NEW SEASON IS HERE!

by .

Day one of the season is about to start. This year it’s exciting. The major worry on my mind is that despite having a very good window, we had a very late one. The majority of our BIG signings aren’t match fit and all of them will need more time to integrate.

Additionally, it’s going to be a bumpy few months as the team gels and a new style emerges*

(*prays there’s a new style emerging).

Unfortunately, we don’t really have time on our hands. We have a beastly opening 6 weeks, Liverpool and Spurs are the two really tough games, but we also have to deal with Burnley and Watford away. There’s a huge Manchester United game at the end of September, that one really will be a tone-setter for the top 4 race this season.

Tierney is going to reintegrate into training in 4-6 weeks, so our left side is going to be a bit of an issue. Hopefully, David Luiz can start a little sooner having had a full preseason with Chelsea.

Looking at the squad, the only new player we’re likely to see start tomorrow is Dani Ceballos, and even then I’m not totally sure of it. If we’re rolling with the same players from last season, there’s a risk it could be a bit of a grim start as others work on their fitness.

What I am FASCINATED about is which young kids are the chosen ones. You could argue that Iwobi was a useful player that we didn’t really plan to lose, so, therefore, don’t have a backup for. We are certainly looking light for experienced players upfront.

So who takes his back-up role? Will we see ESR this season? Will Saka land some minutes? There must be an anointed successor because Pepe can’t play all the games.

I also really hope that Willock is a regular fixture this season. He looks ready, he had a great preseason, and I think his mobility and attacking threat could be very useful.

It’s also a big year for Mesut Ozil. He has a great squad of players to work with now and he appears to have put his EMERY OUT banner back in his Fortnite rucksack (did you see the kid that won the world cup of Fortnite earned $3m?). We know he can be the best in the business when he wants it. What will we see in November? Fannying out of challenges? Or racking up assists to feed his militant army of believers?

The exciting thing about this squad is we have an entirely new dynamic built around pace and an attacking threat… even our new centre back drops big game chances. It’s a tantalising thought that a defender like that will reduce our reliance on Xhaka.

A lingering problem that Emery is refusing to address is the captains’ armband. The group captaincy approach really is an odd way to think about leadership, especially after it worked so badly against us in the last campaign. The current group sits at three, Emery assuring us he’s going to wait and see who exits the building in the next 20 odd days before he decides.

“At the moment we have three captains: Xhaka, Mesut and Nacho, and I want to take two more because my opinion is the same as it was in the pre-season with five.

“I want to be with my squad clearly to have two more. At the moment we have three captains and I think they have the capacity to give us possibilities as captain.”

Even the most ardent Emery fan must be scratching their head at that list. You have one of the most error-prone players in the team on the list, someone who can’t go to big away games, and a left-back that is a true warrior, but also getting on a bit and quite injury prone.

David Luiz looking like the most standout figure when it comes to the armband, even if he is green to the club. #5 should probably be Hector Bellerin. He’s everything you want from a leader and I think there would likely be universal approval for a move like that.

Broader point… a leadership shared is a leadership that is NOT respected. Hierarchies in sport and business are important, this hippy commune approach to a badly damaged institution at Arsenal seems more about not making a decision than anything else.

At the time of writing this, the season has started and it appears Liverpool and City will be good this season. Some great goals in both games, the real concern early on is the way the Premier League is implementing VAR.

‘YOU WANTED ACCURATE FUCK WE’LL GIVE YOU ACCURATE’ is maybe a touch too extreme when it comes to the enforcement of the rules.

In the City game, every goal was checked, the keepers footwork on the penalty and the fouls inside the box. All the decisions were correct, but the time lag was inappropriate. Calling an offside for millimeters felt petty, but again, correct.

A few thoughts on this.

If we’re going to get militant about decisions, we have to bring the fans along. That waiting screen is the equivalent of internet buffering when you’re trying to watch your AV videos on Youtube… just show me the fucking Dreamliner stupid internet. Show the fans what the refs are looking at, give a little transparency, otherwise the in-ground experience is going to drive people away.

I also think cross-checking every single goal is a bit extreme. I don’t know how you get around that. There’s no middle ground when it comes to fact. I wonder if they work a Hawkeye sort of system where managers get two calls a game? I also wonder why they’re still allowing humans to manage the process. Shouldn’t IBM have Watson looking at these decisions? Why do we need a layer of officiating over the game? If we’re going black and white, let AI work it out.

