Not sure Old Trafford or Goodison Park is the place to try it, but I'd like to see what Martinelli could do in place of Auba in front of the rest of the first team. Auba is providing so little right now, it's not like Martinelli would do worse. Maybe if Saka can't go, Martinelli will get his chance on the wing and if he takes it like he did today, Arteta can give him a shot up top when Saka returns.
Think he certainly deserves a start. Even if Saka is fit, i think i would give him a rest since he and ESR have been playing so much lately. I really like Martinelli as a ST long term. For now I think his best spot is a scoring W in a 4-2-3-1 or a ST in a 4-2-2-2.
You see what a difference a mobile striker who can run in behind AND assist with the buildup can do? Get AubaZette TF outta here. Start Martinelli
Can’t believe more wasn’t made of this. It’s a penalty and a second yellow all day every day. Edit: anybody have a good video of the incident?
The live match feed didn’t show many replays of it. To my view, it wasn’t a clear penalty since Lascelles leads with his shoulder to play Martinelli off the ball. Even if Lascelles isn’t going for the ball, shoulder-to-shoulder is perfectly legal. That’s 100% the reason why Tavares wasn’t called for a PK against Wilson ~15minutes earlier. I’m totally fine with this consistent interpretation and application of the rule. The real question is whether Lascelles committed a foul on Martinelli after making the initial+legal challenge. There was some sort of contact with Martinelli’s neck/cheek area, but the replays couldn’t show if any additional contact was intentional or incidental. For me, I would have hated to give up a PK like that if it was called on Gabriel making a similar challenge, so I’ll let it go. That said, if I see more angles/evidence that Lascelles did more than I saw, then I’m definitely willing to change my interpretation.
At best, the contact is defender's shoulder to Martinelli's collarbone/throat plus follow thru. The no call comes from the fact that the defender is basically in stride with Martinelli the entire way and sizes him up well. The reason the contact is nowhere near as clean as it should have been is because the defender never takes his eyes off the ball. In other words, he completely misses Martinelli's shoulder and the contact he makes is pretty dangerous, albeit not intended. Should have been a penalty upon review, IMO.
These assaults on our players needs to stop pic.twitter.com/XeGrd5b4m4— UpYourArsenal🔴⚪🔴⚪♥️ (@UPYOURARSENAL04) November 27, 2021
Thanks for posting this. I didn’t see this angle on the NBCSN feed. Much better than anything I saw before I made my post.
Hooray for our side! Had to settle for SXM coverage while driving home from a family Thanksgiving trip. The outcome made it all the more tolerable. Pleased that on the whole the team is beating "lesser" sides the way they should. Especially on the heels of a loss. Even if this edition isn't good enough to compete with Liverpool, Citeh, or Chelski, they can and should strive to be among the best of the rest. Builds confidence, as well, as they can see a difference between themselves and the dross of the league. Up the Gunners!
Shoulder to head not shoulder to shoulder, and amazingly on the post match I saw they asked if the Newcastle bump in the box should have been a penalty and Howe post match thinks they should have had a penalty for something, but that dangerous hit in the head is overlooked? In AFL, they have bumping, but the onus is on the person bumping to do it safely, if it slips high and hits in the head its usually a suspension. So does Martinelli need a concussion before its looked at?
Another crazy aspect of this is the game was stopped for almost two minutes while he got attention from medical, so they had all day to look at it if they wanted to. There’s clearly just no appetite to legislate the game properly or to make it safer for the players.
Based on his post-match presser, it would seem Arteta does rate Martinelli. He's just still really young.
And incredibly raw. Kid has some potential but he’s not close to polished enough at this level. Still, I’d probably start giving him games at center forward now. He’s already capable of more than the alternatives.
Just listening to the Arsecast and am reminded of one of my favorite moments in the match, which I think I meant to comment on at the time... Saka's super savvy run to stay onside for his goal. He does a subtle but crucial little deke, a course correction that enabled the goal to count. I liked that almost as much as his stellar finish into the far netting.
I'm EXTREMELY concerned for the LONG TERM health of ESR and Saka. It's really humiliating for a club like Arsenal that these kids are integral in our team and frankly are "undroppable" not because I think they're not good, but it speaks to how lacklustre everyone else is. We gotta get SOMETHING out of Pepe if only for the sake of ESR and Saka's future.
I am worried we are going to Wilshere them. We really need to get rid of Elneny, Pepe, AMN, Cedric, Kolasinac and bring in depth that will actually play and can be rotated. If not Jan then absolutely in the summer. But we need to bring in a striker and a winger in Jan to lighten the load on Saka/ESR and get some goals on the board.
I have mixed feelings on AMN but otherwise agree. Would add Chambers (expiring contract), Eddie (expiring contract), Mari (in the summer) and possibly Laca (expiring contract) to the list of sales. Need to get Martinelli more minutes at W (4-2-3-1) & ST (4-4-2) for rotation & development and 100% need a ST & W in Jan for rotation. Another CM in Jan would be nice but I think we can survive AFCON without it.
Since Saka was called up to the World Cup, I’ve been saying this. Burnout is a real thing and I fear it for these two.
The fact that Nkethia/Martinelli/Pepe have not given us anything for a number of different reasons individually is a huge issue.