Say it quietly, but I quite miss the Europa League. I was like, totally over her, she’s kind of frumpy, not exactly a head-turner, the funny accent doesn’t suit my Brexit sentiments, but now she’s gone… I’m a bit, you know, alone?
Still, you can’t deny that an early kick-off on Saturday isn’t great. When I lived in London, it controlled my Friday night, the danger with the 1230 kick-off is you start drinking at 10am, go to the game, win, then carry on the festivities ready for a brutal 8pm crash… you basically ruin your weekend. Still, at least you get the football out of the way early.
Not sure the players will be treating Saturday that way, the pussies. They have a tough game on paper game against Palace, though scratch beneath the surface and Palace are not having a good time at the moment. They had to field 5 academy players at the weekend in the cup and they lost to Rooney’s Derby. Big Roy Hodgson is not happy with the state of his squad and I’d imagine the Zaha to Spurs/Chelsea/anyone that will save him can’t be helping.
Rumours are that he’s landing Kyle Walker on a 6-month loan from City (honestly wouldn’t say no myself (but it’s obvs the Spurs guy, which I knew lololol)) and Cenk Tosun. Hopefully, they won’t be in place by Saturday.
Good news is this: At least they are weak.
Won’t change the ferocity of the game, but I’ll take it.
Arsenal are sniffing around players themselves, there’s a lot of talk AGAIN about Yan Couto. The Brazilian 17-year-old right-back is going to move to Europe and a fee of £4.2m is being mooted, which is very much within the reach of Arsenal.
As a right-back, what I have deduced from 6 minutes of scouting is he has beautiful tight control of the ball, Hleb liked. Stunning acceleration, so he can move like a modern full-back. Solid delivery and an absolutely ferocious strike. He’d not be a now signing because he’s not 18, but he’d hopefully be very much in the mold of Martinelli.
God bless Edu (or Cagigao)
Talking of kids. Rules are now in effect that you can’t traffic children anymore.
Booooo…
‘FIFA’s rules say players aged 18 or under can only be transferred abroad if one of three criteria are met: if their parents emigrated for non-footballing reasons, both clubs are in the EU or European Economic Area and the player is aged between 16 and 18 or the player lives within 100km of the new club’
When you think about what went on, it’s quite mad. Football’s #MeToo was literally hiding Fran Merida in the mountains of Spain until he came of age so they could traffic him to London. You’d be disgusted if a bank was doing that, wouldn’t you? Unless you work in the City or Wall Street, where you’d applaud, you disgusting capitalist FIENDS.
Arteta seems to be less confident about bringing players in than he was a week ago.
‘I’m not expecting big things. I’m expecting big things from the players I have now to get through the season in a more balanced way. We always have to be looking because of some injuries’
I suspect that comment is related to this economic reality.
‘We’re not thinking to sell. There’s nothing concrete at the moment on the table, as I said, I’m focusing on the players we have now and this transfer window is a little bit tricky and things might come at the end. But I don’t know which way.’
Though I’d love us to move on £100m worth of talent this window, I think we need to be honest about the situation. There doesn’t appear to be a lot of top talent available, and if we’re in financial trouble, I’d rather us spend what money we do have on the best possible talent in the summer, without the January premium. That Boateng is still being heavily linked at £200k a week tells you all you need to know about the state of the window.
I also have mild ‘don’t say it out loud’ concerns with a massive ramp-up in talent. We’ll raise expectations, probably still not have enough to make top 4, then finish right back in the Europa League places again. It’s not a surprise that Leicester are doing far better this year without Europe to bother them. They have a full 7 days to train with Rodgers and it’s paying dividends. Older players look fresher, younger players are getting better. They won the league like that, exited the cups early, and kept everyone fit.
If we’re not making the Champions League next season, I’d rather a run at the league next year with no Europe. I think it’d be a strategic advantage.
With lower expectations this next 5 months, the manager can experiment more heavily with young players, can put more focus on winning one of the cups, and be free of pressure to chase a goal that looks very much like a stretch from where we are now. He can also spend more time with Edu, Per, and Cagigao planning the summer.
