Arsenal lost 2-1 to Chelsea in a preseason game that was fun to watch, but for all the wrong reasons.
Arsenal were messy. Chelsea were poor. Both sides have plenty of concerns heading into the new season.
There were quite a few worries for Arsenal fans. The biggest being that the same faces that weren’t good enough last year are mostly still in the side.
Mo Elneny started and was given far too many minutes. He was his usual self. Unambitious, with a few mistakes in the mixer. Why is he so close to the first team?
Granit Xhaka scored and made some lovely passes, but his lack of pace nearly broke an ankle and there were a few flashes of ‘why?’ that he brought to the table. He needs to move to Italy, we need an upgrade, we can’t continue to talk about top 4 if we don’t move on players that aren’t at that level.
Our entire right side of defence isn’t up to snuff. I really like Cal Chambers, but he’s not a first-team right back next season. Hector Bellerin came on and assisted Tammy with his first touch. It was poor, but par the course, he needs to be exited. We need a new right-back as a matter of urgency.
Bernd Leno seems to be regressing with his passing. He looks panicked and totally lacking in confidence on the ball. If your keeper can’t move the ball in this Arsenal system, you need to find a new keeper. It’s painful viewing that such a good keeper in his twenties is so bad with his feet.
The biggest worry – and I do hate to say it – was Auba. He missed a one vs one and a header from 6 yards out. Two seasons ago, those are goals. Is he keeping his powder dry for the new season? We have to hope so. It is very worrying that our best striker at the moment looks like Eddie. He came on and put a show on again. He ran with intensity, livened up the front line, and looked dangerous with every touch.
There were some good bits about the game. We certainly played with more attacking intent than we did in the Premier League last run out. We broke into their box plenty of times, Willock scored a goal that the lino missed, we created enough high-quality chances to come away with more than 1 goal. The big shift is that we’re playing a higher line. That’s giving us more in the opposite third, though it exposed us time and time again yesterday.
Ben White looked decent when he came on, he made a couple of goal-line clearances. He looks assured on the ball, he’s fast, and you can see his range of passing is good. I don’t think anyone can deny the need for him after watching a high line with Bob and Pablo in the first half.
Willock is a messy player, but he causes chaos. His rangy runs and attacking mindset caused issues for Chelsea and it livened up our game. I expect him to leave, but it’s worrying a player we’re sending to Newcastle had more zest than nearly all our attackers.
The star of the match was once again Sambi Lokonga. He came on and the game opened up. He’s fast, he moves the ball with vertical purpose, and reads the game really well. We don’t need to experiment with Mo Elneny, Sambi should be getting first-team minutes from the start next season.
The major disappointment was that Thomas Partey was crunched and hobbled off injured. He was absolutely brilliant in the first half. He carried the ball, he opened the game up with his passing, he pressed hard… such a shame his day was cut short, but hopefully it’s not too serious.
So, in short, a bit of a worrying day out. There’s two weeks to go before the start of the season, we still need about 4 players, and the coach needs to fix a lot of issues on the training ground.
Spurs next week…
WE
Ive given no reason for you to think i have a crush on arteta. Im perfectly reasonable here while folks like you go down the rabbit hole w pedros ideological motivations 24-7. He writes a blog about arsenal. Its free. Quit being so annoying
WE Agree with your sentiments. Not sure whether I can take a break from the blog until Arteta goes as like most of you I am addicted to this place but yes it is becoming harder and harder to swallow the amount of spin, lies and agenda being churned and propagated here on daily basis. All of us have been wrong here on something or the other but when I get the sense that there’s no honesty in what some of the people say it really puts me off. It’s almost as if Bamfordism has become a mini epidemic around… Read more »
Only way Mike goes is if we get to dec and still in 8th place or worse.
Or a losing game skid of epic mag
I think its time for no more excuses. He gets what he deserves
Zacharse
When have I said that before in relation to him? 24/7 would imply it’s a regular thing.
And re you being reasonable and not an Arteta apologist, hahaha. Good one.
