Well, here we are, the first game of the season. It’s pounced on us. I’ve barely had the time to miss football, yet here she is, back with a 3 game a week schedule for the next 3 months. I am VERY excited.
Fulham is a tricky game simply because we’re not really sure who is going to show up. Both teams could spring a surprise. Arsenal could turn up like they did against Villa. Fulham could roll over like they did that time we thought we had our Arsenal back.
We need a win. There’s no glory in a draw. Arsenal needs to start the season the same way they played the FA Cup final. Everyone needs to show up focused. This season we’re gunning for top 4. Arsenal can’t have another transition year. We have the talent to do it. Arteta picked up a bag of shite in December, he took us from 8th to 8th, but the half-season table showed that we finished 4 points off 3rd (in 5th). If we’re that close to 3rd in March, we have every chance of taking a Champions League spot.
There are 4 very important games coming up before the international break. Anything above 9 points will be classified as very good. Most would say the big game is the Liverpool one, but for me, it’s actually the Fulham, West Ham, and Sheff U games that pose the threat.
Arsenal’s challenge this season will be dealing with deep blocks. We lack creativity through the middle and we haven’t really addressed that this summer so far. There has to be a solution. Arteta needs to evolve how we play this season. It’s no good becoming the London version of Wolves. We need to rack up points against the little teams this season.
There are some potential solutions. The biggest bet we’ve made is that Willian will carry over his elite form from last season. He had a great record for balls into the box last season. We’ll need some of that trickery tomorrow. The big question is whether Arteta opts to play him out on the left, or whether he moves him into a modern #10 role.
We could also see Mesut Ozil back in contention. The German international is out of the cold and he’s making a fuss online that he wants to play. Say what you like about him, he’s a deep-block specialist and if willing, he’s more than capable of being a solve for us there. Question, as always, is how much does he care?
There are also some other potential solves that are little more far fetched. Saka ‘might’ get a shout as a #10 at some point this season. Could be a little early for that. Especially as he’s been so good from wide positions. We also have ESR who can play in those pockets. He had a great time at Huddersfield. Would Arteta take the chance? I’m not sure (not tomorrow as he’s injured). Especially not for the first game.
What we do know is this: Fulham under Scotty Parker are pragmatists.
They will set up with a sturdy team tomorrow and they’ll look to nick a goal on the counter. They clearly aren’t elite pragmatists (they finished 4th in the Championship and there’s been a serious debate about #ParkerOut among entertainment starved fans), but they’ll be an early test for us. They have some decent ball-playing defenders and they have a bully of a target man in Mitrovic. Those two factors combining have been the death of us over the years. Hopefully, there’s a strategy tomorrow to work around the obvious plan that’ll be rolled out.
So here we are, heading into our 13th year together (feeling so emosh). This should be fun. We have a solid setup. We have a brilliant young manager. We have a vibrant squad of young players eager to make it happen. We have a chance to make the top 4 if things fall for us. Let’s enjoy it, it’ll be a fun ride. Lots of ups and downs. But we’re heading in the right direction regardless. I’ve not been able to honestly say that in a very long time.
Enjoy the game and listen to the podcast. Whoever gave me a 1* review, I hope you have some mild internet disruption today. Yeah, I’m that serious about the slander.
Also, I fixed the link issue on the newsletter. It should not be working perfectly!
COME ON YOU GOONERS!
Bamford, Arteta’s 30 game win record is the same as Chelsea, we’re beating elite teams, and we have two trophies. Your squad poverty argument has been buried deeper than your ‘Emery is a modern coach’ take.
Charlie He’s still too rash and clumsy and will cost us points this season, mark my words. We can protect him all we like but ultimately it only takes one of the better sides running us ragged for Xhaka to show his true colours once again playing a stupid hospital pass or giving away a penalty/FK in a dangerous situation that we get punished for etc. He’s fine for a squad player but to play through the better sides we need better than him and Elneny. He’s pretty much a quarterback type CM that if left with time and space… Read more »
Whatever you say, Pete.
