Luton vs Arsenal - Kenilworth Road, 05/12/2023 - KO 20:15

[HCZ_Reborn]

I can see this being potentially a bit of a slog. Luton make up for their lack of talent with a real work ethic and they will be hard to break down.

If we win every game between now and the end of the year (I don’t include the PSV rubber stamp fixture) I would make us favourites for the title, given we would have navigated incredibly tricky fixtures at Villa Park, Anfield as well as home to Brighton (who have beaten us on three times in a row at the Emirates in all competitions)

Of course don’t expect us to win all those games. But definitely expect us to win tomorrow

[Niall_Quinn]

It'll be a slog getting home on foot, if they don't have secure parking.

[Marc Overmars]

Think this will be another close one but I’d be very surprised if we didn’t get the 3 points.

1-2.

[Mac76]

Tricky really, my instinct playng a bottom-of-the-table side would be to give people like Nelson etc a start but we do need to nail this one down and it's not far from home, so probably start quite strong and try to be 3-0 up on 60 mins or so, then start resting players and giving others some minutes

Zin was so generally poor in the last game that i would drop him for sure (yes i know he got an assist but also fucked up and caused us to ship a goal plus there were other mistakes)

hopefully Tomi's ok and we can play him on the left as White seems to be fit again

I'd also play Ram but that ain't happenin'

[HCZ_Reborn]

Even if Tomiyasu is fit I wouldn’t play him, for the simple reason that if even if it just a knock he’s picked up might be better to rest him to make sure he’s fit for the Villa game which is a far greater test and if playing Zinchenko means we can’t beat this lot, we should give up as a football club right now

Nelson? Well id have started him against Wolves even though I thought Martinelli played well. But I think he deserves game time and if we can rest Martinelli whose pace will be very crucial against Villa I’d do it.

Ramsdale ? Well again I’d have no problem starting him for the same reason as Nelson. But I don’t think Raya has done a lot wrong since the Newcastle game. Seems more settled

[Mac76]

Even if Tomiyasu is fit I wouldn’t play him, for the simple reason that if even if it just a knock he’s picked up might be better to rest him to make sure he’s fit for the Villa game which is a far greater test and if playing Zinchenko means we can’t beat this lot, we should give up as a football club right now




fair point, we should indeed be able to beat Luton with 10 men

[Mac76]

3-0 Morris hatter

[HCZ_Reborn]

So the last time we won at Kenilworth Road was the 14th January 1984…when I would have been three and a half months old

And in the seven league encounters following that, rendered five draws and two defeats

[Letters]

To be fair, the gap between the sides is much bigger now than it was then. The 1988 Milk Cup Final defeat was a shock, but they were a First Division side then at least.

[HCZ_Reborn]

To be fair, the gap between the sides is much bigger now than it was then. The 1988 Milk Cup Final defeat was a shock, but they were a First Division side then at least.

Oh doubtless, it’s just injecting a few statistics. Which obviously dont tell you that much because we haven’t played them in any competition since before the premier league and when Thames Television was still a thing.

[Letters]

Also, welcome to your 40s. It's not so bad, is it?
I'll be leaving it...soon :(

[HCZ_Reborn]

Also, welcome to your 40s. It's not so bad, is it?
I'll be leaving it...soon :(

We’re all the same decaying organic matter

The most comforting thing about life is the knowledge that it doesn’t last forever :d

[Letters]

And that's why you lost your job as a motivational speaker :lol:

[HCZ_Reborn]

And that's why you lost your job as a motivational speaker :lol:

No it’s why I lost my job on the Samaritans hotline

[Letters]

:lol:

[Mac76]

So the last time we won at Kenilworth Road was the 14th January 1984…when I would have been three and a half months old

And in the seven league encounters following that, rendered five draws and two defeats

you're just a kid then, you act like an old man

[HCZ_Reborn]

you're just a kid then, you act like an old man

:lol:

I actually have no idea how old most people are on here. Letters is the only person I’ve ever actually met (he doesn’t remember this of course, but we had a mutual acquaintance who both of us have lost touch with)

I also know his first name but I’m not going to reveal that because this place works under total anonymity

Putting two and two together, the inference being that you’re older than me. The clue would be in the name as to precisely how old

[Letters]

:lol: I don’t remember meeting you!
Who was the mutual acquaintance?

[The Wengerbabies]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAm1yudXQAA9L3b?format=jpg&name=large

[HCZ_Reborn]

:lol: I don’t remember meeting you!
Who was the mutual acquaintance?

Tiny, who you said you think is married now

Actually met twice, first time was the league cup final in 2007 in the Gunners and then a random 606 meet up a few months later where we met in the Gunners again and a load of us went to a Tapas place on Blackstock Road

[Marc Overmars]

No Trossard…

Though I’ll forgive this one because we should really have more than enough to beat Luton.

I like these Amazon games. Wish they had more tbh.

[HCZ_Reborn]

No Trossard…

Though I’ll forgive this one because we should really have more than enough to beat Luton.

