Morning all, some quick Monday bits for you.
Let’s start with an extraordinary second half from Arsenal Women last night. 2-0 down to Leicester at the break, they scored 6 (six!) after the break to turn things around in fine style. And it could have been even more, the woodwork denying us a couple of times too. As we saw elsewhere, football can be just a bit mad sometimes.
Afterwards, Jonas Eidevall said:
I thought it was a great representation of the way Arsenal play football and the midfield with Pelova and Cooney-Cross were phenomenal today running the play with the ball, movement and being brave on the ball. We had a lot of speed and creativity in our forward four. We probably had just as many opportunities that we didn’t score as we did, which is very impressive away from home.
Tim has all the reaction from the manager, and from one of the stars of the show, Victoria Pelova, over on Arseblog News.
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I said elsewhere, and by that I meant Stamford Bridge where Chelsea and Man City drew 4-4 in what was very entertaining game. It is difficult trying to compartmentalise actually wanting Chelsea to score, it goes against every instinct you have, but needs must, and it was a lot of fun to see City think they’d win it, then drop two points.
After our game there a couple of weeks ago, then the madness at White Hart Lane, and now this, I’m beginning to think if there might be something about Chelsea this season. Not necessarily anything good, but as someone who believes in the concept of alternate universes – where infinite variations of our own exist, throwing up all kinds of random events – I can’t help but wonder if there’s a universe where things are just a bit more mental than ours, and there’s been some kind of crossover. The Chelsea team bus may well be the portal.
Like I said, ordinarily the last thing I ever want to see is a Chelsea goal, but when it cancels out a potential winner by Rodri, I can live with it. There’s something just not right about that guy. He’s too big for his own skin or something. I can’t explain it. His proportions are wrong. It could be the way he tucks his shirt in, but I think he’s hiding something and one day we’ll find out what.
My favourite bit though was Raheem Sterling absolutely clattering into Phil Foden late in the game. In another life, Foden is a tearaway urchin who constantly goes through the bins of an old man who lives on his own, terrorising him and his small dog at every opportunity, and Sterling there is the kindly neighbour who has had enough and gives him what for.
As for the post-game interview on Sky, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a player make it more clear and obvious (in the non-VAR sense) that they would rather be anywhere else. Then the bit when the Sky guy tried to help him get some dirt out of his eye. WHAT? Don’t do that. Just hilariously cringe all the way through. And City dropped two points so it’s generally been a fine weekend of Premier League action.
For more on that, by the way, join us later on Patreon for a new episode of our Premier League round-up podcast, The 30.
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Back to us, and as we head into the Interlull, we’ll have to wait and see if a couple of key players go away with their countries. I saw it reported that Martin Odegaard is a doubt for Norway. He didn’t make the squad at the weekend, and as it looks basically impossible for them to qualify from their group, you would hope common sense means he’s not needed for a friendly against the Faroe Islands and a qualifier against Scotland.
Unfortunately, it seems as if we’re on collision course with Brazil over Gabriel Jesus, as they want him to travel to be assessed by their own medical staff. It’s a situation which has vexed Mikel Arteta, and while you can understand Brazil’s desire to have him fit because they have important games, he hasn’t even trained with us yet since his hamstring strain in the Sevilla Champions League game in October. Again, let’s hope common sense prevails, but it doesn’t look as if that’s the case at this point.
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Ok, let’s leave it there. We will be recording an Arsecast Extra for you this morning. Keep an eye out for the call for questions on Twitter @gunnerblog and @arseblog on Twitter with the hashtag #arsecastextra – or if you’re on Arseblog Member on Patreon, leave your question in the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server.
Podcast should be out around midday. Until then.