Fulham Preview: Can Arteta solve for a deep-block?

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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!

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andy1886

Cali, Leno was never player of the season, no need to go over the top to make a point. Auba wins that hands down regardless of Leno’s injury.

Northbanker

Mystic – yes we do but it clearly isn’t going to happen so maybe the coaching team will start to work on Leno’s catching and commanding of the box.

The short passing out of the box also looks suicidal at times whereas Martinez distributes much earlier (although he also needed improvement on that area) and further away

NwGooner

So EMI going to a Villa -all total £20 mil

Dissenter

Marc
“Liverpool aren’t looking amazing at the back bearing in mind that they’re playing against a promoted side.”

Klopp did say they are “attacking” to keep their premier league title. I do think any type of victory will do for the big teams.

Receding Hairline

Mystic Macey is a calamity I have read, not rated at all. Leno granted has never been an injury prone player but would be reckless to just go with him and Macey.

Scout Europe for an up and coming goalie and pick him up for 5-8mill would be the way to go in my opinion. Macey does have size though I give him that.

Mysticleaves

Marc

TBF Leeds aren’t your average ‘promoted’ team. They are serious and will give many people scares this season. Early doors but I predict a comfortable higher mid table finish for them with a few top6 scalps on the way. Hopefully, starting today

Marc

Mystic

It’s was just an observation of the match – as Leeds equalise!

Leftside

This is some game

Sanmi

That pool defense is in shambles

Marc

VVD fucking it right up there.

Marc

Leftside

And Liverpool should not have had the penalty. :Leeds deserve to be winning.

salparadisenyc

Gabriel > VVD

Sanmi

Liverpool lacking motivation?

Jamie

Crazy game. Defenders all over the shop.

Sanmi

Marc
It was a clear penalty.

Buzzy

Leeds look way more fitter than Liverpool who look very lethargic especially their mid and defense

Marc

Sanmi

Joke Friday was yesterday – fuck me even Jamie Carragher said it wasn’t a pen!

Leftside

What a game!!!!! Oh my

Buzzy

Take out Salah and probably Mane and this Liverpool team is bang average

Mysticleaves

Northbanker, we will see at season’s end how Leno has done. Hopefully we stay alive till then.

RH
If you say so. I thought when he play season before last he was comfortable enough to atleast feature in cup games. We can as well look for a reliable oldie on a free. It works for man city and Liverpool. It will work for us too

Paulinho

Leeds are more or less a superior version of Norwich last season. They will hit a wall and fall apart at some point but will light the league up for as long as their physical and mental reserves allow them to.

CG

CG

“”””(Liverpool v Leeds United will be proper soccer today.)”””””

CG knows.

Proper Soccer.
Handbrakes off.
Wengerball tactics.

andy1886

Shame CG doesn’t know that it’s Football, not ‘Soccer’.

Valentin

Macey is an extremely poor goalkeeper. Anybody who think that he could play if Leno is out for any period of time has not seen him play.
He was going to be released years ago, but Arsenal gave him another contract because we had nobody in the U23 to play. I think that Arsenal got caught when João Virginia decided to leave for Everton.

CG

“”””CG, Bielsa and Klopp don’t play football like Wenger.””””

Absolutely.
No one plays Wengerball.
No one has the balls to try.

this could be 4 – 4
The Arshavin game.

peanuts&monkeys

Leeds would have been leading by At least 2 goals at HT had they been playing boring Arsenal On this opening day

Receding Hairline

A first half over 3.5

What would have been the odds on that Batistuta

CaliGooner

andy1886September 12, 2020 17:55:45
Cali, Leno was never player of the season, no need to go over the top to make a point. Auba wins that hands down regardless of Leno’s injury.

Well he was runner up while missing a third of the season. Not much of a stretch. Dry your tears big guy. We need money to buy a midfielder.

TR7

I have mad respect for Bielsa for how he plays football and stamps his style on every team he manages.

Ishola70

Well as another poster said get in an experiened oldie keeper then for No.2

This Raya Brentford keeper in the biggest game in his career thus far in the play-off final at Wembley against Fulham shit his pants at a key moment and made a huge gaffe. A huge one.

And any time he needs to deputise for Leno that will then become his biggest game of his career thus far.

Rely on him for any sort of period? No thanks.

TR7

‘CG, no chairman wants to try a dated system in 2020, you are right. They’d be nuts.’

Wengerball is not a dated system, it’s just that Arsenal stopped playing Wengerball ever since Cesc anr Nasri left.

Valentin

Bielsa is more likely to ve ashamed of his accent, but he played the same “I don’t speak the language” in France and then got caught speaking French to one of his player.
Also the difference in communication between Bielsa and Emery is that Bielsa is very clear in his football instructions. His football training session are renowned to be repetitive to the point of boring. There is no football misunderstanding what he expect from his players.

