I’m writing this a few drinks deep, so take the information with a pinch of ‘okaaaaay mate…’
In short, what a day.
Mikel Arteta picked up the second trophy of his tenure. It might not be a major one, but a win against a full-strength Liverpool side is certainly not to be sniffed at. I honestly didn’t hold out much hope of a victory. It felt far too early in our preseason to deliver any sort of competition against one of the most brutal teams in the world.
I don’t really want to go over the game in too much detail. We basically recreated our FA Cup run where we let better teams have more of the possession, while we played around their press, and took our chances.
The goal from Auba was another sublime ‘play it out the back’ moment. Elneny fed Saka on the right, Saka created an overload and casually pinged a ball out to Auba. Our contract rebel sharpshooter cut inside, Tierney created a decoy with a fake overlap, then Auba placed a bullet strike over one of the best keepers in the world. Fucking majestic. Thierry like. Think back to how shite we were playing out of the back under Emery? Unreal how good coaching can have the same players scoring worldies against elite teams with the same idea.
The second half was a little more Liverpool. We conceded a sloppy goal. Some deft football by Liverpool and a bit of bad luck on our part saw Minamoto earn enough space to slip a pass past Emi. Again, it’s preseason, the goal wasn’t an abomination, though frustrating nonetheless.
We didn’t collapse though, which was lovely. The players gave it some in the last ten minutes, we weren’t quite sharp enough, but we saw the game out for penalties.
We scored all 5. All elite strikes. Reiss started first and buried it. AMN followed up with a COOOOOOL as a cucumber pass into the corner. Soares, who I thought would miss, smashed his home. David Luiz rocketed his into the top left corner. Then Auba BURIED the notion he’s not a big game player, winning his second trophy with Arsenal with the final kick of the game and a BELTER of a strike.
What a great moment for Arsenal. The Community Shield might not be the biggest trophy of them all, but when you are an Arsenal fan, or player, or board member, it means a great deal. Arsenal are improving. We’re mixing it with the big teams. We’re showing up and delivering when it matters. I said before the game, the importance of the win was momentum. We are a confidence team, this will have mainlined belief into a squad that’s still learning how to be top tier.
So what can we take from the game?
DON’T FUCK WITH US
Yeah, childish headline, but what the last batch of games starting with an ‘FA’ prefix have taught the rest of the league is that we have a capable squad of players that can damage big teams. Specifically, we’ve learned to deal with teams that aggressively press us.
Teams like Liverpool have come at us with extra venom over the years. They beast us, we panic under pressure and give the ball away, then they go again and again until we’re beaten into submission. The we’d cave to the pressure, the more confident the pressing team would get and the more we’d cower. That reputation for meekness has been well and truly weaponised by Arteta.
The lesson teams are now learning is that if they aggressively push us high up the field, we will play around the press and do some real damage. We no longer shit the bed. We have comfortably played around 2 of the best pressing teams in the world and taken home results. What you saw yesterday was a Liverpool side that started to panic when their plan fell apart because we showed them on numerous occasions we’d open them up. That is a warning shot for the rest of the league. Teams will think twice about pressing us hard and high. This is a great development for Arsenal. Big teams will eventually wise up to this, but for the moment, we’re dangerous against top 6 sides.
CREATIVITY WHERE ARE YOU?
Our biggest issue this season is now the opposite of what it used to be. We lack creativity. Arsenal is now competitive for the big games, where we’ll struggle is against teams that low block us and string 11 bodies in front of us. Think about Brighton and Villa.
I thought we were worth more than our 2 shots on target yesterday. The movement in Liverpool’s third was much better. The football was really good at times. What we’re really lacking is a decision and a moment of magic when it matters. Ozil when he cared, Santi, Thomas Rosicky, Jack, Andrey, could all create magic with a deep block… we don’t have that right now and unless we address it, our issues will come in games where teams don’t want to play.
No doubt the Arsenal analysts recognise this issue. No doubt we’re trying to adjust the squad to accommodate a more creative set of players. Willian will help, but it’d also be great to bring in a true number 8 or a modern 10 that could help us unlock defences. The club hope they can get Auoar for £40m, which means we have to sell someone. Torreira, Guendouzi, and Lacazette are all the best hopes of raising funds, but the market is sluggish. I also hear we still fancy Partey… but again, hard to move fast if you have no money.
