Transfer wheels need to start turning this week

by .

I think we’re heading into a week of action.

Some teams have had shockers and lost.

Some teams have had shockers and clearly showcased their weaknesses (hello, Arsenal).

Some teams just need to make some moves.

Arsenal hasn’t done much of a job moving on the problem players this summer, but I suspect things are going to come to a head as Arteta gets real with his intentions.

Lacazette isn’t getting a new deal, so it doesn’t matter how much quality the manager thinks he has, we need to move him on before we get into a Rambo like situation. This is Arteta.

“At the moment, we haven’t started any negotiations,”

“We have a lot of things still to do in this market and at the moment we are focusing on those things.”

“He’s a player I’m really happy with. I think we’ve shown him a lot of faith since I arrived here.”

“But we cannot start any speculation. We know that any player who is under two years of their contract is always going to be talked about.”

It’s clear from the above that he’s not a priority from a contract perspective. He’s a goal scorer, he might be expensive, but he can be a difference-maker, so let’s hope someone is feeling generous. Also, let’s hope Edouard is being benched for Arsenal, not Spurs.

We need to move on some of our centre backs this week. We are stocked heavily and there is just no way any of them are getting games. Sokratis and Cal Chambers seem the most likely to be moved on, with West Ham and Fulham looking likely destinations for the Englishman. Rumours are also quite strong that Lazio is interested in Mustafi.

The two players that have been notably absent with very little movement are Matteo G and Lucas Torreira. No one wants a piece of the Frenchman, something I suspect the player didn’t expect. He must be in panic mode because he was literally the move valued teenager of all time this January, now the best he can do is a phone call from Unai Emery.

Torreira is a different story, he’s attracted a lot of average interest from Italy… but Spanish media is moving on the idea that Simeone wants to pull the trigger and make a deal happen. He’s apparently spoken to the player and the obvious deal is he leaves with Partey coming the other way. It’s a face-saving swap for the Spaniards and it leaves both parties with decent players.

The clearest issue we have in our squad though is the lack of creativity in the final third. Willian put in a duff performance against West Ham, making it quite clear that we need a real specialist in the area of unlocking deep and medium blocks. I think we’ll make it happen for Aouar, but Aulas won’t make it easy for Arsenal… but, they dind’t make it easy for Alex Lacazette back in the day.

BIG GARY NEVILLE SAID SOMETHING WE ALL AGREE WITH:

“I think Mikel Arteta is punching above his weight,” said Neville on his podcast. “He is going above and beyond the players he has. The shape and the organisation, things we have criticised Arsenal for in the past, is good.

“They are not finishing in the top four like Arsene Wenger used to get criticised for but they look like a team which is more cohesive. It has continued from the end of last season and he is doing a great job.

“I just think Mikel Arteta would love that £150 million that Frank Lampard has got this summer.”

The Nuggets are doing well at the minute, let’s see if Stan and Josh feel like they can unlock some of their cash and make this summer a Christmas miracle.

Short post today, see you in the comments!

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crimson

I miss you Santi Cazorla
❤️

bacaryisgod

Bojangles I’m legitimately concerned about our current #2 and #3 keepers. Runarsson looks like the second coming of Rami Shaaban. Sometimes these things are so glaringly obvious you wish there was someone in the club who would just shut down these dumb deals. I saw an article that said he was highly regarded at Dijon. Sure, and that’s why they sold him for about a million.I would absolutely love this signing if he was coming in as a number 3 but we could be entrusting him in actually meaningful matches. Macey is probably no better. I really hope Arteta doesn’t… Read more »

Graham62

Guns I agree 100% Martinez was 18 when he arrived at Arsenal. He was loaned out to various clubs over the years and then, when given that one opportunity to take over on a permanent basis in goal, he took it with hands.. He is, without any question, a better GK than Leno. Know one can convince me otherwise.. He should have been told he can retain his place. It was a frigging no brainer. This #1 #2 malarkey is ridiculous. Leno should have been told, if you want your position back in goal, you fight for it. The bottom… Read more »

Graham62

both hands

Graham62

No one can convince me otherwise

Graham62

I suppose sitting on a near empty train going to Southampton has given me too much time to think about things.

