Via Arsenal.com
Mikel Arteta seemed relatively pleased in his press conference when talking about the two new additions to the side. With Cedric Soares, he’s hired in some needed experience and a player he hopes is desperate to take his chance at an elite club. With Pablo Mari, a player he specifically said the club have looked at for months, he has a ball playing center-back with a left foot he hopes can open up the pitch and give him more options.
Soares dropped his first press conference and to be honest, he just seems really fucking energised to be at a big club.
That’s massive for me to come here. Like I said, I came to the Premier League four-and-a-half years ago and now to achieve this move to Arsenal is massive. It’s all I wanted and it’s really important in my career as well.
He explained his game, and it reads fairly Mikel Arteta.
It’s a tough one! One hundred per cent that I will give all my best every day and every game. That’s for sure. I try to be a guy with energy, a player that goes up and down. I like to consider myself a team player and yes, what can I say? It’s difficult when you need to talk about yourself! But again, I will give my 100 per cent for the team and for the fans.
If he comes in, works hard, puts in a shift for his team and lands 9 assists, I will be happy. At this point, we have to ignore the super-agent fingerprints (Correction: Kia for Suarez) and hope that the club offered Arteta the options he needed, and they actually work for him.
Defensively, Matt Scott had some numbers on the players. A bit of a bruiser with some untapped attacking flair.
Cedric has the seventh-highest tackle rate per 90mins among all Premier League defenders this season. The nearest Arsenal player is Calum Chambers in 20th. After him, it’s Sead Kolasinac. In 48th. pic.twitter.com/ZXshBO9K8Y
— Football DNA (@ftballDNA) January 28, 2020
The great thing about new players is regardless of what you think about quality, they refresh the squad from an energy perspective. Players are like fans, they get excited about new transfers and fresh blood in the office. After Sunday, the squad, coronavirus issues pending, fly out to Dubai for some training. Arteta made a point that the players haven’t had more than 2 days off since he started. He wants to use the trip to develop his concepts and to ‘live’ with the players a bit.
I thought Mikel’s point about being happy about the window, more so because of the lack of exits, was pertinent. Before Emery was booted, we were looking at Auba, Torreira and Xhaka exiting. A month later, all three look revitalised on the pitch. Additionally, the big hype conversation amongst the fans is around how good AMN could be in the midfield (reminder of what he can do below).
📽️Ainsley Maitland-Niles vs Man Utd at Old Trafford, EPL 2017/18🎥
Granit Xhaka at the base of the midfield 3
AMN in the box-to-box bridge CM role while Iwobi has the free CM/CAM role
Bullish midfield display from Niles on the day pic.twitter.com/Ui5h3YUZ41
— Phantomn AFC (@PhantomnAFC) January 30, 2020
The overriding thought seems to be that he’ll be pushed into the midfield, with right-back duties handed back to the specialists. AMN brings power, pace and a lot of mobility to a midfield that has lacked it. The player has always drawn heavy critique, unfair in my opinion, but I think it’s absolutely apparent now that if you’re not coached properly or told what to do on the pitch, you’ll probably not develop.
I watched an HBO doc about Nick Saban and Bill Belichek last night. One dominates the NFL, the other, College Football. It was quite interesting listening to them talk about sport. One of their big slogans is ‘do your job’, they both talked about that goes beyond just a nice soundbite… the gist, if you don’t tell athletes exactly what they should be doing, they won’t know. Communication and attention to detail is absolutely essential.
We’re seeing that sort of mindset being brought to The Arsenal. Everyone knows their role on the pitch. Is it perfect yet? No. But we’re on the right track. The length of passing lanes has shortened, players off the ball movement is strategic, we press in packs, and we have players operating in intelligent ways that highlight their positive attributes, and minimise their not-so-great attributes.
It’s been hard to judge talent under the latter years of Wenger and entire tenure Unai Emery because it was unclear what the job was. Now the players are being held accountable to a specific role, it’s going to be far easier to see who can live up to the new standards, and who can’t.
