PSV 1-7 ARS: This Is What Happens When Teams Don't Pack It In Against Us

 OK, there were some elements of good fortune here, mainly Lewis-Skelly not being given a second yellow with the score 0-2.  But the Gunners were by far the better team on the night, and better at every position too, except for striker, because we don't have any.  I listened to it live and watched the highlights (twice already, and I'll watch 'em again) because I don't get Paramount Plus.  It's a great result because it means we can give some players a rest in the second leg.  PSV is not doing well currently in the Eredivisie, so I'm not going to get carried away, especially after going scoreless the last two league games.  But they did get past Juventus in the last round.

We get one of the Madrid teams in the quarterfinals; Real won that first leg 2-1 at home over Atletico.

USWNT 1-2 Japan (SheBelieves Cup)

 Japan was awesome.  They pressed more often than not, effectively.  Their passing was sharper.  If anything, the scoreline flatters the US.  Coach Emma Hayes used a lot of young players, some with no caps.  She learned a lot ahead of World Cup qualifying, and I think that was her primary goal.  The game was a decent watch, but both squads looked tired in the second half, and it was getting late, so I bailed at the hour mark with Japan up by the final score.

NFO 0-0 ARS: I'll Take It

 In the league, the goal I think Arsenal should shoot for is finishing comfortably in the top five.  This draw keeps us 6 points up on Forest, our closest chaser, and ten above 6th place Newcastle.  I doubt that four teams will get hot enough to vault over us in the table, but to be on the safe side we'll need to win six or seven of the remaining eleven games to secure Champions' League football, which this club needs to continue to improve.  ECL broadcast and prize money runs to about £80M, money that can buy a good striker and keep us on the right side of financial fair play rules.

Arteta will want to do well in the ECL knockout rounds, but it'll be tough.

ARS 0-1 WHU: Abandon All Hope of a Title Challenge

 This is pretty much what I expected, actually.  at 24 minutes, I said to myself, "We're not going to win this game."  The goal was dreadful from our perspective.  Calafiori let Kudus put in a very good cross, and no one picked up Jared Bowen of all people who had an easy header to beat Raya.  We had plenty of defenders back; they just didn't do their jobs.  Up top, West Ham simply packed it in and dared us to score.  We couldn't.  This is what every team will do to us now.  Leicester for some reason wanted to play with us and we got a couple goals.  Brentford got twice as many yesterday; Leicester is not a good football team now.  Neither is West Ham, but they were better than Arsenal today.  Lewis-Skelly's awful error in giving the ball away at the halfway line didn't help.  This is the second time a defender had to haul down an attacker because Raya plays so damned high up the pitch, earning a red card.  There's no good reason for that positioning either.  The Hammers had the better chances too; it could have been worse.  Arteta and his men will want to win every remaining game, but they won't, because we don't have a striker.  We'll have to try to advance in ECL and not collapse so badly in the league that we're out of the top four or five.

St least Notts County won.  

LEI 0-2 ARS: Nwaneri and Merino Brilliant

 There's been a lot of blather about Mikel Merino being the solution for Arsenal's striker crisis, but 25 minutes against Leicester's defense is not a true experiment for that hypothesis.  His goals were well taken, the assists from Nwaneri and Trossard near perfect.  We needed 3 points from this game and we got them.  However, the Foxes are in the relegation zone for a reason.  And we struggled for 80 minutes without forcing their keeper into anything heroic.  I do agree that Merino will have to play at least a false 9 out of necessity.  But he's not a striker.  He does not have great pace or a proven shooting touch.  He's not going to get assists like that every game.  He's what we have now and I wish him the best.  It's still going to be tough to win games without a recognized striker.  Any of Liverpool's front men would be a nailed-on starter for Arsenal.

Some of our close rivals in the table (Chelsea, Newcastle, Forest, Villa) dropped points over the weekend, making it less likely that a severe dropoff in form would see us fall out of a Champions' League spot.

Arsenal women won the North London Derby 5-0 in a match that was not as close as the score indicated.

The originals?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoke_City_F.C.#/media/File:Stoke_city_fc_1877-78.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoke_City_F.C.

A Proper Merseyside Derby, and Arsenal Injury Crisis DEFCON 5

 Everton got a 98th minute equalizer to send the Goodison crowd into ecstasy.  120 of these derbies have been played at Goodison, each team winning 41 and drawing the rest; this was the last to be played there, Everton moving to a new ground next season.  The play was typically spirited and spiky, with plenty of yellow cards, and there were afters, causing three red cards, one to Reds manager Arne Slot.  Great game.

It seems that Kai Havertz twanged his hamstring in Dubai during training.  It's being reported as a season-ending injury, but who knows?  We now have no strikers, and just three forwards, one of them being the over-the-hill Raheem Sterling, and another being the 17 years old Nwaneri.  Trossard is the third.  Arteta will have to pull a few rabbits out of his hat if we're to remain competitive.