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.
“He is in Europe ”
So is every other team that started the season playing European football, no team has been eliminated yet, we were actually in Europe when the sauce took over last season, who crashed us out?
“Six points off top”
We are 11th on the standings, they are 9 other teams separating us from this top you keep going on about
“He has all to play for”
So does every other coach in a major European league, you make it sound like a unique achievement
WE, I would put Willian, Partey and Gabriel on Arteta.
January would be a Raul thing imo.
Pedro
Scared?
Of what?
RH, I know it’s a mad concept here… but points to the top is what is important, that’s what the real distance is, places between the top is only relevant to doom-mongers like you.
Also, pretty sure that Brendan Rodgers doesn’t have it all to play for, because they are out the league cup.
Mari and Soares are 100% Arteta signings
During last Summer, PapaSok was begging the club to let him go free because there were teams in Italy showing interest. The club rejected his wish. Now he is not in the squad and we keep paying his salary. If I were KSE, I would ask the board to explain to me why they made such a decision.
No coach starts off the season playing for the league cup , it’s a competitoon
Marc, you are scared of the worst possibilities. You are a half-empty guy. A debbie downer. Eyoh in Whinnie the Pooh.
You see the worst possible outcomes.
Its a competition that changes it’s name every season and used to give reserve players run outs
Pedro we are also 9 points off 18th place West brom, that’s also real
Pedro “WE, I would put Willian, Partey and Gabriel on Arteta.January would be a Raul thing imo.” Not sure you can play it that way so easily. Soares was a loan in Jan which was whatever – not sure why we made him permanent but that was done in June. Mari on the other hand – had been on City’s books and was playing in Brazil. If only we had a Manager and a Tech Dir who had connections to either? You’re turning into Valentin where any good signing is / was a Mislintat signing, a bad one is a… Read more »
RH, you can’t flat earth how close we are to top and you can’t flat earth the League Cup being a trophy that we are in and some clubs are not.
The very fact you will try because you are wedded to misery does not surprise me.
Pedro
“You see the worst possible outcomes.”
Must be something to do with the quality of the blogs I read!!!
We have lost more league matches than in crisis Man United and same number as newly prompted Leeds. But let’s keep checking how many points we are off top like the top is a target
Marc,
Not really. Willian was a shite signing.
The superagent that recommended Emery pitched Mari. The super-agent that pitched Soares on a 4 year deal pitched Edu.
Then Raul was fired.
Not a difficult equation.
…but again, anything to dump on Arteta.
Pedro
“RH, you can’t flat earth how close we are to top ”
So what happens if we lose this weekend and the bottom clubs pick up points so we are 9 points off top and 6 off 18th?
RH, but again, all that matters is how close we are to the top. The rest is noise. There is no crisis until we’re 15 points from 4th.
Oh wow Marc, another ‘what if the worst thing happens’ question.
Top 4 is the objective.
As long as we are within 6 points of that position by Feb, we’ll be on track.
Pedro Not at all – The Soares loan made some sort of sense signing him permanently not so much when Arteta likes (liked?) AMN. Mari has too many connections to Edu and Arteta o dismiss them because it’s convenient for you – I would point out as he’s hardly played it’ll be interesting to see if Arteta uses him much – I’d say any judgement on him should be on hold at the moment. Willian I’ll agree on – made sense on paper but really isn’t looking good at the moment. Gabriel looks like the bets signing of the summer… Read more »
Pedro
“As long as we are within 6 points of that position by Feb, we’ll be on track.”
Just checking – that is 1st and not 18th right?
We were not 15 points off fourth when Emery was sacked, so 15 points off fourth isn’t a crisis, its something worse
I think there is one more criteria. The fans have to understand what is Arteta’s “process” and the team is progressing on the right track. Klopp also needs a few years to finish his process.
RH, you gotta get over the Emery thing.
He was a bum manager that couldn’t speak English, command the respect of his superiors, or his players.
