Hi Ash… my senior moments are on the rise!

Another win, another clean sheet

I listed to a bit of the match on 5live last night and they had Pat Nevin as co comms, I like Pat, he’s definitely one of the better co comms….but he said two things
‘The Prague defender put the ball out for a throw to save the corner but with this Arsenal team that might be just as dangerous’
‘Prague with the chance to put a long throw in the box and give Arsenal a taste of their own medicine’

Most people would nod along with Nevin because strangely the increase in long throws in England has been directly attributed to Arsenal, likely due to our set piece prowess, but it’s utter baseless nonsense. We rely no more on long throws than any other English team and are not scoring from them at all! It’s easy to see how much influence a few select pieces can have on people just parroting and believing what has been written

Merino might be one of the most underrated players in the league, even by Arsenal fans. He’s a managers type of player though, for most of us without the detailed insight to a game a manager will have you’d see faults but Arteta clearly trusts him, so does the Spain manager who gets the best out of him.
He might just be the best emergency striker in European football

No Gyökeres, Havertz, Jesus, Ødegaard, Madueke, Martinelli, Kepa and we rested Eze and Calafiori, and had Zubimendi suspended……10 players out….And made an away win in Europe look as comfortable as that.

No chance either of Liverpool or City could cope with these injuries. Put our injuries on those two and we absolutely canter to the title.

I find these arguments strange. It’s fine to debate whether you think Rice is the best right now or not but Jordan says his doubts are because he can’t play a defence unlocking pass like De Bruyne…..when have we ever asked if De Bruyne can shield a defence or make lung bursting full pitch recovery runs to rescue his team?
He asks whether Rice would stand out in a poor or struggling team? West Ham? I think that players with the attributes of Rice would more likely stand out in a poor team than a player with the attributes of De Bruyne.

Gyökeres To Undergo Scan On Hamstring

https://leadership.ng/arsenals-gyokeres ... hamstring/

Oh goody

You missed his point.

Enlighten me oh wise football guru

Lots of rumour based on nothing. Some positive rumours this afternoon re Gyökeres hinting club not that worried.

Congrats to Arsenal fan, Zohran Mamdani.

Inter Milan concede meaning were the only team not to concede a goal in the CL this season

Don't worry, we have Merino

Merino is proving his doubters wrong, me included . I am glad to eat humble pie here.
Saw his post match interview, and I like his persona.

I still see him as a really valuable squaddie. I just can't see someone with his lack of pace and aggression being a permanent solution up front or as an 8. However, I'd love to be proved wrong! He's is extremely likeable and he's a bit a of once off both in how he plays and his persona. Even the weird goal celebration fits the oddball image.

Yes. He doesn't make our best 11 but he is a great guy to have in the squad because of his versatility. He won't move the dial but won't let us down either. You need a player or two like that. Very composed finisher too.

Another player in a similar category is Trossard. Not quite what you want for a first 11 player, and LW is the one position where we'd want to raise the ceiling -- but one hell of a back player and bench option. He's been seriously consistent this season.

The Villa Mahabi game is building up to a massive riot.

The militant muslims are really winding things up, calling for even more restrictions to Israeli's appearance in sports.

If youre interested and nobody else is talking about it try Talk radio.

There are genuine security issues here. Not only is there a risk of antisemitic attacks (although protests at football matches have been peaceful), the Maccabi fans have history of causing trouble.
Apart from what happened in the Netherlands (where the Maccabi fans certainly wound things up), their local derby was recently called off because of violence.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/arti ... 20riots%22.

Do you blame the Birmingham police for not wanting to deal with this?

No I blame the idiots that are calling for all their followers to physically attack all israelis and wipe the off this earth.

There are hundreds of them descending on Aston which will stop the game being played as there is no way the police alone could cope with the trouble and police the games supporters.

A lot going on here prior to the Villa match.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/37239016 ... gue-clash/

I don't think you can analyse this issue objectively by taking a one eyed approach

Firstly one can't see this group of Israel fans as innocent victims in all this, they are a group with a rather large proportion of violent far right nationalists who chant 'death to Arabs'

Secondly people want to protest against a grotesque genocide is hardly unreasonable

History repeatedly teaches us that terrorism does not exist in a vacuum and that it will be not be exterminated by violence, it needs people to lay down their weapons, listen and push hard for diplomatic solutions

Sadly with the current rise of the far right and fascist nationalism globally, this problem is only going to get worse, as the international order breaks down and we see vital international institutions sidelined by the increasingly trigger happy idiots in power

Indeed. And politics is already in football, with Russia's ban, and its hard to see how things won't get worse. The days of Europeans living in a bubble enjoying all the benefits of globalisation but bearing none of the responsibility are gone.

Islamists will see that they are being appeased and will try this again. There is a no fly zone over Villa Park ffs. There are no Maccabi fans being allowed at the match so I can only conclude the police have surmised the Maccabi team are somewhat at risk,

Quite.

