Arsenal winning games makes life better. It’s as simple as that. In a complicated and stressful world, football is the antidote. Mikel Arteta has not made life easy over the past year, but it’s clear, if things get better over the next two months, fans will get back on side… because it’s hard to be angry when your team is winning games with style.
That won’t happen this weekend.
We’re probably going to get pasted.
BUT, I would like to see a concerted effort to show up and play some pragmatic football.
The Chelsea game was naive, probably on purpose. I don’t want to see that against City. The moron brigade demanding we go up North and put on a show are painfully deluded about where we are with this project. I want to see a shithousing. 3 at the back, everyone dying for the cause… Auba with a 78th-minute chance that could decide the game. This squad can defend, we’ve seen it against good teams, I’d like to see a boring starting 11 with a street-fighting attitude.
That might involve a really boring performance from Mo Elneny in midfield, but if it’s what we need to get the job done, let’s have it. It certainly can’t involved Kola as centre back or any other galaxy brain move.
The WBA outing might have been against meek opposition, but it was with our first team, and it was beyond a conventional win. If you are a striker, you don’t say after a hat-trick, ‘well, that didn’t feel great because it was against kids’, confidence doesn’t work like that. All the players will be feeling like some ideas clicked that they can take into the next game.
Auba has the confidence that he can score with limited chances, but more importantly, he will feel confident that if he makes a run, there are players in the starting 11 that can find them with accurate balls over the top.
Everyone is going to feel a little sexier having Odegaard in the starting 11, because he will make that tough first time pass someone like Granit will shy away from.
Saka looked on fire in the week, that’ll give him confidence he can make something happen.
I don’t need to see an evolution of style in a game we have almost zero chance of winning. I want to see spoiler tactics and ruthless discipline.
The transfer deadline is fast approaching, here’s what we ‘think’ we know:
- Torreira will move to Fiorentina for the season and get games
- Eddie will move out of the club, probably to Palace for £11m
- Kola will have his deal terminated and likely head to Besiktas
- Willian has scrubbed his feeds of the Arsenal name, Corinthians looks a real possibility
- Reiss will have to find a club, he cannot possibly think it wise to spend another season rotting away
- I’m not sure what the deal is on Ainsley, I’d love him to stay, but only if he’s considered a serious squad player
- There’s talk Lacazette will be exited, but I’m not sure about this. We are SO late in the window. Lacazette moving only works if there’s a deal coming the other way.
There’s talk of Jovic moving if Mbappe goes to Madrid.
There’s talk of Calvert Lewin, though this feels very fanciful
I’m just not sure what to make of it all.
All I know is this… I really hope Trippier ends up at United. Arsenal shelling out on a 31-year-old really doesn’t sit well with me. Trippier would basically be the Lichtsteiner move this summer. He’s a good player, way better than what we have, he’d also be the only senior defender we’d have… but it’d be expensive and our funds really should be going on a player with more long-term in the tank.
This is Arsenal though… every time we right an expensive wrong, we jump right back in and do it again.
Ok, quick one today, I’ll see you in the comments… watch my damn video or listen to the podcast.
Diss, what you are asking is if we should have passed on our primary targets to hit deadlines.
Would I like faster deals? Absolutely.
Dissenter
Not backing away from White being a quality player at all.
He’ll be a mile ahead of your best pal Romero after this season, willing to bet that much for no other reason than you have the hots for a Spud and spend your days criticising White.
No comment from you on Romero’s debut against plumbers, forever with the selective hearing.
Think I’ll judge Arteta when he’s able to pick his first team for a few games
The reaction to the Chelsea game was laughable.. Chelsea arrive with no real injuries plus a 100 mill player..we arrive with 4-5 players out
Ben White will likely be a decent player for us. It’s also true we likely got hosed by Brighton on the deal.
TR7
Yeah. But this United team is a lot stronger. The edge city have over the rest of the league is the fact that they win games you would expect them to win. United have started doing that too. So I can’t write them off. Chelsea though have the look of a team that is going to go places.
Anthony Martial is the real loser of this Ronaldo transfer though. No way he is seeing any minutes now.