Yes, we need to upgrade in other areas of the team and yes we are still a work in progress but given that one opportunity to sort out an area of the pitch that had caused us massive headaches for well over a decade, we fudged it up.

I hope this Runarsson kid is better than some say he is.

🤞🤞

CG

BIG “””””Runarsson looks like the second coming of Rami Shaaban. Sometimes these things are so glaringly obvious you wish there was someone in the club who would just shut down these dumb deals.”””” Off course its bleeding obvious to everyone barring Arteta and Edu. This is them in action to date in tandem: Recruit. Cedric- 4 year contract (29) Mari- 4 year contract Luiz- another extension (33) WIllian – 3 year contract(32) PEA – 3 year extension ( 31) Cebollas – 1 year loan Sell. Martinez for £15/20 million and replace him with a flimsy looking lcelandic keeper from the… Read more »

Aussie+Gooner

Graham

“I hope this Runarsson kid is better than some say he is.”

I hope so to! His stats are truly appalling:

Ligue 1: Played 36 games, conceded 60 goals
Superlegaen: Played 45 games conceded 77 goals

They must have seen something in him that most of us can’t. As I said earlier, perhaps he has hidden talents a la Flamini!

Rosapirescastlesaka

Morning all our new keeper Alex reminds me of a certain other Alex, Alex Manninger . Remember when he was signed aswell as Overmars and Petit he was overshowed up became a top keeper . Only time will tell but the little bits I have seen of Macey wouldn’t encourage me too much especially with ball at feet . If we do get Partey , I think we will dominate more and become flat track midfield bullies but fear of what we can do with the ball in the 3rd quarter of the field especially if teams are sitting back… Read more »

Uwot?

If those c** ts at AM are refusing to even discuss Partey in the negotiations for Torreirra tell them just to go & do one & walk away.Cheeky B’staards.On no account should Arsenal entertain a deal with them .unless it’s for silly money.(Which they ain’t got) Arsenal should grow a pair.Theres other fish out there.

Dark Hei

Graham62

I think it is because we are getting 20m bucks for Martinez and there is a market for him.

I don’t think there is a market for Leno. And I think we need 20m bucks to balance the books and possible further transfers.

Will you switch Martinez for an upgrade over Xhaka?

bacaryisgod

Ok-so I think I figured it out. Last season we had 27 players that appeared for us. Because of the injury to Chambers we brought in Mari but we also loaned Cedric who didn’t play for us. Based on this we should assume that we’ll also need 27 players this season (or 2 for each position, a 3rd keeper and two floating reserves). So here’s how the 27 man squad will fill out. 20 players will stay in place and here are the changes.. Elneny is replacing Torreira Willian is essentially replacing Ozil (who will either be sold or be… Read more »

Dream10

Hudson-Odoi seems to be on the periphery at Chelsea.
Really hope we try to get him if he’s available. He has the tools to be a top class player.

bacaryisgod

CG I actually agree with you but our activity mostly indicates that we’re short on cash so in light of that, it’s not that bad. In terms of transfer fee investment this season, we’ve really only spent about net 10 million on new players so far. The challenge for Edu and Arteta is that not many teams want to buy our players outright. In a healthy market, we could be looking at least around 70m for Guendouzi, Torreira, Mustafi, Chambers and Sokratis. Now it seems most teams only want to loan them. I’m sure this is partly why we decided… Read more »

Bamford10

Good write-up by Arseblog of some of the issues we face at the moment in the market: “There’s also the Thomas Partey aspect to it. If Atletico are bringing in a central midfielder and everyone knows we have our eye on their central midfielder, you could easily put two and two together and think we could get this partey started. However, here’s what appears to be the overall scenario. – Atletico still want the €50m release clause to be paid because they need cash. – Arsenal want to sell Torreira to raise cash for Partey or Houssem Aouar or other… Read more »

Rosapirescastlesaka

I did think a Frazer Foster or a Rob Elliott (Free Agent ), Tim Krul, Martin Stelkenburg someone experienced safe old unspectacular hands would have been an option with maybe loan deal for like of Reiss Nelsen to Norwich to sweeten a deal would have been a good idea but lets see what Runar Alex has .