DON’T SELL THEM PLEEEEASE
My main concern before the game was that we had at least 5 players in the starting 11 that won’t be about come October 5th. Under Arteta, things like that don’t seem matter. The stand out performers were AMN and Martinez, once again. The Argentinian keeper is just a very good player. The idea that Chelsea might pick him up from us for £10m is an absolutely awful thought. He’s focused, brilliant with his feet, great with his hands, and a brilliant leader. I also love that he has a greater goal, becoming Argentina’s #1. Are we letting the better keeper go here?
Then there’s AMN. I can’t have it that he is on the exit list. He’s brilliant. He seems to have the exact mindset we’re looking for, he shows up in big games, he executes Arteta’s plans, and he’s the best wing-back we have. Soares might be a good player, but he’s 29, there’s no resale value, there’s no ceiling. Why wouldn’t we keep the North London boy the fans adore? £20m seems a pitiful amount.
Listening to the prezzer after the game, the AMN issue is consistency, and I’d imagine the backroom team believes the same thing of Emi. I can’t counter people who see the players every day (and know the grand vision), though I will say the main argument in their favour is neither of them have had elite coaching or attention in their careers like they are receiving now.
… also, AMN just landed an England call up. Well done. Totally deserved.
Say it ain’t MO?
I watched the game with Matt from the podcast. I said…
‘You know what Mo Elne…’
‘NO. Don’t even finish’
What I wanted to say was that Mo was pretty decent against MK Dons. He’s more mobile than Xhaka and he’s pretty tidy. Let’s keep it understated here, he was basically an Egyptian Pirlo controlling the midfield. Too far? Ok, well, at the very least, he acted like the ‘server’ we’ve lacked in midfield. He moves the ball fast and accurately without fuss. A bit like Xhaka in that sense (who was also very good). I thought he was great. Hard to ignore a game like that against Liverpool.
SAKA
After Saka signed his new deal, Arteta used the versatile teenager sparingly, so it was great to see him back in the starting 11 yesterday, tearing it up. He’s such a smart player, he reads the game really well, has great anticipation, and his decision making under pressure really does look good. His switch to Auba was perfectly weighted… it’s magic to see him doing that. I cannot wait to watch him develop into a world-class talent this season.
SIGN IT
Auba, please man, sign the deal.
What a player. He’ll be absolutely essential to our success this season. Hopefully, the club can move the deal along and have him tied down after the international break.
Right, that’s me done, see you in the comments.
P.S. I have put some cash/money down on a website refresh. Expect some changes over the next few weeks!
P.P.S Love to see Dani Ceballos cheering Arsenal on from his home on Twitter. He needs to fuck off this Betis idea and get back to London. We need him!
Marko
I think I’ve been pretty clear with how I rate them in my exchange with Paulinho.
You seem to only ever be open to the idea highly rated players make unbelievable impacts, it’s like football history isn’t a thing to you in that regard.
I don’t give a fuck how highly they’re rated, in the games that I’ve watched them Van De Beek was outshone by Ziyech and looked more industrious a player than he was flooded with quality, and Havertz never justified the 90 million fee touted (because that’s a fuck ton of money and indicates incredible ability).
I really hope sokratis is gone
Guns he is only 4.5 m but that’s a Start
Van De Beek? More like Van de Shit. Stay clear of Ajax players. How are that crop that got beat in the CL final doing De Ligt, De Jong and Neres . They have all failed to live up to the hype. Bunch of lightweights!
Looks like the Greallis debate is raging on. My 2 cents are that Greallis would massively improve us right now. He is very similar to Aouar- – Both have been played LW , 10 and 8 and like to operate in the left side of midfield – Good dribblers – Good but not great passers. – Good final 3rd output for midfielders ( Aoaur had about 20g/a contributions last season iirc and Grealish single handedly carried Villa for the best part of the season) – Both can operate well in tight spaces but not as good as an Ozil or… Read more »
Tough choices but we need pace and power and toughness. Jack is prem tested and is a dynamo of a player. Aouar is more finesse and technique type. I’d go jack…we need scoring as well from midfield
Looks like Kola is close to Schalke on loan. Any loan deal must include an obligation to buy.
