Search the Community

Red cards – no, a red and white team David Seaman Lee Dixon Sol Campbell Tony Adams Ashley Cole Santi Cazorla Patrick Vieira Gilberto Silva Declan Rice Ian Wright Dennis Bertgkamp What’s unique about the players above? They have all been red-carded for the Arsenal since the Premier League began. I have tried to pick the best team from the list but it was hard. All our top defenders have been no strangers to red cards and it’s the same with our midfielders. I ended up with a 4 4 2 but I figured that Gilberto and Vieira would stay back and Rice and Cazorla further forward so more like a 4 2 2 2. Bergkamp and Wright up front. Forwards don’t get red-carded so much so I hadn't got a lot to choose from. Still, that is a top side. Leandro didn't make my great red-card team Trossard was a candidate as our latest but I couldn’t pick him above those two. In the Wenger era we picked up many red cards with our man Patrick being our king—eight red cards which is almost an average of one per season. Red cards were very common in the Wenger era and it probably cost us some trophies. They were big feisty players a bit like now. Let’s hope it doesn’t cost us many trophies this time. Arteta will stop the flow of red cards We have had 51 players red-carded since Sky invented football. And while Patrick Vieira had eight, Granit Xhaka had four in a slightly less timeframe, although one of his sendings off is probably the most famous of ours. Everyone remembers that one. And you can fuck off if you don’t. Good kick, Pep, you haven't lost it The way it is looking, we could have a bad year for sendings off. Arteta needs to move quickly to stem this flow. I believe he will, it is where he excels, looking at our flaws and correcting them. I am pretty certain that the second half of our season will be better in this regard. Rice, who picked up his first red, will discipline himself against further lapses. Partey and Gabriel still have reds in them, I feel, and Timber may join that bunch as he seems feisty. Pep Cantona gets no discipline Mr Pep surely could have been disciplined for an Eric Cantona attack on his car seat, and he probably imagined a ref sitting there as he let fly. That ref would not have got up. In fairness to Guardiola, he did not finger the ref for the Calafiori goal but his team for not having cover for Walker as he remonstrated with Mr Oliver. That is correct, you cannot expect a ref to wait as a player jogs back to his right position. Play had to restart, and in this case Oliver did nothing wrong. You can't give a red-card to a blue guy However, there was one incident at the end which the BBC panel of Alan Shearer and Shay Given thought was a big joke and that was Erling Haaland throwing the ball at Gabriel’s head as he rushed back to take the restart. I am sorry but deliberately throwing the ball at someone’s head is against the rules and a red card should have been the option. I am certain an Arsenal player would not have got away with that. It would have been letter of the law time again. A record year for red cards? We seem to have got an enormous amount of ambiguity this season in refereeing decisions and bookings and cards are on the increase. Seven yellows in Sunday’s match and one red in what was, despite its intensity, a fairly law abiding match, indicates that this could be a record year for cards. It is hard to see to what good effect. Arteta does need to ensure that we don’t get any more unnecessary ones. Ricardo Calafiori scored a simple tap-in... from 25 metres The match showed that we can win the league this year. City needed luck to scramble that late goal which didn’t seem likely given the amount of defenders lashing the ball over the net or wide for far out. Defenders can’t score from outside the box, Calafiori will confirm that for you. He knows it's impossible. Oh! Are we now better than City? We can only be happy though. We all feel that without Trossard’s indiscipline we would have won at the Etihad, something no team seems able to do. We have improved year on year. Martin and Merino are still to come and we might just get a target in January. Raya has proven me wrong The other area I feel I need to address is David Raya. I am a big fan of Ramsdale and still believe that he will get to the top. I had a similar belief in Martinez and he has