Xhaka has twice as many goals this year as the previous 3 put together.

When pundits and commentators reference the Xhaka renaissance they do it based on ‘that’ incident at home to palace which is understandable but is doing the player a disservice because it doesn’t focus on his improvement as a footballer.

Xhaka is the one people point to in our front 5 who fans think we can improve on, I don’t think that would be as easy as many think. He’s been tremendous and gives a maturity and balance to our play, not to mention the leadership.

Can you remember fairly recently we bemoaned our lack of leaders?
Xhaka, Ødegaard, Zinchenko, Gabriel, Ramsdale, and there’s others - these players have personality

We are a fullbacks nightmare, the ball pings from flank to flank landing with a 21 year old winger on each flank who probes for openings. They don’t get time to think. We can buy our time with confidence that either of them will get the better of their opponent which nearly always happens. Both were unplayable today

Trossard. 5 starts in the league for us - 1 goal and 6 assists. He's been a huge boost to our title run

Another big save from Ramsdale early on as he just got a finger tip to Zaha's shot on to the post. It probably won't be lost on some rival fans that it came back and hit him and stayed out after what happened to Jorginho's shot that hit Martinez and went in. I'll say having made the save he deserved the luck.
Another probably unsung hero of our season because he's made big saves at crucial times in wins - the forwards take the plaudits but Ramsdale gave them the platform

I never realized you live in Melbourne and are still an avid Forumite and Arsenal fan, fantastic and thank you.

Steve had an amazing sense of humor, not from me I might say! Always funny, the center of attention, his friends all said if you have a party and you don't invite Steve, it will be boring! Warrior is fantastic too, both had good humor, maybe that's what made them good friends to begin with!

Unfortunately Judith, Warrior has changed. £80,000 a week has gone to his head.

Sad.

Don't get mad at him. I suggest you steal his identity, strip his bank accounts and then make him a Spurs supporter.

We are more than capable of getting a draw at City, but a loss wouldn't be a shock to anyone. That said, a lot of things gotta happen. We need Liverpool to do something for us. It will give us a wee bit of breathing room. If City beat Pool, I fear the worse.

Although we are capable, even Chelsea at home is no foregone conclusion, its a huge London derby. Newcastle away is very tricky. Liverpool away even moreso. Ideally 2 wins a draw, but....I don't know. A draw at City is paramount. I won't contemplate a win.

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Got up at 3 am watched the whole game ... that was a big win . Palace might be *%^@ but they can be tricky ; thought they might get the new manager bounce a la Everton . Went back to bed , woke up minus about three hours sleep ..... felt like sh** .

but tonight decided to have a couple of decent rums ...... he ha .....
Wish Harlow , Bernard , Cannon or Daz were around

In this squad there is plenty of room for improvement , Trossard will bed in , Jesus to get fully fit .
Think what we need is a lumpy Dion Dublin Niall Quinn up front to give us more options ......at the moment we have to rely on unpicking the lock .

My plea to Mikel , PLEASE PLEASE inform Ramsdale he is not Franz Beckenbauer or David O Leary v Liverpool '89
playing some sort of sweeping role get back somewhere near your goal or you are going to look ***** stupid like you did v Sporting
Stop wandering around like some bloody deranged Bedouin / Aborigine .

Greetings Kiwi
I would partially agree about need for a more physical cf as an option upfront. It seems obvious, but a) we are doing pretty well with our posse of expert lockpickers (Ødegaard, Martinelli, Saka, Trossard/Jesus), and b) Jesus is pretty nuggety. So perhaps it is better to play to our strengths, and if desperate push the two centrebacks and Partey forward.
I completely disagree with the second point. That goal required a perfect shot from 50 yards. It was just below the bar and Ramsdale almost got back for it. The benefit of Ramsdale sweeping and making himself a passing option hugely outweighs the very small chance of being made to look silly like that.

Exactly what I've been saying because we have just such a player.
Falorin Balogun, and top scorer in the whole of Europe, and or am I doing a TG overexagoration.

