Arsenal dropped their squad picture for the season. Bit weird that Mesut is in it, but hey ho, what are you gonna do?
BIG trouble for Willian. He’s been busted taking a hot trip to Dubai to meet with Salt Bae. He was caught by… a photo. Which suggests the trip was probably permitted. The story seems to say that he’ll have to take a covid test before he returns to play with the lads… not sure that’s any different to how the rest of the players will have to behave. Kind of feels like this story is a bit of a nonsense. Hardly a Sneeze Rave in Brockley Park, is it? Also, notable that the Brazilian is all over the .com. I suspect the club will welcome a bit of alone time for him, needs to get his nut on the game this weekend.
Our big hope after this lockdown is that Arteta has had some time to think through the abomination before the international break and work on some solutions. He’ll have had plenty of players to work with, so hopefully there’s some new thinking heading into another outrageous run of Premier League games.
I’m hearing mutterings that he very much likes the Swedish kid…
Our first game back is Leeds away. Far from ideal. They play like a pack of hyenas, hunting you down, harassing you… scoring goals for fun. There’s quite a chunk of the fanbase that thinks the best way for Arteta to get over the loss last week is to throw all caution to the wind and try to savage them back. That my friends, is what dim people suggest. We don’t have the players, nor the muscle memory to drops something like that. I suspect the system will stay in place, but the chess pieces will move around.
There are some forced moves that we’ll have to deal with. Mo Elneny is out with Covid. That likely opens to the door for Dani boy next to Thomas Partey. The question is who fills in for the more advanced role? Will Arteta dare put Granit Xhaka in against a side that will see him as a tactical weakness? Is it time for Joe Willock to get a runout? His positional sense and movement could be problematic for Leeds, especially on the break.
What is apparent is the options in midfield aren’t exactly oozing sex appeal. However, it appears the rumblings have started up for January.
The most alarming of them is that Christian Eriksen has been linked with a swap deal for Granit Xhaka. Now, on paper, I quite like the idea of moving on the Swiss for someone creative. However, the deal would put us back on course to repeat the mistakes of signing greats of the past. The Dane has been a machine during his career for assists and vital setpieces. However, at 28, on £250k a week, it’s hard to look at signing him as anything outside Mesut MKII. After watching that Spurs doco, it’s apparent he’s a bit of a beta male. Not sure I like that.
Now, I could tolerate the move if it were a loan for 5 months. I would also want to see movement on Aouar or Sobolazai. My preference would be the Hungarian. He has a low price point and a very high ceiling. You also don’t have the annoyance of an entourage that’ll be pushing for Madrid after 3 assists. Though the Austrian League is less competitive than Ligue 1, I do like that Dominik is and out and out goals and assists machine. The ceiling there is very high.
Any of those players improve us, but two of them are the profile of player we SHOULD be signing. The other is just giving oxygen to a transfer strategy that has not helped us at all.
I’d normally suggest that Arsenal moving for anyone is January unlikely… but, we know there’s probably budget available from the signings we didn’t make in the summer. Well, that’s the hope anyway.
There’s also a higher probability that we clear a few players off the wage bill that have 5 months to go on their deals… though I won’t hold my breath.
Ok, do you feel textually satiated? Good. Now listen to a podcast I did with an Arsenal and a Spurs fan, it’s called United Mates Podcast. They had a quiz at the start they had to scrap because I was so bad at it. I talked some good football though, enjoy.
Kaz
Totally agree, Eddie for Laca is like for like. Neither can perform the role he’s asking them to play.
Play Eddie up front but play him as a striker, not a false 9 or whatever you call it. A striker needs to close down but shouldn’t be dropping into midfield unless he’s capable of special things and that’s not Eddie.
I only just turned 30 8 years ago.
It’s not all bad…….
The more I see and hear things, the more I think we made a poor decision with MA.
Sorry Pedro.
