Sometimes, to tee up a match report, you focus on what the best manager in the world is saying about his game. “It’s unacceptable,” “Because I’ve won I have the courage to tell you. For the health of the players, it’s not normal. I don’t understand how we survived today. Why play today and not tomorrow, when Coventry, Chelsea, and United didn’t play midweek? Why not have one more day for the health of the players? Tell me how you prepare for this final against Chelsea in the best moment of the season? How? It’s impossible. There’s no chance.” City put on a disasterclass. They didn’t hit the t ..read more

Mikel Arteta needs to show his teeth this afternoon. His players are emotionally drained, they are tired, and I’ve been telling them they only have 5 games left when it’s 6. Sorry boys. This is where the manager earns his corn. Beat Wolves this evening, we go back to the top of the table briefly, and City are back to chasing. That is a very nice prize. Here’s the Wolves update via Football.London. Neto – linked with a summer move to the Gunners – has been spotted back in training on the grass, marking his first session since picking up a hamstring injury against Newcastle United back in Marc ..read more

Mikel Arteta came out firing in the media. I won’t quote, but the gist was very clear. The journey these players have been on has been immense We’ve gone from a midtable joke, to competitors Only one team can win the Premier League and we’re competing against the greatest-ever Premier League side, and Jurgen Klopp on his farewell tour When you’re in a fight, sometimes you lose, but you shouldn’t take your eye off the progress That’s what I want to hear from my manager. We had the youngest team in the league last year, we’re probably 3rd this year, the majority of our superstar talents are 2 ..read more

We’ll start out with a bit of perspective. That was Arsenal’s first Champions League in 7 years. It was our first quarter-final in 14 years. Only two of our starting 11 players had played in the Champions League before this season. We just lost a game to a Bayern Munich that won the CL 3 years ago – hasn’t been out of the comp in living memory – and had 8 CL winners in the game-day squad. Below is the record of Manchester City. The most monied club in the world. Best CEO, best manager, best coaches, best data team, best players, best facilities, best scouts, highest wage bill, top 2 transfer ..read more

Champions League knockout games haven’t been good to us over the past 25 years, not have games against Bayern Munich. This one feels extra huge given the context of potentially blowing the league against a messy Aston Villa side. The maths is simple: Win and our season is well and truly back on. Lose, and the ramifications could be devastating to our remaining 5 Premier League games. Mikel Arteta isn’t just battling physical fatigue this Wednesday, he’s fighting emotional drainage. Every game in 2024 has felt critical in some way, but since the City game on March 31st, every outing has been a ..read more

Fans giving Zinchenko abuse in the Aston Villa game are a disgrace. I can sort of understand folk leaving early when we’re 2-0 down, but abusing one of our own players after the season we’ve had? Outrageous behavior – brings back memories of those dark times when players hated playing at the Emirates. Let’s not forget where we came from: hyping up Mustafi, watching Coquelin get turned inside out by Eden Hazard, Gallas sulking on the touchline, getting dominated by Watford, eight seasons without winning a top-tier game. Remember those days of trying to understand why Wenger only signed Petr C ..read more

You can look at coefficients, analyse the colour of a gilet, get hyped about starting line-ups… but none of it matters when Arsenal face up against Don Unai Emery. His exit from the club cast a forever curse on the big occasions when we have to deal with him. Sadly, there was no exception to that rule yesterday when his team walked away with a deserved three points after Arsenal put on the worst second-half performance of the Mikel Arteta era. Our opening 45 was pretty much spot on, we cut through Villa with ease, releasing Trossard, Jesus and Kai. It felt like it was only a matter of time be ..read more

Someone added me to a tweet about Unai Emery getting a good response from the Arsenal fans this afternoon. I have to be clear that any beef in this land is between me and Emery and it’s all one way. He should get a good response. I didn’t rate his tenure, but it’s not his fault he wasn’t fit for the job. His performance at Villa has been nothing short of miraculous because Villa is his level. Ambitious club searching for Europe Players that are looking for the next step Lots of control over who he signs Arsenal needed more. He wasn’t that. It’s fine. Any manager following Wenger was going t ..read more

The Premier League weekend got off to a bang with Spurs losing 4-0 to Newcastle in horrendous fashion. Angeball is coming unstuck of late and this was another example of what happens when you start to get sussed in the Premier League. Not too many Arsenal fans complaining we should have signed Maddison over Havertz now, are there? This does alter the maths a touch for the game tomorrow but I doubt Unai Emery has the squad to do much differently. Villa is now outright 4th place having played the same amount of games as Spurs. A win against Arsenal, combined with Spurs death run of matches, cou ..read more

EUROPA DA DAH DA DAHHHHH! (Or something like that) What a night in Europe’s third-best competition (Champions League > Europa League > Eurovision). So many bad things happened to teams we are in direct rivalry with. Let’s go through them. ASTON VILLA BOTCHED THE MISSION I was double-screening so don’t have a serious tactical analysis of the game (like I ever do), but the game was going the way of Unai Emery. Martinez had to make 3-4 one-on-one saves in the first half. Villa took a 2-0 lead, and Lille had a marginal call flagged offside by VAR. It was looking like the game was done… then ..read more