I banter off Spurs as much as the next guy, and Richarlison is more hateable than the average as an on-pitch personality, but this is a phenomenal interview and I really hope I don’t see Arsenal fans stoop to the level of throwing this bravery at him in the name of “banter”
The emotion in his voice is so clear when you watch the footage of this interview. Acceptance of mental health is miles better than if was even 10 years ago but even so, Richarlison deserves endless credit for speaking so openly on camera about it all.
21 years ago, Tottenham were a lower mid table side in English football. During the Daniel Levy era they’ve risen to become a firm member of the Big 6 establishment. Anybody who claims Levy has dragged the club down knows nothing about the ACTUAL “history of the Tottenham”
Over the past 20 years, Levy has hired 10 permanent coaches, who, between them, have won 61 trophies before and after managing Spurs. Between them all in that time, they have won one trophy at Tottenham…
#thfc
Arsenal was terrible early in the season, playing 3 forwards and 1 attacking midfielder.
The team got better in the winter, playing 1 forward and 3 attacking midfielders.
On Saturday Arsenal played 3 forwards and 1 attacking midfielder. They were terrible.
Its that simple.
Lost in the discussion of the handball decision is that Newcastle and friends keep describing this as a “good performance.” They were absolutely battered and got lucky that PSG’s finishing was complete crap
Heartbreaking for
@NUFC
. Such a good performance. Never in a million years is that a penalty. We are further away from applying consistency to the handball rule than we’ve ever been.
@ChampionsLeague
The thing about the Mike Dean interview from a few weeks back is that it makes it quite clear that this is true. As ever, it’s high time that reffing be taken more seriously, which means a more intense culture and also much better pay for elite refs. That’s how you attract talent
Bruno stays on and the goal is given because the VAR is worried about the ref getting a mouthful from the crowd. PGMOL is not run like an elite organisation, it’s a chummy gentlemen’s after work club whose primary focus is feeling protective of their mates.
Couldn’t be more excited by this. Another young, quality player who makes the team play better and will be an asset rather than a liability. A huge win to get him permanently.
🚨 Real Madrid and Arsenal close to an agreement for the permanent transfer of Martin Odegaard. Not a done deal but that’s the direction of travel. 22y Norway attacking midfielder didn’t train with main
#RMFC
group today. W/
@gunnerblog
@TheAthleticUK
#AFC
I really try to keep the ref complaints to a bare minimum here but I just cannot comprehend booking the manager for celebrating a last second winner like that unless he’s done something really fucked up, and the video suggests nothing of the kind
Prediction for today - people on social media who are overhyping Charlie Patino will be EXTREMELY ANGRY when he doesn’t start this match, and quite possibly doesn’t even make the bench
I’ve always been a fan of this way of looking at the league season to date. In the second half, 10 of our 19 games are against the bottom half of the table, 10 of 19 are at home, and 6 of the 19 are home games against teams that we absolutely shouldn’t drop points against at home
#AFC
back Mikel Arteta following his VAR “disgrace” comments and say that PGMOL "urgently needs to address standard of officiating". Spot on. It was a two-handed push by Joelinton on Gabriel. Clear and obvious. (Other two checks inconclusive so go with on-field.)
#NUFC
were the
Obviously the celebration police are always pathetic and should be mocked, but triply so in the case of Liverpool. Klopp does big celebrations all the time! And its good, celebrating wins is good, people should be happy!!!
@billycarpy
I am distinctly drunk, have adrenaline pumping through me and am trying to feed my child. I’m gonna need you to spell out exactly what you learned about him
@samfbiddle
@TheM_L_G
Let’s be clear - you just register the jet under a LLC and nobody knows whose it is. Buncha corporates did this years ago when it emerged that some hedge funds tracked their jets to predict M&A deals
The object of this window, as I’ve repeated ad nauseam, is to get players who can help us win this year’s title. Jorginho would definitely do that. If the numbers work from the club’s perspective, it works for me.
🚨 Arsenal among clubs exploring possibility of signing Jorginho from Chelsea. Italy midfielder’s contract up in summer +
#CFC
open to exit (may depend on Enzo Fernandez). 31yo one of options
#AFC
have expressed interest for. W/
@gunnerblog
@TheAthleticFC
If this club actually turned down moving for the €50m rated 22 year old in the position of need in order to sign the €50m rated 27 year old who isn’t as good in a position of less need I’m gonna have to do even more screaming into this pointless void
I appreciate that Ozil hasn’t bothered to put out a statement saying something nice about Emery. It would be insincere and everybody knows it, no point being fake
Bruno Lage has just done a series of giant fist pumps after winning 2-1 over Villa, expecting sternly worded comments from Ruben Neves to his manager later this afternoon
Karun Singh of Arsenal Data Analytics is giving a talk at the
#StatsBombConference
that’s providing a remarkable look under the hood of the Everything Model that the club has built. They are so far ahead of the stuff we’re using in public, it’s a joke
Arteta confirms Arsenal want to extend Martinelli, Saka and Saliba's contracts.
All expire in 2024, but current deals have options to extend in them.
My understanding is Saka and Saliba have one-year options and Martinelli a two-year option.
I’m standing by my comments from a couple days ago - this is the time to overpay and get it done. Less because of the player, much more because of the circumstances
Ten Hag on Rasmus Højlund:
"First game he came in against Arsenal, a 100% penalty that he didn't get, then against Brighton he scored but didn't get it.
It would've helped."
[Sky]
Arsenal put up 2.7 xG in the game against Wolves. The only other games where Wolves have conceded >2 xG were City away and Liverpool away - 2.7 and 2.54 respectively.
