It's going to be interesting going to Old Trafford and WHL for the win and a draw isn't good enough. Especially OT. Going to be interesting. I expect Man Utd to be more defensive than Tottenham. Tottenham will relish not allowing us a title if they can do it.

Herculean effort to get a win at both.

Ødegaard has only just signed a contract extension in September ? If you moved the captaincy without question the player stripped of it would leave anyway. Any club in Europe right now would take a serious look at Martin. We wouldn’t be short of suitors.

Craziness

OK.

As supporters we have some uncomfortable weeks ahead: we will have to cheer for Man U and Spurs on a number of occasions.

If me wearing their shirt for 90 minutes meant they won their games v our rivals I’d happily do it - the greater good! I have no qualms vehemently cheering on any side of it meant it helped Arsenal in only a minute way.
Man U are poor so it looks like spurs will get champions league next season as I suspect 4th and 5th in the prem will get it. More than happy for spurs to win all but one of their remaining games if it helped us win the league….and I’d happily lose to spurs if you could guarantee we still won the league

I think Ødegaard is the most in tune with Arteta in the squad. Ødegaard orchestrated the press and the general play, he’s the one moving people in to positions, he’s Arteta’s brain on the pitch. Unless he seriously drops off in form he stays captain for as long as Arteta is here.
There were two moments today where Ødegaard was inches away from the perfect threaded through ball

Also there’s no doubt in my mind that Haaland is not close to being the best striker in football. He comes alive in the box for sure but he’s general all round play is pretty average. Easier said than done but deny him space and mark him ridiculously tightly and aggressively and you can nullify him- takes a huge team effort. Gabriel is the marker and aggressor of our pair and he’s regularly giving the best strikers in the prem and Europe not a single sniff of a goal

This Arsenal team has lots of steel

City had an awesome forward line and we held them at bay without fear

You are prepared to go to places I will not. I will barrack for them against City and Pool but that might be all.

The top managers really are like conductors getting the team to play in a way that expresses their personalities and football philosophies--Pep's precision (look at how he lambasted Grealish after the game), Klopp's 'heavy metal' style, and Arteta's intensity.

Not that Rice (or even someone like Gabriel) wouldn't be a brilliant captain. It is just that Ødegaard's personality and intelligence are exactly what we need. I think Ødegaard thrives with having that responsibility too.

It has to be said that City defended exceptionally well too. That high line was very well organised and on the odd occasions we got through, they were very quick to get back in numbers.

Gabriel is one of the contenders for Arsenal player of the season for me.

Not wanting to jinx anything (not that I remotely believe in that anyway) but our rivals seem to be more consistently losing players to injuries whilst ours are coming back from injury.
defence was the area that City really can cope though, they have lots of defenders who can all play all across the back 4

Good point

He’s been colossal and gets overlooked because Saliba is capable of explosive moments of defending that get more attention.

I really hope the suggestion he wanted to move doesn’t reappear this summer. Maybe offer him a new contract.

If only we hadn’t dropped silly points v Fulham and hadn’t dropped the ball v spurs.

Think that will end up being the difference between winning and losing the title.

Yeah. It still feels like an outside chance only, not only because of those lost points, but also because I think we still may have that sort of turgid performance in us.

I'm hoping Partey can have a good run and that whatever is the matter with Saka can be sorted out.

I think you might see Partey, Tommy and Zinchenko brought in for Luton.

I think we blew it before Christmas but I’m enjoying the season. Proud of the team.

I think we will drop points and if we beat Bayern we could have a mental fixture dilemma playing Chelsea, spurs and a champions league semi final in just 7 days. Not sure we have the quality to deal with that if I’m honest even with players coming back from injury.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/20 ... roy-keane/

Agreed. Roy agrees too.



Tis seldom our defence has received praise in recent years so it is good to see it for those who remember the vice like defences of the past and the 1-0 to the Arsenal.

