Today, we go to war for 3 points that’ll keep us #Top4 over the international break. Before the season started, I wrote that 9 points would be absolutely ideal from this session of games, and I still believe that. The post-break games are pretty grim, we have City, Leicester, United, and Villa in the league, as well as 3 Europa League games. Going into those games with momentum and positivity is absolutely vital.
We need a performance from the squad today. We’ve been inconsistent this season. Fulham was great, but then we realised they were shite. We didn’t show up against West Ham and scraped a win. Then we were soundly beaten by Liverpool. Our xG is looking a bit Emery like at the moment. 3 games is not a big sample, but we need to be correcting that before it corrects our points tally.
The main problem we’re having is chance creation. We’re fairly comfortable defending these days. We’re solid and tough to break down. Going forward is a different issue. There’s no clean connection from midfield to attack and our offensive playbook routines are getting a little predictable. The thing I worry about is it doesn’t look like we’re trying to solve it, it seems we’re banking on low chance high conversion approach. That’s rarely sustainable.
Sheffield United will be an interesting side to come up against. They’ve been abject so far this season, but we know they are a force on their day. They’ll not play a deep block, but they will aggressively counter us. It’ll be a game that will require creativity, they can defend really well and they will not let up with the pressure.
Our transfer business, on the face of it, looks underwhelming in the extreme. We’ve signed a lesser second keeper, Willian looks good but he’s certainly not the force to unlock our forward play, and Gabriel is 6 months away from being the man.
We basically have the same problem from last year carried over. That can’t be an excuse. We need to find ways of creating more good opportunities in attack, because it’ll be games like this that undo us this season.
If we don’t bring in suitable solves, the fans will look to Guendouzi and Mesut Ozil. It’s obvious. Especially as both are training with the first team. I hope that’s not the cloud of PR noise that a shoddy window brings, but you know it will be. From what I’ve been told, the big issue for Arsenal is that the squad is too bloated. Our wage bill hasn’t really been attacked this summer and we’ve done a very poor job moving on players. As I said yesterday, I don’t think anyone thought we’d struggle to move on players like MG and Lacazette, but here we are.
That is still no excuse for not having an 8 or a 6 at this stage of the summer.
I understand Arteta just wants Champions League level players for the now, but as I’ve whined about for the last 5 years, sometimes you need to build out talent and take a little longer to get back to the top. If our shopping list is Aouar, Jorginho, and Partey… or bust. Then that starts to look like negligence. We finished 8th, improving on our squad is not a precise science or balancing act like it would be a Liverpool or Bayern. We should be able to find an 8 for less than £40m that can do a job. We should be able to find a #6 that has the athletic profile we so desperately need.
I know I am not a scout, but Dominik Szoboszlai plays on the left, he can box to box, and he’s at a franchise that supplied the world with Mane and Werner. He’s 19 years old, he scored 12 goals last season and landed 18 assists. His buy-out is rumoured to be 25m euros. Is he blowing up the league this year? Maybe not. Would he be a better bet than nothing? Yes.
The same with the #6 position. We have no one with athleticism in our midfield. Don’t tell me there isn’t someone in Ligue 1 that we could pick up at less than £45m. Sangare/Sourmare look like talented player, clearly both need coaching, but that’s what clubs with fucked finances have to do.
There has been a real lack of creativity around our transfer business. I really, really hope this isn’t like seasons past where we break a season because our perfect choice wasn’t available. There are always options that can improve the squad, we cannot let the biggest problem of last season go unaddressed again.
That said, I think fans are forgetting that spending a shit tonne of money doesn’t always translate into points. Spurs blowing a load of cash doesn’t mean they’ll be electric. OGS dropping pound notes on Cavani doesn’t mean they’ll close the gap. Leicester are just as capable of bottling the season. What new players does is create excitement for the players, the staff and the fans. It signals progress and it creates good vibes. If we fail this summer, you’ll get the covid-lockdown histrionics and it’ll be a slog.
We will be better this season regardless of where we land with the squad. We have 20 wins out of 34 games under the new regime. The longer the process goes on, the better we’ll get. We are very well-coached, we’ll be tough to beat this season, and hopefully, we’ll find a solve externally before the window shuts, and if not, maybe we’ll have to reach for a ‘like a new signing’ type of pivot.
Let’s enjoy today and pray that we can make some magic happen by Monday.
Victorious
I agree Arsenal’s transfer business is painful and indecisive.