The timing of this report supports my (impossible to prove) theory that the Caicedo was waiting for the outcome of the Rice process before moving forward with a Chelsea deal
EXCLUSIVE: Chelsea are set to open talks with Brighton for Moisés Caicedo as negotiations between clubs starting within 24/48h. 🚨🔵🇪🇨
#CFC
Personal terms, not as issue — now Chelsea prepared to ‘attack’ the deal.
Never easy or fast negotiations with Brighton. Chelsea, on it.
Imagine losing your critically important young French center back in the last 16 of the Europa League. Not something that gives me traumatic flashbacks or anything
Little thing about today - that Rashford goal was an absolute beauty and is gonna be on highlight reels for years to come. And seeing it will always remind me of this famous win
Thomas Frank on Havertz going down under Nathan Collins' second-half challenge: "Havertz is a clear, clear dive. That should of course been a second yellow and a red card and then he wouldn't have been able to score the winner."
Arsenal have never been “confident” today or on last few days just because Aulas always asked for €50m + add ons.
#AFC
last bid was around €38m + add ons. They were prepared to try again on next 48 hours but *not* for €50m + add ons. That’s why OL consider the talks off. ⚪️🔴
@gunnerblog
Nah,
@scottjwillis
broke this down pretty well. They’re a perfectly viable threat to finish second but the odds of overhauling two opponents who both have better underlying numbers from where they sit is fanciful, a <1% probability
Reflecting on the ultimate question of that game, which is “how did we manage to not score a goal given the amount of dangerous possession we had”, I think there’s a lot more to talk about with Ødegaard, Saka and Martinelli not delivering than there is with the decisions.
As we’ve hit the final interlull of the season, here’s a fresh look at Arsenal’s results and remaining fixtures. This viz makes the remaining 10 games clear - 5 matches against top half opposition (3 brutal away games, 2 upper midtable home games) and 5 against the bottom half
And now the clean path to the title is draws at the Etihad and St James’s. I gotta be honest, if we get there I don’t think it’ll be by the clean path, it’ll be by City dropping random points elsewhere
Anybody who grew up following baseball or basketball has seen teams pay up to rent top players for just the stretch run in a season where it looks like they’ve got a real shot of winning a title
To me, the Joao Felix deal just makes a ton of sense. His wages for 5 months plus ~£6M is a pittance if it gives us a better shot at a title & with CL football looking really likely as well. I struggle to see another club that might benefit from loaning him as much as Arsenal
@ReidTheGame
I mean Charlie Patino is 19 and riding the bench for a team facing relegation from the Championship. At 18, Gnabry looked like a top quality Premier League player before suffering that serious knee injury. I think that’s a big exaggeration
🗣️ "It’s quite nice to see Arsenal fans enjoying themselves after years of frustration and self-loathing, but there’s something inevitable about Antonio Conte."
Nick Miller (
@NickMiller79
)
#ARSTOT
I’m mostly sitting out todays freakout, but I will say that if this is the actual reputation building in youth football circles (and I don’t think one instagram post is enough to draw that conclusion) it will end up hurting the club
EXCLUSIVE
🔴Manchester United players struggling with kit issues
⚫️Home socks 'too tight' & haven't been used since game 2
🟢Onana keeper jersey too small so has been wearing replica
🔴adidas working on it
🖊️
I have seen more calls given for the extension of the arms with contact. This is a clear foul and this doesn’t even consider how he jumps on Gabriel’s back. Atrocious use of VAR.
There are marginal decisions in every football match. Pretending that the ref is the reason we lost this game is pretty embarrassing. We got outplayed. Dust off and move on
Martinelli goal against United disallowed.
Penalty against Newcastle denied.
Penalty against Everton denied.
Every time we lose points the referee has something to do with always and today was no different. We were poor but we will bounce back.
@gunnerblog
I don’t understand how you spend your whole life playing the game and then commenting on the game and come away thinking “the right expectations to set for any given run of 10 Premier League games is 30 points”
Surprised how much stick Eddie is getting from the timeline post match. It’s not like he screwed that chance wide or hit it tamely into the keeper, he had a narrow target to aim for and missed it by an inch. That’s bad luck not a bad attempt
Well that was good fun, if by good fun you meant absolute shit. Now we’re gonna finish second, whereas if we’d gone out and played like we did in October we’d have finished second.
OK, so this poll was the lead in to a rambling 🧵. I think I’m gonna touch on randomness in forecasting/mean reversion, the non-linear nature of progress and the weirdness of Chelsea, but the real point here is why now is the time for Arsenal to spend to chase the title
I thought Martinelli broke Trent’s ankle with a freeze-framed cross last weekend, odd that he was on the pitch to almost score the goal to seal it here
Arsenal brought out the deep bench today, starting guys like Kiwior and ESR. So it makes sense that the
@ArsenalVPodcast
did the same. That’s right folks,
@PoznanInMyPants
and I did a deeply weird instant reaction and you’re all gonna love to hate it
@NickMiller79
Whichever editor allowed that piece to be published with all the writers picking one team set you guys up for this. If it had been 2 Arsenal 2 Spurs nobody would remember the piece
I don’t see why it’s in Gareth Southgate’s best interest to so aggressively blame Ben White for the falling out that’s clearly occurred between the two sides
⛔️🏴 Southgate: “Ben White didn’t want to be selected and t’s a great shame, he’s player I really like”.
“I took him to the Euros and World Cup. I spoke to him post Qatar, I was keen to pick him… there was clearly reticence on his side”.