Le Sauce, I hate to break it to you, but my timeline doesn’t matter to anyone.
Also, he has 10 games after this weekend. If he fucks them up, he’ll likely get the sack.
Him referring to us as his “project” is a bit demeaning to me. Of course others may not care about what he says or calls it.
He is failing his project however. A project to me means short term. We are Arsenal, not a project of his. Like making a model out of clay or something? nah, we are bigger than a project.
His English is worse than Emery!
LOL
WE, I think Thomas Partey was an electric signing. Not sure anyone expected Auba to fall off like he did, but keeping your captain was a fan move as much as anything.
But overall, the shift to what we’re seeing this year makes sense. Give me an average age of signing at 22 over what we’ve seen in the past. Only player I worry about is Ramsdale.
Fat Sam
As a Gooner, easy:
– Fat Sam
– Pulis
– that Oompa Loompa cockwomble Phil Brown
– Mourinho
– Tim ‘little Timmy’ Sherwood
Yep Radio watching Dortmund… My boy Reyna playing.
Guns, so glad to read that Arsenal are too big to be a project. Will get that memo out tomorrow.
Wengereagle
Those were meant to help us stay competitive while we are on the way up. But Apart from Auba and Partey, no other player we have bought as a starter is fully developed yet. I am not making a case for Arteta. I just think most of our squad will be ready to bang in a few years. Ramsdale, White, Gabriel, Tierney, Lokonga, ESR, Saka, Martinelli all that could be guaranteed starters in 2 seasons. Most of them are starters already. That is the point I am trying to make.
Charlie
Fair enough lad. I went through the anger- apathy transition myself a couple of years prior so can ‘understand’ that. 😉
LOL, meant to address that to Kroenkephobe, not Fam Sam.
Martial is very talented but perhaps he lacks hunger and drive. Has not really improved in the last few years, rather he has regressed. Not sure whether we should be in for him should he become available.
@englandsworst
Choose your words carefully because you may have to eat them. But then on the other hand you had to eat crow so many times already that by now it must be tasting pretty good.
Off to the Dortmund game to watch some flowing football.
Haha think I jinxed him… Reyna should have scored.
Mid..
Reyna close there…right on cue
Auba and Willian burned Arteta to a cinder.
If he lasts here I doubt we’ll ever see an older signing again…..after Trippier makes it a hat trick.
Martial never smiles. Like Ever.
Always has a scowl on his face…
Fella looks miserable.
Needs new pastures it seems
CC, gagging for Yanited to make him their guy
Martial was on form last season till he got hurt. Under the right manager I’ll have him at Arsenal.
Bacary, there’s no doubt we have a squad good enough to compete for top 4. Really need a right back though.
Yeah think Martial is one of those flaky players mentally that is pretty happy to just coast along at a decent level but not fulfil his potential, bit like Carlos Vela.
He is getting paid retarded money at Utd (around £300k a week) so fully expect him to run that deal down and struggle for mins over opting to go to the continent to start but take a massive financial hit.
Pedro
He’d be the final nail in the coffin mate, you could pack up the band at that point. Cannot drop talk of a long term project and bring an old ex-spud into the mix.
Damning part is……who the fuck else is getting linked lastmin.com?
Hoffenheim tackling like peak Stoke City.
I wouldn’t have Martial. It is not a talent issue. He isn’t there mentally. It is like having Ozil. You love the player but he plays when he wants.
I was kind of hoping for Ronaldo to move to city and us getting Sterling for a bargain. That LW spot would have been settled.
If the manager lost the Chelsea game “on propose ” that’s a scandal and sackable offense by any standard of modern day sports. Arsenal would save any compensation too.
If the manager didn’t throw the game, well, he continues to demonstrate incompetence, as many foresee, in being the Arsenal coach, oops, sorry, Manager.
Either way, move him on asap if considering Arsenal interest at heart.
Really struggling with problems in terming Arteta’s time “a project”, I mean it may not be a very good project in many’s eyes but all the same it’s a project. Just like Tuchel’s new project which is showing major success in short term.
Who are City turning to after Ron?
Running out of time for a mega move, does Lewy still want a new challenge? Please just come take Auba so we have to invest.
