A new dawn #TeamPositiveGooners

by .

Today, it is my birthday, I am now at the age where I’d be getting a one year deal and everyone would be clapping like it was some sort of a major achievement, or worse, I’d be landing that deal because I’d done well for the club. A sympathy contract. I’m basically Dennis Bergkamp right now, slow, but I’ll still pick out the top corner if you let me.

The real birthday story is… I am sad. Yep. Really sad. Arsenal is not joy at the moment.

… but, I am ready to bury that sadness deep within, because I can’t be miserable any longer… metaphorically, I’m one walk to the fridge away from my career being over, so today, we hunt for a bit of positivity, because honestly, the lunatics were out in force yesterday after the game and we have to right some of the wrongs that are being spewed into the Goonerverse.

The surrounding noise

I had the view that the covid-disaster was going to take us places with this group of players. Turns out, I was totally wrong.

My hypothesis was that the uncertainty in the market would push players to find another level on the pitch as they fought for a contract, or, they fought for a future in the game.

This really was naive… no, it was stupid.

When you take people’s money away and they see that no one else in the league really took a pay cut, that has a negative affect. I know personally what pay cuts can do to people and their thinking. At first, it’s like, oh, ok, I’m saving the world out here… then, the dark clouds settle in and you start thinking… fuck you.

Some other factors that aren’t helping.

When Arsenal players are flogged in the press as potential exits or swaps, that has an affect. Lacazette, I am looking at you. He had to come out and call a random Twitter account a liar. Mentally, he’s been affected by uncertainty.

When four players don’t know their futures 2 weeks before they might be cut loose, that can be problematic. Firstly, it can have direct consequences on the pitch, and we saw that. Secondly, people who are at risk can spread misery in the squad. You’ve all had a Karen in the work kitchen telling you that the company is going to collapse, that happens in football.

There will also be a collection of players that know they are leaving in the summer. Do you think they are going to put their bodies on the line? Absolutely not.

Those above issues, at a club with a stronger culture for winning, might have been ok. But this is Arsenal. A place that has allowed our best player to take away days off for the last two years. Each one of those problems takes you further away from an elite culture, where perfection is what you strive for.

I don’t think this season will be a total disaster, but it’s apparent that we have a more complicated set of mitigating circumstances than most and it literally played out in a red card in our first game, and it certainly looked like there was a lack of effort in some quarters for the second.

Time

Arteta has been in the job 6 months, but he’s 13 games into his tenure, with a squad he’s spent zero money on. Why are so many fans jumping down his throat after every bad result? It is quite incredible. He’s picked up a squad of players that are on their 4th coach in 2 years at a club that is at its lowest ebb in about half a century. Freddie hated the senior players so much he fucked them off and played the kids. This is far from an ideal situation.

Picking up clubs midseason is very, very difficult.

Jurgen Klopp took Liverpool from 10th to 8th and he started in October. He had a far better squad to work with.

Jose Mourinho picked up Spurs from Pochettino, a club that was in the Champions League final last season and he has them sitting a whopping 2 points ahead of Arsenal.

OGS at United. A great start going 12 undefeated to… losing 5 of his final 9, notably losing to Cardiff in the last game of the season.

The mighty Carlo is 3 points behind us and barring a miracle today, will likely stay there.

That’s four pretty relevant comparisons. Picking up someone else’s players midseason when they’ve been utterly shit is not an easy job, so when all the new high-standards-bros are chirping away, put a little perspective on things. There is no manager in the world that was solving our issues in 13 games. Also, we have bought into a manager that wants to play like Pep, do we have players to do that right now? No. But we will at some point.

Mistakes

New managers are going to make them. Guess what, experienced managers also make them, especially at new clubs when they’re trying to work out what’s what. Arteta’s in-game management was not at its best at the weekend, but he’ll learn from the experience. Overall though, it’s hard not to watch that Brighton game back and think that we should have come away with three points. Our defending was just criminal, as it has been for years. We’ll hopefully fix that this summer with more suitable players.