He was bombed out because it was going nowhere.
Arteta is fixing his mess as we speak. He’s already won a trophy. He’s just six points from top.
We were 18 points off top when Emery was in charge… for context.
“We were 18 points off top when Emery was in charge… for context.”
When?
His dismissal date? At the end of his first season?
I’m just pointing out that 15 points off fourth place at any point in the season shouldn’t be seen as a crisis, mentioned Emery because he was sacked when we were in a crisis, We were 8 points off fourth then. As for the rest of your post can’t see the relevance, fixing what mess? 2 points off third and an EL final? We outscored both Chelsea and Spurs that season. Can you see that happening this season with a much improved squad? Don’t know when the fact Wigan won the FA cup the season they were relegated will dawn… Read more »
RH, the crisis with Emery went well beyond just points.
Sadly for you, we aren’t anywhere near that with Arteta.
It was just in your world Pedro. For the rest of us it’s about performance then results, We are struggling on both points as we speak.
You can’t claim defensive solidity when you have conceded more than you scored after 8 matches.
You can’t clam attacking prowess when you struggle for shots on target let alone goals
By what metric are we really that much better off this season?
RH, We have beaten a top 6 side away from home We now compete in big games We have addressed our defensive issues. The best defences in the league have conceded 9, we have conceded 10 after player 4 teams in teh top 6 We have one of the best young centre backs in the league We have one of the best young defensive midfielders in the league Our biggest problems has been top players out of form, chances are, that won’t last We are top of our group in Europa We are 6 points off first, very much in… Read more »
… and please, stop with the ‘it’s all about performance’ nonsense.
You couldn’t see a problem with Emery for 18 months, now you claim to have standards? Embarrassing stuff.
Pedro
“… and please, stop with the ‘it’s all about performance’ nonsense.You couldn’t see a problem with Emery for 18 months, now you claim to have standards? Embarrassing stuff.”
That door goes both ways – you had impossible standards for Emery that have now disappeared for Arteta.
You’re just on the end of a bit of karma – and it’s more than a little deserved.
“We have one of the best young defensive midfielders in the league”
Who the hell is that?
First season I was all for Emery. I was really disappointed that he couldnt step it up second season, and we looked an absolute disorganised mess. I didn’t feel safe going into any game at all.
Arteta is a totally different situation, where there is a clear plan and clear idea, but I do worry about him a bit and his ability to adapt and innovate beyond his blueprint.
How he lines up against Leeds this weekend will tell us a lot. I’m looking forward to it.
What culture has changed and what are you basing this change on? We lost 3-1 to Liverpool at anfield last season, Same this Season. Lost to Leicester and Villa at home. Man united is the only game one would say we were expected to lose but didn’t. We have conceded 10 goals in 8 games, they are no best defence trophies after 8 games. Did you expect that 8 games into the league season we would have lost four? Was that an expected part of the process? We had one of the best young midfielders in Europe last season, one… Read more »
How typical to reference Van Gaal as some quip against FA cup wins. Only possible when you’re dishonest enough to remove literally all other context – which continues to be the case whenever dissecting Arteta. – Arteta won the FA cup 6 months into his career as manager, with a squad of players that in no way can be classed as his own, who were in the gutter mid season. That’s an achievement. – Van Gaal won the FA cup, but was sacked because he’d been at a United two years, overseen 13 high-profile signings, and spent nearly 300 million… Read more »
Di Matteo won the Champions league after how many months at Chelsea?
