What a wally I looked yesterday!
How could I doubt John Cross. The man from The Mirror came back from the dead. He stole the internet crown from David Ornstein. A GoT like plotline.
Aaron Ramsey is DONE with Arsenal.
Now, I really don’t know what the fuck is going on here. So here are some bits that I do know, mashed in with guesswork. I won’t tell you which is what to keep you on your toes.
Mesut Ozil getting £350k a week was a massive mistake.
Aaron Ramsey’s agent pushed for that number.
Arsenal has withdrawn the deal.
Now, something must have gone on here that was major.
Did his agent name the number and refuse to budge?
Did the club catch wind of a deal with another club?
Did Arsenal decide that the money Aaron wanted didn’t match his ability?
Was it a blend of all of the above?
Here’s my thinking on it. He’s just too expensive for what he gives to the team.
Aaron is a good player, I struggle to see the greatness.
He works best when he’s allowed to do what the fuck he wants. He’s not really fitting into the Emery system at the moment. There are younger players with a better record of fitness that could do his job.
Additionally, the club is severely short of talent that works in Emery’s system. We need a winger. We need a replacement for Koscielny. We’re going to need to upgrade at leftback. There are a lot of holes in the squad. I’m not sure the best place to invest £91m is on Aaron Ramsey over 5 years.
The next area of planning Arsenal need to address in the transfer market is hot young players in the mold of Torreira. Players like Sarr. Those that’ll come in on £50k a week, and maybe look like Dembele in 2 years.
If we’re going to splash out galactico money, we should be doing that on transfer fees, not on wages.
The worst thing to happen to Arsenal this year was tying Mesut down to a £18.2m deal over 4 years. It was a crazy moment driven by ego and misplaced fear. There was nothing ambitious about it. I said at the time, the best leverage Arsenal had was that no other club in Europe had gone near him. But we pulled the trigger because the press of losing him wouldn’t have reflected well on Ivan. Now Emery is in, he can’t use him as a 10 and if he’s played on the right, he clearly hates it and it doesn’t really click.
Here’s the question now on Rambo. Where is he going?
Juventus won’t pay him galactico money, because they don’t have it. The Milan rumour is fucking hilarious if true, Ivan promising to make him as rich as him at a new club.
Will he move to Chelsea? United? City? Will they pay him mega money? It’s hard to see it, because, despite his talent, he’s not disciplined because he’s never been properly coached (until this season).
Another guess, he’s pushing Arsenal for mega money, if he doesn’t get it, he’ll chase trophies.
Whatever the deal, if Arsenal has pulled out of negotiations, I trust the decision. We have footballing brains on the team now. Raul will have made the case money wise, Sven and Emery will be looking at his data and comparing what they could buy for that money elsewhere, and the decision will be a sound one.
It’s sad that he wants to move on. I’ll always have a soft spot for him. I think the real issue is the loss of control over the narrative. Ramsey will now come under intense scrutiny. His body language, perceived effort, dedication, how hard he goes into challenges… and ultimately, he’s likely going to become a target of fan angst… and that’s a shame.
It’s like living in the same house as a partner you’ve broken up with. It’ll be sunshine and rainbows for a month, because you’re mature people. Then something will happen. He’ll drop a stinker against Spurs, and that’ll be it. Game over. Get the f*ck out of my house you selfish bitch, how could you do this to me! GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY CAT!
Anyway, sad times, but fuck it… we’ll move on, we’ll find better, we’ll survive his loss. Hardly an RVP or Cesc moment.
Finally, how can you not look at that picture at the top of the blog and not feel a little sad? Project British Youth was the most miserable failure of Wenger’s tenure. The vision was interesting, but the execution was diabolical. You know why? Shite coaching. Imagine those players under Klopp? We’d be in a very different place right now…
Wipe those tears, we’re done.
Pappa-holding should be a pretty reasonable pairing. Not world class but good enough to not make us constantly worry
Hilarious response from the Iwobi-should-be-a-starter crowd.
… yeah crowd.
Two, if you’re going to compare him favorably to anyone, you should be comparing him favorably to either Aubameyang or Ozil.
You do realize that if you drop Ramsey Ozil and Iwobi can play the number 10.
Xhaka and Torreira is a very flat pairing, especially at home.
bamford
yah but if ramsey was replaced by iwobi, he would be on the left, ozil in the centre and mhiki on the right. So yes, there is a case for starting iwobi before ramsey.
Or it could be iwobi on the right, with auba on the let and mhiki or ozil in the centre.
