Oh god Arsene, make it stop, make the bad pictures stop. Serge Gnabry scoring 2 goals at The Bridge last night then tweeting that London was still red, I AM CRYING. Wenger spoke up though.
‘He has no real limitations it’s more how much does he want to suffer,’
‘Because he has pace, power, technical ability, he’s very intelligent, sometimes he looks for the easy way in football. That’s what was his problem. He lacked a bit.
‘I gave him to West Brom, it didn’t work out at all. In fairness I think we had an agreement with him but Bayern stole him away from Werder Bremen.
‘He’s a good player. He has individual ability and collective ability. We had an agreement with him but because he didn’t play at West Brom I let him go with the U21s in the summer with the German national team and he did very well of course. ‘
‘We had prepared him for us to sign his new contract but then suddenly he wanted to go to Werder Bremen. But it was not Werder Bremen that bought him it was Munich that bought him. Because six months or less than one year later he moved from Bremen to Bayern but it was a done deal before’
No limitations? We kept Joel Campbell? We let Theo Walcott stink out the club for ELEVEN YEARS? When all along, Serge had NO LIMITATIONS?
I was told from a good place that the player wasn’t offered a deal until AFTER the Olympics he absolutely smashed up. I was also told that he was utterly horrified by how baffled Wenger was by a change of formation he couldn’t deal with against a pony French team in a preseason game. Still, Pulis had the same opinion, so maybe I’m being harsh? Arsenal were badly run, we just have to move on from that. Bennacer and Malen another two that we let slip during the bad times. Fran Merida too… remember when we hid him in the mountains until he was of age? Sounds kind of, you know, wrong when you look back at it.
I thought the Lucassen interview (good read on his history here) grounded everyone in what a mess we were in. It’s not surprising, Wenger had lost it, if the manager doesn’t know where the club is going, it’s hard to expect people below him to have clarity. I spoke to plenty of people that thought Joncker was a disaster, I wrote about, still doesn’t stop these comments coming across as utterly brutal.
“Before I started, Arsenal had told me that we had to build everything from zero,”
“But when I started the job, I told (Academy boss) Per Mertesacker that this information was not correct.
“We were not starting from zero – but from two below zero!”
This next bit was so perfect because it summed up 10 years of writing about the importance of a footballing philosophy.
“In my first month, I asked 20 different people at the club to describe the so-called ‘Arsenal Way.’
“Everybody spoke about it, but no-one could actually answer my question. Three people just said ‘it’s the passing game.’
“I had worked with other clubs where the objective was for a player to pass the ball to someone else in the same colour shirt, so what was unique about this Arsenal philosophy?
“They had all kind of academy plans, but nothing was based on a proper football philosophy, a playing style, or certain principles.”
I’ve seen people snark at ‘The Arsenal Way’ like it’s not possible to define. I think it was very clear when Wenger first started, however, it became dated because it was never upgraded. I remember Wenger bragging that he hadn’t changed his training in 16 years after taking a beating from Blackburn in a cup. CASE IN POINT BRUH.
Lucassen also went after Unai Emery. The below commentary is for all the people that thought the Spaniard was just a little misunderstood (he was that too because he couldn’t speak English), or badly treated. He was just shite.
“The problem we are dealing with is that the philosophy after the Wenger (above) era has not been developed.
“You can see this in the passing. Players make passes just because they think they have to pass the ball.
Worth noting that Lucassen worked under Ralph Rangnick, so he knows the game. Interesting that he also said Freddie wanted him as his assistant but he was too ill to take the job. He also said most managers are just talk, they don’t know what they are doing, pretty amusing because Emery in interviews (in the press) was an impressive talker… shame he couldn’t convert the theory into action.
Lucassen finished on a positive.
“Bukayo Saka is the best example of what we want at Arsenal.
“He has the potential to become one of the best three wing-backs in the world and I really think Arteta can help in that process.
“Arteta, with his vision, is not far from what we want in the academy.
“Talents like Saka, Reiss Nelson, Eddie Nketiah, Emile Smith-Rowe and Joe Willock should benefit from that.”
You cannot knock it. Saka is so exciting. Young kids breaking into the first team at that level of performance is outstanding. It’s great for the squad, great for the academy, and great for the fans. Hopefully, Edu has some great ideas about how we prop up the academy with the best kids in the world, to complement the work we’ve been doing at a local level. Also, another person saying that Arteta is on the right track.