Kaz

You people are mad. An excellent goalie saves you 10-15 points a season. You’d risk the departure on a keeper who earnt the top spot and won us two trophies with his contributions for maybe midfielder we don’t seem to be getting. Partey isn’t exactly the healthiest midfielder and Auoar is completely unproven at EPL and his stats aren’t too hot either. Xhaka still ends up starting so we still get the slow base in midfield with limited skills. What we should have done is chucked Xhaka out the door for the 20m+ he would have gotten us and gone… Read more »

Dissenter

Also PapSok’s exit to Napoli is totally dependent on Koulibaly leaving. De Laurentiis,
The owner of Napoli has scared away potential buyers because he’s asking for a crazy fee. It’s so much that city have turned their gave way to younger targets like Sevilla’s Jules Kounde.

Some of these deals hv to go to the wire because they are interwoven with other transfer deals.’\
We may just have to be patient. There’s a case of a dominos effect, when someone blinks or comes to their senses….then things will fall into place.

BacaryisGod

Let’s not forget that we would likely lose both Partey and Elneny from early January to mid-February for the African Cup of Nations.

Emiratesstroller

CG You spend your entire time posting negativity in a childish way. You seem to want to prove to everyone you are always right in your posts when in fact you are invariably wrong. I was informed yesterday that the deal with Aubameyang was in fact handled exceedingly well by Arsenal with performance related bonuses which have to be “earned”. His basic wage is not exactly inflated considering his worth to Arsenal. Willian is a very good player and again has not cost us the earth. We have spent enough money in the past on unproven speculative players. Gabriel looks… Read more »

Dissenter

Bacaryisgone
‘ Let’s not forget that we would likely lose both Partey and Elneny from early January to mid-February for the African Cup of Nations.’

The next AFCON isn’t until January 2022 due to COVID
I expect that Elneny would be gone by then. We haven’t signed Partey yet.

andy1886

I see that spectating at organised sports has been postponed – so no fans at games in October as originally planned. Anyone who got a ticket in the ballot must be so disappointed.

Sid

Doucure is useless, the only area he beats Xhakalson is speed,
his touch is poor, long pass is zero and positioning poorer that Xhakalson

Rosapirescastlesaka

You have to remember Emi wanted to go right or wrong, he wanted to be No.1 Keeper . Leno was top performing keeper prior to his injury getting rave reviews and Emis not as comfortable with ball at feet as Leno. It must have been a tight decision but with a firm offer on table from Villa and a vital cash injection, a decision was made for the betterment of the club . I can live with that but definite if out starting midfield improves due to that 20 million then our keeper wont b worked as much and should… Read more »

Bamford10

Good commentary on what we saw against West Ham by a poster at 7amKickoff: “I think the flow of the match should have showed Arteta that playing 343 is not sustainable in the long run. As you noted, Tim, our 2 midfielders are too deep. This also means that our centre backs are also deep. That’s 5 players playing deep. Plus 2 wide players who have to cover the whole length of the pitch along their flanks. Basically this formation means we have 7 out of 10 outfield players who have to be conscious of their defensive roles” “It’s worth… Read more »

CG

BIG “””””””CG I actually agree with you but our activity mostly indicates that we’re short on cash so in light of that, it’s not that bad.”””””””””” Spurs are short of cash , not in the CL and have a very expensive stadium to finance. And yet, they have. Still purchased a full back from Wolves , a full back from Real Madrid, a midfielder from Saints an experienced no.2 keeper in Joe Hart and Gareth Bale. They also didn’t ask their squad to take pay cuts. Arsenal still the only club in the top flight to do so. Don’ t… Read more »

Captain Tierney

We sign a new player, and all the fans can do is criticize.
Smh.

Leftside

CG take a break and come back when this club can provide more joy in your life. Its not a requirement to support, and certainly not one to be so miserable about everything.

Jamie

That 7am comment is terrible.

