ARTETA UNINSPIRING PRESSER > LOTS OF WORK TO BE DONE (STILL)

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Mikel Arteta dropped his first press conference of the season and I have to say… he didn’t inspire much confidence and came across quite muted. Not a good look when you cross-reference it against Thomas Frank’s glowing account of how his summer has gone.

Key points for me:

  • We haven’t done the business Arteta expected us to do
  • The market has been more difficult than they thought it would be
  • A domino effect will likely happen in the last week of the window

Outside that I couldn’t really name much of note he spoke about.

The target is consistency this season and to take each game one at a time.

Our goal is to get the best version consistently that’s going to bring us closer to winning football matches. That’s what I want from the team. If we do that consistently in every single match, we’re going to be in a good place, but that’s something we haven’t done, consistently give the best version. That’s something we must control and we must do, and I think if we’re able to do that, then the results will be the consequence to that.

He’s never going to pick a league position, but I hoped for something a little more inspiring than consistency. It also felt like there were a few not-so-subtle digs at what he has at Arsenal, but I might just be reading too deeply into it.

The clarity in what they do. They’ve been doing it for a long time together and you can see they have that fluidity and chemistry between them, and they believe that the plan they’ve put in place works for them. I think that’s a big strength for any team.

There needs to be clarity on the pitch this season, with the players he has right now. The squad is still a mess, that’s not all his fault, but he’s going to have to make it work this season. We have a bright young squad of players with some players that are misfits for the system… but we can do things this season and we have to.

The objectives are pretty clear for the next 4 months.

We need to rapidly adapt to playing a higher line with Ben White. Getting ripped through the middle cannot be a new thing for the first three months this season.

There needs to be more clarity when it comes to our football style. We need better transitions, the team needs to feel more fluid and unpredictable, and we need to start taking our chances. Statman Dave called our style Doughnut football. We control possession around the sides of the area but there’s no verticality to our game. That has to change.

We need to reduce errors by 50% this season. We cannot continue to punch ourselves in the face. Moving on David Luiz was a big swing at that. Sending Ceballos back to Madrid will help. There are still a few players with us that lack the right level of concentration, but whatever, it needs to be better this season. 50% less errors last season and we’re a top 4 side, simple as that.

We need to improve our finishing by 20%. It wasn’t good enough last season. That’s the whole team, not just Auba. But, Auba does need to play like a £350k a week striker. We need 10 goals from ESR. We need 10 goals from Saka. We need to see our other players popping up in the box and contributing.

The start to the season is really important, if we’re within spitting distance of top 4 come January, we’ll very much be in mixer in May. Last season, we fucked the start of the seasons so badly we couldn’t recover… but we were still close. We need to be the post-Christmas Arsenal, that is the standard.

We’ll know pretty early on Friday which Arsenal has shown up. We’re playing in a new stadium against a team that doesn’t know where it’s level is at the moment. None of that matters, we need to go in there, boss the game, and start to build confidence. Chelsea is winnable. West Brom there should be no excuses. We need to go into that City game with at least 4 points. Then we’ll see.

It’s going to be interesting to see how everyone else does this season. Manchester City are the side to beat, without a doubt. Chelsea have not looked convincing preseason so far, they were very nearly Emery’d in the Super Cup last night. Spurs have a very drossy manager and a bag of issues no club needs to be dealing with. Liverpool is a team to watch, their players are all getting older, they dropped their level by 30 points last season, and they’ve solved that with one signing this summer. Everton haven’t done much. West Ham haven’t done much. Leicester have made 3 signings. This is going to be an interesting season.

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Matt B

There’s nothing more to talk about

Cheerio then

Matt B

people who want Arteta out but still hope Arsenal win are putting the team before their own ego

Far too much psychoanalysis Sigmund

I think you’re over-thinking it 🤣

Champagne Charlie

Pedro
Yea saw that, but Serie A isn’t the PL and I don’t think anyone can knock Lacazette’s big game record following his time here, scored and assisted against all the top 6 multiple times.

Sal
I’m on a percentage if Tammy makes it to the carpet, out here doing gods work. I’m a few days away from dropping a sick edit on YouTube titled “Tammy Abraham: Welcome to Arsenal (skills and goals)”. I like originality you see.

