Absolutely unbelievable that despite our complete dominance we still managed to find ourselves a goal behind.
Was imperative we got back on level terms before half time but we managed to go one better!
Myles Lewis Skelly. What a player this boy is.
So assured on the ball, solid and stronger than he looks. Very skillful too. Love seeing him blossom.
Sterling looks a shadow of the player he used to be. Looks like he has lost that yard of pace.
Gabriel was excellent today.
To think his future looked in doubt at the start of last season. Great defender and character.
Massive 3 points but was more nervy then it needed to be. Badly need a striker.
If we want Sesko then go for him. At least try! Not like leipzig are pulling up any trees but they are fighting for a champions league place so would be a fight to get him.
Him and Mbeumo would be great additions but I think we are signing only one player this window...
Nice to finally take advantage of Liverpool dropping points.
Villa will be a tough prospect on Saturday but we simply have to win.
Good to see Partey Rice and Ødegaard starting together. Its got to be the first choice midfield.

Oh no they don't ... they think I don't want to be the one who looks the d*ck when smashing the ball into Row W because my technique is so p**ss poor .

What on earth happened to Ødegaard during his lay off ... are the Russians jamming his GPS ?

https://x.com/ben_mattinson_/status/187 ... -j6VVZXEoA

Loved this from MLS but that is a terrible yellow card, again, no other team gets this card. He went to run off at the side which he can do if the ref lets him, ref said no go behind the goal, Spurs players got involved to push him off the pitch and he left the pitch inside 6 seconds from the point the ref told him he was being subbed and he booked him!

Good to get the win as always. But if Arteta wants one stand out moment to concentrate his mind it was Havertz 6 yards out and unmarked 2nd half and a cross comes in. He heads it straight in to the goalies arms. A striker puts that away. Ødegaard's GPS is off but he seems to be back to his best in terms of scampering around the field with the ball at his feet.

He got an assist. He’s shouldering the responsibility of the entire creative burden of the side. Whilst he’s not getting on the scoresheet himself and his shooting has gone to pot he’s contributing

Edit, btw did you see him at the final whistle. Absolutely spent, hands on hips breathing. He’s played a lot of football since he came back

Thing is everybody in Europe now knows Arsenal are desperate for a striker anyway so if we sign anyone we will be overpaying. Offer 80-85 million for Sesko and write it off as a painful bit of transfer business we had to do because of the circumstances at the time.

Yes that was the one. If they had equalised that’s the one we would have been moaning about. You have got to get the keeper diving for that at least from there.

Villa on Saturday, I can only see Martinelli in for Sterling. We must not concede the first goal. Villa are far better than Spurs, after 2 games in a week including extra time and a tough derby we don’t want to be chasing the game.

He’s got a £55m buy out clause, we only need to pay that. One issue is it has to be paid up front rather than amortised across the length of his contract in instalments. You can do a deal to pay more in order to spread the payments
The club were ready to pay it in the summer but couldn’t give guarantees of being first choice and Sesko thought another year at Leipzig would be good for his development. I’d prefer (obviously) if he backed himself to be first choice - he only has to look at our inability to finish our chances to feel pretty confident about that

I thought there were worse misses/chances. Ødegaard scooped one wide which felt bad. Also when we won the ball back in their box and Havertz/Sterling somehow contrived not to score. So many other times we were 3v3 and failed to even get our shot off

I think you might see Sterling again for that one. Gabby starts left.

They must be absolutely bricking it about Trossard and Martinelli getting an injury right now. If that happens the season will become a total write off. They have been routinely rotating them where possible.

Tomas Frank has said 'no chance' Mbeumo leaves in January. I don't blame him. He's got 18 months plus a 1 year option on his contract and will likely have more clubs in for him in the summer. I think he'd be great for us.

Minimum we need is 1 attacking player, probably a striker as a priority. Nwaneri will be back at the end of the month which will help for the right wing slot. White and Tomiyasu also back by the start of Feb.

We need to get in the top 8 of the CL to avoid those 2 extra games, try to hang in there until feb/march - get on a plane to Dubai during the FA cup 4th round and then try to put our foot down

Possibly but I think we have to keep trossard after his goal and then bring Sterling in for the Dynamo Zagreb game which on paper should be easier than Villa

Just saw on Sky that Galatasaray are letting Zaha go.