Also, I say this in a hushed tone, for fear of waking the Gooners with the heavy set tattoos on the table behind me, but… we missed Granit Xhaka in our side. Our two best players at moving the ball between the lines are out. Mesut Ozil is on an effort holiday and Granit is injured. Say what you will about the Swiss, but the good parts of his game are sorely lacking at the moment. Dani Ceballos is not the full ticket, he’s been a huge disappointment. I like Matteo G, but he’s still a bit of a head-scratcher… I can’t work out what his thing is. That is not the sort of midfield that’s winning you games consistently. We need a Thomas Partey desperately.

Selection

This is my favourite debate at the moment. Every time we have a bad result, every man and his dog knows the exact reason. This week, ‘WHERE WAS MARTINELLI’, which is fine, we’re fans, we’re allowed to have opinions… but come on people, do you really think we’re a Martinelli away from cracking the code?

Last week it was Nic Pepe, who, outside an outrageous goal, was largely anonymous.

If the Brazilian isn’t playing, I suspect there’s a reason. At the moment, it’s because Saka is ahead of him in the pecking order, and I have to say, that’s absolutely fair. We all have this quick win solves that the entire coaching staff are missing, but we need to be real, there’s not a silver bullet in this squad. If there were, they’d be playing.

The Past

I know there are a lot of wounded Emeryista out there. They go into hiding during the good times, then as soon as we drop a few points, they’re out in the street, ringing a bell, messing their pants in public. We have to move beyond this. I could absolutely tolerate the AKB pining after their leader, because he was more than just a manager, he was… a father figure to a lost generation of fans. Yep, I know that’s weird, but it’s true.

Unai Emery? That’s a whole bag of weird. He was an abusive stepfather who didn’t even take time out to work out how to pronounce your mum’s name. How anyone can still be trying to litigate his passing is beyond me, but it has to stop, and I have to weed the poison out of the comments section here.

It’s time to move on.

On the Arsene piece, there’s also a collection of muppets that think the Wenger Out fans are getting what they deserve. No my friends, the sycophants that supported Wenger’s prolonged tenure are getting what they deserve. Wenger held onto power too long, he crashed the culture, he didn’t innovate, he held on to average staff, he spent bad money after bad money, he didn’t get contracts right… and then we doubled down on a terrible succession plan.

Wenger is not to be blamed for Arteta’s mistakes, but it is disingenuous in the extreme to say his exit was the problem. The problem is we didn’t move him on soon enough. We should have hired Klopp before Liverpool. We should have snapped at Pep when he was interested. We should have moved on a whole host of managers that could have moved good squads forward. Remember, Wenger blew the league to Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester.

Also, you don’t have to look at me for clarification on whether Wenger was finished. Just look at where he works now. That’s not because he was the magic wand keeping Arsenal together, it’s because his slow-motion crash over 10 years made it very clear that his idea of what the game should be was for 2004.

Conclusion

Onwards and upwards, we have to pick ourselves up the same way the players will be expected to. We have to get out the end of this season with a few wins. We have to hope the kids can pick up their game. Then we have to look forward to fast-forwarding 3 years transfer windows and reshape Arsenal into a lean, mean, battle machine.

The real focus for us should be on Stan Kroenke. He’s a real estate mogul, the market has crashed, he should move in on the weak clubs this summer and bring the squad up to standard in one quick hit. There will be SO much value to be had, but I fear we’re going to have wheel and deal with zero funds.

Josh and Stan need to step up, Raul needs rip the emergency cord and do something special this summer, Arteta needs to make sure he’s heard so there are no excuses next season.

Right, next up, a team we always have a good time against… Southampton.

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Boomslang

Boom

NW9 gooner

Happy birthday Pedro

Boomslang

2

Boomslang

Trofee

grooveydaddy

Bollox

No threepeat

Dissenter

Ishola From the last post regarding Xhaka I think it’s a 50-50 thing He should have reacted and in retrospect the fans shouldn’t be scape goatimh their own players. The fans should also have the balls to take what they re dishing out. You boo him…and he gives you the finger then don’t whine about it. That notwithstanding, he’s not like the Ozils or Mustafis who profess fake love for the club to see out their contract. Xhaka said fuck-you-all and he had his agent line up an exit. How many of our players have had the cojones to do… Read more »

Dissenter

Happy birthday Peds
The boys and your world class assistant manger didn’t do you any favors last week.