You have to ask the question what exactly was Arsenal’s transfer budget in this window and
how much dependence there was on making sales particularly with Torreira and Guendouzi. In normal circumstances these two players should have produced at least £40-45 million combined.
Elneny is a ‘safe passer merchant’..not a surprise Arteta likes him,lad plays the games exactly how the boss used to except he appears to be a lot more mobile, Don’t know why he doesn’t attempt forward passes more often, you see the moment he tried that in the 2nd half we got a goal, maybe a coaching thing but don’t think he should be a starter if we really want top4.
Sounds like Aouar isn’t happening then It’s evidently clear that we were simply too slow. Like I asked a few days back, what is stopping us asking Josh for a 15m loan and the terms include we pay it back with the next 15m we receive? It’s a no risk loan for Josh as we will obviously make 15m from sales any time now. But that loan could’ve been enough for us to just get Aouar or partey over the line Instead we’re scratching our heads about why. There are two losers from this debacle: arsenal and perhaps even more… Read more »
Emirates
For yesterday’ game, Nketiah and laca are both bad.
But Nketiah could have been better used.
If Willian drifted across from the right,to overload the left and put the ball in behind for Tierney/Saka for low crosses across the box, Auba and Nketiah could have attacked those crosses.
You are judging players wrongly.
Auba and Nketiah were not in their natural roles.
Ofc they were bad.
Squad imbalance creates a lot of issues.
Re Elneny.
He may not be good enough but he moves the ball quicker than xhaka/ceballos.
That’s the point I disagree with.
This time last year we were laughing at the latecomers. Thanks once again Don Raul.
If we go for a wide player, I’d rather have Benrahma over Zaha.
Younger, cheaper, higher ceiling, resale value.
ES
I know we’re notoriously tedious and and poor generally with transfers, but I think the whole process this summer ultimately collapsed the moment Raul was shown the door
The man might be dodgy but still get the deals done,
He would have been able to have offloaded some of the deadwoods in the club at least, I mean he got us 40M for Iwobi ffs
The likes if Edu and Arteta has been utter exposed as total novice in the transfer business this summer IMO.
In the wake of probably the most mental day in Premier league history i just want to say..
Ross Barkley, take a bow son
El neny isn’t a fast sprinter but he tends to release the ball very quickly. Often with his first or second touch The reason his passing is consistently solid is because he appears to have already decided where to give it before it arrives at his feet so he pops it off pretty soon. The advantage is we always keep the ball when it comes to him, the disadvantage is his choice of pass is rarely overly interesting so doesn’t usually create much – it’s more recycling than anything else Ceballos is the opposite and likes to hold on to… Read more »
Vic yes we would’ve got Aouar a month ago with Raul still here – but we’d have probably paid 60m for the pleasure…
“I know we’re notoriously tedious and and poor generally with transfers, but I think the whole process this summer ultimately collapsed the moment Raul was shown the door”
All evidence points to this being true…
A season long loan for Barkley wouldn’t have been the worst transfer in the world
He looked a boss for Villa last night. Exactly what we’re crying for in the middle of our midfield.
Will prefer him to Jorginho honestly
“Vic yes we would’ve got Aouar a month ago with Raul still here – but we’d have probably paid 60m for the pleasure…”
If you want quality, you must pay
Steve quality bargains are out there just arsenal suck at finding them these days
China
A 60M Auoar and a deadline day Scrabble for the likes of Kondogbia, Oscar and Jorginho?😂
I know which I’d prefer, Kroenke doesn’t give a rat ass whether we’re successful or not..I’d prefer someone getting the money and actually use it to for the team’s success tbf
El Neny will be our reliable pivot in midfield. He will pass forward more too, I think it was instruction from Arteta not to be too risky but as the game progressed he was passing forward a lot more, making runs and pressing hard. A solid reliable 7/10 is exactly what we need. Xhaka/Ceb are the weak points for differing reasons but both of them slow us too much. Ceb makes us more fluid but really lacks vision and keeps the ball wayyyy to long. Xhaka is a fraud who should be binned. I think we will be in the… Read more »
The Auoar boat has now sailed btw, we got a sniff of a chance because of covid and the fact most elite clubs are stocked with players they can’t move right now or are simply better at the moment
He’s going to Real Madrid, Barca, City or Juv next summer.
I really don’t rate Auoar for us and think we dodged an expensive bullet.
Auoar is much more better than anybody we have in midfield at this moment, reminds me of Nasri before he turned a cvnt.
