The Arsenal today in 1922 having a day off with an Aussie boxer.

But slightly above your level.

He played more times for us than Henri did. Pretty damning.

Going to manage my expectations for this match. Arteta can't play a full strength squad but has to try to win the game in earnest. I'm assuming it will be a low scoring match. Hopefully not a draw if replays are going to happen. I don't know that for a fact, the cup rules have changed over the years.

To be honest Bernard he wouldn't lose my support as I know he's just buying time until he can bring in more quality replacements.

Mikel has just come from City whose midfielders display energy and work rate than puts Xhaka in the shade. I trust Arteta on this one, he will know he's not the way forward. Also he hasn't been hurt by many of the players yet in his few games in charge if you know what I mean. Wait till mustafi jumps in with both feet in the box or Xhaka fails to track back or Özil starts putting in lethargic performances again and Arteta will feel the same frustrations we all have in recent seasons.

With the exception of Chelsea, the next few league games should yield some decent points for us assuming we maintain a similar level we have seen under Mikel. Not expecting to win them all but at least start getting more points than we have been getting. I'm also not expecting any losses other than the Chelsea match possibly until we see City.

COYR

Harsh Greeny but probably fair. For me, this was his by far his finest moment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhcsjXyStmk

One of the all-too-few few occasions when he actually looked like a player.

Live on the beeb tonight, so for those of us in the UK at least, no scraping around for streams. Tonight is going to be a challenge for, presumably, an under strength side. Mind you, expect Leeds to rest a few as well given that their big priority is promotion.

Whatever for..? I've got no argument with the Iranians

Moving an extra ten million Mexicans , Nicaraguans , Guatamalans into Los Angelos has a lot of appeal though ...you want to be a sanctuary city .... be my guest .

This should be a damn good game this morning neither my Spark Sport or Fan Pass seem to be showing it ....anyone posting a link would be appreciated.

Why do they have to have the bleeding draw before all the games have been played

As nice as it is to see the lovely Alex Scott (I should never have dumped her btw but she was too clingy )can’t they wait another couple of hours

Oh well Bournmouth it is

Some sloppy play early on from Holding and Xhaka. Leeds looking decent, don't want to give them too much encouragement.

Haven’t struck 2 passes together yet.

Better sort themselves out quickly

More terrible passing from Guendouzi and Luiz. We're getting dominated. And another stupid foul from Xhaka.

When Torreira doesn’t play we always struggle. The structure goes

Our 2 central midfielders are absolute doughnuts. 2 new midfielders required

I feel great sympathy for Mikel ..... inherited some of the dumbest players in the league .

We are getting murdered

There is no cohesion from us ...we can't hold to the bloody ball long enough to create anything .

If we make it to half time level we can count ourselves very lucky. But the way we've faded in the second half of recent matches doesn't bode well.

Very sloppy half. Leeds have been good, quicker, hungrier.

Sokratis at full back throws out all the shape Mikel has worked on by tucking the RB inside to midfield to get more numbers

The balls out of defence have been too slow and nowhere near accurate enough.

Don’t think the ref is doing us any favours by letting lots go. Always favours the higher tempo high press team.

Also a gripe on offside and var. linesman keep their flags down so often, knowing that var will correct it if there is a goal - but if there isn’t a goal which is most of the time the attacking team keep the ball and pressure on when the defending team should have a free kick

Leeds : neat, tidy and effective on the ball.

Us : careless, clueless

Set the tone badly. Holding has looked really undercooked. Nowhere near match ready. Far too slow.

One thing Mikel worked on was not trying to pass the ball when you don’t have a man on you. Arsenal are doing that when they could carry it forward more yards and commit their defence before the pass goes

We look like a tired team. No surprise after the efforts of Chelsea and Man U.
We’re a team that are inferior to so many teams in terms of fitness, pressing, energy, mobility. We need time to change all of that

What Arteta is asking from this team is completely foreign to so many it won’t change overnight. The next 6 months are working out who can cut it and who can’t

That's reassuring .... the ref is to blame

I agree he could have had a yellow, but players on yellows don’t make the same tackles, do disagree that he could have been sent off. Xhaka May be dumb but he rarely gets sent off for 2 yellows.
The ref has let stuff go for both teams, I’m not saying he’s been biased, just that that style of reffing is not suiting us in this game. That style of reffing WOULD have suited us in the Man U game as we were the aggressive and high press, high energy team

Well, that was fun.....outplayed by a side who look technically better, faster, stronger, fitter and more tactically astute.

It just showed how poor some of our players are under pressure.

Could be 3 down.

Guendouzi looks a shadow of the player he was a few months ago and Xhaka is back to his $@$*#y best.

Conveniently cutting out my full quote.
Didn’t say the ref is to blame. Said his style is letting lots go which favours the higher tempo, higher press and often better team. When you’re playing badly and struggling to deal with the tight marking and aggression a fussy ref is what you want.
We haven’t got close enough to Leeds to complain about fouls given against us as we’ve barely made a tackle

Jesus George ....they've had four days rest , some of the players are different so that's not a credible excuse .

We will win this , they haven't converted their superiority .

We seem to get nose bleeds anywhere near their penalty area . Our players seem to dither not knowing quite what to do BUT ... there will be one moment of magic a Nelson jink in to Lacazette ..WALLOP . 1 - 0

Bit of luck for me. No tv coverage. Haven’t seen any of it but it sounds like a number of players are not putting in a shift. Have to go to work early so will not hear much after the 70 minute.

This is a rod he made for himself. Let’s see if he collapses as a manager after 4 games.

3 attempts in 6 mins. All us this half. Arteta hairdryer?

Just bought up the stats for game Arsenal 196 passes Leeds 306.

Yes much better. Let's see how long we can keep it up.

Xhaka 3rd foul and no yellow. To be fair he slipped on that one but backs up my thought that the ref is being lenient and letting things go

Well if ...... "we haven't got close enough to Leeds to complain about fouls given against us " why on earth are you moaning about the ref .
Now you want a fussy ref . I give up .

1-0 Nelson

Nelson!!!

All about Pépé. He’s so strong on the ball, always with the ball to feet and a half turn or spin, he hardly ever loses it.
He rolls his man and sets away Lacazette, back to Pépé scuffed to Nelson and scuffed in.
Tip: don’t get tight to Pépé

Holy moly. That’s a bit savage.

Try this Gaz ...they sometimes give you a freebie

https://www.skysportnow.co.nz/channel/s ... t-7#signin

Apart from Aubameyang he should be first on the team sheet.

Anything good we seem to do seems to start from him

I was talking about the times Leeds got very tight to us where a more fussy ref would give a foul and let us relieve the pressure. It isn’t that difficult to understand surely? A high press team want a lenient ref. When we become high press teams we want lenient refs
People can mention the ref and his style without it being some ridiculous rant blaming him when we’ve clearly been outplayed.