Dissenter

Ishola
Correction; Xhaka should not have reacted

Dissenter

Pedro
Arteta has spent some money … or shall we say that he’s wasted money on dross like Soares and Mari
I can’t just let that little fib go unchallenged.

grooveydaddy

Happy Birthday, Pedro

and Happy Fathers’ Day and Summer Solstice to everyone

Gonsterous

Birthday boy pedders, hope you have a good one mate. Thanx for the countless posts.

Freddie Ljungberg

Happy birthday Pedro

Could have saved you some time on today’s post and spent that on drinking oatmilk by just writing player poverty + time and money;)

Maybe the contract situations plays a small part but the largest factor is that most of our payers are either kids or shite aka the uncoachables.

Don’t think there’s anyone pining for Emery either, those that bring him up does it to highlight the double standards and hypocrisy from some on here.

Pierre and CG are definitively high ranking members of the Arsene dementia club though.

Ernest Reed

“Freddie hated the senior players so much he fucked them off and played the kids. This is far from an ideal situation.”

That in itself is the most telling problem at Arsenal.

Ernest Reed

Happy Birthday, Pedro! Enjoy this day, your day, for tomorrow we are never promised.

Tom

Happy birthday and Father’s Day Peter, and don’t say you’re not a father because anyone who drinks the way you do must be whether they know it or not.

Graham62

Pedro Haven’t we been here before? Of course you are right in highlighting the fact that Arsenal were falling away long before Wenger left the building. Those that are pointing their fingers at the WOB, will never get it. We are not getting what we deserve. It is all about accepting that if you sit back and accept 4th best for so long, 5th/6th/7th/8th/9th and beyond, is not far off. I’m afraid the Martinelli saga is very concerning, whatever way you look at it. Your clutching at straws with that one. I personally have seen enough from Arteta since the… Read more »

Ishola70

Many Happy Returns.

Decent post apart from the Xhaka nugget of course.

The old story of lamentng missing players. Been done a million times.

Then they come back and no the club and the world of Arsenal as we have known it for so long doesn’t change.

Upstate Gooner

Remember, Wenger blew the league to Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester.

And so did everyone else.

Ernest Reed

Sweet Onion Chutney, Pedro drinks? Who woulda thunk it?

Graham62

Pedro

Sorry mate, Happy Birthday 🎂😷🍺🙏

Kay

Happy Birthday Pedders!!

Now off to read the post

Ishola70

Arsenal the only club to cut players wages in the EPL during covid lol

The Krankees were itching to cut the cloth.

The covid was just the thing for them to get into gear in the slashing of finances.

Upstate Gooner

Happy birthday, Pedro… and happy Father’s Day to all you dads out there.

Ernest Reed

“The covid was just the thing for them to get into gear in the slashing of finances.”

Are we then to perhaps assume that the players have taken their collective foot off the pedal realizing they were duped into a pay cut? Hmmm…

Ethan_gunner

Same shit .. different year .. happy birthday u old bastard !

CG

PedRo

“””””Remember, Wenger blew the league to Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester.”””””””

He did, without question,

But so did Poch too.( and he is one of those elite modern coaches)

Ranieri , once again showing the virtues of recruiting a PROVEN and EXPERIENCED manager- with his managerial masterclass title win.

(Simple question then ,with all the difficulties you have outlined that the current head coach /manager faces – why are we persisting with a novice?)

Anyway Happy Birthday and great post.

Upstate Gooner

Emery was a fool and he got himself in quite a bit of trouble by not selecting/playing Ozil and Ramsey. Arteta is doing the same with Martinelli and Ozil. Only time will tell if this is a wise decision or not but so far it’s been proven to be ineffective. A sign of a good manager is not just tactics, formation, game management, and player motivation… it’s also the ability to admit your own mistakes and to learn from them. Hopefully Arteta has what it takes but so far he’s been less than impressive.

The Backpass

Pedro Except Saka isn’t benching Martinelli, its Nketiah. Remove Nketiah and Lacazette from the line up, then Martinelli starts, but thats not the issue. Ever since Martinelli Shouted at Xhaka, he has hardly featured. Against Olympiacos, when our attack was so blunt, he didnt bring on Martinelli, till 100 mins mark, also two leftbacks yesterday at 1-1, bringing on Nelson instead, this are head scratching decisions only a novice could pull off. What the Novice hasn’t yet grasped is that a coach is as good as his players, especially a novice. Are we aa Martinelli away from cracking the code?… Read more »

Kay

Dear God if only Tony Atwood had the marketing ability of Pedro.. we would still be looking at wanker in the dugout. Lolzz

There are no emeryistas here. People just don’t want to see/hear double standards.

