Processed with VSCO with p5 preset
I started a Fat Chart in excel this year, where I’m looking fluctuations in weight against drinking and eating out… I have found a correlation, if you drink and eat out, you get fat. Game-changer. I can’t believe how easy it goes in these days, I literally have to starve myself to get back on track. Why is life so unfair?
Well, apparently it’s not unfair if you’re a mistake-ridden footballer under Saint Arteta. The Spaniard is more forgiving than Jesus himself, this time, he’s trying to bring Mustafi under his arm and rebirth his stale career.
“Yes he made a mistake, but it’s OK. I like more the reaction and I look more at the reaction.”
“I don’t believe that at 27 you cannot improve certain aspects of the game; I really believe you can,”
“I work with players like this and I have team-mates like this and there is always a moment where there is a click.
“I can accept a mistake, no problem. What I’m not going to accept is somebody makes a mistake and after he stops playing, and he doesn’t want the ball and doesn’t want to make decisions. That player is not acceptable for our team.”
I mean, we asked for a coach and that’s exactly what he’s bringing to the table, so we really shouldn’t moan. The point that he’s making is a fair one, we all gave massive praise to Xhaka for his performance when we went a goal down, but you’d be hard pushed and cruel to deny that Mustafi had a very strong game after the error. Also worth remembering we were burning Xhaka effigies in November now he’s seen as reliable.
My worry, as ever, is that we’ve been watching this episode of Mustafi on repeat for the last however many years and it’s tiring. That said, there’s a player there, he was great against Crystal Palace. His range of passing was solid and he gave us a great outlet, so if he can be coached back to World Cup winning levels, then I’m game for it.
One thing is for sure with Arteta, he doesn’t give a rats arse what we think as fans, and he’ll do as he pleases.
Another player who has been spending time in the Miki Confessional box is Nicolas Pepe. The £72m winger from Lille has had a very up and down season. He has an unorthodox approach to the game, it’s hit or miss, but there’s certainly no doubt there’s a real talent lying in wait. Nic had this to say of the godly work he’s doing behind the scenes.
“Things have been going positively so far, we’ve got some good results and have been playing good football,” the 24-year-old said. “There has certainly been some encouraging signs and we know that we do have quality and we have what it takes to do well on the pitch.
“Mikel Arteta has explained to me what he would like me to do on the pitch and he has shown me videos that have stressed the importance of my positioning. He has told me exactly what he would like me to do to help me progress as a player.
“We want to do well as an attacking force. We want to perform well on the pitch, score goals and get assists. As a team it doesn’t matter who’s getting the goals and who’s getting assists, but the important thing is we are playing well together and getting results.
“We support one another on the pitch and as an attacking player it’s always great to have someone like Mesut Ozil feeding passes into you so it’s enjoyable.”
I’m hoping we’re going to see some sort of Raheem Sterling project with some of our wide players. We simply don’t get enough end product out of our players in the final third. That needs to change as the team builds more stability from the back. One absolute basic I’d love Pepe to work on is his right foot. How you can make it to the top in football being one-footed in 2020 is a miracle. Also, note the comment about Mesut Ozil… the players like being around him.
One player who isn’t a rehab project is Gabriel. I liked these comments from Mikel about our superstar Brazilian.
“They said you’ll be surprised how prepared he is to compete with any other player in the squad. I always thought yeah ok but he’s 18. When you see in big games how he goes about everything it’s surprising.”
Big things expected of him for the backend of the season.
The Bournemouth game this evening will be interesting for us, it’s another chance to redeem an average result we had against them in Arteta’s first encounter. It’d be wonderful to progress further in a cup that has all the big boys still involved. The one thing we have to be sure to avoid is a replay. Spurs drew against Southampton and Liverpool slipped up against Shrewsbury… Klopp insisting he’ll not even manage the replay.
It’ll be interesting to see how we line up, we went all out against Leeds, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see the same again. Though I would imagine there will be an eye on a tough game this Sunday against a Burnley that appears to be slightly resurgent in the league (though they were beaten by Norwich in the cup at the weekend).