As things stand it could go either way for Arteta at this stage. He could galvanise and push on or he could disappoint. And people will question at this time just for the fact of seeing so many unconvincing all round displays this season. And only those that have tied their colours to the mast in proclaiming Arteta a generational coach will get irritated at the questioning. Plenty of others are not sure he is this sure thing at this point. As is the case in many matters it’s a question of waiting and seeing. He could win at Leeds… Read more »
RH Emery had totally lost the dressing room by the time he was sacked. There was no retribution for him and he was a mess. Arteta has put some structure to the team, just way too much structure. Jardin in the season before he won the league with Monaco had a lot of draws and 1-0’s as he built from the back. Second season he had the right players to open the play up and won the league but it was built on the defensive foundation. I’m hoping, this is what Arteta is aiming at and I’m hopi g he… Read more »
An FA cup win is an achievement for any coach let alone a young coach but should never be the basis on which a coaches tenure at a major English club is judged.
We are a team still paying champions league wages and Arteta’s league results and performance since he joined the club has been lacking. You can deny this all you want
Danny we have no defensive foundation, the minute we try to play football the defense collapses
RH, I didn’t expect to be within 6 points of top of the league after 8 games. You though Emery a top coach, not sure your inability to spot the changes at Arsenal is on anyone else but yourself. Danny, that’s a fair comment. Can he innovate his way to a more free-flowing attacking brand of football without the players to do it. What is the cost of Willock in the starting 11? Can ESR make a difference? The simplest move would be Auba through the middle, Saka left, and playing Willian into form. Still not sure where the creativity… Read more »
We practically collapsed when trying to hold on to a lead at United, West Ham opened us up again and again, Leicester scored from a simple ball over the top and could have scored another but for a Leno save with Vardy through again, Villa could have scored six!!!
We have no defensive foundation, quit telling yourselves lies
Ishola
Agree – I haven’t seen anyone serious call for Arteta’s head (yet) but he’s got a decent squad and performances have been going backwards – it doesn’t make you a bad fan to question when something isn’t right.
Aston Villa, Everton, Wolves and Palace are some of the names ahead of us in the standings, this top of the table you keep referencing is occupied by an injury hit Leicester city. We are not creating anything worthwhile and the only solution for it apparently is a new signing.
At this point we aren’t really having a serious conversation Pedro, have a nice night
Receding
Is anyone saying Di Matteo winning that CL at Chelsea isn’t an achievement?
No, so keep up with what’s actually being said instead of deferring to your contrarian POV at all times. Artet winning the FA cup is being diminished as an achievement, again, read.
Pedro
I’d say give Pepe a free role. Didn’t he create 37 chances or something last season?
At some point, we were playing better football with pretty much the players we have here now.
I’d say either played a 4-2-3-1 with Pepe behind Auba or player the 3 at the back, tuck the front three a bit more central and let them drift out rather than wide drifting it, and allow the fullbacks more freedom to bomb forward. Tierney has a fantastic cross on him.
There is no serious conversation to be had with someone that spent 18 months excusing a bum, but now can’t get behind a young coach that has won a trophy.
Emery FC. What a cuck position to take.
I can’t go with this he hasn’t got the players to play a more expansive game though.
We have seen managers that are not rated the highest in charge of unfashionable teams playing far more expansive football than what we have seen from Arteta.
This is a choice from Arteta so far to be more consevative in his tactics and overall play.
Danny, it’s a weird one with Pepe, he’s had lots of chances and he seems like a poor player.
Statman Dave said that bringing him more inside would help his game. He’s not really a hug the touchline winger. I think our best chance of getting where we need to go is to get Willian, Auba and Saka on the ball faster and higher up the pitch.
… could that mean… Xhaka?
Ish, who are the expansive teams you want to emulate and with what players?
Pedro
The play overall has been ultra cautious.
We want to see a little more expression and more expansive play going forward attacking wise.
That shouldn’t be too much to ask.