Surely he's worth a punt, can't be worse than Sterling?

Can't we hijack any of City's transfers in? Maroush is on the cards but why would he want to go to City when they don't know what division they'll be in next year?

Liverpool have drawn away to teams in 2nd, 3rd and 4th - and still have to go away to teams in 5th to 11th.

Our away record against those top half teams is nothing to write home about mind, but we've got them out the way.

For right or wrong the club wont make permanent signings that aren't on our long list of players we're after. a loan opportunity signing may happen.

Last nights win was huge, but we still need something through the door in the next two weeks

Spurs form since the start of November puts them in the bottom 3 - they couldn't could they....?

It was a good win, but Spurs were poor. They are not very sharp going forward,the midfield lacks bite, and it is easy to see why the conceded six to Liverpool. Villa will be better than Spurs.

For all our dominance in games, we are vulnerable to dropping points because of our difficulties with putting games to bed. It feels like bad luck but it happens so often in football. If you don't score when you are dominating, opponents manage to someone score a goal after hardly having a sniff.
This is going to hurt us in away games in particular if we don't address it.

Not superior at all. There's only one crowd who can crow at the moment and that's Liverpool. We're 2nd in the league and would likely be 6 points better off it weren't for those really *%^@ red cards and an atrocious run of injuries. Not to mention being able to confidently know that this team can be competitive with any team in the league.

There are aspects of the game that can be improved but which team doesn't have that?

These AFTV twerps may be coughing up money to watch the game but they've lost all perspective on how far this team have come and the level of overhaul that's been required to get to this point. crapping on with comparisons with late stage Wenger, sack Arteta, etc. Good grief.

Have a moan by all means but some of those pillocks need a chew toy.

But Sesko didn't want to leave in the summer and signed a new contract. So why would it be just about the money?

So would you go for Zaha or who?

Not sure that's entirely the case, Rich. £55m to the Club to buy out his contract but there'll be Agent's fees and signing-on sweeteners on top of that. The fee will creep ever upwards.

Doubt we'll ever know the truth but I bet it'll be closer to £75m.

Gabriel is just 8 Premier League goals behind Jack Grealish now. I will not relent on my campaign to have Grealish exposed as one of the worst transfers ever

I get that but when we all talk about fees we talk about the transfer fee only as that is usually the variable to judge the value of a player. Every fee will have agent fees and signing on bonus etc and the bigger the player the bigger those fees will be.

The only way to compare fees for players is on the transfer fee as its usually the only transparent part (there are exceptions ie: Haaland) - £55m is his release clause in the same way people are saying Isak is worth £150m - that is the comparison.

When we talk about any signing we made we don't add in all the extras, Martinelli was £6m, not closer to £8m because we paid some agent fees and his family a bonus etc, same with Gabriel £25m, Saliba £25m. No one even adds wages to the true cost of the player which can also push the total cost of the player massively.

So when I hear someone say Sesko will cost £75m I'm assuming they are talking about the transfer fee, not with all the add ons because no one ever really talks like that or we should add another £40m to that figure for his £150k a week for the 5 year deal.

Agreed it really is a problem. The Brentford away game was the outlier, we seemed quite clinical with what we created there

I think for him no but for the selling club it would entirely be if you need him to push for Europe.

If he has a release clause that’s slightly different but that still entails challenges.

Ultimately the board and manager need to sell the club to some of these targets very strongly and say we will build a team around them

Yep, and even if they pay for a season ticket their views are not reflective of the fans around me in the ground. That Turkish geezer or troopz? If they repeated some of their claims around by me folks would be queuing up to give them a right hander or worse. That kelechi live and let die type African geezer is sometimes sat on my row however he’s usually a positive bloke.

The truth is that Robbie guy that owns it is the next David Attenborough. Examines fascinating mutants in their natural habitat. The reality is they are a bunch of blokes who probably failed their GCSES and see a potential moment of fame as a career. It’s not really about Arsenal and neither are they fans. Seems a sad indictment of a failed society

https://x.com/SkySportsPL/status/1879850202175012918
Sky run a poll and have a discussion on if VAR should change because they think the ball might have come off trossard for our corner - now it certainly looks like it does but there isn't any conclusive angle to tell us. So just like when we were told there was no conclusive angle to say the ball was definitely out vs Newcastle AND west ham last season the weight of the on field decision stands.