Kroenkephobe

Almunia Agreed but I’d happily forsake free flowing risky playground style football for a season of 1-0 to the Arsenal type games. Arteta-ball is not only dull but if we concede first, there is seldom a response. During GGs time and early AW, there was always a strong sense – home or away – that three points were ours if we scored first. Everyone derived a huge amount of confidence from that. GG laid those foundations and AW inherited that strength with Spunky, TA et al. It was a watershed when he started to sacrifice defensive strength because it also… Read more »

Mr Serge

Almunia I watched it sir Alex was the man

Champagne Charlie

Odegaard over Maddison means one less HG player, step forward……….Tammy Abraham

The moons are aligned, Saturn is near and it’s a Leo sun. You know what animal Leo is? A lion, England are the three lions, Abraham is English.

Can’t argue the facts.

bacaryisgod

Almunia You’re absolutely right. There were people on here a few years ago that actually said they hoped Arsene would get cancer. Unless my memory fails me, I’m not even sure they got binned for that. Plenty of others said they wanted Arsenal to lose under Wenger in order to accelerate his departure. Not Pedro, tbf. Logically, I understand those fans who are opposed to Arteta that they see the only way for Arsenal to recover is for us to lose quickly and get him out now. However, emotionally I couldn’t bear the thought of actively wanting Arsenal to lose… Read more »

salparadisenyc

“Odegaard over Maddison means one less HG player, step forward……….Tammy Abraham”

😂😂

Gunz SF

MF three of Ø, Aouar and Partey would be pretty saucy and should be on the agenda for most considering Maddison is a mirage and we can actually get both these done.

Mr Serge

Pedro Varane is still in the squad so they may have not updated it yet
Hopefully you are right I take ode all day long

Kroenkephobe

CC
That’s the spirit mate. Astrological predictions work for me.

Matt B

Abraham, I bow thee

Mr Serge

Salparadise what’s the crack ? That would be saucy they 3 would even wake up Auba

Almuniasaynomore

Kroenkephobe, I’m going to watch it in the pub with a chelsea supporting mate, his only defence being he worked in London for years and used to go to their games regularly,he most definitely didn’t jump on in the glory days. Still won’t stop him slagging the shit out of me if things go wrong. We only need vaccination certs and photo id to get in now, happy days! I’d love nothing more than a season of boring wins but as that’s unlikely I’d like to see us play football in the opponents half that isn’t trying to hypnotise the… Read more »

salparadisenyc

Serge

The crack is clearly CC relentless and utterly convincing Abraham agenda.

As for that mid… said it end of last season. Make it happen,

Mr Serge

It’s true if mikki hots Worley figures laca would too hopefully we get it done

Kroenkephobe

Almunia
Enjoy mate. I hope you get that rites of passage feeling when you get to laugh in your mate’s face at the end of the game.
I’ll be tuning in with Kroenkephobe Junior who’s just ordered a hooky third shirt from Ebay for 20 quid. I must have saved hundreds of quid on nylon football shirts after telling him that the fake ones were cooler and post-modern compared to the real ones. It’ll be good to hear how it goes.

Tony – you watching it live with your son or catching it later?

Matt B

This Amazon documentary could be a wonderful thing, or really, excruciatingly terrible.

Is it not better to keep a lid on things.

We’re better than this aren’t we? Especially when things are as bad as they are. Not the season for a fly-on-the-wall thing

Mr Serge

My mate is a Chelsea season ticket holder. I can’t get rid of him but he says Tammy is decent but lightweight for a 6’3 striker he says he needs 4 chances to put away one but tries his best to get those chances
He was not to bothered about losing him even to us

salparadisenyc

Serge

Has a bit of the Welbz for me but i’m enjoying the show regardless.

Mr Serge

All our american brothers and ex pats that are in Thailand etc and our Aussie fans you guys have a ritual for each match ? Or just usually watch it from home?

Mr Serge

Sal I said that the other day the new fitter wellbeck

Champagne Charlie

Pedro
Very true, get the suits around the table and pitch a sharp and fast number:

“How’s Mkhi doing in Rome?”…

Expect it’ll be a handshake there and then, straight onto ordering a size Shmedium for the Frenchman to hold aloft.

