Well good morning to you all!
Lots going on in the world of Arsenal, my overall take from a fan perspective is that everyone is just a little bit miserable. Look, I understand you, because I look at your Facebook data for a living. You are sad that you stopped reading, there’s no more power-yoga session on that ‘really great app’ you don’t use, your closest relationship is with a bag of Haribo that you can’t stop topping up…. and the football, well, it’s starting to smell like a bag of rotting Emery.
Fear not… this is not how it ends my friends. So stop sad-eating Hagen Dasz, because today, the only dessert breakfast we’re treating ourselves to is a bowl of Cheeri-positivos.
I spoke to some United fans for The Elite Football Show yesterday and they seemed to think that we’re in a similar position to the one United were in before the last January transfer window… namely, lacking creativity.
Now, we all know how they worked their way out of that problem, they signed a world-class creator in Bruno.
I think the biting reality we’re likely facing with Arteta is that until that sort of signing comes our way, we might have problems creating. The issue we have is that at the very highest level, only special talents can truly make a difference if your objective is to hit the heights. We could pump money into a lesser mortal, but that’ll only move us so far. We need to go big on a talent that can grow with us.
Now, I don’t think that quite excuses the depths of our bland creative output, so I’m not giving up. We absolutely have the squad to start creating. There’s a potentially world-class spine developing. Auba, Partey, Gabriel, and Leno could be very special if they all find their game at once. Bellerin and Tierney are top drawer. Saka is an elite young talent. The question really is, who do you build around them?
Pepe, looks like a dud at the moment. He strikes a ball with outrageous venom at full pace, but we rarely see it. He needs confidence and about 5kg in weight. Can he do that this season? Jury is out…
Dani Ceballos hasn’t played a game as bad as the one he did at Leicester in a while. Can he occupy a more advanced position now Partey has joined the midfield?
Gabriel Martinelli might not have been a fave of Mikel’s before the break, but the coach can’t tell us he’s not good because we have seen him with our own eyes. I cannot wait to have him back, he certainly looks like he’s put on the weight Pepe needs.
Willian cost a lot of money. I’m still very unsure if that was Mikel and Edu or the dregs of Raul, but whatever the situation, he’s a quality player that needs to find a role in the team and sharpish. The whole point of him was that he’d not need 3 months to adapt. Well, we’re basically in November and it’s been bland. More to come. We need senior players to step up.
Then there’s the riddle of Joe Willock and ESR. Can they be the surprise packages this season? Will Arteta trust them? Who knows…
But basically, I think we need to pull our heads out of our backsides, realise that this season will be bumpy, and pray to the gods of football that this weekend is our watershed moment.
There’s so much going against us…
We do not win away at Old Trafford. Arsenal hasn’t beaten a top 6 side away since 1912.
We are a gift to struggling managers. That is OGS right now.
We are in terrible form when you look at our style of play and output.
This game is nailed on for a loss… or is it?
CHINS UP, spoons down my friends, this is going to be a great week. I’ll see you in the comments. Come join the party and AGREE with me.
Pierre
You really need to stop the obsession with Ozil. I agree with a good part of your post but
“Is AMN next in the list for giving his ill advised support to Ozil in a press conference last week …we will see..”
AMN hasn’t been dropped because of that – he’s been dropped because he’s 2nd rate at best. The correct criticism of Arteta on AMN is he’s another example of Arteta not being able to let players leave.
Raul was rightly sacked because of the Pepe signing.
What a silly little man he was.
Ishola
Eredivisie has been a huge blind spot for us for years it seems, weird oversight when Ajax were such an obvious hub of talent there a couple of years ago.
Could go through their side and think you’re getting an enviable talent left and right. Sure there’s still a few there that would instantly improve us.
Ishola
How many players did we sell this summer TW?
Mid
What do you expect from a Yank? A strike through a curve ball.
The Chelsea keeper looks quite assured.
Couldn’t have got any worse for them in that position could it.
Whatever happened to David Neres?
Was part of that Ajax golden group but hasnt seemed to push on. Looked a very good talent.
Chavs turning it on.
Going forward they’re going to tear a lot of teams to shreds.
Marc
“How many players did we sell this summer TW?”
