bookd.
juju
somehow the only footy fan in my entire bloodline and somehow i landed on arsenal in 22/23
Brighton3 - 0Arsenal
I can’t believe we got pecked by the seagulls, FUCK! Always hated seagulls… Anyway, Brighton were brilliant. Faster at every step, absolutely frenetic pressing, and just wanted it more. Made everything very uncomfortable and difficult for us, and played their hearts out. Kudos to them, well played. I haven’t seen the Arsenal this off the pace in a long time. It wasn’t a matter of not having any ideas going forward, we seemed to have plenty of ideas, we just couldn’t pull any of them off it seemed. Slow to everything, midfielders dropping deep to receive and leaving an enormous void in the center of the pitch, where the Brighton press just snapped up every loose ball or loose pass. It’s like we knew what to do, we just weren’t doing it. Reacting instead of acting, and facing a tempo this high, that was a recipe for disaster. Watching the players get visibly more and more frustrated as they misplaced passes, mistimed runs, and were beaten to loose balls made me unbelievably frustrated as well. I’m not going to let emotion take over and declare the sign of the end times. Yes, we were dogshit on the pitch, but I’m not really worried yet. Some players could really be giving me more (ahem, Eze, looking at you…), and certain combinations just weren’t working at all (Konsa and Gabriel looked uneasy next to each other), but there’s certainly a cause for this which I’m confident they’ll iron out. The whole match looked like Arsenal had all been poisoned, and Brighton had all smoked crack in the tunnel before coming out, and we’ve seen enough of this Arsenal team to know that’s pretty out of character. Shit games happen, better now than later I guess. Saka is indecisive in front of goal, and is taking 1-2 too many touches. Havertz needs to put that away, but nice combo with Gyokeres. Calafiori is a total footballer. Dowman🫰 The only silver lining is that we didn’t give up a 2-goal lead, at least… The next seagull I see, I’m wringing its neck, sorry mate. COYG❤️🤍
Brentford3 - 0Chelsea
First half was very slow, which was quite expected for Brentford to ruin Chelsea's momentum. But wow, Brentford really turned the tempo up in that second half. Great counter attacking play destroyed Chelsea's defence. I think Thiago struggled quite a bit throughout the game, but he was still there to put away his chance when it mattered. Kevin Schade looked very dangerous once again, he's surely on of the fastest players in Europe, no one can catch him. Bravo to Keith Andrews for getting everything spot on, everyone doubted him when he came in, including myself, but he's been unreal for Brentford since taking over from Thomas Frank. Finally, Brentford's stand out player was Jannik Schuster, he did everything right defensively and got an unlikely assist for his brilliant efforts. Chelsea weren't at the races today, they had a few early signs of good play, but never built on it. I think they heavily missed the quality of Reece James and Joao Pedro. Welbeck is not a runner nor a link up player, he didn't suit the way Palmer or Rogers were moving. I honestly don't really know what Barco offers, but he didn't seem to be in a role that suited him today. Alonso still has a lot to work with defensively, I sound like a broken record when reviewing Chelsea, but defensively they are just nowhere near consistent enough. No clean sheets in 21 Premier League games now, it's just not good enough for Chelsea's standards. MOTM is Schuster, very good performance from him.
Brentford
Sunderland0 - 2ArsenalA match full of very physical duels, with Arsenal managing to 'Gun' the Black Cats down in the end. Sunderland had huge chances throughout the game, including an Enzo Le Fee penalty, which was heroicly saved by the Spanish wall that is David Raya, proving again why he is one of the best goalkeepers in the world. Dan Ballard had an excellent game I thought, winning duels and the penalty, also a spectacular goal line clearance with a diving header. At the other end, they couldn't find a way past the immaculate Arsenal defence. A Bruno Guimaraes screamer stunned the Mackems, rubbing salt in the wounds with his Newcastle ties. Late in the game, Sunderland also conceded a penalty, resulting in a second yellow for Reinildo. Bukayo Saka managing to find fortune and convert for his 3rd of the season. I don't think Sunderland were bad, but the amazing work of Arsenal's defence ultimately halted any chance of a result. Arsenal looking extremely solid again, you're wondering who will be the team to stop them, because they are on a steamroll of results. It's now 10 goals scored and 1 goal conceded in all competitions, extremely impressive. Signing Bruno Guimaraes has brought quality to the team depth and he helped Arsenal win this game with an unreal finish. I've mentioned this team getting better, which they are proving every single game. Got to give a lot of credit to Mikel Arteta, I'm far from his biggest fan, but he has done a great job in the past year. MOTM David Raya, without his presence and penalty save it might've been a different result for Arsenal.