It’s a shame we’re likely too early for a Pablo Mari start, but maybe by the time I wake up, he’ll be confirmed as a signing. Was also sad to see Aaron Ramsey still benched for Juve… I’m not pining for an Arteta reunion, you are.
Before I go, some more sad news for the Arsenal blogosphere… Yogis Warrior from ACLF passed 3 weeks ago. I didn’t know him well, but he helped correct my Spanish to ‘Manos fuera Cesc’ back in 2011. I’ve always had huge admiration for his brilliant writing and his dedication to regular content for his community. He seemed like a top guy, our thoughts are with his family.
P.S. RIP Kobe. His career transcended sport. What a sad moment.
DM
2
In a rush
tr4phy
Too late
Well done pinoy. Like I said, in a rush and couldn’t hang about for someone else to post 3rd lol
RIP Kobe, made even worse by the fact his daughter perished as well.
RIP Kobe man. That shit is the saddest stuff ever.
Sportsmen like him transcend any sport. The definition of GLOBAL.
And his 13-year-old daughter died in the crash with him 🙁
Honestly 41 years old is no age to die. And to think he leaves his wife of 20 years with three girls. Man my heart can’t. That sort of stuff is way too sad man.
The BBC are idiots. Did anyone see their report last night? The image and clip was of LeBron instead. Idiots.
What a tragedy for Kobe`s wife and daughters. 7 others on the flight as well. I used to work for an oil company. I hate Helicopters, necessary evil.
Re Mustafi. There is no fixing the unfixable. He was a barely capable defender in the first instance. Cutting out his unforced errors will only elevate him to average. Get rid!
“I hate Helicopters, necessary evil.”
You couldn’t pay me to get in one of those. I can just about do planes.
Onto Arsenal stuff, not keen on this Pablo Mari geezer. Sure it’s already been discussed but i don’t see how he fits the profile we want going forward. if it was a loan then fine but buying him? I feel sick.
Anyway fingers crossed for a win tonight. We need to start building confidence and momentum.
Ugh pedro, This is childish. If arteta is really backing mustafi he deserves to be criticized. I know if it was anyone else you wanted as manager backed some of these players you would have crucified them. Everything Arteta is going to do isn’t great or rosy. Be objective please. Mustafi is a brain dead player and don’t try 5o spin it.
you didn’t want*
We all want Mustafi out of the team, but you’ve got to grudgingly acknowledge the manner he handles himself after an horrendous error. Xhaka has that sort of character(I’m trying to avoid calling it mental strength) too; most players would easily cave in to the pressure.
#AnnounceMari
Man i’m really keen on Arteta but Mustafi is done man. Flogging him is a dead horse at this stage. The weird thing with him is that he does a lot of good defensive actions during the game but he undoes all of that as you know he’s always liable to make one massive error that will cost us. It’s not a liability you can afford.
Romford
Exactly. He looks a decent defender, then gifts the opposition a goal.
RP
True talk re Mustafi. About your sentiments on Mari, worse case he takes Mustafi place on lower wages. I sincerely hope our strategy is not just scrapping the barrel under the guise of unearthing diamonds. Haha
Arteta fully deserves to be backed as much as possible.
We need to stay in the FA cup tonight, it is going to be a very competitive competition this year.
The title race is over and now it’s the FA cup domestically where all the excitement will be .
Strong teams, big crowds ,the real excitement of trying to win a trophy..none of this top 4 or top 6 rubbish.
The competition will be fierce if we get through , there will be some massive games in the 5th round.
I think Arteta is doing well with the squad. I think its obvious who is shit/not suited to the league, but lets face it, we are stuck with them until the end of the season.
The players need to be motivated and managed properly, in this regard I think he is doing great.
Thank you for your mention of Stuart. He has been a consistently excellent blogger on all things Arsenal for as long as I can remember. I have made many friends via his site over the years and enyoyed several very beery days out at the Arse with Stuart and other ACLF’ers. Great times.
We will all miss him and it is regretful that the community that he built will be no more.
My thoughts are with his wife and young family. He was too young to lose.