Ziyech was available before this summer and for a discount price in comparison to what we paid for Pepe.
Raul was sacked because of the Pepe transfer episode.
Say no more.
Marc
As you know , my comment was nothing to do with Ozil, nice try though
AMN hasn’t played one minute of football since his comment …
Personally, I believe the role that ceballos struggled with v leicester would be ideal for AMN
AMN has more explosive pace, better defensively and is more creative…ceballos struggled in all aspects v leicester as it was not his natural position .
AMN has all the attributes to succeed in that role.
Ishola
That’s fine but right now have we replaced him with better? What was our transfer business like under Mislintat?
Pepe isn’t working out but as much of that is on the manager.
Pierre
AMN is a very average player. In a year or two he’ll be playing for a lower PL team and a year or two after that he’ll be in the Championship.
Marc
“Pepe isn’t working out but as much of that is on the manager.”
Well if we look at the two players on their own and forget about managers Ziyech is clearly the more rounded and mature player. It’s not even close. And he went for half the price of Pepe.
Need bulkier players? I thought footie was a non-contact sport these days. To me plus 5kgs will mean a slower, less explosive Martinelli. But maybe I have wandered on to a rugby union site?
Ishola70
The Pepe signing was on Raul, Emery wanted Zaha.
Handing idiotic bureaucrats jobs they’re not qualified to do, rarely ends well.
The power goes to their heads
Why Raul thought he was more qualified to identify our targets, and take charge of our transfer business in summer 2019, instead of allowing our head coach to be advised by our scouts, to identify how we could improve?
I have no idea…..
Ishola
Mislintat has been held up as a hero on here and still doesn’t get any grief.
How many of his players are still at the club? Those out on loan are just because we couldn’t get a fee for them.
We had a stack of players we needed to sell – how many went? None.
Let’s say Pepe is a dud – Tierney and Martinelli look like great signings and if Arteta can get his head out of his arse we should have a player in Saliba.
Rich
Your approach is old fashioned and won’t wash with fans eager for success.
Arsenal have been sleeping for far too long to be gambling with
a coach who.may sometime in the future find his feet.
Pepe needs to be given a free reign by Arteta if he’s going to give anything to AFC.
He’s being caged in by a structure and system that is stifling him.
Let him loose against Dundalk. Give him the opportunity to plan things for himself. He needs the shackles removed if he’s going to stand any chance of benefiting the team.
Come on Mikel stop all this theoretical shite and let the blood flow.
Rich
The idea was a good one and similar to what they do at Liverpool. Unfortunately Mislintat who was supposed to be shit hot was fucking awful, Emery according to most on here needed to be sacked and WE COULD NOT AFFORD ZAHA.
Can you blame Sanllehi for taking it into his own hands. Tierney, Martinelli look great and Saliba should be a great signing – if he’d gone to the Spud’s who were also after him people would’ve gone mental on here.
Marc
“AMN is a very average player. In a year or two he’ll be playing for a lower PL team and a year or two after that he’ll be in the Championship.”
Strangely enough, he is considered in the top 20/30 English players atm.
All i ever hear on here is how our academy players will be in the championship in a year or 2.
I’m sure you and the rest of the kn were saying exactly the same thing a year or 2 ago…
So do you think that despite being chosen for England he is not considered good enough to play in the europa v rapid. ..
Raul pretty indefensible at this stage, not sure what point is.
Pierre
Those are three midfielders quickly put together with no chemistry among them. In the 1st half, Leicester gave them lots of room but they didn’t know how to use it. In the 2nd half, Leicester came up and played, they looked even worse. Arteta blamed on players fatigue. I blamed on the players badly trained.
Angelino at LWB is quality, real head scratcher Pep opted for Mendy and Zinchenko over him.
Being a coach requires flexibility and an understanding of what is really needed for each player . Not all players thrive on regimental methods.
I for one think that Arteta needs to take his head out of his coaching books on this one.
There is a player in there somewhere.
Let him be free.
Pierre
“Strangely enough, he is considered in the top 20/30 English players atm.”
England have a handful of players who are better than OK. Number’s 20 – 30 are shit and a national embarrassment.
Until supporters see this the national team will continue to be a joke.