Sokratis for 4.5 mil is not a bad deal imo.
Need to continue thr fire sales with Torreira , Guendouzi , Mustafi , Chambers next in line.
Lacazette and Bellerin too if we can find replacements.
But I have to say Bellerin has improved in recent games and tho he did make one or two silly mistakes against Pool he had a good game.
Guns Agree. That is a hard choice. Jack has been predominantly playing LW , 10 and striker tho since Villa came up and that has helped him pad his already good attacking numbers. He could still do a great job as an 8. Jack Grealish may or may not have as high a ceiling as Aoaur but he solves multiple problems for us right here right now while Aoaur would take some time to adjust and will never possess Jack’s pace , power and robustness. I’d be happy with both I just think Aoaur is very close to Coutinho and… Read more »
Bellerin should be shipped out asap. If you watched the game you will see how Holding had to keep covering for him while he was nowhere to be found in position and did well to stop Mane but Bellerin did nothing to stop Robertson whipping in dangerous balls. Any other day we would’ve been punished. He doesn’t have the defensive awareness and does nothing offensively. So what he did a sprint and got tackled and the loose ball found its way to Pepe wh gave it to Auba to score for the FA cup final. He has done nothing since… Read more »
Bellerin
Laca
Guen
Holding
Kola
El neny
Torreira
Sell al of these
According to the Mirror,
“Donny van de Beek is set to seal a Man Utd transfer in the coming days”
Hope this is just a rumour.
This from Arseblog discussing AMN and Martinez “The issue, of course, isn’t just what we want as fans, or even what the club wants. The desire of the players is also a major factor. I just think it would be a massive shame if two players who have done nothing else but demonstrate quality and commitment were to depart. What else can they do to merit a chance to fulfill their ambitions here? What message does it send if those performance levels don’t result in a positive outcome?” Leno is certainly a great stopper but he was (and possibly still… Read more »
Selling ballerin will be great, we already have soares and amn for those positions.
We can get at least 30m for him, though I doubt we will get that much for him.
I would like a few extra mil for sok but honestly beggars can’t be choosers and if we get a few million plus his wages off that’s a good start More of this, please I’m glad Martinez and AMn appear to be staying As was said above, if we sell Bellerin we would probably get more money as he was a massive prospect way back when and his rep from years gone by is hopefully still worth something Meanwhile I think AMN can do a job at RB until we get a top class player for that role next year… Read more »
The other benefit of keeping AMN over Bellerin is I think a year from now if we wanted to sell him he’d be worth more than Bellerin whose stock has fallen quite dramatically since the heady days of him being talked up as a 40-50m player on Barca’s radar AMN being first choice next season with similar performances to how he ended this season would see him worth more than Bellerin imo, especially because of the British premium If someone was offering great money for AMN that’s fine, but the offer was apparently 15m which is not close to reasonable… Read more »
Leno is more error prone than Martinez but let’s also not exaggerate his error making Leno made more errors only partly because of his playing style but also very importantly because he was *constantly* facing shots and had zero defense. He made more saves and made more mistakes. I have championed Martinez as the logical n1 starting this season, but Leno is a quality keeper who has not received due credit. Martinez has done great but it’s also much easier playing behind a team that actually defends. Ask Martinez to face 25 shots a game for 6 months and he… Read more »
id Be far more interested to see a stat showing how many saves Leno makes relative to each error as that will give far more useful context than just noticing he makes an error here or there without noticing he saved our asses 30 times beforehand
CC Chelsea have already recruited very well this summer and if Havertz is signed will be a formidable squad with a lot of depth. Thiago Silva, Chilwell and Werner will make a considerable difference. Man City have also spent already quite a lot of money and I am pretty sure that they have not completed their transfer business. Liverpool are unlikely to spend big and will rely heavily on existing squad. I remain to be convinced that they will repeat last season’s performance particularly if they get a couple of key injuries. Man United appear to be putting all their… Read more »
So we beat Napoli to Gabriel AND they took Sokratis off us?