Right, short post from me today, listen to my podcast, celebrate it with a little fist bump, then give it a 5*.
Thank you so much, I actually love you. x
Another Wenger classic fuck up
Tr4phy
Yet some still don’t blame him…and.
Es
Sadly I think club will keep mustafi till his value has pumped bigger than a Yankee chicken.
Tr4phy
Oops
First!
Oh well.
At least we didn’t let KdB AND Salah slip away
Pedro,
I go calm, serene, Zen-like in accepting and embracing Arteta’s world.
The Fallen Lord Wenger is a distant speck in the past.
The False Basque Prophet Emery has slithered always, occasionally hissing.
All is shiny and exciting and new.
Then you have to bring up Gnabry, Wenger and Pulis, and make things worse by serving it up with a side order of Emery, and my blood starts to boil.
Why, why, why?
Morning Pete. I may be jumping the gun, but thoughts on Marcel as Technical director one day? Seems to be an ideal candidate. However, this may be all talk though.
I want to make the case for keeping Aubameyang next season notwithstanding earlier statements that Arsenal will no longer keep players beyond the two year threshold before contract expires, which in case of Aubameyang has already passed. 1. Arsenal is now a relatively young and inexperienced squad, which is quite different to the situation when we were faced with departure of both Sanchez and Ozil. 2. Aubameyang will be 31 next season and it is highly unlikely that we will receive a big offer commensurate to his value to our club. Sanchez was by contrast 28 when we received an… Read more »
Receding
Great post on the previous (06:05:44).
I’ve seen this before with Wenger and how he remembers certain transfer fails that is vastly different from the player’s account given afterwords, so I’m not at all surprised he would say something like this about Gnabry. Case in point: Yaya Toure who, according to Wenger , was a brilliant prospect Wenger just loved after his Arsenal tryouts, and only went to Ukraine because of a passport issues. The way Yaya tells it, Wenger wasn’t too impressed by him and saw him more as a striker than a box to box midfielder , which was where Yaya wanted to play.… Read more »
Time will tell if the academy players coming through are top quality and not just good players. Saka looks the real deal but there are question marks over the other 5. Though in saying that about Saka, the 19 year old Bayern full back Davies looked unbelievable last night , what a player. Bayern made Chelsea look like novices as they did Tottenham earlier in the season and have done a few times to us over the years. I can’t imagine Chelsea are looking forward to the 2nd leg in Germany. Thiago is the type of midfielder I would like… Read more »
RH:
“I personally cannot stand a man trying to do an honest job insulted and his achievements belittled, I don’t condone it in real life and will continue to not do so.”
I mean he got millions of pounds for participating in the worst run we’ve had in 30 years. Not sure I’d feel sorry for him.
Tom
Gnabry left Arsenal because his opportunities to play in first team were limited and he received an offer presumably from Bayern Munich, which would probably guarantee his career in German National Team.
Arsenal were also in decline at the time. That was also reflected by departure
of Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Chelsea were pathetic.
The Surrey gypsies must have been embarrassed watching that from their team last night.
Like boys against men.
“” Another Wenger classic fuck up””
Your right there.. He never had a clue in identifying talent..
Santi
Rvp
Lauren
Toure
Gilberto
Petit
Overmars
I’ll stop now but AW was just a con
We’ve seen Spurs get humiliated by Bayern.
We saw the huge difference in class last night in the Chelsea – Bayern match.
And we saw Spurs get totally outplayed at home to RB Leipzig and get slaughtered 1-0 and no-one knows how the scoreline only ended up 1-0. Should have been 4 or 5-0 to Leipzig.
Hope Saka was watching Davies last night. A former winger who bought into being a LB. Look how explosive he is!
So Wenger left us a mess, even at the level of footballing philosophy. We were starting not even from zero, according to Lucassen, but from “two below zero”.
Interesting.
Romford
That run from Davies to set up the goal was out of this world. Absolutely world class. And this from a young Canadian player. Impressive.
He had the whole field to run into Davies.
Don’t get me wrong looks a good player but it helps him along when the opposition are so inept.
Emiratesstroller
I don’t disagree. My point is Wenger built his career on attractive football and being able to spot raw talent with a world class potential.