ArsenalArsenal2 - 1Chelsea
what a time it is to be an arsenal fan 😮💨 this will just be a bunch of thoughts of mine, very personal game to me because all of my friends are chels fans very end to end game, a stark difference between arsenal’s pragmatic style from last season. we’ve seen in the first two games, but arteta has clearly evolved his tactics further. the amount of rotations that i saw throughout this game really shows he was serious about what he said in interviews of being inspired by luis enrique. do not write off arsenal’s attack chelsea a very very scary team on the transition. love to play that long ball out wide, especially with the pace they have. if i were a chels fan tho, would have liked to see more from JP and palmer. raya is the undisputed best gk of the league and you cannot convince me otherwise - his distribution, shot stopping, and cross claiming are easily placed top 3 in the league right now. his one weakness is long shots, due to his height, and chelsea clearly tried to exploit that (to some success). great debut from konsa, filled very nicely for saliba and mosquera. despite what some might say, a very necessary signing. do not doubt havertz in the big games. we look so much more fluid with him up top and i stand by the fact he should be our starting striker. odegaard, i love you. so confident now the wc and early games have done wonders for him. i hope he stays fit and continues to impress. dominated that midfield first few minutes from gyok, did not impress but again i want to give him more time. emi martinez is such a clear upgrade over sanchez. rhat chelsea defense was putting in work (fofana). did think that reese james, apart from a few nice long passes, is ineffective in the midfield. very entertaining game, biggest test of ours so far. believe in the team, our players, and of course mikel arteta.
Arsenal2 - 1ChelseaFun end-to-end contest between two strong teams. Arsenal proving their worth in the Premier League title race once again, the reigning champions continue their 100% record, up there with Manchester City. They were very good today, played much better football than last week against Villa. Quick tempo and had Chelsea by the throat most of the game. This still isn't Arsenal at their best though, they slipped a couple times defensively, no surprise with that lethal front 3 that Chelsea now have. Konsa was very good filling in for injured Mosquera and sidelined Saliba. He was very underrated at us, hopefully Arsenal fans see the best of him, he is genuinely the best defender I've seen at Villa Park. I thought Havertz started really slow, but he grew into a game with a solid finish, perhaps Martinez could've done better though. He also did a very good dummy for Odegaard's goal and was linked up with Arsenal's play very well overall. Arteta has an even better team to work with than last season, the depth is absolutely insane. Chelsea fought well, but once again their defensive cracks were shown throughout. Their attack is absurd, I do think the weak link is still Pedro Neto within this team. Midfield combinations at their selection aren't bad too. Many injury prone players around the squad however, which may ruin any momentum within the squad. Rogers goal was well taken, they had a few nice plays on the transition which you don't really get against Arsenal. Martinez was pretty decent today, there's definitely improvement there from Sanchez. But I have to warn Chelsea fans there are mistakes in him which can be frustrating. He is a good character to have though and has a good voice within that backline. They will be up there this season, but I think this game proves they won't be in contention for the title. MOTM is Kai Havertz. I think this is the best game I've seen him have in a while. Odegaard and Rice were very solid too. It was an all champions performance.
Arsenal
Aston Villa0 - 1Arsenal
Arsenal big up another resounding win, but by god did Aston Villa take the fight to them. A very defensively minded game where both teams guarded well, it took a very scrappy goal from Saka to get the job done. This looked closer to the Arsenal of last season, which disappoints me as a neutral after the fun football they played against Man City and Coventry. They have a mouth-watering game against Chelsea next, and I look forward to seeing the league’s best defence against the best attack. Villa lose again, but they looked much better than in their humiliating thumping to Brighton last week. Their next match is against new boys and over-achievers Hull, and I think the Tigers are priming themselves ready to commit another mauling if the Claret and Blues aren’t ready.
Spain1 - 0Argentina
what does argentina even DO?
France4 - 6England
I LOVE YOU SAKA I WOULD DO ANYTHING IN THE WORLD FOR YOU ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ YOU ARE MY DOCTOR, LAWYER, PLUMBER, YOU ARE MY EVERYTHING ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
EnglandFrance4 - 6EnglandLads why couldn't you do this against Argentina....
EnglandArgentina3 - 2Egypt
VAR going back to the time of King Tut to disallow a goal, what a game for the referee lad