The Backpass

Happy birthday Pedro.

Ishola70

Ernest Reed

“Are we then to perhaps assume that the players have taken their collective foot off the pedal realizing they were duped into a pay cut? ”

Well it can’t be a help can it really.

As said on other post a lot of players socialise and are friendly with other EPL players from different clubs and Arsenal being the only EPL club to cut wages well you can imagine some ribbing going on directed at Arsenal players.

No-one is going to be happy are they having their wage cut.

NW9 gooner

What a chance we had of leapfrogging a few teams to a EL place

Wasi

Pedro Enjoy your birthday. Also a great post today. Us fans should stop the blame culture and get behind the manager. At least for now. ‘Unai Emery? That’s a whole bag of weird. He was an abusive stepfather who didn’t even take time out to work out how to pronounce your mum’s name. ‘ This 😂 Hope Raul has some favours owed to him which will help us land some good players. We dont even need to spend a lot , many good players available on a free. I dont see a way Stan spends his own money even though… Read more »

Globalgunner

Any team that ends up missing Xhaka and his lugubrious talents is a team devoid of real class. I have not witnessed any Arsenal match in the last 3 years where Xhaka could legitimately be called MOTM. No other EPL team would want him and we will struggle to sell him. What we do miss is quality in the midfield and character all over the pitch. apart from Saka. Nobody even tried to win that match for the team. Even Auba. 300kpw?. not even in the best of times because we could do just as well or better at half… Read more »

CaliGooner

Happy birthday Pedro! Keep up the good work!

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there!

sarge

Good post Pedro, as usual really enjoy reading your prose. Disagree however on your arguments re money, contract situations. Really struggle to believe this carries over into the pitch. Money more a hygeine factor, more a reason to leave than turn in a crappy performance on the pitch. I do think the cultural deficiencies run deep and will take time to fix. The lack of fighting spirit, winning mentality etc will take a new manager more than a few months to fix, no matter how good he is. I think until we see significant change in the dressing room that… Read more »

Upstate Gooner

Yes, we could and should have won the game. We’d be sitting in 8th with only 3 points off ManU in 5th. This one is on Arteta.

Ernest Reed

“Arteta is doing the same with Martinelli and Ozil”

Funny how its the same player yet again and with yet another Manager. Coincidence? More like deserved. As for Martinelli, you have to wonder what he’s done to bring this on?

Champagne Charlie

Happy bday Pete, good take and largely agree. The expectation/reactions right now are quite laughable, with some posters feeling oxygenised enough to make idiotic statement after another – will be fun down the line to reminisce. Quite apparent we’ve some ‘gifted’ commenters here who can assess matters so absolutely after 13 games, or 2.5 games with players like Mari. Your point about Xhaka illustrates that beyond measure. He’s our best passer and although we’ve been shit at that for a couple of games it’s still not a basic comment to make because of the petty nonsense from those that dine… Read more »

MD-Gunner

Been following Arsenal since 1997 and left London for the US and continued following Arsenal. But have now come to the conclusion I can’t take the hurts for the next few years of seeing Arsenal being a mediocre mid table team. Who would want to come to Arsenal, either money can do that but that is out of the question, an excellent manager will draw talent, that is not the case either, finally a club atmosphere that make players enjoy being on the pitch. Arsenal’s present moppets have no leader and no joyous club atmosphere. Being in the US I… Read more »

Daniel Altos

Mikel Arteta on if he wants to make Mari’s loan permanent: “Yes. This cannot be affected just because a player gets injured doing his job & defending our club.

G8

“Pedro’s a jolly good fellow
he is a jolly good fellow
He can laugh out loudest at them all
He’s a jolly good fellow
But that jolly good fellow’s world’s about to fall.
For he is a jolly good fellow.”..

Happy birthday Pedro

Ishola70

Xhaka receives ball.

Xhaka slowly looks left or right.

Xhaka slowly and deliberately with great effort passes the ball sideways ten yards to a team mate.