Under Arteta rarely Arsenal score goals from a pattern of play. Quite often it is per luck, opponent mistakes or individual brilliance. Against SHU, our first goal came from Elneny not obeying to Arteta strict instructions to hang back. That created an overload that SHU could not handle. Both Bellerin and Elneny who were tasked to defend the right side of midfield and defense are in the penalty box. Our second goal came from a moment of individual brilliance by Pepe. Pepe is not like Aubameyang who love a ball over the top in space, he wants ball at his… Read more »
Ceballos adding fluidity and vibrancy on the ball is important. He would be seen as more important than Elneny because he can take over the Xhaka role of being the first midfielder to receive the ball and move the team forward.in first phase. Elneny is not capable of this. He doesn’t have the drive, character or game to be the go to man in midfield. More an inbetweener midfielder. Ceballos can hang onto the ball too much, isn’t the quickest but after having had Xhaka being the go to man in midfield Ceballos is like Carl Lewis in his prime… Read more »
I think Auoar is a red herring and we wasted too much time on him this summer.
We just about sorted our defence out. Next step is to fix our midfield base. I’m confident we have one half of that fixed, now for the other side.
Auoar wouldn’t have the platform to succeed until we get the right double pivot behind him.
Willian as a 10 was doing better than as a winger, I’d like to see him play there more.
Right now the only patterns we have seen are defensive patterns”
Arteta is very conservative and cautious and I’d like a more ‘easy on the eye’ football but you’re very wrong here
Most of our goals are a result of some very exciting pattern of play from the back
Pepe’s goal yesterday was the record the season for the most passes leading to a goal, 22.
You’re talking bollocks.
I saw things differently Ish, Ceb was dithering badly and really killing momentum at the start just like El Neny was with his back passing. At some point Arteta shouted at them both to play forward more, he certainly adds more fluency but he keeps the ball at his feet way too much and so many times I was screaming at him to look up and pass. Auba was making so many runs last night. He’s an improvement over Xhaka but he himself is definitely not the solution. Not to say he didn’t have his good moments too, but I’d… Read more »
China1, Rather than blaming the scouts teams for finding the right players, I would think that Arteta had tunnel vision and refused to budge on his targets until too late. Arsenal are not at a stage where they can be decide to lock on a target to the exclusion of all others. When you are skint, you adapt your shopping targets to your budget, not hope that by some.miracles, clubs will lower their asking price to your level at the 11th hour. When you have Edu’s kid on twitter announcing to the world that his dad is tired and sad… Read more »
I wouldn’t exactly call slow ponderous passes at the back exciting tbh
In the unlikely event we get in a decent midfieder today, I think you’ll find one of Xhaka or Elneny is more likely to find his ass on the bench than Ceballos
He’s the best midfieder in the club and he’s not even ours.lol
Villa have no problem bombing forward, they have the best keeper in the league after all
Valentin
Disagree.
We generally score off patterns of play. We can’t pull it off consistently due to lack of quality. Plenty of goals come from overload and switch/cross or
Baiting opposition to press and then bypass them.
Elneny didn’t ignore Arteta’s instructions there.
His natural instinct is to stay back.
He must have been specifically told by Arteta to go forward in an RM type of position so that Willian/Pepe are not isolated. In the first half, Our attack was mainly down LHS, since that change we could circulate and build on the right.
wow Steveyg87 that surely put such a great optic
Kaz The midfield started quite brightly for about 15 minutes at the start then faded. Then there was overall improvement in the second half. The key point here is the player that can first receive the ball and push the team forward with it. Elneny is not capable of this. Ceballos is. Ceballos buzzes around the pitch and makes the team overall more mobile in comparison to when Xhaka is starting and this is taking into account the flaws Ceballos has. We all know we need another midfielder in but Arsenal will improve overall as a team on the ball… Read more »
Victorious, You are confusing, keeping the ball between midfielders and defenders with attack play. Keeping the ball is what we do well, that does not means that there is a pattern of attacking play. Most of the time, We recycled the ball laterally without going anywhere. Pepe got the ball and decided to go for it, that does not make it a team goal. It is a goal he manufactured on his own. Bellerin second assist is hardly a key pass. I would gladly exchange our long sequence of sterile passes between defenders and middielder for a few rapier like… Read more »
If Arteta didn’t have 1 cheaper alternative each for Partey and Aouar then that’s poor planning.
Let’s see what happens.
Would prefer no buys than panic buys.