I actually like most of you arseholes lol I like the fact we disagree on stuff
I don’t like when some people are rude for no reason though
Have we even been linked to a RB after Hakimi decades ago this window?
There’s names for AM, CF, GK, CM… who is on the list for RB?
Mike should worry.
his team is not prepared or ready for a top 4 challenge…
Not sure what he is smoking but the team is not ready right now.
Xhaka is a starter. More of the same next season…TP injured again..
No CAM in sight
still have the deadwood leaching off the team
How can anyone think that this was great so far??
CC
There were names for RB
A while ago….
now, nothing.
Guess Bell is also staying>?
Cc no not at all we have 3 crappy ones we gotta sell one before we buy another
We can’t stock pile them that never works well
I think that’s one of the two positions we need to replace what ever happens
Only Arsenal leave it late.
I think next summer, I check Arsenal a week before the window shuts.
This is how it is every summer…. its nauseating..
Might as well save me the anxiety. I have enough already
Re ‘Chelsea turning up with their deadwood’, haven’t they already brought in over £50m selling fringe players (Tomori / Guehi for £44m + add-ons, plus Victor Moses and Giroud)? Even Spuds have used Lamela as valuable transfer exchange value (Gil), and brought in £13m for 32 year old Alderweireld, and £13m for Foyth. We have done NOTHING.
Had we been able to move a few, a reach to Maddison would seem much more realistic, and the feeling about next season would be completely different.
It’s a slow market, but Edu has to do better.
@PHD
Totally agree with your assessment of a collection of bad decisions. If you look at all the money spent since Arsene left and still AFC is in rebuilding mode you have to look what is the common denominator here and it is those clowns in the front office that make clueless decisions.
By September 1st players will have either left on cut throat prices or Arsenal will pay their wages while they can’t be registered, this is a Barca situation.
Income so far two loan deals and we are since June in the TW, job grade? FAII:!!!
TR7 Yeah ah I’ll definitely be back here for the reasons you have given, just bored by the whole Arteta led circus for now. I don’t have much hope or expectations for the season and would be surprised if he lasts the rest of the calendar year given how the summer is panning out. Went from being deeply apathetic under late-term Wenger as I genuinely couldn’t see the day coming that it would end before it all did so suddenly towards the end of 17-18 to being utterly bored and frustrated under Emery and now Tets given the obvious potential… Read more »
So we need another CDM/CM, CAM and now a striker as Auba is missing absolute sitters in consecutive games.
A new RB can be sorted out next summer and we already screwed up on not signing Onana.
If we’re keeping Xhaka we might as well keep Leno as this joke of a club clearly don’t want to progress.
And if we had no money and were relying on player sales. Not only proving our club lie to us like Conservative Party politicians but then choosing to spend the majority of it on another ball playing CB when we already have one (Saliba) is fucking ridiculous and is decision making on par with Conservative Party Politicians.
DissenterAugust 1, 2021 22:17:35 Getting rid of Laca for Tammy is no-brainer It should have been Auba that was ditched last summer. ——– Not sure why we are lowering our sights to Tammy Abraham to be honest. Whether to sell Auba or Laca is a contentious point.Point being if we are selling one of the two in Auba or Laca,feel we could get better value for money in pursuing someone like A.Isak..He’s adaptable in terms of having played in the Swedish,German and Spanish league,A Swedish International having made 26 appearances,scoring 6 goals. Since Europe is bankrupt and it’s a depressed… Read more »
PhD
It’s because for all of Laca’s hard work and big transfer fee< he’s been a shitty goal scorer
Girpud did a lot better than him an dh8s link up play was better.
Tammy Abraham’s record at the all levels of the English game is proven. He’s got loads Indus bag to unload if he has the right team around him.
Where else re you going to find a premier league ready striker that is 6-3 and is not afraid of competing for headers.
PhD
Isak will cost double of what Chelsea are asking for and is not twice the player Tammy is
Forgot to add T.Abraham is 23 years old-2 years older than Alexander Isak at 21 years old.