Valentin

Dark Hei,

This is the dig a hole to fill the previous hole method of recruitment. Sell your better goalkeeper to solve your midfield problem and then create a goalkeeper problem.

Next summer we will have to spend more than £17 millions to get a goalkeeper as good as Martinez. And if as I and many suspect he leaves Villa for a better team for a lot of money, Arsenal will look like Mug again.

Fire

Guys, let this GK matter rest. You get the feeling some won’t be happy until Leno makes a mistake just so they can say I told you so.
Sell Bellerin… People moan
Sell AMN… People moan
Sell Martinez… People moan
Sell Torreira… People moan
How then do you rebuild the squad?

Jamie

“You get the feeling some won’t be happy until Leno makes a mistake just so they can say I told you so.”

This is precisely what happens here.

CG

Captain

“”””We sign a new player, and all the fans can do is criticize.
Smh.”””””

is that not allowed Captain?

Give me 2 hours and Ill find a better keeper and cheaper than this flapper from Dijon.

Non negotiables- my Arse!

Fire

Valentin
There is no goalkeeper problem except in your imagination.
If we fail to make the top four… It won’t be because of Leno
By the way, in your estimation, how much do we spend to get a goalkeeper as good as Leno

Captain Tierney

CG

Id love to know a good no 2 for less than 1 mil.

Kaz

@CT

Too damn right we’re criticising, the guy’s stats are fucking shite. We lost a firm fan favourite who was professional, exceeded all expectations and looked fucking amazing.

CG

ES

“”””””Gabriel looks like an excellent recruit and Arsenal appear to have paid the right money for
him.””””

Ill give you that one. A rare sensible Arsenal signing,

Age- tick
Athleticism- tick
Fee – tick
Potential- tick
Ability- tick (?)

The rest not for me. Willian and PEA are yesterdays men.

Captain Tierney

Kaz

I would have loved to kept Martinez too.
But the club has no money and we need to strengthen our midfield.

Captain Tierney

keep*

Captain Tierney

And Martinez pre this lockdown period ( pre the hiring of new GK coach Inaki) was an average keeper. Look at the performance of Emi in the Carabao cup vs Liverpool. Conceded 1 or 2 poor goals which the new Martinez would have easily saved.

Who’s to say the Inaki cant work his magic with the new keeper too.

Bamford10

Jamie

“That 7am comment is terrible.”

Except for the bit about bringing Guendouzi and Ozil back into the fold — he’s right that we need additional CMs, but these are not the right solutions — what is not good about it? I think he gets the problems we face in the 4-3-3 bang on. And it’s hard to argue with his point about our defensive signings since Arteta arrived.

Kaz

@Sid

Doucoure will get goals, he played poor last season but all of Watford did. The season before he was very decent. Expect him to be much better this season now he is motivated and fit.

If he was with us, he would totally strengthen our midfield.

andy1886

Will be interesting to see what people have to say if having sold Emi we end up NOT strengthening our midfield. Will they be so accepting then?

And by the way Rosapirescastlesaka, Martinez is much better with his feet than Leno. You must have noticed how much better we played out from the back in the last few weeks of the season surely?

andy1886

Bring Guen and Ozil back in? Why? Waste of a squad place I’m afraid as they aren’t going to get picked and even if they are there’s no evidence to suggest that they would make a significant contribution. Basically they would just be bodies.

Aussie+Gooner

I think some people on here are a little confused. In order to better the team you sell those players who are not performing or who do not fit the system you play. You do not sell players who are performing and suit your style of play! I hope that clears things up!

Bamford10

*the 3-4-3

Pierre

Bamford “If I were Arteta, I would bring back Ozil and Guendouzi to the team” Very doubtful. Ozil questioning the pay cut has obviously triggered the non negotiables that Arteta is so fond of , which have also come into play regarding Guendouzi’s behaviour v Brighton last season.. All I can say is it’s a good job Arteta didnt have to manage the invincibles after the behaviour shown after the Van Nistelrooy penalty miss.. Keown, Parlour and Lauren would have been frozen out of the team. Surprisingly ( or not) , the non negotiables were not triggered when Lacazette was… Read more »

Jamie

Bamford –

He’s also wrong about ‘our 2 wide players covering the whole length of the pitch’. We have 4 wide players for starters..

