Category Archives: NewsNow

Where will Arsenal finish this season? Cast your vote here!

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There is no doubt that Arsenal have started the season in fantastic fashion.

Great football, great performances and most importantly, great wins. Minus the blip against Manchester United, Arsenal have managed to win 6 of their first 7 games of the season – and currently sit 1st in the Premier League table.

By anyone’s standards, that’s a blistering start to the campaign.

As the old adage goes, there’s a hell of a long way left to go this season but where will we end up?

It’s a tough question to answer because we’re only 2 months into the new season, and we don’t know how we’ll do against the other Top 6 sides this season. Added to this, we also don’t know how the Winter World Cup will affect Arsenal, and indeed affect the other Top 6 sides.

We have the North London Derby this coming weekend and the big question for that game is can Arsenal learn their lessons from the Manchester United game?

It will be another tough match and while we played well at Old Trafford, and were arguably the better team, United picked us off far too easily. They had a game plan and executed it excellently, and we didn’t have the answers. Yes, I would say United were negative in their approach, especially as they were supposed to be the home side – and in the end they parked the bus and played like the away team – but that’s exactly what Tottenham will do.

Conte’s approach is to win by any means necessary, and that will include putting 11 men behind the ball and then hoping Kane, Son and Kulusevski can hurt us on the break.

It will be a difficult game that’s for sure, but I’m hoping the fantastic Emirates atmosphere will get us over the line.

But where do you think we will finish this season? Can we genuinely challenge for the title? Or should we be fighting to get ourselves back into the Champions League places?

And how will our Europa League campaign and the Winter World Cup affect our season?

Cast your vote below and leave your thoughts in the comments section!

online polls

Should the Premier League have cancelled football matches in the wake of The Queen’s passing?

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There has definitely been a difference of opinion in the wake of The Queen’s passing this week, regarding sporting events around the country.

All English, Welsh, Northern Irish and Scottish football has been postponed this weekend as a mark of respect following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Since the announcement, the response has been mixed shall we say!

A lot of people have said football shouldn’t have been cancelled, such as Piers Morgan:

And others, put their point across a bit more bluntly…

A lot of people have commented that the reason that the Premier League decided to cancel all fixtures this weekend was because they couldn’t trust football supporters to honour The Queen and would be disrespectful during any minutes silence or minutes applause.

The Premier League is a global brand, broadcast in over 180 countries around the world, and the Premier League didn’t want the risk of their brand being damaged by any kind of disrespect to the Royal Family which in itself is a global institution.

But what are your thoughts? Was cancelling the fixtures this weekend the right call? After all, they made the same decision in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland?

Or should the Premier League have followed suit of golf, cricket, rugby, tennis and motor racing and continued on, but shown displays of respect to their global audience?

Leave your thoughts in the comments section! ?

Should Arsenal’s first goal against Manchester United have stood? Cast your vote here!

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VAR has been in the headlines a lot recently, unfortunately for the wrong reasons.

The decision to rule out West Ham’s equaliser against Chelsea was absolutely ridiculous, and again at Old Trafford yesterday, I predicted that a VAR decision would go against us…

In the 13th minute, Odegaard dispossessed Christian Eriksen on the halfway line, Arsenal broke at speed and then Martinelli scored a fantastic goal.

Bruno Fernandes moaned like a little girl (like he usually does) and the referee took a look at VAR.

And we all know what happened next.

Paul Tierney went over to the monitor, “reviewed” the incident and then ruled the goal out for a foul on Eriksen.

Are you kidding me?

Before any Manchester United fans come at me, yes, there was contact. But is football a non-contact sport now?! The decision was absolutely ridiculous and I defy anyone to argue that Eriksen didn’t go down easily – and if you look at the footage closely, he actually starts to fall before Odegaard’s knee connects with him.

The decision was ludicrous, and it completely changed the game.

With Arsenal in the lead, Manchester United wouldn’t have been able to sit back and get us on the counter attack. You can say whatever you want about Arteta’s tactics and how the team was setup, but the first goal always shapes how the game goes and I have no doubt with United having to open up, we would have gone on to score 2 or even 3 goals and win that game.

Small decisions make big impacts and the referees and VAR need to get their act together because the spirit of the game is being ruined.

But did you think Arsenal’s goal should have stood? Cast your vote below and leave your thoughts in the comments section!

online polls

Arsenal undone by VARcical decisions at Old Trafford – should we be surprised?

