Blue Armour

Not a big fan of these. Why would any manager want their secrets and pep talks laid out in the open. Didn't seem to harm Pep or Arteta though. So who knows.

Have we lost him? Seems like this is not as bad as Fofana who had to leave the stadium on crutches (although I would be paranoid enough to tell him to use crutches just to avoid pressure on that knee) Hoping this does not keep him out for any significant period of time.

Slowly getting back. There's no doubt we are a much better team when he's in form. Mount and Gallaghers combined energy and work rate on the pitch is what I was looking forward too this season. Looks like we are getting there.

I'm eager to see how we will fare against them moving further into the season. Feel we have finally started picking up steam. Hopefully we can keep most of our key players fit.

Tim Howard is calling Arsenal the most well rounded team after City. Disagree that they're well rounded. They still seem to have that soft underbelly that can be exploited. But yes, they are the best team after City in the league at the moment. They just seem relentless in attack, constantly swarming the opposition box. And Liverpools defense which is already short in confidence and form was there to be exploited. And their old ass midfield can't press like they used to.

Dp.

Potter. What an absolute madman. Ballsy move that got Havertz, Pulisic and Broja to score in the same game, and Mount back with two assists, Gallagher playing his socks off and with full confidence. Just wow.

Wow. That is terrible. Need to change that now.

Is this his first time back? Struggling to recall if we played Atletico with him in the lineup. Even though he left the club in acrimonious circumstances, I think he'll still be warmly received.

If we do sign him...hope he puts a better shift than he did today. Don't think he did much off the ball. But if he turns in Hazard like performances, then it shouldn't matter much I guess.

Then hopefully we should win. And generally speaking UEFAs VAR system tends go be better than the FAs.

Haaland with 14 goals from 8 games. Annoying that we have the world cup bang in the middle to possibly disrupt his streak., but hopefully Haaland can use the break to sharpen his fitness. I don't care for City, and while I would like to see teams figure out ways to stop him, I still like Haaland, and the thought of him gunning for all the records is exciting.

Swear there's always one team every season that sacks their manager right before we face them. It's like the rest of the league has a thing for us.

Right before we play them.

Horrible decision from United to leave Haaland alone to go up against their CBs. They need their midfielders to put in a shift here.

We play them in the league cup in November 😭

Getting nightmares already about playing city. Even 2 Thiago Silvas won't be able to deal with Haaland in the final third. Only hope is to try to contain/disrupt him further up.

Wtf is up with Casemiro. They should have started him and used him to try and disrupt Haalands game in the middle of the park. He's the only good CDM they have.

What a shot from Antony

Yeah, the title is a stretch with City having the quality on display. But would be surprised if Arsenal finish outside top 4.

Haaland is one of those strikers who you can't stop once he's in the final third. He's just too physical to deal with. You can only hope to disrupt his rhythm further up the pitch, near the middle of the park, and even then that's difficult, because City have some excellent runners off the ball. He can easily release pressure by freeing them up and laying off the ball to them. Attempting that will also require some strong CDM play from someone like a Makelele or prime Kante.

I know Mount is going through a rough patch, and I agree he needs to be rotated with someone else, but we should still have more faith in our own players., and that they can improve. He's not even 24 FFS. In the CL final we played, we had both Mount and Foden on the pitch and we know who delivered.

Hope Potter selects the right midfield combo for this game. Must win.

Exactly. We are not even a third of the way through in terms of the season, and we're already building a narrative. Fair enough they have been impressive so far, and seem to have made brilliant moves in the transfer window. But unless they're in a title race by December, I'm not going to think much of it. Ole also finished second and was in a 'title race' the season prior to last, and we know how that went.

To be fair Arteta was allowed the luxury of poor finishes in the league in back to back seasons, including failing to even make the conference league last season. Majority of the Arsenal fans were calling for his head.