Again, I was totally wrong with how Arteta would approach the cups, so could end up with egg on my face here as well when we unveil Mbappe.
There’s some interesting news that Timo Werner has a €48m release clause in the summer (The Athletic). I’m not trying to tell the club what to do… but my word, wouldn’t he be a great signing if we moved on one of our two contract rebel strikers? He’s young, fast, can play in an aggressive press, and he scores LOTS of goals. Even better news for Arsenal, he turned down Liverpool because he wants to play (so he lacks ambition) and the same is thought to be true of his concerns about joining PSG, where Tuchel is a fan. Chelsea are interested, but again, why would you stifle Tammy Abrahams? According to reports, the English sharpshooter is waiting to see who Frank brings in before signing a new deal.
I think we should move on Werner (just typed Wenger by accident), makes total sense. Certainly a sexier name than Kevin Volland.
On exits, the club is unsure whether to let Eddie go out on loan, but it looks certain they’ll move ESR and John-Jules out. Great news, no point in keeping them if you’re going to bench them. I am very excited by ESR, I think he has immense potential… I also think it should be noted that PSG and Juve were sniffing around John-Jules. The future is bright if they can make that potential a reality.
Right, that’s all I have. See you in the comments.
Very smart move from Arteta, he has convince Xhaka to stay…
At least one signing for this january!! lol
Hey Carragher
The world does not need reminding what a fucking fool you are.
Indeed. lol
Xhaka will be fine. Besides, why sell him at a cut rate when you can play him, better him, and raise his value
Not like we have a surplus of midfielders OR money
Zacharse
But we may end up kicking him past the summer instead of upgrading that would be classic arsenal.
@London : in the Messiah you don’t trust ??
Anyone know about this guy?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-7873439/Arsenal-sign-scout-Sandro-Orlandelli-Manchester-United-eight-years-left.html
Anyone know about this guy?
He worked with Wenger for about 10 years. Cannot recall if he ever unearthed anyone decent.
Make Xhaka more effective? What the fuck does that even mean? Make him less fucking useless – precisely how we want to measure a player
“He may not be great but he’s less fucking useless than he used to be”
Traffic cones are effective, we might as well stick one of those in midfield.
Cutter
Said Left testicle”
Still waiting for you to make a rare comment on football even though I know its literally impossible for you to do so.
“when you can play him, better him, and raise his value”
Not sure that works just exposes his fuck ups all the more. If you really want to raise his value you might as well grind him up and stick him in the Hot Dogs they sell at the stadium.
Smith-Rowe joining Huddersfield on loan is a good move.
Will toughen him up.
Villa and Norwich interested in Nketiah.
Yep, we should have sent Granité to Huddersfield with him.
Napoli interested in Kola
Good on the club to loan out Smith-Rowe to the championship, lad need some proper experience on the physical and grit level of English football
No doubt he’ll come back a better player.
Looking forward to tomorrow’s game.
Predict a tight affair.
Lacazette to score.
2-1 to the Arsenal.
Keep Kolasinac.
Arteta to get his first away win in a 3-1 victory
Of course C.Palace gets their goal via the customary penalty awarded after a Zaha dive.
From @Gunnerblog on Twitter:
Given that Arteta has spoken about the risk of leaving Zaha one-on-one against a full-back, I wonder if Reiss Nelson might get another start at Palace ahead of Pepe.
He does tend to offer more defensively, and has shown good positional discipline under Arteta.
What do you guys think?
https://youtu.be/w713vhfinMg
@Vic : how dare you calling Zaha a diver ?? lol
Victorious
You mean after Xhaka’s customary unnecessary, stupid, clumsy and moronic challenge.
Xhaka will take care of Zaha without any problem.
(Mainly because their names are pretty similar.)
Marc Hey awesome take brother, really excited to hear more from you. Maybe incorporate some ‘why did the chicken cross the road’ into that killer joke riffing. Just my opinion as a standup comedian myself. As for reality, where Xhaka is a top 1% professional (like most of the prem) playing under arteta and not emery/wenger, i think its safe to say, he will be playing a lot better and therefore become a lot more desirable to the Evertons and Man utds of the world. A thinking man like yourself must surely understand the difference between taking a 20m€ loss… Read more »
“Napoli interested in Kolas”
Depends on how much they are offering and who we want to bring in / who we can get.