Sal
When the universe is offering such clear signs it’s hard to argue, fate is fate and that.

Front four of ESR, MO, BS, TA = BOSS M ARTE(ta)

Almuniasaynomore

Nice stunt with the jerseys, might try that one. A mate of mine told his kids that the ice cream van only plays the music if it’s run out of ice cream……..

Champagne Charlie

Guys I won’t have Tammy compared to Welbeck, cmon now. Welbz topped out at 9 league goals in the league, and our new striker already smashed that in the Championship with 20+ twice, then 15 goals in his first PL season with Chelsea.

He’s 21 in 37 for Chelsea the last two seasons in the Prem alone, if Eddie had those numbers Pierre wouldn’t have time for his Ozil sock.

Mr Serge

He’s 21 in 37 for Chelsea the last two seasons in the Prem alone, if Eddie had those numbers Pierre wouldn’t have time for his Ozil sock

Ffs 😃 that’s hillarious

Pierre

Serge
“Ffs 😃 that’s hillarious”

Hilarious if you are an illiterate 10 year old ….

raptora

Charlie: “He’s 21 in 37 for Chelsea the last two seasons in the Prem alone”

You sure about that?

Champagne Charlie

Raptora

Yup, 15 in 25 season before last, 6 in 12 last season.
– Auba has 32 in 61
– Laca has 26 in 44

Pierre

Raptora. This is how it works for Charlie and Pedro . When they talk about one of our academy players like willock they quote all appearances including substitute to prove a point Hence …78 appearances , 11 goals…when in fact it was 42 starts with 11 goals. However, when talking about a Chelsea player they quote only the starts and conveniently forget to mention the sub appearances. Hence 21 goals in 37 games becomes 21 goals in 56 games.when sub appearances are taken into consideration. And this is how it works when you have an agenda, it reeks of double… Read more »

raptora

I assume you meant to add “starts” somewhere in there. Including subs the complete stat is 21 goals in 56 games although I would agree that playing 20-30 mins here and there doesn’t change the overall picture.

Pedro

Matt, or a bit bland.

Did you see the Chivas one?

raptora

Pierre,
spot on word for word.

Pierre

Charlie
“Front four of ESR, MO, BS, TA = BOSS M ARTE(ta)”

2 of those = Wenger protégés
1 of those = a poor man’s ozil
1 of those = a poor man’s Adebuyor..

Willian= BOSS M ARTETA

Toniboy

Hey there, been here for years mostly read and hardly comment.

I’d really like to know how ANYONE can think Arsenal can make top 4….this is not even based on pessimism or optimism….reality is City/Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea will be hard to shift….Leicester and Villa recruited well, played better and have more settled squads…they also played better football.

Maverick managers are fine….but the combo of maverick manager-DoF-CEO…… you get decisions like Runarsson etc…

Its nice to be hopeful but Europa is a good season in reality

raptora

“Maverick managers are fine….but the combo of maverick manager-DoF-CEO…… you get decisions like Runarsson etc…”

Couldn’t agree more. But signing an absolute and complete novice with 0 days as head coach/manager in his life, at a club as big as Arsenal, is way, way, way too risky. As in Pep’s situation, they saw how he passed the Barcelona B test with absolute flying colors. They knew they are betting on a decently good odds. We knew nothing. It shouldn’t have happened. Far, far too risky.

Champagne Charlie

I don’t need to quote anything regarding Willock, because I’m an Arsenal fan and every time he’s featured I’ve been present to form a POV. His goal scoring isn’t an issue to me, his general play is why he’s a great 25 mil sale.

I mention an external players numbers to give an idea of the player for those less aware, and being led by opinions alone.

You can offer up whatever stats you like about Abraham, I chose the most basic for the three players, he compares favourably against Laca and Auba in the past two years in goals.

Toniboy

Read a long FT article on Barcelona and their woes today and it was enlightening.

Its a mystery to me that before Sambi…(hope he turns out good)

Arsenal didn’t find one below the radar signing in FOREVER….