Marc

People also forget Wengerball’s early form at Arsenal was about pace and power. Look at the size of nearly all the players you had in the successful teams.

andy1886

As it happens the only options on Arsenal.com for POTS were Auba, Leno, or Saka, so the options were somewhat limited. Second out of a choice of three is okay but Auba with 74% was way ahead of Leno on 16%, so not even close really.

Like I said, Auba won it hands down….

Marc

“Surprised people are still debating whether language is important for a football coach.”

Que?

andy1886

Spot on Marc. Once Wenger started his technical midget experiment we never got near another title.

Marc

andy

It’s not as if Vieira, Petit, Gilberto, Henry, Lauren, Bergkamp etc etc etc couldn’t play?

Redtruth

I’m sure Arsenal would of won a few more titles had Abramovich not bought Chelsea.

Wingdings

salparadisenycSeptember 12, 2020 18:01:12
Gabriel > VVD

___

lol

Marc

Pedro

Wenger got old – Manager’s have a period where they are relevant the only one who seems to have beaten that is Fergie.

It’s why Mourinho is finished. Which I find highly amusing.

James wood.

Yes with Martinez going to Villa this should have been our bargaining
Chip to get Grealish.
As pointed out by a earlier poster.?

andy1886

Correct again Marc. ‘Wengerball’ wasn’t a league winning style. In fact what it was style over substance for pompous pseudo-intellectual fans who bought into that ‘football is an art’ nonsense forgetting that actually it’s a competitive sport where the point is winning rather than weaving pretty patterns.

Wingdings

Wenger lost it back in 2004 when Mourinho arrived. He was basically obsessed with Mourinho and that was the end of Wenger.

Marc

Pedro

I think it’s more complicated than that. I think Fergie wanted people who challenged his ideas forcing him to adapt – those people had strong personalities who then wanted to manage themselves so left.

I think it might be unfair to say Wenger wanted Yes men but he certainly didn’t want anyone who rocked the boat.

Redtruth

How depressing would that be Wenger still in a job, all I can say is thank goodness he didn’t refresh it.

Batistuta

Receding

Lol! I had it on an over2 at full time. Picked up a healthy opening day bet win with Arsenal to win and an over on goals there and now Pool at over2.

Leeds look like a fun team and sooner they integrate Rodrigo the better because Bamford won’t cut it at this level

Ishola70

It also helped Fergie that his Manchester United teams played football that was more akin to winning the EPL in comparison to Wengaball.

Andy touched on that previously.

Marc

Ishola

Not compared to the early Wenger teams – at face value the teams had similar attributes.

Ishola70

Fergies teams.

Wingers, pace, high octane tempo.

Did alright for him.

Ishola70

Marc

Yeah we are talking later Wengaball here not his first period.

Useroz

Good season opening game and result. Could have been 5 – 0, easily … Losing Martinez is not good but … If he wanted to go, rather than Arteta being pissed about him asking to be 1st choice, good on him. Tbh, starting to get worried about Arteta U-turn ( no clue if he meant it!) to keeping players we wanted to sell, esp. when we need cash. Xhara, AMN, Holding, Laca, Elneny. Guendouzi.. Why? To marinate them with your special sauce? Ok, Arteta fine tuned Xhara’s game and he’s doing better. AMN played tactically brilliant in several games. Holding… Read more »

Marc

Ishola

That was the point I was making – Wenger moved from a successful formula that was still entertaining to something that always came up just short – then he went senile.

Tom

“Bielsa is more likely to ve ashamed of his accent, but he played the same “I don’t speak the language” in France and then got caught speaking French to one of his player. Also the difference in communication between Bielsa and Emery is that Bielsa is very clear in his football instructions. His football training session are renowned to be repetitive to the point of boring. There is no football misunderstanding what he expect from his players.” Valentin Bielsa speaks English but poorly and uses both English , Spanish as well his translator to communicate with his players. But you’re… Read more »

Northbanker

The problem with what became Wengerball was not just Chelsea although I agree if that money had not poured in we may have won more. But the change to the midget system was also accompanied by a loss of interest in having an impregnable defence. Wenger’s success was built on George Graham’s defence. For a while he managed to sustain it by pulling off a master stroke to persuade Sol Campbell to sign for us, converting Lauren from midfield to RB and doing likewise with Ashley Cole at LB. Bar the odd exception (Bakary Sagna in particular) he later bought… Read more »

Useroz

*not* for the future

Ben+D

Pedro, I wasn’t trying to argue that language isn’t important. It is critical. I was just trying to test your consistency… Also, if it had turned out that he doesn’t, then it would simply have implied that not speaking the language ALONE doesn’t mean you can’t be a good coach, even though you would probably be much more effective if you did speak the language…

Redtruth

Marc

What was the successful formula between 1998-2002.