proven himself. Arteta, Emery and Wenger were wrong and I was right. And I think Ramsdale will also prove to be truly top class. But David Raya surely must be in the reckoning for the top spot in Spain. Unai Simón is in his sights and Raya’s ability to calm down his defence, make multiple stops, lead the attacks and pluck crosses out of the air, definitely makes him a candidate for the best goalkeeper in the world. The Arsenal are back I also want to address playing Calafiori in Timber’s slot and Timber in Ben White’s position. I suspect it had to do with Savinho and the belief that Calafiori would be best to deal with him. He did that well but for the goal he was out of position as he was a few other times. Maybe that was Savinho’s doing but White is our best defensive full back in my opinion and the other area he excels in is linking with Saka. Saka had a quiet game and was taken off for White to bolster the defence. A good move, I feel as Saka needs to be protected. He will need that boy for many matches ahead and any time he can be rested is good. No,you fuck off, ref The team are good, this game proved that. We are still unbeaten. We got 7 points away from City, Villa and the Spuds, a run that we feared could be much worse. We do need to sort out the discipline, accept that certain referees are biased against us but not give any of them an excuse. We don’t want red-cards to spoil what could well be a great season. Mikel, do what is necessary, and bring a level of discipline unseen in football similar to the level of discipline in our playing ability. We know what we have to do and we do it. We support each other and we have made City need a red card to draw with us and even then, their fans went crazy that that was all they could achieve. I think we are Arsenal again. Time to send all the rest home crying. We are back. Let’s start with Bolton.

Next ten matches: Palace h Forest a Liverpool h West Ham a Burnley a Newcastle H Sheff Utd a Brentford h Chelsea h City a Where can we finish, 2024, part 3? And so it all went wrong. We have 40 points after 20 games and a mountain to climb to win the league. An inability to score goals in our last few matches cost us dearly. Moving the ball around ineffectively in front of goal was our speciality and we now need to perform in the second half of the season. Can we do so? We will look at what we need to do in a little while but first how did our predictions go last time? Pretty good until the last few matches. Dani Georgiev, our new guest predictor, went for 48 points and I went for 46, which was the furthest away I have been from our final total. Our new transfer signing In fairness, we were the best team at Liverpool and West Ham and the five extra points we should have got would have put me within one point and I would have been happy. Fulham we deserved to lose. What it all means is we now have almost no room for wriggle in our remaining matches. I am going to set a target of 86 points as the minimum needed this year. I doubt if much less will be good enough. That means 46 out of 18 matches with a maximum of 54 points. We can drop eight points in this scenario. As you can imagine, we could easily drop that in the next ten and be out of contention early. Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Newcastle and West Ham are waiting for us. 4 draws and we are out. 2 losses and a draw and we are out. We need to be almost perfect for 18 matches and being honest, how many can really see that? Goals will come from where? To get 71 which might be enough for Champions League we need 31 out of 18 matches. Certainly a lot more achievable but not if we continue to lack scores. It doesn’t seem like a striker is coming and for me, we should play Nketiah in that situation. He does get in good positions which is our problem this year. Seemingly he is not considered a viable option, which leaves us an injury-prone and low-scoring Jesus or… Havertz? We are creating lots of chances, somebody needs to score them. But who? Why can't we bring this guy back? So we know, more or less, what we need to get. A very high total of wins gets us the league. We must beat both Liverpool and City, I feel, as they may not drop many. And put away all the lower teams for sure. But Arteta has had weak finishes so far and that has to change. Optimism is all we have at the moment. It won’t be enough as we also may have to contend with the Champions League, adding to our pressure. Honestly, I would like to see Arteta prioritise CL and top four as that would crown my Arsenal life. We need CL to cement our place amongst the greats. 