“the guy can pass the ball pretty fucking well. ”
Hum…
Zacharse
I’ll remind you of this conversation after Xhaka makes another dopey mistake.
If we got circa £20 million for him we’ve done well.
So Arteta basically confirming no selling nor buying for Arsenal this window even though our ‘rivals’ are actively looking for options to strengthen their top 4 push
I mean fuckin dippers have a player signed already even though they know the title is already in the bag,
where is your ambition to be relevant again arsenal?
We’re absolutely a joke club run by a clown and incompetent owner
No way we ever become a top club again under Kroenke,Arteta can only do so much through coaching as he’s obviously not a miracle worker.
Have we signed anyone yet!?
Score draw tomorrow I reckon
Marc
Xhaka obviously isn’t the bees knees but I guarantee you he’s way down the list of turds desperately in need of binning from the club at the moment.
Arteta wants him in the team for reasons best known to him and I gather he should be a better judge of a player’s ability than yourself,no offense but your opinion on the player is way ott
Probably our second best midfield player which is itself a sad indictment of where we currently find ourself as a club.
Marc
Can’t wait. Make sure to throw in some of that humor of yours. But what happens if Xhaka starts playing better And god forbid the team you support climbs the table. Will you even remember you havent gotten the chance to throw shit in the face of an anonymous person on a message board i wonder
Seriously if people on this board cannot at least acknowledge xhaka is a great passer of the ball its futile. He cant tackle he cant run hes hot headed but ffs at least acknowledge a tiny bit of reality here. I know its hard to do while refreshing the web page but give it a try you might feel better
Zacharse
Your not important enough for me to remember so I’ll get by.
As for Xhaka playing better – so he’ll only be distinctly average instead of useless. Wow we can plan our CL campaign for next season on that.
“Seriously if people on this board cannot at least acknowledge xhaka is a great passer of the ball its futile”
But he’s not he’s a decent passer but only if he’s given time. Close him down and he’ll give it away or commit a foul.
Zacharse
It is a sign of how far we have fallen when a very average player like Xhaka is lauded on here!
Aussie
Couldn’t agree more – the guy literally has NO redeeming features. We saw it against Leeds and we’ve seen it match after match after match.
Xhaka should be no where near the club considering his utter public disrespect to the fans most especially as captain whenhe was substituted in that infamous home game
That was his ‘Gallas’ moment of losing his shit when the team needed him more but I also blame Emery more for throwing him under the bus to save face from being a totally incompetent buffoon
Zacharse
Tbh he really isn’t that great a passer. His short pass is average, he doesn’t have a through ball pass on him.
Basically he has that one long across field pass that is good and tbh even luiz can do that better than him.
As another poster suggested he needs time. He is hardly a pirlo, xavi alonso or xavi when it comes to passing.
Lauded? Lol. I think ive been pretty clear.
A i’m not a fan of his and would like to see the back of him sooner than later
B his strength is his passing
C if we sell him now we lose money and destroy the little depth we have in that position
ANY QUESTIONS HAHAHA
Both ESR and John-Jules gone on loan – I don’t think there will be much more movement this window. But we have still got Xhaka!
Victorious
We say it on Monday night – Holding played an OK pass to Xhaka who’s complete lack of awareness allowed a Leeds player to nip in and nick the ball. Holding gives it to him and Xhaka sulks like a kid to the point where Luiz had to tell him to concentrate.
saw not say!
” if we sell him now we lose money ”
yeah when do we get to sell him and make money?
HAHAHA
Some of you lot want Xhaka sold even at a figure way below his value, I mean are you also privy to informations about his supposed replacement? Are they available now? Can we cough up the figures to price them away right now ? I mean these are questions Arteta needs to properly assess before agreeing on a Xhaka sale We’re not bless with a plethora of decent midfield players right now, and the games are coming fast and thick most especially the Europa which is probably our best opportunity of CL next season, we’ll need Xhaka Gurndouzi is a… Read more »
I’ll believe things like Upa and Soumare coming to Arsenal in a January window when it actually happens. In the meantime it’s Xhaka/Mustafi 2020.
