Bit much even for me. I would have waited till March before posting that.
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This is one of my big boring issues I cannot let go, but I was incredibly disappointed by Arsenal’s timidity in their face up against City at the end of last season. City were winning but not playing well and he had just watched them get outplayed by Liverpool in a way that had never happened in the Pep era. The things Liverpool did to cause them so much trouble were the things on which Arsenal up to that point had based their rise. A win against city would have put them in pole position in the 3 way title race and put meaningful distance between them and city. But they shit it and bored out a draw by playing negative risk free football.
This performance yesterday was the one they should have put in against them last year. Had they done so they would have won the title. Finally getting the balls to meet a rival on the front foot gave them the win this time around, but it will almost certainly be too late this time.
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Just saw the result. 5-1, wow. Cheaty aren’t their usual self this season. Good.
We are now 14 points ahead with a game in hand. It was already diffcult for them, but it’s clear now that they won’t recover from this, and they’ll have to battle very hard for their top four status, against the likes of Newcastle, Forest and Chelsea.
Arsenal on the other hand are still in this. Let’s hope that we can win the next games as well, in order to keep things very clear at the top, fingers crossed!
And yet at 1-1 it seemed much the same.
And it’s probably why there are more slip ups in them than we factor in.
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Arsenal are making more of a race of it, and the media is lapping that up because it is a better spectacle than a procession, if the leading team is barely challenged.
As it happens, nothing changed at the weekend. We both won, the gap is still 6 points, and we still have a game in hand.
I suppose the one thing that did change is Arsenal now have one game less to overtake us. There’s still a long way to go and things can change quickly, so I’m not celebrating anything yet. Beat Everton after the cup games and it will look that much better again.
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I don’t think many would agree. City’s goal was pretty much against the run of play. They could have been 3 down already by the time they scored that equalizer.
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Oh I must have been watching a very different game then.
Not sure how Arsenal could have scored 3 goals before the City goal considering they had only put 2 on target.
Plus Raya saved two one which could easily have gone in. First 10 mins they were on them but the rest half was pretty even and Man City had more of the ball and the better of the chances, all I can remember from Arsenal was that Havertz chance.
Seriously 1-1 was about right at that point. Most reports back me up if you read live commentary.
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My take was it was nowhere near a 5-1 game, and everything went right for Arsenal in terms of goals, but Arsenal still deserved to win.
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They did overall. I was saying up to the equaliser. At that point there was very little between the two sides the stats say that and the commentary of the game backs that up too.
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10 wins and 5 draws (two Derbies, City, Arsenal and Chelsea) wins us the league.
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To be honest 12 wins probably does…
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It won’t even take this much. 35 points puts us on 91 for the season, I reckon that will see us win it by a comfortable margin.
30 more points the rest of the way will be enough. Arsenal will NOT be perfect from here on out, that much I can guarantee.
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Yeah but that guarantees it regardless and it’s the only number I’m looking at.
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I mean when all you do is buy CBs who can play at FB and then not even play them I’d be hesitant to give you money to buy another striker who isnt in the team to score goals.
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I was going to say he’s becoming a self-parody at this point, before I realised the discussion was about Arteta not Guardiola.
Still, apple, tree.
I must say that reading this is quite comforting… Come on Mikel, that’s just the beginning: more internal infights carried out in the open, please… 
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Even with their injuries - not as bad as Arteta makes out, they have several expensive players who don’t even get a look in, and they have seen the emergence of Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly too, so it has been serendipitous.
Arteta whining in public reflects poorly on his character, especially given how much Arsenal have backed him.
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I was surprised to hear Julian Laurens, who is an Arsenal to be fair, on The Guardian podcast yesterday say that Liverpool have had a blessed run with no injuries to first team players all season. His claim was that we’ll see what happens when/if that happens.
Players who have missed more than 3 PL games through injury… we’ve had Alisson miss 8, Konate has missed 6, Gomez 14 and counting, Bradley 8, Jones 4, Elliott 8, Jota 8 and Chiesa has barely played all season.
To compare Arsenal have missed White for 15, Calafiori for 9, Odegaard 8, Saka 8 and Jesus 6
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Tbh between Alisson and White, Calafiori, Ødegaard, Saka, I think he’s nowhere close to being as and as important. Don’t you know the poor Gunners are the worst done by team in injuries AND refereeing decisions???