- How Arsenal away are so different from Arsenal at home
- Atalanta v Arsenal: player options ahead of the game
- What will Arsenal be facing in Bergamo on Thursday?
By Bulldog Drummond
There is no doubt that the changing tactics that Arsenal have used over the last couple of years have often bemused opposition teams – and this is part of the way in which the club has evolved., by not only improving what they do, but also by bemusing the opposition – and not surprisingly the journalists.
Football.London, well known for being one of the most rabid anti-Arsenal websites however recently took this criticism even further with the headline “Arsenal slammed for playing like a ‘promoted team’ against Tottenham with ‘strange’ tactic”
What I do like about that headline is the thought that while the rest of us were celebrating, some poor turnip was walking round in circles trying to meet his editor’s demands of finding a negative headline to write about the club that is second in the league.
But of course, we are getting used to mindless scribblers talking about the Arsenal management’s “strange decision against Tottenham” in the light of a win that sent the Tiny Totts tumbling towards (I think that is called alliteration) down to thirteenth in the league just behind the mighty Brentford, Fulham and Bournemouth.
The person who made this wild and whacky statement originally was Dean Ashton. And I guess he will know something of this since the bulk of his career involved playing for Crewe Alexandra although to be fair he did spend three years at West Ham during which he knocked up 46 appearances and was once their top scorer with 11 goals in one season.
Mind you FoLo has been celebrating the fact that the tiny totts had more possession than Arsenal, “with Arsenal spending most of their time defending and containing their fierce rivals.” Still, Mr Asthon does have an excuse I guess. He made the comment on Talk Sport where reality is at the opposite end of the spectrum from comment.
Anyway we are fortunately in a situation where we can make our own judgements and reflect more soberly on the sad news that “Mikel Arteta has confirmed that Martin Ødegaard has damaged ligaments in his ankle and will be sidelined “for a while” after the Arsenal captain was injured on international duty.” Although I do dislike the word “duty” in that context” and am pleased to see that players are at last contemplating taking action against the insane growth in the number of games they are required to play each year. Still we do have Ben White who is not affected by this tripe.
Who Scored has an update on the teams Arsenal are facing saying that “The hosts will be without injured trio Ben Godfrey, Gianluca Scamacca and Giorgio Scalvini, while Rafael Toloi remains a doubt.” As for Arsenal, they note that the club “are set to remain without midfield duo Mikel Merino and Martin Odegaard, though Declan Rice will return to the starting XI here after serving a suspension on Sunday. Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus could be handed starts here.”
But despite Arsenal’s dominance over the last couple of seasons WhoScored only suggests that the outcome will be a 1-1 draw. They do however obviously expect Saka to play since in their preview they nominate him as the most likely “man of the match”.
Jorginho made a very respectful comment when asked: “It will be very difficult against a team that have been playing together for a number of years. They have shown they can win games and they have shown great quality and physical strength. They’ve been improving year on year and they deserve what they’ve achieved.”.
But we must also note that there is an ex-Gunner in the Atalanta side: Sead Kolašinac who made 118 appearances in five seasons at Arsenal between 2017 and 2022. After two years at Marseille, he moved to Atalanta and won the Europa League with them in May this year He has also made 58 appearances for Bosnia and Herzegovina up to and including this year.
You might also remember that in 2019 he and Mssut Ozil were victims of a carjacking in which Kolsasinac took on and beat off the attackers. Not a man to be tangled with.
But of course despite playing like a newly promoted side the Tiny Totts failed to score against our newly promoted defence, and couldn’t keep a clean sheet against our newly promoted front line.
Despite this, and what was in the end a very impressive win, all Fo.Lo could manage in acknowledgement of that was:
“Arsenal did get on the scoresheet in the end, though, through Gabriel Magalhaes when the Brazilian centre-back met Bukayo Saka’s corner to power a header home.”
Yep, that was all it was worth. That rag really doesn’t like us, does it
Just Arsenal carried the story, but some may prefer their summery of how events eventually transpired:
“Injury-ridden Arsenal proved their title credentials in their win against Tottenham. The Gunners had a game plan, and they implemented it.
Though not dominant, they won, and that’s all that matters. Winners triumph no matter what, whether they get up like a promoted side or not, and the boys in red and white demonstrated this with their victory over Tottenham”.
Depends howyou look at it I suppose.
More made up media negativity this tome from the Daily Mail:
“Arsenal ‘could sell out-of-favour defender in January’ with £25m-rated star ‘targeted by Italian giants Inter Milan’
He’s injured, not out of favour.
“Arsenal bolstered their defence over the summer with the addition of Italian international Riccardo Calafiori, with the £42m deal pushing another star further down the pecking order.”
How do they know that? Calafori is just another member of the squad. Who plays will depend on how he plays, how Tommi plays when he’s back, if Zinchenko recovers his earlier form. Who knows. The Mail apparently.
“He has never been a regular feature in Mikel Arteta’s starting XI despite being popular amongst fans and The Sun claim the manager his accepted he may lose him in January.”
Oh, I see, so it’s the Suns fault is it?
But wait a minute, when you read the Suns piece Arsenal don’t want to sell him at all. He’s not actually ‘out of favour’ at all. No, what the Sun actually says is:
“ARSENAL could be set to lose Takehiro Tomiyasu in January, Sun Online can reveal. Inter Milan, Napoli and Juventus are all tracking the Japanese ace who is thought to be open-minded to the idea of a move.”
So in actual fact they are suggesting, and I say suggesting because because the key to this is that he is ‘THOUGHT’ to be……..
And they goon to say:
“The defender did not take long to find a stable footing at the Emirates, and his ability to play across the backline has made him an important utility man for the North London club. The 25-year-old has turned out 83 times thus far for Arsenal while chipping in with two goals and six assists”.
So, somehow The Mail has turned the Suns story which basically says:
Tomiyasu is A VERY IMPORTANT utility player. Is a JAPANESSE ACE. is very popular with the fans. Is THOUGHT (in other words it is total bollocks) to be open to a move.
has been turned into:
‘Arsenal ‘could sell out-of-favour defender in January’
If you’re going to nick a story from a competitor you’d of thought they would of at least remember what it said.
It is really only not many days since the last transfer window “slammed shut” and the media are already spouting their crap about January, re who Arsenal should / must /can’t sell or buy, with the added layer of “will lose out / be hijacked .
Some of this nonsense purports to be the wisdom of various experts, (who all know more than Edu and Arteta), such as Arsenal “legend” (???????) William Gallas, J. Redknapp, G. Agbonlahor, J.O’Hara, P. Merson, Piers Morgan, and a number of assorted “bloggers”.
Of course, I was forgetting that we need to move on players who are “flops” and we need to buy a lethal striker who guaranteed to score at least 35 goals per season, to make up for our pathetically low goal-scoring figures . etc etc …