I like the more tolerant refereeing just worried we might see another Ramsey or Eduardo situation if players keep getting carried away.
CC, hoping there’s some random Brazilian kid they have lined up. Bit worried though, the silence is deafening and Trippier would be the ultimate cap to a promising recruitment drive.
Habesha
Problem with these youth projects though is that they all develop at different rates so even in a utopic paradise where every one of those names develops into a top starter in their position, it will be at different rates and they will get handpicked off us each summer by ambitious teams ready to bang now.
Happened in the Cescball era under Wenger nearly every summer from 2005-2012 our best players were poached. Happened to Borussia Dortmund, Monaco, Ajax, RB Leipzig.
Assuming isn’t feasible to oust Kroenke. The board should immediately sack Vinai, and start readying plans to replace Edu and Arteta (should have done in a properly run club!)ikely near future as in weeks or months.
Charlie
They have recalled a Brazilian talent they signed before called Kayky. I don’t know if he is a CF. But I don’t think they will sign anyone else.
Summer should of been all about doing the maximum to effect the starting XI in order to get back into the top four. Arsenal in three competitions and will be playing 1 game weeks for bulk of season. Not at all the moment to go with depth signings if we’re trying to get maximum effect. Take the roughly £95m spend on White, Ramsdale and Lokonga and play with options club could of gotten in this market, think we could of realistically seen upgrades at minimum 3 positions on the XI. Market filled with Øde type value. No offense to Lokanga… Read more »
Sal
Projects have a clear beginning and ending, linear progression along with some silverware if you.manage it followed by the inevitable decline.
Liverpool under Klopp was a legit project as has City under Pep been. Even United under Ole are getting a little nearer and trending in the right direction albeit largely down to expenditure.
Allegri has just got back in the door at Juve and has a complete new set of players, forgivable that he pulls the word project out as of now.
What is the Tets project? Nearly 2 years in, where are we in said project?
I would rather Arteta and Edu didn’t spend a single penny anymore. They have wasted enough money already.
Pedro is Marko binned again ?
Once Edu or Arteta or whomever pulled the plug on the Xhaka deal to Roma .. I knew this tw .. was not going to go the way I wanted.
Wengereagle The only way to keep these players is to keep signing better ones on the positions the players haven’t banged yet. And never putting yourself in a contractual stand off. Tottenham just blocked city from signing kane. If you have your best players tied up, you won’t have to sell. And adding to those youth players with a coach that knows what he is doing is the only way to the top. Klopp built his team in 5 years. And the all banged at the same time in a space of 2 seasons. They might have more left in… Read more »
Only shit managers cry project especially after spending £200m.
Auba is not on 350k a week WE I hear this too much on here he is on 250k still too much but 350 is entirely wrong
Predictions for tomorrow folks
Raptors got the last one right so any takers this week
Having said that, paying £165m on Gabriel, White, Ramsdale, Odegaard, Lokonga and Tavares is NOT what any of Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig, Monaco or Ajax did.
So it is disingenuous to pretend that we are replicating their models.
City 3-1. Unfortunately I am not that optimistic under Arteta.
Wengereagle
But this not a youth project. Ben White, Gabriel, Tierney are all 23 lokonga is 21 and Odegaard is 22 and Ramsdale is 23. They are ready to start really contributing. Only Saka, ESR, and Martinelli are 20 or under. It is not quite the youth project. They are on their way to become senior players.
We’ve spent more than Liverpool, Spuds, Leicester, City, Chelsea and United in this country alone and we have not improved. If they’re saying Edu’s in the firing line then Arteta needs to be also.
Gio Reyna has such quick feet… and vision.. can get right through tightly packed defenses. Plus he is only 18 years old will only get better. Love him.
salparadisenycAugust 27, 2021 19:48:59
Summer should of been all about doing the maximum to effect the starting XI in order to get back into the top four.
—–
BOOM!
Habesha
Klopp bought top players that were ready to bang in Mane, Salah, Van Dijk, Allison, Fabinho, Keita and Wijnaldum along with the Robertson, Chamberlain, Shaqiri potential types.