PhD
That post was autocompleted to oblivion
Isak’s release clause is about 90 million Euros, the there’s the question of whether he will join a club out of Europe.
Tammy is a childhood Arsenal fan, a proper London cho who may truly want to join us.
It’s all conjecture of course.
West Ham apparently now very close to signing Matheus Pereira for a deal £22m from WBA.
I understand that WBA is also willing to sell Sam Johnstone for £12m.
So for £34m, or the price Sheffield is asking for Ramsdale alone we could have two crucial areas of our team met.
I know Matheus Pereira isn’t a big name like Odegaard but he is half the price that the Norwegian is and EPL experienced. At 25, and £22m, there would be some resale value in there too.
I. See Isak as unattainable as Lautaro Martinez
Not after we’ve spend so much on Ben White.
Leeds
You;re missing the seams of metadata that Arteta and his team are seeing. That type of information is not for mere mortals like us.
Simplicity and common sense aren’t for Arteta.
I wonder if Elneny and Kolasinac are being given playing time in these friendlies to give them exposure for potential buyers…
Not entirely convinced that it’s working though..,
DissenterAugust 2, 2021 00:32:01 Isak will cost double of what Chelsea are asking for and is not twice the player Tammy is —– Well Europe is bankrupt.Worth testing R.Sociedad’s resolve with player exchanges thrown in too. We spanked out £50m on B.White for a CB positionIn an area that wasn’t of an immediate priority..Surely we can raise funds from the deadwood on our books and have something to negotiate with for a player with a higher ceiling in A.Isak and younger,as opposed to taking the line of least resistance by going for TA,which seems the easier option. It’s being smart… Read more »
MD-GunnerAugust 2, 2021 00:09:13
What else can one say really?
But time will tell,how things pan out in the foreseeable future.
That said,going by history..It’s looking really grim at the moment,not matter the spin or the call to arms by the Arteta and Ped acolytes.
Dissenter
I wonder if Arteta is now going to try to fall back on the “I really tried to sign..,” trick that Wenger to drag out from behind the Wizard’s curtain whenever he was found wanting at the end of a transfer window… remember that?
Completely against Xhaka being given a new contract… almost validating that we were unable to move him on… although I wouldn’t be surprised if he was just a pawn in a game of transfer chicken between Arteta and Mourinho.
Who is going to swerve first?
The only silver lining this season would be that the fans would be back, play the bland, turgid football like last seasons and the boos will come sharpish. Diet pep doesn’t seem like he has a lot of composure unlike wenger and the emirate booing can get brutal.
Unless he pulls a rabbit outta his arse, he is gonna be gone if we aren’t making a show of it.
PhD
We missed a glorious opportunity this summer because we didn’t have our priorities right, I think it’s due to the bizarre set-up between the manager and his boss -Edu. We set up a rudderless ship.
Continental Europe are in crisis and are selling off on a closing sale rate.
They only reason I’m recommending Abrams is because Chelsea will sell him at an affordable price. That said, I take your point that maybe we could have bought Isak easily had we not splurged £50 million on White.
Leeds, why would Arteta pretend he was going to sign players? What value does that give him?
Amazing really that we haven’t been able to sell anyone from the following:
Lacazette
Xhaka
Elneny
Bellerin
AMN
Nketiah
Runnarsson
Torreira
Cedric
Willian
Even if we were doing badly we should been able to raise £50m to £60m.
I thought this was why Richard Garlick was brought in to expedite our sluggish transfer deals?
If we lose to brentford and the fans are booing will we get a peak senile wenger years deadline day trolley dash???
Leeds Roma know that we need midfielder and selling Xhaka [not for the money] to free up squad space and wages is key for us to buy. That’s why they are sitting on it. The moment we bring on a midfielder then our leverage is gone I also think they are emboldened by how poorly we handled Mykhi’s transfer to Roma, we basically gave him to them for free – the player who’s the lynchpin of their squad. I suspect that few in the game respect Arteta-Edu-Garland-Vinai. They must see them as mugs after all the comedy errors they have… Read more »
Just think here we are dreaming of having a grand total of two fit for purpose CMs in the squad. Meanwhile Chelsea can bring KANTE off the bench
Arteta is so obsessed with playing from the back that he has denatured the competent defdner we have to make even more errors.