Xhaka after passing ten yards sideways drags his toes across the grass Glenn Hoddle like.

And yes Arsenal are slow in transition when all of this is going on.

On some occasions in between the majority of short safe sideways passing, on some occasions Xhaka will ping a penetrative really meaningful pass into the opposition half. Just sometimes though.

Ishola70

Daniel Altos
“Mikel Arteta on if he wants to make Mari’s loan permanent: “Yes.”

Ouch! Mikel.

Just ouch!

JAMES WOOD

May be difficult for Arteta to move forward in the current climate.
Money will be tight.
But if Stan is cute he will see this is the time to part with a big wedge
of GREENBACKS.
This could be his golden moment to cough up and move us to where we should be.

azed

Happy birthday Pedro

There are no “Emerystas” here, just people good at pointing out the hypocrisy of some people led by you.

How long did you wait before you started calculating xG and xGA?

Ernest Reed

“The grey area isn’t scary, allow it guys, grow a bit.”

Trying times for certain, Charlie.

Ernest Reed

“This could be his golden moment to cough up and move us to where we should be.”

Park this one in the Wishful Thinking parking lot, James. Stan and Josh don’t do that.

Ishola70

We need midfielders that can commit the opposition. That drag them out. You either do this by individual dribbling or very quick one-two passing. Guendouzi has shown that he can commit opposition players when on the ball on occasions but all very erratic from him. Ceballos likes to think he can dribble and commit opposition but he is too slow really to be really effective enough times. And Arsenal certainly don’t do the quick one-two passing in midfield. This is because the midfield has been based around Granit Xhaka for these past years now and he definitely is not capable… Read more »

Dr Emil schauffhausen

Can’t wait for Xhaka to return to the team , we’re a different team with him in the side !

WTF.

Ishola70

That’s why everyone loves Saka.

He commits the opposition with his direct running at them.

CG

Cha Cha

“””””Quite apparent we’ve some ‘gifted’ commentators here who can assess matters so absolutely after 13 games, or 2.5 games with players like Mari.”””””

Crystal Palace got shot of De Boer after 4 games last season. They were bottom after 8 games with zero points.

Appointed a 72 year old in Roy Hodgson and a year later has them sitting above Arsenal.

Hodgson bought Gary Cahill too. A proper British defender.
Arteta wants this lump of lard- Mary.

We have not got time for these games. Not now.
Get someone in- who knows ‘the game.’

China1

Happy birthday Pedro! Hope it’s a much better day today than yesterday Re the blog, I think you’re missing some points on this 1) you say he will learn from his in game management but he keeps making exactly the same mistakes with subs coming on hopelessly late. It’s not a one off mistake, it’s a habit he’s had since day 1 Which is why it’s concerning as it’s not done him any favors at all 2) nobody said Arteta was going to beast the league with these players but it’s worrying that we don’t even really know what the… Read more »

China1

Pedro was beating emery with the XG stats as early as October last year

I know because I checked a few months back lol

Wasi

CG

I think Hodgson was appointed two seasons ago.

China1

Imagine xhaka playing in a 2 man midfield in the PL with his lack of pace, technique, ingenuity, dynamism, quick feet, ability to break between the lines. It would be an absolute car crash.

But he’d play 3 diagonal long balls which would be so worth it tho!!!

CG

Wasi

Apologies, if it was 2 years ago.

Give the man a chance.
He is 72!

China1

A two man CM*

Globalgunner

The reason why Arteta loves Xhaka is that he remi da him of himself in his 3 seasons before leaving Arsenal. Slow, ponderous a d always committing dangerous fouls. He may likely give this turd a new contract

Guns of SF

Happy Birthday Pedro.

Happy Fathers Day to all the dads.

Hope you all have a great day!

andy1886

Woy was appointed in 2017.

Happy Birthday Pedro, I’m sure you have better things to do today so I’ll forgive you recycling the same old arguments this time around.

China1

There’s actually not much difference between xhaka and Denilson from back in the day Denilson would play a tone of easy short passes and have padded out passing stats but was actually a good long passer and struck the ball well from range which he’d also do a few times a game But thankfully the fans were not fooled that in the shadow of a genuinely talented CM like cesc, he was average as fuck and was duly binned off into eternal irrelevance But since our midfield is so average now there’s no yardstick to measure the shite against so… Read more »

Guns of SF

Seeing some click bait that Guen might get suspended for grabbing Maupay by the neck!

