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.

Zaha on loan to Charlotte

 Can he  be as successful as Benteke has been for Washington?  If even close to that level, he will be a valuable asset.  At 32, he's getting old.  

Newcastle Has Our Number

 The Magpies dismissed us rather handily over the two semifinal legs, 2-0 each.  I don't know why we're such easy pickings for the Toon.  They're physical, but so are we.  Anyway, we're out of both the domestic cups, having bottled it against Man U last month in the FA cup.

I noticed that Stoke was beaten in FA Cup action after PKs by Cardiff. Former Gunners Calum Chambers and Chris Willock both scored penalties in the shootout.  I once thought Chambers would be a starting central defender for us for a long time, with Rob Holding, but neither proved to be what was needed.  Chris Willock didn't play on our senior team, but was in our youth setup with his brother Joe, now a Geordie.  (How many nicknames does Newcastle need?)

Martinelli twanged a hamstring at St James's Park and will be out for a month.  We're pretty much out of forwards.  Can Arteta make some tactical moves to adapt?  He seems wedded to his 4-3-3 formation, but it has to have some flexibility.

ARS 5-1 MCI: Who needs a striker?

 Erling Haaland showed what elite strikers can do, outfoxing, outjumping, and overpowering William Saliba, one of the world's best central defenders, to score the equalizing goal at the Emirates ten minutes after the half.  Arsenal showed what good teams can do even without an elite striker, harrying the City players into repeated giveaways, and getting goals from two midfielders, two forwards, and a defensive back. 17 year old Ethan Nwaneri capped a fabulous Gunners performance, following goals from Odegaard, Partey, 18 year old Lewis-Skelly, and Havertz.  Arsenal led for all but two minutes of this game.  MO tucked away a goal at 1 minute 5 seconds following a steal deep in City territory, and Partey's deflected strike came just one minute after Haaland equalized.  Raya played an important role as well, making two excellent saves when it was a one goal game.  The last five games between these teams have resulted in four Arsenal wins and one draw.

Earlier today, Crystal Palace was good value for their 2-0 win at Old Trafford, both goals coming from Mateta.  Sadly, Spuds finally won a Premier League game.

Liverpool is playing at such a high level, and so consistently, that it's hard to see them being overhauled by Arsenal, even assuming the Gunners win at Anfield.  But all that we can do is play like this every game and see what happens.  

Game in progress - a Wow!

 Nottingham Forest 5 Brighton 0

the Tricky Trees coming roaring back after losing 0-5 to Bournemouth last week

GIR 1-2 ARS: Finishing Well

 We didn't need to win this game, but clubs always play to win, and with a heavily rotated squad we did it.  A series of errors gave Girona the avenue to the game's first goal, but we took the lead before the half via a PK (Jorginho, after a foul in the box on Partey) and an excellent strike from our 17 year old wonderkid Ethan Nwaneri.  Both teams had chances, but we had more, including a second PK (for a clear handball) that Sterling could not get past their keeper.  We finished third in the league stage.  There's prize money for wins and placement, and Arsenal is due about 40M euros already.  This money is what big clubs can use to buy and pay players who can help them stay big.  We'll play one of four teams (two Dutch, two Italian) in the round of 16.

WOL 0-1 ARS: Fuck Michael Oliver

 I try to avoid blaming referees for sneaking their biases into games.  But sometimes it's impossible to avoid suspicion.  Like Mike Dean before him, Michael Oliver seems to have a proclivity to red card Gunners for stuff that no one on any other team gets ejected for.  The sending-off of Myles Lewis-Skelly in the first half was nigh universally looked on with disbelief.  It was a cynical trip, not the "violent conduct" Oliver claimed.  VAR did not send him to the monitor.  But an Arsenal appeal of the three game ban was accepted and the ban removed by an independent review panel.  Fortunately, Arsenal weathered the half hour we were a man down, and after one of their guys was sent off for a second yellow (a foul way more violent that MLS's), we scrambled in a goal courtesy of a fine shot by Riccardo Calafiori.  It means we're still in second, albeit far behind Liverpool.