Manure plays most of the starting 11.
sal
Mislintat pissed more money up the wall than Sanllehi did but has never had a negative comment on here outside of me.
You should also remember it was Sanllehi who got over £30 million for Iwobi – another 2nd rate player.
Marc
You sign Saliba at 19 for €30 mill
So you don’t have to sign him at 22/23 for €80mill.
There’s plenty of time for us to get a return on that investment, and it’s not like Mourinho has any form for developing young players
I’m still a bit perplexed as why we’ve collected 8 centre half’s though?
Maybe Arteta’s plan is to play 8 across the back, with Partey sitting just in front?
Graham
Agree – it’s about knowing how to get the best out of different personalities as much as different talents.
Rich
So the Saliba signing was a good move by Sanllehi? Tierney and Martinelli (providing Arteta doesn’t fuck him up) both look great signings.
My point is time and time again people are on a witch hunt against Sanllehi – he gave us a better summer than Mislintat ( a favourite on here) and better than anything Wenger gave us for years.
What you actually mean is anyone that doesn’t share your POV is biased and wrong.
No your biased comes when you specifically go after players that you clearly don’t like instead of talking about the actual problems. All our forwards not playing well and the manager having and you mostly specify Pepe and one or two others for criticism. Ceballos is another one despite being statistically brilliant since the restart it’s Xhaka who should be starting with Partey (despite his form) instead.
Also the wrong part comes from saying Pepe is worse than Nelson. Things cited like running off the ball, work ethic and direct dribbling is a bit laughable honestly.
https://www.spotrac.com/epl/payroll/
Here is the reason we don’t have time and patience. Pretty much a Ponzi scheme that will crash down.. at the end of this season if we don’t start getting results.
Thats was fortunate.
Look how much we are paying our forwards to not score goals compared to the League.
Midwest
The good news is we’ve got £28 odd million of wages coming off the wage bill next summer for non squad players.
Luiz’s contract also expires but between the chance he’ll get another year and the dispute over whether he’s on £200 million a year or £500 million a year plus VAT it’s hard to comment on that one.
Leipzig plays fast but their passes are inaccurate.
Where does Ozil’s salary feature on that under forwards or midfielders?
“No your biased comes when you specifically go after players that you clearly don’t like instead of talking about the actual problems.“
Yea you’re right Marko, this doesn’t sound like what you say is right whatsoever…
Now you go ahead and tell me what the “actual problems” are, because obviously what I’ve stated as MY issues with the current side is incorrect by your assessment.
Your continued frozen hot takes on the subject of bias are the only laughable thing here.
Rich
We’ve heard all this before with Wenger, how he should be given time to build a new team which never materialised.
Let’s stop pissing about with pipe dreams and get someone in who knows what he’s doing.
What did AMN say?
Why am I getting these nagging doubts about Arteta and his Sergeant Major methods?
Marc
A £72m spend, the club record on what can only be described at this moment as a dud, in a deal that then leads to you’r getting shit canned after owner brings in attorney to oversee that deal is a pretty good description of the bottom for me.
To shed more light have a look at summer we just had, £27m on a CB thats got enough quality to build the back four around, Partey and Willian on a free. Thats 3 players that cost same in transfer fee as Raul’s Pepe, I know who i’d rather have spending the cash.
Calypso
Emery had success at Lorca, Almeria, Valencia, Sevilla and PSG.
He took a lot of stick, but he was an experienced manager, who had some communication issues, but a very good CV., and a decent first season,
Our problems as still much the same, we need to work our way out of it the old fashioned way, through:
Hard work
Common sense
Pragmatism
Patience
Far too many in society want instant gratification, success isn’t earned that way, success is built through hard work, combined with making lots of good decisions, and bouncing back from bad decisions quickly.
Marc_
https://www.spotrac.com/epl/arsenal-fc/positional/
Ozil salary is in the midfield.. but it hasn’t included in Partey yet either,
If Arsenal play against Dundalk tomorrow evening, as they have been doing over the past two months, I’ll go frigging ballistic.
Wan Bissaka has a lot of Sagna about him.
Wall defensively but very poor going forward.
Eredivisie has been a huge blind spot for us for years it seems
You’re consistent I’ll give you that.