China1 This is the first time I find that you have selective reading. Guen is currently captain of the France U21 NT. He is highly regarded by his current coach and is already talking of signing him permanently. You ignored all these facts and focused on a coach remark three years ago when Guen was 18. When I was 18 I was also young and restless. As for that incident after the BHA game, both the referee and pundits didn’t see that as a fault. At that time, my response was that Wenger and Mou would have swept it under… Read more »
Kaz “Kane was given his chance at a young age, he took it and never looked back.Eddie has been given chances. What we’re seeing isn’t great” What we are seeing from eddie is similar to kane when he was in and out of the side. In 2013 Kane (19 years of age)was loaned out to Leicester and scored 2 goals in 13 appearances. In 2013/14 he scored 4 goals in 19 appearances. the following season he really made the breakthrough due to Sherwood originally showing the faith in him.. I wouldn’t say Kane originally took his chance as 6 goals… Read more »
Ian Wright was 100% correct when he said “Nketiah needs to get angry”.
Imo, he has the talent to move forward but he’s got to show he wants it.
Arteta’s tactics don’t help matters but, putting that aside, Nketiah has to show more desire and hunger in his play.
If he can take on board what Wrighty said then, I feel, he can still be a major asset for AFC.
Danny “Totally agree, Eddie for Laca is like for like.” Sorry , i don’t see like for like. I see Lacazette backing into defenders and enjoying receiving the ball with his back to goal and trying to get his shot away.. .that is his strength. I see Lacazette unable to find space on the pitch or in the penalty area, he lacks anticipation in the box and he lacks speed of thought in the box. I see Eddie making space for himself on the pitch, i see him playing on the shoulder of defenders , i see anticipation and sharpness… Read more »
I’m still willing to give MA every chance.
But I wonder how much further forward
we might have been with a manager with a proven
track record and not one who is learning on the job.?
Poor squad or not.?
Arsenals signing of Partey gives me hope
how is his injury?
.
It’s pretty clear from the comments section – real mix of subjects, preferences, comments on different players etc etc that a) the International breaks should be banned b) there’s something wrong with Arsenal at the moment and people feel uneasy about things, it’s not an obvious problem it’s a mix of things hence so many views and solutions.
I really hope Arteta has managed to come up with a solution during the break that we can start to implement against Leeds and see develop over the next few weeks.
Martinelli is 10x better then Eddie Nk
James
Our current squad is better than what Emery had – player poverty is a poor excuse.
The argument about Guendouzi is moot. If you’re an annoying cunt then you really have to be an exceptional player to compensate. Similarly, if you have the balls of Keane or Vieira then I hope you have the steel and the nous to live up to them.
I’ve seen little from the Frenchman to suggest he is anything more than a decent player with silly hair.
The thing is Marc, our squad is better now. But it’s also obviously rubbish if we want to be winning the epl or cl. No manager or amount of tactical instruction will make that happen with this squad, until we can sort out the wage bill and have players actually reflecting their value on the pitch. ATM it’s now just 2 different managers’ left overs, and a half assed window clouded by backroom shit going down that has left the squad with no real balance. We still have a seriously poor midfield. And defence is obviously shit as Arteta can’t… Read more »
Half assed window, we all know what that means. Despite Partey and Gabby, we also purchased Cedric and Mari for seriously dubious reasons and got rid of none of the deadwood.
Covid helped with that. But still shit effort.
Pierre,
Displacing Martenelli for Nketiah is mad.
20 mil on the table for Amn and yet it was rejected and he has barely played a minute. That in itself is sackable imo
Pep just signed s new contract. Surprising.
Messi on the way??
*a new contract
Graham
I did respond to your Rangers post days ago but it went straight into moderation and was never heard of again!
Totally agree with your point, because as every true passionate Gooner should know, in the early 1900’s, Rangers bought a few shares in Arsenal which saved us from extinction, and those close bonds between the two still exist today.
HerbsArmy
I knew there would be someone out there.
🍺
Correct me if I’m wrong here but didn’t AMN play in our FA Cup semifinal win over MC, the Cup Final win against Chelski and our CS win against Liverpool. Wasn’t he one our best players in all these games?
What the fudge has happened since?
Over to you Mikel.
Going through the comments
Arteta is being found out big time.