On AMN by Rio Ferdinand and I quote “Maitland-Niles is a wing-back and when you speak about wing-backs you’d expect him to be in the wide areas, coming out consistently throughout the game. “He’s done anything but that, he comes in, passes the ball and his first run after that is to run inside and create an overload in midfield. “He comes straight into the midfield area and what that does is it causes confusion and causes them to have more numbers in there than they’d usually have. “After that, you’ve got the width being created by Aubameyang, your main… Read more »
Pedro
” and we have two trophies.”
You do realise that Tim Sherwood was taking the piss out of you earlier about calling the Charity Shield a trophy?
I mean that’s just embarrassing to have Tim Sherwood to take the piss out of you.
Weagle We literally just negotiated a stretch against the top teams in England beating every one of them with Xhaka at the heart of matters – more than once orchestrating great team goals from his own penalty area under a high press. You can sit and claim any player a time bomb and eventually be proven right with a gaffe or rash moment, but this perpetual ‘wait and see’ with Xhaka is tedious. Literally not an error that lead to a goal last season but you’re telling me when the next instance occurs that costs us something that’ll be evidence… Read more »
Naomi Osaka wins another, love to see it on many levels.
Oh, and a statue, get him a statue..
Marc, I’ve hung out with Tim Sherwood before. We’re basically best mates. He’d never take the piss out of me.
Agree with Valentin (a first for me,) Sancho is an overated player atm. Not saying he won’t improve, just not to the level of expectation of some here.
Valentin
Thanks for that explanation, much appreciated.
Charlie I kept my word and respect you more for going in with the unsheathed xhaka stiffy It’s so much easier on the eye than the old days Btw this emery debate really needs to die. Emery was sacked because after a genuinely promising first half of his first season, he failed in the second half then made last season an absolute car crash This isn’t a guy who deserved longer or whatever. He made us sit through months of us facing 20000 shots per game, dropping points left right and Centre whilst he sat on the sidelines pulling his… Read more »
“You do realise that Tim Sherwood was taking the piss out of you earlier about calling the Charity Shield a trophy?”
That’s the Tim Sherwood who played for Spurs right? You think the Spuds fans wouldn’t call winning the Charity Shield a trophy? – after all it’s been a while……
tbf Bellerin has a good game yesterday Willian and Gabriel were quality. Willian looked to make things happen every time he touched the ball and the quality was consistently there. Really dynamic and valuable contribution. One thing arsenal need to pay attention to with Gabriel is because he’s dominant in 1v1 he seems to like stepping out of his position to follow his man and win it back. I don’t think it’s a bad thing as he’s clearly really good at it, but tactically the player around him may need to expect this and be ready to drop into the… Read more »
Pedro
“Marc, I’ve hung out with Tim Sherwood before. We’re basically best mates. He’d never take the piss out of me.”
Oh dear – you’re either really desperate for mates or really desperate for approval.
Charity Shield > Audi Cup.
As for el neny, I said after the charity shield game I think he can do a job. He’s not exciting or amazing but he’s extremely tidy, disciplined and a good passer. The formation we saw yesterday isn’t going to concede a lot of goals because off the ball it’s very solid and well organized. People may think it can’t do enough offensively without a 10 and with two defensive players like xhaka and el neny at CM, but the shape of the team changes a lot when we have the ball and the wing back support for the front… Read more »
“That’s the Tim Sherwood who played for Spurs right? You think the Spuds fans wouldn’t call winning the Charity Shield a trophy?”
Which is precisely why we shouldn’t.
Is it really that difficult?
If spurs won the charity shield they’d release a dvd
You know it, I know it and they know it.
The fans would buy it too. Fucking spuds
sal
You shouldn’t degenerate the the Charity Shield to that level.
China
It’s worse – Pedro would do the artwork for it.
Dissenter, to your question earlier, yes. Rule 3.
Un**ed lost to AV in a friendly today which sent their fans into a full blown LG meltdown. Love to see it.
Marc, the whole Arsenal fanbase has given approval on Arteta.
… Spuds called the Audi Cup a trophy. The Community Shield would be huge for them
OGS, DeGenerational Coach
lololol
Tbf taking money from spuds as they writhe in uncontrollable ecstasy about a preseason friendly cup is kinda a legit thing to do.
