Muani fit into Arteta's thinking as a striker?