Should Arteta be ditched ?
No, Arteta is a good coach and that’s where he should be at Arsenal. Unlike a passive Bould, Arteta can be counted to be hard working and useful.
Who should be fired is Edu , who does not seem to bring much except dapper looks. Being subservient. to the extent of surrendering to an upstart on apprenticeship does not inspire confidence.
Also didn’t he nullify Adama Traore in our win at Wolves?
Goober
“The thing is Marc, our squad is better now. But it’s also obviously rubbish if we want to be winning the epl or cl.”
My current criticism isn’t that we’re aren’t challenging for the PL or CL – that’s going to take time, it took Klopp 4 years. My issue is we aren’t competing for top 4 which is the first major step in getting to challenge for the PL or CL.
Given the choice of either Hector Bellerin or AMN, I know who I’d choose.
It’s a no brainer.
Absolutely Graham. The trick of man management is to locate the USP of the player and utilise him in that respect. Credit to Arteta to provide the focal point, in these cases the most dangerous players of the opposition namely, Marez, Tarore, etc . ANM stays focused ,neutralises these and throws their attack out of gear.
Subsequent benching of ANM where same could be utilised is PERVERSITY of Arteta or our own mad Sancho Panza
Graham “Correct me if I’m wrong here but didn’t AMN play in our FA Cup semifinal win over MC, the Cup Final win against Chelski and our CS win against Liverpool. Wasn’t he one our best players in all these games?What the fudge has happened since?” Well, AMN did the pre match press conference in Vienna and came out in support of a player who is not to be mentioned. He didn’t play in Vienna, which i thought was rather strange as it is normal for a player to start if he fronts the pre match press conference. Hardly been… Read more »
Ishola
Arteta will not and should not get a free pass for three seasons for winning an FA Cup.That’s called lowering the standards and the bar.
When you invest in a new player you give him time to develop and flourish.
It’s the same with a new manager.
You can’t compare Arteta to Wenger or even Emery, just as you can’t compare Saka with Ronaldo or Sterling.
No board expects instant success when they take the rookie route. With a FA Cup under his belt Arteta is already ahead of the curve.
The very sore point to me about Arteta is that if you want your team to play a certain way , follow some clear precise instructions then why the hell would you play those players who make the errors repeatedly ? Isnt it better to okay Nelson Saka Willock who being young and inexperienced more likely to follow what the manager says . With their talent developing , I’d rather see them in PL.
Kiril
“Martinelli is 10x better then Eddie Nk”
It is possible to like both Martinelli and eddie you know..
If Arteta wants to play a pressing , high tempo game , then he needs to play Martinelli and Eddie and willock and Saka..
Willian Aubameyang and Lacazette will never press with any intensity for any length of time .
*Play instead of okay
Goobergooner
We still have a seriously poor midfield. And defence is obviously shit as Arteta can’t seem to get away from 3 at the back.
—
Defence being shit goes beyond just the players. Defence will be shit when you invite the opposition to batter you.
There’s a difference between playing to win and playing not to lose.
Pierre
Cheers.
It just adds to Arteta’s list of crap decisions.
Must be at least double figures now.
Where’s Pedro when you need him?
AMN seemed to playing all the games and now suddenly he is being dropped again. not sure what is going on there. Did he not take the pay cut Arteta proposed ?
Kaz Pierre,Displacing Martenelli for Nketiah is mad. — That was the first baffling thing Arteta did, for me. A young player in form, our second highest goalscorer, and you relegated him to the bench for Nketiah. I still remember the Olympiacos game. Forward line was lethargic and Arteta waited till the 100th minute to introduce Martinelli. And what happened? The forward line became more energetic and we scored a few minutes later. I think we would have won that game if Martinelli came on in the 60th minute. And since then, Arteta has made more baffling squad decisions. For me,… Read more »
Personally, I’d like to see Arteta unleash Balogun, but something tells me that aint gonna happen as he wasn’t even included in the squad v Molde .
Must have missed a zoom merting or something similar.
Meeting
Ashwin /AMN
Refer to my comment earlier and you may find the answer.