NYC is imposing a fee to go into midtown Manhattan. A congestion tax scheme of sorts. I seem to recall London doing something similar years ago, no?

https://www.tiktok.com/@abcworldnews/vi ... l9u4dVTyGo

Yesterday's result and performance is on the cusp of a changing of the guard. We took 4 points off the champions. They've only scored 1 goal in the last 3 games we've had. City are a little scared of us. The last 2 times we played them we have severely limited them. No goals scored.

It's our defense it turns out for the turnaround.

As a reasonably frequent visitor to NYC I’m surprised this wasn’t introduced long ago. Traffic around mid town is mental.

As usual the problem with introducing a tax like this isn’t the idea by concept as it makes sense but the problem that no authority can resist the temptation of expanding the tax geographically or financially as they become dependant on the finances the tax provides.

Akanji complaining about Arsenal supposedly tactically fouling….this was said by a City player with no hint of self awareness!

By the way. Anyone accusing us of no ambition in the game, we mustered 6 shots and 2 on target. At the game at the emirates City mustered 4 shots and 1 on target!

Absolutely ridiculous that the focus today is on Arsenal not being more ambitious rather than City not having the creativity to break us down.

At the end of the season if we don’t win the title some idiot will point to this game as one where Arsenal should have been more ambitious and gone for the win, some pundit will I assure you, a point away at City in a title race when you’ve already beaten them at home is a top result - if we don’t win it then look at West Ham at home for starters

Really? Where?

Question. Improbable as it may be but if we win the rest of our league games what are the chances we'll be champions?

95.356% or thereabouts.
Because Liverpool would have to win all of their games, or draw one and overtake our goal difference.

The 'if' is the bigger problem.

I'm seeing a lot of this, and I can see both sides of the argument. I can't help feeling a bit disappointed that we didn't impose ourselves more in the second half and resorted to time wasting.

On the other hand, I think City were better than us yesterday so what we did was pragmatic.

I’ve had both 5live and Talksport on all day today - long drive - and the talk or discussion points for all the guests and presenters was - should Arsenal have been more attacking? Now, they balanced it by saying it was also a defensive masterclass, but there wasn’t a peep about City and their inability to create anything against us again.

I can see the talk of Arsenal has been very balanced, my point is that in comparison to everyone pouring over and having an opinion on our set up and performance I’ve seen very, very little discussion on City. They played with lots of players in deep possession to negate our excellent high press but having worked hard to create the space the only space they found was with a centre back in the wide areas where you’d normally want your creative players. Has it been discussed that as the reigning treble winners and favourites for the title that City should have created far more, after all they are the ones 3rd in the table, and also dropped points at home to Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs this season.

I agree with you on rotating some players in for Luton. Zinchenko and Partey really make sense. We will need both match fit and sharp for the run in. Tomiyasu in to give White a rest too.
Also, if possibly take a risk and give Saka a rest, he has been carrying a knock and I don’t think he was fully fit for the City game. Trossard and Martinelli are back, Jesus could play from the right.

Saliba, Gabriel, Rice, Ødegaard, Havertz seems to be able to go and go again without much sign of fatigue

The top of the Championship is as tight as the Prem. Ipswich currently top - including ex Arsenal youngster Harry Clarke playing every game at CB for Ipswich.

Arteta is the first premier league manager to go 4 games unbeaten in a season vs Klopp and Pep.

A lovely article to read, I imagine it will be enjoyed here: https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/soc ... 63890.html

That's a great read; thanks bozboz.

I think there were a few glimpses of Partey finding his form when he came on. The chance that Trossard should have sent across to Martinelli at the end was all made because of Partey's composure deep in his own half and then a line breaking pass in to Ødegaard which took out 5-6 City players.