Bissouma, Mane, Perriera, Chilwel..tons of teams were unearthing gems…….even Tierney was so drawn out. We have really bout terribly…if we sold Martinez to fund Partey…..we should have just kept him and bought Sangare, Bissouma even Sanches was/is available

Pierre

Charlie
If/ when it all goes tits up again for Arteta , I trust you will hang around this time on le grove instead of going into self imposed hibernation as you did last Christmas..

It feels like unless it is Xhaka or Leno, you have nothing complimentary to say about any Arsenal players and even had a dig at Saka and Smith rowe recently which was very unfortunate.

Champagne Charlie

Pierre

I don’t tend to enjoy when Arsenal are doing poorly, so I think I’ll reserve the right to detach from the echo chamber if it becomes as mind numbing as before. Certainly won’t be clocking in to appease you as yet another trip down memory lane ensues, featuring gal pal Mesut.

I’m barely finding the patience to log in as is with the sentiment so boringly in the dirt. It’s not what I come to Le Grove for, whereas patently it is for a good few.

Champagne Charlie

“even had a dig at Saka and Smith rowe recently which was very unfortunate.“

With age is supposed to come wisdom, you little rebel.

gnarleygeorge9

Only one more sleep to go. The Arse can go Top of the League by 7.00 am Saturday 🙂
But I’ve got this feeling it’ll be a draw, anything worse & ……….. 🙁

bacaryisgod

Finally watched the Arteta press conference. I actually think he handled himself quite well. Maybe a little flat but he also didn’t want to get drawn into any ‘headline’ comments.

Gonsterous

Still can’t believe we didn’t go for bissouma
Lad is ready to play for arsenal

Auruour I feel is cut from the same cloth as ozil and mkihiraria
Talent is there, but is the motivation there?

Zacharse

Seems to be the whisper gonster

Gonsterous

Arteta commenting how the window is difficult. No shite genius, the approach for this window was all wrong. Arteta thinks players will just join up. Firstly, not getting into europe isolates all the top talents that don’t want to play for a side without European competition Secondly, no player wants to join a manager with no pedigree. Thirdly, top players from lower clubs like villa and leicester feel arsenal are a sideways move So we are left with average players from lower teams who will join for the wage increase and, Average players from top teams who will want a… Read more »

MD-Gunner

The presser gave us all we need to know what to expect from th coming season. “Arteta said this summer’s transfer window has been the “most difficult” for years.” BooHoo if you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen. “In this first period of the transfer window, I think we’ve done a few things that we wanted to do,” admitted Arteta in the presser. Let me correct that for you: “In this first period of the transfer window, I DON’T think we’ve done THE things that we wanted to do,” No shit Sherlock If you don’t have or… Read more »

China1

Yeah it was always going to be difficult if the transfer strategy hinged in any part on extracting a high fee for granit and the only guy we had lined up to replace him didn’t want to join us

Go figure

MD-Gunner

About being positive as Almunia already stated you can be positive about the squad but who wants to be positive about Arsenal management when they are the laughing stock in the PL just read what Kean & Carragher have stated and that is rich from them. ‘Why are you buying Chelsea rejects?’ – Roy Keane and Jamie Carragher slam Arsenal chief Edu’s ‘stupid’ recruitment. ‘When you’re talking about Edu as sporting director, you’re bringing David Luiz in and you’re bringing Willian in – two rejects from Chelsea. I’m just scratching my head thinking, “I can’t get behind this, it’s wrong,… Read more »

gnarleygeorge9

Pedro

The thing about Diet Pep sí is The Arsenal approached him, he didn’t instigate the appointment, so the constant battering & threats he is getting if he fails really should be aimed at the Board. Having said that, I’ll judge him after the man shitty fixture. At the moment he is on the same points as Pep sí full strength, Klogg, & Ole Gunnar Win Something Oneday.

As for managers under the blow torch, top of the list would have to be the manure manager. He has a bottomless pit of $$$ to spend & has won nothing.