Pedro “RH, I didn’t expect to be within 6 points of top of the league after 8 games. ” You’re playing games now (probably have for a while). If you want to seriously tell me you didn’t expect us to average 1.5 points per match – 57 point total over the course of the season – then you’re just fooling yourself. Truth is we should with the current squad be doing better than that – is it a surprise that the top of the PL is represented by teams who have dropped more points than we’d expect but that means… Read more »
@Pedro — We lost our identity under Arteta. He is playing pretty boring and dire football. Our plan is – nick a goal and pray to god. Its a similar feeling to that of Emery – you go into a match with lower level oppn where you are shiting in the pants knowing that we cannot buy a Goal. At least under Wenger we would know we will go into the match knowing we can win apart from silly errors at the back. The teams were pretty good value for money Entertainment wise. With Emery and more with Arteta –… Read more »
Ish, yep, it has, but there’s a reason for that.
I agree that we need to see a better brand of football. It’ll come, but he’s not going to bin it all in one go to appease the masses. I think he’ll be looking to get to Jan in good shape, then make moves with a decisive signing.
Emery seems to be your only line of defense against what you are seeing.
Emery and the this players cannot play better football line, this was the excitement you promised? The sauce? Defensive football and signings? What part of our current setup needs this exciting attacking player to come to life?
You supported Emery isn’t an answer, it sounds as ridiculous as six points off top.
Marc, no, I’m not playing games. You want to rile everyone on the doom train, but you can’t shake reality… we’ve had a rough run of games, we’re not in great form… but we’re only 6 points off the top.
That’s a positive.
gunnerram, incorrect. We have an identity for the first time in a while. We are a compact well-coached team that plays a fine margins game of football. Defence first. It’s not attractive, but it’s not built that way because we don’t have the players.
“Emery seems to be your only line of defense against what you are seeing.”
Arteta may be shit but Emery was worse.
Exactly how I want my club to set it’s ambition!
RH, flat-earthing that 6 points isn’t the true gap in the league is the laughable part.
Pedro I don’t want to rile everybody else – just you. You’re applying massive double standards and that pisses me off. I’m not wed to Emery I want any (there would be 1 or 2 exceptions ie Tony Pulis) Arsenal manager to do well. If Arteta goes on to do the 2 things that are seriously missing from Arsenal’s CV – back to back titles and winning the CL I’ll be thrilled. That doesn’t mean a) I can’t look at what’s going on and now feel happy or confident about it and b) wind you up on every occasion I… Read more »
Before Pierre or similar jumps on me I am aware Arsenal won the title 3 times on the trot in the 1930’s but I believe it was under 3 different managers.
Marc, it’d be double standards if Arteta and Emery were alike. They are not. One is a bum, the other is not.
Pedro
You are right on that – you’ve got me.
One of them is 2 points off the top of the league.
It is mind boggling that we’re still talking about Emery on here. The guy was a joke behind the scenes with players openly mocking him, he had no long term plan, he had no short term plan, he utterly destroyed Xhaka (whatever you think about him, that was 100% on Emery), and he brought the Emirates to an all time high of toxicity – which considering the latter Wenger years, really speaks volumes. Then Arteta comes in, steadies the ship, wins a must-win FA Cup final to get us into Europe (compare that to Emery’s must win cup final) and… Read more »
One of them was taking teams to first time promotion after taking over as coach from player, the other spent 3 years at a cash rich club and needs a 21 year old Hungarian from the Austrian league to produce a semblance of attacking football.
Marc
Amazing what speaking the language can do.
Almost like not being able to communicate well is a hindrance to football management.
Dani
The only person who brings up Emery is Pedro.
As for goodwill to the manager – when the stadium is re opened I’ll be there supporting the team – will you?
Arteta came in at the worst point in this club’s recent history, got the uncoachables to look decent, got us in europe and won a trophy. Yes we’ve looked shite for the past month but we have a new manager learning on the job in a pandemic. PERSPECTIVE PEOPLE!
Venga good thing the Emirates was empty as Villa when Villa threatened to score with every attack, you would have known what toxic is.
Emery in his first season had the third best home record in the league behind City and pool, we beat United, Spurs and Chelsea at home.