He wasn’t paying top money for players that didn’t immediately move the needle, Chamberlain and Keita aside who both underwhelmed.
Kphobe Villas-Boas Arrogant, entitled cunt promoted way beyond his competence based on ‘Mourinho pathway’ hype. The fact his interests outside of football were his true loves came across in his prickly interviews. Souness I just think he’s a chippy cunt with a completely one-eyed view of the world, and I can’t think of anything worse than Souness, Dalglish and Hansen (who I don’t mind) on one of their rounds of golf, and the accompanying ‘banter.’ Giggs (United caretaker 2014) Again, based on his entitlement, expecting to be handed a top PL job with no experience (turning down lower PL job… Read more »
WE, your vision of what Arsenal should be doing seems to be very tightly wrapped around a specific sort of fancy youtube friendly young player that, let’s be honest, you’d not have the patience to watch bed into our side. The model the club has gone for is sharp. They’ve mostly heavily scouted a young crop of players that will adapt the style Arteta has so that when they bang, they are ready to compete. You’ve just listed a group of extremely promising players like they’ve already failed. This is why the club has got itself into shitty position. We… Read more »
Mr Serge
Hell of a lot of sources seem to have the figure at £350k a week citing loyalty and signing on bonuses bridging the £100k a week gap over the 3 year deal.
Oh and how did Halaand win forward of the year over Lewandowski? No respect.
WE
Semantics, i’m freelance every time I take on a new job its a project.
I think Arteta’s project is very likely going to end up a failed endeavour with all the you arc you just described, even bagged a trophy along the way down.
“They’ve mostly heavily scouted a young crop of players that will adapt the style Arteta has”
I have absolutely no clue what Arteta style is.
Any manager would be lucky to be at Arsenal from Monsieur Wenger to Monsieur Project. If Tets were to be at Chelsea u can bet he would be kicked out faster than he can pronounce project. Just look at what those guy’s did to Lampard and they’re better for it, we can only hope Arteta gets his sh*t together so Arsenal can move from this midtable obscurity back among the elites in the next few years
Wengereagle Honestly, apart from Van dijk, Alisson and may be Fabinho, none of them were truly top players until they arrived at liverpool. Salah, Mane and Wijnaldum have played way above what they have showed in their previous clubs. They were signed from a relegated Newcastle, a Middling Southampton and a player that had already failed with Chelsea that came from midtable Roma. And none of them cost above 35 mil. I don’t believe it is because they are really special that they banged under klopp. I think it is due to him. And him knowing what he wants out… Read more »
Pedro
Can’t back that.
We’ve a shambolic attacking unit that’s delivered 55 goals for two years running. 2 of 12 signings have come in attack during that time. One of those is getting run out the club and back to Brazil.
We’ve not come close to establishing good balance this summer.
Kroenkephobe
Hard to pick five from these seven for me.
Mourinho, Allardyce, Pardew, Sherwood, Pulis,
Sub: Phil Brown-generally annoying but not really targeted at us,
Ferguson is a tough one because he was such a great manager and we would have loved to have had him as our boss. Of course, he nearly was Arsenal manager too.
The only reason I have any dislike for Pep and Klopp is envy.
Pedro Little to nothing the club has done in the market has been sharp for literally years now. We aren’t able to flog off young guys we invested heavily in just three years ago in Torreira, Guendouzi and Saliba. We are having to write off contracts handed out to terrible contributors in Willian, Ozil, Mustafi, Kola, etc and literally pay out the ass to get them off the books as nobody wanted them. You have never really elaborated on this Arteta style, what is it? I haven’t passed judgement on them as a group in terms of performance but yeah,… Read more »
TR7, Arteta has to get that right pretty sharpish. If there’s no identity with the players he has, it’s the endgame for him.
Winning under the right manager breeds confidence and self belief. That is the difference between teams that win at the top and that just come short. Our team from 2007/8 was as good as I have seen a team. But they never really got there because of the mental fortitude of the manager.
Sir Alex won a league with RVP infront and nothing else behind him. You could see they sucked because right after he left, the level of those players was exposed immediately. It was down to him giving them belief in themselves.