I will say that the penalty save from Fabianski was rightly called back. For me, it’s baffling that refs and linesmen almost NEVER call the encroachment out of the box. But again, why did we need to wait so long to call it, the player left the line, you don’t even need a video ref to call that out.

All in all, we need VAR. Too many big decisions have been incorrect over the years. They just need to be flexible in ironing out the kinks. They also need to address them rapidly, let’s not wait a year to deal with the elephant in the room. If it’s laborious or boring to get to ‘right’, then the argument will be that maybe we should just accept injustice.

I truly believe they will find a middle ground. Well, I hope they do, otherwise the game is in trouble.

Right, I’m off to watch the MIGHTY VILLA spank Spurs this afternoon.

See you in the comments x

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peanuts&monkeys

Weren’t we after that Almiron chap kast year? He was a threat yesterday from the start. Physicality apart, he is an excellent find by Newcastle.

Now, is our Nelson no way near to Almiron. IMO, if you let Nelson play from a bit deeper ( as he had started in the 2nd half), even he can play with lethal incision. If there’s a player with exceptional ball-skills, its wasteful to be position him upfront.

Isn’t Pepe supposed to deliver performances like Almiron?

peanuts&monkeys

“but i’d be very surprised if the season ends with us believing in consensus that Unai is the one to take us up a level.”

Agree. He is good. Hardly ever brilliant.
Emery is no Wenger 1.0. Arsenal got to standby a manager of class of Klopp/ Favre.

China1

Almiron has one of the world’s most irritating faces.

He looks like a ventriloquist dummy

China1

I’m so glad about AMNs performance. Firstly he was excellent which is always very welcome, but as importantly he looked hungry from about the 20th minute onwards The first 20 mins of the game can just be summarized as Monreal and AMN endlessly playing the same pass back to their CB partner which is the world’s fullest strategy and an emery classic lol But something happened, whether it was instructed by emery or otherwise, and AMN and guendouzi started trying to make this happen and it made a world of difference That FB-CB endless passing has to be the most… Read more »

peanuts&monkeys

Guendouzi! He was the MOTM 1st half. All of pre-season you don’t hear or read anything abt him. You start wondering if he’s injured. Then, cometh the hour -cometh the man.

Samesong

Spurs troll alert

Peanuts&monkeys

China1

Guen’s positioning and organization was vastly better yesterday than we are used to seeing Not sure if it’s just a one off, or he’s been coached on it, or he’s just improving his awareness himself, but it was clearly better and made a significant difference I feel a whole lot better seeing arsenal play with two DMs. Last season far too many times the xhaka/guen or xhaka/tor partnership ended up with one way too far forward. We need them both on defense first The biggest challenge for our midfield is the defense sometimes drops very deep when doing the endless… Read more »

Rambo Ramsey

China man,

“Almiron has one of the world’s most irritating faces.He looks like a ventriloquist dummy”

How about that from the classy guy who is full of respect for others.

Oh the intolerance

Mysticleaves

Was a simple joke Rambo.

Mysticleaves

Guendouzi showed everything we know he can show to be fair. He has energy. He always shows for the ball. His positioning wasn’t really in question much because we controlled Newcastle very well. When they started pressing us we lost shape and couldn’t hold the ball. It didn’t help that Ceballos wasn’t up to the pace of the game. However the few forward passes that Guendouzi tried to make were misplaced/intercepted. He has his uses and could end up a very good player for us though. But I like to see Willock start from deep (if the option is Guendouzi)… Read more »

Un na naai

China1August 12, 2019 04:13:28
Almiron has one of the world’s most irritating faces.He looks like a ventriloquist dummy

China!!! I thought it was just me. He looks like a teenage girl who’s transitioned into a boy after some testosterone supplements

Emiratesstroller

Mysticleaves

There is no question in my opinion that Willock is the most effective young player in the first team squad.

Guendouzi works hard around the pitch for 60-70 minutes. My concern is that
he runs out of gas in the last quarter of games and frequently loses the ball or
makes poor tackles in dangerous positions.

Emery should have replaced him with Torreira when that occurs.

Un na naai

Was impressed my self with Guendouzi defensively yesterday. He still offfers very little outside of tidy play though and is very unambitious with the ball most of the time.

As it stands xakha is still the man from midfield to really search out our attacking players and get us on the front foot as quickly as possible. Looks a yard sharper too. I think we could see xakha further improve on last season with the additional protection afforded to him from his midfield partners and improved defenders behind him.