Bon Jour Decaf ..... partially agree ??? we saw against Newcastle they defend deep .... ..we can huff and puff for 90 min plus and come up with f***all.

These are the slippery little details that escape you Mopane worm eaters ... just because we are doing okay with the current squad doesn't mean we cant improve .
As Bubblechris says in the next post

Anybody who watched live ..... I think it was a League Cup semi final [ cant be arsed checking ] us v Spurs mid 80's Allinson Rocastle scored .
Quinn won everything in the air ....at the moment we don't have that option ..... a collection of midgets upfront .

Your second point .....you dont have to be that precise '; any half decent lob is going to beat him .

Why does he have to be floating around twenty yards out of his goal .... if it was OK for Seamann , Lehrmann , Pat Jennings and F****** Bob Wilson to hover near their goal ...why cant that flouncy canary yellow fairy floss do the same

Thing is kiwi it’s not. He’s not always miles off his line and many of the teams we play can’t hit the target inside our penalty area let alone the halfway line. The goal against sporting is an absolute precision hit, Ramsdale is just around the penalty spot at the moment of the strike and he almost gets back to it. Sometimes you just need to put your hands up and say that’s a pretty remarkable goal and I’ll put the bottle of rum away for the night.

When you have had a bit of sleep and the rum has worked its way out of your system
a) have another look at the Sporting goal. It needed a perfect hit--hard and perfectly placed. A half decent lob would have been easy meat for Ramsdale. He wasn't even out of position.
b) although we can obviously get better, not every change, particularly the antiquated ones you advocate would make us so.
Try to wrap your head around the concepts of progress and tradeoffs.
i. unless you pay close to 100 million pounds and massive wages, you aren't going to get a striker who is big and ugly and skillful enough to play in our system and/or willing to sit on the bench.
ii. if Ramsdale stays on his goal-line, our CBs won't be able to push forward or we'd be hugely vulnerable to the ball over the top.

History will never forget Midos cross bar challenge. Love the laughter as soon as he hits it

https://youtu.be/pNAA4RL9US0

What was weird yesterday was the number of empty seats for a Sold out game. In Particular in the upper tier.

Thing is Stick a ticket in ticket exchange and it will shift within 30 minutes these days I guarantee you. So why on earth are there so many empty ones given that people can get money for the exchange and that Arsenal are going for the title and we are the hottest ticket in town right now. (Kardashian’s turning up!)

Even Yaya Sanogo turned up apparently!

Tomiyasu needs surgery and is out for the rest of the season. We'll probably see Walters on the bench for the rest of the season as well

Does pose the question who plays right back if we lose Ben white. Partey played there yesterday at the end but it would be madness to move him surely.

Bigger worry is saliba who is critical and the thought of Holding starting at anfield is terrifying to me

One thing I noticed on the highlights was when Ben White had a big tackle on Zaha and then another one on Mitchell, he was so intent on stamping his authority on the second one he just booted the ball hard out for a corner, when it wasn't really necessary. He had a bit of a fist pump celebration with Xhaka and the crowd. That corner was the one that Palace scored from.

In the grand scheme of things not a problem but it is just a tiny thing where the emotion took over, he didn't have to concede the corner.

Obviously I'm nit picking because he had one of his finest games in an Arsenal shirt

i made notice of it too and before the corner was taken I said to a friend 'I have a bad feeling about this corner'.
It was unnecessary but in the grand scheme of things not a factor...it could have been though. It's an emotional game in the moment so I get it, but still.

Against teams where we would expect to dominate I think you could play Walters, you could even play Partey and put Jorginho in midfield.

The worry would be having to face a top side away from home without White. If Saliba comes back soon I think he would be capable of playing RB - more capable than Holding.

For all the reasons above I would have thought it might have been good to give Walters 15 minutes against Palace when we were 4-1 up - could have got rid of any nerves ahead of a time he might be needed in a starting place

I saw that and at the time I saw them fist bumping I said to the guy next to me just watch they will score from this corner now. Corners seem to be our kryptonite and it’s definitely not Rambos strongest area either.