Chika, putting it kindly, Mari looks rubbish. Doesn’t fit the profile of what Arteta is looking to do going forward. I don’t want to fill the squad up with dross on wages when all we should be doing in the summer is buying the necessary quality to improve us, not squad filler. We already have Luiz, Sokratis, Holding, Chambers, Mavrapanos, Mustafi and now Mari. Saliba is also coming in the summer. Why on earth do we have eight CBs? Most only have four and we struggle to shift ours on anyway. The quality is very mediocre there too. I know… Read more »
Loooool just as i’ve written that post Daily Mail reporting Mari deal could collapse as player has headed back to Brazil. God answering my prayers.
From the previous post
NOBODY is paying ramsey 400k. The wages according to juve sources reported in italian media was 166k after tax and that is total of 8.4m a year. But did not disclose the sign on fee
there’s a lot of agent talk about as well Romford Pele, I take no notice
So stop this rubbish juve is paying ramsey 400k a week.
grease, i hope it’s true. I don’t want him.
Romford
Sad news about Kobe and the two kids.. Baseball coach among the dead too. Awful.
For me,he was the perfect villain athlete. Love cheering against him. From time to time, I go back and watch his highlights in the 2001 playoffs. The equivalent would be a striker scoring 30 goals in 25 games. Ridiculous stuff.
Looks that there are complications in the Pablo Mari deal….. let’s see what the reports are
juve is not stupid as arsenal, ramsey is not thier first free agent signing that they will pay that kind of money. More over ronaldo only earn 420k a week after tax.
So sad to hear about Yogis Warrior, I knew he had a serious operation, but thought he was on the mend..A great read every day, and will sadly miss him. He leaves 2 young sons and of course his wife. His ability to write daily never ceased to amaze me. He was a gifted writer for sure, and as a bonus the daily picture gave a cryptic clue about the content of the post.
RIP Yogi
Dream – it’s so sad man. he was due to be inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame later this year. And just the day before he had the tweet about how LeBron needs to keep carrying the torch for the next generation. Him, MJ and LBJ are the all-time greats. Statisticallly he was off the charts. The equivalent of doing what henry used to do for us, just over a much longer period. And his career after Basketball was taking off too. To think he’s left his childhood sweetheart a widow with three daughters with no dad now is… Read more »
How times fly
mustafi should given chance again and again after so many errors within a short period of time because our lord arteta say so. Something pedro will not entertain two months ago. Go figure
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/amp/football/47203118&ved=2ahUKEwj5g5-Jy6PnAhXSoXEKHfpVDIUQFjAKegQIEBAQ&usg=AOvVaw38EOD7I9Xv-K38YUUMQqid&cf=1
RP
We surely do have too many centre backs especially devoid of the needed quality. Now the Daily Mail has brought a twist to the signing, let’s see how it pans out.
Just sign Steve Bould for the rest of the season. He’s packed on extra timber, but he’s a big unit, can organise a defense and clear his line. Get it done Michael Arteta!
Ah yes, the wonderfully competitive FA Cup.
Full strength teams, dodgy pitches, packed out stadiums, 100% commitment and genuine, honest to god, excitement
Winning the FA Cup, prior to the early noughties, covered all the above points and more.
Unfortunately, not now.
Pierre that is english tabloid why dont you try italian or nbcsport
RP I also am against the permanent signing of pablo mari. Loan with an option to buy is a great deal but I don’t want to stockpile any more Centerbacks who are average. If we sign him permanently that means we have 8 centerbacks in the summer regardless of whether any one thinks we can shift them. We should know how he is going to do before permanently signing him. About Kobe, His widow is going to have a tough time with both her daughter and her husband gone. It is so tragic. He was just one of those players… Read more »
Habesha, agree on both counts. Most clubs have 4 CBs, 5 at a push if you’re gonna play the 3ATB system otherwise it’s just overkill.
On Kobe, like you say, even if you’re not a basketball fan, there are certain individuals that just attract you to their sport as their influence both on and off the court transcends anything else.
Graham
“Unfortunately, not now.”
Oh ye of little faith …wait and see,.that’s where domestically all the excitement will be.
The problem is that we’ve seen more of Mustafi than Arteta has, he’s not really up to speed
The only logic is that he’s trying to improve him to be able to sell him at the end of the season.
Mustafi as a knack of making big errors and goes to sleep mentally during the game.