I like these Amazon games. Wish they had more tbh.

They usually get the Boxing Day fixtures as well I think

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Luton: Kaminski, Osho, Bell, Mengi, Doughty, Kabore, Barkley, Ruddock Mpanzu, Adebayo, Brown.
Subs: Krul, Ogbene, Berry, Morris, Chong, Clark, Giles, Johnson, Nelson.

Arsenal: Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Kiwior, Saka, Odegaard, Rice, Martinelli, Havertz, Jesus
Subs: Ramsdale, Nketiah, Soares, Trossard, Jorginho, Nelson, Elneny, Zinchenko, Walters

[McNamara That Ghost...]

No Trossard…

Though I’ll forgive this one because we should really have more than enough to beat Luton.

I like these Amazon games. Wish they had more tbh.

Only one more season of Amazon games.

[Mac76]

Good to see Zin dropped

[HCZ_Reborn]

Good to see Zin dropped

If a policy of FAFO is being implemented I'm all for it

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Come on Arsenal. :bow:

[Letters]

Luton’s ground looks absolutely tiny :lol:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

They're booing Martinelli for getting a knee to his back.

[Letters]

Not much happened so far. We’ve dominated without really threatening

[HCZ_Reborn]

Kiwior just can’t play as a full back

White looks rusty as well

[HCZ_Reborn]

1-0 Martinelli

[McNamara That Ghost...]

MARTINELLI!!!! :bow:

[Marc Overmars]

Martinelli!!!!

[Marc Overmars]

Good quick throw from Jesus

[Letters]

Us :bow:

Great quick throw, good work by Saka and good finish

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Weak shot from Jesus.

[Letters]

Jesus shot more of a back pass.
Come on, Arsenal, let’s score a few here

[HCZ_Reborn]

1-1 Osho

[Letters]

1-1

Piss off :angry:

[Marc Overmars]

1-1 :rolleyes:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

1-1. :doh:

[Letters]

Good header, but why’s he on his own there?

[Marc Overmars]

They’re making it difficult for us to play but surely they will tire at some point.

[Letters]

Great work by Jesus, good save from Martinelli

[HCZ_Reborn]

2-1 Jesus

[McNamara That Ghost...]

JESUS!!!

[Letters]

2-1, JESUS!

[Marc Overmars]

Lovely goal!

[McNamara That Ghost...]

1-2 HT. :bow:

[Marc Overmars]

In full control - just a shame we conceded from their first and only effort.

[HCZ_Reborn]

I genuinely can’t work out if Luton are being thuggish or they are too shit and lacking in coordination to actually avoid hurting our players. Lots of follow throughs with some of their tackles. Actually unbelievable they’ve only got more one yellow card than us

[McNamara That Ghost...]

2-2. WTF.

[HCZ_Reborn]

2-2 Adebayo. Shocking from Raya

[Letters]

Oh fuck OFF!

[Marc Overmars]

Oh fuck off.

Raya. :lol:

[dostoy]

Raya was dreadful there.

Very weak very poor.

[Letters]

We were supposed to now have 2 top ‘keepers, we’ve actually now got 2 very mediocre ones :doh:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

3-2 Barkley. Jesus wept.

[HCZ_Reborn]

3-2 Barkley. Raya fucks up again

[Marc Overmars]

Fucking hell.

Raya. :haha:

[Marc Overmars]

How the fuck are we making Ross Barkley look like Iniesta?

Shocking stuff.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

HAVERTZ!!

[The Dismantler]

:censored::censored::censored:

[Letters]

Well this is bonkers :wacko:

[Marc Overmars]

Thank fuck for that.

Can we cut out the stupidity now.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Kiwior off, Zinchenko on.

Martinelli off, Trossard on.

[The Dismantler]

Play like you’ve never won the league in 20 years ffs….

[Marc Overmars]

Havertz has had a good game.

[Mac76]

FFS Arsenal c'mon

[Mac76]

Why doesn't he bring on Nelson for a Bournemouth-style late winner?

[McNamara That Ghost...]

RICE!!!

[Mac76]

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Marc Overmars]

I fucking love Rice

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Luton 3-4 Arsenal, FT!!!!

[Mac76]

Can we pay West Ham an extra £50m? It seems only fair :)

[Letters]

:patrice:

[Mac76]

Arteta booked :bow:

[Marc Overmars]

To be honest, that should have been a routine win but for some awful keeping it was turned into a slog. We mostly played well and deserved the points.

[HCZ_Reborn]

Terrible defending (Raya has got to be dropped after that) but Liverpool had their 4-3 on Sunday and we’ve got ours now

[HCZ_Reborn]

To be honest, that should have been a routine win but for some awful keeping it was turned into a slog. We mostly played well and deserved the points.

Yep, defending was poor as well. Kiwior was shit…he can’t play full back and White gave that pasty fuck Doughty too much space

[Letters]

Holy shit will you play Ramsdale you muppet?!

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

Arteta just loves drama.

I think we've all seen enough to know in no way is Raya a better keeper than Ramsdale, a better failed footballer, maybe, but not by any stretch of imagination a better goal stopper.