ESR gone on loan? Was hoping he would stay and develop under the new staff a bit. Looks like Arteta plans to play Ozil a lot. Will Ceballos feature at all? Guen and Willock falling off pace. Midfield feels short as always.
Victorious
What is Xhaka value?
I am no fan of Granit, but he’s a great passer.
“Still waiting for you to make a rare comment on football even though I know its literally impossible for you to do so.”
What would you know about a football comment, you only pull your head out long enough to root for the bin dippers, then back up your own arse you go.
Victorious “Thank God some of you are no where near positions to make decisions for the club,we would be plodding along in division 2 already, Christ!” Er care to explain your change in view points in under 15 minutes? “Victorious January 10, 2020 17:46:51 Xhaka should be no where near the club considering his utter public disrespect to the fans most especially as captain whenhe was substituted in that infamous home game That was his ‘Gallas’ moment of losing his shit when the team needed him more but I also blame Emery more for throwing him under the bus to… Read more »
Pedro
If he has no one closing him down something that makes him an easy target and a weak link.
Joke Friday:
Bill and his friends were out for their weekly golf match. A funeral procession goes by and Bill stops in the middle of his swing, takes off his hat, and bows his head until they have moved on.
“That was pretty moving how you showed respect there Bill”, one his buddies says.
“Well. We were married for 25 years!” replied Bill.
“I am no fan of Granit, but he’s a great passer.”
Liam Brady was a great passer, Denis Bergkamp was a great passer, Cesc Fabregas was a great passer. Xhaka is not a great passer.
‘That’s not a move that makes sense for him. He’d fit in better at Chelsea right now. I would’ve loved him if we didn’t have Pepe. Nigeria’s golden boy.’
Have you ever heard of Victor Osimhen?
Now that’s Nigeria golden boy. A combo of electric energy and goal scoring skills like you hardly ever see.
Thank you pedro. Ffs!
Now that the granit issue has been resolved you can all go back to playing football manager
“Now that the granit issue has been resolved ”
Why have we sold him?
Receding HairlineJanuary 9, 2020 16:46:07
Go away for a few days and return to Pierre still posting about Ozil
Recede back to whence you came from
MarkoJanuary 9, 2020 18:34:59
but still it was Laca who got the award from the fans. Says something.Online voting are the best kinds of voting. Very legitimate and reasonable
Laca must have rigged the voting…..
Can’t believe one poster said cone in the midfield is better than xhaka.
Yes, he has his flaws but who do you suggest to replace him in team? Guen, willock?
Xhaka should only be allowed to go if a replacement is ready else he stays till summer.
Granit Xhaka is a stat peddler nothing more. Literally the only thing going for him is that he completes about 2,000 passes each season. Just don’t look beyond the surface. Honestly though he’s like Busquets but with nothing else except the passing and this is from someone who always thought Busquets was vastly overrated. A poor man’s Brozovic. And I don’t even rate Brozovic that much. My fucking god why are we keeping him. Dumb fucking club
Will be interesting to see if the players have learnt their lesson from Monday night . The important lesson to be learnt is that the midfield and defence must play higher up the pitch or the system they are trying to play breaks down. In the first half on Monday, there was too much space between our offensive 4 and the central midfield which made it too easy to pass between the lines. Throughout the first half Mesut Ozil ( who was anonymous) was urging the midfield and defence to push up higher as he could see that we were… Read more »
Memory Lane.
January 9th 2010..
Arsenal 2 Everton 2.
Snowing.
Remember?
Pienaar for Everton.
Rosicky injury time equaliser.
I was there with my son(then 15) and daughter(just 11).
Just a decade ago.
Unfriggingbelievable!
Marko
“and this is from someone who always thought Busquets was vastly overrated.”
I wonder if Pep, Xavi, Iniesta and Messi think Busquet’s is vastly overrated…
You don’t go much on intelligent footballers do you Marko.