Missing the trick with players like Yaya or Gnabry he had in his grasps (whatever the circumstances) doesn’t look good for his image and he’s not above massaging the facts trying to retain it.
Bamford – his level of athleticism is out of this world. He’s a fantastic athlete. Bayern didn’t rate him as a winger but saw how fantastic he was athletically and realised he’d be a great LB. This is why I hope Saka follows suit and commits to being a LB for Arsenal. People need to get out of this habit that FB is an ugly position. For attacking sides you spend 75% of your time on the ball and you play so high up. That’s how Saka has got 10 assists thus far this season. I expect Davies to be… Read more »
” A former winger who bought into being a LB. Look how explosive he is!”
That gives me an idea. Saka was tired last game. He fell over his own foot. I would suggest we play Martinelli as LB in tomorrow’s game.
RP
Davies has more speed than Saka or just about any player I’ve seen.
He’s raw and his final ball isn’t as good as Saka’s but his pace is off the charts.
Ishola
OK, but Spurs are in 6th place in the PL; Leipzig are in 2nd in the Bundesliga, and are only one point off of Bayern. Further, with injuries to their two best players — Son and Kane — Spurs are weakened and are likely headed even lower in the table.
Your comparisons (last night’s and today’s) show something — the relative strength of certain Bundesliga teams, the relative weakness of certain PL teams — but they don’t show what you’re asserting they show, at least not in any simple sense.
Tom – yes Davies is ridiculous but Saka himself is also crazy quick.
Davies like you say is probably more raw because Saka is better with the ball at his feet and has better delivery in the final third.
Tbh as much as I hate Chelsea this was always a develoipment season for them. They lost one of their best ever players and had a transfer ban so were always battling upwards. Plus they were missing CHO and Pulisic yesterday. Wingers that would’ve made a difference. RLC has been injured as has Kante.
They were well beaten but there were definitely caveats, same with the Spurs situation.
Bamford
There are two good teams in the EPL.
And there are the same number of a few good teams in all the other bigger european leagues give or take.
All the rest lag behind and are secondary.
The argument about the strength of a league is null and void.
There is a top european table of teams and that’s it as far as truly good sides.
It’s all about the european top table.
Pierre can go on all day about the second tier Europa League. It matters not. Only that top european table of clubs.
My boy Emile Smith-Rowe with another MOTM performance yesterday. Watch out for him. Brexit KDB for a reason.
Ishola
He evades tacklers all throughout the run. Deftly, and at hyper-speed. It’s out of this world. Anyone who watches the highlights of it — see below — which show it also from a field level perspective will rightly marvel at it. An absolutely fantastic piece of football.
As for Chelsea being poor defensively, OK, but I’ll remind you that this is the same Chelsea that outshot Arsenal 13 to 7 at the Emirates and 19 to 2 at Stamford Bridge. They might look weak relative to Leipzig, but they’re not weak relative to this current iteration of Arsenal.
I think its extremely petty to always point out the few players that got away but never focus on the ones our Wenger snared, signed, polished and in many cases sold on for profit. Eg Anelka Bellerin Cesc Diaby Rosicky Henry Vieria Petit Overmars Ramsey Gilberto Theo Adebayor RvP Carzola Cole Giroud Toure Hleb Vermaelen Schnezy Song. Campbell Et al. Arsenal once had Billy Bremner on trial – do we castigate the Arsenal manager back then because the club thought he was too small. West Ham Utd had Tony Adams on trial – don’t here West Ham fans constantly bleating.… Read more »
Ishola
Leiecester could easily have beaten City on Saturday. City are better than Leicester, yes, but there are three good teams in the PL, not two, IMO. I agree with you, though, that after that, there is a gap.
You have to question Lampard as well. If his “plan” was to keep the game tight last night he failed miserably and totally played into Bayern’s hands. When you are obviously an underdog in a tie you have to go for the opposition especially in the home tie. Chelsea were meek beyond words. Also he was being lauded earlier in the season regarding the young players he was putting out well he has now ditched the young keeper for the comical older than the hills Caballero and he played Giroud ahead of Abraham. Abraham came off the bench. If he… Read more »
Liverpool are the best team in the world but it took them 5 years to reach this point. City too backed with a GOAT manager and huge finances. Spurs have changed their manager – will take time (even though I don’t rate their coach). Chelsea have a new coach and building a new team (it will take time). Arsenal ditto.