PRO TIP Tro4phy HUNTERS
Wait patiently for DM to post his 3rd and fire away the #4
Improvement would be to work in tandem and as one sends 3 the other posts 4
As I say Arteta times are here and there are winners besides Liverpool, City and DM
James Rodriguez, is also a possibility. He is reportedly available for £34million, more or less same price as Lemar.
kristoman
Out of interest what signing on fee did Juve give to Ramsey?
James Rodriguez, is also a possibility. He is reportedly available for £34million”
He’s being offered around like a slut. Would avoid.
Romford
I think we are better off being the club that he’s the young upcoming hungry player first….not the one that gets the overpaid spent prima donna looking for a rebound.
Why can’t we be the club that gets the 20 year old Lemar from Caen or the 21 year old Coutinho from Inter, not the one that feeding on the bloated versions.
There are plenty of solid midfielders that don’t register with us, we should let our scouts do their jobs.
No to Lemar or James
To people who have been watching Lemar, could he also play in that Ozil/No.10 role? If so I would would swap him out for Laca.
Front three of;
Lemar ———– Abua/Martinelli ———- Pepe
There is a lot of swaping around and formation changes you could do with those 4 players.
All this talk of Ramsey’s struggles at Juve will bring Paulinho swing his battle axe.
Juventus have to be on the brink of financial collapse they way they keep dishing out crazy money for midfielders.
They were hawking out Dybala like he had rabies in the summer, now he’s indispensable. Somethings not right in the club.
No to James Rodriguez. I don’t want players that are unmotivated and in decline for those amount of figures. He might be better than what we have but I wouldn’t touch him if he doesn’t come for free.
Whatever happened to us getting athletic players with physical presence
Do people even realize that Lemar is a lightweight midget? There no physicality in his game unlike a Bernardo Silva
*There’s no physicality in his game
Dissenter
The talk is Eriksen’s going to sign for Inter in the next day or so. Small fee due to only 6 months left on his contract but he’s reported to be earning £320,000 per week.
The inflationary pressures this brings to your squad is crazy – Eriksen’s a good player but he’s not worth that sort of money.
“Romford
I think we are better off being the club that he’s the young upcoming hungry player first….not the one that gets the overpaid spent prima donna looking for a rebound.”
I agree 100%.
I really don’t care for names that much. The occasional one sure but i wouldn’t make the bulk of my transfer strategy. It’s about working smart.
It’s almost like Kobe never r*ped anyone, or had his lawyers drag his accuser through the mud.
Or essentially told the cops when questioned that “Shaq does stuff like this all the time.”
It’s true Pedro would back Arteta if he slapped his(Pedro’s)face while kneeling to propose marriage to his beloved lady, but then I have got to say I respect how Mustafi reacted after.
I think his problem was that once he made a mistake, he cared too much and that always went down to more mistakes and I think he’s fighting to fix that. Arteta did well backing him I think.
Unfortunate thing about Kobe. May his and his daughter’s soul find rest.
Flamengo director on Pablo Mari: “I already spoke wotj pablo mari now. We expect him at Ninho do Urubu this afternoon (to start pre-season). We had agreed to sell him for a fee, he arrived in London, Arsenal changed (the terms).”
Alex, the man is dead. And then his daughter. You find that sad don’t you?
“The Spaniard is more forgiving than Jesus himself, this time, he’s trying to bring Mustafi under his arm and rebirth his stale career.”
And of course, because he’s Saint Mikel, all is forgiven…
Mustardi and Granité are now world top class players.
This is truly pathetic.
(RIP Kobe)
Pablo Mari transfer has collapsed and the defender is flying back to Brazil.
Told ya Raul out
Not because Mari is great but because with injuries we are forced to play dangerous jokers
“Alex, the man is dead. And then his daughter. You find that sad don’t you?”
A rapist piece of shit is dead. Not sad. Not tragic.
A child is dead. Sad.
Pull your head out of your ass, idiot.
So the Mari deal has reportedly collapsed. I thought stuff like this only happen when you have Arsene as the commander in chief.
The Pablo Mari deal collapse is understandable
We wanted a loan with an option to buy while Flamengo wanted to sell to us at 700% profit.
