Well, the Premier League really is turning out some batshit crazy results.
I’m currently watching a very lost Manchester City lose 5-2 to Jamie Vardy’s Leicester AT HOME. West Brom went 3 up against Chelsea before bottling it and drawing the game, Frank Lampard is no longer the plucky upstart, he’s a greedy chequebook manager getting called a fraud after 3 games. Jose Mourinho was joy suckered by Newcastle United, cancelling out the ‘will Spurs actually be amazing this season’ vibe I had after they turned over the Saints last week. Son also picked up an injury.
United were bang average, having to earn a penalty AFTER the game finished to beat the ever-improving Brighton (told you Potter was good). The OGS miracle of spending a shit ton of money last season to give United the lowest points 3rd place in EPL history might be landing for some now as, you know, not a miracle. Still, I’ll take the MSM propping him up like the only thing stopping his genius flowering is the wicked United board that won’t sanction another £150m worth of talent on his ‘vision.’
Everton also won again, keeping them top of the league. Carlo has some saucy players, I’m not sure he’ll have enough all season, but they’ll certainly be better.
So what have we learned? Well, the Premier League is going to very tough this season. The top 6 is probably going to look like more of a top 8 for quite a bit. I think Liverpool, as things stand, look like the most obvious standout (only the hottest takes here). But 2nd to 8th looks like it will be very unpredictable. Hey, who knows, we might see a SHOCK winner like in 2016 this season? Could it… no… but?
Arsenal really needs to add to their squad if we’re to play in the upper echelons of that top 8 scenario. We’re well-coached, young players are improving, and the senior players left are a lot more accountable. We still need to add a bit of depth if we’re going to be a force for the full season.
The wheels of speculation have gone into overdrive over the past few days. We’ve bid for Houssem Aouar. The Lyon top dog, Aulas, is telling the world the player will stay (standard practice from him), and the top french pubs are saying we’re about to go back in with a bigger bid. Creativity is the absolute #1 requirement from this window. Even Auba agrees.
“Of course we are in favor, I will not hide it. Even if he is a Lyonnais”
I appreciate a lot of people are worried that Houssem doesn’t have 19 assists to his name, but I think his play is about more than hardcore assists (and Lyon were shite last season). He’s a vertical mover of the ball, something we only really have with Xhaka and Ozil. More than that, he can move with the ball at his feet, and he’s great in tight areas. We don’t have many tricky fast players that can open up the field in a split second. Aouar can do that. Add to that we’ve seen him put in dominant performances against dominant teams in the Champions League… well, he just makes a lot of sense. Also worth noting that he’s only 22. The perfect signing as we move to a model that supports resale value and the circle of transfers in and out. Player was also non-committal on his future after the game today.
“We’ll see what will happen in the future”
EXCITING NONCHALANCE.
I think we’ll also continue to pursue Thomas Partey until the death. I suspect he’s more of a ‘if these 4 things happen’ type reach, but he’s another one that gives us elements we don’t have currently. Firstly, the biggest thing Partey gives us is elite level experience at the very highest level. He’s played in huge games and come out on top. He’s an ultimate competitor playing for a monster of a manager. He also gives us the mobility we desperately lack in midfield. He’s aggressive and rapid over short distances. His height, weight and overall frame also makes us more imposing. We’ve been weak from setpieces, he adds something. We’ve had to build out a very body heavy structure when out of possession, he gives us options to change that. Partey also comes from one of the most rigidly defensive systems in football, firstly, give me some of that, secondly, he might have more attacking inclinations that could come to bear fruit in a more progressive system.
Sign those two, we are being more than realistic when we hope for top 4 this season.
We still might see some other signings. If Lacazette leaves, we might be a little short in attack. I still worry that we’re a bit light in the keeping area. But overall, we have created a pretty decent squad without going too crazy. Elneny looks like he could be a really decent squad player this year. Reiss is doing his best to make a statement that he’s ready for us this season. We have a whole group of young players that are really hungry.
Still, as Mike Tyson says, everyone has a plan until that get smacked in the mouth. Liverpool, tomorrow night, is Mike Tyson. They are a team of brutal warriors. We’ve had two really decent games against them. Last season, we turned them over in the league, despite being totally mauled by them. We then used that confidence to win the FA Cup. This season, we were much more structured against them and we were more than equal to the 1-1 draw.
We’re now into the season. Liverpool will be fitter, sharper, and they have buried a couple of teams. The game to look at from a tactical perspective might be the Leeds opener where they were run very close. Leeds kept on getting in behind their defenders with quick counter attacks and long balls in behind their defence. Arsenal has to work out a way of dealing with their waves of pressure and there can be no West Ham like lapses.
My hope, as always in these games, is that we’re at least competitive. That means everyone showing up to execute a good game plan. The interesting thing to watch out for this season is how coaches approach us now they know we’re not going to be the same old Arsenal. There’s a body of Arteta work to look at. I don’t for a minute think we’ll ever be predictable, but I also think there will be more answers to what we’re doing. Everyone knows about the overload to Auba switch. They all know that we play out of the back like demons. They’ll know we are pressuring for turnovers in their area. It’s all very exciting knowing that we have these clever ways of playing in different parts of the game.