It’s not a surprise there has been struggles considering lack of continuity at the top clubs. Everyone is trying to build something new.
I even forgot United who have more money than sense.
Bamford “As for Chelsea being poor defensively, OK, but I’ll remind you that this is the same Chelsea that outshot Arsenal 13 to 7 at the Emirates and 19 to 2 at Stamford Bridge.” I’ll remind you that we played Chelsea twice after Arteta taking over an Arsenal side that was in it’s worse position for 40 years and played in the away match at Chelsea woth ten men for over 2 thirds of the game. And of course , we all know that jorginho should have been sent off at the Emirates when we were one up and he… Read more »
“As for Chelsea being poor defensively, OK, but I’ll remind you that this is the same Chelsea that outshot Arsenal 13 to 7 at the Emirates and 19 to 2 at Stamford Bridge.”
Mitigating circumstances in both these games.
100 per cent worse .. Your off your trombone Charlie. Goalie we are better Left back we are better In fact we have a stronger squad building that will be better than any in his last 6 years. Wenger was blind. He dithered. He left later than he should have. And yes Wenger should be slaughtered for letting Malen Gnarby Sczx Bemnecar Go for peanuts these were in the last couple of years of his dictatorship . Winning a couple of fa cups whilst we were losing the league 2008/ 11 /14 don’t wash with me The man was finished… Read more »
Ishola
Lampard is still a very young manager. He made a mistake in his approach to a big European match. OK. It’s not the end of his career. Indeed, you would expect a manager so young to make mistakes. The question is whether he has the ability learn from them. As Romford says above, Chelsea and Lampard are in process. To assess him and to assess them, you’re going to have to wait until next season or the following.
Romford
Do you really think we’re close to Chelsea?
RSPCA doing his best Graham impression.
Bamford – close to Chelsea in what sense? I think both teams are on a process but Chelsea are further ahead of us. They have better more athletic modern players than us. Could do with another winger, CB, ST and GK but they’re well on their way. They also have the best academy in the country and have had it for the last decade. The transfer ban forced them to change their approach. It’s why they went with a manager like Lampard. With the introduction of young players there’ll naturally be inconsistencies. But with signings like Ziyech they’re already making… Read more »
RSPCA “”””100 per cent worse .. Your off your trombone Charlie. Goalie we are better Left back we are better.””””” The only measuring stick is the league table. We are 9th. Peak Wenger ;potty Wenger we were never 9th. As for these players leaving, it happens. Eg. Chelsea in one season allowed, Salah,KDB and Lukaku to leave. Man City could not keep their player going to Dortmund. I don’t think their fans sit on their High Horses like our Entitled Ones and scream abuse at their manager ( eg. Like you do) So its obviously not just Wenger that has… Read more »
Chelsea recruited Lampard at the start of this season and I would classify him in the same boat as Arteta. I think that he will be successful providing Abromavich shows the same degree of patience as I expect Arsenal to offer Arteta.
It should also not be forgotten that Chelsea were under a transfer embargo this season so despite yesterday’s poor result I think that they have performed up to expectation this season following departure of their best player [Hazard].
Bamford
You should stop over-rating the current Chelsea and Manchester United sides.
Both of them are not top european sides atm.
Over-rate Liverpool if you want. That makes sense.
There is not much at all that seperates sides that are seen as decent but not at the real top end of european football.
Romford
Good comment above on Chelsea. Insightful. As for my question, let’s say I mean it in the following sense: if the current iteration of Arsenal were to play the current iteration of Chelsea ten times, how many times would Arsenal win, how many times would Chelsea win?
About Gnabry being much better than the then favourite Giroud and everyone else upfront was first spotted and spoken about loudly by Ozil who was frustrated by Giroud hiding behind instead of moving to take a cross.
Just a thought. It would be smart to get an old midfielder like Ballack, Cisco or Ozil as an Assistant to Arteta to help with tactics particularly during games. Ozil could do it during “ sick periods”😂
Well Wenger has this polarising trait that he is football purist to the bone and has inability to be ruthless. Most of invincibles confirmed this in various interviews. We sold too many players with view that benefited them more than Arsenal F.C. Gnabry case is way football clubs and agents operate. Barca tapped up numerous players and devalued them through open campaining though press while those players were with others clubs. No one will mention this, everyone see them as dominant force in football last 10+ years. If we had capable and ruthless dof during Wenger period, especially last 10… Read more »
Bamford
“Do you really think we’re close to Chelsea”
Chelsea this year
Won 4
Drawn 3
Lost 3
Arsenal this year
Won 6
Drawn 4
Lost 0
Ivan
“If we had capable and ruthless dof during Wenger period, especially last 10 years of his tenure we would get much more than we did.”