So many fold seem to think a 4-3-3 is some kind of attacking magic bullet. It isn’t.

Jamie

folk* not fold

Kaz

@CT But we aren’t strengthening our midfield. Auour had one good CL run, his stats are poor and his highlights look impressive but I don’t believe he will hit the floor running. He will absolutely take a season to adapt. Which isn’t helpful. Partey offers qualities we’ve lacked for years but I don’t think Athletico will let him go on a trade, they need cash. We don’t have cash. We should be hunting cheaper alternatives but we aren’t. So our shite recruitment team will dally and stall all summer and right at the end we panic buy Lingaard. That’s how… Read more »

Emiratesstroller

Andy 1886 I am fairly sure that Arsenal will bring in at least one new midfielder before the window closes. Most clubs including Arsenal are playing poker at moment. However, as you know much transfer business is often transacted in the last 48 hours before window closes. Arsenal are trying to generate funds from sales to increase our budget. That is normal. I am sure that at least 3-4 players will leave the club in next two weeks. The only question is how much in transfer fees and wage reduction it will achieve? What I find ridiculous is the doom… Read more »

Bamford10

Andy “Bring Guen and Ozil back in? Why?” Right. Those are not great solutions. Which is why most here think we need to go into the market for our central midfield solutions. The 7am commenter, however, is trying to suggest midfield solutions that don’t require us to go into the market. He’s correct about the problem, but wrong (in all likelihood) about the solutions. He may be one of these guys who thinks you should exhaust all internal solutions before going to the market, or he may not think we’re going to be able to get the business done in… Read more »

Bamford10

Jamie

“He’s also wrong about ‘our 2 wide players covering the whole length of the pitch’. We have 4 wide players for starters..”

He’s talking about the wingbacks, and they do in fact cover the length of the pitch. His point is that in the end we have 7 players with defensive responsibilities and positioning. Leaving us with three attacking players. No wonder we were outshot by West Ham 14-7.

Aussie+Gooner

Arteta on Teirney’s injury in the warm up:

“We had to make a decision. We were prepared just in case and Kola came on and had a good game.”

See the problem?

Emiratesstroller

Bamford 10 Everyone on the planet knows by now the situation with both Guendouzi and Ozil. The club would like to offload both for different reasons. Ozil because he is past his sell by date and costing us too much in wages and Guendouzi because he is a disruptive influence and not half as good as he seems to think. Guendouzi will be offloaded this summer albeit I suspect it will be on a loan with hopefully a loan fee included in deal. Personally I would sell him for anything North of £15 million if that can be achieved. Ozil… Read more »

Aussie+Gooner

Forget the rehabilitation of Guendouzi:

“Midfielder Matteo Guendouzi maintained his absence from the Arsenal squad, and reports in France suggest he has handed in a transfer request in an effort to secure a move away from north London.”

Jamie

Bamford – I know what he was talking about. We have 4 wide players, all of whom have defensive and offensive responsibilities. Saka, Willian, Auba, AMN, Hector all move up and down the pitch, as does our striker (usually Laca). Straight out of the Pierre School of Football tactics to suggest attackers should only attack and defenders should only defend. Arteta’s sets the team up to mitigate against genuine individual and collective weaknesses. We were outshot by West Ham 14-7. Cool beans. We didn’t play well, as has been repeatedly stated. How many points did West Ham collect after the… Read more »

Bamford10

Re the 3-4-3, if we had a top class CDM (say, Kante) and a good, all-purpose, box-to-box CM (think an in-form prime Aaron Ramsey), the 3-4-3 would be less problematic because those two could do all of the midfield work you need and Ramsey would get forward and join in attacks. He’d make for a fourth attacker, and when joined by an overlapping wingback, we’d have five attacking players. The problem, however, is that rather than Kante and a prime Ramsey, we have Xhaka and Ceballos, neither of whom covers much ground defensively and neither of whom gets forward in… Read more »

Dark Hei

Aussie+Gooner

Great news. Except isn’t he already transfer-listed?

