I was thinking about talking about Gabriel Martinelli today, but before I get to that, there was the small matter of the Champions League squads announced yesterday ahead of the group stages and, unlike in previous years, the news was awash with players who had not made the respective squads for their teams. Spare a [...]
I didn't watch the Champions League final last night. I'm in Yorkshire with some of The Management's family over from New Zealand and we're doing a little bit of a holiday and, frankly, I didn't want to spoil it by watching a game that I feel we could/should have been in. Give me an Arsenal [...]
I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that i'm supremely confident about tonight. In truth, that home defeat to PSG rocked me a little, because I thought we would give a better account of ourselves. We've known about our profligacy in front of goal all season and I saw that Donnarumma made [...]
Some days it's really easy to just brain dump a load of Arsenal thoughts on to the page. Today is not one of those days. I'm still kind of reeling from the defeat to PSG in the first leg, but what has struck me as interesting is how many Arsenal fans are actually quite positive that [...]
This one felt different to Real Madrid. I don’t know why, I sort of know how, but pre game I didn’t have the same vibes. Pre Madrid I was very much “ahh we’re underdogs and probably won’t win, so I’m here for the craic” but, as the game played out, things changed. Real sat off, [...]
It's the big one tonight. The season-definer (until, maybe, next week in Paris), the one in which glory could be found like Madrid at home, or gut punch can be received, like the home defeat to Man United within the first few minutes in 2009. Arteta knows he will need the home support to replicate [...]
Spent the Easter weekend with family, which meant less time available for blogging first thing in the morning, but had I jumped on here for some post match words yesterday, I'd have talked about a professional performance against an opponent who looked like the jig was up. For Arsenal the approach was good; the players [...]
Me having suggested that perhaps they'd take the day off yesterday, of course Mikel Arteta rocked up to do his press conference in the afternoon after I'd posted some thoughts, such is my luck. I don't mind, it gives me something to have a look at on an Easter Saturday morning, although aside from some [...]
With all of the noise around the Madrid win still beautifully ringing in our collective ears, it's easy to forget that we have another game in to days time, which will be the trip to Portman Road to take on the Tractor Boys. As it's Good Friday, I wondered whether we'd have a Mikel Arteta [...]
Sometimes writing some morning thoughts feels like a slog. Sometimes it just rolls out of my head and on to the page. Today is one of those (the latter) days. I was nervous., I'm sure you were nervous. This was Real Madrid. This was the 15 times champions, on their patch, with a solid three days [...]