The impressive thing is this: Everyone is back on the table. That’s what makes the backend of the season so interesting. We’re seeing a reinvigorated set of players and now we’ll be able to make honest assessments of talent. It’s amusing that some fans think this is an about-face by me, it’s absolutely not, when the information changes, you reassess. Only dim people lock themselves into a forever view I’m afraid. If I am proved totally wrong by David Luiz and Granit Xhaka, I will eat that humble pie and wash it down with some of that MustafiCouldBeBaresi Hot Sauce. Sometimes in life, you have to accept you were wrong and hit the town dancing with the L.
A huge game this Sunday. We need to go to Burnley with energy and purpose and we need to bring home the 3 points. David Luiz returns to the side, so does Auba. It’ll be interesting to see who keeps their place. I’m hoping we see Gabriel in the starting 11. Will we see Saka? What will the defence look like? So much to look forward to.
Right, that’s me done, see you in the comments. x
Caballero went for a stroll there
He should have stayed with the ball after chasing it, just become a left back
Lol both teams can’t be bothered defensively
Great game for the neutrals
Gr8 header from Rudiger.
2-2.
These loans are giving two players in the back end of their careers a chance to make something of themselves with a big club.
This should motivate them to put in good performances.
The clubs so called financial position is totally self imposed by the owner who hasn’t put a penny of his own money into the club, he wants it all.
China, Un na Why does criticism or saying AMN not being good enough for Arsenal have to be related to some weird Emery defence? He’s been on loan at Ipswich, played under Wenger, Emery, Freddie and Arteta and all have seen him play at RB even when Chambers who naturally can play RB was fit, AMN was still deployed there, says something that none of his managers have trusted him to play through the middle… Watch Chaudory today against Chelsea I’m the middle and that’s the kind of energetic switched on performance you’d expect from anyone wanting to play CM,… Read more »
dave
The players are 28 and 26 respectively. I’m not sure “back end” is the right term for this stage of their careers. You could make an argument that they are both in the peak of their careers.
Ricardo Pereira by the way is maybe the best RB in the league, goes up and down that right flank seamlessly and boy can put in a tackle
I wouldn’t be in the slightest bit surprised to see AMN sold in the next 18 months. Could easily bring in £25 odd million.
Does anyone else on here fancy Southampton picking something up at Anfield?
……………………………Nope!!
Backing Southampton to nick a shock win.
Cocky dippers think theyre invincibles 2.0 already.desperately need a stubborn team to fvck them right off
People of LeGrove . whats the opinion on Danny Ings ? Good enough replacement for Laca if we sell him ?
DivineSherlock
He’s been excellent this season. Better than Lacazette, but his injury history means it’s better to have him as a squad option.
We only have to buy another striker if Auba leaves, we already have Martinelli.
It’s not exactly like Laca is banging them in either, the money we get for him would help the team more than his contributions on the pitch if we invest it wisely in another position.
ESR goal and an assist.
ox is such a quality player if he can stay fit he will be in top 5 midfielders in the league.
Dream
I didnt know he had an injury history. Whenever Ive watched him he looked good to me . Plays roughly the same role as Lacazette for Southampton. Maybe its Hassenhutl effect .
Hendersons pass jheeez
Southampton getting torn apart now
Fuckin relentless aren’t they the bin dippers
Southampton shouldve taken their chances in the 1st half . Undone all the hard work in 2nd half.
Cedric moves and Saints get battered. EL incoming
West Ham could be in serious trouble comfortably winning and have thrown it away against Brighton. Their next 7 fixtures in the PL:
City A
Liverpool A
Southampton H
Arsenal A
Wolves H
Spud’s A
Chelsea H
David Moyes wishing he’d stayed in retirement!
If West Ham go down I think they’ll do a Sunderland.
Would be amusing to see that stadium a third full in league one.
Chris
West Ham were already selling ST’s for £300-£400 to try and keep numbers up, go down and they’ll struggle to give them away!
I see the incredible and mighty Nigel Pearson is tearing it up at Watford. A big new manager bounce and a hell of a crash back to Earth.
Marc
At least when Sunderland went down to League one they still had decent attendance. As you say West Ham would be different, a horrible football stadium will look even more horrid a third full.
Not sure the Dildo brothers and Brady could save face from that one.
