Tag Archives: Rob Jones

Who is our scapegoat du jour: Nketiah, Havertz, Jorginho…Arteta?

There’s plenty of blame and disappointment to go around after we stumbled to a draw at home to Tottenham, and it’s only natural to seek out one particular individual on whom to pin the blame. The glaring mistakes from this and that individual may beguile us, though. It’s easy enough to blame Jorginho for coughing it up to Maddison to set up Son for the equaliser. Havertz blazed one gilt-edged chance over. Nketiah…well, the less said about him the better. Still, we need a scapeboat, so who’s it going to be?

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That North London Derby debacle yielded few bright spots…

More than a thousand Gooners voted in this post-match survey, an all-time high (the votes have been trickling in since the graphic was created). While these are less stats-driven than what you’ll get from whoscored or sofascore, I’d much rather have you punching in a bunch of ones in a survey than punching the drywall. On days like these, the post-match survey might serve as more of a purgative catharsis than anything else. That said, few escaped our post-match wrath, and when “no one” garners 25% of the MOTM vote, you know we’re upset. Simply put, this draw was a setback, two points dropped rather than one kept, and an invitation to Tottenham to believe that they’re onto something here. Right. We have a League Cup clash at Brentford on Wednesday before traveling to face Bournemouth on Saturday. Let’s hope this result sends a wake-up call to the lads and Arteta: find some intensity and fluidity!

Arsenal 3-2 Tottenham: Arteta has some explaining to do…

Here are a few questions that come to mind after stumbling to a draw at home against Tottenham:

  • Why didn’t we do more to target Udogie, a 20 year old clearly out of his depth against Saka, after he was booked in the 15th minute?
  • Why take Vieira off despite his looking lively?
  • Why send Havertz, who must be low on confidence, into the cauldron of a North London Derby?
  • Why leave Nketiah on despite his having a mare?
  • Why sub Jesus off when we want a goal?

We’ll have to explore the ramifications of this one in more depth later. For now, get to the poll to rate the lads and choose a MOTM…

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From PSV in the UCL to a TKO in the NLD…

This might be the most momentous NLD in years, what with both Arsenal and Tottenham flying high, at least after five matches. For ourselves, we have to feel like we have something to prove as well as something to build on after spending so much of last season top of the table. For Tottenham, they have to feel like they have something to prove after squandering the best of Kane’s years. Bereft of European football, they might feel like they can come out of the Emirates with a smash-and-grab. Here’s why they won’t.

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TIme to shut down some brave talk out of Tottenham…

Let’s admit that we’ve gotten off to a stutter-stop start, what with struggling to see off Nottingham Forest and Palace and drawing at home to Fulham before finally reeling off a trio of more-convincing results against Everton, Man U, and PSV. By contrast, pundits would have you believing that Tottenham are flying high. Why, they’re even above us on goal difference! Looks like another banner year for Tottenham. Heung-Min Son declared that “Arsenal won’t want to face us at this time. Everyone is running for each other, everyone is fighting for each other.” Hm. We’ll see.

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