WE you see this shit Upamecano AND Konate starting with Orban on the bench. What the hell
Morata just a whisker off there, good finish though.
Rich
Instant gratification, you’re taking the piss. We haven’t competed for a title since 2004.
Nagelsmann wearing a lovely suit tonight. That’s managerial quality right there
Classic RedCalypso there. 😀
Juve getting carved up here…. Chesser to the rescue.
Look at the Chezzer.. go .
The United game is more lively
Calypso
And that’s Arteta’s fault?
You want to sack a manager who’s been here 10 months, because the 2 previous managers failed to win a title in the 15 years before he took the job?
Seems fair,…
Really hard to argue with that logic, you win.
#ArtetaOut
Rich,
“Far too many in society want instant gratification, success isn’t earned that way, success is built through hard work, combined with making lots of good decisions, and bouncing back from bad decisions quickly.”
You have a point but the good decision for Arsenal is to get a better manager. It’s years since Arsenal mount a title challenge and Mikel is NOT the manager to change that. It’s best to get one of the better manager who’s available than continue experimenting with Tets, when it’s obvious he’s out of his depth. Kloop was available and because of fearing change AW wasn’t replace and fast forward to 2020 Arsenal still needs a manager. Arsenal need to make the change now before United, CFC and PSG hire them. I wouldn’t bet against Mikel been the worse manager in the league. He’s somewhere between Scott Parker, OGS and Fat Frank. There’s nothing special about him.
Graham
AMN
“”The squad is behind Mesut, we’re a team and that’s always going to be the case until Mesut decides to make his decision on what he wants to do and say,”
Despite heading the press conference before the rapid game , he didn’t get on .
Very rare for a player to be chosen to talk to the media before a game and then ot play.
Hopefully United expend a shit ton of energy.
Manure rests Fernandes and Rashford.
Apart from scoring a goal which was clearly offside United have done fuckall…parking a fucking boeing…sunday should be fun to watch..or maybe not
sal
We’ll see on this summers transfer’s but I think Gabriel and Partey will turn out to be very good signings.
My point is you argument of “Thats 3 players that cost same in transfer fee as Raul’s Pepe” – Sanllehi got over £30 million for Iwobi – we couldn’t sell anyone we wanted or needed to this summer and Tierney, Saliba and Martinelli are also very good signings.
Why isn’t Mislintat getting any grief? Torreira £23 million, Leno £23 million (still number one but is that keeper or public enemy), Sokratis £15 million, Guendozi £7 million.
That come to £68 million and only one is still at the club – what are the odds that we’ll end up getting as much for Pepe if we sell him in a year or two as we do for all of those combined?
That is a serious suit from Nagelsmann looking like Judge Smails in Caddyshack.
Calypso
So it’s Arteta’s fault:
Kolasinac £120k p/w 5yr deal
Ozil £350k p/w
Mustafi £35mill
Xhaka £35mill
Perez £17mill
Sokratis £17mill
Lacazette £50mill
Pepe £72mill
Torreira £26mill
Chambers £16mill
Mkhitaryan £170k p/w swapped with Alexis, who we’d turned down £60million for just 5 months earlier
Welbeck £16mill, but let go on a free
Ramsey let go on a free
Wilshere let go on a free
That we’ve got a £230million wage bill, but Leicester arguably have a better squad of players, and certainly have more balance, and players more suited to this league…
Give me a break……
We’re 5 PL games into the season, and you’ve already turned into a serial bedwetter.
Marc
“We’ll see on this summers transfer’s but I think Gabriel and Partey will turn out to be very good signings.”
Veŕy perceptive.
Rich
A lesson to learn , never reply to calypso( formerly red truth) ….pointless
Rich
“Xhaka £35mill”
Yeah that one is on Arteta because he stopped him being sold for £23 million – a fee will never get close to again.
Pierre
It wasn’t supposed to be a prophetic comment – Gabriel has looked excellent value so far and Partey fee aside should fit the basic description for a PL midfielder.
Seen that Marko, Nagelsmann must have lost the plot.
This is a weird season…the quality in CL has roughly been as good or as poor as Europa
Anyone heard from Dariano seeing as his team is on?
VAR killing Juve mojo here.