Receding Hairline

Longstaff was valued at 50m pounds by Newcastle this summer. I only noticed he was on the pitch yesterday when he was subbed off

DivineSherlock

Judging by the game , I know people think Guendouzi had a good game but I thought his passing was still weak . Ofcourse having Xhaka besides you doesn’t help much. Willock, Chambers were the standout players for me . And that AMN assist wow. All in all it looks as if we will use youth players more. In Europa and cup games maybe

Un na naai

Divine Let’s hope so. They are starting to show that they are better than many arsenal fans on this site believed them to be but with a little encouragement and game time they can really grow into quality players AMN has a little of the modern day ray parlour about him for me. He’s never going to be first name on the team sheet but when called upon van deputies very abley in a number of positions for us. Guendouzi- yes again he doesn’t offer much going forward and until yesterday same defensively but his positional sense and anticipation of… Read more »

Postrockydave

Parlour was a starter in the 1998-2014 sides. Has AMN covered.

Leedsgunner

Luiz is a master at pinging the ball to marauding wingers from the back… once this happens, Xhaka will be even more exposed for the very limited player he is.

Great range of passing and a thunderous shot from outside the area… atm that’s about it.

Un na naai

I actually really want ozil to stay this season I want to see what he can do with these new players around him. To okay off, who’s runs to find. It would satisfy me to see him finally be the Mesut ozil he can be for us throughout a whole season I wish him and kolasinac’s family well and hope they are safe whatever happens and if they feel they are no longer safe in London, like many of the people who actually live here then I hope to see the best of him. It’s a shame this happneded because… Read more »

Un na naai

Dave

He was a certain starter until Freddy came in.
Then it was
Freddy Vieira Edu/Gilberto Bobby

Not to discredit parlour. He never ever let us down wherever he played. Anyway, I think AMN could perform a similar role forarsenal
Not quite first name but always capable of offering a 7/10 and doing a job

China1

Oh I never called myself classy or full of respect for everyone in the world, just not a racist

Un na naai

Un na naaiAugust 11, 2019 13:59:22 Everyone needs to calm down They’ve got two players The rest are bang average Their defence and midfield are ponyOur kids should be winning this match let alone the senior PlayersI’ll guarantee their fans are more worried of Aubameyang Nelson and willock This was in response to Paulinho, Rambo and fsaf slating our team before a ball was kicked The constant sniping at our own players is getting boring. You’re not even giving them a chance to play. Many of these lads will be reading social media and get the impression the fans are… Read more »

Graham62

Is there an EOB blog for those previous AKB supporters who have zero understanding and zero tolerance as to what’s going on at our club?

As you all know I was a hardcore WOB advocate but at least I had an idea that we were being taken to the cleaners for 12 years or so.

Where’s the comparison? Is there a comparison?

Please tell me if I’m wrong.

Then I can go and sort out my shed.

HighburyLegend

Postrockydave.
That’s original…

A “nicknames mix” in homage to Podolski, Rosicky, David Seaman and Rocky Balboa.

Gentlebris

‘Almiron has one of the world’s most irritating faces.He looks like a ventriloquist dummy’

But with a good football brain you may add.

Un na naai

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-7346953/Frank-Lampard-fumes-Jose-Mourinho-old-boss-criticised-Chelseas-young-players.html

Jose having a right pop at luke Shaw
He was being carried yesterday though. So slow and lazy looking. You lot slate amn but he’s a lot better than Shaw and cost £30m less.

Lampard not happy with his criticism of mount either.

Goobergooner

CG
August 11, 2019 16:46:31
Lampard Jnr. has Chelsea more fluent in 2 months ( and with a transfer ban) than our Clown in 2 seasons.Striking.

Pipe down please you clown

DivineSherlock

Un na naai

Jose is cunt . No wonder nobody employed him.

Goobergooner

Hahaha Graham grab a beer and sort out that shed. There won’t be any acceptance of defeat by that lot

Un na naai

Divine
He’s right on shaw though
Lazy fucker
Was a good little player at 18 though. Bad attitude fucked him

Gentlebris

Our first eleven should not be bothered in the Europa until QF.
Our young dudes are more than capable of clearing out those half baked dancers we are sure to encounter before QF.
Same goes for Carabao, leave it out for City’s greed.
Go all out on the PL, spare some powder for the FA cup.

CG

Re: Jose

20 Major Trophies
(Inc 8 League Titles)

We have Charismatic, beguiling, coherent, out of work Jose and we still continue to persist with The Clown – who can’t speak a word of English and nominate a captain.

He clearly wants The Arsenal Job

And The Spiv clearly loves a big name and the limelight

Both are in the pockets of slimeball agents.