Gonsterous

I said at the time we gave saka a new contract and even at the time we gave ESR a new contract that their wages don’t match their outcome for the team 20k for esr, 30 for saka Lokonga comes in as back up cm and is already on 35k White comes in at 120k The whole wage dynamic is out of order ESR who we gave the no 10 shirt to and expect to be a starter is on 20k Then we have willock who arteta and co don’t fancy is on 15k Martinelli another who arteta doesn’t favour… Read more »

China1

Gonsterous safe to say arsenal will need to renegotiate a lot of those deals within 1 year before the kids start to feel unappreciated

Tony

K’Phobe Game day at last. Sadly we’ll have to watch a recorded copy in the morning. Not being in the EL cup makes there KO time much more amenable to my son and me, as well as China1 I would imagine. As per my post yesterday I am 100% against what the club is slowing allowing Arteta and Edu to do. They both are dead men walking as far as I’m concerned; I have reached my limit with them. Arteta had a simple situation that once again he has overthought and acted in his usual dogmatic way; believing he knows… Read more »

China1

Pedro deffo has his eye on landing a role writing for arsenal (the .com?) For that I actually don’t blame him as that would be awesome for any fan. I think for that reason alone he has to self censor a bit now compared with the earlier years when I think that would’ve been willing to gladly break down the negatives in detail as opposed to these days where they’re just lightly given lip service But like I said if I thought I had an outside chance at getting any kind of role doing what I love at the club… Read more »

MD-Gunner

Game against Brentford on in less than 15 hours the AKBs are readying for it so are the True Arsenal Supporters (TASs) AKBs starting to collect a list of Excuses just in case it goes pear shaped. TASs making sure enough tissues are on the table. AKBs being conspicuously absent from the blog because of a dismal performance. TASs flooding the blog with 1000+ comments calling for the management’s heads. Pedro will point to the 37 games still to come and deride TASs for overreacting. Been there done that, wearing the scars for years of disappointment. Of all the ESPN-FC… Read more »

Tony

which if it happens it**

MD-Gunner

Clubs have lost their fear of playing Arsenal. SAF once said to his squad “Lads it is only Tottenham” well clubs these days will say it is only Arsenal and they fancy taking points of us. Brentford’s manager said: “will ‘smack Arsenal’s a**e’.” that is how low AFC has dropped under the present regime.

Useroz

Sensible piece, Tony 👏

Bob N16

MD – there is no such group as AKB any more – or if there is, they’re a tiny minority of deluded individuals.. Nobody in their right mind can be confident that Arteta won’t tank this season. After last season when there were green shoots of improvement after that abysmal 5pts in 10 games pre Xmas. 12 months ago after the FA cup success many, including me, felt Arteta could be the one, now as always I have some hope that our season will go well, approaching 2pts a game average but I can easily see a scenario where it… Read more »

Guernsey+gun

Brentford at 10/3 on bet 365……🧐 been a gash window and the presser yesterday was littered with “get your excuses in first”

Bob N16

Tony, particularly agree with ‘your management and players come and go’ line. My personal attachment is with Arsenal, I obviously can get attached to players and my list of favourites over the years is a long one. Managers GG and AW were both special but their ends both affect my recalling of their tenures.

It’s somehow easier for me to ignore any negatives about certain players and just remember the.good times!

I certainly have no emotional attachment to Arteta………..yet! ( A powerful 3 letter word which at least suggests of the possibility, however unlikely, of future joy under his watch.

MD-Gunner

Thanks to the Moron that stayed for 4 years in 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Truth no longer matters. You be surprise how many Arteta fan boys post during the daylight hours of BST. The separation has to be between owner, management and the club and its players. Look what Tuchel did with the Chelsea squad in 5 to 6 months, that is saucy. So the players that are registered need someone that brings out the best and restores the fear of Arsenal in the league.

Terraloon

Mr Serge “My mate is a Chelsea season ticket holder. I can’t get rid of him but he says Tammy is decent but lightweight for a 6’3 striker he says he needs 4 chances to put away one but tries his best to get those chances He was not to bothered about losing him even to us” You must know my brother because that’s near enough word for word what he says about Abraham. The other comment which is interesting is that Chelsea offered him a really decent contract last season a five year deal on about £100k a week… Read more »

Bob N16

No MD, I read the whole stream on most days, there are very, very few ‘Arteta fanboys’.
That’s simply a construct that justifies ‘ the Arteta out’ constant stream of negativity. It’s hard being optimistic in any form right now and it doesn’t help to read a constant negativity.