3 goals ruled out for Juve, only need 1 more to equal the most Ive ever seen which was Sassuolo having 4 ruled out by VAR at Napoli last season.
Marc-
I think Arteta may have panicked a bit, he had just taken over, got an offer for Xhaka and didn’t know who he was going to replace him with immediately in that window. and he was tasked with stopping the bleeding very quickly. It’s easy to look back and say now it was bad decision after we won an FA CUP and signed Partey. So I tend to give him a pass on that decision . . I do wonder if he would have made the same decision if we already had Partey? If Yes, then that would concern me greatly, also if he keeps playing them both at same time as mentioned earlier, I don’t see the point. .
Sal-
RE: leisure suit. Nagelsmann robbed my Dad’s closet circa 1977.
Eagle
Harsh… last goal so tight and a very tidy one at that.
Middy
Haha A leisure suit was a must in mine dads as well.
Messi going down in the box, never seen that.
Mid west
“. . I do wonder if he would have made the same decision if we already had Partey?”
The same could be said of mari and gabriel… or cedric and making the decision to keep AMN…
GunnerDNA
Number of Trophies for:
Arteta – 2
Fat Frank – 0
OGS – 0
Poch- 0
We’re 6 games in, we’ve lost at City, Liverpool and at home to Leicester, and other than at Anfield, where we still could have snatched a point, we’ve not been completely overrun in anyway, and had key decisions gone our way? Then those games could easily have been interpreted differently by our fan base, football’s a game of small margins.
We’ve got 3 new players settling in, and we won 2 pieces of silverware in August, which is less than 3 months ago.
The idea that if we just changed the manager, we’d become title contenders inside the next couple of seasons, with a group of players hardly anyone rates, and without huge investment, is completely delusional.
Far too many fans are having a competition between themselves over who can have the biggest mental breakdown.
It’s embarrassing.
Not looking good this weekend is it?
Rashford is on a hot streak for sure.
Uniteds first two goals would have been ruled offside in prem VAR and correctly so
Pierre-
I suppose.. we will never know for sure what all the behind the scene thought processes were, But those super early ones in January, I tend to give more leniency too .Last, Summer and now. Not so much
Demiral fucking hell so silly to the douches you go.
You can almost bet on it now.. Man. U will get a pk against us. Inevitability factor is very high.
It’s quite simple, lose to ManUre and Arteta should go.
Cleary Dariano has succumbed to his own advances, successful night in his book i’m sure.
Only Messi’s 637th goal? slacker.
This is not good for us, come Sunday.
Dariano must be excited.
I reckon XG of 3 XGA of 3.54 OPP of 1.39 NWA of 6.06…
That was a quick wank there Dariano you fucking sicko.
That’s for the manure game weekend btw
Yep Glee factor on 10. confirmed.
Graham
“Come on Mikel stop all this theoretical shite and let the blood flow.”
Spot on – all the stast, XGs and analysis in the world won’t win a game. Team cohesion and individual brilliance will! Time to release the beast – none of this sideways/backwards waltzing against a team like Dundalk. No disrespect to them but we should be destroying a team at that level.
Radio with yet another top post.
I concur.
Hahaha that’s got to be Pedro playing Dariano.
Or Bamford has got a (un)healthy sense of humour.
You can ban Bamford but you can’t keep Dariano down
It’s like playing Whac-A-Mole
Imagine being Bamford
I mentioned sacking Arteta for Nagelsmann earlier and he has well and truly been destroyed lol. Awful choice of clothing from him and he has rightly been embarrassed. Upamecano has quality but he also has a mistake in him. He’s definitely a strong candidate for two or three cards a season in the PL.
Sunday looking like it could be a long 90 mins…..
Arsenal fan ladies and gents.
You wear a blazer like that and you can’t blame the players. #savefashionfromnagelsmann
Owned in Daddy’s Jackets equals zero sauce.
Dariano you’ve already been outed by Pedro you silly silly man. Leave it out.
Ozil missing from 1st team training again. Perhaps he is training with the under 15’s or the ladies team? Or perhaps he has put his back out again?
Dream10
You couldn’t wait to twist the knife into Upamecano
He had a shocking game, very Mustafi-esque
Pedros already confirmed that Dariano is Bamford, nutter.