I am very much looking forward to this game. Let’s see what Arteta has planned! See you in the comments. x
The refs turned into a twat.
@Radio, just saying its crazy to have Laca, Eddie, Auba, Willian, Pepe, Martinelli, AND Zaha for 3 spaces. Not to mention Saka wants to be a forward too.
Very risky from Leno there.
‘I’m glad Klopp took Mane off to be honest. He was killing us.
C’mon. Guys. 10 min. Push Show wot we can do.
Sorry don’t really blame refs
But this is disgusting
Poor from refs
Gotchya Dani
Leno nearly produced an assist for salah.
Poor squad need a cf .
Midfield poor as we know, we have to reinforce this week.
Bellerin crap.
AMN… braindead warrior
Honestly wouldnt mind selling Xhaka for Partey. Granit just isnt built for England
Bellerin mouthing “been doing it all my life” after the 2nd foul throw cracked me up
We can’t play out from the back with any sort of composure against this intensive press, why try to keep doing it?
Jesus Ainsley.
Come on Arsenal. One big push for ten more minutes
Can’t believe Auba didn’t start this game.
Where was Bellerin????? Why moved inside???
If we were to sell Pepe tomorrow we’d hardly get a £35m offer on a good day. Mental we spent over 70m for a player so raw.
ooooof
Again Bellerin vacating his position
Mane would have scored that. sheeewww
Pepe should keep going and stayed in the box. A penalty isn’t hard these days.
We wont any returns on pepe
Not unless he goes nuclear at some point which looks unlikey
again the first man!!! Fuck me
Why is Pepe taking the corners
Vegan eboue is frustrating
Two rubbish corners from Pepe.
Pepe again with a horrid corner. Dafug??
I’m not a religious man but I’m praying for a late Max Aarons move. And I’m not even that keen on Max Aarons
Corner… let’t go.. Ill take a set piece goal.
Those corners lol
Or not.. poor corner.
Pepe’s corner is one of the worse today.
Why is Pepe taking corners? Stupid.
Pepe’s corners have been shit. Twice aiming for the 1st goal post instead of going for the middle.
What a waste of 2 corners.
High ball to Pepe every time please.
One good ball over the top of their defence and we get something out of this. Nketiah to score last minute.
Pepe, two of two corners. Can’t beat the first man… Hate to say it but he is looking like one expensive liability.
Would love to see Pep’s 2008-2009 Barca against this liverpool team.
Salah is helping us. They could have scored.
Trash.
We need a number #8 maaaaaan
Pepe is so annoying
Two times now he’s taken sloppy corners
Fuck off Luiz.
Piss.
welp, good effort tonight. Lets get some transfers over the line
Fuck off!
Thats crap
Poor poor grader from Luiz. Another cheap shot to concede.
Luiz and Leno comedy really. Leno could have yelled and came out for an easy catch. No Pool was around.
Self inflicted.
The ball goes through Bellerin’s feet.
Can’t even put in a decent corner, useless fucker
ugh… frustrating… we had our chances… Bellerin again,., hate to say it.
Team selection was negative at the start from us. But Liverpool going forward are phenomenal.
That third is pitiful.
Well… Well… Well.
Pfft what to say??? Crap header by Luiz… right on a pool of piss player.
That’s that eh?
Piss poor.. Wasn’t expecting much but our defence is all over the shop today, we’ve gone backwards in that regards.
Did say we were losing this with that starting 11… But hey… It’s Liverpool so… Won’t really duel on it…
Gotta love Bellerin literally let’s Jota hop the ball up and volley with zero pressure.
What a pathetic game… Don’t mind loosing, but loosing like this is just sad… It’s alright to show them respect but to not even have a go…
FFS Leeds showed more balls than that.
What a wasteful game.
That’s it. Not watching this wankfest. This is entirely on Arteta, shit team selection, no balls.
pitiful
That goal is a Leno error. He was seeing everything in front of him and should have screamed for Luiz to leave that ball for him to gather
Laca cost us 1 point. It was going to be undeserved though. We were battered tonight. Scoreline flatters us which is good for the mood of the team. 3-1 is far better than 5-0 or so.
Dwell*
Leno indirectly responsible for the third goal, that’s a goalkeeper’s ball, a simple communication would have allowed luiz leave the ball for leno to catch, leno was already going for the ball. Anyways, I hope arteta’s hype can at least be brought down so we can see things the way they are
Artets tactics for the game smacks of over.coaching..
Liverpool didn’t have to go up to on a higher gear. They played us casually and beat us rather too easily.
Yes it’s not a blow out but the gulf in class is vast.
Old defensive issues still bubbling under the surface. Luiz, bellerin and holding all dodgy and Leno also needs to take a look at himself.