7 matches is what we need, and if we create chances and score them, we could do it. We probably won’t win the Premier League anyway. Anyway, on to predictions and as always we give you the scores as well for a bit of fun Palace at home is a must win and I say 3-1 and Dani goes 3-0 which means we haven’t been watching our last few matches as we suddenly start scoring. Us Arsenal fans are always delusional. I hope there isn’t a psychiatric hospital waiting for us. But 43 points and a step on the ladder. Gus 43 Dani 43 Forest away is another must win. Aren’t they all? I go 2-0 but Dani obviously has remembered that we don’t score goals as he goes 1-1. He must be afraid that that psychiatric hospital is a real threat. For me Nuno Espirito Santo has lost his mojo and this is one we can win. And we must. Gus 46 Dani 44 Liverpool at the Emirates. They are a strange side for us. We seem to mostly play well against them without a lot of reward. But this could be an early six-pointer and Liverpool could pull away heavily with a win. I say we must win and I would take them playing better than us if we get 2-1. They owe us a win that we don’t deserve, yes? Dani goes 1-0 and I would say he agrees with me about winning this one any way we can. Gus 49 Dani 47 We owe you a mighty pasting, David West Ham away. We really need this one to restore the balance in the universe. They stole their 2-0 at the Emirates but this time I feel we will deservedly win 2-0. Surely Moyes won’t get lucky twice? Dani thinks they might as he goes 2-2. Gus 52 Dani 48 Burnley away. Vincent Kompany’s team have been playing better than their position shows but these are the teams we must put away. He doesn’t like playing blanket defence and that may help us. I say 3-0 to us and Dani agrees with me. Gus 55 Dani 51 Nuke Hassle at home and you never know what Newcastle you will get. He will most likely park the bus and hope for a breakaway. A couple of early goals will scupper his chances. I say 2-0 and Dani 2-1. Gus 58 Dani 54 Sheffield Utd away. So far they just cannot put points on the board and unless they have dramatically improved by this point I can’t see them getting any change out of us. We win 3-1 and Dani says we win 2-0 and we now have our last 3 results in common. Gus 61 Dani 57 Brentford at home and like I have said all along, we have no room for excuses, we have already dropped too many points. I predict a hard fought 1-0 and Dani surprises me by going 0-0. If we haven’t started scoring by now he could be right. They can be a tough team. Gus 64 Dani 58 We then have Chelsea at home and it is impossible to say what Pochettino’s team will be like by then. I am going 1-1 on a day we struggle to score. Dani sees us back to scoring ways with a 3-1. I hope he is right. Gus 65 Dani 61 Getting dark, too dark to see And then the biggie! City away and the old dark cloud comes down on both of us as we both say 2-0 to Guardiola. We could be Knocking on Heaven’s Door by then, particularly if Dani’s cumulative predictions are right. If De Bruyne and Haaland stay fit City are going to be hard to stop. The two of them are probably the best in the league. I would love either for us. Pep, you should have given us these two, not the two you did Gus 65 Dani 61 The Champions League should be the target It means I predict a very optimistic 5 points dropped but Dani says 9. Which means if the target of 86 points is correct we can only afford to lose 3 points from our final 8 according to me and Dani already has us out of winning the league even if we win our last 8. Probably we are being realistic and don’t wish to be candidates for the psychiatric ward but it is a little depressing, isn’t it? Here we are, just over halfway and we don’t think the league is likely. However, if we do manage to get these points 65 or 61 it does mean my CL target of 71 points is well within our grasp. The one that I want Mikel, win me the Champions League and I won’t care a jot where we finish in the league. There are only seven matches left and it is in Wembley. You always win there.