In the end the player will probably buy himself out. I can’t imagine he didn’t have an exit clause when signing for 1 million 8 months ago. He couldn’t have been so stupid, surely?
This Alex fellow is annoying, cancer or no cancer
Sanctimonious know it all
‘From the previous post
NOBODY is paying ramsey 400k. The wages according to juve sources reported in italian media was 166k after tax and that is total of 8.4m a year. But did not disclose the sign on fee’
I must also tell you that I taught Messi and CR7 how to play football and singlehandedly won that election for Trump.
You should believe that too.
Flamengo director on Pablo Mari: “I already spoke wotj pablo mari now. We expect him at Ninho do Urubu this afternoon (to start pre-season). We had agreed to sell him for a fee, he arrived in London, Arsenal changed (the terms).”
Remember when a few months ago there was rumours of unrest by agents regarding the way Arsenal conducted its business.
Seems that not a lot has changed since the day of Wenger dithering and changing his mind at the 11th hour on players.
Tbh I get why Flamengo wouldn’t agree. Why would you loan out one of your best players? It makes no sense. It’s like Arsenal loaning Aubameyang to PSG/Barca. Either sell or nothing.
His so called rape victim isn’t as bitter as Alex cutter.
She grabbed the first chance for a pay-off and dropped all charges. It was the classic shake down.
Cheers, Alex.
If you are going to send your Technical Director to escort a player from Brazil to London and get photographed at the airport at least do so in the knowledge the deal is a done deal. Hate all this amateur hour antics of changing deals at the last minute and expecting the selling club to suck it up
Valentin
You do know there’s a fair chance that the Flamengo boss could be just as wrong.
You don’t think the club should get credit for walking away if the deal isn’t right?
“His so called rape victim isn’t as bitter as Alex cutter. She grabbed the first chance for a pay-off and dropped all charges. It was the classic shake down.” Exactly this. This is always such a sensitive subject so you have to be careful. But you only have to look at the Neymar situation last year when the victim through out a load of accusations. Thank God Neymar had recordings on his phone to tell us the actual truth. What then happened? She apologised and denied everything. Now there are obvious loads of cases where men have been scumbags and… Read more »
Receding
I don’t think Edu is as amateurish as you are suggesting. He knows enough of the Brazilian football scene.
I suspect Flamengo asked for more and Arsenal said no. The entire thing was hunted on a lot of risk that only us would bear.
Valentin
Sorry but you and Pedro can’t have it both ways. Either we’re being run or at least “influenced” by agents or we’re pissing them off by being difficult to deal with.
Pretty sure the ones who’ll be most critical about this deal collapsing will be the same ones who were criticising the management for pursuing this player in the first place.
Valentin you name drop more times than Tahani Al Jamil , if you have a contribution to the discussion just drop it like every other poster. Not every post should be written with some hints of inside knowledge or some whispering overheard along the corridors of power.
Romford
It’s such a tricky subject – no one would condone any form of sexual assault but there are just too many accusations that seem to be fabricated to assume the man is always guilty.
Gentlebris,
166kpw after tax is the equivalent of 386kpw before tax (Italy personal income tax is progressive, rising to a top rate of 43% for income exceeding EUR 75,000.%) …
Taking into account his signing-on fee (a lowly 5 millions) his total package compensation is likely to be 400kpw…
“It’s such a tricky subject – no one would condone any form of sexual assault but there are just too many accusations that seem to be fabricated to assume the man is always guilty.”
Marc – exactly.
Unless you have all the facts you can’t just fingerpoint.
How does Edu avoid being photographed at the airport?
Fly private jet from Brazil? …For a player that only went for 1 million 7 months ago. The lad wasn’t worth that type of service. It was a low risk punt, who cares if anyone photographed them. It’s not like any other European club is outbidding us.
The lad didn’t even have his representative around him – no posse of agents like the modern player does. This was Flamengo trying to fleece us and we said nope.
Receding,
Where did I name drop?
Get over yourself.
“I don’t think Edu is as amateurish as you are suggesting. He knows enough of the Brazilian football scene.”