@Ben+D, thank you so much for saying it the way it is. Leno is a stupid goalkeeper, don’t care how good a shot stopper he is, he’s a very bad goalkeeper
Well that was embarrassing.
Set up shop like a relegation fodder side and still were easily beaten by a few goals.
Now lets relax the hype around arteta, as for the two home grown trash rib holding and mitland niles, should never play for arsenal again.
Ancellotti anyone 😂😂😂 joking don’t get mad
That was a bad pass from Auba.
On the bright side, Ceballos’ passes were top notch. Literally Cesc reincarnated.
Well that was a typical Emery’s performance !
with of course a bit of Wenger predictability and favouritism
But let’s blame Leno for the defeat!
Fuck off
I can’t believe that Auba was so quiet… Arteta definitively did not make the most of the goal threat that Auba can be.
Horrendous negative football.
Aubameyang was dirt today, defiantly not captain material.
Klopp is such a troll.
We weren’t that far off second half. That’s what is frustrating. Shoot Auba. oh well.. hell.
Embarrassing performance! I remember how Arsenal fan use to ridicule Mourinho about parking the bus and forward 2020 it’s the same thing Arsenal doing under a generational coach. Luiz and William are squad players, not players you buy to be in the starting 11 when your coach only knows to play anti-football.
Luiz obviously an idiot. Any CBs wouldn’t head the ball down toward edge of own box.
But the cross would have been an easy catch at 6 yards. I guess easy for Martinez. Why Leno rooted to the goal only he knew. No bodies around both of them at all.
Auba just shot FFS. Why passed to Eddie at all. That’s almost a 1 v 1. Oh my.
Could be forgiven for forgetting Auba was on the field.
Emeryesque performance this today
Always good to play Liverpool to suck all optimism out of everything. Totally motivated in the Arteta project now. That was fucking shit. Shit shit shit shit.
Arsenal was out coached and out played. Holding is our worst player. Leon looks shaky. His passes were off.
We went there with a lineup to contain them and still shipped three goals which is what will happen when you have so many weak links in the side. A week left in the transfer window and we’re still pissing about.
I mean we didn’t embarrass ourselves and that’s something but you just hoped that Mikel gets smart quick when it comes to picking certain players and not picking others. Ceballos came on and we went up a couple gears instantly. Why didn’t he start. I suppose little victories as least he took off Xhaka and brought on Ceballos pretty early.
Has to be said though usual idiot types cost us again today. Bellerin and Holding especially
Yeah I mean.. some of the football we have been playing lately isn’t too far off of what we were seeing under Emery, which is scary.
Perspective, losing to Liverpool isn’t unexpected. We were in it until quite late on, that’s progress if you ask me. Onwards and forward!!!
I see no one is interested in the Willian convo..he has to step up. Back to back nothing appearances from him.
Hard place to go, Liverpool have been pretty impressive in truth. But we should be disappointed at the lack of conviction in the first half which only fuelled their suffocating press.
Started the second half much, much better and it became more of a contest. They’re a good lot better sadly, and we need a couple of players longer term that can relieve a press to compete better in these kind of encounters.
Pretty much par for where the two teams are currently, hope we see a more confident effort Thursday from the stand-ins. Particularly Gabriel, and Saliba hopefully.
We did OK but for Willian not tracking Robertson and Laca’s poor finishing. Why’s VAR not ruling Jota’s goal out.
If Saliba and Gabriel can’t fare better than Holding then God help us.
That was not enjoyable.
Tactically if Laca scores who knows what result is but fucking hell going toe to toe with that side is a long way down the road.
A couple shocking performances, Holding the standout.
We need our Fabinho.
If the reason why you start a striker is because they defend from the front, you are a bottom level manager.
Play Aubameyang through the middle with wingers who can beat a man on the wings.
Reading some of these comments suck the life out of me.
We made so many basic errors today. I mean really basic. We’d struggle against anyone with some of those mistakes. Poor corners , poor finishing. Indecisive goalkeeping. You can’t get away with it in the premier league.
Yeah great Arteta. Top 8 this season?
Arteta reminds me of Terry Neil – great for cup matches but useless in the league.
Add 2 foul throws by Bellerin, 2 crappy corners by Pepe, 2 awful misses by Lacazette, geez what a performance.
As for playing out from the back, when will Arteta learn just like Emery that Leno can’t do it?
RH I’m there, Willian has been underwhelming outside of the Fulham game. Pepe will be back in the starting in no time at this rate.
The Chavs did say for every positive Willian performance you would get 10 negative ones.
Bring back Martinez. Leno is really a very average goalkeeper and his passing out of his area is not only poor but utterly unintelligent.
The club has definately made an error of judgment in this department.
On the evidence of today’s performance we need to play Gabriel as left centre back and Tierney in LWB position. Also I would select Pepe ahead of Willian.
On positive side I thought that Elneny looks an improved player under Arteta.