If Art sees something others don’t in xhaka then so be it.
If we are sure of buying one of those french guys rumoured to be on our radar then keeping xhaka is meaningless.
Hatred could make posters to see nothing good in the guy but a little step into rationality shows he is a good passer of the ball.
Our team is riddled with Sunday league mistakes. Don’t make it all about xhaka.
Sounds like a great game Graham ?
Pity you didn’t go to the away fixture that season when we thrashed Everton 6-1 at goodison
Pity you didn’t go to the away fixture that season when we thrashed Everton 6-1 at goodison”
Would give anything to witness arsenal stuff a team like that again.
Painful how far behind we have fallen!
“and this is from someone who always thought Busquets was vastly overrated.”
I think Busquets was vastly underrated. Dude was a modern day Gilberto. Made the job look so easy.
Arsenal win tomorrow
You heard it here 1st!
If arsenal CBs are bombarded with balls to benteke (mustafinovs BDSM) and the 2nd ball for zaha (Xhakalson BBC) to collect it will be a cuckfest.
Grossly overrated. Played in a team that utterly dominated teams with at least 70% possession most games and had the easiest job in football to pass it to Xavi and Iniesta and let them do their thing and he was known as the best DM in world football. Pfffttt
That scout got us vela, Wellington Silva and denilson. Not sure if any others
Doesn’t inspire confidence
Busquets Playing behind Xavi, iniesta, messi, alongside alves,
there are so many outlets you could make passes while blindfolded. Xabi Alonso 10x busquets.
Im telling you this for free!
Zhaka should have been redcarded against leeds, press zhaka and he either play a stray pass or feign an infringement
Sid, any chance you could could charge for your comments and there would be a choice to pay for them rather than getting them for free?
Arteta has proven himself to be wise beyond his age. He knows that a flawed midfielder in hand is better than 10 quintessential le-grove midfielders in the bush. The January market is notoriously limited so why lose an experienced midfielder with some positive attributes when there’s no certainty that a suitable replacement will come in? If he finds a way to optimize Xhaka’s game around his few strengths … his transfer value will be up by the summer. I’ve been impressed by Arteta. He’s proven himself to be shrewd and savvy beyond his days. Never mind the daily anger parade… Read more »
Vic “””Pity you didn’t go to the away fixture that season when we thrashed Everton 6-1 at goodison”””” Or our Wengers last ever visit to Goodison- a romping 5 2 victory. Always spell binding at Goodison under AW. We ain’t scored a goal there since he left. We used to need an abacus to keep count Anyway midtable fayre tomorrow. 10th v 11th Palace v Arsenal….zzzzzzz A guaranteed snoozefest – I am sure. Sure we have the excellent MA- but the club is run by absolute dopes. Truth is We are utterly garbage and going absolutely nowhere…..totally directionless from top… Read more »
Pierre 19.10,
the question should be if Arteta learned his lesson from Monday night and not the players..they only follow the manager’s instructions ..you have to be consistent
CG
Try and seperate the running of our club with what Arteta is trying to achieve.
You never know, you may start to feel better about things.
By the way, Pepe will come good. It’s what we all want.
As for ESR, he is not ready yet. Good decision to send him out on loan to Huddersfield.
Infact I’ll go as far as to say Pepe will have a big say in tomorrow’s game.
Dissenter
I reluctantly agree regarding Xhaka.
He’s a heavily flawed player, however if you can limit the damage he can do to the team, you can get a use out of him, i.e don’t play him at the base of the midfield.
We won’t get a better option in jan with no money. If we sell xhaka and buy someone else, that player may not jell straight away so xhaka is better the devil you know.
I also think if ceba gets fit, he will slowly push xhaka out.
Pepe will come good.
You need someone a bit unpredictable in the team and I believe he’s that kind of player.
He knows that a flawed midfielder in hand is better than 10 quintessential le-grove midfielders in the bush.
Never mind the daily anger parade of people on le-grove trying to be the greatest Out-Xhaka-rist.