ARS 3-0 DZG: ECL League Phase Goal Achieved

 Any result against lowly Girona in the last ECL league game guarantees us a top eight spot; even a close loss would be enough.  That means that we'd get a bye in the first knockout games and go directly to the last 16.  With our injury situation, this is key.  We can hope to have Ben White back, and there's a chance Saka could start to ease himself back into fitness in another eight weeks.  Barring a Liverpool collapse (it could happen but they've been superb), our most realistic chance at winning something is Champions' League.  I'd love that.  We have never done it in the ECL format.  Arsenal is third in the ECL table because our defense has been excellent.  We got some luck with the schedule, in that our hardest games were first, before the injuries to Odegaard and Saka.  But the table does not lie:  we've been really good in this competition.

There's the matter of trying to overturn Newcastle's two-goal League Cup semifinal advantage in St James Park, which isn't likely.  But it's not impossible.  I like this team.  They aren't giving up and neither am I.  The defense is very good and the offense is scoring more than a squad without a recognized striker should be.  If we can get Saliba, White, and Calafiore back, it will solidify the former.  We'll need an impact transfer, or a wildly improbable breakout season for Nwaneri, to improve the latter in the absence of Saka.

ARS 2-2 AVL: Collapse

 I was spared the agony of watching this game, because we had lunch guests.  I'd have probably gone mental.  Well, I suppose it could have been worse.  It's no use moaning about officiating or injuries.  We had 11 men out there wearing the shirt, at the Emirates, and they didn't get the job done.

ARS 2-1 TOT: A Must Win Game Won

 Tottenham is a mess right now.  They did very well to beat Liverpool in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi, but they've lost six of their last eight or nine games and are in 13th place.  Their injury problems are as bad as ours.  We still managed to make this a tight game by not putting away a bunch of very good chances.  We'll have to do better against Villa on Saturday.

The talk after the game was about Myles Lewis-Skelly, who at 18 years old put in a fabulous shift, throttling Kulusevski and Johnson.  He's a star in the making.

The goals all had asterisks.  Son's opener was deflected past Raya, who had the shot covered.  The equalizer came off a corner that probably should have been a goal kick, and as it turns out was an own-goal, Gabriel's header caroming in off Solanke's chest.  And Trossard's winner, while a fine shot, bounced a few inches above their keeper's outstretched hand; he really should have made that save.  On the balance of play, though, Arsenal definitely deserved the three points, and this time they got the win.

Palace has gained a bit of security at the expense of Leicester.  They're even on points with Spuds and (for now) a point better than Man U.

Cup Flameouts Mean Silverware Extremely Unlikely

 We got beat 2-0 by Newcastle in the first leg of the League Cup semis and after penalties by Manchester United in the FA Cup.  Our forward players can't score a goal.  Another lost season.  It looks as though we'll need to up our game just to secure a Champions' League slot.

BHA 1-1 ARS: Back Down to Earth

 I think the players out there for us did fine.  But they couldn't outplay a sharp, energetic side who made chances and took advantage of their best chance, which was of course the PK.  Saliba was unlucky to be penalized, but it was a mistimed header and a clear foul.  That equalized Nwaneri's very well taken first half strike.  Both teams had chances to score, but it was just the one apiece.  Very competitive, a good watch for the neutral.

This result pretty much takes the Gunners out of range to catch Liverpool, who in any case look like never dropping points again.  There's plenty to play for in the league, particularly a top four slot.  But any silverware would have to come from cup competitions.

BRE 1-3 ARS: That's More Like It!

 Brentford at home are not pushovers.  Today, however, they got pushed around by an Arsenal squad that snapped into tackles, pressed with intent, and finished their chances.  Mbeumo's goal was very well taken, but that may have been their last real chance.  It took a long time to get our first goal, but they came more easily in the second half.  The Bees never looked particularly dangerous.

We lost Timber for Brighton due to yellow card accumulation, but I don't think there were injuries.  The attack functioned pretty well without our star man, and Havertz was ill today.  It's a case of having to grind out win after win in every competition now with a squad that's quite thin, but that's the case for almost every team at this time of year.  Other big clubs (see Chelsea) have slipped on a couple banana peels in recent weeks.  Only Liverpool cruises serenely on, but no team goes through a season without losing form for a stretch or two.

There was talk of recalling Fabio Vieira from his loan to Porto, but that does not appear to be in the cards.  It's unlikely that we could get a truly useful transfer in the door this month, but I'm sure they've got their targets and will explore all options.  We can't get any more loans from EPL clubs so if we go that route it would have to be from another league.