The 18 months of toxicity exists only in your imagination
@Marc -I just went to page 1 of the comments on here and you are the first to mention Emery….care to make your case a bit more that Pedro is the one obsessed with Emery cuz I can’t find evidence…
Pedro
“It’ll come, but he’s not going to bin it all in one go to appease the masses.”
Just strike more of a balance rather than binning anything.
And it’s not just a case of appealing to the masses. If he doesn’t get more expansive the team and results will suffer because his overall tactics if not tailored will be too limited over a 38 EPL league campaign.
CC
To me Emery has as much long term relevance to Arsenal as Bruce Rioch does. It didn’t work out he was sacked and we move on.
That doesn’t mean we can’t look at what’s going on and want and expect better.
Dani ruining some folk with that post. Perfectly put.
@RH, wow okay so we won the 3rd place home record trophy under emery! Woo hoo! How was his away record shipping 30+ shots to relegation fodder on the regular? Seriously what is your point here? That we had a shite game against Villa? Agreed…
Looks like the majority is not willing to acknowledge that we are really in dire status. I would like to know this — What happens if we only take 1 point from our next 3 games but are still within 7 points of Top-4? Is this considered progress?? Like 13 points from 11 Games and less Goals combined than Sean Hueng Min?
Hopefully the 3-0 drubbing by Villa was a real wake up call for Arteta and the squad.
Could very well prove to be a turning point in our season.
At this point I’m trying to remain optimistic still.
My point here Sir is nothing has happened at the Emirates this season to get fans off their seats if indeed fans were in the stadium.
Tell me what league home game you watched this season and felt “too bad fans aren’t in the stands to cheer on this performance”.
Clearly Emery is a good manager as his record shows however he was not suited for the position at Arsenal. He had the complete mess left from the previous manager and reported to a Spiv.
Arteta has openly stated the shambles of a performance against Villa was down to him and he will work on new options. The clock starts ticking on Sunday – the next three Premier league games will show if he has the skill set and intuition to succeed.
Dani That was over 24 hours ago and a direct retort to Pedro applying double standards – I didn’t bring up Emery today until Pedro started throwing accusations about. It’s his fall back position when anyone questions what we’re seeing at the moment – You love Emery, you love Sanllehi yada yada yada. Arteta has had 28 PL games in charge (no idea the total number in all competitions) and right now performances are going backwards. If he’s taken the last couple of weeks to take a hard look at what he’s doing and starts putting things right starting with… Read more »
Gunnerram
Dire straights?
We are 6 points from first place. A few points off CL places, we lost to a team that smashed Liverpool 7-2!
There will be a lot more highs and lows and surprises this season I bet.
“Tell me what league home game you watched this season”
Someone please tell me the last PL match where we had a good performance?
I’d say ManU at home New Years day.
@Marc – that’s 100% fair.
Receding HairlineNovember 19, 2020 20:28:29
My point here Sir is nothing has happened at the Emirates this season to get fans off their seats if indeed fans were in the stadium.
—————-
where did I say otherwise?
@Marc re: good PL performance. I thought the Man united away performance was great. Was it filled to the brim with dominance and attacking flair? Hell no. But we hadn’t won there in how long and we got the professional performance we needed IMO.
If you’re talking about a PL game where we dominated and blew a team out of the water…yeah it’s been a while. Wolves away last season maybe?
Dani
I assume you were referring to the last good performance comment?
That was just shy of a year ago – during that time Arteta’s had a lock down preseason and then what passed for one during the summer and performances are getting worse.
For me he’s too rigid and over complicates things.
@Danny+S
Will 1 point from the next 3 matches be good enough for you?
Dani
Good result and good performance are 2 completely different things. Good results are great (and we needed that one) but good performances will lead to good results as well.
Venga you said otherwise when you alluded to Emery bringing Emirates to an all time high of toxicity. That was simply a lie.
The Emirates would have been something else if we had fans on the ground witnessing the debacle against Villa.
As for Emery ruining Xhaka, lol. If anything Xhaka ruined Emery by escorting a Brighton player into the box just to pull him down for a penalty in the penultimate game of the season, two points dropped and guess how many points we missed third by that season?