Sid

SpongeBob safely balancing on the fence, ready to jump to the convinient side

Bob N16

Terraloon, Chelsea having spent £150m on two other strikers don’t need to ‘ put up with’ Abraham!

Bob N16

Seedy, why do you have to be such a dicksplash..

I can’t see into the future, I don’t have to have a binary position at all times – that’s just being ridiculous. That being said, coming across as ridiculous appears to be your game plan so crack on with it – you’re doing very well.

Sid

Balogun and Eddie are better than Tammy, the team needs 2 between the lines creators before thinking of a striker.

DivineSherlock

Sell Laca get in Abraham . Non HG goes out and HG comes in.

Sid

“””””””Seedy, why do you have to be such a dicksplash..””””””””

This is heart warming SpongeBob, nothing gives me pride than a man that can throw a punch

China1

For all my usually opinionated ways I’m not sure what to make of it if we get Tammy

Mulerise14

FINALLY It has come upon us Let’s be excited Despite the expected hospital passes from Leno Despite no credible RB Despite the deadweight of those we would have gone Let’s be excited It is understandable at times you want to smile but could only sigh At Least let the fire burn until it is Quenched by the our peacock of a manager Let it burn until We are confounded by deadness of their sight when TW closes Oh let it burn until we know our search for messiah is not over There is no law against doing whatever you want… Read more »

shaun

can people stop this Abraham nonsense no wonder west ham are finishing above us even our fans are like west ham level. I will say it clearly again , the dude is not good enough for Chelsea then he sure as hell is not good enough for Arsenal .Chelsea put out there garbage and Arsenal fans come running to rummage through it . I suppose a 1 day old half eaten big Mac is better than one that’s be rotting in the garbage for Willian oops sorry I meant to say weeks. Anyway embarrassing behaviour

shaun

and for the record at least Welbeck was good in the air lol……………….lol that baby giraffe can’t even pick a leaf from a tree( think I may be getting my point across)

Sid

Southhampton should buy Chambers or Holding now that they sold their CB to Leicester

raptora

China,
I’m in the same place with Tammy.

Mee

Those saying Arsenal win against Brentford. On what basis? Xhaka is a shit player, Bellerin is going to play like a winger for Brentford, God forbid Leno gets injured and the viewer sitting at home has more chances of stopping the ball than Runarsson. Oh and the 40+ crosses to little Lacazette, some of them extremely shit because they came of Auba’s weak foot. The Arsenal players are perhaps more aware of the weakness of their fellow players than any of us. And by now they have figured out that Arteta is phoney. There is absolutely nothing going for Arsenal… Read more »

DivineSherlock

China

Tammy Abraham just doesnt fit into Tuchel’s system and Arsenal’s recruiting strategy suggests that we are going young and British . I think its a good signing and would fit well with the squad.

Terraloon

Sid Balogun and Eddie are better than Tammy, That’s subjective at best. Neither are anywhere close enough to be first choice and as I said yesterday these two desperately need a season somewhere on loan Shaun I will say it clearly again , the dude is not good enough for Chelsea then he sure as hell is not good enough for Arsenal If you were saying that about say a WHU player maybe. At this point in time some sense of reality in terms of where Arsenal are as opposed to the likes of Liverpool, Utd, City and yes Chelsea… Read more »

MuddyGooner

Hi guys
Has anyone very recently travelled to Spain ?
Heard we don’t need a PCR test to go Spain if we’re already double jabbed.

Bob N16

Muddy, true!

Kroenkephobe

Mulerise
Nice one. I think that needs an ‘amen’ at the end.

I often tell my kids to get out their prayer mats just before we play. They usually laugh in my face and call me a hypocrite or a dickhead.

According to the book of Kroenkephobe, it’s a narrow, unconvincing win tonight followed by more collective angst and gnashing of teeth before some much bigger tests.

I’m sure Edu is applying some WD40 to his trolley wheels before a last minute dash to go shopping. It’s a fucking omnishambles.