Nonsense to have var get involved in this type of decision, you'd be stopping the game all the time.

Gary Neville on Nicolas Jover: "I called him the most annoying man in football. Do you know something? I'm cementing my position, I'm doubling down."

"It's offending me every week. I'm going to say this really calmly, I think he's overreaching his importance."

"If a goalkeeper makes a good save, I don't see the goalkeeping coach on the edge of the touchline. I don't see the other coaches going up and getting the glory for it."

"The manager is at the front, he can't communicate from 50 yards away to players who know what they're doing. I think he's overreaching his importance, I genuinely believe that."

"I see goalkeeper coaches and brilliant coaches who work on other aspects of the game, I don't see them pointing to themselves and overreaching their importance."

"That's how I feel. I get he's important and he's doing a great job but I do genuinely think he needs to sit back a little bit. I think the players will start to look at him as well and think, 'hang on a minute, come on'."

Utter nonsense from Neville - this is my problem with him, he sets an agenda he's going to push and will ignore all logic and continue to push it. As if the Arsenal players who score the most from corners are ever going to look over at Jover directing our set pieces and say 'hold on Nico, why don't you pipe down a bit, Arteta is the manager'
Has it ever crossed Neville's mind that perhaps Jover is there to review each corner or set piece, so he gets a better view, only 1 management person is allowed in the technical area - so maybe Jover isn't micro managing the set pieces, he's there to get a better view, see how we're being marked and then can pass on advice about the next one.

When I talk about negative Arsenal media its stuff like this. Here is a guy doing the best specialist job in the league, he's quiet, humble (unlike some assistants - Jason Tindall) and he gets called the most annoying man in football. Its ridiculous. No way would Neville say any of this if it was Man U. Him and Carragher are far too biased to be considered the best pundits we have to offer, their judgement on anything involving their team or rivals of their team is clouded. I wish someone would call him out on it

A bunch of Spurs fans grasping at straws. What exactly are they suggesting? Do they want Var to look at all corners (and presumably free kicks and throw ins because they can also lead to goals) or do they think Var should go back two or three plays before each goal to see if the ref got anything wrong? How far back? If two plays, why not three or four?

Ideally I want a striker and a winger this window, but if its only 1 then go for the striker. We only have Havertz - Trossard is a possible who has played false 9 before but its the striker we need. Nwaneri is back in a couple of weeks and Saka will be back before the end of the season, we won't have Jesus for the rest of the season.

Sesko or Gyokeres are the main options for a buy them now, or loan with obligation if we want to push the money in to next year's accounts. Vlahovic is a loan only option for me

So apparently it is Sesko we are after

https://www.sportbible.com/football/pre ... 7-20250116

Mistakes happen in every game. People need to accept it and move on.

https://x.com/Arsenal/status/1879906467299659805

This was brilliant from MLS. Such speed, Kulusevski is strong and fast but he just brushed him aside

Some mistakes directly influence the result more than the 22 players on the pitch - that's not right and should be called out and improvements made rather than all those who can implement improvement doubling down on their mistakes and telling us nothing is wrong. I cant think of many jobs where continual mistakes not only go unpunished but no attempt is even made to be better - maybe politics!

Its just under 2 years since we lost to Man City in the league
Its just over 2 years since we lost to Man U in the league
Its just under 3 years since we lost to Liverpool in the league
Its just under 3 years since we lost to Spurs in the league
Its just under 4 years since we lost to Chelsea in the league

We used to not only lose but get pretty hammered by most of these teams with annoying regularity. There is primarily one guy responsible for this and some fans wanted him sacked after 2 disappointing results

https://x.com/Venngar/status/1879646070000722008
In a league where so few GK can catch crosses, this is outstanding from Raya. Most GK would be far too scared to attempt it or the ability to pull it off. I always said this about De Gea, great shot stopper but couldn't dominate his box - refused to even, and so his teams would always be under pressure with balls in to the box and set pieces

You will never ever eliminate mistakes because officials are human. At the end of the season you end up where you deserve mistakes by officials included.

Completely agree re Neville.

More broadly it's a sad indictment on how large chunks of media spew out vested interests propaganda.

Sky is generally shite and serves as propaganda agent for the PL for obvious reasons. Neville and Carragher are symptoms of this cronyism.

Lots of the internet football sites are just clickbait factories.

There's very little decent objective coverage out there.