Michael Keshani

100% the best it’s been for us yday. But then he misplaced literally >50% of his passes. Still nothing in the air. And as you say, couldn’t make separation from defenders. And we still really struggle getting the ball trough middle when we’re dominating territorially. Just too many issues at once

Don’t disagree but problem I kept coming back to with him yday was along the lines of ‘he was pretty good but he is pretty bad’. Not front and centre for my blame but it was eye opening to speak to the non AFC lot in that moment haha

Have had a thing with a couple of non-Arsenal mates with saying I thought it was Gyok’s best all round game for us (maybe Newcastle), and they’ve independently just gone ‘really?!’ Another 0 shot and over half passes misplaced - have our expectations just been massively lowered?!

I’m not anti big Mik but think optics wise it’s very difficult for either of the current two to come back from having him preferred to them as a legitimate CF option (though if there were ever a week to do it…). I’d choose to believe that, I just miss him so much

Have the same worries re GJ but United were absolutely rapid and effective on the break last week so they’re def gonna look even more to sit in and strike, so think we really need Tross/Eze and GJ cos we just can’t afford to lose the ball and be vulnerable on break. Buildup needs to be crisper too

Appreciate that 😂 Unfortunately I take every piece of actual writing I do far too seriously to be my true, hateful self in them

Said to a mate a while ago that I see a series of increasingly subsidised loans until he's a year out from his deal ending and we reach an agreement lol

Thought he might be one where I could really embrace the scrappy goaler but there are no bloody goals to do it with. He moves like a haddock

Thank you, my friend

Does kinda kill me that we didn't even need a world class 9 to push on, just a decent one, and we got an absolutely terrible one instead

Honestly, I'm not convinced there is. Fitness asterisk with Wilson but he's still outscored him despite being old, on a pay-as-you-play and at West Ham. Really like Strand Larsen as well, and that's just the teams at the bottom ffs

I also just got back to my personal laptop and shut loads of FotMob tabs. Now that fucking article is written I never have to look at them again. Also finished a big work thing and got to close loads of tabs on that laptop. I feel a million dollars.

I thought we were a bit going nowhere at this point in 23/24. The Palace 5-0 was 2 years ago today and it was an oddly unimpressive 5-0. Obviously we went on the run of a lifetime. Only thing that changed going on was Havertz CF. The thought it really my hopium of choice at the moment.

The Gyök Is Ticking While results have been good, a deeper look paints a deeply concerning picture of Viktor Gyökeres' first six months as an Arsenal player.

NEW ARTICLE:

The Gyök Is Ticking

I started digging into the numbers in early December when it was clear how much more fluid we were with Merino. Even as a major Gyökeres sceptic, I couldn’t really believe the full extent of things. And it’s got worse since.

The Gyök Is Ticking While results have been good, a deeper look paints a deeply concerning picture of Viktor Gyökeres' first six months as an Arsenal player.

NEW ARTICLE:

The Gyök Is Ticking

Have you ever seen a haddock win the league?

I think he might be

We can't keep wasting 60' of every game playing a bag of rocks at centre forward

With that in mind, real shame Jesus is completely cooked. Merino is our second best CF, Need Havertz to hit the ground running and Arteta to stop fucking around with the no-ball-retention front line, and inexpicably prioritising Inter.

Main selection was poor, subs just didn't work. Taking Martinelli off really backfired. All round dismal. If I say what I think about that oaf they'll have me banged up.

Subbed off / Subbed on

Lol I was sat at the end Giroud was running to for that one, really funny watching it back cos I could swear it took 7-10 minutes longer than every clip suggests

That break with the entire Forest half open

And yet still he couldn't be our MotM, cos I've rarely seen someone give as much to an Arsenal side as Robert Sanchez did today (and in all fairness, unbelievable save from that Merino shot at 3-1).

Strange game. Should be more annoyed cos we really should have it done and dusted, but it had the dynamics of a 7s game. Think it was intentional but we were much more open than usual, but also a lot more direct. Fair play to Gyok, by far his best performance for us.

Podolski can't hurt us now (also at least he had the decency to rack up numbers against the rubbish, which was my hope for Gyok when he arrived. Somehow wildly optimistic)

He's even madder (positive) about Havertz than I am.

He's also even madder (negative) about Gyökeres than I am.

Yeah, just a q of what we do without Odegaard or in rotation cos obv he's #1. LW is def the best place for him in our setup but gotta be flexible, we all know too well how badly we've burned ourselves with rigidity

We've not really been able to make use of Eze's box movement and timing cos we've needed him too much in the actual midfield, in the context of the side. Hoping it's something that we can really make use of from the left with a proper CF who can do lay-offs and actually moves.