China1

Aaah rami shaaban!! He’s like the ultimate arsenal pub quiz guy to remember as he was so obscure you’d have to include a question that he was the answer to!

Can you guys remember who that Argentine FB was from about 1999 who came on for five mins, on his debut, got sent off and was never seen again?

Golden memories

China1

Shaw an I swear he actually played one game against Galatasaray or a very obscure team in the CL group stages once. If it’s the game I’m thinking of, the opposition we’re in green and white, arsenal in our home kit and I was fucked royally as someone who is severely colorblind

China1

Shaaban* not shaw.

Jamie

“Ceballos, neither of whom covers much ground defensively and neither of whom gets forward in order to assist attacks”

Ceballos assisted Eddie’s winning goal. He also threw himself into a challenge in our box late on.
Come on, man. You did watch the game, yeah?

Emiratesstroller

Jamie You are 100% right. Arsenal beat West Ham despite not playing well. Messrs Chelsea, Man Utd and Spurs have already lost a game. Arteta did make a selection error on Saturday and he was refreshingly honest in his analysis of game. I doubt that he will make the same mistakes again. Arsenal will continue to play 3 CBs and 2 WBs but with players fit for purpose. I am sure that we will recruit at least one additional CMF this summer, but that will probably go down to wire. In the case of Partey we know that he wants… Read more »

Dark Hei

China1

Nelson Vivas. He wasn’t a great for us.

I know because he played quite a few games.

Bamford10

Jamie

OK, so you don’t see any issues with our 343. Or at least, not the issues some see with it. Do you see us succeeding – i.e., contending for top four – in the 343 with Xhaka and Ceballos as the starting CMs? Or do you think we need to replace one or both of them?

Bamford10

Jamie

That was a one-off — and a one-off that proves the point. We’re better when a midfielder joins the attack. But if you looked at Ceballos’s heat-map, you’d see he was very rarely in those kinds of spaces. If he had regularly been in those kinds of spaces throughout the match, it would have been a different match. Please make honest arguments.

CG

ES

“””””What I find ridiculous is the doom merchants like CG are constantly putting the club down”””””

have you seen the last 2 league home games?
Watford
West Ham?

No Ozil, No AMN, No Saliba, No Pepe.
£200 million of talent and none start.
x 3 shots on goal mustered!
Tierney injured again!

Arguably our most important player sold for buttons to Villa.Replaced by a chum of the current goalkeeping coach.

Matinez saves penalty on his home debut!
Willian hooked after an hour on his!

Jamie

Bamford – “OK, so you don’t see any issues with our 343. Or at least, not the issues some see with it.” Don’t do this. Just because I disagree with you, no need to make straw men. As I said yesterday, we need better midfielders. Nothing has changed, unless we’ve recruited someone in the past hour. We aren’t replacing Dani this window, he’s here on loan as a squad player most likely. Arteta loves Xhaka (who I would replace with a genuine B2B). And we need a strong holding midfielder with Xhaka’s passing range (not easy to find). Until then,… Read more »

Jamie

Agree, ES.

Jamie

“Please make honest arguments.”

You said “Ceballos, neither of whom covers much ground defensively and neither of whom gets forward in order to assist attacks”

Dani defended as well as assisted our winning goal. Check your own honesty. Bamford is well and truly back.

Pierre

Jamie “We were outshot by West Ham 14-7. Cool beans. We didn’t play well, as has been repeatedly stated. How many points did West Ham collect after the final whistle?” We did win but don’t let the 3 points mask what we saw with our own eyes This is the opening paragraph from Pedro in October last year. “We won. We’re 3rd, 1 point behind Manchester City. This should be a joyous occasion, but it’s not. The table is a liar, she did it to us last season and she’s doing it to us again. We’re not very good, but… Read more »

Jamie

Pierre –

“Bad performances will only get you good results for a limited amount of time, you will be found out in the end.”

This I agree with. We’ve had one bad game so far this season (which we won) in a tiny sample. If we’re ‘staring relegation in the face’ in Jan, I’ll be as upset as you, believe me.

