please log in to view this image Venue: Emirates Stadium KO time: 12:30pm GMT Date: Saturday 1st January 2022 Overall Record Wins: 98 Losses: 61 Draws: 45 Last six meetings Manchester City 5-0 Arsenal Arsenal 0-1 Manchester City Arsenal 1-4 Manchester City (League Cup) Manchester City 1-0 Arsenal Arsenal 2-0 Manchester City (FA Cup) Manchester 3-0 Arsenal please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image Team News: TBC
I'm not a huge fan of this modern idea that there are 'free hits' in football. Frankly, we should be trying to get points in every game, no matter how difficult the task may be. But I would be satisfied with a point here, especially given our horrible record in the past 5 years against our opponents. In the last 5 years, we've played them 12 times across all competitions. We've won 1 - which was the 2020 FA Cup semi-final. We've lost the other 11. We need to buck this trend of losing to Man City. Lesser teams have better records against them than us. We're not playing Man City at a good time as they are scoring goals in abundance and thrashing everyone, but equally, they probably won't be thrilled at the prospect of playing us right now, as we are in decent form, in the top-4 and are a much different prospect to the team who got railed at The Etihad earlier in the season. I hope we put in a good performance and get a positive result.
We are going to need to be at our best for this one because City don't **** about and will punish any mistakes or hesitant play. I think Arteta set us up too conservatively when we went to the Etihad and we just sat back and let them pick us off. I want to see us go at City in this game. Of course that then leaves us open to their attack, but I'd rather see us giving them problems and trying to defend that simply letting them play their game against us
Arteta out of the game with Covid. It's amazing to think the Covid era of football started with him testing positive for the Alpha variant. Hopefully a speedy recovery but if you're an Arsenal fan you would start to worry this may be the start of a potential outbreak.
It’s the second time he’s had it as well. I saw a statistic that showed that from all the top 5 European leagues, the Premier League has the lowest % of people vaccinated. We are also the league struggling the most with Covid. No surprises there… I don’t know how many of the Arsenal squad or staff have been vaccinated, but I hope they get it done asap if they haven’t already.
Ok well... THATS THE BEST 45MINS UNDER THE ARTETA ERA. The intensity was superb - Martinelli, Saka, Tomi and Thomas Partey in particular. Partey actually dominated the City midfield - that was ****ing class! Unlikley we can keep up the same intensity for another half but .. fingers crossed. If that's what Arteta ball looks like I'm all in
Brilliant 45 mins. Bit unlucky not to be 2-0 up with the pen that wasn’t given and Martinelli’s close shots more of the same stuff in the 2nd half please
True if it were 2-0 the second half would be feeling a lot less stressful. Martinelli was soo close to a potential GOTS.
Amazing first half! Can we??? Surely not keep up this intensity for another 45 mins! As above, the penalty decision could and without bias should have been given IMO. COYG!!!
Piss take that. Ederson takes out Odergaard, VAR reviews it and it's no pen Silva dives (yes Xhaka shouldn't have hold of his shirt) and VAR gives it. The Gabriel double yellow is just pure bullshit Officials might as well just hand City the title and be done with it.
That was the most devastated I've felt after a loss in a looong time. Really felt like a robbery. It's not City's fault per say - it's VAR/refereeing that really killed it. The inconsistency is amazing. If it's all going to based on subjective opinions then there's no point in the tech. This does bring me back to an old rant though... Why have we normalised diving? These days when a player falls over an outstretched leg in the box you hear ' well its the defenders fault he shouldn't have his leg out, there was definitely contact.. Blah Blah'. What we should be asking is did he dive? Was he brought down by the defender or did he choose to fall to ground? There's a simple answer to fixing this issue as well.. 1. Allow more contact in the box. (and in the game generally) Fouls inside the box need to be as clear as those outside. 2. Punish players that dive with Red Cards. If it.s clearly a dive - send him off.
Silva has 'bought' than pen today. It's as soft as they come, but because Xhaka has got hold of his shirt, VAR gives it. Even though the shirt pull didn't effect him going down, he was already diving when that happened. VAR should have looked at that and decided whether he goes down because his shirt is pulled, or whether because he's been fouled. It's neither, it's a dive. For VAR to give that and not to give the one on Odergaard, when he's clearly taken out by the keeper, even though he gets a bit of the ball, is ****ing scandalous.
I wouldn't have been OK with a narrow loss pre-game, but it would have been somewhat palatable, especially based on our last few performances against Man City. However, losing like that was gut-wrenching. That was our best performance against them since December 2015 - which was ironically the last time we beat City at The Emirates. Yet we lost the game in cruel circumstances. Whilst I thought the referee had a poor game, we have to look at ourselves too for that implosion. Bernardo did 'buy' the penalty, but Xhaka dangling his leg out lazily and then grabbing his shirt was always going to look bad on review, and a player of his experience should know by now to be smarter in those situations. It was utterly naive. If Martinelli doesn't miss an open goal, we go 2-1 up, keep 11 men on the field and we (most likely) win the game. As it turns out, he misses, and seconds later, Gabriel gets a second yellow for a stupid foul having been booked just minutes earlier for idiotically messing around with the penalty spot. The game was always going to be an uphill battle against a team of their calibre. We almost held out, but just couldn't do it. The performance, even when down to 10, was a huge positive. However, the points go to Man City and they ultimately have the last laugh. Spurs are now two points behind us with two games in hand. We play them next in the league. We cannot afford to lose that game.
We will be like a rabid dog against Spurs. There’s no way the players will want to give Spurs anything from that game.
When you say a player of 'his experience', for Xhaka, what exactly do you mean or even expect? So many big games he gets sent off or gives away stupid fouls and penalties. He's experienced at letting us down time and time again. Our team is pretty awesome right now but he's the weak link. We need a striker and a decent cm to partner Partey. He pisses me off so much as he's such a liability.
A player of his experience as a top-level professional footballer and history of sloppiness should be smarter by this point of his career in knowing how to defend against different types of players. The fact he hasn't proves he's a big liability in the team and that it will rear its ugly head every so often. As bad as his mistake was, Gabriel wasn't much better. Two completely avoidable yellow cards which undoubtedly cost us the game which we still could have won at 1-1.
Yeah Xhaka is annoyingly inconsistent and always a liability. The problem with Xhaka is you really don't know what kind of performance you are going to get. I hope Arteta signs a new CM in the next week or so with Partey away at AFCON. Renato Sanchez would be a decent shout. I feel like Xhaka performances will improve if he has competition for his place.