According to Pierre ANM , in his Vienna pre-match presses , praised a player who should not be mentioned a.k.a.did a Non- Negotiable
Arsenal is renowned for their omertà as well as PR in the press, by the way. So do not feel bad if missed that
Happy Birthday Kaz
May Arsenal win against Leeds to give you a belated birthday present
Happy Birthday Kaz, you old git! 🙂
Pierre
You are writing a lot of sense today. I agree with you about Balogun but like a few others his demeanour can be misleading – the same with AMN. They give the impression of being ‘too’ casual however their timing and reaction is the opposite.
Pierre
If that is the case, then Arteta is losing the dressing room. he is desperate to show his authority and doing everything he can to suppress the dissent.
Our implosive decline both on and off the field since leaving Highbury is staggering, if you look at what Liverpool and Leicester are doing on a far less spend.
Even that lot in N17 are schooling us, and the arrival of Bale is a game-changer, and it hurts to say it, but they are title contenders.
We are a behemoth who can’t resist pressing the self-destruct button, and it seems like we’ve been in the same place since the humiliation at OT in August 2011.
6 points of the Top.
This is the most stupid thing anybody can say. we have lost three matches. we are still in shouting distance because other teams dropped points and not because of anything our “Zoom meeting” manager did..
I mean, with all his expensive assembled squad, our “Best young manager in the milky way” couldnt even beat Villa at HOME.
We have the 2019 runners up golden boot striker,
A Madrids top DM,
Let that sink in
I don’t know you Kaz, but as a fellow blogging Arsenal fan, happy birthday.
“Did he not take the pay cut Arteta proposed ?”
To be exact, the pay cut was commanded from the board, most likely from KSE. Initially, a lot of players have rejected that. The board then asked the poor Arteta to talk to the players. At that time, Arteta was only the coach. He shouldn’t be the one who deals with money.
AMN went from being a very useful player who was probably our best RB, to being the invisible man from the moment the charity shield finished
I called for us to keep him and sell Bellerin and I’d have gladly seen us done so – but if you’re going to bench him forever and suddenly think he’s trashy then SELL and take that 20m and buy fucking Dom Slobby or frankly anyone who you actually want to play instead.
Why turn solid money down for a player you don’t want any more???
As much as any bad results or performances the handling of cases like AMN is really baffling. Like he kept xhaka when most of us were saying take the damn money last year but he was new in the job, he liked the players attitude etc and obviously rated the player so as much as many of us were disappointed at least you can see what he was thinking not wanting to sell an experienced first 11 player straight after arriving
But cases like AMN are baffling, really.
I bet if in jan someone offered us 10m for ozil and ozil was interested Mikel would have second thoughts and ask him to stay after all haha
Guy is a hoarder, make no mistake
Offering mustafi a new contract was literally scandalous. Might as well bring back Senderos and eboue if we’re going to invest in another 3 years of mustafi
In the last 10 odd months arteta has:
-turned down offers for AMN, Laca and xhaka, offered Mustafi a new contract, and signed Mari and soares.
He’s the managerial equivalent of my uncle who used to barely be able to move around his house from all the clutter – 95% of which was DVD cases for low budget sci-fi tv shows you would never have heard of.
And frankly those dvds are more useful and better value for money than the players Mikel has been hoarding
Eddie at this point is as useless as Laca. Probably worse.
Lets talk when Eddie manages the same goal tally as Martinelli before his injury in around half a season
If Martinelli gets back his pre Civid form, Edde can take a rest on the bench. No comparison.
Though, what matters isn’t skills and form hut Arteta!
Too many questionable decisions and management issues that could be all swept aside as teething problems. .
“Pedro, any thoughts on this ?? Of course not…”
common, did you forget the good old argument.
“He is a world cup winner.”
Ashwin, I judge on actions, not Twitter rumours.
Any comments on Barcelona coming in for Mustafi?
Happy birthday kaz!
Herb, glad you sorted the apostrophe issue, sorry it took so long.