Hmmn a toughie,

Part of me feels that Aston Villa should be booted out of the competition if they can’t host away fans at their games safely. I doubt this would have happened at Arsenal.

The other part thinks it’s probably the right decision to not turn it into a circus.

I don’t think you can really stop the away for the “hard right” Maccabi fans because of their chanting and occasional violence though. If you are doing that then the England national team shouldn’t have been allowed to play any games between 1980 to 1998.

That said I believe sectarianism is on the rise in the UK and our future is troubled. Poor innocent people stabbed at a synagogue who probably had never even been to Israel.

There’s actually British terrorists fighting for non British causes…. I just can’t get my head round this stuff.

https://www.itv.com/news/2025-11-04/bri ... error-plot

Paired with the fact that Netanyahu has probably endangered the lives of Jewish people all over the world with his recent antics.


Messed up times

Also if it’s possible to ban ALL mobile phones and the internet that would be useful.

The worst *%^@*** inventions since Oppenheimer did his magic and fuel this type of sectarian sentiment.

People who have never been inside villa park IN THEIR LIVES videoing themselves trying to cause arguments with others about it outside and cause trouble so they can upload it to you tube and those irritating $@$*#y tik tok videos to monetise for pence.

GET A PROPER JOB YOU WEIRDOS. Learn a trade you absolute scroterashes

Government should legislate around divisive internet content however that will upset the poor little Americans so we now all have to live in a chaotic inferno of hate. TRIFFIC

I agree.

I would suggest the Russia situation is slightly different though. Poisoning people in major cities, shooting down Dutch airliners, interfering with every election in Europe. Not to mention vaporising hospitals and nurseries in Ukraine. You can’t expect the other countries to just put up with it forever and a line had to be drawn. Tough titty vlad

Totally re internet

Social media needs robust regulation and many global problems have worsened because of social media polarisation/misinformation/radicalisation etc

It has undermined proper journalism too as cheap inaccurate click bait is highly profitable given there is no consequence to producing libellous/inaccurate misinformation for the website

The social media companies should be responsible for all content on their platforms, as printed media is

Yeah but you'd need something a little less spineless than the current government. Starmer makes a jellyfish look firm and charismatic.

Yep. All major parties lack decent leadership on this.

We’re currently at the mercy of narcissistic scum like Musk and Zuckerberg.

Although not British that seems a fair summation. Sadly.

I suggested some time ago we should be looking at our training to ensure this is not contributing to our injuries. Bring in some physiologist specialists who examine what we are doing. I don’t think it is simply down to luck. And I don’t mean someone whose name they get out of the phone book. Pay for the very best.

Looks how many medical and analyst staff the club already have. It’s vast. There can’t be many areas that aren’t looked at

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/arsenal ... /verein/11

Seems odd to not have a single member of the back 5 who haven’t conceded a goal in the CL in the team of the competition so far

It’s a bit like the BBC’s team of the week. Which is basically someone looking at who scored and mangling them in to an 11

Something is not right. We don’t seem to be getting injuries from dangerous play from opponents but they are overuse type injuries. They need to look at every possibility. Do they train on artificial turf, do they do zig zag training on it. Too many players come to the club with good injury history and then start picking up long term knee and muscle injuries.

These teams of week are bollox, much like all these awards - look at Amorim getting manager of month for October just for a string of lucky wins

Observation of CL refereeing - some decent overturns of poor penalty decisions, but the way they're interpreting handball law is utterly awful, so many nonsense penalties being given

the handball law needs rewriting - IMHO penalty should only be given when goal bound shot is blocked by an arm directly (not deflected off another body part first), any other handballs should be indirect free kicks - there is no need to have intent in the law

currently far too many innocuous handballs are changing games and it is wrecking the game

There seems to be a lot of impact injuries.

Jesus is an ACL unfortunate but it happens, havertz, Madueke and Ødegaard are impact injuries that occurred during games. Martinelli got a knock. All this season.

Gyökeres has played a lot of minutes but what are going to do ? He will only miss 3 games 1 more it sounds.

It’s irritating but football clubs pay analysts thousands per year to look at it.

Another escapee nicked after being spotted on Finsbury Park.

That’s 2 in as many weeks. What is it about Finsbury Park that attracts these wrongs uns.

Anyone letting their kids play in there at this point is nuts

I agree

The injuries this season appear to largely be bad luck - down to collisions on the field - apart from Gyökeres which appears muscular and likely related to playing a bit too much

Last season was clearly overuse, having 3 players in one season having hamstring surgery is not chance, clearly big reason for expanding the squad

I agree up to a point. Balls that nick a defender's arm on the way out of play or out of the penalty area should not be penalties. Maybe the problem is that the 'natural position' thing is being misinterpreted at the moment? It's a difficult one.

For penalties, you can't restrict it to shots on target. And purely accidental handball with a blocked shot shouldn't be a penalty.

I think that, unfortunately, intent and whether the player has time to react must be part of it.