Now that’s what I call a result!
PS. £4.5m is better than a loan and better than nothing!
Re Gabriel I’m wondering why we couldn’t just have him do his medical and all the formalities in France tbh? It shouldn’t be hard to set up a system of oversight with live streamed up close footage of the machines being used, the data they get, etc etc I’m sure Lille would’ve helped considering they were happy enough to sell. I don’t know if there are other key concerns preventing them from doing that but it just strikes me as logical – or why not set Gabriel up to live in the same place where a medical can take place… Read more »
Newcastle want Holding on loan? Tell them that if they are willing to buy him at the end of it if they are serious about making it happen.
I thought Leeds was interested? Is that no more?
Wow is the market so depressed we can’t even get a fee for Holding? Ugh
China
You were asking about a few passive income streams, last week. Got any thing?
Apparently Arteta rates Holding and he wants him to come back at the end of Luiz’s contract. I don’t mind holding as a CB out of Gabriel, Saliba, Mari and Holding. But we need Luiz to get all the new CBs comfortable in their surroundings this season.
We really need top class midfielders right about now though. Partey, Auoar and Ceballos come in and I think I would be confident we can beat both United and Chelsea to a top 4 spot. But as of now we will be lucky to finish ahead of Leicester and Wolves.
I hope we see the rehabilitation of Özil. He is nowhere what he used to be but he is still the most creative player we’ve got.
It is the pragmatic thing to do. We’ll be paying his salary. Might as well make use of him.
Unless Arteta decides he wants to play the Klopp style of heavy metal football. In which case creative players are not that important.
“Leno made more errors only partly because of his playing style but also very importantly because he was *constantly* facing shots and had zero defense. He made more saves and made more mistakes.”
Or maybe because he never came out for crosses and freekicks and put the onus on the defenders to clear them…like peter shilton said in his autobiography, goalkeepers have to be a bit of the crazy types and take risks
Outside of the shenanigans with fees and contract, it is now clear why Raul left. Like he did with Sven and then Emery he was trying to overrule the recruitment without any consideration of other opinion. He wanted to sell AMN, now AMN stays. He wanted to sell Martinez and recruit a new No2, Martinez stays as likely No1. He wanted to sell Holding, Holding will go on loan before coming back as replacement for Luiz. He forced the purchase of Pepe, and now according to somebody on twitter we are offering Pepe to Napoli and AM at half the… Read more »
If Valencia wants Guendouzi… I hope we are strong enough to tell them to pay up and show us the money…
Remember they have just sold Rodrigo to LUFC for £27m and Ferran Torres to Man City for £20m.
They have the money. Don’t be pushed over…
Alternatively if Valencia was interested in a swap for Guendouzi… what about asking for their starlet Lee Kang-In in return?
ValentinAugust 31, 2020 07:11:19 Outside of the shenanigans with fees and contract, it is now clear why Raul left. Like he did with Sven and then Emery he was trying to overrule the recruitment without any consideration of other opinion. He wanted to sell AMN, now AMN stays. He wanted to sell Martinez and recruit a new No2, Martinez stays as likely No1. He wanted to sell Holding, Holding will go on loan before coming back as replacement for Luiz. He forced the purchase of Pepe, and now according to somebody on twitter we are offering Pepe to Napoli and… Read more »
“Pepe to Napoli” – lmao smh
Valentin Whatever the reasons for Raul leaving I do think that Arteta is completely correct in making his own evaluation of our playing personnel. Keeping Martinez is for me a no brainer. He has proven to be an excellent goalkeeper and is currently justifying his place in starting X1. There is no logic in selling him particularly in current economic climate. We need two good gks on books. I was in favour of SELLING AMN, but again he has demonstrated that there is a decent player in him and with Arteta’s guidance has improved dramatically. I still believe that he… Read more »
Leeds
Even though Valencia have let players go they don’t have a pot to p*ss in
They can’t even pay the players wages.