Well happy with these 3 points, we are nowhere near our best but we are still picking up points while in transition, we are only going to improve, get a couple transfer windows over with get the players emery needs to play his pressing style of play and we are on our way… I love the passion emery shows on the sidelines, we’ve got a manager who’s willing to fight, I love it
Marko – Just saying don’t be surprised if Iwobi gets hauled off in the next few matches and Ramsey comes on and does some good work that leads to goals.
Whatever it takes to get Ramsey actually playing well let’s try it. Because right now he’s playing utterly gash and all the fanboys in the world humming the same tune doesn’t change that fact
Iwobi changed the game, looks like this is gonna be a big season from him
1. Bamford says Player A gives us work-rate and energy but doesn’t have the quality to be a starter, not if we want to be a top team. 2. Section of Le Grove says Bamford is crazy, is a hater, is wrong.3. Long term performance of Player A proves Bamford correct.
Christ you are insufferable. Always trying to be right but is so wrong on so many levels
Laca yet again outplaying overhyped one trick pony PEA. It was funny reading comments from people who wanted him sold picking up on his every miss. The guy shuts them up yet again.
I hope some of those who have been very critical of emery will begin to give him a slightly wider birth It’s clear that we’re not exactly amazing. We have a long way to go and there are several changes even with this current squad that would potentially improve things but no one was going to walk in the door and untangle this knot in 5 minutes. The other key point is that we can see genuine evidence that he’s paying attention and tweaking things from week to week. He doesn’t just pick a setup and that’s the end of… Read more »
Rambo
You not happy we won?
Should be quiet on here. Lot of the akbs will be noticeably absent
Lol Joe has completely moved to the other end of the spectrum.
TR7
yup I agree. lots of laca haters when we got auba. Same people shouting emery was the wrong pic but can’t name any other decent manager to take over. Just a British thing. need some thing to moan about or the day doesn’t feel complete.
great win, we are 6th. Feels good to be an arsenal fan. utd all the way in 8th.
great win, we are 6th. Feels good to be an arsenal fan. utd all the way in 8th.
chelsea or liverpool or both are gonna drop points tonight. A great weekend. Now I just have to wake up tomorrow without a hangover.
We have to start putting together more complete performances though. Could easily be on 9/10 pts instead of 15.
Expected Goals
Arsenal 1.59
Watford 2.38
Remember that Man Utd finish 2nd last season but had the 6th best xG. De Gea was performing miracles every weekend. No coincidence that they have struggled early this season
What did I say cunts? As soon as iwobi and welbeck enter the fray, bang. 2-0
Get Ramsey off. Bang two goals
Get out the way Ramsey and let the arsenal sort this out.
Bosh
What’s Bamford at now the doughnut? Surely he’s not defending Aaron Ramsey’s posture n in the side over iwobi and welbz? Surely not?
Bamford…. is that top top tier or the tier above…..joker
Anyone else think the referee was dreadful ?
Un nai
I am not sure about Iwobi but if I were Unai, Welbeck will be a regular in my team. Iwobi reverts to type when he starts week in week out.
Good to see my man ozil scoring again and getting on the ball at long last doing what he does best.
Thank God that’s the end of Ramsey now …..h e will go home tonight thinking “I’ve got to get out of the club” ….wise and clever move by Emery taking him off.
If Ramsey takes credit for the 64% win rate, he takes credit for the 36% loss rate too, no? Win % stats are like chances created stats. Always thrown out to defend a certain underperforming player. All you have to do watch him over 90 mins conceding possession with his useless flicks. He hit a purple patch a couple season ago when his swinging leg connected beautifully with the ball and everything he hit went it. He has never replicated that form over another season (in what, 10 years?). Any ‘top tier’ player who spends as much time as Ramsey… Read more »
shoo* in
Tr7
So do ramsey and ozil. I’d at the very least give him a go. As I said earlier though pal, I’d go with welbz Mkhitaryan Aubameyang and Lacazette up top
Seems to me the most balanced set up
Holding in defence
Torreira and xakha in the middle, unless we can get jack on loan xD
Two Brazilians having a go at each other there
Remember when wenger eagle used to love firminho? He doesn’t seem to say much about him these days.
Banford Interesting how your stock approach to diminishing a players worth is suggesting that “any other player” could do what they do. Well newsflash, they’re pro footballers and arguably none of our lot have qualities that cannot be recreated by any other player we have. Except that’s never the issue, nor the point. The point is the players being touted/praised are actually offering the evidence in the matches. Iwobi is a classic case, doing nothing special but he’s influencing games positively. Yea sure, Rambo can do almost everything Iwobi’s done well recently…..but he isn’t, he hasn’t, and he didn’t today.… Read more »
Your agenda is piss through, as are your self-professed “better arguments” quite patently.