Pedro the past few summers have always been about reset according to you meanwhile other clubs are supplementing past successes, if this isn’t evidence of utter failure I wonder what is. Reset is usually needed if there has been a complete failure that cannot be built upon so it’s clear Artetas previous 18 months is nothing to write home about, why then shouldn’t the so called reset involve kicking out those who oversaw that failure
Pedro
Agree with you on having the squad to compete for top 4 but it would need an unlikely collapse from one of the new Big 4 to see us actually get there.
We have a squad ready for top four?
No way Jose
Dream on suckers
We have a very poor attack , simply can’t shot or score.
Arteta and co have done nothing to remedy this.
We don’t have a squad for Top 4. If we finish in there we really would have overachieved. But if we finish 8th though we really have under achieved too. 5th is the real spot for us if we really had a decent manager. We could get there over the next two seasons. But I don’t think that will be under Arteta.
Pedro
Also, right-back is the most pressing need. Chambers looked like he might be able to do the job in some games last season but he’s limited. It’s so frustrating that AMN hasn’t knuckled down to make the RB position his.
My 14 year old has been screaming for Max Aarons for several months but it’s way too late in the day and Norwich already got their cashflow money from the Buendia sale. Having said that, Norwich should be the perfect team to do a swap deal with (Chambers and Nketiah plus cash for Aarons, for example)
We have a squad ready for top four?
———-
No way of knowing with a shit manager in charge.
The argument to compete for the Top 4 would be this.
-White will give us more progressive passing and fewer moments of madness than Luiz
-Auba may have shaken off his slump from last season.
-Further improvement from ESR, Saka and Odegaard along with contributions from Lokonga etc will allow us to win more games against mid and lower league teams and if we might be able to remain competitive against the Top 6 like last year. Off to a bad start on that front, though.
Radio Raheem/SpanishDave/Habesha etc.
Pedro talked about competing for Top 4 not finishing there. I think it’ll be a very tall order to even compete but there’s a fair argument to be made for it.
Bacary Norwich would defo sell Aaron’s this late and bring someone in
Le Sauce, we had to sell to buy last summer during a global pandemic, that wasn’t a reset.
This whole year has been.
Shift the problem children
Reset the age profile
Tie down our best kids
It’s been a good year for that, loads to do, but we’re hacking away at our issues and buying in a way the next manager won’t be fucked.
Bacary
Competing for top4 has always been the remit at Arsenal it’s only the past 2 seasons (especially last season) that some people conveniently skipped it as a requirement. Wenger always competed for top 4 (achieved it 20 times in a row) Emery competed for top four (failed both times although he was close) and Arteta must compete for top 4 else we get a coach who can
The signings are a project as they are long term. The strategy has finally been adopted of focusing on players and hopefully an age ceiling will guide us on all future deals. That ceiling should be no higher than 24. Some of those deals will not succeed like all transfers but overall it will be a major step to getting our club back on the straight and narrow
If that isnt a project then I dont know what is
None of that is a reason to keep Arteta btw. The guy has made so many mistakes its unreal.
Damn Elmo
After what I said earlier, how did I forget about AVB??!!
Great call on Giggs. I grew up loving Souness’s brilliance as a skilful psychopath for Liverpool in the 70s and 80s so I still have a blind spot with him.
Bacary, agree mate, AMN should have that position sewn up… maddening tbh.
Max Arons would be far more preferrable to most others we’ve been linked to.
I’m just not sure ‘compete for top four’ is realistic. Our squad has been impacted by both neglect and negligence over the past twenty years and the gulf between our squad and the top four (Chelsea, Man U, Man City and Liverpool) is enormous. This is going to be a long and bumpy road back to the top but as it stands, I believe talk of top four is fanciful.
Smart for once would be to invest in youngish players good enough to get into the starting XI with immediate effect, we touched on it but not remotely as far as we could of pushed. With what we’ve spent that was entirely doable on a greater scale than just Ødegaard and White.