Wheres Marko at actually?
He had the tissues out earlier bragging about Upamecano.
Careful non negotiable’s for Marko Leno-Pepe-Upamecano.
We are so much better than Leipzig, defensively speaking.
That’s why I bet on a 3-0 score on sunday.
Only a game of course but he was fucking shocking tonight Upa twas.
Sal
How long do you think Pirlo’s got? Not looking good at the mo’.
Pirlo’s plight just highlights how difficult is is for young managers, regardless of how saucy they may be.
At least Arteta has won a trophy against all odds already. We just have to give him time to sort out his shite…growing pains and all.
Radio
Early days on Pirlo, 4 points of top in Serie A can see tonight he’s trying to get them into a different style was pretty laboured, going to take time but they did find net three times all disallowed. Minus CR7.
Exciting league, no idea where it goes for once.
Not sure how much of a plight it is, that was his first his 1st loss of the season tonight.
They won matchday 1 in the CL, were without Ronaldo tonight against Barcelona.
Hardly disasterous.
We will need a new manager after this weekend. Those fast utd forwards will fill their boots against our managements academy football style shite football.
Marc,
You are rewriting history. You are trying to rehabilitate Raul when it is clear that there was undeleting reasons why he got sacked. Raul was power hungry and as soon as he came in try to throw his weight around to get his players in. He had not yet officially started that he was already trying to influence proceedings. If it had been up to him, we would have bought Malcolm instead of Aubameyang, and for more money.
Mislintat is a specialist in recruiting young hot property, but was systematically overruled by a boss more interested in recruiting “experience”. That’s why he left. Not every Mislintat purchase turn our to be good signing, but at least he was trying to get young hungry players instead of becoming Chelsea retirement home.
On the other hand, nearly all the players Raul imposed turned out to be expensive dud. That’s one of the reasons why he got sacked.
Say what you will but Bamford with his utd forecasts would end up owing a lot of you, if he turn out to be right. Weren’t there bets here?
Interestingly ( to me anyway) looking back over our europa, league cup and fa cup ties last season, our kids did very well.
Willock , Martinelli , nelson , saka , Guendouzi and smith rowe all featured regularly and results were positive.
We were knocked out of the league cup in the quarters on pens by liverpool after a thrilling 5-5 draw.
We went on to win the fa cup with the kids playing an important part in the early rounds.
We qualified from the group stages with ease in europa and the home defeat to Olympiakos in which we were eliminated didnt really feature the kids.
Sadly ,tomorrow Guendouzi is not involved, nor is Saliba or Martinelli.
Smith rowe , Nketiah, Willock and Nelson have already shown last aeason that they can be trusted to put in good performances and get a result.
I was baffled as to why willock , nelson and smith rowe did not start v rapid and Nketiah was played on the left wing.
Arteta then used fatigue as an excuse for our defeat to Leicester.
As far as I’m concerned he should have left rhe experienced players at home resting, maybe he doesn’t trust the kids though I’m not sure why.
Saw gabby in training pics today.
I kid you not, if arteta does not integrate the lad when he gets back due to some personal power play, I’ll fucking lose it.
Pierre
Some of you comments on page 1 were excellent.
I completely agree that that the team needs to be taking some risks in progressing play and right now we are far to scared to turning over possession that we end up being far too Conservative and consequently toothless.
Dissenter
Giving someone time will only extend the problem.
It looks like only total capitulation will remove the incumbent from his post.
Dariano popping up to remind us how lucky we are to have Bamford hopefully perma banned for being a fucking lunatic idiot.
WEi have absolutely no idea why you’re taking a victory lap considering our argument back in the day was over Konate and Orban being THE partnership for Leipzig and how Upamecano was 3rd choice and last I checked Konate played tonight.
RockyRoe
Agree , Martinelli could be the missing ingredient with his directness and could transform our offensive play.
As you pointed out , Arteta does have some doubts about Martinelli as he was reluctant to include him before he was injured .
It’s not only on the pitch we need to take a few more risks , it’s off the pitch with selections and formations that Arteta needs to make some changes.
I think , for the time being he will remain cautious in the league games so i wouldn’t expect too much open expansive football anytime soon.