Can’t see it happening.

Leftfootcurler

“Lacazette isn’t getting a new deal, so it doesn’t matter how much quality the manager thinks he has, we need to move him on before we get into a Rambo like situation.” Lol Pedro, you are being naive. Don’t believe every word that Arteta says. He says he likes Lacazette but drops him for Nketiah who is a goal poacher like Auba and he isn’t physically fully developed yet. Gets bullied on the ball,loses his shape when striking the ball or heading under pressure from a defender. His body isn’t strong enough to resist PL defenders yet. Still he has… Read more »

Bamford10

Jamie

I obviously meant regularly. That Ceballos joined in on one attack in the dying minutes of the game does not mean that this is something he is regularly doing in the 343, that these are spaces he is regularly occupying in the 343. If he were, no one would be talking about the limitations of the 343.

You’re not a pleasant or useful person to chat with, however, so I’m just going to leave it there. Cheers.

Jamie

“You’re not a pleasant or useful person to chat with, however, so I’m just going to leave it there. Cheers.”

Right back atcha, Dariano. Cheers, guy.

Pierre

Jamie
It was just one pretty average performance and can’t see it happening either..

I said prior to last weekend’s game that the result and not the performance was the most important thing, it could have been a season defining result if we lost , taking into consideration who we are playing in the next month or so .

The win gives us breathing space, and it a possibility that Arteta will continue to work his magic against the top clubs and get us some decent results and then look to start dominating the lesser sides.

Jamie

Pierre –

Like Luteo said a few days back, when you aren’t paying homage to 2016 Ozil and 2004 Wenger, you make points I agree with, for whatever it’s worth. Probably not much, granted.

Emiratesstroller

CG Did you watch Aston Villa yesterday? They were lucky to win despite playing for most of the game against 10 players. They looked completely impotent. We know Arenal’s weaknesses. You don’t need to tell me. At the moment the main problem is midfield as I have said many times. We know also the players that Arteta wishes to offload. It is clear as night and day. Some will leave others like Ozil will stay. However, your opinions about the club and its current recruitment and contract policy demonstrates a total absence of reality and more importantly the direction that… Read more »

Bamford10

Pierre “Bad performances will only get you good results for a limited amount of time. You will be found out in the end.” Exactly. But even this doesn’t get at it completely, because “bad performance” suggests that our personnel and formation and structure are fine and that the problem was that Arsenal players didn’t show up or had off nights or flubbed their lines. But that’s not what occurred. Arsenal’s players put in plenty of energy and effort and most performed their lines to the best of their abilities. We struggled against West Ham for more fundamental reasons, in my… Read more »

Leftfootcurler

I do hope that we had a buyback clause for Emi Martinez. But lets move on. If it helps in moving on, I will point out some flaws of Emi Martinez. Here, https://youtu.be/nvh8lMjT5LY?t=85 Martinez’s positioning is off,he drifts to the left side too much making it easier for the striker to score. https://youtu.be/TNtOSwUYsX8?t=114 Here Martinez charging out carelessly lands him in a no-man’s land, making it much more easy for Maupay to score. Martinez has flaws too. In Positioning and sweeping up. Where Martinez really scores above Leno is in his distribution. It would especially suck if Man city/Chelsea buy… Read more »

Red Army

Banford

Who are you? Are you here as some sort of piss take?

China1

Hei I’m pretty sure it was another not vivas because vivas did make his share of performances I think

This guy I’m talking about vanished after his violent outburst on his debut. And considering that was an arsenal team that used to collect red cards for fun that tells you he must’ve been pretty fucking aggressive 😂😂

Dissenter

Leftfootcurler
Funny way of ‘moving on’, I would think.
More like, let’s pour some jet fuel on the arguments.