Kaz “Not to say he didn’t have his good moments too, but I’d rather he looks up and releases Auba and Pepe” You are falling into the trap of those that think Xhaka is of real importance. This release talk with a longer ball which Xhaka does on occasions. Sure it can be important at times but I rather see the team knit together in midfield and give the impression of real connect between the players rather than seeing an individual player release a forward with a longer pass. Ceballos is not a complete player but he is more healthy… Read more »
Obviously proud of Manure and Liverpool having a good go at our 2-8 record.
When the ecstasy subsides, we ought to ask how we’d cope with and beat. Leicester and Villa?
Hopefully we don’t get new injuries from the international fest.
Ish I understand what he brings to the table.
But his tendency to keep the ball and take the ball backwards then running around for a bit before playing a pass is starting to get pretty annoying.
Like I said, Auba made so many runs. Ceb would do the first part right and drive the ball forwards and commit someone. But rather then play it right then and set Auba off he just holds onto it.
He’s been doing it since we’ve had him. It’s harmful.
Our pivot is El Neny + Ceb/Xhaka
Left foot curler, Last year, SHU surprised opponents by overloading one side of the defense via their third CB overlapping. Elneny was deliberately tasked to be an additional right Full back whenever we had possession and Bellerin was higher up. Exactly the same way Xhaka was playing left back when last season Saka was nominatively a left back but in reality playing much higher when in possession. On the first goal, both Bellerin and Elneny are in the penalty box. It was not an off the cuff decision by Elneny to try to play a 1-2 with Aubameyang and it… Read more »
No Ish,
I’m not falling into that trap. You forget I too hate Xhaka.
Just watch the movement of our other teammates when Ceb goes for one of his little dribbles next time.
Like I said, he gets the first bit right with commiting a player to him as he drives the ball onward and creates that space, but then he doesn’t do the right bit after and it’s been like this all loan.
Valentin
If you did not see the difference in the passing yesterday in midfield then you were not paying attention.
It was more fluid and the ball was actually advancing rather than being passes neutrally and static in our own half. Also the whole midfield moved up a bit as a whole.
You did say previously though that Xhaka is important to the midfield or Arteta sees him as important.
I
Gabriel £23.4m
Pablo Mari £7.2m
Alex Runarsson £1.8m
Cedric free
Willian free
With the exception of Gabriel this is very uninspiring. And we’ve sold a very good goalkeeper.
Is this progress?
we re not spending money in this window..
we have Özil and ESR in our ranks .. hope Laca stays, he is fired up this season
Martinelli will be back and defenders will soil themself with him coming at them
Saka is scoring and Pepe scored a vital goal yesterday, he is working on the
surprise element and unpredictable aspect .. Our only problem is Mo-El
lack of forward drive, but Bellerin is providing that these days..
Kaz
Yes I like the drive that Ceballos gives the team in first phase in comparison to Xhaka. It is just overall more positive and gets the team on the front foot.
But as you say he can improve in the later phases.
Cedric is decent and is a good singing but is getting a bad rap because he isn’t a megastar.
Willian needs more games as a 10 before we decide he’s dogshit.
Gabriel is excellent.
Haven’t seen Mari play at all but given we want to shift 4 CBs, makes sense in the long term.
Obviously I’d prefer Emi to Gunnar
Not sure why are people picking on Elneny. He’s been one of our top performers this season. So much so that Arteta chose him over Xhaka.
He keeps the ball moving. Doesn’t dally on the ball, rarely loses possession and is a work horse like no other. Lately he’s even been driving forwards with the ball too.
Elneny – Ceballos pivot maybe the way forward.
Typos galore. I’d blame the phone but it’s just me being thick this morning.
The team can improve with better all round passing in midfield which is progressive. We saw glimpses of that yesterday.
It will not improve with relying on deep “rapier” passing on occasions.
This team has been missing connect.
Ceballos can give this team connect in comparison to Xhaka
Sorry I mean it WAS an off the cuff moment.
Valentin In the build up, Elneny was the right back to create a numerical overload vs their front 2. But I am talking of final phase Arteta made a slight shift to Elneny’s positioning in the 2 nd half to increase ball circulation on that side to get Willian and Pepe in the game. Willian and Bellerin were quite isolated in the first half and Arteta tried to change that. It’s what won us the game. I have watched Elneny enough,no way is he going to attack space without instruction. Just not his natural instinct. He is not Ramsey. As… Read more »
Captain Tierney
To say that Elneny is not a true go to man in midfield is not picking on him.
He’s just not that sort of player. He is not a player that is continually going to get on the ball in first phase and drive the team forward.
He does a job of being an inbetweener midfielder.