Tomorrow night hopefully will be different though.
Mikel trying out Martinelli as a wingback or LCB I’m calling it now.
I thought that the squad list can be revised in January. Why Arteta registers Calum and Holding and not PapaSok. I can’t believe Calum and Holding will be ready to play in Nov. and in Dec. Now he has to play Mustafi who is not yet match fit. We are down to 2 CB’s and we have two games in four nights.
I think Arteta will use Tierney or Xhaka as emergency CB.
Arteta: “I feel really bad for William Saliba. Because we had so many central defenders we decided to leave him out of the [Europa League] squad, which was really hurtful for me to do. I was hoping that Pablo [Mari] would be back in two weeks, but he had a setback,”
Worrying comments.
Pierre
I always respond to your posts no matter how goofy they are.
Arteta on Aubameuang: ‘Of course, there’s a very strong possibility to play him as a [number] nine.’
Oh that’s nice. That’s actual progress by the manager…
Arteta
“”I feel really bad for William Saliba,” Arteta said. “Because we had so many central defenders, we decided to leave him out of the squad which was really hurtful for me to do.”
Maybe he should rephrase that and say it was a really stupid thing for me to do ..
4 goalkeepers in the Europa squad but no saliba or sokratis..
Marko
You were trying to be clever bringing up Orban/Upa argument we had on here way back, disappeared sharpish enough after your 60m touted boy gave a performance that Titus Bramble would have winced at.
He was laughably bad.
Again WE the argument was he was 3rd choice behind Konate and Orban because Konate was the superior player and last I checked he played tonight too. But you take that lap lad I’ll eagerly await the next hot take
I didn’t realize that Arteta included Mari in the EL squad until now
He included a lad that played less than 100 minutes for Arsenal and never proved his quality … even though he was injured long term.
He left out a young talent that’s highly rated and we paid 289 million for.
It’s not a stretch to think he’s made a very bad error, hope it wont be a recurring pattern.
You were the one bringing it up earlier waving Marko Jr about, yeah Konate played too but Upa was the worst player on the pitch by a country mile, was single handedly at fault for 3 of the goals. Dont remember you creaming yourself over any player as much as you have about Upanecano on here.
Orban probably should have played eh?
Pierre
I agree with you about that EL squad
It’s a very tragic error, he picked an 18 year old goalie as 4th keeper who is not a senior player by any stretch.
Orban probably should have played eh?
Definitely. That makes sense. I’ll to check and see how he got on last season just gimme me a sec
Would he have been worse than Upa tonight?
🤣
At this moment, don’t think we can trust Arteta with whatever he says regarding personnel. Sounds like a guy who is running interference for the executives.
Dream
No point listening to Arteta talking about players.
Better to look at his actions.
I stopped listening to Arteta since he said laca is his type of 9 and dropping him for Nketiah the very next game.
What he speaks is irrelevant.
Actions matter.
Pierre .
He also said that Mari was supposed to make a comeback and had a setback just after he made that decision but you wont factor that will you .
“Personally I find Rich a bit left wing.”
Lol but I see where you’re coming from Mark, I find Steve Bannon a bit left wing compared to yourself.
Mustafi has denied that he’s been offered a new contract but he wants to stay, the way Arteta talks about him is worrying too, hope we don’t double down on that mistake.
Martinelli back in training with the group and could be available in a couple of weeks, great news (if he gets games)
With only 2 CBs available in Europe and Mustafi just getting back from a long term injury it would be nice to see Saliba getting some game time against Man U.
Not the ideal first game to play but that’s on Artetas bad planning.
Nelson rejected going out on loan this summer so that explains why he’s still here, doesn’t explain why we’re playing our strikers out of position though.
It’s not really rocket science how we can up the creativity, atm we only have 1 creative player at the pitch at the same time, either on the right in Pepe, who seldom gets the ball, or on the left in Saka.
No one in midfield.
All this just to squeeze in an extra underperforming striker, an extra underperforming CB, and to protect Xhaka.
If we play Auba middle, Saka left and Pepe right with Willian behind we have 3 players that can create for Auba, all 3 can also score, even if they’re not prolific.
Hope we’ll see a lot of youngsters tonight, and Xhaka.