Pedro
Doesn’t mean we should stoop to their level – we are GOONERS.
Marc
Im struggling today man, clearly at the ‘in – between’ phase.
I’ll do better, been a serious week.
Had a thought that if Arteta somehow (very slim) landed Partey and Aouar our MF would look like this:
________Aouar________
____ Xhaka__Partey____
Also I like to think Pedro would be mean enough to abuse the position. He’d design a beautiful DVD cover full of great artwork and superlatives but laced with extremely hard to find pro arsenal propaganda… a small sign held up by a fan in the crowd says ‘Tiny Totts’. One of the fans in the background picture of the celebration is DB10 smirking etc
How many games do you have to play in the Audi cup? 2?
I’d have a sign in the background on the DVD saying P2 W2 L0
Fucking bants
China, spot on
The Audi cup is the Milli Vanilli of trophy’s.
Sal, totally elite?
Pedro
Elite indeed.
Then suddenly outed. as lyp-syncrs over entirety of career. Total frauds across all platforms, die hard supports publicly shame you. Then administration follows, 15 points docked to open new season.
But the hardware it stays with you collecting dust, a dusty Audi Cup.
I’m predicting Moyes to be the first manager casualty this year, maybe as early as November.
Sal
What you talking about ?
Milli Vanilli… its above your pay grade Dissenter, back to the FT.
Great win for the boys! Willian doing exactly what he does! Great to see. Gabi at the back was solid. So keen to see him as our rock in defence. A lot of people saying that our squad is great because we have Pepe on the bench. Yes it is great having subs that can make a proper impact. But the frontline is the only part of our team that has ‘proper’ depth. We want half our CBS out. RB position is still questionable, as bellerin can be upgraded on. Our midfield is woeful. I don’t call that a squad… Read more »
What a fun way to announce we’re back with a purpose yesterday from Bellerin’s solid hit that any Samoan forward from their rugby union team or a typical ‘Mickey the Munch’ (England rugby union) taking a player out of the game tackle (Kola and Papa Sok style) to Holding playing keeping uppy driving into Fulham’s penalty area. Then, of course, there was Auba’s technical brilliant strike plus 2 more goals. Gabriel dos Santos Magalhaes was worthy of his MOM in his fist game fitting effortlessly into his CB position, scoring on his debut and emulating El Rock at the back.… Read more »
Can’t believe I forgot to mention Gabi’s debut goal. Fan favourite already! Haha.
He really is great in the air. We will be a different team defending set pieces this season (or very latest next season when both our new boys are starting in the backline), with two huge CBS and a new set piece specialist coach.
Is this even our Arsenal? tactical flexibility, a proper attempt at addressing the back line, clean sheets away, positivity in the fan base.
I am loving Arteta’s and Edu’s Arsenal
Hahaha also I read that west ham is willing to pay part of wilsheres contract to get him off their books.
Un na naii, your boy is making it big time. I really wish he was still here 😂😂😂
Lol poor old wilshere. He was genuinely a generational talent until he hit the ripe old age of 20 and the wheels came off
Injuries, attitude, zero coaching and intelligence shortcomings all saw to it that one of the most naturally gifted players of his generation has had a career worth a grand total of diddley squat.the absolute definition of a ‘what might have been’ player
I have to say that Fulham game was thoroughly enjoyable. Fulham were trash but that was exactly the kind of game in recent years where we may have made it look difficult
If that had been early last season Leno would’ve needed to make 20 saves. Instead he had practically nothing to do. All over the pitch we just did exactly what needed to be done in a calm, competent and professional way. Loved it
Reviewing our requirements and potential departures I think that the most likely scenario is that Arsenal will bring in two more players in transfer window namely a goalkeeper now that Martinez is leaving and a first choice Central Midfielder. The facts are that Arsenal should have two players in each position good enough to play in starting X1. Based on 3-4-3 formation my selections would be: Leno/ ? —————– Saliba/Holding Gabriel/Luiz Tierney/Gabriel —————– Bellerin/Soares ? /Ceballos Xhaka/Ceballos Maitland-Niles/Tierney —————— Willian/Pepe Lacazette/Nketiah Aubameyang/Saka So we have 19 players who will play regularly in first team. The remaining 6 places to be… Read more »
Bamford’s argument collapses as soon as you check PSG’s results. First with the best squad in the league he fails to win the league , Second with the epic Champions League debacle . If we failed because of the squad how did he fail there Bamford ?
why on earth do we still discuss Emery on this board?