Ruined Xhaka indeed
@Marc re: “For me he’s too rigid and over complicates things.” I agree. I think the rigid system worked great last year because we were in shambles. This year it looks like it’s hindering our creative players and its hurting more than helping.
I hope this is part of the learning curve and I have faith that Arteta will change things. I cannot see how he doesn’t change things after recent performances. Seems like we’re all afraid of him being as stubborn as Wenger
Gunneramm
I’m going to be positive, I’m going to give benefit of the doubt to Arteta and go with him having a trick up his sleeve to get us out this attacking slump.
We will get 7 points from the next 3 games.
To quote good old sid,
You heard it here 1st!
Dani
That’s the scary thing – if his response is to double down on the problem.
We’ll see and I’d love to pick up 9 points out of our next 3.
Emery arrived at Arsenal with a good pedigree, most notably at Sevilla, but the big difference between him and Wenger was that Wenger was given complete freedom to waste £millions on his own personal dross, whereas Emery (who wanted Wilfred Zaha) was like AVB at Spuds, forced to accept other peoples choices, so he got quite a raw deal from Arsenal.
Receding HairlineNovember 19, 2020 20:42:21
Venga you said otherwise when you alluded to Emery bringing Emirates to an all time high of toxicity. That was simply a lie.
—————
lol
10.27.19 Ars 2 Cystal Palace 2 (Xhaka incident)
11.2.19 Ars 1 Wolves 1
11.23.19 Ars 2 Southampton 2 (lacazette saving a point at 90+6 minutes)
11.28.19 Ars 1 Frankfurt 2 (5 people in attendance)
Receding HairlineNovember 19, 2020 20:42:21 Villa.As for Emery ruining Xhaka, lol. If anything Xhaka ruined Emery by escorting a Brighton player into the box just to pull him down for a penalty in the penultimate game of the season, two points dropped and guess how many points we missed third by that season?Ruined Xhaka indeed —————————- And yet Emery kept picking Xhaka, no? Xhaka was having shocker after shocker and yet Emery kept picking him. The system we were playing augmented Xhaka’s weaknesses – as opposed to what Arteta did with him last season – and it didnt take a… Read more »
Yes Venga, three draws and a dead rubber Europa league game. You are quite persuasive
Dani Vega
Emery exposed Xhaka.
By the time Emery’s tenure had ended Xhaka was on his way to Hertha Berlin.
That is a good thing.
Very nearly got Xhaka out of this club. Nearly.
The only thing of note Arteta did with Xhaka was refusing to sell him when we had the chance. Hiding him away from opponents behind a low block isn’t really worth advertising
RH
I agree there re Xhaka.
Imagine, 23m from Xhaka, 20m for AMN, 25-30m for Laca (I assume) and 40m for Leno had we sold the right keeper.
Not a bad kitty.
@ Ishola. Let’s be real – Wenger exposed Xhaka. He’s not suited to the EPL and he’s not good enough for arsenal.
Xhaka was on his way to Berlin to be sold at a major loss in a winter transfer window where good players are notoriously difficult to come by. Hindsight is 20/20 obviously. Had Covid not hit, we could have gotten more $ for Xhaka in the summer window than the $20 million he was rumored to be leaving for.
Receding HairlineNovember 19, 2020 20:55:29
The only thing of note Arteta did with Xhaka was refusing to sell him when we had the chance. Hiding him away from opponents behind a low block isn’t really worth advertising
————————–
Dont shift the goalposts mate. We’re talking about how Emery caused epic levels of toxicity including the Xhaka incident vs palace.
Danny
Well that’s the Hungarian guy, £25 million on a replacement striker plus about half what we paid for Partey.
Right now 2 of them don’t seem to be anywhere near first choice and the other is clearly not the type of striker Arteta wants.
This on top of the performances is what worries fans.