He’s so obsessed with it that he prioritized a ‘ball playing defender’ over and above signing the midfielders required to possess the ball.
Although not everything is a negative.
The highlight of the summer has to be ESR committing his future to the club, genuinely pleased about that.
Excellent too that Balogun, Kido Taylor Hart and Arthur O has committed to the club.
That really is a positive.
Pedro as someone else pointed out last December he was chatting shit about needing 4-5 players to be able to play his game
2 transfer windows later and the only first team addition as 1 CB. All the excuses are lined up neatly if we tank another season because he still hasn’t been able to sign the remaining 4 first team players he said he needed right?
Pathetic joke of a manager
I’m mad excited to see White skin his man, nutmeg someone carry it 5m forward then pass to el neny. It’s going to be a game changer for us
Right?
Anyone…?
The problem is even if arteta gets sacked say in December, when the next manager comes in, xhaka is going to do his usual mr professional brown nosing routine and it’s going to be the same fucking story as every other manager who is like wow say 1 in the door, he listens, he’s attentive, he’s hard working, he can be a starter for me. Irrespective of how unsuitable he is for the team. And it will be another 6 months after that minimum before said new manager will likely give up on him because he’s gash. This cycle never… Read more »
“Leeds, why would Arteta pretend he was going to sign players? What value does that give him?“ Why did Wenger do it? He did it because he didn’t want to lose face. Perhaps I will be pleasantly surprised and either Arteta will manage to find the players to bolster our CM, ACM, RB, and backup GK positions before the window shuts… or he won’t and he will not make excuses for failing to do so. I hope others don’t make excuses for him if he leaves gaping holes in our team unfilled, especially this year when pretty much all of… Read more »
*is near
Leeds the only CM in Europe who can noticeably improve on xhaka is loca. Our hands were tied. We tried…
Leeds, Wenger didn’t like to sign players but he knew the fans wanted them.
Arteta needs players and he’s pretty honest about what he’s trying to do. Think he told Ben white he wasn’t the last big signing of the summer. No reason not to believe that
nice write up Pedro, enjoyed that game, they look like they know what they’re doing. With individual errors from the usual suspects. Someone needs to give Niles double his wages or an uppercut. Got a decent home grown RB sitting there, it’s weird no one is able to change his mind. Holding showed why White was a priority. Nuno showed up better than I thought he would, power, pace, workrate. Hope he can keep that level or raise it. Really sad seeing Partey break down again, hopefully Sambi and Xhaka can form a partnership quickly. We need another CM to… Read more »
Wouldn’t mind Matheus Pereira, Saka to come back too.
Not sure if LA Ramsdale is better than Lenore but our keeper needs a challenger.
Lenore? That’s a new one! I like it haha
Pedro, So the pursuit of Loca was a red herring? Seems that Xhaka was certain to be replaced. Even he said Arsenal know what to do, blah blah Now Xhaka is back in the team… how is that improving us in CM? Or is Lokonga our game changer? IF we were smart, we could have landed Bissouma, Buendia within the first 2 weeks. half the battle done Seems we spent a lot of time searching for names that were not knowns… ok, fine. but what about the known names that were available and attainable? Now time is ticking again… as… Read more »
US v Meeeeehico… Gold Cup Championship match about to start… Should be good. Very young US team loaded with prospects against a very good experienced Mexican team.
Player to watch is Hoppe for US. Attacking midfielder/ Striker. 20 years old. linked to Arsenal, Spuds and Everton. Currently playing at Schalke.
US Keeper Matt Turner is very good as well. Wouldn’t be the worst backup Keeper option.. 27 yo.. plays in the MLS. Been the standout player in the tourney.
