Arsenal v Leicester Review – Praise all round but trying to stay humble

Trying to remain humble, but the hype train is gaining pace by Konstantin Mitov Well lovely Arsenal people, I’m trying to remain calm, but the way I felt about Arsenal is something I haven’t felt in 5 years at least! I saw a team that dominated a strong Leicester team, and showed a lot of maturity. The obvious place to start is up front. I’m not religious but I believe in Jesus. The guy is absolute quality. That finish was outrageous. It tilted a tight game in our favor. The guy oozes class. His positioning in the final third was incredible. That earned him his second goal, the assist for Xhaka, he had an open goal to get a hat-trick, and he was really disappointed to miss it and I like it. The guy doesn’t settle for second best. He took Leicester players on in a manner that reminded me of Alexis Sanchez. The last truly exciting player we had, until Jesus now. There was another Brazilian in Gabriel Martinelli who was also sensational. His work rate and desire deserved his goal, which was brilliantly taken on his weaker left foot. I’m so happy he’s scored 2 goals in 2 games, because goals are the one thing that he needed to improve on from last season. And he is my favorite Arsenal player, but honestly right now, there are a few players I really like, again, something that hasn’t happened in ages. Granit Xhaka I must say was really good. For me the weak link in our squad, but since Arteta moved him up the field, he’s suddenly scoring goals, making runs in the box and so on. I’d still like to get an upgrade there, but I will give credit when a player does well. And the manager as well. I’ve been heavily critical of Arteta and Edu as well, but what they have done this summer is nothing short of good work. There was a shot of Edu sitting pretty in a fancy suit in the box and you could see the slight smirk on his face – that’s some smart business we did this summer. All highlights of course will go to Jesus, but how good was Zinchenko today? I thought he struggled against Palace, but he was sensational tonight. Honestly if we buy another midfielder and a winger it will be a 10/10 transfer window. I’ve been also watching the All or Nothing documentary and I must say Edu and Arteta are growing on me. Sure it’s directed in a way to make them look good, but I think people like to see things through emotional glasses and I’m a sucker for it. It makes you feel like they care more. Again, it’s directed, but the club finally is making an effort to connect with the fans. And the Emirates crowd was sensational. The reaction from the fans to every Saliba touch after the own goal was 10/10. I thought he was actually great. The own goal sucked, but the way we reacted was so mature. Ramsdale immediately went up to tell him to keep his head up and how composed was he after that? And how did we react? Immediately scored again. It took us less than 2 minute to score both times after they reduced our lead. I’ve seen us so many seasons where we concede and we are shaken. Today we were mostly in control. The only thing that really bothered us were the long balls. Their 2 goals came from our full backs being up the field and our CB were left in a though spot, but if you watch it back, we were actually comfortable. The commentary on the game was totally anti-Arsenal biased as is the British media in general, but that’s because they are bitter. I like it, we are moving in a forward direction. Those 2 games – Palace away and Leicester at home are arguably the toughest from our favourable 5 game run. In reality it is never that easy to win games, even against promoted teams as Liverpool found out against Fulham. That said, expectations have risen and people expect that we will have 15 points when we go to Old Trafford. And after watching Brentford thrash United 4-0, dare I say it 18 points from 6 games is possible. I’m happy people, and you should be too. Let’s go game by game, doing our talking in the pitch, just like we did today! Konstantin

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