Charlie
That’s two today already. There’s a tier above top tier apparently and now Ramsey is offering more than iwobi this season.
He does it to himself. I don’t know why he bothers
Gons
I thought we were 5th?
Gonsterous
Aren’t we 5th?
Un nai
Yes, that front 4 for me too. Mikhi as a CAM, Laca through the middle and PEA, Welbz on opposite flanks.
Gons
I’ve chekced
Guess what?? We are 5th!!!
That Cock hazard
Only £32m him
We wasted £43m on Özil
How did we let him slip through the net? He’d probably have left by now anyway.
Great ball by Kovacic. Hazard is on fire
twice that hazard has destroyed liverpools defence this week.
TR7
“Laca yet again outplaying overhyped one trick pony PEA.”
Lacazette did little to nothing today and was poor. Missed his chances, passed the ball out of bounds. His goal was an own-goal.
Don’t get me wrong: Aubameyang didn’t do much today either, but the notion that Lacazette was good today is fucking laughable.
Olivier looks tidy for the chavs, miss that guy
Hazard looks like he’s going to have a Salah goal scoring season.
Great win today. Didn’t get to see match but just read comments.
Dodgy goalkeeping from Alisson
Dream the ball bounced a little awkward in front of him and had pace.
How is Alisson not saving that??
For me that’s the best we played this season. When we clicked we flowed like water. The boys were moving to make 4 man boxes regularly in attack. We didn’t get fizzed by the rough stuff, it bounced off us. Ref was jokes, didn’t have control of the game for a single second. Press is starting to show real patterns, on a number of occasions I saw 4-5 players instantly press a Waford player and force an error. Emery, the moment when you can spark a fat one and say Hanibal style “I love it when a plan comes together.”… Read more »
sorry guys hangover from last season when we finished 6th 😉
Bamford
Don’t mug yourself kid
Lacazette won us the game today
He was instrumental in both goals. He’s the only bit of class we have most of the time and certainly the difference for us this season between scoring and not scoring.
He’s been our best player going forward along with Mkhitaryan
Gonsterous
Right, but then the player you’d be comparing to Ramsey would be Ozil, not Iwobi. You’d compare Iwobi to whomever had been deployed wide on whatever side you played Iwobi on.
Apples to apples, not apples to oranges.
Samesong
Will have another look
Gons
Level with spurs at 4th mate
Laca through the middle and PEA, Welbz on opposite flanks.
There should be a rule where if a person wants Aubameyang played on the LW that he’s not allowed to criticize him when he has a poor performance. He’s being played out of position
7th win on the bounce and another clean sheet
Up the arse
Marko
How am I wrong re Coquelin or Iwobi? Do tell.
Or as Bamford and dissenter would say
Up the asssss
Liverpool have had better chances so far but Mane and Salah lack the poise of Eden Hazard who is just amazing.
Marko
Chill bra
Lacazette is our man through the middle (I feel a micheal Jackson song coming on) Aubameyang will have to prove himself to alter things. It’s in his own hands if he wants it. To be fair he hasn’t impressed me as much as Lacazette this season so far. I like Lacazette’s tenacity.
Un
“Olivier looks tidy for the chavs, miss that guy”
You should rephrase that to ” guy that misses” …..
Always have to remember when judging systems and players at 60 minutes that the opposition has done their running. This is one of the reasons we’re winning later – managers are telling their teams to press our backline hard, and they’re all tiring towards the end.
I really like Auba and Laca in the same team, but we have to get Auba higher up the pitch. Monreal’s average position was ahead of him and that isn’t right. But keep him on.
Bam
Chuck it in
Ramsey went off
Wobes and welbz come on
We nick two goals
Booooosh
Lacazette wasn’t good today he could have just as easily been hooked instead of Auba much like Özil who up until his goal was also poor. It was Iwobi who made the difference that and having one less passenger on the pitch when Ramsey got taken off
Pierre
Not bad mate. I still have affection for Giroud though. He had heart. More than the usual soulless robots so many of these modern players seem to be
No names names mentioned ahem RAMSEY
Rudiger – Mendy type players is what we lack natural athletes.
This game is the best game this season so fast end to end makes us look
pedestrian.
How did Leno play second half…
Marko
Lacazette isotessuring thedefnder for the first and forced him into a mistake
For the second his flick, subsequent one two and assist on a plate created goal no2
Had he gone off we very well could have drawn or lost
He was the difference today
Iwobi did well and had a hand but Lacazette was the deciding factor for me
RSPCA
Made a good save
Lacazette, in positioning and fight, put the defender in a position to score an own goal. Unless anyone wants to state the defender would’ve volleyed it home with no Laca present?