We've only had the midfield of Partey at the base with Rice and Ødegaard slightly in front once this season, the Community Shield. Jorginho has done a fine job stepping in particularly in the big games and he's certainly suited to games where he will get time on the ball to dictate proceedings, but Partey at his best is a better player

I hope more teams see what we did to City and believe they can do it as well. Their set up is 4 CB's across the back 4 and they tuck in the wide men (Foden and Silva in our game) meaning the space they created was out wide for their CB playing as full-backs. They pose very little threat in those 1v1 areas in the wide channels. Arsenal funneled back Saka and Jesus to defend them which allowed us to tuck both our full backs in to a very compact back 4. City's wide centre back didn't have the creativity or guile to beat a man so ended up lumping in hopeful crosses or recycling it back.

It wasn't until City made subs and made Doku and Grealish their wide players instructed to keep the width that they managed to get in behind us (Doku on a couple of times).

It is also interesting that Pep chose Foden and Silva to fill the wide forward roles, they are the best ball retainers for City in those roles. Doku and Alvarez have much higher turnover rates, they're more explosive maybe but they give it away more and Pep didn't want to be exposed on transitions. So to some extent Pep's approach was risk averse as well.

I think an area we should address in the summer is having another forward option with genuine pace. Only Martinelli gives us that at the moment.

I see we are being linked with Alexander Isak.

Out of the all the strikers we are being linked with I would probably say he’s the most logical from my perspective.

I don’t really see us going for a beanpole type target man as much as they keep getting linked and would envisage a more mobile type with lethal finishing. More of an Ian Wright than an Alan smith.

This summer could be interesting. Also think you could see 1or 2 very surprising exits possibly on the horizon.

Looking at the run ins it isn't always as easy at looking at the position of teams in the table to predict who has the easiest run. Someone down at the bottom will end up pulling a few results out towards the end and could be difficult opponents, particularly if they are at home. Teams like Spurs, Villa and Man U are chasing the top 4......and even a team like Chelsea can be good on their day as their results against the big teams have shown.

For all 3 title chasing teams I feel it will come down to a few key away games.
Ours are obvious and have been looming all season. Brighton (a), Spurs (a), Man U (a)
Liverpool - we need to look at their games at Man U (a), Everton (a), West ham (a), Villa (a)
City - its Brighton (a), Spurs (a)

The draw in Europe has suited Liverpool, they have easy enough teams to be able to rotate their squad until the final to some degree, whilst the potential of an Arsenal v Man City CL semi will take a lot out of both teams - I'd much rather face Real Madrid.

I'm hoping we can maintain our goal difference (+6 on Liverpool) as that effective extra point could be vital. Liverpool could put a dent in to it v Sheff Utd at home though.

I could see City going perfect to the end of the season which would mean we can't afford to drop a single point either. City are just relentless in the pressure they put on teams, fatigue and injuries will have to play a part for them as I don't really see more than 1-2 fixtures that they even have a chance of slipping up in.
Liverpool are different, they've given teams chances in games and still have injuries, most points won from losing positions shows the fire power and resilience they have but also shows that they let teams get a start quite often. Anfield in particular drags them through but I'm less sure they can keep doing that in some of the tougher away games they have

Agreed. Arteta and Edu put a high value on Prem experience and are willing to pay more for it. I like Isak and think he'd be a good addition - the price will be key though. I think Toney would also be a good addition but in a way that he'd still be a plan B and also I wouldn't want to spend more than £40m on him

I think with the lack of minutes he's got since he's been fit that Emile Smith Rowe will likely be a player that Arsenal look to move on in the summer, he'll be the one the fans won't want to see go. I think most fans have made their peace with Ramsdale being sold, and also players like Tierney, Nketiah, Nelsen.

Seems crazy that Rob Holding still hasn't made his premier league debut for Crystal Palace. I thought we should have got more than the £2m we did in the summer, but maybe that was a good amount seeing how little a bottom half team trust him.

See also Calum Chambers at Villa - barely any game time despite lots of injuries on Villa's defence over the season

I think you could see similar scenarios with Nelson and Nketiah and possibly Emile Smith Rowe.

They will be moved on and will find their true value. I honestly suspect Eddie would similarly struggle to get regular minutes for anyone outside the bottom 3