Just realised that Pep, Prilo and Arteta have one thing in common. They played in the same position during their playing days with similar style (Arteta joining belatedly to the party via Arsenal).
CC
Nelson cant get selected to play on wings over the likes of Nketiah and Willock.
So your point that Nelson is better than Pepe is your personal fantasy.
Pepe needs some continuity above all, he’s been in and out of the team regardless of how he performs.
He scores one or 2 goals in one game and then he’s benched the next game, he gets and assist or 2 in one game and then he’s benched again. No rhyme or reason behind it.
We paid a fuckton of money for him and the talent is obviously there so give him the opportunity to show it. Preferably with some support on the pitch. If he then fails it’s on him.
i dont see Pepe as talented more so than any average winger in the EPL…
most are quick, can beat their man, score and put in crosses.
What makes Pepe so special? He is a one dimensional player with one dominant foot. All this talk of supporting him does not make sense when he himself never changes his game. I did see he tried a right footed cross once last season…. yipee!
I would go with a natural right footer ( Reiss) who is stronger, and a decent dribbler and scorer too.
Pepe loses the ball so much that when he actually dribbles a few times it seems like he is the second coming of messi. but he actually just did some normal dribbling.
Uncle Raul was looking out for number one, when he gave the fans a new shiny toy that summer named Pepe. Only thing is that it broke fast and there was no warranty
Makes sense to gang on Raul when we were all ecstatic when Pepe transfer happened. Most of us thought it’s a pipe dream we could pull an insane talent like him. Raul was adored by fans at the time. Everyone was over the moon. I legit thought we are buying a Hazard type of talent.
Why are we trashing Raul for a transfer 99% of Arsenal fans would have done in the blink of an eye? That it hasn’t worked since then is why everything is easier to see in hindsight.
Just reading some articles and opinions at the time, I also remember watching a twitter video of fans so happy shaking his hands thanking him, calling him Don Raul, our savior. Other fans wanted him knighted, name a stand after him, a statue. Everyone thought we are making a coup, a game changing transfer that could skyrocket us to the elites.
It’s not fair to put all the blame on him when we all would have done it.
I think your right Raptora, it was hard to see what would happen to Pepe. Perhaps a lot more more scouting and with Emery having more of a voice would have helped. That $ could have landed Zaha. Emery is on record stating he even spoke with Zaha about coming.
But because of Wenger’s pitfalls, Emery was only a coach… with very little say in transfers.
So Raul, and I do think he was also working to keep himself in good graces got the big fish for us. However, as we know now, the Kroenkes are pissed and even hired the new attorney fella to oversee things.
OTOH, if Pepe was as good or better, all of us would be calling him the Don….
I just think we need to be careful with these one hit wonders from Ligue 1. They are great there but EPL is a different beast.
What makes Nicolas Pepe special?
Outstanding footwork (dribbling)
Ability to take shots off with the curl he gets,with minimal back lift.
That makes it hard to stop him from taking shots and doesn’t give the GK enough time to set himself.
Why isn’t he effective?
1)His dribbling is nullified because he loses control of the ball under physical challenges.
Lacks upper body strength.
He needs to bulk up.
2)Doesn’t get into good positions to receive the ball.
And doesn’t get into good shooting positions.
This nullifies his shooting ability.
If he improves on these two aspects,he would be a world class player.
He is clearly a world class talent
Get the ball to Pepe while he is near or in the box and goals are guaranteed, if Auba isnt scoring its unlikely Pepe will.
Left foot
All those things are valid points, but he has been here a little while now, why have they not been addressed?
I think Arteta is of the mind, to give Pepe the ball and then he expects him to score worldies or something
OTOH I think players themselves know what they need to work on, and I dont see any visible improvements If there were, I would acknowledge it.
I do hope Pepe can give us something this season… I think personally having AMN behind him would help… He would not have to cover and drop back as much as he does now….
Guns
Bulking up takes time.
You can’t do that in just one day.
As for improvement in positioning and movement is concerned,Arteta has been working on it.
Saka had neither when he first broke in the team.
He has them now, which is clearly as a result of coaching.
Players’ improve at different rates.
Saka has improved quickly.
Pepe hasn’t.