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I said early this morning, well before kick off, that I could see a terrible VAR decision go against us at Old Trafford. And what happened?

In a completely dominate display, Arsenal scored a goal which was chalked off because Odegaard was seen to have fouled Eriksen. After seeing multiple replays, it was clear the Dane went down easily, collapsing under the presence of Odegaard.

Manchester United were happy to sit deep and absorb the pressure, something you would expect from a team battling relegation.

But fine margins make all the difference and after our goal was unfairly ruled out, United scored goals which were fortunate to say the least.

The first goal was against the run of play, and the second only went in when the ball took a deflection off Ben White taking it past Aaron Ramsdale. And the third, was another goal off the break.

I thought Erik ten Haag was brought in to bring expansive and exciting football to Old Trafford?

The performance from Arsenal was excellent, and against talking about fine margins – we just couldn’t take advantage of the openings we created. Gabriel Jesus was outstanding, terrorising the United defence and causing all kinds of problems – but when the chances came we were found wanting.

Odegaard sliced a chance from 5 yards out when he should have scored, Saka lashed a shot past the post when he should have scored – the big, clear cut chances came Arsenal’s way and we couldn’t find the net.

A disappointing defeat, one which ends our winning run and I’m sure the media will be happy with that. But come end of the season, I guarantee we will be above this Manchester United side.

Why Arsenal fans have no-one else to blame except themselves for this mess!

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The way the Arsenal fans treated this great man was disgusting…

Arsene Wenger left Arsenal in the summer of 2018, which was only 3 short years ago. Since then, Arsenal have been in absolute free fall.

In Arsene’s final season, we finished 6th in the Premier League and reached the semi-finals of the Europa League. Things we would probably kill for now.

The final seasons of Arsene’s reign were uncomfortable to watch and at the time, I was always an Arsene supporter. He had single-handedly dragged our great club to the peak of the Premier League, when the only side that was winning was Manchester United. Clubs like Newcastle, Leeds United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham were all fighting to compete in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, but it was Arsenal who would offer the biggest threat and would even topple the red side of Manchester a few times.

Arsene also had great ambition and vision, which lead to the move to The Emirates Stadium. This was to ensure we could compete with the biggest teams when it came to spending money in the transfer market – and that’s certainly true as Arsenal have spent around £400 million alone on transfer fees since Arsene Wenger left the club. So we’re in a healthy position financially.

But while we have the funds to compete, we are is a right mess. 3 games into the new season, we sit bottom of the league, with our friends Tottenham Hotspur sitting at the top. Bad times indeed.

But how did we get to this? I guarantee that if Arsene Wenger was still at the club, we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in now.

Arsene commanded great respect in the dressing room but also in the board room. None of this mess with the board, Edu and the men at the top who have since left would have happened. We signed dead wood like David Luiz and Cedric because Edu is mates with their agent! We’ve had the money but signed absolute duds just so we could line the pockets of Edu’s pals. It’s a disgrace.

On the pitch, it’s not much better. I like Mikel Arteta, I really do, but why on earth did we bring him to the club? This is a man with ZERO management experience.

You can laugh and joke all you like about Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney and other ex-professionals that have tried their hand at management – but at least they have SOME management experience! It’s absolutely insane to think that someone who has never managed in their life would come into the club and improve the situation. But that’s a reflection on the people running the club.

And I think the biggest issue right now is we have no identity. When you watch any other team in the Premier League, after 5 minuets of watching them you understand how they’re trying to play – there’s a game plan and method to their patterns of play. With Arsenal, I don’t know what I’m watching, seriously. What are we trying to do? We’re not direct, we’re not playing through the wings, we’re not playing through the lines – what instructions is Mikel Arteta giving the players? Because they look completely clueless when they’re on the pitch!

At least with Arsene Wenger, we had a plan. It was attack, attack, attack, and although it left us exposed, at least we scored goals! Now we have ZERO goal threat and just concede goals.

I’ve always said with Arsene Wenger we would score goals and concede goals. With Unai Emery, we scored less goals but conceded less goals. Now, with Arteta, we don’t score any goals and just concede loads of them. So in 3 seasons we’ve dramatically gone downhill.

We are currently 20th in the Premier League after 3 games, and there’s a long way to go and we probably won’t be there at the end of the season. But unless things change, and quickly, then we’re not going to get much higher in the league!