Thx Mid
I totaly spaced on this game. Will watch soon
I’ve survived this far without losing my mind so I’ll hang in there for another 12 days. Best case scenario, this Xhaka BS is some high stakes brinkmanship to drive up his price. If he doesn’t get sold though, MA will look like a complete muppet. These justifications that it wouldn’t be “good business” to sell him are hilarious. It would be MA cutting off his nose to spite his face. Because let’s be clear, he’ll be worth less than half next year. And we will have endured another season of mid-table misery. And there will be another young player… Read more »
On Fox Sports One.. Intense atmosphere.. in Houston.. 60k fans and at least 50k are Mexican supporters.
Humidity likely 100 percent. Grew up in Houston for a bit…
Will not affect the Mexicanos that much
I live about 4 hours south of Houston.. hahaha Humidity here is unbelievable until you live here for awhile. Air you can wear.
Turner with huge save already.
Guns, I think the Locatelli stories were always a bit fanciful and plenty thought it was just to drive the price up for Juventus.
Also, the club will have been looking into who to sign if Xhaka did leave. But they’re not wasting time this summer pretending to sign players, because there would be no purpose.
CAM, right back, backup keeper and maybe a striker before the end of the window.
Pedrotito
Why were we messing around with Juve then? Nothing benefited us?
Concacaf probably makes 95%of their budget from the US market
I lost respect for the gold cup once they decided to host it solely in the states. This season concacaf had that other competition and then there’s the gold cup
They know it’s going to be us vs Mexico almost all the time and that’s a decent tv audience became of the Mexican dual-citizens.
Greedy bastardos
Pedrottiotos
I think the bids were real. As you said, Sausulao never had a very big transfer before this Loca thing. Like 2.5M?
40M will shatter that and I think we were testing the players resolve.
But this entire he wants to wait for Juve was too much for me.
Join or dont join.
Insigne I would go after as CAM
I would blow that 50 bill on Olmo too
Good first half.. Match is actually in Las Vegas.. Similarity between Houston and Vegas stadium is uncanny. ..Fooled me. Still Hot as all get out obviously
Amazing how Italian sides just bend over for Juve, in the same way as German ones do for Bayern.
Sassuolo now reported to be willing to accept EUR 5m loan fee from Juve, followed by obligation to buy for EUR 30m, but Juve demanded EUR 5m for a 2 year loan, with obligation to buy for EUR 20m (spread over several years).
Meanwhile our EUR 40m bid was of no interest. There really is a big intangible value to being the top of the food chain in a perceived one team market.
Elmo yes, amazing that Sausuallo did not take the 40M in hand
Now if Partey goes off for a month , we are down to Xhaka & Lokonga . One red card and its Elneny and Lokonga . Depressing really.
Sassuolo deserve all the pain that comes their way
I hope Juve ends up paying them 10 million in two years time
what about Szolobaszi
He is worth 28M
Just joined Leipzig but fuck em, they are a selling club so why not???
Diss
Loca did not want us just like Buendia apparently.
Maybe others too… like Aouar I think?
Ode even?
I mean, I think that is why we scouting these not known named players a lot lately. Loko, Tavars etc. White etc
The bigger names dont want us, unless they live in London, ala tammy
Divine yep pretty much.. Makes you wonder about what the deal is with Lucas Torriera and AMN. We might need warm bodies and the season hasn’t even started yet. For me we absolutely need another CM, Cam too. ESR goes down… then what? Willian? Willock maybe. We have ridiculous amounts of depth everywhere but midfield .. Makes you wonder what the hell they are looking at on the depth chart.
Pedro
“Arteta needs players and he’s pretty honest about what he’s trying to do. Think he told Ben white he wasn’t the last big signing of the summer. No reason not to believe that“
Let’s hope you’re right.
GunsSF
I’m just in blind hope that Xhaka staying and there being no money for a CM addition means that all our resources are committed to a Maddison purchase, even if it’s deadline day.
I mean look at all the dead wood ! that is alarming as F!
part trade deals with AMN Nelson Eddie can help us
Certainly with Maddison
another CM or RB too.
I posted about 100M earlier- low sales prices.