Chris
So when do they panic sack Moyes and bring in Allardyce?
Adama Traore vs Luke Shaw
😂😂 this should be a laugh
CC
Whilst I would never put it past ManU to pull a performance out of the hat you wouldn’t be surprised if Wolves win 2 nil.
Can’t stand West Ham.
Hope they go down and have their council stadium residency withdrawn. Peasants.
Liverpool are relentless
West ham are horrible
Everton looking good under Ancelotti
Watford still a bit shit defensively, ha e to be with Kabasele in there
Palace are such a horrid team to watch
Sheffield hopefully aren’t a one season wonder, very hard team to play against
In summary, the league is a bit shit, over 70 points in early February for Liverpool is insane, probably cross 100 points and move closer to 120…Such a poor poor league for all the money being spent
The Excrement derby tomorrow.
Midtable Burnley v Midtable Arsenal.
10th place trophy up for grabs.
Enjoy.
And to think our Wenger left only 62 games ago.
Who would have thought we would sink so low, so quickly.
But we have Pablo and Cedric on board.
Inverted Fullbacks and a trip to Dubai on the horizon.
(Sounds like a plan to me.)
Shambolic what we have become.
Bati
It’s strange in the last couple of years we have seen an improvement in the quality of football across the lower PL teams and where we had us and ManU both dropping off from where we expect to be the Spud’s and Liverpool have both been much better. This season Liverpool are walking it, City have been poor and the only other team looking above the fray is Leicester.
CG
Simple solution for you – don’t watch it and don’t comment on it.
We’ll all be much happier.
CG
What’s your solution then? Hire Nigel Pearson? I thought you rated Sean Dyche?
Or bring back Arsene?
Batistuta I never mentioned emery and explicitly said I don’t believe ANN is suitable for CM
AMN lacks finesse and it looks like the kind of spatial intelligence required to be a CM. He doesn’t have the X factor required to be a winger or wing forward but I do think he can do a job at RB as a backup under arteta
AMN… young man learning his trade. Played as a cover full back and overall played well. Has electrifying acceleration and can hit the bye line to get a cross in. I cannot see any sense in the condemnation of him. He has played in the poorest arsenal defense I’ve ever seen with no leaders and no strength in the middle. He is a good footballer, he needs more personal coaching and development by arteta. His focus will improve and his mistakes will reduce. Opinions of him should be kept sensible and not descend into absurd incorrect abuse. To get as… Read more »
43 points to first and 6 to relegation…
Wenger 8-2 mentioned again….thank god wenger 6-0 has gone….I really keep my optimism going by thinking we have hope now wenger 5-1 has gone.
Shrimpers 2- Lincoln City 1
Fernandez has yellow sclera, looks jaundiced from Ole fever already.
Walt “””CG, Simple solution for you – don’t watch it and don’t comment on it.We’ll all be much happier.”””” (I am glad you speak for all of Le Grove. ) You just stick to counting your pennies and being a one dimensional sycophant. And I’ll just gently remind you that: When Raul arrived – Arsenal had money in the bank and they were 5th. They had a very strict policy with regards to the Spivs.( an absolute cancer on the game and in life) 1/4 billion British pounds later and 3 coaches later we are now heavily indebted and in… Read more »
Awful game of football
12th.
Not 10th.
CG
I’m precisely aware of out current situation.
You constantly bitching about it solves nothing.
CG
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear………give it a break.
It’s all doom and gloom with you.
As I’ve said numerous times since your arrival on this blog, where were you hiding when things started to go pear shape all those years back?
Clapping no doubt.
CG still doesn’t get it into his walnut sized brain that this is all as a result of all the terrible decisions made by “his Wenger”. Replacing our stars with duds, renewing all the injury prone players, giving inflated contracts to masses of undeserving players, making them impossible to move on for any kind of money, Not replacing ageing players, letting players run down their contracts etc etc. Raul is so far doing a good job with the rebuild of the squad, it was never going to be smooth sailing when so many parts had to be replaced so quickly… Read more »
CG, we need Nigel Pearson in, he’s a manager after all
Graham
“””””As I’ve said numerous times since your arrival on this blog, where were you hiding when things started to go pear shape all those years back?””””