I sometimes wonder what are you. Honestly who writes such obvious bollox. It could only be dissenter taking up the mantle since Bamford is gone
Graham “”””Try and seperate the running of our club with what Arteta is trying to achieve.”””” Arteta might well be a coaching genius. Who knows. But With Raul,Edu,Vinny and Josh making the important decisions- Fergie would even struggle as manager I like Arteta . A lot. But what have Arteta ,Edu ,Raul, Josh ,Vinny ever achieved in soccer of note? Not one notable achievement. Arteta aside- they are all useless failures. They can’t even turn up a bloody press conferences to introduce him Gutless cowards they are. And that’s why we are midtable- for the first time for 40 years… Read more »
Prediction here…. the better arteta does the more unhinged CG will become.
Danny
“”””Pepe will come good.””””
And how do you define good when you invested in a tenth of a billion on a player?
Crikey – the gullablity of folk
He should be scoring 20 a season for that outlay.
What we waiting for?
Father Christmas.
Ronaldo’s already hit a hatrick this year.
Last game against palace was eventful to say the least, we were cruising 2/0 within 9 minutes , we became very sloppy as usual VAR intervened and awarded a penalty reversing Atkinson’s original decision of a dive and yellow card for Zaha. Dreadful 2nd half from Emery boys , Palace equalized , xhaka hooked out, threw his toys out of the pram, told the fans to fuck off, disgraced himself and the club . To add insult to injury, the fucking nobody Aussie VAR ref yet again denied us a good goal and 3 points . He must be Mike… Read more »
CG
He has come into a very poor set up with what turned out to be a terrible coach.
His performances under arteta have been
Very promising.
He will be directly involved in 20
Goals this season and that’s not including the fake stat of ‘chances created’.
Have some patience my man.
G8
“To add insult to injury, the fucking nobody Aussie VAR ref yet again denied us a good goal and 3 points . ”
Look on the bright side , without that decision we may be still be watching Emery’s brand of clueless football.
Danny
“””Have some patience my man.”””
You dont get patience when you cost £70 million
You get an instant return.
That’s why you shell out £70 million in the first place.
You get patience when you cost £7 million or you come through the ranks.
Simple logic.
CG
Were you this impatient with TH14?
Just curious.
I honestly wish Thierry wasn’t referenced every time a player with potential (i.e. expensive) doesn’t hit the ground running.
The number of times this was said about a player VS the number of times they actually come good, I’m guessing that head-to-head is staggeringly in favour of the former.
Very few Thierry Henrys in the world.
Even if Pepe comes good expecting anything like a TH14 return is unbelievably optimistic.
The spin and turn against Leeds on Monday night, culminating in Nelson’s goal, proves that Pepe has the talent.
I also believe he will come good.
Graham
“””CGWere you this impatient with TH14?”””
Off course not.
Because- you can tell he was going to be a success and didn’t cost £70 million
Pepe is Talented but too indisciplined, too predictable, too one footed.
(Zaha was the player we should have bought.) Everyone knows it …..except the Spiv.
Savvy defenders – will read him easily.
One trick pony
Flop flop flop……flop.
So let’s hope we can say the same thing about Pepe in 5 years time.
“Very few Nicolas Pepe’s in the World”
CG
I recall watching CR7 with my mate in the early years at Man U. He was a Man U fan.
He said he could believe all the step overs and bollox ronaldo was doing and there was no final ball etc
Look how he turned out.
Price tag shouldn’t come into it.
Also CG, arnt you the one who champions John Stones?
Tell you what,that Ed camavinga dude is the real deal..hard to believe the guy is 17 ffs wins everything, whether on the ground or in the air…the guy can pick a pass and can dribble too.His positional awareness is absolutely incredible.Very serious baller
VAR is in action again. No one could see the hand ball from Rice. What a heart break!
Nelson
“VAR is in action again. No one could see the hand ball from Rice. What a heart break!”
Opponent headed the ball onto his arm from a few inches away. Impossible to get out of the road on that one from so close and obviously not an intentional handball.
Couldn’t have happened to a nicer club.
Sheffield Utd only 4 points behind Chelski.