Marc

Whilst you can never make a call on the first game of the season Liverpool’s defence seems to have carried some kind of “malaise” (not sure the right word to use) over from last season.

Marc

Red

It was in my pants!

Redtruth

4 years without a trophy is not a successful formula.

Marko

On the final point on Martinez leaving and a new number two coming in. I deplore some of you idiots to take a look around the premier league at what constitutes a number two and tell me the Brentford number one couldn’t be our number two.

Marc

Marko

My only comment on a new backup keeper is can we get one on loan for a season so we can concentrate all monies on strengthening other areas?

andy1886

1998-2002 = solid defence, hard working tough midfield who could also play, physically intimating and not afraid to push the dark arts to the limits. Add on a quick winger who scored goals, a hard worker on the other flank and efficient strikers. Oh, and possibly the greatest ever second striker who also had a nasty streak when it was needed.

Tough, cynical, efficient, hard working. Not words associated with the Nasri’s of this world….

Marc

How was that not a free kick to Leeds?

Minute Leeds start to threaten and the fucking ref starts giving decisions to the Scousers.

Marc

Pedro

I think we might have a case of pot and kettle. Do you refer to football as “soccer” when speaking to your American colleagues?

Because no real English football fan would use that word!

Leftside

Game on!!

Marc

Great goal Leeds

Ishola70

Marko

You are missing the point.

This Brentford boy has no top flight experience.

As said before his biggest game so far was that play off final where he completely botched it. Fucked up completely.

Other top EPL clubs have more experienced keepers as their No.2.

And we want a squad that can challenge near the top right.

Redtruth

andy1886

Solid defence?..You obviously didn’t watch the Cup Final in 2001 or the Semi Final in 1999.

Marc

Leftside

Leeds have had 2 goals disallowed and the vile dirty scouse vermin were given an incorrect penalty.

Marko

Marc my point is on loan or not a back up keeper ain’t that important it should be easy enough but here you have people complaining about the Brentford number one.

Northbanker

C’mon Leeds

R.S.P.C.Arsenal

Is arts knowledge of plAying with mo elmenny influencing his decision to play him.

Or has he improved with age or the loan spell in turkey

Marc

Pedro

Yeah a snowflake British word!

Northbanker

Liverpool have looked poor ever since the start of Covid.

Marc

That 3rd Leeds goal was cracking – seriously good.

Ishola70

Getting in an older keeper with some top flight experience on the cheap shouldn’t be a problem.

It’s preferable to me rather than this Brentford boy.

Jaffa

When was the last time a newly promoted side scored 3 away at the regninig champions?

Leftside

Marc,

Its amazing how much “luck” this Liverpool team get.

Useroz

Get a decent backup goalie isn’t a bad idea when we aren’t awash with cash. Arteta can (re)like Holding but need to find ways to sell Sok, Chambers and Mustafi. Best to also move Soares on too, you know, like day trading.. But we are paying backup defenders like Mari and Soares too much and wouldn’t be takers. Arteta can find his love for Elneny but he’s on 50k pw ffs. We don’t need his sort. Still need to sell Torreira and Guendouz. If decent offers came in, Willock (20m) and Nelson (20m) will become available, After all, we’d have… Read more »

Marc

Leftside

They’re beginning to look like the new ManU.

Northbanker

Pedro – and Thanksgiving is an English custom hijacked by the Yanks. But it doesn’t mean we should use soccer now.

Ishola70

Games like this need the crowd in.

Leeds fans in that Liverpool away end would be in pandemonium now.

Sid

Possesion: liverpool 47% Leed53%
It can be done without 10 men behind the ball

Im telling you for free!

Marc

“After all, we’d have trouble registering the overflown squad.”

Comment of the day and needs to be shown to Edu and Arteta – for fuck sake we can’t keep them all.

It’s like a 7 year old girl with a litter of puppies.

Marc

Ishola

The counter argument is Liverpool would be walking this with a full Anfield.

Leftside

Marc

All they need is a manager on the sidelines with pink cheeks furiously chewing away on mint/gum and ridiculous amounts of extra injury time and they’re set.

Marc

Klopp time!

andy1886

Red, as you’ll recall in the 2001 cup final Henchoz cleared the ball off the line with his arm and should have been sent off. You’ll also recall that Wenger played Grimandi in midfield and benched DB10. So blame the ref and/or Wenger not our defence.

Everyone knows that in ’99 if Bergkamp burries the penalty Arsenal would have gone on to do the double and United would have won fuck all.