Pear shaped….?
3 league titles 🍐🍐🍐
7 Fa Cups 🍐🍐🍐🍐🍐🍐🍐
7 Charity Shields 🍐🍐🍐🍐🍐🍐🍐
You honestly think there is another manager out there that can win trophies under Silent Stan?
We wont be eating pears for a while🍐.
(Enjoy the sunny uplands post Wenger)
A win for us tomorrow is imperative. We need to start taking advantage of when other teams drop points – top 4 is a massive ask but we should make sure we’re in a position to take advantage if Chelsea, the Spud’s. Wolves and ManU continue to be so inconsistent.
Hell, if Mari works out we might not even need Upamecano. Just spend 80-90m on Soumare and Ziyech, that’s something we can easily do. Sell Xhaka and Laca for the bulk of that, add Elneny and Mikhis fees to that and we’re nearly there. Sokratis and Mavro will probably be moved on and Mustafi surely can’t survive another summer. Tell Ozil he’s 3rd choice behind Ziyech and ESR and maybe his agents convinces him to get off the coach and find a club were his sponsors can watch him play and we save another 18m off the wage bill. I’m… Read more »
“You honestly think there is another manager out there that can win trophies under Silent Stan?”
Then why the negativity around Sanllehi and Arteta – if it doesn’t matter who’s manager if Kroenke owns the club shouldn’t you be waging a war against Kroenke?
PedRo
“””CG, we need Nigel Pearson in, he’s a manager after all”””
No
Nigel 🍐son is who we require.
Great to see Theo score a late winner.
Huge fan of Theo.
Haaland with another brace today. The next level is the next level.
CG, a great player, his first goal of the season. We missed a trick there.
Jamie, they guy is a beast. Going right to the top.
Wonder where he finishes? Spain or England?
He’s built for the Prem.
Was it really Wally’s first goal of the season?
Marc, in the Prem for sure
I know a draws the better result for us but I just can’t help wanting ManU to lose.
Pedro
Has Iwobi managed to do anything of note other than run down blind alleys since he joined?
Pedro
“Wonder where he finishes? Spain or England?
He’s built for the Prem.”
Would you still moan about Sanllehi dealing with a “super” agent if he brokered a deal for him?
United are absolute dog shit…Would be damning if they finish above us..
Stop talking his ” arsenal are broke” shit. We might not have 1/4BN pounds cash in bank but we can easily splash this much in the summer. Decent clear out would get another 100m.
Pedro
Raiola will get him a move Real/Juve/PSG.
He’s averaging over a goal per game. Ridiculous.
Sancho is unbelievable. A player like him will choose his destination.
Marc, I’ll always complain about someone that doesn’t uphold Arsenal values.
Dissenter, hoping Sancho can hit Mbappe levels
Pedro
You sound a little like Wenger there!
Pete –
The kid could go anywhere. Absolutely incredible talent. Him and Sancho picked up for less than £30m!
I’d love to see him in the prem, the kicker is that it’ll probably be for City.
The fact that After all these years. After the tremendous decline of man utd. Arsenal still can’t batter them, and we still struggle to be ahead of them. I don’t know about you guys but im still waiting for our revenge for the 8-2. To this day not one Arsenal manager or team has been able to do it. Until we show that we’ve left them behind nothing this or any manager does will be enough. Utd are absolute dog shyte right now. Theres no excuse for us being behind them. No excuses. pool came from 20+ points behind in… Read more »
Many of you are praising arteta for incremental progress. I’m sorry. We are The Arsenal. 3rd most successful club in english history. Until he shows real change and real progress he’ll get no praise. Why should i clap and applaud this current regime for doing the basics. The minimum. Are we not THE Arsenal? We should demand more. Utd are shit, worse than shit, and we’re still behind them??????
Utd are absolute dog shyte right now. Theres no excuse for us being behind them. No excuses. pool came from 20+ points behind in previous seasons to now being 30 points ahead. When are we going to make leaps above utd. Why can’t we put them in there place” Couldn’t agree more with this honestly,watching them against Wolves just now and I can’t just fathom how we’re 5points behind Emery did a number on us,no doubt but I’v got to question Arteta’s ability if he doesn’t have finish above this horrible united side We have no business languishing behind them… Read more »
Anyone ever suspect Raul of looting funds out of the club through agent fees & commissions?