Exactly.
Ishola
Where did I mention Chelsea or United? I said there are three good teams in the PL (Liverpool, City, Leicester). Then a gap.
As for “overrating Liverpool,” I don’t even know what that means. They’re the world champions, they’ve won 26 of 27 matches in the league, and they’re 22 points ahead of Man City in the league. I don’t know; I’d say they are a pretty darn good team.
Wasnt the best DOF around asked to leave the club…….David Dein.?
I suppose that was our Wengers fault too.
Bamford – you would think Chelsea as they have better players and man to man their youngsters are better than ours but football obviously doesn’t work like that. It’s about getting the right set up to extract the best out of each. From what i saw of Arteta’s Arsenal in the first half of the home game against Chelsea and United he wants to be a very high-octane team in the City mould but I don’t think we have the right players for that so he’s adapting atm. Here’s one for you, what would your Chelsea/Arsenal combined 11 look like?… Read more »
Can I ask why Reece James gets rated?
Every time I see him he does fuck all.
I think he is one of those players where athleticism is high on his attributes and his actual footballing abilities is down the list.
I think its extremely petty to always point out the few players that got away but never focus on the ones our Wenger snared, signed, polished and in many cases sold on for profit. ————— CG Maybe. I don’t think any reasonable person can deny Wenger his due for identifying and signing some of the best players to ever put on Arsenal colors. Missing out on talented players ,when the competition from other and often times richer clubs is fierce, is normal. Citing a player as a top three transfer regret of your career and then blaming it on a… Read more »
Technically and athletically Reece James is fantastic. Won POTS last season at Wigan and he played mostly CM. He’s a fantastic player. Quick, technically proficient and has elite final third delivery. Still only just 20 so loads of room for improvement.
Got absolutely ruined by Gnabry and Davies last night but there’s no shame in that.
I have extracted some interesting stats about Gnabry’s career at Arsenal.
He was a member of first team squad for 4 years and here is his record of game time in EPL.
2012/13 1 game [12 minutes]
2013/14 9 games [464 minutes]
2014/15 0 games [0 minutes]
2015/16 1 game [12 minutes]
So I am not altogether surprised that Gnabry wanted to leave Arsenal in those
circumstances.
Romford I think you rate this Arsenal team a lot more highly than I do, then. I actually don’t think this Arsenal team would beat Chelsea even once. If Abraham is 100% fit, I think it would be something like seven Chelsea wins, three draws. As for a combined XI, I rate Willian over Pepe and Azpilicueta over our LBs. And while I think Auba is more experienced and more accomplished than Abraham, obviously, I don’t know that his total game has all that much over Abraham’s. If Abraham is 100% fit, would we be losing all that much to… Read more »
I actually don’t think this Arsenal team would beat Chelsea even once.
🤦♂️
Bamford – Azpilicueta has been getting shafted all season. He’s old and lacks athleticism. Any decent winger ruins him. Willian is 32 and has 57 goals in 326 games. That’s a dreadful return. I’m not in any month having him over Pepe. I quite like Tammy’s profile but I’m taking Auba over him every day of the week and twice on Sundays. Auba got 31 goals last season and already has 19 this season in a team’s that struggling. Goals are currency and you don’t leave shooters like that out. He’s gonna be the quickest Arsenal player in history to… Read more »
Stroller
Shows Wenger had no faith in him
When a lot of us liked what we saw.. boy had potential that was not allowed to blossom .
Pierre
Keep your gags to your what’s app groups.
Chelsea who have lost to Southampton, Newcastle, and Bournemouth since mid December would go undefeated against Arsenal in ten matches.
What a fucking dunce this guy is.
Despite how dreadful Arsenal have been this season Chelsea have lost three more league games than them. There’s no way they will go 10 games unbeaten against Arsenal, almost impossible.
Romford
Fair enough. I don’t completely agree with all of that, but I respect your opinion.
It’s pretty lame that certain people are allowed to come here every day and insult and abuse others, simply for having an opinion that is different from theirs.