China1

It’s time for us to move on from Martinez

I liked him a lot too, but it’s done now. Disappointing as it may be, he’s left the building and its 99% likely that he’s never coming back (as one of our own)

Will he be the one that got away? Maybe. But only time will tell

Leftfootcurler

Now, the issues from last game. The biggest issues vs West Ham 1) Fatigue after 52 mins. Our intensity died down which was clearly noticeable in our pressing, in fact West Ham had a spell of possession for about 10-12 mins post 50 mins. We didn’t have a proper pre season hopefully we can get to required fitness levels soon. 2)The defense line dropped too deep In the goal we conceded, we had the ball in the final third,Fabianski cleared the ball,our defense line should have been on the half line keeping us compact. And if that had happened, Holding… Read more »

Leftfootcurler

3) The defending in the box was pretty bad.

We lost duels,he lost headers
Hopefully Gabriel who struggled a lot,will improve in that aspect.

China1

You can tell we don’t have many Africans anymore as I’ve stopped hating the ACN

That shit used to be a major pain in the ass every 2 years losing the likes of toure and co. I can’t even remember the last time that tournament bothered me. We’ll also lose Pepe to that (whenever it is..: if he’s still with us)

If we do buy partey and Aouar then we could hypothetically be losing a third of our starting 11 to it in years to come lol. The hate will be back with a vengeance

Red Army

‘ “bad performance” suggests that our personnel and formation and structure are fine and that the problem was that Arsenal players didn’t show up or had off nights or flubbed their lines. But that’s not what occurred. Arsenal’s players put in plenty of energy and effort and most performed their lines to the best of their abilities. We struggled against West Ham for more fundamental reasons, in my opinion.’ A bad performance is a bad performance. Simple as that. We performed to the ‘best of our abilities‘?? Are you being serious? So you’re saying this performance was as good as… Read more »

Marc

Are the same people calling Bale a great signing for the Spud’s the same people criticising Arsenal for taking Willian on a free or extending Auba’s contract?

China1

Marc I think bale is a supremely talented guy but I’m not worried about him. He’s going to miss half the season through injury and be a financial burden. That’s my gut feeling

Ernest Reed

“You’re not a pleasant or useful person to chat with, however, so I’m just going to leave it there. Cheers.”

Same old Bamford, dictates terms of engagement that suits his own preferences. And you wonder aloud why you keep getting banned and worse, why you get no respect? Clue – Get over yourself, you really are a jerk of a person.

Marc

We have a couple of players at the club who are so sub standard they should not be picked no matter what happens. When you have Xhaka as a starter putting another player like Kolas into the team is asking for problems.

andy1886

Marc, the people claiming that Bale is a great signing are the same sort of people that still think Ozil is a great player – i.e. living in the past.

Marc

China

Agree – he’ll have a couple of matches where he looks good and he’ll score a couple of cracking goals but ultimately he’ll be a very expensive mistake.

CG

ES “””””CG Did you watch Aston Villa yesterday? They were lucky to win despite playing for most of the game against 10 players.””””” We are talking about Arsenal. Villa were nearly relegated last season. We were in the champions league for 2 decades only a few seasons ago and renowned for our technical excellence and exciting brand of soccer all over the world. Now its 5 at the back at home against West Ham ( who were playing ONE up front) I guarantee if Villa and Dean Smith had players like Ozil, Pepe, AMN, Saliba to choose from- he would… Read more »

Marc

andy

Fortunately the Ozil debacle will be over next summer – I would say we’ll never need to hear his name again but we know certain people won’t let that happen.

Ernest Reed

Agreed on Kola Marc, but Xhaka’s issue is that he’s as slow as slow comes but is in fact a decent player otherwise who suits a purpose, provided others in the midfield are faster/quicker. Its difficult to break out to the forwards when your midfield is usually passing back because they are caught flat footed.

HighburyLegend

“Transfer wheels need to start turning this week”

This is done : Runarsson IN!! (lol)

Ishola70

Left foot I have to disagree with both of your recent comments. Generally Martinez was better at commanding his own penalty box and claiming crosses but you only mention distribution. Secondly the team were not very good against West Ham up until the 50th minute as well apart from the well worked goal so fatigue as an excuse looks a bit of excuse making. It was an all round average to disappointing display for the whole match. What helped Arsenal was that Ceballos started to get going in midfield in the second half and this aided the team somewhat. We… Read more »