Anyone think we can fetch over 10m if elneny keeps it up? Or he will more likely be used as cover as we are so short of quality in the middle?
Haha yeah China that exactly it, what might have been. Which is exactly why we still had people using sentimentality to want to keep him
If we could sell Martinez to raise 15 to 20m, there’s absolutely no reasons for the club to get (re)acquaintance with the like of Elneny,, Holding, Bellerin, Laca, Guendouzi ,Ozil,, not to mention the wages that could be freed up.
Ozil would tie himself to several weights in the gym and refuse to leave the building but others surely get rid.
I hope those borderline sentimental comments are all Arteta’s media bs and he didn’t mean it. A Manager must not have such profound love. Keep it for your wife!
Laca reportedly has 2 years left in his contract. If we not/ unable to sell in this TW, face the same situation and risk he could run down the contract and leave for nothing.
I don’t buy this bs he loves the club and wanted to bring titles here, etc. Sure but when his agent whispers some dollars and sense in his ears, we know the outcome.
At 180k pw, and his diminishing return on goals, we shouldn’t extend so the remaining option is to push him out to pastures new. AM sounds like a good location.
“Which is exactly why we still had people using sentimentality to want to keep him”
Sentimentality, the new LG buzzword. Maybe it’s more that many here state an opinion on a player then go looking for negatives to back up their opinion. Much easier than looking for positives and admitting to being wrong (heaven forbid.)
Sadly, Barca fans watched yesterday’s game it seems and are telling Barca not to sign over Twitter.
“Bellerin is just a sprinter… And for Cancelo… His crosses are never accurate… I don’t see much difference between him and Semedo.”
Other tweets are more direct like buy but not Bellerin….
Oh well…
If our players aren’t good for PSG, RM, Barca, surely they wouldn’t be bad for 9 or 10 bottom half PL teams??
Watched how Liverpool got the 2nd pen and I am more than convinced it’d not have been given had it be Arsenal and a host of other clubs.
Refs have same mindset and attitude towards clubs. A new season only means a new batch of crooks. And that’s before VAR comes into consideration. Let’s see.
Tony I never really put you down as an Ozil obsessive Tony , a Pierre obsessive possibly as you never fail to mention me in your daily ramblings. Anyway, on to more important things , namely Willian and Gabriel . At last we may have the creative player who us the link between our midfield and strikers. Is it a false dawn with Willian , I don’t think so. In our 2nd game last season we saw Ceballos put in a similar performance as Willian, he created a couple and many thought we had the creative spark that was missing,… Read more »
Hopefully, Aubameyang has put to bed the clamour for him to play centrally after another superb strike coming in from the left.
In our set up Auba is more suited to play from the left. Most of our play goes through wide areas which results in Auba getting a lot of touches on the ball on the left side with AMN and Tiernney overlapping. On the left he can use his pace more. Not sure how Arteta accomodates Saka though who is brilliant playing on the left wing.
@Pedro
Demyth about ElNeny!!
Read a lot of comments that he “passed sideways & kept it tidy”.
Please look at his highlights alone and you will be he progressed the ball forward a lot of times.
His forward diagonal to Auba created the 1st Goal, is flick to Laca created the 3rd and apart from that he had 2 shots in prime areas as well.
So much for a side way passer 🙂
Good morning to you guys. I enjoyed yesterday’s game very much. Arteta’s tactical tweaks and positional interchangeable players is very interesting to see. We were defending as a 3 CBs with Holding, Gabriel and Tierney. Then when we attack It becomes a flat back 4 with Bellerin, Holding, Gabriel and Tierney. AMN creates an overload in midfield with runs from deep. I also liked how arteta freed Saka to be a winger from Left back with Xhaka becoming a quarter back from fullback and AMN covering in midfield as an Inverted fullback. Once we have very good players in midfield… Read more »
What we need this season is consistency. Personally I like our formation. It works very well for us and it suits certain players. For a start I think that both Bellerin and Maitland-Niles are much better playing in a team which operates 3-4-3 and if and when they make mistakes or lose concentration there is better cover. The arrival of Gabriel introduces a good footballer and most importantly a CB who can dominate in air. If Saliba is as good then the combination will improve dramatically and we have two young players who can be at Arsenal for several years.… Read more »
TR7
” Not sure how Arteta accomodates Saka though who is brilliant playing on the left wing.”