Reynaaaaa
As an avid follower of your blog (I love your work by the way) if I remember correctly, you spent last year telling us it was a reset from the under-coached and underperforming players, club culture and footballing philosophy. You can go back to the archives to be sure. Unless of course you are now implying that Arteta has failed massively in doing that, I see no reason why this year should be a reset as well when it is expected that he would consolidate/build on the work done on the previous year. We wrote off the season early enough… Read more »
Pedro
We’ve done nothing about Eddie and Laca being in their last years, and Willian getting terminated.
As likeable as Ramsdale looks, he’s the outlier because he’s big money in an area we could’ve afforded to go cheap in this season.
When we fail to create chances and score enough goals I know for a fact where the convo will return to.
Manure sign Ronaldo, spuds keep kane, we have willian and Pepe!
And Arteta!!
As far as I’m concerned , there is no excuse for arteta not finding a way for Saka and Aubamayang to form a prolific partnership. Their games are made for eachother, all they need to do is be in the right area of the pitch for the goals to start to flow.. Saka’s most prolific position is within the width of the penalty area, give him the ball in those areas, left or right , and he will pick out the striker.. We need to use our fullbacks more as decoys to allow Saka to receive the ball behind the… Read more »
CC, if the system doesn’t produce chances with the squad we have now, it’s the systems fault, not the squad.
Be interesting to see if we do go in for a couple of loans before the end of the window
Charlie
“When we fail to create chances and score enough goals I know for a fact where the convo will return to.”
The person to blame will be Arteta and only Arteta ….put players in the right areas of the pitch and the goals will come …guaranteed..
Wenger Eagle
An important factor in Klopp’s transfer success was their ability to get top dollar for some of their outgoing players.
2016: 60m for Benteke, Ibe and Joe Allen
2017: 150m for Coutinho and Sakho
2018: 32m for Solanke and Danny Ward
2019: 40m for Ings, Ryan Kent (?!) and Mignolet. Ings was 26m of the total.
PEDRO
what your sources say about AOAUR?
Pedro getting spikier by the day with any Arteta criticism.
Imagine Emery being allowed to hide behind the ‘project’ line. Also, one of the few points that Arteta backers pull out to defend him is our performance against the top 6, yet before a ball has even been kicked, Pedro is already writing tomorrow’s game off. I am finding it really hard to keep up…
Matt, you should be thankful my content isn’t a 1000 word essay on usage of the word ‘project’
Guns, bad egg, unlikely.
Pedro
How can you say it is a project on one hand and on the other say he has 10 games to save his job?
“but it’s clear, if things get better over the next two months, fans will get back on side” Have to admire your honest persistence Pedro, but truthfully you are flogging a deader than dead horse with Arteta. It actually borders on pseudo insanity as you clearly see whats wrong and continues to be wrong, yet you hang on to the faintest of hopes that somehow things with Arteta will turn for the better. Going to state it as my opinion, to which i am entitled, Arteta is a busted flush, a lame pony, a polka accordion in a rock band.… Read more »
read my last post Matt – the project and Artetas survival are not the same thing
Bellingham ‘one for the future and now’ according to the commentator.
How about that eh
Matt
Simple-it’s a 10 game project.
If this team truly believes in itself then there is absolutely no reason whatsoever as to why they cannot come out of tomorrow’s match with a result. They have the talent, collectively and individually. Tomorrow is on one person and one person alone, Arteta. Have your team show up motivated and with a salient game plan and ask them to execute on it. Its really as simple as that, but with this team its anything but simple.
Ernest, beating the best team in England really isn’t a simple task… quite simple to write it with confidence though.
PEDRO
any sources say we are getting another mid by chance?
Here’s my sunny side up take on why we didn’t strengthen in attack this summer. 1) We have two strikers in Auba and Laca. Auba has been a prolific goalscorer and Laca has been a reliable one. 2) Statistically at least, Pepe is also on an upswing, despite some valid criticisms about his game. 3) If we improve the quality behind these players, then our offensive numbers have to improve. 4) We had to make a tough call on Balogun and have gambled that he’ll be a future star even if it won’t happen for a while. How could we… Read more »
Mendy has been nicked 3 times this year.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/aug/27/benjamin-mendy-footballer-remanded-in-custody-on-charges