It’s also ironic that perfectly reasonable comments get deleted and censored here, while unfair, unreasonable, foul-mouthed, insult-laden and abusive comments go unchecked and unmentioned.
Pete?
“I think you rate this Arsenal team a lot more highly than I do, then. I actually don’t think this Arsenal team would beat Chelsea even once“
Never come across a more ignorant football fan, nvm supposed Arsenal fan.
This Arsenal side wouldn’t beat this Chelsea side in 10 matches. Incredible stupidity
Romford Except that you have to look at the kinds of teams that have caused Chelsea problems and what their attributes are. It’s not enough just to say the’ve lost in the PL. The PL is super, super athletic, and supper, super fast. Certain teams are decent at sitting, defending, making life difficult for a better team, then scoring opportunistically on the counter or on set pieces. Arsenal are not one of these teams. Therefore Chelsea may have lost to several of these teams; that doesn’t mean they would lose to Arsenal, who they outshot 13 to 7 away and… Read more »
that really does not make a lot of sense to me , I may have missed something , is bamford an Arsenal supporter ? not sure any positive minded arsenal supporter would say Chelsea would win 7 and draw 3 against Arsenal currently in ten games
Bamford, you’ve mentioned context for those teams that have beaten Chelsea but failed to mention context in our games with them.
That home game against Chelsea changed upon quite a few factors. Chambers injury, Jorginho introduction – Jorginho not being sent off and a Leno clanger. Until that Leno clanger Chelsea hadn’t created a single clear cut chance. And then Mustafi failed to engage and challenge Abraham for the winner. Context
Second game against Chelsea, we go down to 10 men early, of course we’re going to be outshot. Context.
Therefore Chelsea may have lost to several of these teams; that doesn’t mean they would lose to Arsenal, who they outshot 13 to 7 away and 19 to 2 home.
There you go again stuffing two isolated pieces of data together and assuming it proved any kind of point. Pierre and Romford already addressed the mitigating circumstances for those matches earlier but you just carry right on without countering why the two pieces of data you chose are important or how exactly they support your opinion.
I absolutely fell on my arse laughing at this little sarky gem”
“I had worked with other clubs where the objective was for a player to pass the ball to someone else in the same colour shirt, so what was unique about this Arsenal philosophy?“
Shaun
I am an Arsenal fan, but I also try to view things as realistically, objectively and impartially as possible. I’d say I’m a realist. At times I might even be a pessimist. I am very much an Arsenal fan, however. One is allowed to be a realist or a pessimist, no?
Romford
I agree that there is relevant context in both of those matches. I just don’t think that that context changes what I saw in those matches and other matches, namely, that Chelsea (whatever their weaknesses) are a lot better than we are.
To each his own, though.
It’s a difficult one , selection wise on Thursday. Arteta has a few players who he would like to give a run out , like Mari, Cedric(if fit) Martinelli and Nelson but he also knows the importance of progressing to the next stage of the competition. All things considered i will be surprised if he changes the centre back pairing, Mari will be on the bench..Bellerin could be replaced by cedric or AMN , left back is depending on who’s fit. Ozil and Ceballos should start with Xhaka in midfield and offensively there should/could be one or 2 changes. Lacazette… Read more »
Bamford – that’s fair. We’ll see. You gotta remember Arteta has barely been here two months and played Chelsea twice in his first 6/7 matches.
Lampard in comparison had a pre season and 6 months with the side. Lot more to get across and work with.
Lads, be nice. It’s just a footy blog man.
Let us discuss Arsenal’s record at end of season and not now.
We have games against Liverpool, Man City, Leicester, Spurs and Wolves to play and these games will be a measurement of our progress and more importantly where we finish this season in EPL.
As I have suggested many times I don’t think that we will finish in top 4, but that will not be a barometer of our progress or expectation.
Luteo, keep it civilized. You can disagree without the abuse.
Letting Serge Gnabry leave was a big mistake. I said so at the time. He had a bad run of injuries but had shown his skill levels were high enough to warrant a new contract. Wenger is to blame for this situation. Arsenal could not acknowledge a player’s merits when he was playing for the bloody club! To add insult to injury he was undersold. Better management would have worked in a buy back clause to his contract.
Aussie – he wanted to go back to Germany.
