At last! We finally beat Man City in the EPL! We waited a long…long…long…long time to do so. Everything was not perfect, starting from a very dreadful first half by Raya…But we executed a very smart game plan consistently...
At last! We finally beat Man City in the EPL! We waited a long…long…long…long time to do so.
Everything was not perfect, starting from a very dreadful first half by Raya…But we executed a very smart game plan consistently during the game. We did not concede many chances and City was clearly getting frustrated as one could have seen at the end of the game (ie: Kyle Walker at it again with staff…). We also managed, especially after 30 minutes and definitely in the second half, to put City under pressure defensively with some incisive passing and runs…Overall, it was a cagey match and if it were a boxing match, we would have won with points rather than with a TKO…We were the slightly better team yesterday.
The impressive thing is that we did not start
With Saka and Martinelli, our best wingers…We had Jesus and Trossard on the wings and Trossard was not 100%… With Partey, who has been excellent with us in the last 12 months or so…I really liked our defensive work yesterday and our stability, Jorginho has a very good game and Rice was outstanding again and so were Saliba and Gabriel. With Partey back, I d love to see Ode, Partey, Rice in midfield.
Our subs had a big impact – Martinelli, Havertz, Tomy, Partey immediately got into the game and made their presence felt. Martinelli’s goal is largely the result of wonderful work from our subs. It is just so nice to know that we can count on a squad rather than just 11 players.
And what can we say about the Emirates? What an atmosphere, what about our fans? Amazing place, slowly but surely creating a “Highburyesque” type of hype around it 
And a good win for us…Can you believe we are top of the league but with Spurs? Man City only 2 points behind though and Liverpool 3 points behind…
Ratings:
Raya – 4, a disastrous first half and a better second half. I m keen to see Ramsdale back in goal…
White – 7, another solid defensive display.
Saliba – 8, contained Haaland again – not so easy to do but he has done it.
Gabs – 8.5, why he did not start at the beginning of the season beats me? He is our defensive leader, most of the time.
Zinc – 6, tried hard sometimes too hard and was beaten also defensively once or twice.
Jorgi – 7, early booking but solid game overall – well done!
Rice – 8.5, what an amazing player we have recruited! Solid and industrious display, another one
Ode – 7, well contained in the first 30 minutes but then grew into the game.
Jesus – 6, tried hard and could have been decisive but overall worked hard despite lacking a final attacking product.
Eddie – 6, same as Jesus.
Trossard – 5, did not seem 100%.
Subs: Martinelli – 8, Tomy – 7, Havertz – 7, Partey – 7.
MOTM: Gabriel, Rice, Martinelli for me in that order
I am hoping that Arteta will
play our usual back 4 (White, Saliba, Gabs, Zinc) establish Ode, Partey, Rice as our mid 3 be able to count on fully fit Saka, Martinelli and Trossard soon reflect on Raya-Ramsdale and the need to maybe bring Ramsdale back between the posts.Our next 5 fixtures are:
Chelsea – Away
Sevilla – Away
Sheffield – Home
West Ham – Away
Newxastle – Away
We need to get 10 points in the EPL (3 wins, 1 draw) out of 4 games and at least 1 point vs Sevilla.
The EPL will be tight this year. Man City lost two in a row, Spurs are overperforming and so is Brighton. Liverpool has been performing well in the last 6 months and Chelsea is starting to find their rhythm while Newcastle, Villa, West Ham and even Man Utd cannot be totally discarded…
COYG!