I read that Madrid wants to dump Isco to us and signs Dominik Szoboszlai. Why do we always the one to pick up rejects? We should sign Dominik Szoboszlai ourselves and let Madrid stuck with Isco.
Yeah, thanks Pedro.
“Ashwin, I judge on actions, not Twitter rumours.”
C A N ‘ T H E L P I T – W A N T T O C O M M E N T B U T W I L L G E T B A N N E D!
Arteta for a change please play ceba,party,willock in mid and saka,auba,Pepe in attack maybe will get different result.
Thanks everyone 😊
If I ever start a YouTube football thing I’d love to get people here involved!
Kaz, Happy Birthday…!!! The good news is your still very young, the bad news is.. it will take you another 20 years to gain wisdom. 😀
For Willock to establish his position in the starting 11, he has to build up the chemistry with Saka. Saka is a very good passer in the final third. He needs support to break through the defense. Both Auba and Pepe are low touch players. Their strength is to make run and shoot.
Wasn’t it skodran baresi last year when he managed all of 3 games without an error?
Mustafi for president. Elite World Cup winning legend
Luiz and Ceballos got in to on the training ground.
But, young Guendouzi got shipped out for being a nuisance? AMN all of sudden being out of favour again?
Arteta and his non negotiables? The guy is so far up his own back side. He’s fcuking full of shit
Nelson.. for Willock to get into the lineup we would have to drop the 3-4-3. Because our 2 CM’s are tasked with hanging back to cover our 3 cb’s because … one of them is Holding, Mustafi or Luiz and the other one is Tierney who is not really a cb.
Arteta has to go.
We should have put the hooks in, back in September for DS…
This always happens. I doubt we get him now….
We always wait. its the achilles heal of Arsenal. Waiting until the end and praying that you get the player you want at a discount.
The ghost of Wenger never leaves.
Did not care for Raul, but you would think he would have jumped on this early…. with his rolodex open, wheeling and dealing
Pedro the mustafi contract was reported by a dozen odd newspapers, not just some dude on Twitter. You’d require less evidence to believe more favourable news about arteta
Scandalous to do that, really
On the topic of transfers / squad management….. There’s a ‘Team of the season’ article today on the Guardian website. Kind of shows whose hit the ground running. Names Fofana and Barkley in the first eleven with substitute mentions for Martinez, James and Hojbjerg. That’s a lot of talent that moved this Summer and funnily enough the only one associated with Arsenal was the keeper we sold.
Mid
I know Arteta is a conservative coach. I am talking about a plan B when there is a need to send more players forward.
Mattb
That’s right, we ended up with the wrong GK.
Where would be if he had still been in goal.
I suspect a few more points better off and, I hasten to add, with a far happier squad of players.
Arteta has disrupted the ecosystem.
It shows.
Arsenal found a winning formula that could be improved on. We were on the up.
Not now.
Thanks Arsene………….Oops! I mean Mikel!!
China, I write about football every day, I know how the media works. One person says something, they all write about it for clicks.
Has Mustafi signed a new deal?
No.
Is he playing?
No.
So what exactly are you whining about?
Dream, Dani C denying it.
You lot are unbelievable drama queens at every turn.
Players fighting each other is absolute standard at football clubs.
Karsa
“With a FA Cup under his belt Arteta is already ahead of the curve.”
No Karsa you are over-valuing the modern day FA Cup again.
If Arteta finishes this season say below midtable or thereabouts he isn’t ahead of any curve.
It’s already been pointed out that the real business end for any cub that sees themselves as a real serious outfit is EPL performance and that translating into european competition.
That’s where it is at I’m afraid Karsa.
Ish, he isn’t overvaluing anything.
Trophies matter. You only have to watch All or Nothing to understand that. Arteta winning a trophy is hugely important to the process and it does relieve this pressure you are talking about.
‘If we finish below midtable’ is such a bedwetter worry.
Pedro
It’s really simple.
If Arteta is seen as failing in the EPL and not getting them lucrative european nights in CL then his FA Cup will not matter.
This is modern day football.
I mean we can go Wenger later period again if you want where we can pretend we are one of the top teams in the land just by winning FA Cups.