It’s the Saka conundrum that I talked about during lockdown and Arteta is no closer to solving it.
Saka may have to be patient and wait for injuries and settle for Europa and league cup appearances and coming on as a sub in the league.
As time goes by I expect Arteta to play with a back 4 in 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 which will also give players like Saka more game time
ES
I agree with your take on Lacazette.
It was also nice to see Nketiah looking pissed off at the side of the pitch.
Scoring 4 goals in a week for the England U-21’s shouldn’t mean you’re a guaranteed starter.
Show a little bit more hunger/anger Eddie and things will improve for you.
Would you guys take Danijel Subasic as a backup for a year?
I think if El Neny stays and we bring in aour we’ll get the creativity needed and can forget about Thomas partey and still have a solid team IMO.
If true this is more bs. We are bidding for a £10m Raya?? Huh?? A Championship goalie with no nothing to show for , other than a blunder. At 10m when we are moving Martinez on for £15m rising to 20?! Arsenal got move away from being a joke of. a club when selling our assets. Ffs. We don’t need to sell even if Martinez throws the toy outta the pram. Yes, keep him and if he really aspire s to become Argentina no. 1, he’d fall in line. Give him some pay rise that he deserves. Again if media… Read more »
“Elneny was a relegation against Fulham and has saved Arsenal money” is the exactly sort of shocker we wouldn’t wish to happen.
No top half teams would bid for Elneny even at £5m.
The back and side pass specialist is not an option to take us forward. At £50k pw, don’t need him on the bench either. Put a hungry U23 there. Would Willock be worse than Elneny if we only expect side and back passes?
Btw, some Atletiic journo in the know says we had not bid for Edouard.
The main difference that Both Gabriel and Holding introduced in our defense is that they are comfortable in 1v1. Gabriel is also pretty quick and will snuff out threat early on. Holding is not as quick, but is likely to be the fall guy when Saliba is up to speed. So even when Fulham (that was pretty much toothless upfront) were able to hit us on the break, they are good enough to stop their opponent and delay the attack, giving time to the defensive midfielder Elneny and both wingback to come back into position. People who kept arguing about… Read more »
Useroz The real issue is that Arsenal should build a stable/team and squad. It is crystal clear that we have currently on the books 17-18 players who are good enough to play regularly and form the basis of a very good team. From my perspective that includes Bellerin, Maitland-Niles and Lacazette who should only leave if they are agitating for a transfer AND we are receiving a FULL MARKET VALUE. That was the basis of Martinez departure. Everyone knows by now the players who are surplus to requirements and need to be offloaded. Clearly the defenders who need to be… Read more »
Mmhh, so the podcast and some contents of this site are now geo – limited?
My God emiratestroller, I agree with every word you say! Delighted that Mesut and Matteo weren’t indulged with a place on the bench today. Fuck those bad attitude guys.
We move on without them. Very good result, hoping for many more
Useroz
I completely disagree with your assessment of Elneny. He has been very good in his 2 games under Mikel. I would happily keep him if 5M is the offer. In fact I would keep him unless we are assured of Partey and 15M for him.
Bojangles What would the positives have been of keeping Wilshere? He’d have been on a top contract and played 1 game. It’s certain fans sentimentality in that instance that wanted him to stay, as he’d come through the ranks and was Arsenal through and through. But even if you have ability, if you can’t get on the pitch what’s the point. Luckily the club didn’t think it was wise to keep him. Wilshere and Diaby were paid millions for jack shit among others. Just like Ozil but that’s a little different obviously. Unless you believe he gets a back ache… Read more »
afrigun, there are no geofences on the site or on the podcast? Are you sure it’s not your browser? Where are you based?