Wenger said yesterday on BeIn Sport. Bayern basically bought him and loaned him to Werder Bremen for a year.
Yeah okay. I will try but feel free to ban me if necessary. Sorry for the distraction to the other posters. I can’t help myself whenever that mall-Santa shaped so-called Arsenal fan spouts his nonsense.
Romford Think Lampard will want to go big in the market. A number of Chelsea players were poor. Only Kovacic and Caballero (due to workload, not quality) looked alright. Chelsea look decent when they play away from home and they can play in transition. Not so much when they are forced to take the game to the opponent. Jury is definitely out on Lampard because Chelsea are poor defensively naive just like his Derby side were last year. His enterprising style which is conducive to attacking football and Abramovich taking it easy should keep him in a job. You watch… Read more »
Dream – agree with everything you’ve said on Lampard. They’ve struggled at home compared to away where they’ve looked much better. I think they struggle to break down deep breaks so the signing of someone like Ziyech is a step forward in the right direction. Easy to forget this is only his second year as a manager so he’s still making mistakes and learning about his craft. Uncharacteristically Chelsea fans will be patient because it’s one of their own and arguably their GOAT player. They will need to strengthen for sure in a few positions. Thiago is class, always has… Read more »
Hoping Frank is given a lot of money. I know they love him at Chelsea, but I don’t think he’s the elite young coach they were looking for.
Imagine sending Gnabry to Pulis.
Romford & Pedro
ESR looked class yesterday. His manager was complimentary on his ability in tight spaces. Think he’s better technically than De Bruyne. Hope he ends up with the ability to carry like Rosicky/Nasri and Pires’ end product.
Lampard looks like the type who will go on decent cup runs, maybe a CL/EL QF/SF on the cards, but won’t be able to consistently win bread and butter games in the league. 2-0/3-1 routine victories. He can improve though. Personally would go for Allegri right now if I was Chelsea
Pedro, This is a guy who is trying to make a name for himself. Most of his criticism are just empty words. Said that he had to start the academy from minus because people could not explain the Arsenal way. Guess what go and ask Barcelona what is their way and you will get different answers. Yet, we may end up next season with 5 academy players in the first team: Saka, Nkethia, Willock, ESR, Bellerin. I wonder how many other teams in the big 6 have produced academy players for the first team. I am the first to criticise… Read more »
I think if Arsenal played Chelsea ten times, we would be the team chasing them around, and generally being forced back ten times in a row. Especially once we lose our physical edge, and our lack of quality in midfield becomes apparent.
I think we could sneak a couple of wins.
Last night was sobering though. Bayern outclassing a side that outclass us. We are miles behind.
Yesterday, Chelsea missed Kanté in midfield. Jorginho looked old and slow, one of the worst game from him.
Dream – he is technically so proficient. ESR’s ability to release on the half turn and accelerate with it is class. he can eat up 40/50 yards in very quick fashion, very much like a Rosicky. He’s exceptionally quick but has great end product to boot. We’ll see what happens with Lamps. At the moment he doesn’t look like he has the killer edge but maybe that’s something that can be cultivated. Prior to winning the CL last season Klopp had been called a serial loser after losing 7 finals in a row. Now look at his team. Things can… Read more »
The fact we have ESR and Saliba gives me hope.
😂
Guns – players like that are the direction we should be moving it. Young with massive technical and athletic potential.
Valentin, Saka bragged to the press that he’d just learned that you don’t have to pass until you are pressed. Joncker was not a top coach or academy lead.
La Masia has a had a clear philosophy for years. Not sure that’s in debate.
Pedro,
Agree with your view on Frank.
If you take into consideration the depth of the squad he has at his disposal and the t he’s had a full pre-season to work with his players, then I think they’ve underperformed. They look great in transition but are defensively brittle.
He’ll get found out next season.
Words, great thing is that if he is just ok, it’ll take a while to shift him
Whether Chelsea can remain a top team will depend on Roman Abramovich. It seems that he is less willing to spend big money on the team.
So Lampard ain’t an elite coach because he looses 3 zero at home to Bayern.
Yet, Poch who looses 7 2 at home is?
I rate Poch immensely
But there is a flaw in the mans make up.
He is emotionally incontinent.
Note those absurd tears at the CL final
Our Wenger never wailed like a baby in public.
Only tears of joy in private- with the 17 magnificent trophies he lifted aloft.