Sokratis, Torreira, Lichsteiner, Leno and Guendouzi were signed when Wenger left the club 2 years ago, at a cost of 80 million( not including wages). None of those are starters now . Pepe, Tierney, Luiz, Cedric, Mari, Martinelli, Saliba and now Willian have been bought this past year. That’s 12 new players brought in at a cost of well over 200 million plus a fortune in wages. Tierney , and to a lesser extent Martinelli and Luiz can only be regarded as a success up until this point , a poor return. Martinez is our best keeper Mustafi is still… Read more »
Terraloon
If Valencia are so hard up that they can’t pay their players’ wages perhaps we should try to take Lee Kang-In on the cheap?
Whatever business we do this TW, I think we should keep some money back for a deal for……
Bernado Silva.
He’s been offered to Barca as a make weight for Messi. Barca has said No.
If the Messi deal goes through, Man City may need to balance the books.
Arteta can then use his influence to convince Silva to join.
Pierre You make some good points. However, you need to move away from the idea that many of the players now competing for starting X1 are Wenger’s recruits. Ozil may be our most creative player, but he is clearly past his sell by date and must not play again for our club. Elneny is most certainly not a player for the future. The only reason he played on Saturday is that we are woefully short of personnel in midfield department. Mustafi may turn out to be a better CB than we thought, but under Wenger and Steve Bould’s tutelage he… Read more »
I was surprised that the club decided to let Sam Greenwood go to Leeds. (I hope we added a good sell on clause or a buy back clause…)
He was, along with, Miguel Azeez, one of the standout performers in the U18s.
We’re well stocked for reserve strikers though with Tyreece John Jules on the cusp of the first team.
I really really hope we manage to change Balogun’s mind to stay.
I would love to see him perform in the Europa League for us.
Stay Folarin you’re future is with us!
*your future
Stroller “However, you need to move away from the idea that many of the players now competing for starting X1 are Wenger’s recruits.” It’s not an “idea” , it’s actually fact. I get that you don’t like certain players but if a player ( who you don’t like) shows the manager that he is the best he has for a certain position , then he should start. Who would you play ahead of Elneny after such a superb performance at the weekend. People have raved about Ceballos last season but he is a player who plays a very similar game… Read more »
Looks like Val’s Itk sources have provided him some hot goss.
Leeds
Valencia are broke I believe and Lee kang in is a great shout if we can nab him on the cheap.
Stroller
“Wenger has bought plenty of duds over the years who have cost us a bucketful of cash in transfer fees and the idea that his judgment at the end
of his managerial career was anything but piss poor is delusional.”
Of course he did but 2 years after he has left , his “piss poor” judgement still had 9 out of the 11 players beating the runaway champions of England..who put out close to their strongest starting 11.
“I was surprised that the club decided to let Sam Greenwood go to Leeds. (I hope we added a good sell on clause or a buy back clause…)”
He’s a northern boy and heard that he couldn’t really settle in le capital so he moved to be closer to his farm.
as you said just hope we put a good sell on percentage on the deal because he was looking promising.
The kids coming through will never get a fair crack of the whip on Le Grove I’m afraid. This is I believe due to their Wenger connection. You only have to look at the way Le grove was salivating over Martinelli and heavily critical of Nketiah and yet their goal return over the season in all comps was pretty similar I believe. Arteta obviously saw a flaw in Martinelli’s game and recognised that he needed to improve certain aspects of his game before he could consider him for selection. Sadly he was injured but hopefully he will return fit and… Read more »
Pierre
“””Of course he did but 2 years after he has left , his “piss poor” judgement still had 9 out of the 11 players beating the runaway champions””””‘
The Delinquents cant handle the Truth.
x9 Wenger players & Arteta started the Charity shield fixture.
(Only Tierney and Luiz were not Wengerites.)
The Dopes have spent nearly £300 million since he left- AND THEY ARE STILL using his players.. ….but he left such a mess ???
Our Wenger still winning trophies ( albeit indirectly) and with Artetas coaching excellence for The Arsenal.
ps. I concur Elneney is superior to Cebollas.
Pierre I wouldn’t play Elneny at all. He is a 5 metre square and back passing player whose main attribute is that he does not take any risk. The idea that Wenger is responsible for recruitment in our Academy is complete nonsense. Players like Saka joined the club as toddlers. That has absolutely nothing to do with Wenger. Many of the youngsters who joined from elsewhere were either disasters or showed no loyalty to club. Pennant was in first category and Gnabry in latter. Wenger’s track record in developing defenders has been abject. As has been pointed out on many… Read more »
“Martinez has done great but it’s also much easier playing behind a team that actually defends.”