Good Guen! Best thing you did all game!

China1

Lol despite disagreeing with basically everything I do genuinely wish you a very happy birthday Pedro

Thanks for your time and effort on this blog. I argue with you all the time but it’s not personal even if I come across as angry af all the time lol. I just fucking hate arsenal and

Jamie

Happy birthday Pete, many happy returns!

23 again, yeah? Me too, me too.

China1

…and I’m outspoken

But much love to you personally and I hope you can manage to have a quality day and lockdown doesn’t fuck it for you. I dunno what the situation is in NY anymore

You have plans or you’re staying home?

rollen

Happy Birthday Pedro.

rollen

I will not say what i think today lol.
Go get wasted like proper man Pedro!

China1

Pedro you wanna know what’s even happier than a birthday?

MY SONS KINDERGARTEN IS OPENING AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE JANUARY TOMORROW

I CAN SEND THE BOY AWAY FOR SEVERAL HOURS A DAY!!!! I CAN DO SOME FUXKING WORK!!!

It’s gonna be weird as fuck working from home without being asked to help him with the hard bits on Sonic on the ps4 every 2 minutes

I guess on the plus side I’ve been getting paid for multiple hours a week for playing sonic!

MD-Gunner

Matteo is a 20 year old little shit that mouths off and Maupay called him out. Both are French and Lauren on ESPN suggests that Maupay referred to Matteo in his after the game interview. It tells you a lot of the leadership on the pitch when a 20 year old that comes from French League 2 thinks he is the one that has to show commitment when he only has 1+ year in the EPL. Bottom line next season will be very painful as Arsenal will stare in the abyss of eternal rebuild and I though after Ferguson Man… Read more »

Danny

Happy Birthday Pete!

Upstate Gooner

GlobalgunnerJune 21, 2020 15:43:04
The reason why Arteta loves Xhaka is that he remi da him of himself…

Spot on

Upstate Gooner

I just have one question: If we can’t beat Brighton, who can we beat?

MidwestGun

Happy Birthday Peds!!! Thanks for all the good blogging and podcasts over the years. Keeps me engaged when all I want to do is check out at times.

Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers.. Lost mine about 8 years ago and still miss the old man.

Also Peds you can add Lampard to the struggling list. The ebbs and flows of the job. But your right, Give the man at least a proper transfer window and a season. The Kroenke’s though are Satan. Constantly just giving us enough rope to hang ourselves.

Danny

To the youngsters here, if you think this is bad, be happy you weren’t around between 74 – 77, fighting relegation isn’t fun, even Spurs and Man U went down back then.
Maybe a season out of europe will do us some good, if there will even be any european competition next season that is.

MD-Gunner

Take a coin and flip it because no one knows.

GunnerDNA

Conclusion Arsenal should pull the plug and sack Mikel Arteta while Mauricio Pochettino and Massimiliano Allegri are still available. Arsenal is one of the biggest sports franchise in one of the best City in world, no time to keep feeling sorry for ourselves because of sentiments. Josh need to step in this isn’t about hipsters it’s all about protecting your investment because it’s blindly obvious to football world that the Club have made a mistake hiring a manger because he sits beside a manger who coaches some of the best players in the world. This you progressive argument is for… Read more »

jwl

Don’t you hate it when all your joints ache?
All those candles are crushing your cake?
It just leads to depression
So change your expression
And party on for Pete’s sake!

Wasi

CG

We know you have a British bias but Roy at Arsenal . Seriously.
Or was that sarcasm !

GunnerDNA

Tyrone Mings and Lewis Dunk > Mari

Sid

Saka already looking knackerd,
Bringing back Ozil will be emusculation of Unsullied proportions,

8 conceded goals in the last three games
Conclusion, cant defend cant attack
Atleast mr Ebening could attack

Conclusion, Arteta is Emery without trophies, without an accent, without the bad teeth

Guns of SF

There are only a handful of players that I would keep in this team that are the future. I think we all know who they are. The problem is the rest. They are nowhere the level needed to be top 4. The problem lies there. Our academy is not pumping out quality left and right. We need to find the upstarts to help us. Arteta needs to have a say in who Raul and Edu go and find. So far Arty has been saying all the right things in the media. I do wonder what he is really thinking. He… Read more »

Champagne Charlie

Tyrone Mings moved for 26 million you pleb, we’re spending 14 mil on Mari with about 18 stipulations and drop fed payments.