Looks like to me – an inevitable marriage.

Guns of Hackney

Did Arsenal win a game against a pedestrian and woeful Newcastle or beat Barcelona 12-0 in the champions league final?

Just checking. Some of the hyperbole on here after yesterday is staggering.

1. We won. Fine.
2. That was a struggle.
3. Play like that against city, Tottenham, Liverpool and United, they will inflict bum damage.

We have to play our best team. That wasn’t it.

Other than that. Fine.

Goobergooner

Also un na,

You are a proper cunt. But seeing you as a more positive cunt is great! Keep it up mate

Guns of Hackney

Luke Shaw has an upper body to leg length ratio 80/20. Not good. He’s like a fat chimp who eats pizzas instead of foliage.

HighburyLegend

“Play like that against city, Tottenham, Liverpool and United, they will inflict bum damage.”

That won’t be the same Arsenal line up, you stupid.

Guns of Hackney

HL

Why?

I reckon Wengemery is happy with that.

Mysticleaves

ES

Re Willock, that’s a view I also share. He should be the real deal if all goes to plan. I mean if he constantly performs like Delli Alli without the theatrics, we have a player on our hands.

UNN

Xhaka was also good yesterday. Even last season, he plays some of his best football and was at home with how we wanted to play. Organisationally, something happened to the team around January that affected everybody. The style was gone, play was gone, usual mistakes started creeping in too. We started relying on Auba and Lacazette.

Graham62

So CG wants to see Mourinho at our club. This statementshould warrant a lifetime ban from le-grove in itself.

No true Arsenal supporter would want JM anywhere near the club.

An utter disgrace.

Un na naai

GoobergoonerAugust 12, 2019 09:00:55
Also un na, You are a proper cunt. But seeing you as a more positive cunt is great! Keep it up mate

Erm…..thanks???! I guess.

CG

Goober Chelsea may well have been walloped in the end. No one – who watched that game OBJECTIVELY- can state they were not fluent. They were. They hit Wood x2 in the first half Different game then. But Defensively they were vulnerable The Clown has been here 14 months – and we are turgid to watch – with not an ounce of fluency. A great goal scored yesterday But on the back of an inept Newcastle misplaced pass. We ain’t Fluent We ain’t Very good And we ain’t making top 4 So Face Facts. We have all seen enough soccer… Read more »

Emiratesstroller

Mysticleaves Arsenal have as Alan Smith pointed out yesterday for the first time in many years a strong squad. Yesterday’s starting X1 contained only 4 players who you would expect to be regular first team players i.e. Leno, Sokratis,Xhaka and Aubameyang. When Bellerin and Tierney return to fitness I would expect them to replace Maitland-Niles and Monreal in flat back 4. I would expect us to start with Xhaka, Torreira, Ozil or Ceballos in midfield. Willock and Guendouzi will be given game time. It is inconceivable that we are not going to start with Aubameyang, Lacazette and Pepe as a… Read more »

Graham62

Defoe still looks sharp.

I know it’s the SPL but still a class act.

Even at 36, he’d still score goals in the EPL.

Goobergooner

Hahaha un na,

I mean the more I read what you say the more I can tell you’re a bit of a lad. We may not agree all the time but we do need some of your aggression as fans. Arsenal over the last however many years has got too soft, even for our standards.

All I mean is good to see you a little optimistic

Bob N16

ES, summed it up well. This season may should be considered in two phases; our first 8-10 matches when our new players are bedding in and our injured starters are unavailable and then for the rest of the season when we can pick our strongest line up (injuries aside). Our expectations have to be tempered in this early part of the season. Hopefully Emery gets it right more often than not. We possibly should accept that Liverpool will beat us and if we can manage draws against Spurs and United, we’ll be around the top 4 with our best yet… Read more »

Un na naai

Goober Was and am usually optimistic. If you’d read my previous ramblings pre emery and while Sanchez was smashing it for us I was still quite optimistic Was only once he downed tools that I became despondent. Still not a great lover of emery but it’s his team now really and I’m happy enough with the squad Was always of the opinion that we were good enough to attain champions league last year we just threw it away and it rightly pissed me off. It’s down to him this year and his tactics and his ability to motivate and keep… Read more »

TR7

Guendouzi will get only better from here onwards. So many people last season started writing him off as his form dipped towards end of the last season. Good to see those guys acknowledging what was a good performance from him yesterday. AMN is a highly talented player too and he got far more stick than Guen. He will get better too with time.

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