Maybe, just maybe, Martinez has given the defence more confidence?
PapSok is a honorable guy.
It seems he’s set to leave to the job with lower wages when he could have idled away for the last year and moved on a free next summer window.
Honor, …certainly something he can share with Mesut Ozil.
“He wanted to sell AMN, now AMN stays.
He wanted to sell Martinez and recruit a new No2, Martinez stays as likely No1.”
What bullshit is this?
The board overuled Arteta re AMN not Raul. Raul had left the room the only time Martinez name has been connected with a transfer.
ES
“”””I wouldn’t play Elneny at all. He is a 5 metre square and back passing player whose main attribute is that he does not take any risk.””””””
like Cebollas then.
Nketiah has huge potential the only concern is that Pierre is his fanboy, thats tempting fate
You heard it here 1st!
Dissenter Ozil lives the life of showbiz and luxury. He has no interest in his football career although I am sure that he likes to kick a ball in his back garden. That appears to be the sum total of his ambition. Sokratis may not have as much basic talent, but his ambition is to play football. By all accounts Kolasinac will also be leaving Arsenal and taking a pay cut. I think that Arsenal will offload many of their unwanted players albeit with low transfer fees or on freebies. The exceptions I suspect could be the two players we… Read more »
@pierre, martinelli would have buried one of the chances nketiah had last weekend. You really think defenders fear Eddie more than martinelli? I for one doesn’t understand why Auba gets shunted out wide to accommodate Eddie who’s just being profligate
Nketiah will come good… and he looked sharp yesterday.
He was excellent off the ball breaking up Liverpool play quite a few times with his pressing.
Yes he needs to score more consistently but his work rate, positioning and attitude is excellent… plus Wrighty rates him as a striker and I trust his eye for a striker more than a few malcontents on Le Grove.
CG
Have you ever seen me promote Ceballos?
I have always considered him to be a technical, but limited player. As I have
posted many times our midfield lacks creative and productive players.
However, I am going to make one exception. I do think that Smith-Rowe has
the” potential” to be a decent attacking midfielder.
Vikingsz
“@pierre, martinelli would have buried one of the chances nketiah had last weekend”
Of course he would..
Do you mean the first one where Eddie dispossessed Gomez on the half way line and then beat fabinho in the tackle to pass the ball to xhaka whilst on the floor.
Instead of admiring his play , he preceded to get himself off the floor and sprinted to the edge of the box to hit a shot on target which produced a decent save from the keeper.
I didn’t see any arsenal supporter being critical of saka on here? Just because some don’t think nketiah is ready yet doesn’t mean all academy players are rejected by supporters
More nonsense from the Ozil fan boys I see. Ozil the creative genius with just ONE big chance created in the PL this season (official PL stats). Equal in tenth place with Nacho Montreal who left the club in August 2019.
That’s behind such well known creative talents like Chambers (4), Sokratis (2), and Kolasinac (also 2).
Just saying something repeatedly doesn’t make it true. Ozil is a has been.
The Wenger academy boys will never get credit on Le Grove, that’s why they hate AMN so much.
I’m looking forward to seeing our academy and young new additions like Saliba, Martinelli and Gabriel destroy teams in the Europa.
Saka, Willock, Nelson, Smith rowe, martinelli , Saliba, Gabriel,Guendouzi (maybe) eddie with Leno in goal..
Andy
“Just saying something repeatedly doesn’t make it true. Ozil is a has been.”
As you repeatedly keep telling us..
Nketiah is pretty much doing what Lacazette does everything but score that’s the difference between himself and Martinelli. Martinelli if played up top buries chances with his head and feet. Also has a stronger shooting power than Nketiah and coolness in finishing. Martinelli played on the right or left wing is wasted and tires out with his aggressiveness. I worry Arteta is obsessed with Nketiah when we should be having Auba playing CF with both wingers(Saka & Pepe) putting it on a plate for him. This is where having a Strong AM would help without having Auba holding up play… Read more »