Kickoff: 3 PM Eastern, 8 PM UK Venue: Emirates Stadium, London US TV: NBCSN, Universo "Well, at least without Europa League, we'll have Saturday matches more often." - me, an idiot, c. June 2021 Arsenal welcome Dean Smith's Aston Villa to the Emirates in a Friday night, mid-table clash. Villa come into this one emotionally damaged, having blown a 2-0 home lead to Wolves in the last 10 minutes of their weekend fixture, falling victim to Ruben Neves's deflected free kick winner in the 95th minute. They've also been dealing with a bit of an injury crisis, with four attacking players missing that Wolves clash due to injury (Bailey, Traore, Trezeguet, Davis), and it's unclear if any of them will be available for this one. Arsenal, as we all well know, are sputtering along in the league. 12th place after 8 matches, 7 goals scored, -5 goal differential. And yet, somehow unbeaten in 6 in all competitions. Mikel Arteta has never gotten a point from Aston Villa as a manager; Villa have won all 3 meetings between the sides under his watch - a pair of 1-0 home wins, and a 3-0 win at the Emirates last November. Arsenal's only win against Villa since their top-flight return was a 3-2 home win under Unai Emery, which featured an Ainsley Maitland-Niles first-half red card and a stunning second-half fightback capped by an Aubameyang free kick. I would kill to see that kind of fight in this team again. COYG
That 7 goals in 8 matches stat is the most damning one, IMO. I know at least two pundits recently chimed in about Arsenal's woes and they leaned into the defense as the main culprit, but you're not gonna win a lot of games if you can't score. And if you can't score other teams know they can push numbers forward and pressure your defense. Doesn't matter if you have an All-world back 4 if you're not offering any threats up top.
If anything, the "one game" has been the spurs game, the rest of the season has been a complete dumpster fire. We feel like a shittier version of Chelsea under Frank. There is talent there, and a better manager would get this squad pushing top 6 comfortably but Arteta is poor. Im pretty sure that equaliser was our 1st second half goal for the season.
That’s fair. But sadly there is negative chance that our owners will sack Mikel and replace him with someone of Tuchel’s caliber.
We don't even need a Tuchel to get an extra 25% out of this squad. I don't think people realise how out of his depth Arteta is right now.
I'm chillin' right now so I'm not gonna look who said it, but one of you wise people previously stated that the only way to enjoy this season was to accept that Arsenal are a mid table side and to watch them compete accordingly. Sadly, that is a fairly accurate assessment and despite that reality, it did help me enjoy watching our "triumph" on Monday, salvaging a point on the last kick of the game. Something to keep in mind ....
We’re the youngest squad in the premier league. I’m not saying Arteta isn’t a problem, but the idea that our talent level means we would be knocking on the door of the top four with a better manager is ridiculous. We have talent, but we are not equipped to compete at that level this year or probably next. And as much as we’d like to see Arteta go, this fact and our obvious strategic decision to go down this path points to him getting more time. To the idea that @ArsenalJake references above, the real hope for enjoying this team isn’t necessarily to look at the current reality and try to embrace the mid-table struggle. It’s to witness the development of a very young core and hope that it coalesces into something legitimately fun to watch and support, and maybe even something competitive. But I have little expectation that will happen.
I’m somewhat chill too and I think I’ve said since August that we’ll have Arteta until Nov/Dec at least. And unless he truly puts us in R zone in Feb/Mar then I’d guess he’s here til season’s end. Like most(?) of you, I’d be pretty happy with a slow gradual climb up the table, with players and team playing closer to their potential. AND some kind if positive, energetic style that I can get behind!
I agree with this, but my concern is that Arteta doesn't know how to coach an attack. Arteta's had quite a bit of time now at the helm, and there've only been a handful of games where I've enjoyed watching Arsenal play. Even the good results (the Spurs games, the 3-1 v Chelsea, the FA cup run), I've been happy with the results, but it just seems exhausting to watch Arsenal play.
I really wanted to believe Mikel turned the corner post-christmas, but it appears things have gone backwards this season.
Tierney is out, Tavares starts at LB. Lokonga is back for a 4-2-3-1. And it's Lacazette central with Auba on the left with Pepe and Odegaard on the bench. 🗞 Here’s how we line up for #ARSAVL… ▪️ @NunoTavares makes full PL debut▪️ @LacazetteAlex recalled▪️ Sambi starts in midfield— Arsenal (@Arsenal) October 22, 2021
Surprised that Tierney is out injured... had no idea about that. Surprised that Saka is playing given the whack he took to his leg. Not surprised to see Laca up top, and Auba out left. Not surprised to see ESR playing at 10 and MO on the bench. COYG!!!!
VERY bright start by our players in the first 5'. With some pretty high pressing. Just keep it up lads!!!