Erling Haaland is the difference Those of you with long memories may remember this blog at the start of the last season when I asked could we win the Premier League and did so by comparing City’s likely top 11 against Arsenal’s. I struggled to put any of Arsenal above a City player but I gave a draw between Jesus and Haaland on the basis that Jesus is proven in the PL and Haaland might not succeed as greats have not before him, one notable such was Andriy Shevchenko, who I believed was going to make Chelsea unstoppable. I also said that this was probably going to make me look foolish as I expected Haaland to shine. He did, in an unbelievable way. Pep, the Spanish guardian of the Viking god So, honestly, have you ever seen a better striker? I can’t think of any and I have been watching football for a long time. He had 52 in all competitions last season in 53 matches. Arsenal had 103 in 49 matches. So one guy gets more than half of all our players? He has 8 goals from 9 appearances so far. We have 15 from 8. So he is still scoring more than half our goals already? City get the Viking God, not Arsenal If he stays fit, I think he may be the main reason that City do extraordinarily well again, leaving the lesser teams to pick up the scraps. The fact that City changed their style of play to suit this machine tells you everything about him. Now, it seems he wanted to come to Arsenal, and Odegaard was pushing for this but he elected to go to City and nobody could blame him. Barring City getting punished for irregularities, he will win lots of trophies and Arsenal will struggle to get the big ones. Sterling's record to go? I want to put him into Arsenal terms. He has 62 goals for City already. Many big Arsenal names have fewer for us. Kanu has 44, Wiltord 49, John Radford and Kevin Campbell 53, Fabregas has 57. They all played for many years for us. If Haaland gets 53 again he will jump up into 6th place above Olivier Giroud on 105. He was the fastest to 50 goal contributions since they started tracking such things. If he gets similar figures for next season 2024/5 he will be pushing Ian Wright’s record. It is incredible. Bye bye Sterling’s record? Of course it may not happen. He may lose form, get injured, lose confidence, in fact anything could go wrong, but I have a feeling that this guy will keep pumping in the goals. For City, most probably. If he does manage 50 plus he will jump up into 3rd on City’s all time list behind Raheem Sterling on 131 and Sergio Aguerro on 260. Aguerro’s is a good target but Sterling’s certainly isn’t. 500 for Haaland, why not? Would he have scored so many for Arsenal? I don’t see why not, but Arteta would have to be humble enough to be willing to change Arsenal’s style of play to accommodate him. Pep, the modern day genius did. The point about Haaland is that he doesn’t get many touches. He makes many runs, often into great positions but regularly doesn’t get the ball. And so he is the epitome of the old commentators cry, “He did nothing in the game except score a hat trick.” Arteta too much of a purist for Haaland? Arteta seems to prize hard work above all else, and a guy who doesn’t seem to do much except score may be a big ask for him. A long ball aimed at De Bruyne and Haaland may feel a bit Sam Allardyce to Arteta. Plus Pep has the assurance of a guy who has won big trophies at big clubs. Arteta is having his first go. He may have felt it was too large a risk with the ball to go long. I guess we will never know. Would Arteta have controlled him or unleashed him like Pep Nobody else among the top teams play like City do now. Yes, City have a strong pressing game aimed at getting the ball back quickly as do all the major teams but Pep is willing to lose it by directing all efforts ultimately at the Norwegian. All their players know that this guy is unique. He will win trophies for them. They will get caps and acclaim as winners. Is there anyone for us out there? Despite all the goals and the big transfer fee allied to the incredible hype, he seems a very likable person. I reckon he would have loved Arteta’s Arsenal as Odegaard worked his De Bruyne magic for him. I think Haaland would have been the missing link, the goalscorer that we have been waiting for since Henry. Although Henry could score by himself and that is not really Haaland’s forte. Henry could get us the win. Haaland is getting them the win. And there is one big advantage of the long ball, so beloved of all the underdogs everywhere, you can keep your players back, ready to fight if the ball is lost. Ivan Toney the Wright guy? I do not see any one else out there in the Premier League who might come to us. Ivan Toney is being promulgated but, while he will bring a physicality and a target to all our incredibly talented suppliers, I am not really convinced of his class. Ivan Toney - can we take a bet on him? But he does seem the best option there is. I feel he would score for us. He could supply enough of them to give City a very hard time and, if he blooms totally by being surrounded by Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli, Trossard, Jesus, etc., and knocking in 30 plus a season then City had better beware. Ian could always score for us We are scoring lots of goals at the moment without our strikers knocking in too many. What would we be like with a striker who would score lots of goals? I suspect it is the missing link. We didn’t get Haaland but we need to get as close as possible to the next best thing. Maybe Toney is that. If he turns out to be an Arsenal player not a Brentford one, January could be interesting yet. Another gear in our car would be very nice at that point. And hey, Ian Wright was 27 when he joined us and scoring for a lower London team when he came, same as Toney now. Could he be our new Ian Wright Wright Wright?