Sid

“”””””Neither are anywhere close enough to be first choice”””””

Is Tammy Abraham close to be 1st choice?

Kroenkephobe

Muddy

I went to Catalonia from Wales in mid July (Bristol Airport actually) with the other half. We both have UK passports. It certainly is confusing on gov.uk but we did not repeat not need pcrs to go because we’ve both had 2 jabs.

We got a pcr there within 72 hours of coming home and filled out the passenger locator form and did a day 2 pcr when we got back. Let me know if you have any more questions and I’ll try and help.

Matt B

MuddyGooner: That’s right, but if you’re travelling from the UK, you need to fill out an SpTH (Spanish
Health Control Form) within 48 hours of leaving

DigitalBob

So the day is upon us! For all the worry about the summer transfer activity I’m feeling a little more optimistic for some reason this morning. I expect us to beat Brentford, maybe even comfortably. The next two after that however could very well be losses. Overall that won’t be catastrophic as we can make up the points through September and October IF Arteta has them setup well and we don’t have an injury crisis. On the transfer front it looks like Odegaard is coming in for sure with Tammy a strong maybe. Both moves might be really great or… Read more »

Foxy

Partner White with a goalie like Martinez and an RB equiv to Tierney and he could be great for us. Play him with Leno and Bellerin he will end looking shite and on Valium. Hope at least we play Chamber’s at RB tonight.

Terraloon

Sid

Is Tammy Abraham close to be 1st choice?

I suspect he would be if he were at Arsenal. At Chelsea I would not at all be surprised to see him either start or be on the bench for Chelsea for their first game

Matt B

Reasons to be cheerful — well said DigitalBob!

Sid

Do you want to make a CF with 6 goals 1 assist our first choice striker

Emiratesstroller

Real Madrid have not allocated a shirt number to Odegaard. So I think that there is now every chance that he might be transferred to Arsenal this summer.

Whilst he may not be considered as talented or productive as Maddison by some who post on here it might make better sense to have him competing with Smith-Rowe for the AMF position in team.

MuddyGooner

Thank you for the replies everyone.
Will the Spanish Govt accept my proof of FULL vaccination on my NHS App or will I need a certificate from my GP Surgery ?

I was told these guidelines are for ‘essential’ travel.
What about for holidaying purposes ?

shaun

Terraloon, “Did you think the same about Salah about KDB ? Salah yes could not understand what that was about and thought he was pants but De Bruyne was always good and i put the chelsea blame firmly on Mourine’s shoulders for incredibly bad management of the player , anyway point taken .My view may well be obscured by personal perception when acquiring ex Chelsea players .I thought Cezh was past it ,same for Luiz and Willian and I just plain don’t rate Abraham that married to fact that if you just keeping taking players deemed not good enough from… Read more »

Globalgunner

Foxy
So we need to get better players before we see the improvements that White brings us. So why did we buy him then if he wont make us better in any way

Does that logic not apply to the manager too?. Better manager, better results

Foxy

Definitely must be something going on behind the scenes re Oordegard, hopefully a loan with option to buy. Him coming back I think will give the whole club a boost. I believe he will want to play for Arsenal whilst Maddison would just do it for the money.

Gonsterous

Emirates

Competing with ESR? Ode will play CAM and esr will play LW

Anything to accommodate all the managers favourites.

Foxy

White will bring improvements straight away with progressing the ball but I just worry about partnering him with Leno and Bellerin.

Terraloon

ES
I wouldn’t read too much into that because as far as I can make out none of the players that they had away on loan last season have been allocated a shirt number

https://www.realmadrid.com/en/football/squad

What is interesting is that Varane doesn’t appear to be in their squad as shown on their own website

Matt B

MuddyGooner: Fine for holiday purposes and your proof of vaccination on NHS app will suffice (although I also got an official paper letter of confirmation of full vaccination, which is easy to get and takes a week or so to arrive)

Pierre

Terraloon
“My mind keeps getting drawn to when Chelsea signed Giroud many on here thought it was a great deal for Arsenal but Chelsea got great value out of him”

3 and half seasons
17 goals in the league in 33 starts is not exactly great value is it .
And as we know , on le grove Europa league goals count for nothing.