Let's be thankful for Rice, the only summer signing he seems to have gotten right!

Edit: should probably add Timber too his little list of successes..... its just annoying that after all that spend the team doesn't seem stronger, just a bit luckier!

[HCZ_Reborn]

I have to say, Havertz has looked ok as well. Far too early to say he’s not a flop…but he’s definitely got up off the canvas floor.

[Mac76]

Holy shit will you play Ramsdale you muppet?!

:gp:

[Letters]

Arteta basically ignored the question about Raya, which I think is fair enough.
He needs to deal with this situation. I doubt he will.
The truth is neither of them are really elite ‘keepers

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

I have to say, Havertz has looked ok as well. Far too early to say he’s not a flop…but he’s definitely got up off the canvas floor.

No doubt he's performed better in the last few games, but he's not even come close to justifying the price tag and the wages.

A friend said this to me the other day, if I could choose, now with the benefit of hindsight, giving Xhaka one more season, or spending £60m + wages on Havertz....what would I do?

I was speechless, but the answer was clearly a no brainer.

Same situation I am looking at with these keepers

[Marc Overmars]

Arteta just loves drama.

I think we've all seen enough to know in no way is Raya a better keeper than Ramsdale, a better failed footballer, maybe, but not by any stretch of imagination a better goal stopper.

Let's be thankful for Rice, the only summer signing he seems to have gotten right!

Edit: should probably add Timber too his little list of successes..... its just annoying that after all that spend the team doesn't seem stronger, just a bit luckier!

To be fair, turning games around and scoring late goals has been a feature for some time now and I don’t think that’s about luck. I think we’re stronger than we give ourselves credit for but there’s definitely a few things we need to figure out if we’re going to be capable of winning the league.

[dostoy]

I only saw a bit of it but Raya was crap and must be dropped now.

He seems lightweight and has no spirit about him.

The Ramsdale of last season is much better than Raya.

Raya will play next game, no doubt at all.

[HCZ_Reborn]

No doubt he's performed better in the last few games, but he's not even come close to justifying the price tag and the wages.

A friend said this to me the other day, if I could choose, now with the benefit of hindsight, giving Xhaka one more season, or spending £60m + wages on Havertz....what would I do?

I was speechless, but the answer was clearly a no brainer.

Same situation I am looking at with these keepers


I think that’s a bit silly. I think Havertz is clearly a far better player technically than Xhaka who is old and slow. There was clearly a confidence issue there, and you’re right he hasn’t come near to justifying his transfer fee (and what wage he’s on seems to be a matter of speculation…probably not much change from 300k though) but I think we’ve seen glimpses in the last few games of the player he’s truly capable of being.

I thought this season would be an absolute disaster and Arteta would have been relieved of his post by now. That Newcastle result could have been a turning point where we let it get to us and felt sorry for ourselves like we did in the past, but the opposite has happened and instead we’ve won six games on the bounce. Are things perfect? No not at all…but I think Arteta has been more willing to change things up than he was last season. Am I convinced by him? No…should we have won this game comfortably? Yeah possibly but Liverpool didn’t, in fact no one so far has gone to Luton and has won by a bigger margin than one goal.

But I think we are far from the only side making things more difficult for ourselves than it has to be, but as long as we are the team that wins when the ft whistle blows I can deal with the stress before hand

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

To be fair, turning games around and scoring late goals has been a feature for some time now and I don’t think that’s about luck. I think we’re stronger than we give ourselves credit for but there’s definitely a few things we need to figure out if we’re going to be capable of winning the league.

You are definitely right about the team being stronger than we give ourselves credit for, probably why we're still top of the table carrying passengers like Havertz and now evidently Raya in every game.

But TBH even last season, we won so many points from losing positions...thus my comparison was more with last season than at any point in time.

I don't want to spoil the night (can't ,even if I wanted too after that goal), just putting it out their that the earlier Arteta solves the keeper and the the Xhaka hole, then hopefully we should be able to kickoff and see the kind of leap we saw from the 22 season to 23.... right now I still believe we are not as good as we were last year, just my opinion.

[Mac76]

If it hadn't been for Arteta's undermining of him, I think Ram would have been fine at Brentford and also much better than Raya today - Ram loves playing away at grounds like that, he goads the opposition fans and produces top saves but Arteta hasn't factored that in to his thinking at all

[HCZ_Reborn]

If it hadn't been for Arteta's undermining of him, I think Ram would have been fine at Brentford and also much better than Rays today - Ram loves playing away at grounds like that, he goads the opposition fans and produces top saves but Arteta hasn't factored that in to his thinking at all

Yep don’t disagree with that. Clearly has fucked with his confidence

[Mac76]

Yep don’t disagree with that. Clearly has fucked with his confidence

I think it's a crime the way Arteta fucks around with some players' careers - he quite obviously lies outright to them about how much game time they're going to get - I'm thinking of not just Ram but Nelson who was persuaded to re-sign but has seen very little action