One thing noticeable yesterday was our ferocity at winning the ball back. As soon as their player took possession he was descended upon by several of our players. There was a brilliant moment in the 2nd half when this happened. They just couldn’t get out.

Thinking about the RB situation again - one fairly radical option would be Partey at RB but instructed to be an inverted full-back like Zinchenko. You'd need whoever played left-back to do the role Ben White does - which may suit Tierney better.
So you build with a back 3 of Saliba, Gabriel, Tierney, Partey inverted in to midfield with Jorginho and the rest is the same

............................................................................................................

but ...but ...TG ... he is ....the flaky Yorkshire yellow lollipop *%^@ is always way out of where he should be ... if I was any opposing team ... I'd say hit and hope
... who could do it Salah Ings Madison Song Harrison Haarland

The problem is you are changing the teams tactics in 3 areas left back, right back and midfield to accommodate 1 missing player. I think more likely in the event we lose Ben White you will see Zinny at right back. I do think what you said about walters makes sense, give him 20 minutes because moving Partey out of midfield right now must be a last resort

but ...but ...TG ... he is ....the flaky Yorkshire yellow lollipop *%^@ is always way out of where he should be ... if I was any opposing team ... I'd say hit and hope
... who could do it Salah Ings Madison Song Harrison Haarland[/quote]
Ings




McCartney, Lennon, Harrison, Starr …

Rashford pulls out of englands 2 games with a knock. So a player who is fit all year just gets a knock before 2 weeks of international games, odds on him being available for Man U’s next game? Such bad luck for Rashford to miss the games for his country….

Watching Zaha offer zero defensive contribution in our last game made me realise that I can’t ever see Arteta signing this type of player. An older player who has never worked hard out of possession won’t be taught new tricks, we saw who Arteta wanted out quickly.
Compare Zaha losing the ball and throwing his hands in the air with our lot who sprint back like a pack of dogs. If you’re young you can be taught that level of desire, if you’re older and have that natural desire and discipline in your game then you might stand a chance of playing for Arteta.

Interestingly, and perhaps surprisingly, it was Willian's great effort in getting back to rectify his error that backfired so disastrously for Fulham. Not suggesting we re-sign him! Wasn't impressed by his claim that the ball hit his chest either.

Man Utd were (are) so dirty back then.

Was it unnecessary? I wondered at the time. In any case, Xhaka giving him a hug was a lovely moment. I'm not sure if I have ever seen a team that shows such a strong sense of unity.

Not least because his team-mate seemed to believe him and got sent off for his troubles too!

Points tally after 28 games

Liverpool 19/20 - 79
ARSENAL 22/23 - 69
Man City 21/22 - 69
Man City 18/19 - 69
Liverpool 18/19 - 68
Liverpool 21/22 - 66
Man City 20/21 - 65
Man City 22/23 - 61
Man City 19/20 - 60
Leicester 15/16 - 57
Liverpool 20/21 - 46
Liverpool 22/23 - 42

*taken from twitter*

This is not like Leicester City's season, rival fans will say that to discredit us

I just thought when I saw it that he didn't need to boot it for a corner, if he wanted to make a statement by going in hard at a ball he was 95% certain to win he could have booted it for a throw, or not let the emotion take over and just get his body in front and draw the foul. Agreed that it was a good moment in terms of the team fighting for each other, and if Palace don't score from the corner I wouldnt have mentioned it

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Geez ...stopped drinking rum at 5.45 am .... I tell ya wisdom takes a fair while to arrive in some peoples lives .

Of no importance to most but John Sattler ; a true Aussie rugby league icon passed away . I met him . had the pleasure of having a beer / yarn with him at my son's local the Runcorn Pub in Brisbane about eighteen years ago ...an absolute gentleman .

Hard as nails

Ben White and Martinelli go down holding their face when someone brushes their sock .

This guy played about 75 minutes of a grand final with a broken jaw

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/south- ... 5ctqb.html