Ceb with an AM would be even more fluid, the hesitation is because he has been tasked tactically to be near Elneny and still make passes to attackers, he is not confident of this ability.
At the same time Xhakalson’s passing serves no purpose,
1.Luiz is better providing balls into the final 3rd
2. His passes do not lead to chance creation.
I don’t think we’re getting anyone today. Edu and his caucus have messed up a transfer window they had record time to prepare for. This is utter rubbish.
OK so two things that changed the result for us.
Shifting Willian into a 10 and letting him rotate with Saka and Pepe was magic.
Having El Neny come forward to support the attacks on the right side gave us the extra pressure we need.
All was rosey until CC’s boi Big Xhak Attack was introduced. (though we should have gone for the third before that)
“I have watched Elneny enough,no way is he going to attack space without instruction.”
You are wrong, he was okay at this playing for Basel. Also watch the 1st few games when he joined Arsenal.
Let’s make it simple.
Arsenal’s two formations played this season are 3-4-3 and 4-3-3.
Our 3-4-3 formation requires 2 Central Midfielders + 2 Wing Backs. The Central Midfield
options are two from Xhaka,Ceballos and Elneny.
If we play 4-3-3 as we did yesterday until Maitland-Niles replaced Saka then our Midfield
options were two from the three listed above plus Saka.
Frankly none of our Central Midfielders would get into starting X1 of Man City, Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea or Spurs and that is a problem as the season progresses. We have that
problem also last season.
Not feeling overly optimistic about today, think we will see a body or two brought in but likely to be last minute panic ones at that.
Can tell that we didn’t really have a concrete plan B for Aouar falling through.
Just hope it’s not Jorginho. We already have a dreadfully one paced CM without adding him.
It seems more people are seeing that diet Peps tactics are anti football, a point i kept saying and was labelled as having an agenda because he is saucy
Gunnersaurus has been fired today, the final cost cutting measure to enable a new signing? Dinosaurs eat a lot so the savings must be massive, right?
Gunnersaurus = extinct
Everton splashing 30M on Godfrey from Norwich
Wouldn’t blame Ancelloti if he thinks there’s a genuine chance for the title,they could seriously do a Liecester, after yesterday’s madness I think anything is possible in this league this season
God know I’ll rather them than the spuds who’re currently playing some good stuff at the moment
Ishola
I think Elneny has been very good this season and therefore Arteta is giving him starts.
Some here just for the sake of it are coming up with all kinds of nonsense like Elneny cant pass forward, slows play down, bla bla bla.
Arteta picking him over a manager’s favourite Xhaka just shows that Elneny has massively upped his game from when the last time he was here.
Vic
In what appears to be an upcoming madness league this season if we had sorted our midfield we could’ve been up there look at the difference a progressive midfield has made to Everton .
We be grand though we kept AMN so it’ll work out in the end
Arsenal’s hopes of signing Houssem Aouar were dashed over the weekend & barring a dramatic late twist, the long-term pursuit of Thomas Partey will go the same way. There is currently no expectation of alternative targets arriving before tonight’s deadline. [@David_Ornstein]
Can someone explain to my why it seems even low pl clubs have more money than us
Captain Tierney “I think Elneny has been very good this season and therefore Arteta is giving him starts. Some here just for the sake of it are coming up with all kinds of nonsense like Elneny cant pass forward, slows play down, bla bla bla. Arteta picking him over a manager’s favourite Xhaka just shows that Elneny has massively upped his game from when the last time he was here.” Yes but you can realise at the same time that Elneny is not a go to man in midfield. He does a job in midfield but he is not a… Read more »
Be prepared for loads more strange results this season.
Villa could have scored ten or more yesterday.
The handbrake is well and truly off for a lot of teams.
China
Because we hang on to mediocrity
El neny will never be that guy who wins you games, he’s just a guy who does a job very solidly
Let’s hope we can get a top quality CM and el neny can be a useful rotation option
new post
I thought the sacking of gunnersaurus was a joke but turns out it’s real and it’s for ‘cost savings’
Thank god we’ve must’ve saved a few hundred quid a week on his salary. I know it’s a shame as he’s been at the club for 27 years since we first created this mascot, but think of it this way. If his weekly wage (he’s only part time) is even £500, then in approximately 300 years the savings will amount to be 7m and we can afford Aouar
ITS HAPPENING HES FINALLY COMING IN 2320!!!!
Please please please me sang the Beatles… I’ll be singing it if we don’t get partly… It’s all I want for Xmas…