That can grab 2-3 players
If Partey is out for a month, as reported by some outlets, we’ve just given the initiative to anyone we’re dealing with this to jack up the price. Another reason why it’s a great idea to start and finish your transfer business early… can’t be held hostage to fortune. If Partey is out for an extended period of time, Xhaka now has to stay as the most experienced midfielder in the team… unless Arteta decides to go left field and give AMN his stint in the midfield? Or… David Hartrick, Opta analyst and Brighton fan DID also say Ben White… Read more »
Im telling you for free
Do your bizness early in the transfer window.
Eduteta never listens to me
bastards
The coach of mexico looks like Bielsa
Ugh… US has had so many chances last 10 mins… choking under the pressure. Mexico to be fair has missed a lot of chances too… Pretty good back and forth match this half.
Cool Pedro so if partey is Crocked + during Afcon we’re rolling with xhakaneny
Do you think xhakaneny is a top 4 contending midfield?
This is one of the worst CM pairings in the PL and I’m not joking when I say that.
What is the point of having a backup keeper, more CFs, more AMs if you have granit legs and pyramid pirlo as the core of your team? It’s beyond negligence, it’s actually insultingly bad if we leave the transfer window this way.
That’s a red card certainly
Guns… yep he does. Always thought that.. haha not nearly as good though.
If Partey is out for a month, and Arteta feels the need to panic buy, I sincerely hope he resists the urge to.
Ironically that is what brought Arteta to the club.
He was a panic buy.
Rather than wasting millions, perhaps we could give AMN a try there? Too risky? Chambers also did a good job there with Fulham when he was in loan there… ended up as their player of the season if I recall correctly. Again, too risky?
Guns
He looks familiar because he’s the former manager of Barca
Oh man… Zardes is like Auba lite. misses so many chances.
Is much rather have a Bissouma or other quality CM come in and have to settle for willock/outside the box option at AM than rock into a season with all these nice shiny players on the outskirts whilst the stench of feces coming out of the middle of the park is undeniable
Mexico hanging on
Torreira, another player who is practically a zombie player for us.
We have so many of these…
Pizarro on, I wanted him at Arsenal.
Good mid….
You could say US is barely hanging on too… one of those matches.
If we buy an AM and a backup goalie then we’re upgrading from a 55 to a 65 inch plasma screen and fixing the damaged dining table legs whilst THERES NO FRICKIN ROOF
China Imma hold you to that
Herrerra is like a hunchback and kinda mean.
Yep Herrerra is a perfect player for AM… Simeone likes those nasty mean bastards.
This final is nothing like the Copa final which was like a blood bath
But guns is it not true? People keep saying AM top priority but there is no midfield unless partey is on and lokonga is first choice and delivers Partey cannot be trusted to stay fit and there is afcon. Likings is young and not arteta’s preferred profile compared with xhaka. El neny gets minutes for the lols What is the lineup that you expect to see with a new AM? It either has ESR out wide or benched and it will have xhakaneny behind him. We are not getting top 4 with a xhakaneny midfield, it’s absolutely miles off the… Read more »
Kellyn Acosta(US Def mid) is playing his ass off.. of course he is used to be under siege he plays for a Kroenke team. Colorado Rapids.
Feels like a boxing match heading into the championship rounds. About equal on rounds won.
ESR will need to play left wing
if we get a CAM
MidwestGun
Not selling players when there were bids coming has come back to bite us hard. Expecting loan deals again near the end of transfer window.
Lenore
Chamber White Gab KT
___Xhaka__Lokonga__
Saka___Maddison ___ESR
———-Aubalaca_______
Ok and who is feeding ESR and the new AM? Is it xhakaneny? It sure as shit ain’t gonna be partey sambi for most of the games this season
Also if ESR is on the wing then who is rotating at when the AM needs a rest because ESR will have been playing too on the wing and also needs protecting
But guns why keep xhaka?
Divine _
Yep lots of mediocre to average fringe players taking up payroll at every position except Cam. But then when we have injuries none of them are good enough to play as a starter for any stretch. Edu better be working the phones. We can’t go in short at CM.. Xhaka and Elneny can not be a thing.