Same thing obviously.

Guns of SF

The board will not sack Arteta
Too much for Arsenal to stomach… all this change.

Too much change- we struggle with change!

NJ Gooner

Happy birthday Pedro!

You’re column is a gift to us.

I don’t know how old you are. But rest assured that it is all gravy (or would you say sauce?) until you are 60 or more if you keep up the oat milk, yoga and elliptical. Oh, and lay off too many Peronis.

For me, today it is father’s day and my wedding anniversary.

So, between us, we hit the trifecta!

Danny

Giroud scores for Chelsea…….

GunnerDNA

CC

You’re TY (AFTV) 2.0 on steroids. Dude you’re 60yrs old hipster, go get some rest for work in the morning. You blew your cover. What about telling lies about having a season ticket for clout? Look in the mirror and confront your insecurities, you’re canceled. Why did you ran away from London again?

Redtruth

NJ Gooner

Pete/Pedro is too young to have experienced the glory years of George Graham.

Upstate Gooner

Giroud scores for Chelsea…

And Lacazette for Arsenal… oh wait…

CG

Wasi

“”””CG We know you have a British bias but Roy at Arsenal . Seriously.

Or was that sarcasm””””

I was not suggesting Roy as an Arsenal manager , for one moment.

(I am a huge Sean Dyche supporter)

Just re – emphasising the importance of getting an experienced manager in , when your team is the cart .

I have a British bias , because last time I looked we played in England.

6 Brits +5 Continentals.=Fergies Formula.

MD-Gunner

Guns of SF
“The problem lies there. Our academy is not pumping out quality left and right.
We need to find the upstarts to help us.”

That ship sailed when the recruiting staff was reduced and under AW the academy worked excellent because Arsenal had a decent recruiting team. Once Sven left you could see the handwriting on the wall and with reduction of scouts because of COVID the quality of the academy production will be in the toilet.

Receding Hairline

Happy birthday Pedro

As for the post, some have already pointed out the Emerystas thing, just a diversion tactics. Lots of learning to do for Arteta, hope he catches on quickly. You praised him for leading the talks on salary cuts and how it sent a message many of the players believed in him, now is an excuse for rotten performances…..

Wasi

CG

Well City have only 2-3 Brita in their starting 11.
Liverpool have 3 or 4 .
They seem to be doing quite well.

MD-Gunner

MA giving his support to salary cuts was a big mistake as no other team followed and it gives players a pause for evaluating their situation. Do you think Saka is enamored by the manager spearheading a salary cut drive?

Champagne Charlie

DNA

Can you translate half of that for me, it’s written in absolute bullshit. Literally not close with any stab in the dark you’ve went for, can’t even praise the effort.

Cesc's Pizzeria

Happy Birthday Pedro!

I’ve just been reminded that in Premier League, Chelsea have conceded 40 goals whilst Arsenal & Spurs have conceded 41 each.

On the offensive front, Arsenal have scored 41, whilst Spurs & Chelsea have 48 & 53 a piece.

This definitely not saying our defence is our strongest outlet, but I think when compared to our close rivals, we desperately need to address our offensive limitations.

When we consider how heavily we rely on Aubameyang, Lacazette and Saka for goals, the priority needs to be on midfielders who provide some offense/a greater transition between defence and attack.

Receding Hairline

The bit about wanting to play like Pep, you present it as a strength, but considering the difference in recruitment policies I see it as a weakness. I rather Arteta be his own man than try to be Pep lite. What would Pep do shouldn’t be his first thought

Guns of SF

Yes the salary cuts should not have been promoted by MA. This is why I say, there needs to be better boundaries with him and the players. This should have been pushed by Raul and Vinay Somehow it was also stated that they would get their 12% back if we made CL, so the cut was also being used as a motivational tool I guess. Well now the players are pissed off that the 12% is gone, and not coming back MA should have a say in new player recruitment but Ive said all along, when you are 5 years… Read more »

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