Of course we all saw the folly in that thought a little further down the road with Wenger.
Ish, you are just creating strawmen here.
Karsa didn’t say we would lower the standards, he just said winning and FA Cup within his first 9 months puts him ahead of the curve.
It does.
He’s in Europe. 6 points off top. All to play for.
Telling people that finishing 15th might not be good isn’t really shedding light on a new thought.
Manchester United won all the secondary trophies under Mourinho in that season.
Hauled them all in. Won them all.
Where did it get them? Nowhere.
Regression if anything.
Pedro
If Arteta finishes 10th in the EPL come the end of the season he isn’t ahead of any curve.
This is just an example,
The EPL and CL is where it is at for top sides.
Not FA Cups.
Pedro
Would you agree that Arteta’s primary KPI for this season is getting top 4?
And anything on top of that is a massive bonus.
‘The EPL and CL is where it is at for top sides.Not FA Cups.’
Not often that I agree with Ishola, on the money with this though.
Arteta’s remit when he came into the job would be to get this club back into the CL just like it was with Emery.
It wouldn’t have been to win FA Cups.
This is modern day football.
If Poch had won a FAC yall would be like “FA cup isn’t even a trophy anymore, teams play their reserves etc etc, call me when he wins a EPL or UCL”.
But cause Arteta won FAC, trophies matter.
Can’t make this shit up.
Marc, his objective will be to make top 4. He’s gone on the record as saying that.
China1
November 19, 2020 13:58:50
I bet if in jan someone offered us 10m for ozil and ozil was interested Mikel would have second thoughts and ask him to stay after all haha
Guy is a hoarder, make no mistake
Offering mustafi a new contract was literally scandalous. Might as well bring back Senderos and eboue if we’re going to invest in another 3 years of mustafi
Reading that got me laughing,make no mistake those are signs of an inexperience manager,he is always in two kinds when about to take this kind of decisions
Happy birthday Kas
Enjoy your day
Raptora, last time I checked, Poch didn’t win the FA Cup.
Getting upset Arsenal fans think the FA Cup is a trophy is very odd behaviour.
I also don’t think anything else is a massive bonus.
He’ll want a trophy this season. EL or one of the cups will be right up there as a priority.
Van Gaal got sacked after he won the FAC. FAC isn’t all that. It’s a consolation prize. It doesn’t show anyone’s progress. Wigan won it the season they got relegated.
Arteta’s recruitment so far in terms of ins and outs has been questionable really. Don’t get me wrong, Gabriel and Partey look like being potential mainstays for years to come but not signing another CM was very strange. As was the Mari signing, literally no point and vibes of Kim Kallstrom off of it in that starting to doubt that we even get to see him in an Arsenal shirt on the pitch. Our squad composition is bizarre, we have EIGHT centre backs yet only 5 midfielders covering three spots. No creative midfielder at all and no goalscoring midfielder at… Read more »
It’s a nice bonus for the fans and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the wins in the recent years. But the real benchmark is the EPL first and then the UCL when you manage to qualify for it.
I’m not convinced that OGS and fat Frank would have been spared if they didn’t finish in top 4 last season. But they did so they still have a job.
Fast forward to the end of this season and if they finish outside of top 4 they’ll get sacked. No FA cup will save them.
” EL or one of the cups will be right up there as a priority.”
Right now that looks like a “fuck we’re not going to make Europe through the league response”.
Raptora
I think Lampard like Arteta gets some more time just because of being a newbie.
It then becomes a case if these newbies fail in the EPL just how hard they fail in whether they are got rid of or not.
OGS could have been different because even though he is also a relatively new manager he has been in the hot seat longer than Arteta and Lampard.
But these newbies will be only given so much time to get things right. If you act like a top club that is.
Europa League would be more valued now than the FA Cup just because of the prize in winning it = CL qualification.
You can beat what are seen as stronger teams to win the FA Cup but it matters not when the end prize for winning it is only Europa League qualification instead of CL.
Marc, it would look like that sort of response because you are scared.