He put it on a plate for Ozil in the second goal, but wasn’t any good? Ok then..
Players miss chances and make bad passes. Laca missed a sitter, made a goal, and hassled an Og out of a defender. That’s being a good CF, decisive when it’s not your day in front of goal. Any fan worth their salt knows this.
Bamford stop trying to be right….Ramsey is garbage! Iwobi more useful…
Wins when we play average, I can live with all day long.
Bellerin having a good game, played well today.
Holding, barring one time he got caught out of position our best centre half.
But bugger me, mesut tracking back and putting in a challenge, and winning the ball twice!!!!!!
The world’s gone mad……
Any fan worth their salt knows this.
Cc
I concur
You forgot the back heel and one-two before the assist though. Great awareness and skill there.
un
Giroud ..great p!an B, but unfortunately wenger used him more often than not as our plan A.
“If Ramsey takes credit for the 64% win rate, he takes credit for the 36% loss rate too, no?”
What?
Pierre
He was a very good plan A against the right opposition.
The only thing I have noticed with Laca that I don’t like is his passing backwards when he should receive and turn towards goal during a counter attack, that was what he did versus Chelsea when we conceded the 3rd goal
How am I wrong re Coquelin or Iwobi? Do tell.
You’re just wrong in general Bam. With regards to Ramsey you’ve got the blinkers on. The narrative isn’t Coquelin or Iwobi it’s here and now and now Ramsey isn’t playing well or doing precisely what the manager asks of him and you trying to deflect blame to Emery or trying to make it a conversation about Iwobi ultimately not being good enough doesn’t change the fact that Ramsey right now is playing like dogshit and should be dropped. He’s doing his best to get a move to Swindon Town
Bam
‘but the notion that Lacazette was good today is fucking laughable’
What is fucking laughable is your take on all things football. Ramsey looked in the mood, didn’t he ? :p
I’m sure lichsteiner could do a similar job for Arsenal as aspilicueta does for Chelsea …he’s rock solid positionally wise.
Dale
Bamford is like a mrs
He’s always trying to be right. He probably gets away with it in his classroom with the 14 year olds and isn’t used to having his misplaced authority complex challenged outside of that.
Have to say though. Le grove is all the better with him.
What is fucking laughable is your take on all things football. Ramsey looked in the mood, didn’t he ? :p
He’s been defending that position ever since that woefully inaccurate comment
I do think we need to switch to a 352 to get the best out of auba and laca.
Auba was poor today, he doesn’t contribute too much if he isn’t scoring.
He needs to get into the game more, and you only need to see Watford today playing with two strikers in and around the box to see how defences are stretched.
Laca missed some good chances, but kept going and putting the defender under pressure forced the own goal.
Ozil in the hole and torriera and guendouzi sitting will give you a solid base to protect the centrebacks.
Bam bam
Marko is right…..you’re wrong…..
Just concede
You’ll come across far better for it.
Credit to Emery for starting with Ramsey. The difference between Emery starting with Ramsey today and AW starting with Sanchez and The Ox, is that Ramsey has been asked to prove himself, whereas AS and OC clearly had had enough and wanted out of the club. Ramsey has been given the chance to prove himself under Emery, but he has failed miserably. New manager means new start, for everyone. Ten years means nothing unless you have the willingness and desire to prove it in ten games. Tough on Ramsey but well done Emery. Just a pity Arsenal couldn’t have applied… Read more »
I should have specified that up until the goal Lacazette was poor. The whole offense was but again this is what happens with Arsenal fans we have players like that who sleep walk through games but who might pop up with something at the end and all of a sudden he’s had a good game. Granted it’s not usually Lacazette it’s someone like Ramsey or Xhaka or Ozil who as well today was really poor but he managed a goal at the end and all of a sudden he’s had a good game.
Un
We always looked a better team with either Sanchez or Walcott up top …
Can remember 3-0 man u…5-2 away to Leicester ….4-0 villa fa cup final…trouble is they rarely played that way as normally giroud would start….
Michael
No. No. No. no credit goes to emery for starting Ramsey. It’s clearly over with him and his performance reflected that. He should not be starting any match of importance any more for arsenal
People who are criticising Lacazette today, are, I’m afraid, criticising for the sake of it. Football is a team game and the team won a hard fought game today where we showed Deeny how to play with “cojones”. Let’s enjoy it. Well done to Iwobi for showing Ramsey what he needed to do when he came on. Ramsey, for all his professionalism and endevour is an one dimensional player… a glorified goalhanger with an engine. My only regret about is that we didn’t take the money and run in the summer… especially if we had an offer of £50m for… Read more »
When was the last time Arsenal won seven games on the bounce?