Dissenter i am not even keen on the player but if the deal does fall through after all the airport sightings it is indeed amateur hour.
Send any other member of staff to fly him in from Brazil if the deal isn’t signed and sealed.
RP
Ronaldo, Neymar, Kobe and so many others. I just think these women see $$ signs when they sleep with top athletes. More often than not these athletes have women throwing themselves at them so why would they ruin everything they have got for sex ( which they could get from a lot of women) . Mostly these situations are shakedowns.
“How does Edu avoid being photographed at the airport?”
By not being at the airport
Valentin
If I earnt £386,000 and took home £166,000 I’d be paying over 50% tax on the whole amount.
Now I’ll be the first to admit I have zero knowledge of the Italian tax system but your numbers do not stack up.
“Get over yourself.”
This should be on your bedroom wall
“How does Edu avoid being photographed at the airport?”
Maybe he could wear a cunning disguise?
Twitter account that reports Flamengo news saying that Arsenal agreed to pay 9m Euros then said they don’t have it.
If that’s the case, it is fcuking amateur.
Romford
The Kobe case hinged on the accusation of the legend victim who was white. It’s a nasty thing to bring up race but it’s still America with that ugly festering wound. Famous black man accused of raping white woman gets a visceral reaction every time.
There were daggers drawn and the OJ Simpson battle lines were being redrawn.
She got a major pay-off, said to be with seven zeros.
I don’t want to slime her but you lose something when you take big money.
If that’s the case, it is fcuking Arsenal.
‘If you are going to send your Technical Director to escort a player from Brazil to London and get photographed at the airport at least do so in the knowledge the deal is a done deal’ RH, The smart ass who bursted Edu at the airport caused this grieve. If Arsenal weren’t sure of the deal, Edu wouldn’t bother flying. Mari is no Mbappe. Flamengo got greedy after the Mari media chitchat and we threw their toy at them. Flamengo is the big loser, you can’t deny a guy a chance like that after what he said about Citeh/Pep and… Read more »
I am more forgiving than jesus himself so i let the hyping up of xhakalson by Mikel go, so now i have to forgive him for hyping up Mustafinovs
The Arsenalization will be televised
Im telling you this for free!
Receding
How does he get from Brazil to England
-Come by ship? You know better
-Fly by private jet? The cost of that is astronomical all for a player that just went for 1 million.
In this age and time, even the private jet terminal is not safe from the amateur paparazzi with a cell phone and twitter handle.
Not only is he a racist, the guy is rationalising rape.
You heard it here 1st!
Kristoman 166k after tax doesn’t mean much because we don’t know the tax rate. The club is paying the before not after tax rate regardless of what his take home is. But realistically it’s in the region of 40% so that would be in the region of 300k at a guess
Pretty obvious that Arteta is fully aware that what he has today, in terms of players, is what he will have tomorrow and for the foreseeable future – so make the best of it. A lot of poor decisions being made at the transfer table by the so-called experts that comprise the management staff.
Pedro, you can spin the above reality anyway you want, but fucked is fucked and right now Arsenal are fucked but good! Arteta is a good man for taking on this Clusterfuck of a shitshow, he deserves better but wont get it.
Alex cutter
https://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/02/us/prosecutors-drop-kobe-bryant-rape-case.html
For your education
How many times does a rape victim decide to file a civil suit before the prosecution even builds a convincing case. She knew well that a civil suit would undermine the criminal case but she didn’t give a damn. She couldn’t wait to grab the money.
This was a very unique case. Read up on it before you start throwing stuff around.
Wait that’s way less than 300k lol
The Mustafi stuff is pathetic. Everyone has known, until yesterday apparently, that his problems are not coachable. He’ll play well for 85 minutes and then commit an appalling brain-fart resulting in an error and a goal. It must have some kind of relationship to personality or decision-making, but either way, it’s not something that can be coached out of him.
Eduardo
Sorry which player were you talking about again?
I know arteta is a good player coach but we can’t expect that he can sort out every player
We don’t need him to try and walk on water. We need him to know when to cut his losses just as much as when to invest himself in a player
I can only hope he’s said this because the Mari deal is apparently falling through and he knows we’re stuck with him until the summer