Imperative we win tomorrow, maybe a must win if you will… The gaps in front of him do not seem at all uncatchable… 2/3 wins in a row and we’re right up there, important the lads know there is still a lot to play for and hope it’s not all the season is over for them too… Some absolute shite teams in front of us no excuses really why we shouldn’t shoot up the table but we need to start with a win tomorrow
Bati
Agree 100% – a win tomorrow and we’re within 2 points of Manu and Wolves and presumably / hopefully a point off the Spud’s. 8 points would a big gap to Chelsea but things aren’t right there and as I said earlier we need to be within touching distance in case the chance comes up.
Beyond that the squad under Arteta needs to start developing a winning mentality for next season.
The City match has also been moved (no idea to when can’t find it anywhere) which means we now have a run of fixtures that are “winnable”, 5 wins would make a huge statement and then we go to Southampton but with some confidence from picking up 15 points anything is possible.
Does anyone know what Haalands release clause is at Dortmund?
That’s actually 6 fixtures that are winnable is we get a result tomorrow.
Danny
Sweet talk a Super agent!
Leicester are on 49 points
Arsenal 30
We keep drawing, but show plenty of pashuun. Some if you will have us believe these draws are good results. This is a terrible season for Arsenal. Arteta has no idea what he’s walked in on. It’s going to take years to clean up this mess of wengers.
Leicester fuking city are 19 points ahead of us. Leicester.
sup
Danny S
People are reporting around 75 Million euros (£65 million) set to become active in 2022
To Fail to prepare is to prepare to fail.
Arsenal is behind Leicester because there was no proper plan for the season. Leicester is ahead because they had a plan for the season.
Whatever Arteta is doing now is damage control. The earlier some of you understand this reality the better.
End of story.
Thanks Ahmed
I’m surprised Man U baulked at that.
You’d surely take the gamble, hoping you did well enough to convince him to sign a new contract before then.
Arsenal will win tomorrow.
In Sid’s voice- I am telling you this for free.
Danny
ManU didn’t baulk at anything, that buyout clause is to buy him from Dortmund whom he joined this window for £18 odd million.
A whole host of clubs were all over him and he seems to have made a sound decision with a long term outlook.
Has the comments section frozen?
Testing
No Marko no party
peanuts&monkeysFebruary 1, 2020 01:30:10
“Guvnor January 31, 2020 22:58:45AMN is a brainless…”That’s brutal! BTW, what’s your take on Calum Chambers?
I actually see Chambers as being better suited to a defensive midfield role similar to his season on loan at Fulham. Although he has been one of our most consistent defenders recently, I still feel that he has not hit the levels needed at an elite level.
Have to win his today no draw or loss. big pressure on the lads.
Versus “This is a terrible season for Arsenal. Arteta has no idea what he’s walked in on. It’s going to take years to clean up this mess of wengers.” If Arteta had walked in after Wenger with 200 million to spend , I can guarantee you we wouldn’t be in 12th spot, more like 3rd and fighting for 2nd place.. He wouldn’t have marginalised Ramsey and Ozil from the squad . he wouldnt have moved Torreira from DM. He wouldn’t have destroyed the team’s confidence. He wouldn’t have sanctioned the signing of Pepe , in the knowledge that it would… Read more »
“This is a terrible season for Arsenal. Arteta has no idea what he’s walked in on. It’s going to take years to clean up this mess of wengers.“
Personally I blame George Graham
“To Fail to prepare is to prepare to fail.
Arsenal is behind Leicester because there was no proper plan for the season. Leicester is ahead because they had a plan for the season.Whatever Arteta is doing now is damage control. The earlier some of you understand this reality the better .End of story.”
100% on the head.
Just watched that AMN clip.
He showed more dynamism in 1 game than Xhaka did in 3 years. I’ve always maintained that AMNs problem wasn’t talent, it’s always been attitude. If he wants it bad enough he can be a meaningful footballer.
Oh dear