Marko Oh I see, so I’m right about Iwobi — and I was obviously right about Coquelin — but you think I’m wrong about Ramsey. So it’s really just about Ramsey. OK, let’s look at that: according to you, Ramsey wasn’t playing CAM today the way Emery wants him to, yet Emery left him in the game until the 65th minute. And this with a player who is out of contract and headed elsewhere in nine months. Does that makes sense? No, that doesn’t make any sense at all. If Ramsey wasn’t playing the position as Emery had instructed him… Read more »
Paulinho – “Our win rate with Ramsey last season was 65%” What is the purpose of this stat if not to try to illustrate Ramsey being responsible for the wins? If that’s the point you’re trying to make, what about the 35% of the games we didn’t win when he played? If not, I don’t understand the relevance of your post. In how many of the 65% of the games we won did Ramsey score or assist the winning goal? Pretty sure Ospina has a super high ‘win rate’ too. He’s another bang-average player who can be propped up by… Read more »
Pierre
Europe leading 10-6 heading into the singles.
Going to be great day tomorrow.
To be fair Bellerin has improved the last couple of games. His discipline and positioning has gotten better in recent games. Still not a long term solution for me but he’s doing something better recently. Mustafi is fucking idiot imo
Michael
“The difference between Emery starting with Ramsey today and AW starting with Sanchez and The Ox, is that Ramsey has been asked to prove himself, whereas AS and OC clearly had had enough and wanted out of the club.”
And you know that do you….personally I see no difference.
I don’t rate Ramsey and that’s why I didn’t want him to start ..I rated Sanchez and that’s why I wanted him to start .
Pierre I completely agree I’m a massive Walcott and Sanchez fan as I’m sure you know but Giroud produced against certain sides and he had his place in the squad I’m not saying he was our no9 every game but he should have been in certain games that weren’t suited to the likes of Theo. I remember when Theo got a run up front, the United game springs to mind and the run around that game and he was highly impressive only to be dropped for no reason. We were on fire in thatperuodnand he created so much space for… Read more »
‘Granted it’s not usually Lacazette it’s someone like Ramsey or Xhaka or Ozil who as well today was really poor but he managed a goal at the end and all of a sudden he’s had a good game.’ You keep touting what a great goal scorer Auba is and that he should always play through the middle ahead of Laca. Goal scoring becomes a yardstick for you to judge Auba even though he offers little else. Laca records an assist, forces one own goal and gets involved in some tasty work in and around the box in last 15 min… Read more »
Marko
“I should have specified that up until the goal Lacazette was poor.”
I am glad that at least one person here can be honest about this.
Why are people criticising Özil? He got a goal today which secured and insured us the win. He is scoring more as the head coach asked him to.
Özil, because of his wage packet, can do no right.
Well done Mesut. Well done Arsenal.
. Does that makes sense? No, that doesn’t make any sense at all. If Ramsey wasn’t playing the position as Emery had instructed him to, he would’ve been subbed at halftime or 50 minutes in, not in the 65th minute.
Bam bam
If anything all that does is discredit emery, not credit him or Ramsey. It was the wrong decision to start Ramsey.
Accept it
Un na, I often wonder how Bam does in his classes…..such a contrarian , that leaves little in learning or teaching
Leeds
Lacazette and aubamayang should always start imo…. In some games strikers are quiet ,that’s normal…this week it’s aubamayang next week it may be Lacazette,it’s no big deal.
Un na nai aka Don, you are a fvcking embarrassment. One would think getting it horribly wrong re Ramsey last season would shut you up but nope.
Last season, it was ‘Ramsey is garbage, Wilshere will show he’s far superior’. Yes, lets all laugh at that comedy of a prediction.
Now its Iwobi, fvcking Iwobi. Loool
The moment Bam’s post makes me and Marko agree….you have to know Bam is bang out wrong
Ramsey was subbed on 60 minutes i do believe.
Leeds
Come on man. Ozil was dogshit and his goal was a simple tap in. He’s not off the hook on that basis. He’s a wanker.
Banford
You’re shameless, earlier in the day (and in previous games) you’ve lambasted Emery for his lineups and NOT getting the XI “right”.
But now you want to play the ‘Emery started Ramsey so he rates him and you lot dont’ card. Good grief, you’re so so unaware of your proclivity to twist and reimagine.